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🟡 Hunchback of Notre Dame (Full Audiobook) | Victor Hugo (Part 3 of 3) · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If I willed, The Hozier replied heartily, if this revolt
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: be what I suppose, Sire, you might will in vain gossip,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: said Louis the eleventh, with the two companies of my
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: unattached troops and one discharge of a serpentine short work
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is made of a populace of louts. The Hosier, in
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: spite of the science made of him by gayum Rhime,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: appeared determined to hold his own against the king Sire.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: The Swiss were also louts. Monsieur the Duke of Burgundy
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: was a great gentleman, and he turned up his nose
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: at that rabble rout at the battle of Grandson Sire.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: He cried, men of the cannon fire on the villains,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and he swore by Saint George. But Advoyer Scharnachtal hurled
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: himself on the handsome Duke with his battle club and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: his people. And when the glittering Burgundian army came in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: contact with these peasants in bull hides, it flew in
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: pieces like a pain of glass at the blow of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a pebble. My lords were then slain by low born knaves,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and Monsieur de Chateau Gallon the greatest seignor in Burgundy,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: was found dead with his gray horse in a little
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: marsh meadow. Friend returned the king, you are speaking of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a battle. The question here is of a mutiny, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I will gain the upper hand of it as soon
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: as it shall please me to frown. The other replied indifferently,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that may be, sire, in that case tis because the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: people's hour hath not yet come. Gayomrime considered it incumbent
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: on him to intervene. Master Capenole, you are speaking to
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a puacant king, I know it, replied the Hozier gravely.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Let him speak, monsieur rhyme, my friend, said the king.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I love his frankness of speech. My father, Charles the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: seventh was accustomed to say that the truth was ailing.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I thought her dead, and that she had found no confessor.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Master capanaul undeceiveth me. Then, laying his hand familiarly on
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Copanau's shoulder, you were saying, Master Jacques, I say, sire,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that you may possibly be in the right, that the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: hour of the people may not yet have come with you.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Louis the eleventh gazed at him with his penetrating eye.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And when will that hour. Come, master, you will hear
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: it strike on what clock, if you please. Capanaul, with
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: his tranquil and rustic countenance, made the King approach the window. Listen, Sire,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: there is here a dungeon, keep a belfry, cannons, bourgeois soldiers.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: When the belfry shall hum, when the cannon shall roar,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: when the dungeon shall fall in ruins amid great noise,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: when bourgeois and soldiers shall howl and slay each other,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the hour will strike. Louise's face grew somber and dreamy.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: He remained silent for a moment. Then he gently padded
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: with his hand the thick wall of the dungeon as
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: one strokes the haunches of a steed. Oh no, said he,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: You will not crumble so easily, will you, my good bastille,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and turning with an abrupt gesture towards the sturdy fleming.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Have you never seen a revolt, Master Jacques, I have
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: made them, said the hozier. How do you set to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: work to make a revolt, said the king. Ah replied Capanaul,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: tis not very difficult. There are a hundred ways. In
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the first place, there must be discontent in the city.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: The thing is not uncommon. And then the character of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the inhabit evidence. Those of Ghent are easy to stir
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: into revolt. They always love the prince's son. The prince
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: never well. One morning, I will suppose someone enters my
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: shop and says to me, father cup and Ole, there
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: is this, and there is that. The Demoiselle of Flanders
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: wishes to say for ministers, the Grand Bailiff is doubling
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the impost on chagrin or something else, what you will.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I leave my work as it stands. I come out
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: of my hozier stall, and I shout to the sack.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: There is always some smashed cask at hand. I mount it,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: and I say aloud in the first words that occur
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to me, what I have on my heart? And when
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: one is of the people, sire, one always has something
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: on the heart. Then people troop up, they shout, They
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: ring the alarm bell, They arm the louts with what
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: they take from the soldiers. The market people join in,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and they set out. And it will always be thus,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: so long as there are lords in the signories, bourgeois
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: in the bourgs, and peasants in the country, And against
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: whom did you thus rebel inquired the King against your bailiffs,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: against your lords. Sometimes that depends against the Duke, also
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: sometimes Louis the eleventh returned and seated himself, saying, with
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: a smile, am here they have only got as far
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: as the bailiff's. At that instant, Olivier led Dame returned.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: He was followed by two pages who bore the king's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: toilet articles. But what struck Louis the eleventh was that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: he was also accompanied by the Provost of Paris and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the Chevalier of the Watch, who appeared to be in consternation.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: The spiteful barber also wore an air of consternation, which
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: was one of contentment. Beneath However, it was he who
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: spoke first, Sire, I ask your made Majesty's pardon for
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the calamitous news which I bring. The King turned quickly
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and grazed the mat on the floor with the feet
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of his chair. What does this mean, sire? Resumed Olivier
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: la Dame, with the malicious air of a man who
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: rejoices that he is about to deal a violent blow.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Tis not against the bailiff of the courts, that this
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: popular sedition is directed against whom then against you, Sire,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the aged king rose erect and straight as a young man.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Explain yourself, Olivier, and guard your head well, gossip, for
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I swear to you by the cross of Saint Lo
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that if you lie to us at this hour, the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: sword which severed the head of Monsieur de Luxembourg is
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: not so notched that it cannot yet sever yours. The
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: oath was formidable. Louis the eleventh had only sworn twice
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: in the course of his life by the cross of
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Saint Low opened his mouth to reply, Sire, on your knees,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: interrupted the king violently. Tristan, have an eye to this man.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Olivier knelt down and said, coldly, Sire, a sorceress was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: condemned to death by your court of Parliament. She took
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: refuge in Notre Dame. The people are trying to take
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: her from thence by main force. Monsieur the Provost and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Monsieur the Chevalier of the Watch, who have just come
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: from the riot, are here to give me the lie.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: If this is not the truth, the populace is besieging
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame. Yes, indeed, said the King in a low voice,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: All pale and trembling with wrath, no tredame. They lay
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: siege to our lady, my good mistress, in her cathedral. Rise, Olivier,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: you are right, I give you Simon rad Dan's charge.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: You are right. Tis I whom they are attacking, the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: which is under the protection of this church. The church
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: is under my protection. And I thought that they were
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: acting against the bailiff, tis against myself. Then, rendered young
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: by fury, he began to walk up and down with
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: long strides. He no longer laughed. He was terrible. He
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: went and came. The fox was changed into a hyaena.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: He seemed suffocated to such a degree that he could
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: not speak. His lips moved, and his fleshless fists were clenched.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: All at once. He raised his head, his hollow eye
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: appeared full of light, and his voice burst forth like
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a clarion. Down with them, Tristan, a heavy hand for
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: these rascals. Go Tristan, my friend, slay, slay this irruption.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Having passed, he returned to his seat and said, with
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a cold and concentrated wrath, here, Tristan, there are here
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: with us in the bastille. The fifty lances of the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Vicomte de guife, which makes three hundred horse, You will
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: take them. There is also the company of our unattached
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: archers of Monsieur de Chateaupau. You will take it. You
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: are provost of the marshals. You have the men of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: your provost ship. You will take them. At the Hotel
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Saint Paul, you will find forty arches of Monsieur de
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Dauphin's new guard. You will take them. And with all
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: these you will hasten to Notre Dame. Ah, monsieurs louts
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of Paris, do you fling yourselves thus against the crown
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: of France, the sanctity of Notre Dame and the peace
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: of this commonwealth? Exterminate? Tristan, exterminate and let not a
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: single one escape, except it be for Montfassan. Tristan bowed
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: tis well, Sire, he added, after a silence, and what
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: shall I do with the sorceress? This question caused the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: king to meditate, Ah, said he the sorceress Monsieur D'estouville.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: What did the people wish to do with her? Sire?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Replied the Provost of Paris. I imagine that since the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: populace has come to tear her from asylum in Notre Dame.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Tis because that impunity wounds them, and they desire to
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: hang her. The king appeared to reflect deeply, then addressing
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Tristan l'armettee, well, gossip, exterminate the people and hang the sorceress.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: That's it, said Ryme in a low tone, to Capanole.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Punish the people for willing a thing, and then do
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: what they wish. Enough, sire, replied Tristan. If the sorceress
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: is still in Notre Dame, must she be seized in
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: spite of the sanctuary? Perscidieu the sanctuary, said the king,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: scratching his ear. But the woman must be hung. Nevertheless, here,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: as though seized with a sudden idea, he flung himself
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: on his knees before his chair, took off his hat,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: placed it on the seat, and gazing devoutly at one
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of the leaden amulets, which loaded it down. Oh, said
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: he with clasped hands. Howard, Lady of Paris, my gracious patroness,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: pardon me. I would only do it this once. This
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: criminal must be punished. I assure you, Madame the Virgin,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: my good mistress, that she is a sorceress who is
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: not worthy of your amiable protection. You know, Madame, that
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: many very pious princes have overstepped the privileges of the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: churches for the glory of God and the necessities of
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the state. Saint Huguet, Bishop of England, permitted King Edward
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to hang a witch in his church. Saint Louis of France,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: my master, transgressed with the same object, the church of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Saint Paul and Monsieur la Fonse, son of the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: King of Jerusalem, the very church of the Holy Sepulcher.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Pardon me, then, for this once our Lady of Paris,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I will never do so again, and I will give
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you a fine statue of silver, like the one which
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I gave last year to our lady of Equie. So
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: be it. He made the sign of the cross rose,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: donned his hat once more, and said to Tristan, be
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: diligent gossip, take Monsieur Sha to pay with you. You
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: will cause the tocsin to be sounded. You will crush
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the populace. You will seize the witch, Tis said, and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I mean the business of the execution to be done
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: by you. You will render me an account of it.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Come Olivier, I shall not go to bed this night,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: shave me Tristan Lamerte bowed and departed. Then the king,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: dismissing Rhyme, and copanaule with a gesture, God, God, you monsieurs,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: my good friends, the Flemings go take a little repose.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: The night advances, and we are nearer the morning than
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the evening. Both retired and gained their apartments. Under the
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: guidance of the captain of the Bastille, Copanault said to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Guayoum Rhime, humph, I have had enough of that coughing king.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I have seen Shahohs of Burgundy drunk, and he was
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: less malignant than Louis the eleventh, When ailing Master Jacques replied,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Rhyme tis because wine renders kings less cruel than does
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: barley water. The end of part two of book ten,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Chapter five, Book ten, Chapter six of The Hunchback of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame by the Hugo. This LibriVox recording is in
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Book ten, chapter six, Little Sword in Pocket.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: On emerging from the Bastille, Gregoas descended the Rue Saint
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Antoine with the swiftness of a runaway horse. At arriving
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: at the Baudoye gate, He walked straight to the stone
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: cross which rose in the middle of that place, as
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: though he were able to distinguish in the darkness the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: figure of a man clad and cloaked in black, who
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: was seated on the steps of the cross. Is it you, master,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: said grigoas the personage in black rose death and passion.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: You make me boil, Grigois. The man on the tower
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of Saint Gervais has just cried half past one in
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the morning. Oh, retorted Grigois. Tis no fault of mine,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: but of the watch and the King. I have just
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: had a narrow escape. I always just miss being hung.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Tis my predestination. You lack everything, said the other. But
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: come quickly. Have you the password? Fancy master? I have
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: seen the king. I come from him. He wears fustian breeches.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Tis an adventure, oh, distaff of words? What is your
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: adventure to me? Have you the password of the outcasts?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I have it? Be at ease, little sword in pocket. Good.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Otherwise we could not make our way as far as
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: the church. The outcasts bar the streets. Fortunately, it appears
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: that they have encountered resistance. We may still arrive in time, yes, Master,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: But how are we to get into Notre Dame. I
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: have a key to the tower, and how are we
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: to get out again? Behind the cloister there is a
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: little door which opens on the terrain and the water.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: I have taken the key to it, and I moored
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a boat there. This morning. I have had a beautiful
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: escape from being hung. Grigois repeated, Eh, quick, come said
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the other. Both descended towards the city with long strides.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: End of Book ten, Chapter six, Book ten, Chapter seven
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: of The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. This
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book ten, chapter seven,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Chateau Pai to the rescue. The reader will perhaps recall
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the critical situation in which we left Quasimodo. The brave
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: deaf man, assailed on all sides, had lost, if not
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: all courage, at least all hope of saving not himself.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: He was not thinking of himself, but the gipsy. He
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: ran distractedly among the gallery. Notre Dame was on the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: point of being taken by storm by the outcasts. All
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: at once a great galloping of horses filled the neighboring streets,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and with a long file of torches and a thick
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: column of cavaliers with free rings and lances in rest.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: These furious sounds debouched on the place like a hurricane. Franz.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Franz cut down the louts chateau Pey to the rescue
