, we have resolved, each of us, to go to Saint-Etienne
du Mont and there hear mass, which will be said before the altar
of that Holy-Shepherdess who sends us sheep to shear, and also to
offer a breakfast to our master Bordin, hoping that he will pay
the costs.

Signed: Oignard, first clerk; Poidevin, second clerk; Proust,
clerk; Augustin Coret, sub-clerk.

At the office.

November, 1806.

At three in the afternoon, the above-named clerks hereby return
their grateful thanks to their excellent master, who regaled them
at the establishment of the Sieur Rolland restaurateur, rue du
Hasard, with exquisite wines of three regions, to wit: Bordeaux,
Champagne, and Burgundy, also with dishes most carefully chosen,
between the hours of four in the afternoon to half-past seven in
the evening. Coffee, ices, and liqueurs were in abundance. But
the presence of the master himself forbade the chanting of hymns
of praise in clerical stanzas. No clerk exceeded the bounds of
amiable gayety, for the worthy, respectable, and generous patron
had promised to take his clerks to see Talma in "Brittanicus," at
the Theatre-Francais. Long life to Maitre Bordin! May God shed
favors on his venerable pow! May he sell dear so glorious a
practice! May the rich clients for whom he prays arrive! May his
bills of costs and charges be paid in a trice! May our masters to
come be like him! May he ever be loved by clerks in other worlds
than this!

Here followed thirty-three reports of various receptions of new clerks,
distinguished from one another by different writing and different inks,
also by quotations, signatures, and praises of good cheer and wines,
which seemed to show that each report was written and signed on the
spot, "inter pocula."

Finally, under date of the month of June, 1822, the period when
Desroches took the oath, appears this constitutional declaration:--

I, the undersigned, Francois-Claude-Marie Godeschal, called by
Maitre Desroches to perform the difficult functions of head-clerk
in a Practice where the clients have to be created, having learned
through Maitre Derville, from whose office I come, of the
existence of the famous archives architriclino-basochien, so
celebrated at the Palais, have implored our gracious master to
obtain them from his predecessor; for it has become of the highest
importance to recover a document bearing date of the year 1786,
which