the clerks of this Practice, we the under-signed, clerks and
sub-clerks of Maistre Jerosme-Sebastien Bordin, successor to the
late Guerbet, in his lifetime procureur at the Chastelet, do hereby
recognize the obligation under which we lie to renew and continue
the register and the archives of installation of the clerks of
this noble Practice, a glorious member of the Kingdom of Basoche,
the which register, being now full in consequence of the many acts
and deeds of our well-beloved predecessors, we have consigned to
the Keeper of the Archives of the Palais for safe-keeping, with
the registers of other ancient Practices; and we have ourselves
gone, each and all, to hear mass at the parish church of
Saint-Severin to solemnize the inauguration of this our new
register.

In witness whereof we have hereunto signed our names: Malin,
head-clerk; Grevin, second-clerk; Athanase Feret, clerk; Jacques
Heret, clerk; Regnault de Saint-Jean-d'Angely, clerk; Bedeau,
youngest clerk and gutter-jumper.

In the year of our Lord 1787.

After the mass aforesaid was heard, we conveyed ourselves to
Courtille, where, at the common charge, we ordered a fine
breakfast; which did not end till seven o'clock the next morning.

This was marvellously well engrossed. An expert would have said that
it was written in the eighteenth century. Twenty-seven reports of
receptions of neophytes followed, the last in the fatal year of 1792.
Then came a blank of fourteen years; after which the register began
again, in 1806, with the appointment of Bordin as attorney before the
first Court of the Seine. And here follows the deed which proclaimed the
reconstitution of the kingdom of Basoche:--

God in his mercy willed that, in spite of the fearful storms which
have cruelly ravaged the land of France, now become a great
Empire, the archives of the very celebrated Practice of Maitre
Bordin should be preserved; and we, the undersigned, clerks of the
very virtuous and very worthy Maitre Bordin, do not hesitate to
attribute this unheard-of preservation, when all titles,
privileges, and charters were lost, to the protection of
Sainte-Genevieve, patron Saint of this office, and also to the
reverence which the last of the procureurs of noble race had for
all that belonged to ancient usages and customs. In the uncertainty
of knowing the exact part of Sainte-Genevieve and Maitre Bordin in
this miracle