with ease, and in case of a
riot find some protection behind the strong grating of the gate under
the arch; whereas they formerly had no room to move in the narrow space
dividing the outside steps from the right wing of the palace.

In our day the Conciergerie, hardly large enough for the prisoners
committed for trial--room being needed for about three hundred, men
and women--no longer receives either suspected or remanded criminals
excepting in rare cases, as, for instance, in these of Jacques Collin
and Lucien. All who are imprisoned there are committed for trial before
the Bench. As an exception criminals of the higher ranks are allowed
to sojourn there, since, being already disgraced by a sentence in open
court, their punishment would be too severe if they served their term of
imprisonment at Melun or at Poissy. Ouvrard preferred to be imprisoned
at the Conciergerie rather than at Sainte-Pelagie. At this moment of
writing Lehon the notary and the Prince de Bergues are serving their
time there by an exercise of leniency which, though arbitrary, is
humane.

As a rule, suspected criminals, whether they are to be subjected to a
preliminary examination--to "go up," in the slang of the Courts--or
to appear before the magistrate of the lower Court, are transferred in
prison vans direct to the "mousetraps."

The "mousetraps," opposite the gate, consist of a certain number of old
cells constructed in the old kitchens of Saint-Louis' building, whither
prisoners not yet fully committed are brought to await the hour when the
Court sits, or the arrival of the examining judge. The "mousetraps"
end on the north at the quay, on the east at the headquarters of the
Municipal Guard, on the west at the courtyard of the Conciergerie, and
on the south they adjoin a large vaulted hall, formerly, no doubt, the
banqueting-room, but at present disused.

Above the "mousetraps" is an inner guardroom with a window commanding
the court of the Conciergerie; this is used by the gendarmerie of the
department, and the stairs lead up to it. When the hour of trial strikes
the sheriffs call the roll of the prisoners, the gendarmes go down, one
for each prisoner, and each gendarme takes a criminal by the arm; and
thus, in couples, they mount the stairs, cross the guardroom, and are
led along the passages to a room contiguous to the hall where sits the
famous sixth chamber of the law (whose functions are those of an English
county court). The same ro