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Provost ship. Provost ship. The frightened vagabonds wheeled round Quasimoto,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: who did not hear, saw the naked swords, the torches,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the irons of the pikes, all that cavalry at the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: head of which he recognized Captain Phoebus. He beheld the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: confusion of the outcasts, the terror of some, the disturbance
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: among the bravest of them. And from this unexpected succor
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: he recovered so much strength that he hurled from the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: church the first assailants, who were already climbing into the gallery.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: It was in fact the King's troops who had arrived.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: The vagabonds behaved bravely defended themselves like desperate men, caught
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: on the flank by the Rue Saint pierreo buff and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: in the rear through the Rue du Parvis driven to
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: bay against Notre Dame, which they still assailed, and Quasimodo defended.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: At the same time besiegers and besieged. They were in
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the singular situation in which Compte hen Riarcur Turinum obsessor
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: idem ed Absessus, as his epitaph says, found himself later
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: on at the famous Siege of Turin in sixteen forty,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: between Prince Tomas of Savoy, whom he was besieging, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the Marquis de la Ganae, who was blockading him. The
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: battle was frightful. There was a dog's tooth for wolfe's flesh,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: as p Mato says, the king's cavaliers and whose midst
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Phoebus de chateau pay bore himself valiantly gave no quarter,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and the slash of the sword disposed of those who
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: escaped the thrust of the lance. The outcasts, badly armed,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: foamed and bit with rage. Men, women, children, hurled themselves
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: on the cruppers and the breasts of the horses, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: hung there like cats with teeth, finger nails, and toe nails.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Others struck the archers in the face with their torches.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Others thrust iron hooks into the necks of the cavaliers
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and dragged them down. They slashed in pieces those who fell.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: One was noticed who had a large glittering scythe, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: who for a long time mowed the legs of the horses.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: He was frightful. He was singing a ditty with a
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: nasal intonation. He swung and drew back his scythe incessantly
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: at every blow. He traced round him a great circle
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of severed limbs. He advanced thus into the very thickest
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of the cavalry, with a tranquil slowness, the lulling of
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the head, and the regular breathing of a harvester attacking
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: a field of wheat. It was close pan tree foe.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: A shot from an arquebus laid him low. In the meantime,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: windows had been opened again, the neighbors, hearing the war
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: cries of the King's troops, had mingled in the affray,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: and bullets reigned upon the outcasts from every story. The
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: parvis was filled with a thick smoke, which the musketry
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: streaked with flame. Through it. One could confusedly distinguish the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: front of Notre Dame and the decrepit Hoteldieu, with some
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: wan invalids gazing down from the heights of its roof,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: all checkered with dormer windows at length the vagabonds gave
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: way weariness, the lack of good weapons, the fright of
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: this surprise, the musketry from the windows, the valiant attack
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of the King's troops all overwhelmed them. They forced the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: line of assailants and fled in every direction, leaving the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: parvez encumbered with dead. When Quasimodo, who had not ceased
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: to fight for a moment, beheld this route, he fell
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: on his knees and raised his hands to heaven. Then,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: intoxicated with joy, he ran. He ascended with the swiftness
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of a bird to that cell, the approaches to which
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: he had so intrepidly defended. He had but one thought
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: now it was to kneel before her, whom he had
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: just saved for the second time. When he entered the cell,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: he found it empty. End of Book ten, chapter seven,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Part one of book eleven, Chapter one of The Hunchback
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. This LibriVox recording is
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Book eleven, chapter one, The Little Shoe,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Part one. Las Morelda was sleeping at the moment when
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the outcasts assailed the church. Soon the ever increasing uproar
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: around the edifice and the uneasy bleeding of her goat,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: which had been awakened, had roused her from her slumbers.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: She had sat up, she had listened, she had looked. Then,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: terrified by the light and noise, she had rushed from
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: her cell to see the aspect of the place, the
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: vision which was moving in it, the disorder of that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: nocturnal assault, that hideous crowd leaping like a cloud of frogs,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: half seen in the gloom, the croaking of that hoarse multitude,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: those few red torches running and crossing each other in
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the darkness, like the meteors which streaked the misty surfaces
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: of marshes. This whole scene produced upon her the effect
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of a mysterious battle between the phantoms of the witch's
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: sabbath and the stone monsters of the church. Imbued from
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: her very infancy with the superstitions of the Bohemian tribe,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: her first thought was that she had caught the strange
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: beings peculiar to the night in their deeds of witchcraft.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Then she ran, in terror to cower in her cell,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: asking of her pallet some less terrible nightmare. But little
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: by little the first vapors of terror had been dissipated
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: from the constantly increasing noise, and from many other signs
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of reality. She felt herself besieged, not by specters, but
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: by human beings. Then her fear, though it did not increase,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: changed its character. She had dreamed of the possibility of
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a popular mutiny to tear her from her asylum, the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: idea of once more recovering life, hope Phoebus, who was
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: ever present in her future. The extreme helplessness of her condition,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: flight cut off no support, her abandonment, her isolation. These
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: thoughts and a thousand others overwhelmed her. She fell upon
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: her knees, with her head on her bed, her hands
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: clasped over her head, full of anxiety and tremors, and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: although a gipsy, an idolator, and a pagan, she began
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to entreat with sobs mercy from the good Christian God
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: and to pray to our Lady, her hostess, For even
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: if one believes in nothing, there are moments in life
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: when one is always of the religion of the Temple,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: which is nearest at hand. She remained thus prostrate for
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a very long time, trembling in truth more than praying,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: chilled by the ever closer breath of that furious multitude,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: understanding nothing of this outburst, ignorant of what was being plotted,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: what was being done, what they wanted, but foreseeing a
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: terrible issue. In the midst of this anguish, she heard
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: some one walking near her. She turned round two men,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: one of whom Carrie de Lantern had just entered her cell.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: She uttered a feeble cry. The hear nothing, said a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: voice which was not unknown to her. It is I
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Who are you? She asked, Pierre Gringois. This name reassured her.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: She raised her eyes once more and recognized the poet
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: in very fact. But there stood beside him a black figure,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: veiled from head to foot, which struck her by its silence. Oh,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: continued Grigwa, in a tone of reproach, jolly recognized me
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: before you. The little goat had not, in fact waited
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: for Gringua to announce his name. No sooner had he
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: entered than it rubbed itself gently against his knees, covering
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the poet with caresses and with white hairs, for it
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: was shedding its hair. Gringoa returned the caresses. Who is
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that with you? Said the gipsy in a low voice.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Be at Ease replied grigwa Tis one of my friends.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Then the philosopher, setting his lantern on the ground, crouched
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: upon the stones and exclaimed enthusiastically as he pressed Jolly
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: in his arms. Oh, oh tis a graceful beast, more considerable,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: no doubt for its neatness than for its size, but ingenious, subtle,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and lettered as a grammarian. Let us see, my jolly
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: hast thou forgotten any of thy pretty tricks? How does
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Master Jacques Charmelieu. The man in black did not allow
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: him to finish. He approached Grigois and shook him roughly
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: by the shoulder. Grigoy rose Tis true, said he. I
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: forgot that we are in haste, But that is no
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: reason Master for getting furious with people in this manner.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: My dear and lovely child, your life is in danger,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and Jolly's also. They want to hang you again. We
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: are your friends and we have come to save you.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Follow us, Is it true, she exclaimed in dismay, Yes,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: perfectly true. Come quickly, I am willing, she stammered. But
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: why does not your friend speak? Ah, said grigoy Tis,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: because his father and mother were fantastic people who made
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: him of a taciturn temperament. She was obliged to content
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: herself with this explanation. Grigoa took her by the hand.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: His companion picked up the lantern and walked on in front.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Fear stunned the young girl, she allowed herself to be
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: led away. The goat followed them, frisking, so joyous at
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: seeing grigoay again that it made him stumble every moment
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: by thrusting its horns between his legs. Such is life,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: said the philosopher, every time that he came near falling down.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Tis often our best friends who cause us to be overthrown.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: They rapidly descended the staircase of the towers, crossed the church,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: full of shadows and solitude, and all reverberating with uproar,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: which formed a frightful contrast, and emerged into the courtyard
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of the cloister by the red door. The cloister was deserted.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: The cannons had fled to the bishop's palace in order
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: to pray together. The courtyard was empty. A few frightened
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: lackeys were crouching in dark corners. They directed their steps
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: towards the door which opened from this court. Upon the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: terrain the man in black opened it with a key
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: which he had about him. Our readers are aware that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the terrain was a tongue of land, enclosed by walls
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: on the side of the city and belonging to the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: chapter of Notre Dame, which terminated the island on the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: east behind the church. They found this enclosure perfectly deserted.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: There was here less tumult in the air. The roar
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: of the outcasts assault reached them more confusedly and less clamorously.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: The fresh breeze which follows the current of a stream,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: rustled the leaves of the only tree planted on the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: point of the terrain, with a noise that was already perceptible.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: But they were still very close to danger. The nearest
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: edifices to them were the bishop's Palace and the church.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: It was plainly evident that there was great internal commotion
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: in the Bishop's palace. Its shadowy mass was all furrowed
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: with lights which flitted from window to window, as when
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: one has just burned paper. There remains a somber edifice
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of ashes in which bright sparks run a thousand eccentric courses.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Beside them, the enormous towers of Notre Dame, thus viewed
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: from behind, with the long nave above which they rise,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: cut out in black, against the red and vast light
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: which filled the parv, resembled two gigantic andirons of some
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Cyclopean fire grate. What was to be seen of Paris
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: on all sides waver before the eye in a gloom
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: mingled with light. Rembrandt has such backgrounds to his pictures.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: The man with the lantern walked straight to the point
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: of the terrain. There, at the very brink of the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: water stood the worm eaten remain of a fence of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: posts latticed with laths, whereon a low vine spread out
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a few thin branches, like the fingers of an outspread hand. Behind,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: in the shadow cast by this trellis a little boat
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: lay concealed. The man made a sign to Grigois and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: his companion to enter. The goat followed them. The man
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: was last to step in. Then he cut the boat's moorings,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: pushed it from the shore with a long boat hook, and,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: seizing two oars, seated himself in the bow, rowing with
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: all his might towards mid stream. The saying is very
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: rapid at this point, and he had a good deal
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: of trouble in leaving the point of the island. Grgua's
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: first care on entering the boat was to place the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: goat on his knees. He took a position in the stern,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and the young girl, whom the stranger inspired with an
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: indefinable uneasiness, seated herself close to the poet. When our
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: philosopher felt the boat sway, he clapped his head and
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: kissed jolly between the thorns, Oh, said he. Now we
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: are safe, all four of us. He added, with the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: air of a profound thinker. One is indebted sometimes to fortune,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: sometimes to ruse, for the happy issue of great enterprises.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: The boat made its way slowly towards the right shore.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: The young girl watched the unknown man with secret terror.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: He had carefully turned off the light of his dark lantern.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: A glimpse could be caught of him in the obscurity
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: in the bow of the boat, like a specter. His cowl,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: which was still lowered, formed a sort of mask, and
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: every time that he spread his arms, upon which hung
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: large black sleeves, as he rowed, one would have said
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: they were two huge bats wings. Moreover, he had not
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: yet uttered a word or breathed the syllable. No other
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: noise was heard in the boat than the flashing of
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the oars, mingled with the rippling of the water along
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: her sides. Oh my soul, exclaimed Grigois. Suddenly we are
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: as cheerful and joyous as young owls. We preserve the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: silence of pythagoreans of fishes. Pascadieu, my friends, I should
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: greatly like to have some one speak to me. The
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: human voice is music to the human ear. Tis not
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I who say that, but Dadamus of Alexandria. And they
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: are illustrious words, assuredly, Diadamus of Alexandria is no mediocre philosopher.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: One word, my lovely child, say but one word to me.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: I entreat you by the way, you had a droll
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and peculiar little pout. Do you still make it? Do
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: you know, my dear, that Parliament hath full jurisdiction over
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: all places of asylum, and that you were running a
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: great risk in your little chamber at Notre Dame. Alas
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: the little bird Trocolus maketh its nest in the jaws
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: of the crocodile master, here is the moon reappearing. If
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: only they do not perceive us. We are doing a
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: laudable thing in saving mademoiselle, and yet we should be
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: hung by order of the king if we were caught
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: alas human actions are taken by two handles, that is
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: branded with disgrace in one, which is crowned in another.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: He admires Cicero, who blames cataline. Is it not so? Master?
