PORTRAIT OF AN ANCIENT LAWYER. TN his " Modules de l'Eloq. Judiciare," M.
- . Berryer has drawn in lively colors a sketch
of one of the advocates of the olden time while engaged in the performance of his daily duties. We see him, dressed in his robes of black satin, set out at an early hour on a sum mer morning, from one of the picturesque houses, with peaked turrets and high gable ends, which rose above the banks of the Seine in old Paris, and hurrying forward to the court, because the clock of the Holy Chapel has just struck six, at which hour the judges are obliged to take their seats, under pain of los ing their salary for the day. He is busy in thinking over the cause which he has to plead, and taxes his ingenuity to compress his speech into as brief a compass as possi ble; for he remembers that an ordinance of Charles VIII., issued in 1493, imposes a fine upon long-winded advocates who weary the Court with their prolixity. Look at his coun tenance. The furred hood which covers his head, and the ample gray cloak, the collar of which hides half his face, cannot so far con ceal it as to prevent you from seeing an ex pression of anger there, which no doubt is excited by the recollection of the arguments used by his opponent on the preceding even ing. But think not that when he reaches the court and rises to reply, he will retort by any abusive language; for, by another regu
lation of the same king, counsel are expressly forbidden to use any opprobious words to ward their antagonists. The judges are seated on their chairs; the parties are before them; and now he whose portrait we are sketching, rises to address the court. He speaks under the solemn sanction of an oath, for he has sworn to undertake only such causes as in his conscience he believes to be just; he has also sworn not to spin out his pleadings by any of the tricks of his profession, but make them as concise as possible. If, in the course of his harangue, he touches on any question which he thinks may pos sibly affect the interests of the crown, he suddenly stops and gives formal notice of it to the court. Twelve o'clock strikes just after the cause is over and judgment pro nounced, and the court rises. His client has been successful, and he now takes his counsel aside to settle with him the amount of his fees; and it is not without an effort that he grudgingly gives him the sum which the royal ordinance permits him to receive. M. Berryer then follows him to his home, surrounded by his family, where he prepares in the evening his speech for the morrow; or indulges himself, like Pasquier, in sportive toying with the Muse; or takes up his pen, like Pithou, to defend the liberties of the Gallican Church.
