PALACE OF JUSTICE.

When we say that the Palais-de-Justice was erected by Lewis XIIth, in
1499, as a court of exchecquer, which that prince had arranged should be
held at Rouen, we must not comprehend that part of the building called
the _salle des Procureurs_, or attorneys hall, which dates from 1493,
and which was erected (as we have mentioned at the article exchange), as
a place of meeting for the merchants of the town. Even at the present
time, this hall calls forth the admiration of the best architects. Its
length is one hundred and fifty feet, by fifty in breadth. Its lofty
roof is not supported by a single pillar; the ingenuity of the work is
here contrasted with its boldness of conception. The only ornaments
which decorate the walls of the hall are elegant empty niches, which are
detached in relief, and at equal distances. The principal staircase,
which leads up to the salle des Procureurs, was erected a few years
since, under the superintendence of M. Gregoire. The _Conciergerie_ and
prisons are situated under this hall.

[Illustration: Palais de Justice]

The Palais-de-Justice, properly so called, forms as it were one side of
a square, at the northern extremity of the salle des Procureurs. Its
facade, which looks towards the south, is two hundred feet in length,
and is ornamented with every thing that the architecture of the time
possessed of the richest and most delicate. The angular pillars of the
piers are covered with canopied statues and small steeples, which extend
from the base to the summit; the numerous ornaments, which surround the
windows, those which accompany and surmount the windows of the roof; the