he court _seriatim_, and compares their lordships and
worships, one after another, to the heroes and demi-gods of ancient
story.

The parliament in its turn has given way to the _Court of Assizes_; and,
where the states once deliberated, the electors of the department now
come together for the purpose of naming the deputies who represent them
in the great council of the nation;--such are the vicissitudes of all
human institutions.

When the Jews were expelled from Normandy, in 1181, the _Close_, or
Jewry, in which they dwelled, escheated to the king. The sons of Japhet
spoiled the sons of Shem with pious alacrity. The debtor burnt his bond;
the bailie seized the store of bezants; the synagogue was razed to the
ground. In this _Close_ the palace was afterwards built. The wise custom
of Normandy was mooted on the spot where the law of Moses had once been
taught; and, by a strange, perhaps an ominous, fatality, the judge held
the scales of justice, where whilome the usurer had poised his balance.

The palace forms three sides of a quadrangle. The fourth is occupied by
an embattled wall and an elaborate gate-way. The building was erected
about the beginning of the sixteenth century; and, with all its faults,
it is a fine adaptation of Gothic architecture to civil purposes. It is
in the style which a friend of mine chooses to distinguish by the name
of _Burgundian architecture_; and he tells me that he considers it as
the parent of our Tudor style. Here, the windows in the body of the
building take flattened elliptic heads; and they are divided by one
mullion and one transom. The mouldings are highly wrought, and enriched
with foliage. The lucarne windows are of a different design, and form
the most characteristic feature of the front: they are pointed and
enriched with mullions and tracery, and are placed within triple
canopies of nearly the same form, flanked by square pillars, terminating
in tall crocketed pinnacles, some of them fronted with open arches
crowned with statues. The roof, as is usual in French and Flemish
buildings of this date, is of a very high pitch, and harmonizes well
with the proportions of the building. An oriel, or rather tower, of
enriched workmanship projects into the court, and varies the elevations.
On the left-hand side of the court, a wide flight of steps leads to the
hall called _la Salle des Procureurs_, a place originally designed as an
Exchange for the merchants of the city, who had previ