Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/447

 The ChcvaticJuh' dc St. Michel. 415

pions, dressed in the prescribed costume, met at seven o'clock in the morning at the Court of St Michel, and there also assembled the officers of the Royal Court and the vavasseurs, who were all mounted on horseback. The King's officers and the seneschal of St. Michel each had two pions, one on each side of his bridle rein : the vavasseurs were only entitled to one. They began with a short inspec- tion and a good breakfast on the emplacement east of the Vale Church. After breakfast the members of the cortege, with their swords at their sides, mounted their horses, the greffier of the Court said the customary prayer, and the seneschal read the proclamation, and then they started in the following order : —

The sheriff of the Vale on horseback with his pion walking ; then the King's sheriff with two pions at his bridle rein ; then the three sheriffs of the Court of St. Michel, called respectively the sheriffs of Grand Moutier, of Petit Moutier and of Rozel, each with a pion at his bridle rein. Behind them came, in the following order, the officers of the Royal Court, namely : — The King's sergeant, the King's greffier, the King's procureur, or attorney- general, the King's comptroller, or solicitor-general, and the King's receiver, all mounted, and each with two pions walking at his bridle reins. Then came the lance-bearer and his two pions, the greffier and the seneschal of the Court of St. Michel with their respective pions, and, finally, the vavasseurs of the Court of St. Michel, each with one pion. Whilst on the march, the five sheriffs carried by turns a white wand, in the following order: — The sheriff of the Vale, from the Vale Church to the end of the Grand Pont ; the King's sheriff, from the end of the Grand Pont as far as the Forest, that being the limit of Fief le Roi ; the sheriff of Grand Moutier, from the Forest to the Grand Moulins, or King's Mills : the sheriff of Petit Moutier, from the King's Mills to the Douit des Landes du Marche ; and the sheriff of Rozel, from the last-mentioned place to the Vale. As