Harbour court (syndic ports)

The syndicate's court, which sits on fixed days, hears its own people first and foreigners last, and decides chiefly whether the port's trade is served. Anybody may commence a matter there for a small fee, which detains the goods concerned.

Named with it

• Advocate Guillaume Rethel · pleads before it

Ties

• held by the Near-Coast harbour syndicates

At the table

Honest it is, and public, and cheap; yet a foreigner cannot come before it without someone it knows at his side. Interference with a light leaves it no discretion at all, on account of Hélène de Sablon, whose lantern crews within living memory turned false warning lights into a method of war.