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: What say you to this philosophy? I possess philosophy by instinct,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: by nature othe APIs geometrium. Come, No one answers me
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: what unpleasant moods you two are in. I must do
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: all the talking alone. That is what we call a
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: monologue and tragedy. Pasket dieu. I must inform you that
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: I have just seen the king Louis the eleventh, and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: that I have caught his oath from him. Pascadieu. They
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: are still making a hearty howl in the city. Tis
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: a villainous, malicious old king. He is all swathed in furs.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: He still owes me the money for my epithalamium, and
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: he came within a nick of hanging me this evening,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: which would have been very inconvenient to me. He is
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: niggardly towards men of merit. He ought to read the
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: four books of Salvien of Cologne ad for seats avaritium.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: In truth tis a paltry king in his ways with
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: men of letters, and one who commits very barbarous cruelties.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: He is a sponge to soak money raised from the people.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: His saving is like the spleen which swelleth with the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: leanness of all the other members. Hence, complaints against the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: hardness of the times become murmurs against the prince. Under
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: this gentle and pious sire, the gallows crack with the
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: hung the blocks wrought with blood, the prisons burst like
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: over full bellies. This king hath one hand which grasps,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and one which hangs. He is the procurator of dome
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: tax and Monsieur Gibbett, the great are despoiled of their dignities,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: and the little incessantly overwhelmed with fresh oppressions. He is
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: an exorbitant prince. I love not this monarch, and you
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: master the man in black. Let the garrulous poet chatter on.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: He continued to struggle against the violent and narrow current
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: which separates the prow of the city and the stem
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: of the island of Notre Dame, which we call to
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: day the Isle Saint Louis. By the way, master, continued Grigois. Suddenly,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: at the moment when we arrived on the Parvez through
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: the enraged outcasts, did your reverence observe that poor little
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: devil whose skull, your deaf man was just cracking on
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: the railing of the gallery of the Kings. I am
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: near sighted and could not recognize him. Do you know
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: who he could be? The stranger answered, not a word,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: but he suddenly ceased rowing. His arms fell as though broken,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: His head sank on his breast, and la As Morauda
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: heard him sigh convulsively. She shuddered. She had heard such
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: sighs before. The boat abandoned to itself, floated for several
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: minutes with the stream, but the man in black finally
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: recovered himself, seized the oars once more, and began to
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: row against the current. He doubled the point of the
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Isle of Notre Dame and made for the landing place
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of the part of Foi Ah, said Grigois. Yonder is
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the Barboux mansion. Stay, master, look that group of black
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: roofs which make such singular angles yonder. Above that heap
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: of black, fibrous, grimy, dirty clouds, where the moon is
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: completely crushed and spread out like the yolk of an
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: egg whose shell is broken, tis a fine mansion. There
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: is a chapel crowned with a small vault full of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: very well carved enrichments. Above you can see the bell tower,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: very delicately pierced. There is also a pleasant garden which
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: consists of a pond, an aviary, an echo, a mall,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: a labyrinth, a house for wild beasts, and a quantity
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: of leafy alleys very agreeable to Venus. There is also
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: a rascal of a tree which is called the Lewd
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: because it favored the pleasures of a famous princess, and
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: a constable of France, who was a gallant and a wit.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Alas we poor philosophers are to a constable as a
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: plot of cabbages or a radish bed, to the garden
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: of the louver, what matters it? After all? Human life,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: for the great as well as for us, is a
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: mixture of good and evil. Pain is always by the
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: side of joy, and the spondee by the dactyl. Master.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: I must relate to you the history of the Barbo mansion.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: It ends in tragic fashion. It was in thirteen nineteen,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: in the reign of Philip the Fifth, the longest reign
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: of the kings of France. The moral of the story
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: is that the temptations of the flesh are pernicious and malignant.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Let us not rest our glance too long on our
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: neighbor's wife, however gratified our senses may be by her beauty.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Fornication is a very libertine thought. Adultery is a prying
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: into the pleasures of others. Oh Eh, the noise yonder
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: is redoubling. The tumult around Notre Dame was, in fact increasing.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: They listened, cries of victory were heard with tolerable distinctness,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: all at once A hundred torches, the light of which
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: glittered upon the helmets of men at arms, spread over
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the church, at all heights, on the towers, on the galleries,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: on the flying buttresses. These torches seemed to be in
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: search of something, and soon distant clamors reached the fugitives distinctly.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: The gypsy, the sorceress, Death to the gypsy. The unhappy
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: girl dropped her head upon her hands, and the unknown
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: began to row furiously towards the shore. Meanwhile, our philosopher reflected,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: he clasped the goat in his arms and gently drew
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: away from the Gypsy, who pressed closer and closer to him,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: as though to the only asylum which remained to her.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: It is certain that Grigois was enduring cruel perplexity. He
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: was thinking that the goat, also, according to existing law,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: would be hung if recaptured, which would be a great pity,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: poor Jolly, that he had thus two condemned creatures attached
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: to him. That his companion asked no better than to
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: take charge of the gypsy. A violent combat began between
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: his thoughts, in which, like the jewe Upiter of the Iliad,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: he weighed in turn the gypsy and the goat, And
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: he looked at them alternately with eyes moist with tears,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: saying between his teeth, but I cannot save you both.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: A shock informed them that the boat had reached the land.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: At last, the uproar still filled the city. The unknown
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Rose approached the Gypsy and endeavored to take her arm
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: to assist her to alight. She repulsed him and clung
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: to the sleeve of Gringoa, who, in his turn absorbed
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: in the goat almost repulsed her. Then she sprang alone
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: from the boat. She was so troubled that she did
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: not know what she did or whither she was going. Thus,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: she remained for a moment, stunned, watching the water flow past.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: When she gradually returned to her senses, she found herself
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: alone on the wharf with the unknown. It appears that
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Gringoa had taken advantage of the moment of debarkation to
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: slip away with the goat into the block houses of
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the Rue Grandier Sir Laud. The poor gypsy shivered when
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: she beheld herself alone with this man. She tried to speak,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: to cry out, to call Grigois. Her tongue was dumb
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: in her mouth and no sound left her lips. All
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: at once, she felt the stranger's hand on hers. It
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: was a strong, cold hand. Her teeth chattered. She turned
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: paler than the ray of moonlight, which illuminated her. The
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: man spoke not a word. He began to ascend towards
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: the plastigrev holding her by the hand. At that moment,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: she had a vague feeling that destiny is an irresistible force.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: She had no more resistance left in her She allowed
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: herself to be dragged along, running while he walked. At
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: this spot the key ascended, but it seemed to her
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: as though she were descending a slope. She gazed about her.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: On all sides, not a single passer by. The key
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: was absolutely deserted. She heard no sound, she felt no
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: people moving, save in the tumultuous and glowing city from
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: which she was separated only by an arm of the Seine.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: And whence her name reached her mingled with cries of death.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: The rest of Paris was spread around her in great
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: blocks of shadows. Meanwhile, the stranger continued to drag her
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: along with the same silence and the same rapidity. She
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: had no recollection of any of the places where she
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: was walking. As she passed before a lighted window, she
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: made an effort, drew up suddenly and cried out help.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: The bourgeois who was standing at the window opened it.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Appeared there in his shirt with his lamp, stared at
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: the key with a stupid air, uttered some words which
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: she did not understand, and closed his shutter again. It
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: was her last gleam of hope extinguished. The man in
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: black did not utter a syllable. He held her firmly
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: and set out again at a quicker pace. She no
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: longer resisted, but followed him, completely broken. From time to
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: time she called together a little strength, and said, in
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: a voice broken by the uneveness of the pavement and
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: the breathlessness of her flight, who are you? Who are you?
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: He made no reply. They arrived thus, still keeping along
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: the quay, at a tolerably spacious square. It was the greve.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: In the middle, a sort of black erect cross was visible.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: It was the gallows. She recognized all this and saw
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: where she was. The man halted, turned towards her and
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: raised his cowl. Oh, she stammered, almost petrified. I knew
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: well that it was he again, it was the priest.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: He looked like the ghost of himself. That is an
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: effect of the moonlight. It seems as though one beheld
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: only the specters of things in that light. Listen, he
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: said to her, and she shuddered at the sound of
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: that fatal voice, which she had not heard for a
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: long time. He continued speaking with those brief and panting
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: jerks which betoken deep internal convulsions. Listen, we are here.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I am going to speak to you this is the grave.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: This is an extreme point destiny gives us to one another.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I am going to decide as to your life. You
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: will decide as to my soul. Here is a place,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: here is a night beyond which one sees nothing. Then
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: listen to me. I am going to tell you. In
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: the first place, speak not to me of your Phoebus.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: As he spoke. Thus he paced to and fro like
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: a man who cannot remain in one place, and dragged
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: her after him. Do not speak to me of him.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Do you see if you utter that name? I know
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: not what I shall do, but it will be terrible. Then,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: like a body which recovers its center of gravity, he
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: became motionless once more, But his words betrayed no less agitation.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: His voice grew lower and lower. Do not turn your
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: head aside. Thus, listen to me. It is a serious matter.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: In the first place, here's what has happened. All this
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: will not be laughed at. I swear it to you.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: What was I saying? Remind me, oh, there is a
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: decree of Parliament which gives you back to the scaffold.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: I have just rescued you from their hands, but they
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: are pursuing you. Look he extended his arm toward the city.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: The search seemed in fact to be still in progress.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: There the uproar drew nearer. The tower of the lieutenant's house,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: situated opposite the greve, was full of clamors and light,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: and soldiers could be seen running on the opposite key
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: with torches, and these cries the gypsy, Where is the gypsy? Death? Death?
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: You see that they are in pursuit of you, and
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: that I am not lying to you. I love you.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Do not open your mouth, refrain from speaking to me. Rather,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: if it be only to tell me that you hate me,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: I have made up my mind not to hear that again.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: I have just saved you. Let me finish first. I
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: can save you wholly. I have prepared everything. It is
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: yours at will. If you wish, I can do it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: He broke off violently. No, that is not what I
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: should say. As he went with hurried step and made
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: her hurry also, for he did not release her. He
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: walked straight to the gallows and pointed to it with
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: his finger. Choose between us two, he said coldly. He
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: tore herself from his hands and fell at the foot
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: of the gibbet, embracing that funereal support. Then she half
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: turned her beautiful head and looked at the priest over
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: her shoulder. One would have said that she was a
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: holy virgin. At the foot of the cross. The priest
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: remained motionless, his finger still raised toward the gibbet, preserving
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: his attitude like a statue. At length, the gipsy said
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: to him, it causes me less horror than you do.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Then he allowed his arm to sink slowly and gazed
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: at the pavement in profound dejection. If these stones could speak,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: he murmured, yes, they would say that a very unhappy
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: man stands here. He went on. The young girl, kneeling
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: before the gallows, enveloped in her long flowing hair, let
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: him speak on without interruption. He now had a gentle
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: and plaintive accent, which contrasted sadly with the haughty, harshness
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of his features. I love you, Oh, how true that is?
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: So nothing comes of that fire which burns my heart alas,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: young girl, night and day, Yes, night and day. I
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: tell you it is torture. Oh, I suffer too much.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: My poor child tis a thing deserving of compassion. I
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: assure you you see that I speak gently to you
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I really wish that you should no longer cherish this
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: horror of me. After all, if a man loves a woman,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: tis not his fault. Oh my god, what so you
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: will never pardon me, you will always hate me. All
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: is over? Then it is that which renders me evil,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: do you see? And horrible to myself? You will not
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: even look at me. You are thinking of something else. Perchance,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: while I stand here and talk to you, shuddering on
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the brink of eternity, for both of us above all things,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: do not speak to me of the officer. I would
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: cast myself at your knees. I would kiss not your feet,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: but the earth which is under your feet. I would
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: sob like a child. I would tear my breast, not words,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: but my very heart and vitals to tell you that
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I love you. All would be useless. All and yet
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: you have nothing in your heart but what is tender
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: and merciful. You are radiant with the most beautiful mildness.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: You are wholly, sweet, good, pitiful and charming. Alas you
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: cherish no ill will for any one but me alone. Oh,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: what a fatality. He hid his face in his hands.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: The young girl heard him weeping. It was for the
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: first time. Thus erect and shaken by sobs, he was
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: more miserable and more suppliant than went on his knees.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: He wept thus for a considerable time. Come, he said,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: these first tears passed. I have no more words. I had, however,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: thought well as to what you would say. Now. I
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: tremble and shiver and break down. At the decisive moment,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: I feel conscious of something supreme, enveloping us, and I stammer. Oh,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: I shall fall upon the pavement if you do not
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: take pity on me, pity on yourself. Do not condemn
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: us both. If you only knew how much I love you?
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: What a heart is mine? Oh? What desertion of all virtue?
