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THE TRIAL.
There are but few localities in France where Law derives from outward appearance the dignity which ought always to accompany it.

Yet it surely is, after religion and royalty, the greatest engine of society.
Everywhere, even in Paris, the meanness of its surroundings, the wretched arrangement of the courtrooms, their barrenness and want of decoration in the most ornate and showy nation upon earth in the matter of its public monuments, lessens the action of the law's mighty power.
At the farther end of some oblong room may be seen a desk with a green baize covering raised on a platform; behind it sit the judges on the commonest of arm-chairs.

To the left, is the seat of the public prosecutor, and beside him, close to the wall, is a long pen filled with chairs for the jury.

Opposite to the jury is another pen with a bench for the prisoners and the gendarmes who guard them.