The Trial of Count Montalembert

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: how business is carried on there. The hall of the Sixth Chamber is an oblong square of very limited extent, the dimensions scarcely exceeding those of an ordinary police court. A considerable portion of this space is divided off by an enclosure for the members of the bar, and a small number of forms only...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: how business is carried on there. The hall of the Sixth Chamber is an oblong square of very limited extent, the dimensions scarcely exceeding those of an ordinary police court. A considerable portion of this space is divided off by an enclosure for the members of the bar, and a small number of forms only are reserved for persons admitted by tickets. Behind this division is a very narrow space for the audience, who are compelled to stand. Facing the entrance is a platform occupied by the tribunal .and the seats of the judges. Above their heads hangs a large picture of the Crucifixion. When a witness takes the oath, he looks towards the picture, and raises his right hand, saying, I swear it Nearly in a direct line with this picture on the wall, to the right of the judges, is a bust of the Emperor. To the left of the judges is the seat of the Procureur Imperial, or Public Prosecutor. All the members of the bar wear a black robe, a shoulder knot, trimmed with two or three rows of ermine, according to their rank, as licentiates or doctors at law, and a round black cap; only the caps of the judges and of the Procureur Imperial are ornamented with a gold or silver band, according to rank. All this combination produces a sufficiently imposing effect, and is calculated to intimidate the accused of the lower order, who usually figure at the bar of the Court of the Correctional Police, but could scarcely be expected to produce a like effect upon a man of high intellect, like M. de Montalembert, who had somewhat the air of judging his judges. But let us come to the trial itself; but, - in the first instant, a word in passing as to the barristers upon whom devolved the argument of this memorable trial. About half-past eleven, M. Dufaure, the counsel of M. Douniol, the editor of the Co...