Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/96

 An Unfortunate French Lawyer.

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AN UNFORTUNATE FRENCH LAWYER. By George H. Westley. HENRY THE SECOND had just suc ceeded to the throne of France, and seated on the place of honor above the president of the High Court of Justice, he was formally opening the courts now under his rulcrship. Among the motley group of lawyers at the back of the hall was a young man clothed in black and wearing the tippet of a doctor of laws, who bore the most re markable resemblance to the king. This was Raoul Spifame. During the tedious address in Latin by the chancellor, Henry allowed his eyes to wander over the assembled company, and presently they fell upon the young advocate. The king was not above superstition, and for a moment he was stricken with aston ishment and fear. In the man in black at the other end of the hall he saw what he believed to be his double, and according to an idea prevalent at the time, this was a sure sign of approaching death. As soon as the ceremony was over he made anxious inquiries concerning what he had seen, and was relieved to find that the young man who so resembled him was no spook, but a real personage. Thereupon he took no further notice of the matter, but allowed it to drift from his mind. The incident, however, had for Spifame the most dire results. He had been noted among those who knew him for certain ec centricities, and was at times suspected of a tendency to insanity. As he passed out of the court his companions now half-jceringly made way before him, with obeisances, ad dressing him as " Sire " and " Your majesty," and this they kept up for several days, until at length the unfortunate young lawyer's incipient madness was given a definite bent, and he began to fancy that he was indeed the king. As the days passed, the idea thus started took firmer possession of him,

though on all other points he seemed quite reasonably sane. While the idea of his great importance to France was growing upon him, his actions became more and more eccentric. One thing he did was to remonstrate in the bold est terms against some judgment which had been given by the president of the High Court. For this he was fined and suspended for a time from his legal functions. Pres ently he began to attack the laws of the kingdom and harshly criticise the most re spected judicial opinions, and he even went so far as openly to denounce the government. These bold remarks brought an end to Spifame's career as an advocate, for he was thenceforward prohibited by the authorities from further practice in his profession. He still frequented the precincts of the courts, however, where he would detain the passersby and submit to them his ideas of reform and his complaints against the magistrates. At length his conduct could be tolerated no longer; his civil interdiction was demanded, and he was brought before the public tribunal. Raoul Spifame was by this time a marked man. As he passed through the vestibule, on his way to trial, he heard a hundred voices murmur, " It is the king! " " Make way for the king! " " Place for his maj esty! " This was the final straw upon the back of his tottering intelligence. Reason yielded, and the delusion now having full sway, he entered the hall with his cap on his head, and seated himself with royal dig nity. The procureur, Noel Brulot, he hon ored with a gracious salutation, and in ad dressing the assembled councillors, he called them " our right trusty and well beloved." A singular phase of his aberration during the trial was, that while he was the king, his thoughts dwelt with friendly interest upon his own proper person. Running his glance