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: What desperate abandonment of myself? A doctor, I mocket science,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: A gentleman. I tarnish my own name, A priest, I
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: make the missal a pillow of sensuality. I spit in
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: the face of my God. All this for thee enchantress
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: to be more worthy of thy hell. And you will
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: not have the apostate. Oh, let me tell you all more. Still,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: something more horrible, Oh, yet more horrible. As he uttered
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: these last words, his air became utterly distracted. He was
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: silent for a moment, and resumed as though speaking to himself,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: and in a strong voice, came, what hast thou done
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: with thy brother? There was another silence, and he went on,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: what have I done with him? Lord? I received him,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: I reared him, I nourished him, I loved him, I
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: idolized him, and I have slain him. Yes, Lord, they
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: have just dashed his head before my eyes on the
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: stone of thine house. And it is because of me,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: because of this woman, Because of her. His eye was wild,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: his voice grew ever weaker. He repeated many times, yet mechanically,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: at tolerably long intervals, like a bell prolonging its last vibration,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: because of her, Because of her. Then his tongue no
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: longer articulated any perceptible sound, but his lips still moved.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: All at once. He sank together like something crumbling, and
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: lay motionless on the earth with his head on his knees.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: A touch from the young girl, as she drew her
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: foot from under him, brought him to himself. He passed
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: his hands slowly over his hollow cheeks and gazed for
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: several moments at his fingers, which were wet. What he murmured,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I have wept, and turning suddenly to the gypsy with
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: unspeakable anguish. Alas you have looked coldly on at my tears, child,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: Do you know that those tears are of lava? Is
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: it indeed true? Nothing touches when it comes from the
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: man one does not love. If you were to see
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: me die, you would laugh. Oh, I do not wish
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: to see you die. One word, a single word of pardon.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Say not that you love me, Say only that you
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: will do it. That will suffice. I will save you.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: If not, Oh, the hours passing I entreat you by
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: all that is sacred. Do not wait until I shall
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: have turned to stone again, like that gibbet which also
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: claims you, reflect that I hold the destinies of both
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: of us in my hand, that I am mad. It
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: is terrible that I may let all go to destruction,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: and that there is beneath us a bottom. This abyss
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: unhappy girl, whither my fall will follow yours to all eternity.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: One word of kindness, Say one word, only one word.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: She opened her mouth to answer him. He flung himself
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: on his knees to receive with adoration the word, possibly
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: a tender one, which was on the point of issuing
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: from her lips. She said to him, you are an assassin.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: The priest clasped her in his arms with fury and
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: began to laugh with an abominable laugh. Well, yes, an assassin,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: he said, and I will have you. You will not
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: have me for your slave. You shall have me for
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: your master. I will have you. I have a den
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: whither I will drag you. You will follow me. You
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: will be obliged to follow me, or I will deliver
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: you up. You must die, my beauty, or be mine.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: Be long to the priest, belonged to the apostate, belonged
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: to the assassin, this very night, do you hear? Come joy,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: kiss me, mad girl the tomb or my bed. His
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: eyes sparkled with impurity and rage. His lewed lips reddened
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: the young girl's neck. She struggled in his arms. He
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: covered her with furious kisses. Do not bite me, monster,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: she cried, Oh, the foul odious monk, leave me. I
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: will tear out thy ugly gray hair and flick it
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: in thy face by the handful. He reddened, turned pale,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: then released her and gazed at her with a gloomy air.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: She thought herself victorious, and continued, I tell you that
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: I belong to my Phoebus. That tis Phoebus whom I love.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: That tis Phoebus who is handsome. You are old, priest,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: you are ugly. Begone. He gave vent to a horrible cry,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: like the wretch to whom a hot iron is applied. Die, Then,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: he said, gnashing his teeth. She saw his terrible look
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: and tried to fly. He caught her once more. He
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: shook her. He flung her on the ground and walked
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: with rapid strides towards the corner of the tour roland,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: dragging her after him along the pavement by her beautiful hands.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: On arriving there, he turned to her for the last time.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Will you be mine? She replied with emphasis no. Then
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: he cried in a loud voice, gudulay, goudulay, Here is
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: the gipsy. Take your vengeance. The young girl felt herself
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: seized suddenly by the elbow. She looked. A fleshless arm
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: was stretched from an opening in the wall and held
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: her like a hand of iron. Hold her well, said
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: the priest, 'tis the gypsy escaped? Release her? Not? I
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: will go in search of the sergeants. You shall see
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: her hanged end of Book eleven, Chapter one, Part one,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: Part two of book eleven, Chapter one of The Hunchback
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. This LibriVox recording is
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Book eleven, Chapter one, The Little Shoe,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Part two. A guttural laugh replied from the interior of
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: the wall to these bloody words, ha ha ha. The
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: gypsy watched the priest retire in the direction of the
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: pont Notre Dame. A cavalcade was heard in that direction.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: The young girl had recognized the spiteful recluse pante with terror.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: She tried to disengage herself, she writhed. She made many
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: starts of agony and despair, but the other held her
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: with incredible strength. The lean and bony fingers which bruised her,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: clenched on her flesh and met around it. One would
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: have said that this hand was riveted to her arm.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: It was more than a chain, more than a fetter,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: more than a ring of iron. It was a living
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: pair of pincers, endowed with intelligence which emerged from the wall.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: She fell back against the wall, exhausted, and then the
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: fear of death took possession of her. She thought of
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the beauty of life, of youth, of the view of heaven,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: the aspects of nature, of her love for Phoebus, of
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: all that was vanishing, and all that was approaching, of
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: the priest who was denouncing her, of the headsman who
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: was to come, of the gallows which was there. Then
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: she felt terror to the very roots of her hair,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: and she heard the mocking laugh of the recluse, saying
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: to her, in a very low tone, ha, ha ha,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: you are to be hanged. She turned a dying look
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: towards the window, and she beheld the fierce face of
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the sacked nun through the bars. What have I done
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: to you? She said, almost lifeless. The recluse did not reply,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: but began to mumble with a sing song, irritated mocking intonation.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: Dat heavy Egypt, dateravy Egypt, dateravy Egypt. The unhappy Esmeralda
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: dropped her head beneath her flowing hair, comprehending that it
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: was no human being she had to deal with all
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: at once. The recluse exclaimed, as though the gypsy's question
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: had taken all this time to reach her brain, What
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: have you done to me. You say, ah, what have
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: you done to me? Gypsy? Well listen, a I had
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: a child. You see, I had a child, a child,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: I tell you, a pretty little girl, my Agnes. She
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: went on wildly kissing something in the dark. Well do
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: you see, daughter of Egypt. They took my child from me.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: They stole my child, They ate my child. That is
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: what you have done to me. The young girl replied
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: like a lamb. Alas perchance I was not born? Then, oh, yes,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: returned the recluse. You must have been born, you were
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: among them. She would be the same age as you.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: So I have been here fifteen years. Fifteen years Have
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: I suffered? Fifteen years? Have I prayed? Fifteen years? Have
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: I beat my head against these four walls? I tell
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: you that twas the Gypsies who stole her from me.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Do you hear that? Who ate with their teeth? Have
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: you a heart? Imagine a child playing, a child sucking,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: a child sleeping. It is so innocent a thing. Well
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: that that is what they took from me, What they killed?
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: The good God knows it. Well, today it is my turn.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: I am going to eat the gipsy. Oh I would
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: bite you. Well if the bars did not prevent me.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: My head is too large, poor little one. While she
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: was asleep, and if they woke her up when they
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: took her in vain, she might cry, I was not there, Ah,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: gipsy mothers, you devoured my child. Come see your own.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Then she began to laugh or to gnash her teeth,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: for the two things resembled each other. In that furious face.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: The day was beginning to dawn, and she gleamed. Dimly
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: lighted this scene, and the gallows grew more and more
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: distinct in the square on the other side, in the
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: direction of the bridge of Notre Dame. The poor condemned
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: girl fancied that she heard the sound of cavalry approaching. Madam.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: She cried, clasping her hands and falling on her knees, disheveled, distracted,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: mad with fright. Madam, have pity, they are coming. I
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: have done nothing to you. Would you wish to see
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: me die in this horrible fashion before your very eyes?
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: You are pitiful? I am sure it is too frightful.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Let me make my escape. Release me, Mercy. I do
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: not wish to die like that. Give me back my child,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: said the recluse. Mercy, Mercy, give me back my child.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: Release me in the name of Heaven, give me back
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: my child again. The young girl fell, exhausted, broken and
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: having already the glassy eye of a person in the grave.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: Alas she faltered, you seek your child, I seek my parents.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: Give me back my little Agnes pursued Goudelay you do
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: not know where she is, then die. I will tell you.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I was a woman of the town. I had a child.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: They took my child. It was the gypsies. You see
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: plainly that you must die. When your mother, the gypsy,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: comes to reclaim you, I shall say to her mother,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: look at that gibbet, or give me back my child.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Do you know where she is? My little daughter? Stay?
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: I will show you. Here is her shoe, all that
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: has left me of her. Do you know where there
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: its mate is. If you know, tell me, and if
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: it is only at the other end of the world,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I will crawl to it on my knees. As she spoke. Thus,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: with her other arm extended through the window, she showed
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the gypsy the little embroidered shoe. It was already light
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: enough to distinguish its shape and its colors. Let me
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: see that shoe, said the gypsy, quivering God, God, and
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: at the same time, with her hand, which was at liberty,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: she quickly opened the little bag ornamented with green glass,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: which she wore about her neck. Go On, go on,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: grumbled Goudelai, search your demon's ambulet. All at once she
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: stopped short, trembled in every limb, and cried in a
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: voice which proceeded from the very depths of her being,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: my daughter. The gypsy had just drawn from the bag
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: a little shoe absolutely similar to the other. To this
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: little shoe was attached to parchment on which was inscribed
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: this charm qui leparal retrouvarret to mare tetendre le bras,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: when thou shalt find its mate, thy mother will stretch
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: out her arms to thee quicker than a flash of lightning.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: The recluse had laid the two shoes together, had read
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: the parchment, and had put close to the bars of
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: the window, her face beaming with celestial joy as she cried,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: My daughter, my daughter, My mother, said the gipsy. Here
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: we are unequal to the task of depicting the scene.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: The wall and the iron bars were between them. Oh
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: the wall, cried the recluse, Oh to see her, and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: not to embrace her your hand, your hand. The young
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: girl passed her arm through the opening. The recluse threw
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: herself on that hand, pressed her lips to it, and
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: there remained buried in that kiss, giving no other sign
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: of life than a sob, which heaved her breast from
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: time to time. In the Meanwhile, she wept in torrents,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: in silence, in the dark, like a rain at night.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: The poor mother poured out in floods upon that adored hand,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: the dark and deep well of tears which lay within her,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: and into which her grief had filtered drop by drop
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: for fifteen years. All at once she rose, flung aside
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: her long gray hair from her brow, and without uttering
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: a word, began to shake the bars of her cage
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: cell with both hands more furiously than a lioness. The
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: bars held firm. Then she went to seek in the
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: corner of her cell a huge paving stone, which served
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: as her pillow, and launched it against them with such
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: violence that one of the bars broke, emitting thousands of sparks.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: A second blow come completely shattered the old iron cross
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: which barricaded the window. Then, with her two hands she
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: finished breaking and removing the rusted stumps of the bars.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: There are moments when woman's hands possess superhuman strength. A
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: passage broken less than a minute, was required for her
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: to seize her daughter by the middle of her body
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: and draw her into the cell. Come, let me draw
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: you out of the abyss, she murmured. When her daughter
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: was inside the cell, she laid her gently on the ground,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: then raised her up again, and baring her in her
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: arms as though she were still only her little Agnes.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: She walked to and fro in her little room, intoxicated, frantic, joyous,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: crying out, singing, kissing her daughter, talking to her, bursting
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: into laughter, melting into tears all at once and with vehemence.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: My daughter, my daughter, she said, I have my daughter here.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: She is The Good God has given her back to me. Ah,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: you come, all of you. Is there anyone there to
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: see that I have my daughter. Lord Jesus, how beautiful
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: she is. You have made me wait fifteen years, my
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: good God. But it was in order to give her
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: back to me. Beautiful Then the gypsies did not eat her.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Who said, so, my little daughter, my little daughter, kiss
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: me those good gypsies. I love the gypsies. It is
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: really you. That was what made my heart leap every
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: time that you passed by, and I took that for hatred.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: Forgive me, my Agnes, forgive me. You thought me very malicious,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: did you not? I love you? Have you still the
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: little mark on your neck? Let us see she still
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: has it? Oh, you are beautiful. It was I who
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: gave you those big eyes, mademoiselle, kiss me. I love you.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: It is nothing to me that other mothers have children.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: I scorn them. Now they have only to come and see.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: Here is mine. See her neck, her eyes, her hair,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: her hands. Find me anything as beautiful as that. Oh,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I promise you she will have lovers. That she will.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: I have wept for fifteen years. All my beauty has
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: departed and has fallen to her. Kiss me, She addressed
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: her to a thousand other extravagant remarks, whose accent constituted
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: her sole beauty. Disarranged the poor girl's garments, even to
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: the point of making her blush, smooth, her silky hair
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: with her hand, kissed her foot, her knee, her brow.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: Her eyes was in raptures over everything. The young girl
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: let her have her way, repeating at intervals and very
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: long and with infinite tenderness. My mother, do you see
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: my little girl, resumed the recluse, interspersing her words with kisses.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I shall love you dearly. We will go away from here.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: We are going to be very happy. I have inherited
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: something in rhymes in our country. You know rhymes. Ah, No,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: you do not know it. You were too small. If
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: you only knew how pretty you were at the age
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: of four months, tiny feet that people came even from Epernay,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: which is seven leagues away, to see. We shall have
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: a field, a house. I will put you to sleep
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: in my bed. My god, my god, who would believe this?
