[Illustration: Fig. 310.--Sergeants-at-Arms of the Fourteenth Century,
carved in Stone.--From the Church of St. Catherine du Val des Ecoliers, in
Paris.]
The bailiffs at the Chatelet were divided into five classes: the _king's
sergeant-at-arms,_ the _sergeants de la douzaine_, the _sergeants of the
mace_, or _foot sergeants,_ the _sergeants fieffes_, and the _mounted
sergeants_. The establishment of these officers dated from the beginning
of the fourteenth century, and they were originally appointed by the
provost, but afterwards by the King himself. The King's sergeants-at-arms
(Fig. 310) formed his body-guard; they were not under the jurisdiction of
the high constable, but of the ordinary judges, which proves that they
were in civil employ. The sergeants _de la douzaine_ were twelve in
number, as their name implies, all of whom were in the service of the
provost; the foot sergeants, who were civilians, were gradually increased
to the number of two hundred and twenty as early as the middle of the
fifteenth century. They acted only in the interior of the capital, and
guarded the city, the suburbs, and the surrounding districts, whereas the
mounted sergeants had "to watch over the safety of the rural parishes, and
to act throughout the whole extent of the provost's jurisdiction, and of
that of the viscount of Paris."
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