house a local official had wittily observed:

"Here is Justitia, here is Policia, here is Militia--a regular
boarding school of high-born young ladies."

But, as the saying is, "Too many cooks spoil the broth," and probably
that is why the house strikes, oppresses, and overwhelms a fresh
unofficial visitor with its dismal barrack-like appearance, its
decrepit condition, and the complete absence of any kind of comfort,
external or internal. Even on the brightest spring days it seems
wrapped in a dense shade, and on clear moonlight nights, when the
trees and the little dwelling-houses merged in one blur of shadow
seem plunged in quiet slumber, it alone absurdly and inappropriately
towers, an oppressive mass of stone, above the modest landscape,
spoils the general harmony, and keeps sleepless vigil as though it
could not escape from burdensome memories of past unforgiven sins.
Inside it is like a barn and extremely unattractive. It is strange
to see how readily these elegant lawyers, members of committees,
and marshals of nobility, who in their own homes will make a scene
over the slightest fume from the stove, or stain on the floor,
resign themselves here to whirring ventilation wheels, the disgusting
smell of fumigating candles, and the filthy, forever perspiring
walls.

The sitting of the circuit court began between nine and ten. The
programme of the day was promptly entered upon, with noticeable
haste. The cases came on one after another and ended quickly, like
a church service without a choir, so that no mind could form a
complete picture of all this parti-coloured mass of faces, movements,
words, misfortunes, true sayings and lies, all racing by like a