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: I have my daughter, Oh, my mother, said the young girl,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: at length, finding strength to speak in her emotion. The
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: gipsy woman told me so. Oh. There was a good
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: gypsy of our band who died last year, who has
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: always cared for me like a nurse. It was she
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: who placed this little bag about my neck. She always
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: said to me, little one, guard this jewel, well, tis
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: a treasure. It will cause thee to find thy mother
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: once again. Thou wearest thy mother about thy neck, The
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: gypsy predicted it. The sacked nune again pressed her daughter
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: in her arms. Come let me kiss you. You say
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: that prettily. When we are in the country, we will
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: place these little shoes on an infant Jesus in the church.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: We certainly owe that to the good Holy Virgin. What
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: a pretty voice you have when you spoke to me
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: just now, it was music. Ah, my Lord God, I
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: have found my child again. But is this story credible?
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: Nothing will kill one, or I should have done of joy.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: And then she began to clap her hands again and
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: to laugh and to cry out, we are going to
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: be so happy. At that moment, the cell resounded with
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: the clang of arms and a galloping of horses, which
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: seemed to be coming from the pont Notre Dame Amid,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: advancing farther and farther along the quay. The gipsy threw
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: herself with anguish into the arms of the sacked nun.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: Save me, Save me, mother. They are coming. Oh heaven,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: what are you saying? I had forgotten. They are in
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: pursuit of you. What have you done? I know not,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: replied the unhappy child. But I am condemned to die.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: To die, said goudelais staggering as though struck by lightning.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: To die she repeated, slowly, gazing at her daughter with
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: staring eyes. Yes, mother replied the frightened young girl. They
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: went to kill me. They are coming to seize me.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: That gallows is for me. Save me, Save me, They
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: are coming. Save me. The recluse remained for several moments,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: motionless and petrified. Then she moved her head in a
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: sign of doubt, and suddenly giving vent to a burst
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: of laughter. But with that terrible laugh which had come
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: back to her. Oh ho, no, tis a dream of
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: which you are telling me. Ah, yes, I lost her.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: That lasted fifteen years, and then I found her again,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: and that lasted a minute, and they would take her
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: from me again. And now, when she is beautiful, when
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: she has grown up, when she speaks to me, when
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: she loves me, it is now that they would come
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: to devour her before my very eyes and I her mother.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: Oh no, these things are not possible. The good God
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: does not permit such things as that. Here the cavalcade
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: appeared to halt, and a voice was heard to say,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: in the distance, this way, Monsieur Tristan, the priest says
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: that we shall find her at the rat hole. The
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: noise of the horses began again. The recluse sprang to
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: her feet with a shriek of despair. Fly, fly, my child,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: all comes back to me. You are right, It is
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: your death. Horror, maledictions. Fly. She thrust her head through
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: the window and withdrew it again hastily. Remain, she said,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: in a low, curt and lugubrious tone, as she pressed
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: the hand of the gipsy, who was more dead than alive. Remain,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: Do not breathe. There are soldiers everywhere. You cannot get out.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: It is too light. Her eyes were dry and burning.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: She remained silent for a moment, but she paced the
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: cell hurriedly, and halted now and then to pluck out
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: handfuls of her gray hairs, which she afterwards tore with
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: her teeth. Suddenly, she said, they draw near. I shall
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: speak with them. Hide yourself in this corner. They will
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: not see you. I will tell them that you have
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: made your escape, that I released you. If faith. She
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: set her daughter down, for she was still carrying her
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: in one corner of the cell, which was not visible
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: from without. She made her crouch down, arranged her carefully
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: so that neither foot nor hand projected from the shadow.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: Untied her black hair, which she spread over her white
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: robe to conceal it. Placed in front of her her
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: jug and her paving stone, the only articles of furniture
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: which she possessed, imagining that this jug and stone would
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: hide her. And when this was finished, she became more
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: tranquil and knelt down to pray. The day, which was
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: only dawning, still left many shadows in the rat hole.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: At that moment, the voice of the priest, that infernal voice,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: passed very close to the cell, crying this way Captain
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: Phoebus de Chateau pau at that name. At that voice, Lasmralda,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: crouching in her corner, made a movement. Do not stir,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: said Goudulay. She had barely finished when a tumult of men,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: swords and horses halted around the cell. The mother rose
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: quickly and went to post herself before her window in
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: order to stop it up. She beheld a large troop
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: of armed men, both horse and foot, drawn up on
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: the grave. The commander dismounted and came to order. Old
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: woman said, this man, who had an atrocious face, we
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: are in search of a witch to hang her. We
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: were told that you had her. The poor mother assumed
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: as indifferent an air as she could, and replied, I
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: know not what you mean. The other resumed, tet dieu,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: what was it that frightened archdeacon said? Where is he? Monseigneur,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: said a soldier, He has disappeared. Come now, old mad
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: woman began the commander again, do not lie. A sorceress
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: was given in charge to you. What have you done
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: with her? The recluse did not wish to deny all,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: for fear of awakening suspicion, and replied, in a sincere
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: and surly tone, if you are speaking of a big
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: young girl who was put into my hands a while ago,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: I will tell you that she bit me and that
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: I released her. There, leave me in peace. The commander
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: made a grimace of disappointment. Don't lie to me, old
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: specter said he. My name is Tristan l'a mattee, and
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: I am the King's gossip. Tristan the Hermit. Do you hear,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: he added, as he glanced at the plaster grab around him,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: tis a name which has an echo here. You might
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: be Satan, the hermit replied Gudilay, who was regaining hope.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: But I should have nothing else to say. To you,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: and I should never be afraid of you. Deetieu, said Tristan.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: Here is a crone. Ah, So the which girl hath fled?
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: And in which direction did she go? Gudilay replied in
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: a careless tone. Through the Rue de monteun I believe.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: Tristan turned his head and made a sign to his
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: troop to prepare to set out on the march Again.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: The recluse breathed freely once more. Monseigneur suddenly said an archer,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: ask the old elf why the bars of her window
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: are broken? In this manner? This question brought anguish again
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: to the heart of the miserable mother. Nevertheless, she did
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: not lose all presence of mind. They have always been thus,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: she stammered. Bah retorted the archer, Only yesterday they still
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: formed a fine black cross, which inspired devotion. Tristan cast
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: a sidelong glance at the recluse. I think the old
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: Dame is getting confused. The unfortunate woman felt that all
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: depended on her self possession, and although with death in
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: her soul, she began to grin mothers possess such strength,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: Bah said she. The man is drunk. Tis more than
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: a year since the tale of a stone cart dashed
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: against my window and broke in the grating. And how
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: I cursed the carter too, tis true, said another archer.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: I was there always and everywhere. People are to be
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: found who have seen everything. This unexpected testimony from the
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: archer re encouraged the recluse, whom this interrogatory was forcing
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: to cross an abyss on the edge of a knife.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: But she was condemned to a perpetual alternative of hope
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: and alarm. If it was a cart which did it,
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: retorted the first soldier. The stumps of the bar should
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: be thrust inwards, while they actually are pushed outwards. Oh ho,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: said Tristan to the soldier, You have the nose of
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: an inquisitor of the chatellat reply to what he says.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: Old woman, good heavens, she exclaimed, driven to bay, and
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: in a voice that was full of tears, in despite
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: of her efforts, I swear to you, monseigneur, that twas
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: a cart which broke those bars. You heard the man
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: who saw it. And then what has that to do
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: with your gipsy hum growled Tristan. The devil went on.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: The soldier, flattered by the profe praise. These fractures of
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: the iron are perfectly fresh. Tristan tossed his head. She
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: turned pale. How long ago say you did the cart?
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: Do it a month? A fortnight perhaps, monsieur? I know not,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: she first said, more than a year, observed the soldier.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: That is suspicious, said the provost, monseigneur. She cried, still
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: pressed against the opening and trembling, lest suspicion should lead
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: them to thrust their heads through and look into her cell. Monseigneur,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: I swear to you that twas a cart which broke
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: this grating. I swear it to you by the angels
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: of Paradise. If it was not a cart, may I
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: be eternally damned, and I reject God. You put a
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: great deal of heat into that oath, said Tristan with
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: his inquisitorial glance. The poor woman felt her assurance vanishing
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: more and more. She had reached the point of blundering,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: and she comprehended with terror that she was saying what
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: she ought not to have said. Here another soldier came up, crying, Monsieur,
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: the old hag lies. The sorceress did not flee through
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: the Rue de moutan. The street chain has remained stretched
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: all night, and the chain guard has seen no one pass. Tristan,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: whose face became more sinister with every moment, addressed the recluse.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: What have you to say to that she tried to
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: make head against this new incident? That I do not know, monseigneur,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: that I may have been mistaken. I believe in fact
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: that she crossed the water that is in the opposite direction,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: said the provost, And it is not very likely that
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: she would wish to re enter the city where she
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: was being pursued. You are lying, old woman, and then
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: added the first soldier. There is no boat, either on
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: this side of the stream or on the other. She
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: swam across, replied the recluse, defending her ground foot by foot.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: Do women swim? Said the soldier. Tet dear, old woman,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: you are lying, repeated Tristan angrily. I have a good
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: mind to abandon that sorceress and take you. A quarter
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: of an hour of torture will perchance draw the truth
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: from your throat. Come you are to follow us, She
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: seized on these words with avidity. As you please, monseigneur,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: do it, do it torture? I am willing take me
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: away quick, quick, let us set out at once. During
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: that time, she said to herself, my daughter will make
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: her escape. Stath, said the Provost, what an appetite for
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: the rack? I understand not this mad woman at all.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: An old gray haired sergeant of the Guard stepped out
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: of the ranks, and addressing the Provost mad in sooth monseigneur.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: If she released the gypsy, it was not her fault,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: for she loves not the gypsies. I have been of
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: the watch these fifteen years, and I hear her every
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: evening cursing the bohemian women with endless imprecations. If the
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: one of whom we are in pursuit is, as I suppose,
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: the little dancer with the goat, she detests that one
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: above all the rest. Goudlay made an effort and said
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: that one above all. The unanimous testimony of the men
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: of the Watch confirmed the old sergeant's words to the Provost.
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: Tristan Lemettee, in despair at extracting anything from the recluse,
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: turned his back on her, and with unspeakable anxiety, she
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: beheld him direct his course slowly towards his horse. Come.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: He said, between his teeth march on, let us set
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: out again on the quest I shall not sleep until
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: that gypsy is hanged. But he still hesitated for some
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: time before mounting his horse. Goudelay palpitated between life and death,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: and as she beheld him, cast about the place that
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: uneasy look of a hunting dog, which instinctively feels that
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: the lair of the beast is close to him, and
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: is loath to go away. At length, he shook his
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: head and leaped into his saddle. Gudlay's horribly compressed heart
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: now dilated, and she said in a low voice, as
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: she cast a glance at her daughter, whom she had
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: not ventured to look at while they were there, saved.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: The poor child had remained all this time in her corner,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: without breathing, without moving, with the idea of death before her.
