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
surpassed our expectations. It was composed of radishes, pink and
black, gherkins, anchovies, butter and olives for hors-d’oeuvre; a
succulent soup of rice, bearing testimony to maternal solicitude,
for we recognized therein a delicious taste of poultry; indeed, by
acknowledgment of the new member, we learned that the gibbets of a
fine stew prepared by the hands of Madame Clapart herself had been
judiciously inserted into the family soup-pot with a care that is
never taken except in such households.
Item: the said gibbets inclosed in a sea of jelly.
Item: a tongue of beef with tomatoes, which rendered us all
tongue-tied automatoes.
Item: a compote of pigeons with caused us to think the angels had
had a finger in it.
Item: a timbale of macaroni surrounded by chocolate custards.
Item: a dessert composed of eleven delicate dishes, among which we
remarked (in spite of the tipsiness caused by sixteen bottles of
the choicest wines) a compote of peaches of august and mirobolant
delicacy.
The wines of Roussillon and those of the banks of the Rhone
completely effaced those of Champagne and Burgundy. A bottle of
maraschino and another of kirsch did, in spite of the exquisite
coffee, plunge us into so marked an oenological ecstasy that we
found ourselves at a late hour in the Bois de Boulogne instead of
our domicile, where we thought we were.
In the statutes of our Order there is one rule which is rigidly
enforced; namely, to allow all candidates for the privilege of
Basoche to limit the magnificence of their feast of welcome to the
length of their purse; for it is publicly notorious that no one
delivers himself up to Themis if he has a fortune, and every clerk
is, alas, sternly curtailed by his parents. Consequently, we
hereby record with the highest praise the liberal conduct of
Madame Clapart, widow, by her first marriage, of Monsieur Husson,
father of the candidate, who is worthy of the hurrahs which we
gave for her at dessert.
To all of which we hereby set our hands.
[Signed by all the clerks.]
Three clerks had already been deceived by the Book, and three real “receptions of welcome,” were recorded on this imposing register.
The day after the arrival of each neophyte, the little sub-clerk (the errand-boy and “gutter-jumper”) laid upon the new-comer’s desk the “Archives Architriclino-Basochiennes,” and the clerks enjoyed the sight of his countenance as he studied its facetious pages. Inter pocula each candidate had learned the secret of the farce, and the revelation inspired him with the desire to hoax