Array The griffin classics - The Collected Works of Honore de Balzac

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, so be it. This

day, the feast of our lady Saincte-Geneviesve, patron saint of

Paris, under whose protection have existed, since the year 1525

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, 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 is connected with other documents deposited for safe-keeping

at the Palais, the existence of which has been certified to by

Messrs. Terrasse and Duclos, keepers of records, by the help of

which we may go back to the year 1525, and find historical

indications of the utmost value on the manners, customs, and

cookery of the clerical race.

Having received a favorable answer to this request, the present

office has this day been put in possession of these proofs of the

worship in which our predecessors held the Goddess Bottle and good

living.

In consequence thereof, for the edification of our successors, and

to renew the chain of years and goblets, I, the said Godeschal,

have invited Messieurs Doublet, second clerk; Vassal, third clerk;

Herisson and Grandemain, clerks; and Dumets, sub-clerk, to

breakfast, Sunday next, at the “Cheval Rouge,” on the Quai

Saint-Bernard, where we will celebrate the victory of obtaining

this volume which contains the Charter of our gullets.

This day, Sunday, June 27th, were imbibed twelve bottles of twelve

different wines, regarded as exquisite; also were devoured melons,

“pates au jus romanum,” and a fillet of beef with mushroom sauce.

Mademoiselle Mariette, the illustrious sister of our head-clerk

and leading lady of the Royal Academy of music and dancing, having

obligingly put at the disposition of this Practice orchestra seats

for the performance of this evening, it is proper to make this

record of her generosity. Moreover, it is hereby decreed that the

aforesaid clerks shall convey themselves in a body to that noble

demoiselle to thank her in person, and declare to her that on the

occasion of her first lawsuit, if the devil sends her one, she

shall pay the money laid out upon it, and no more.

And our head-clerk Godeschal has been and is hereby proclaimed a

flower of Basoche, and, more especially, a good fellow. May a man

who treats so well be soon in treaty for a Practice of his own!

On this record were stains of wine, pates, and candle-grease. To exhibit the stamp of truth that the writers had managed to put upon these records, we may here give the report of Oscar’s own pretended reception: —

This day, Monday, November 25th, 1822, after a session held

yesterday at the rue de la Cerisaie, Arsenal quarter, at the house

of Madame Clapart, mother of the candidate-basochien Oscar Husson,

we, the undersigned, declare that the repast of admission