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: She had lost nothing of the scene between Gaudelais and Tristan,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: and the anguish of her mother had found its echo
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: in her heart. She had heard all the successive snappings
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: of the thread by which she hung suspended over the
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: gulf twenty times. She had fancied that she saw it break.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: And at last she began to breathe again, and to
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: feel her foot on firm ground. At that moment, she
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: heard a voice saying to the provost corbeuf monsieur le
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: provas tis no affair of mine, a man of arms
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: to hang witches. The rabble of the populace is suppressed.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: I leave you to attend to the matter alone. You
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: will allow me to rejoin my company, who are waiting
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: for their captain. The voice was that of Phoebus de
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: chateau Pay. That which took place within her was ineffable.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: He was there, her friend, her protector, her support, her refuge,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: her Phoebus. She rose, and before her mother could prevent her,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: she had rushed to the window, crying, Phoebus, aid me,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: my Phoebus. Phoebus was no longer there. He had just
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: turned the corner of the Rue de la Coutellerie at
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: a gallop, but Tristan had not yet taken his departure.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: The recluse rushed upon her daughter with a roar of agony.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: She dragged her violetly back, digging her nails into her neck.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: A Tigris's mother does not stand on trifles. But it
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: was too late. Tristan had seen eh hey, he exclaimed
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: with a laugh, which laid bare all his teeth and
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: made his face resemble the muzzle of a wolf. Too,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: mice in the trap. I suspected as much, said the soldier.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: Tristan clapped him on the shoulder. You are a good cat. Come,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: he added, where is Henrie cousin? A man who had
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: neither the garments nor the air of a soldier stepped
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: from the ranks. He wore a costume half gray, half brown,
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: flat hair, leather sleeves, and carried a bundle of ropes
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: in his huge hand. This man always attended Tristan, who
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: always attended Louis the eleventh Friend, said Tristan, larmitae, I
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: presume that this is the sorceress of whom we are
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: in search. You will hang me this one. Have you
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: your ladder? There is one yonder, under the shed of
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: the pillar house, replied the man. Is it on this
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: justice that the thing is to be done? He added,
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: pointing to the stone gibbet. Yes o way, continued the man,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: with a huge laugh, which was still more brutal than
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: that of the provost. We shall not have far to go.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Make haste, said Tristan. You shall laugh afterwards in the meantime,
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: the recluse had not uttered another word since Tristan had
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: seen her daughter, and all hope was lost. She had
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: flung the poor gypsy, half dead, into the corner of
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: the cellar, and had placed herself once more at the window,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: with both hands resting on the angle of the sill
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: like two claws. In this attitude she was seen to
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: cast upon all the soldiers her glance, which had become
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: wild and frantic once more. At the moment when rene
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: Cousin approached her cell she showed him so savage a
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: face that he shrank back. Monseigneur, he said, returning to
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: the provost, which am I to take the young one?
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: So much the better for the old one? Seemeth difficult,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: poor little dancer with the goat, said the old sergeant
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: of the watch. Renee Kusin approached the window again. The
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: mother's eyes made his own droop, he said, with a
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: good deal of timidity. Madam, she interrupted him in a
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: very low but furious voice. What do you ask? It
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: is not you, he said, it is the other? What other?
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: The young one? She began to shake her head, crying,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: there is no one, There is no one, There is
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: no one. Yes, there is, retorted the hangman, And you
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: know it well. Let me take the young one. I
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: have no wish to harm you, she said, with a
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: strange sneer. Ah, so you have no wish to harm me.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: Let me have the other, Madam, Tis monsieur the provost,
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: who wills it? She repeated, with a look of madness.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: There is no one here. I tell you that there is,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: replied the executioner. We have all seen that there are
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: two of you. Look, then, said the recluse, with a sneer.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: Thrust your head through the window. The executioner observed the
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: mother's finger nails and dared not make haste. Shouted Tristan,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: who had just ranged his troops in a circle round
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: the rat hole, and who sat on his horse beside
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: the gallows renee, returned once more to the Provost in
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: great embarrassment. He had flung his rope on the ground
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: and was twisting his hat between his hands with an
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: awkward air. Monseigneur, he asked, where am I to enter?
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: By the door? There is none? By the tis too small.
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: Make it larger, said Tristan angrily. Have you not pickaxes?
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: The mother still looked on steadfastly from the deaths of
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: her cavern. She no longer hoped for anything. She no
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: longer knew what she wished, except that she did not
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: wish them to take her daughter. Reneekuzin went in search
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: of the chest of tools for the nightmen under the
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: shed of the pillar house. He drew from it also
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: the double ladder, which he immediately set up against the gallows.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: Five or six of the Provost's men armed themselves with
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: picks and crowbars, and Tristan betook himself in company with
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: them towards the window. Old woman said the Provost in
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: a severe tone, deliver up to us the girl quietly.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: She looked at him like one who does not understand.
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: Teteu H continued, Tristan, why do you try to prevent
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: this sorceress being hung as it pleases the king? The
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: wretched woman began to laugh in her wild way. Why
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: she is my daughter? The tone in which she pronounced
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: these words made even Henrie Cousin shudder. I am sorry
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: for that, said the Provost. But it is the King's
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: good pleasure, she cried, redoubling her terrible laugh. What is
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: your king to me? I tell you that she is
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: my daughter. Pierce the wall, said Tristan. In order to
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: make a sufficiently wide opening, it sufficed to dislodge one
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: course of stone below the window. When the mother heard
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: the picks and crowbars mining her fortress, she uttered a
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: terrible cry. Then she began to stride about her cell
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: with frightful, swis yfness, a wild beast's habit which her
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: cage had imparted to her. She no longer said anything,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: but her eyes flamed. The soldiers were chilled to the
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: very soul. All at once, she seized her paving stone, laughed,
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: and hurled it with both fists upon the workmen. The stone,
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: badly flung for her hands, trembled, touched no one, and
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: fell short under the feet of Tristan's horse. She gnashed
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: her teeth. In the meantime, although the sun had not
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: yet risen, it was broad daylight. A beautiful rose color
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: enlivened the ancient, decayed chimneys of the pillar house. It
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: was the hour when the earliest windows of the great
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: city opened joyously on the roofs. Some workmen, a few
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: fruit sellers, on their way to the markets on their asses,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: began to traverse the greve. They halted for a moment
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: before this group of soldiers clustered round the rat hole,
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: stared at it with an air of astonishment, and passed on.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: The recluse had gone and seated herself by her daughter,
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: covering her with her body in front of her, with
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: staring eyes, listening to the poor child, who did not stir,
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: but who kept murmuring in a low voice these words
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: only phoebus, phoebus in proportion. As the work of the
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: demolisher seemed to advance, the mother mechanically retreated and pressed
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: the young girl closer and closer to the wall. All
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: at once. The recluse beheld the stone, for she was
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: standing guard, and never took her eyes from it. Move
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: and she heard Tristan's voice encouraging the workers. Then she
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: aroused from the depression into which she had fallen during
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: the last few moments, cried out, and as she spoke,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: her voice now rent the ear like a saw, then
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: stammered as though all kind of malediction as were pressing
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: to her lips to burst forth at once. Ho, Ho, Ho,
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: Why this is terrible? You are ruffians? Are you really
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: going to take my daughter? Oh? The cowards, Oh the
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: hangman lackeys, the wretched blackguard assassins, help help fire? Will
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: they take my child from me? Like this? Who is it? Then?
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: Who is called the good God? Then, addressing Tristan, foaming
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: at the mouth with wild eyes, all bristling and on
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: all fours like a female panther, draw near and take
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: my daughter. Do not you understand that this woman tells
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: you that she is my daughter? Do you know what
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: it is to have a child a lynx? Have you
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: never lain with your female? Have you never had a cub?
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: And if you have little ones when they howl? Have
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: you nothing in your vitals that moves? Throw down the stone,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: said Tristan. It no longer holds the crowbars raised the
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: heavy course. It was, as we have said, the mother's
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: last bulwark. She threw herself upon it. She tried to
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: hold it back. She scratched the stone with her nails,
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: but the massive block, set in movement by six men,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: escaped her and glided gently to the ground along the
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: iron levers. The mother, perceiving an entrance, effected, fell down
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: in front of the opening, barricading the breach with her body,
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: beating the pavement with her head and shrieking with a
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: voice rendered so hoarse by fatigue that it was barely audible.
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: Help fire, fire, Now take the wench, said Tristan, Still impassive,
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: the mother gazed at the soldiers in such formidable fashion
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: that they were more inclined to retreat than to advance.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: Come now, repeated the provost. Hear you, renee, Kazan. No
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: one took a step. The provost swore, tete de crist
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: my men of war. Afraid of a woman, monseigneur said, renee,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: do you call that a woman? She has the mane
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: of a lion, said another. Come, repeated the provost. The
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: gap is wide enough. Enter three abreast as at the
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: breach of Pantois. Let us make an end of it.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: Death of mahome I will make two pieces of the
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: first man who draws back. Placed between the provost and
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: the mother, both threatening, the soldiers hesitated for a moment,
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: then took their resolution and advanced towards the rat hole.
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: When the recluse saw this, she rose abruptly on her knees,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: flung aside her hair from her face, then let her thin,
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: flayed hands fall by her side. Then great tears fell
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: one by one from her eyes. They flowed down her
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: cheeks through a furrow, like a torrent through a bed
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: which it has hollowed for itself. At the same time
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: she began to speak, but in a voice so supplicating,
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: so gentle, so submissive, so heartrending, that more than one
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: old convict warder around Tristan, who must have devoured human flesh,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: wiped his eyes. Monsieurs, monsieurs. The sergeant's one word. There
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: is one thing which I must say to you. She
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: is my daughter. Do you see my dear little daughter
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: whom I had lost? Listen? It is quite a history.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: Consider that I knew the sergeants very well. They were
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: always good to me in the days when the little
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: boys threw stones at me because I led a life
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: of pleasure. Do you see you will leave me my
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: child when you know I was a poor woman of
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: the town. It was the bohemians who stole her from me,
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: and I kept her shoe for fifteen years. Stay here
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: it is that was the kind of foot which he
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: had at Rhyme's La chantfleurie rue falpainne. Perchance you knew
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: about that? It was I in your youth. Then there
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: was a merry time when one passed good hours. You
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: will take pity on me, will you not? Gentlemen, the
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: gypsies stole her from me. They hid her from me
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: for fifteen years. I thought her dead. Fancy my good
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: friends believed her to be dead. I have passed fifteen
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: years here in this cellar without a fire in winter.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: It is hard, the poor, dear little shoe. I have
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: cried so much that the Good God has heard me.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: This night he has given my daughter back to me.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: It is a miracle of the Good God. She was
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: not dead. You will not take her from me. I
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: am sure. If it were myself, I would say nothing,
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: But she a child of sixteen. Leave her time to
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: see the sun. What has she done to you? Nothing
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: at all? Nor have I if you did, but know
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: that she is all I have. That I am old
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: that she is a blessing which the Holy Virgin has
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: sent to me. And yet you are all so good.
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: You did not know that she was my daughter, But
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: now you do know it. Oh, I love her, Monsieur
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: the Grand Provost. I would prefer a stab in my
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: own vitals to a scratch on her finger. You have
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: the air of such a good lord. What have I
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: told you? Explains the matter, does it not, Oh, if
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: you have had a mother, monseigneur, you are the captain.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: Leave me my child. Consider that I pray you on
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: my knees, as one prays to Jesus Christ. I ask
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: nothing of any one. I am from rhymes, gentlemen, I
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: own a little field inherited from my uncle mahie praden.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: I am no beggar. I wish nothing, but I do
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: want my child. Oh, I want to keep my child.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: The good God who is the master, has not given
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: her to me for nothing. The king, you say, the king,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: it would not cause him much pleasure to have my
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: little daughter killed. And then the king is good. She
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: is my daughter, She is my own daughter. She belongs
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: not to the king. She is not yours. I want
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: to go away. We want to go away. And when
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: two women pass, one a mother and the other a daughter,
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: one lets them go. Let us pass. We belong in rhymes. Oh,
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: you are very good, messieurs, the sergeants. I love you all.
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: You will not take my dear little one. It is impossible,
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: It is utterly impossible. Is it not? My child? My child?
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: We will not try to give an idea of her gestures,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: her tone of the tears which she swallowed as she spoke,
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: of the hands which she clasped and then wrung, of
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: the heart breaking smiles, of the swimming glances, of the groans,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: the sighs, the miserable and affecting cries which she mingled
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: with her disordered, wild and incoherent words. When she became silent,
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: Tristan Lamaitee frowned, but it was to conceal a tear
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: which welled up in his tiger's eye. He conquered this weakness, however,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: and said, in a curt tone, the King wills it.
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: Then he bent down to the ear of Renee Cuisin
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: and said to him, in a very low tone, make
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: an end of it quickly. Possibly the redoubtable provost felt
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: his heart also failing him. The executioner and the sergeants
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: entered the cell. The mother offered no resistance. Only she
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: dragged herself towards her daughter and threw herself bodily upon her.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: The gipsy beheld the soldier's approach. The horror of death
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: reanimated her mother. She shrieked, in a tone of indescribable distress. Mother,
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: they are coming, defend me, Yes, my love, I am
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: defending you, replied the mother in a dying voice, and
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: clasping her closely in her arms, she covered her with kisses,
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: the two lying thus on the earth. The mother, upon
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: the daughter, presented a spectacle worthy of pity. Renee Kuisan
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: grasped the young girl by the middle of her body,
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: beneath her beautiful shoulders. When she felt that hand, she
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: cried you and fainted. The executioner, who was shedding large
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: tears upon her, dropped by drop, was about to bear
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: her away in his arms. He tried to detach the mother,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: who had so to speak, nototted her hands around her
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: daughter's waist, but she clung so strongly to her child
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: that it was impossible to separate them. Then Renee Kuisin
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: dragged the young girl outside the cell, and the mother
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: after her. The mother's eyes were also closed. At that
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: moment the sun rose, and there was already on the
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: place a fairly numerous assembly of people who looked on
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: from a distance at what was being thus dragged along
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: the pavement to the gibbet. For that was Provos Tristan's
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: way at executions. He had a passion for preventing the
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: approach of the curious. There was no one at the windows.
