he forerunner of
recent ceremonies of a similar nature in France.

Known as the Salle de Marbre, this great chamber came later to be the
Tribunal where the courts sat. It was only after the death of Charles
VI, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, that the Palais de la
Cite was given over wholly to the disciples of Saint Yves, the judges,
advocates and notaries. It became also the definite seat of the
Parliament and took the nomenclature of Palais de Justice, though still
inhabited at intermittent intervals by French royalties. One such
notable occasion was that when Henry V of England was here married to
Catherine de France, and when Henry VI of England took up his temporary
residence here as king to the French.

In the fourteenth century the precincts of the Palais de la Cite--the
open courtyard one assumes is meant--were invaded by the stalls of small
shopkeepers, some of which actually took root in wood and stone and
became fixtures to such an extent that the courtyard was known as the
Galerie des Merciers.

The great marble chamber after becoming the meeting place of the
Tribunal played a part at times dignified and at others banal. An
incident is recorded where the clerks and minor court officials danced
on the famous marble table and "played farces" with the judicial bench
serving as a stage. It was said that, on account of the immoralities
which they represented, the authorities were obliged to suppress the
performances by law, as they have in recent years the flagrant freedom
of the "Quat'z Arts."

Up to the times of Francis I but few events of importance unrolled
themselves within the Palais de la Cite, but in 1618 a violent
conflagration broke out leaving only the round towers of the
Conciergerie, the tower and the church, and that part of the main
structure which housed the great Salle de Marbre, unharmed. Apropos of
this, a joyous rhymester of the time made the following quatrain:

"Certes ce fut un triste jeu
Quand a Paris Dame Justice
Pour avoir mange trop d'epice
Se mit le Palais tout en feu."

Jacques Debrosse was charged with rebuilding the edifice after the fire
and refitted first the Grand Salle, to-day the famous Salle des Pas
Perdus, crowded with the shuffling coming and going crowd of men and
women whose business, or no business at all, brings them to this central
point for the dissemination of legal gossip. It is a magnificent
apartment, and, to no great extent, differs