The French fellows in court could be gentle (7)
I believe the answer is:
clement
'gentle' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the french fellows in court' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le'.
'fellows' becomes 'men' (I've seen this before).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'le'+'men'='lemen'
'lemen' placed within 'ct' is 'CLEMENT'.
'could be' is the link.
(Other definitions for clement that I've seen before include "Several popes" , "Of weather, mild and gentle" , "(Of weather) mild, lenient" , "Being kind and gentle" , "nice" .)