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: Only at a distance, at the summit of that one
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: of the towers of Notre Dame, which commands the greve,
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: two men outlined in black against the light morning sky,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: who seemed to be looking on, were visible. Reneekusin paused
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: at the foot out of the fatal ladder with that
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: which he was dragging and barely breathing, with so much
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: pity did the thing inspire him, He passed the rope
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: around the lovely neck of the young girl. The unfortunate
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: child felt the horrible touch of the hemp. She raised
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: her eyelids and saw the fleshless arm of the stone
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: gallows extended above her head. Then she shook herself and
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: shrieked in a loud and heartrending voice. No, No, I
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: will not. Her mother, whose head was buried and concealed
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: in her daughter's garments, said not a word. Only her
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: whole body could be seen to quiver, and she was
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: heard to redouble her kisses on her child. The executioner
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: took advantage of this moment to hastily loose the arms
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: with which she clasped the condemned girl, either through exhaustion
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: or despair. She let him have his. Then he took
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: the young girl on his shoulder, from which the charming
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: creature hung gracefully bent over his large head. Then he
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: set his foot on the ladder in order to ascend.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: At that moment, the mother, who was crouching on the pavement,
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: opened her eyes wide, without uttering a cry. She raised
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: herself erect with a terrible expression. Then she flung herself
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: upon the hand of the executioner, like a beast on
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: its prey, and bit it. It was done like a
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: flash of lightning. The headsman howled with pain. Those nearby
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: rushed up. With difficulty. They withdrew his bleeding hand from
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: the mother's teeth. She preserved a profound silence. They thrust
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: her back with much brutality, and noticed that her head
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: fell heavily on the pavement. They raised her, she fell
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: back again. She was dead. The executioner, who had not
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: loosed his hold on the young girl, began to ascend
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: the latter once more. End of Book eleven, chapter one,
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: Book eleven, chapter two of The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: by Victor Hugo. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: Book eleven, chapter two, The beautiful creature clad in white.
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: When Quasimodo saw that the cell was empty, that the
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: gypsy was no longer there, that while he had been
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: defending her, she had been abducted, he grasped his hair
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: with both hands and stamped with surprise and pain. Then
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: he set out to run through the entire church, seeking
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: his bohemian howling strange cries to all the coun owners
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: of the walls, strewing his red hair on the pavement.
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: It was just at the moments when the King's archers
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: were making their victorious entrance into Notre Dame, also in
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: search of the gypsy, Quasimodo, poor deaf fellow, aided them
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: in their fatal intentions. Without suspecting it. He thought that
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: the outcasts were the gypsy's enemies. He himself conducted Tristan
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: Larmettee to all possible hiding places open to him, the
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: secret doors, the double bottoms of the altars, the rear sacristries.
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: If the unfortunate girl had still been there, it would
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: have been he himself who would have delivered her up.
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: When the fatigue of finding nothing had disheartened Tristan, who
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: was not easily discouraged, Quasimodo continued the search alone. He
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: made the tour of the church twenty times, length and breadth,
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: up and down, ascending and descending, running, calling, shouting, peeping, rummaging, ransacking,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: thrusting his head into every hole, pushing a torch under
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: every vault, despairing mad. A male who has lost his
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: female is no more roaring, nor more haggard. At last,
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: when he was sure, perfectly sure that she was no
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: longer there, that all was at an end, that she
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: had been snatched from him, he slowly mounted the staircase
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: to the towers, that staircase which he had ascended with
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: so much eagerness and triumph on the day when he
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: had saved her. He passed those same places once more
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: with drooping head, voiceless, tearless, almost breathless. The church was
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: again deserted and had fallen back into its silence. The
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: archers had quitted it to track the sorceress in the city.
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: Quasimodo left alone in that vast Notre Dame so Besis,
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: eaged and tumultuous. But a short time before once more
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: betook himself to the cell where the gipsy had slept
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: for so many weeks under his guardianship. As he approached it,
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: he fancied that he might perhaps find her there. When
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: at the turn of the gallery, which opens on the
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: roof of the side aisles, he perceived the tiny cell,
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: with its little window and its little door, crouching beneath
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: a great flying buttress, like a bird's nest under a branch.
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: The poor man's heart failed him, and he leaned against
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: a pillar to keep from falling. He imagined that she
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: might have returned thither, that some good genius had no
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: doubt brought her back, That this chamber was too tranquil,
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: too safe, too charming for her not to be there,
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: And he dared not take another step for fear of
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: destroying his illusion. Yes, he said to himself, perchance she
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: is sleeping, oh, praying, I must not disturb her. At length,
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: he summoned up courage, advanced on tiptoe, looked, entered empty.
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: The cell was still empty. The unhappy deaf man walked
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: slowly round it, lifted the bed and looked beneath it,
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: as though she might be concealed between the pavement and
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: the mattress. Then he shook his head and remained stupefied.
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: All at once, he crushed his torch under his foot,
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: and without uttering a word, without giving vent to a sigh,
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: he flung himself at full speed, head foremost against the wall,
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: and fell, fainting on the floor. When he recovered his senses,
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: he threw himself on the bed and rolled about. He
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: kissed frantically the place where the young girl had slept,
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: and which was still warm. He remained there for several moments,
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: as motionless as though he were about to expire. Then
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: he rose, dripping with perspiration, panting mad, and began to
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: beat his head against the wall with the frightful regularity
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: of the clapper of his bells and the resolution of
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: a man determined to kill himself. At length, he fell
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: a second time. Exhausted, he dragged himself on his knees
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: outside the cell and crouched down, facing the door in
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: an attitude of astonishment. He remained thus for more than
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: an hour without making a movement, with his eye fixed
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: on the deserted cell, more gloomy and more pensive than
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: a mother seated between an empty cradle and a full coffin.
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: He uttered not a word, only at long intervals a sob.
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: Heaved his body violently, but it was a tearless sob,
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: like summer lightning, which makes no noise. It appears to
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: have been then that, seeking at the bottom of his
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: lonely thoughts for the unexpected abductor of the gypsy, he
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: thought of the Archdeacon. He remembered that Dom Claude alone
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: possessed a key to the staircase leading to the cell.
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: He recalled his nocturnal attempts on the young girl, in
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: the first of which he Kwasimoto had assisted, the second
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: of which he had prevented. He recalled a thousand details,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: and soon he no longer doubted that the Archdeacon had
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: taken the gypsy. Nevertheless, such was his respect for the priest,
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: such his gratitude, his devotion, his love for this man
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: had taken such deep root in his heart that they
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: resisted even at this moment, the talons of jealousy and despair.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: He reflected that the Archdeacon had done this thing, and
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: the wrath of blood and death which it would have
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: evoked in him against any other person, turned in the
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: poor death man. From the moment when Claude Frollo was
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: in question into an increase of grief and sorrow. At
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: the moment when his thought was thus fixed upon the priest,
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: while daybreak was whitening the flying buttresses, he perceived on
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: the highest story of Notre Dame, at the angle formed
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: by the external balustrade as it makes the turn of
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: the chancel, a figure walking. This figure was coming towards him.
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: He recognized it. It was the Archdeacon Claude, was walking
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: with a slow, grave step. He did not look before
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: him as he walked. He was directing his course towards
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: the northern tower, but his face was turned aside towards
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: the right bank of the Seine, and he held his
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: head high, as though trying to see something over the roofs.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: The owl often assumes this oblique attitude. It flies towards
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: one point and looks towards another. In this manner, the
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: priest passed above Quasimodo without seeing him. The deaf man,
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: who had been petrified by this sudden apparition, beheld him
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: disappear through the door of the staircase to the north tower.
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: The reader is aware that this is the tower from
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: which the Hotel de Vie is visible. Quasimodo rose and
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: followed the archdeacon. Quasimodo ascended the tower staircase for the
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: sake of ascending it, for the sake of seeing why
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: the priest was ascending it. Moreover, the poor bellringer did
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: not know what he Quasimodo should do, what he should say,
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: what he wished. He was full of fury and full
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: of fear. The archdeacon and the gypsy had come into
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: conflict in his heart when he reached the summit of
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: the tower. Before emerging from the shadow of the staircase
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: and stepping upon the platform, he cautiously examined the position
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: of the priest. The priest's back was turned to him.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: There is an open balustrade which surrounds the platform of
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: the bell tower. The priest, whose eyes looked down upon
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: the town, was resting his breast on that one of
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: the four sides of the balustrades, which looks upon the
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: Pont Notre Dame. Quasimodo, advancing with the tread of a
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: wolf behind him, went to see what he was gazing at. Thus,
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: the priest's attention was so absorbed elsewhere that he did
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: not hear the deaf man walking behind him. Paris is
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: a magnificent and charming spectacle, and especially at that day,
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: viewed from the top of the towers of Notre Dame,
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: in the fresh light of a summer dawn, the day
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: might have been in July. The sky was perfectly serene.
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: Some tardy stars were failed away at various points, and
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: there was a very brilliant one in the east, in
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: the brightest part of the heavens. The sun was about
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: to appear. Paris was beginning to move. A very white
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: and very pure light brought out vividly to the eye
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: all the outlines that its thousands of houses present. To
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: the east, the giant shadow of the towers leaped from
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: roof to roof, from one end of the great city
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: to the other. There were several quarters from which were
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: already heard voices and noisy sounds. Here the stroke of
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: a bell, there, the stroke of a hammer, beyond the
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: complicated clatter of a cart in motion. Already several columns
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: of smoke were being belched forth from the chimney, scattered
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: over the whole surface of roofs, as through the fissures
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: of an immense sulfurous crater. The river which ruffles its
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: waters against the arches of so many bridges against the
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: points of so many islands, was wavering with silvery folds
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: around the city. Outside the ramparts, sight was lost in
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: a great circle of fleecy vapors, through which one confusedly
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: distinguished the indefinite line of the plains and the graceful
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: swell of the heights. All sorts of floating sounds were
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: dispersed over this half awakened city. Towards the east, the
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: morning breeze chased a few soft white bits of wool
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: torn from the misty fleece of the hills. In the ParvE,
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: some good women who had their milk jugs in their
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: hands were pointing out to each other with astonishment the
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: singular dilapidation of the great door of Notre Dame, and
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: the two solidified streams of lead in the crevices of
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: the stone. This was all that remained of the tempest
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: of the night. The bonfire lighted between the towers by
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: Quasimodo had died out Tryst and had already cleared up
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: the place, and had the dead thrown into the Seine. Kings,
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: like Louis the eleventh, are careful to clean the pavement
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: quickly after a massacre. Outside the balustrade of the tower,
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: directly under the point where the priest had paused, there
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: was one of those fantastically carved stone gutters with which
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: Gothic edifices bristle. And in a crevice of that gutter,
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: two pretty wallflowers in blossom, shaken out and vivified as
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: it were, by the breath of air, made frolicsome salutations
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: to each other. Above the towers on high, far away,
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: in the depths of the sky, the cries of little
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: birds were heard, but the priest was not listening to
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: was not looking at anything of all of this. He
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: was one of the men for whom there were no mornings,
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: no birds, no flowers. In that immense horizon which assumed
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: so many aspects about him, His contemplation was concentrated on
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: a single point. Kwasimodo was burning to ask him what
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: he had done with the gypsy, But the archdeacon seemed
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: to be out of the world at that moment. He
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: was evidently in one of those violent moments of life
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: when one would not feel the earth crumble. He remained
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: motionless and silent, with his eyes steadily fixed on a
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: certain point. There was something so terrible about his silence
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: and immobility, that the savage bell ringer shuddered before it
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: and dared not come in contact with it. Only, and
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: this was also one way of interrogating the archdeacon. He
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: followed the direction of his vision, and in this way
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: the glance of the unhappy deaf man fell upon the
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: place de Greve. Thus he saw what the priest was
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: looking at. The latter was erected near the permanent gallows.
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: There were some people and many soldiers in the plot us.
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: A man was dragging a white thing from which hung
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: something black along the pavement. This man halted at the
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: foot of the gallows. Here something took place which Quasimodo
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: could not see very clearly. It was not because his
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: only eye had not preserved its long range, but there
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: was a group of soldiers which prevented his seeing everything. Moreover,
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: at that moment, the sun appeared, and such a flood
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: of light overflowed the horizon that one would have said
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: that all the points in Paris, spires, chimneys, gables had
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: simultaneously taken fire. Meanwhile, the man began to mount the latter.
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: Then Kwasimodo saw him again distinctly he was carrying a
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: woman on his shoulder, a young girl dressed in white.
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: That young girl had a noose about her neck. Quasimodo
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: recognized her. It was she. The man reached the top
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: of the ladder. There he arranged the noose. Here, the priest,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: in order to see the better, knelt upon the balustrade.
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: All at once. The man kicked away the ladder abruptly,
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: and Quasimodo, who had not breathed for several moments, beheld
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: the unhappy child dangling at the end of the rope,
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: two fathoms above the pavement, with the man squatting on
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: her shoulders. The rope made several gyrations on itself, and
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: Kwasimodo beheld horrible convulsions run along the gypsy's body. The priest,
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: on his side, with outstretched neck and eyes starting from
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: his head, contemplated this horrible group of the man and
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: the young girl, the spider and the fly. At the
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: moment when it was most horrible, the laugh of a demon,
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: a laugh which one could only give vent to when
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: one is no longer human, burst forth on the priest's
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: livid face. Quasimodo did not hear that laugh, but he
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: saw it. The bell ringer retreated several paces behind the Archdeacon,
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: and suddenly, hurling himself upon him with fury. With his
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: huge hands, he pushed him by the back over into
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: the abyss over which dom Claude was leaning. The priest
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: shrieked damnation and fell. The spout above which he had
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: stood arrested him in his fall. He clung to it
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: with desperate hands, and at the moment when he opened
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: his mouth to utter a second cry, he beheld the
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: formidable and avenging face of Quasimodo thrust over the edge
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: of the balustrade above his head. Then he was silent.
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: The abyss was there below him, a fall of more
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: than two hundred feet, and the pavement. In this terrible situation,
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: the archdeacon said no word, uttered, not a groan. He
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: merely writhed upon the spout with incredible efforts to climb
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: up again, But his hands had no hold on the granite.
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: His feet slid along the blackened wall without catching fast.
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: People who have ascended the towers of Notre Dame know
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: that there's a swell of the stone immediately beneath the balustrade.
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: It was on this retreating angle that miserable Archdeacon exhausted himself.
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: He had not to deal with a perpendicular wall, but
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: with one which sloped away beneath him. Kwasimodo had but
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: to stretch out his hand in order to draw him
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: from the gulf. But he did not even look at him.
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: He was looking at the greve. He was looking at
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: the gallows. He was looking at the gypsy. The deaf
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: man was leaning with his elbows on the balustrade at
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: the spot where the Archdeacon had been a moment before,
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: and then, never detaching his gaze from the only object
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: which existed for him in the world. At that moment,
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: he remained motionless and mute, like a man struck by lightning,
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: And a long stream of tears flowed in silence from
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: that eye, which up to that time had never shed
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: but one tear. Meanwhile, the Archdeacon was panting. His bald
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: brow was dripping with perspiration, his nails were bleeding against
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: the stones, his knees were flayed by the wall. He
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: heard his cassock, which was caught on the spout, crack
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: and rip at every jerk that he gave it. To
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: complete his misfortune. This spout ended in a leaden pipe
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: which bent under the weight of his body. The archdeacon
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: felt this pipe slowly giving away. The miserable man said
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: to himself that when his hand should be worn out
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: with fatigue, when his cassock should tear asunder, when the
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: lead should give way, he would be obliged to fall,
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: and terror seized upon his very vitals. Now and then
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: he glanced wildly at a sort of narrow shelf formed
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: ten feet lower down by projections of the sculpture, and
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: he prayed Heaven from the depths of his distressed soul,
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: that he might be allowed to finish his life were
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: to last two centuries on that space two feet square.
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: Once he glanced below him into the place, into the abyss.
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: The head which he raised again, had its eyes closed
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: and its hair standing erect. There was something frightful in
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: the silence of these two men. While the Archdeacon agonized
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: in this terrible fashion, a few feet below him, Quasimodo
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: wept and gazed at the greve. The archdeacon, seeing that
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: all his exertions served only to weaken the fragile support
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: which remained to him, decided to remain quiet. There he
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: hung embracing the gutter, hardly breathing, no longer stirring, making
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: no longer any other movements than that mechanical convulsion of
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: the stomach which one experiences in dreams when one fancies
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: himself falling. His fixed eyes were wide open with a stare.
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: He lost ground little by little. Nevertheless, his fingers slipped
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: along the spout. He became more and more conscious of
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: the feebleness of his arms and the weight of his body.
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: The curve of lead which sustained him inclined more and
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: more each instant towards the abyss. He beheld below him
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: a frightful thing, the roof of Saint Jean larent, As
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: small as a card folded in two. He gazed at
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: the impressive carvings one by one of the tower, suspended
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: like himself over the precipice, but without terror for themselves
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: or pity for him. All was stone around him before
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: his eyes, gaping monsters below quite at the bottom in
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: the place the pavement above his head Quasimodo weeping in
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: the parvez. There were several groups of curious, good people
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: who were tranquility, seeking to divine who the madman could be,
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: who was amusing himself in so strange a manner. The
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: priest heard them, saying, for their voices reached him clear
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: and shrill, why he will break his neck? Quasimodo wept.
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: At last, the Archdeacon, foaming with rage and despair, understood
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: that all was in vain. Nevertheless, he collected all the
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: strength which remained to him for a final effort. He
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: stiffened himself upon the spout, pushed against the wall with
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: both his knees, clung to a crevice in the stones
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: with his hands, and succeeded in climbing back with one foot. Perhaps,
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: but this effort made the leaden beak on which he
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: rested bend abruptly. His cassock burst open at the same time. Then,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: feeling everything give way beneath him, with nothing but his
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: stiffened and failing hands to support him, the unfortunate man
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: closed his eyes and let go of the spout. He fell.
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: Quasimodo watched him fall. A fall from such a height
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: is seldom perpendicular. The Archdeacon, launched into space, fell at
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: first head foremost with outspread hands. Then he whirled over
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: and over many times. The wind blew him upon the
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: roof of a house, where the unfortunate man began to
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: break up. Nevertheless, he was not dead. When he reached there,
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: the bell ringer saw him still endeavor to cling to
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: a gable with his nails, but the surface sloped too much,
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: and he had no more strength. He slid rapidly along
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: the roof like a loosened tile, and dashed upon the pavement.
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: There he no longer moved. Then Quasimodo raised his eyes
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: to the gipsy, whose body he beheld hanging from the gibbet,
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: quivering far away beneath her white robe, with the last
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: shudderings of anguish. Then he dropped them on the archdeacon,
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: stretched out at the base of the tower, and no
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: longer retaining the human form. And he said, with a sob,
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: which heaved his deep chest, oh all that I have
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: ever loved. End of Book eleven, chapter two, Book eleven,
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: chapter three of The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book eleven,
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: chapter three, The Marriage of Phoebus. Towards evening on that day,
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: when the judiciary officers of the Bishop came to pick
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: up from the pavement of the ParvE. The dislocated corpse
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: of the Archdeacon Quasimodo had disappeared. A great many rumors
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: were in circulation with regard to this adventure. No one
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: doubted but that the day had come when, in accordance
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: with their compact, Quasimodo that is to say, the devil
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: was to carry off Claude Frolo, that is to say,
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: the sorcerer. It was presumed that he had broken the
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: body when taking the soul, like monkeys who break the
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: shell to get at the nut. This is why the
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: Archdeacon was not interred in consecrated earth. Louis the eleventh
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: died a year later in the month of August fourteen
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 1: eighty three. As for Pierre Gringois, he succeeded in saving
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: the goat, and he wants success in tragedy. It appears
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: that after having tasted astrology, philosophy, architecture, hermetics, all vanities,
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: he returned to tragedy, the vainest pursuit of all. This
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: is what he called coming to a tragic end. This
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: is what is to be read on the subject of
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: his dramatic triumphs. In fourteen eighty three, in the accounts
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: of the ordinary to Jehan Marchant and Pierre Gringois, carpenter
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: and composer, who have made and composed the mystery made
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: at the Chatellat of Paris at the entry of Monsieur
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: the Legate, and have ordered the personages clothed and dressed
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: the same as in the said mystery was required, and
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: likewise for having made the scaffoldings there too necessary and
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: for this deed one hundred livres phoebus to Chateapaux also
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: came to a tragic end. He married end of book eleven,
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: chapter three, Book eleven, chapter four of The Hunchback of
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. This LibriVox recording is in
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Book eleven, chapter four, The Marriage of Quasimoto.
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: We have just said that Quasimoto disappeared from Notre Dame
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: on the day of the Gypsies and of the Archdeacon's death.
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: He was not seen again. In fact, no one knew
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: what had become of him. During the night which followed
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: the execution of la Asmrelda, the night men had detached
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: her body from the gibbet and had carried it according
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: to custom to the cellar of Montfaussan Montfoussan, was, as
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: Soval says, the most ancient and the most superb gibbet
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: in the Kingdom, between the Faubourgs of the Temple and
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: Saint Martin, about one hundred and sixty tois a from
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: the walls of Paris, a few beau shots from La Courtille,
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: there was to be seen on the crest of a
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: gentle almost imperceptible eminence, but sufficiently elevated to be seen
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: for several leagues round about an edifice of strange form,
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: bearing considerable resemblance to a Celtic cromlech, and from where
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: also human sacrifices were offered. Let the reader picture to
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: himself crowning a limestone hillock, an oblong mass of masonry
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: fifteen feet in height, thirty wide forty long, with a gate,
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: an external railing, and a platform. On this platform, sixteen
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: enormous pillars of rough hewn stone thirty feet in height,
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: arranged in a colonnade round three of the four sides
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: of the mass, which support them, bound together at their
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: summits by heavy beams, whence hung chains at intervals. On
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: all these chains, skeletons in the vicinity. On the plain,
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: a stone cross, and two gibbets of secondary importance, which
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: seemed to have sprung up as shoots around the central gallows.
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: Above all this, in the sky a perpetual flock of crows.
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: That was Montfesson. At the end of the fifteenth century.
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: The formidable gibbet, which dated from thirteen twenty eight, was
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: already very much dilapidated. The beams were worm eaten, the
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: chains rusted, the pillars green with mold. The layers of
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: hewn stone were all cracked at their joints, and grass
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: was growing on that platform which no feet touched. The
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: monument made a horrible profile against the sky, especially at
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: night when there was a little moonlight on those white skulls,
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: or when the breeze of evening brushed the chains and
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: the skeletons and swayed all these in the darkness. The
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: presence of this gibbet sufficed to render gloomy all the
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: surrounding places. The mass of masonry which served as foundation
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: to the odious edifice, was hollow. A huge cellar had
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: been constructed there, closed by an old iron grating which
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: was out of order, into which were cast not only
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: the human remains which were taken from the chains of Montfausson,
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: but also the bodies of all the unfortunates executed on
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: the other permanent gibbets of Paris, to that deep Charnel house,
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: where so many human remains and so many crimes have
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: rotted in company many great ones of this world. Many
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: innocent people have contributed their bones from Angoran de Marinis,
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: the first victim and the just man, to Admiral de Courni,
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: who was its last, and who was also a just man.
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: As for the mysterious disappearance of Quasimodo, this is all
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: that we have been able to discover. About eighteen months
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: or two years after the events which terminate this story,
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: when search was made in that cavern for the body
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: of Olivier le Dame, who had been hanged two days previously,
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: and to whom Charles the eighth had granted the favor
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: of being buried in Saint Laurent in better company, they
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: found among all those hideous carcasses two skeletons, one of
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: which held the other in its embrace. One of these skeletons,
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: which was that of a woman, still had a few
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: strips of a garment which had once been white, and
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: around her neck was to be seen a string of
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: a drazarac beads, with a little silk bag ornamented with
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: green glass, which was open and empty. These his objects
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: were of so little value that the executioner had probably
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: not cared for them. The other, which held this one
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: in a close embrace, was the skeleton of a man.
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: It was noticed that his spinal column was crooked, his
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: head seated on his shoulder blades, and that one leg
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: was shorter than the other. Moreover, there was no fracture
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: of the vertebrae at the nape of the neck, and
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: it was evident that he had not been hanged. Hence
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 1: the man to whom it had belonged had come thither
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: and had died there. When they tried to detach the
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: skeleton which he held in his embrace, he fell to dust.
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: The end of the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: Hugo