58
THE HUNCHBACK OF  NOTRE DAME.
" No, no, comrade. I brought the ladder. You
shall be second, if you will."
"May Beelzebub strangle thee!"cried Clopin,
peevishly.   " I will not be second to any man."
"Then, my dear feUow, seek a ladder for your-
self."
Jehan started again, dragging his ladder along
and shouting, " This way, my lads ! "
In an instant the ladder was raised and placed
against the balustrade of the lower gallery, above
one of the side doors, amid loud acclamations
from the crowd of the Vagabonds, who thronged
to the foot of it to ascend. Jehan maintained his
right to go up first. The gallery of the Kings of
France is at this present time about sixty feet
above the pavement. The eleven steps up to the
porch increased the height. Jehan mounted
slowly, being impeded by his heavy armor, laying
hold of the ladder with one hand, and having his
arbalest in the other. When he was about half-
way up he cast a melancholy look at the dead
bodies that covered the steps and the pavement.
"By my fay," said he, "a heap of carcasses that
would not disgrace the fifth book of the Iliad."
He then continued to ascend, followed by the
Vagabonds. Had you seen this line of cuirassed
backs undulating in the dark, you
would have taken it for an immense
serpent with iron scales raising itself
against the church.
The scholar at length touched .the
balcony and nimbly leaped upon it.
He was greeted by a general shout
from the whole gang. Thus master
of the citadel he joined in the hur-
rahs, but all at once he was struck
dumb with horror. He perceived
Quasimodo crouching in the dark be-
hind one of the royal statues and his
eye flashing fire.
Before a second of the besiegers
could set foot on the gallery, the for-
midable hunchback sprang to the top
of the ladder, and, without uttering
a word, caught hold of the two sides
with his nervous hands, and pushed
them from the wall with superhuman
force. The long ladder, bending un-
der the load of the escalading party,
whose piercing shrieks rent the air,
stood upright for a moment, and
seemed to hesitate; then, all at once
taking a tremendous lurch, it fell
with its load of banditti more swiftly
than a drawbridge when the chains
that held it have broken. An im-
mense imprecation ensued; presently
all was silent, and here and there a
mangled wretch crawled forth from
beneath the heap of the dead. Qua-
simodo, leaning with his two elbows
upon the balustrade looked quietly on.
Jehan Frollo found himself in a
critical situation. Separated from his
comrades by a perpendicular wall of
eighty feet, he was alone in the
gallery with the formidable bell-
ringer. While Quasimodo was play-
ing with the ladder, the scholar
had run to the postern, which he ex-
pected to find upon the latch. He
was disappointed. The dwarf had
locked it after him when he went
down to the gallery. Jehan then hid
himself behind one of the stone
kings, holding his breath, and eyeing
the monstrous hunchback with a look
of horror, like the man who, having
scraped acquaintance with the wife
of a keeper of wild beasts, went one
night in pursuance of an assignation,
and, climbing over the wrong wall,
found himself all at once face to face
with a prodigious white bear. For some mo-
ments he was not observed by Quasimodo, who
at length chancing to turn his head, and perceiv-
ing the scholar suddenly started up.
- Jehan prepared himself for a rude encounter,
but tho hunchback stood stock still, merely fixing
his eye intently upon the scholar. " Hoho ! " said
Jehan, " why dost thou look at me so spitefully ? "
With these words the hare-brained youth slyly ad
justed his arbalest. "Quasimodo," cried he "I
will change thy surname; instead of the deaf thou
shalt henceforth be called the blind." The feath-
ered shaft whizzed and pierced the left arm of the
bell-ringer. Quasimodo heeded it no more than
he would have done the scratch of a pin. He laid
hold of the quarrel, drew it from his arm, and
calmly broke it upon his massive knee; he then
dropped rather than threw the pieces over the bal-
ustrade. Jehan had not time to discharge a sec-
ond. Quasimodo, having broken the arrow, sud-
denly drew in his breath, leaped like a grasshop-
per, and fell upon the scholar, whose armor was
flattened against the wall by the shock. A tremen-
dous sight was then seen in the chiaroscuro pro-
duced by the faint light of the torches.
Quasimodo grasped with his left hand the two
arms of the scholar, who forebore even to strug-
gle, sojçompletely did he feel himself overpowered.
With his right the hunchback took off in silence,
and with ominous deliberation, the different parts
of his armor one after another-helmet, cuirass,
arm-pieces, sword, daggers. He looked for all the
world hke an ape picking a walnut.  He threw
the iron shell of the scholar, piece by piece, at
his feet.
When Jehan found himself stripped, disarmed,
powerless, in the hands of his irresistible antag-
onist, he began to laugh him impudently in the
face, with all the thoughtless gayety of aboy of six-
teen. But he did not laugh long. Quasimodo was
seen standing upon the parapet of the gallery,
holding the scholar by the leg with one hand, and
swinging him round over the abyss like a sling.
Presently was heard a sound like that of a cocoa-
nut broken by being dashed against a wall; some-
thing was seen falling, but it was stopped one-
third of the way down by a projecting part of the
building. It was a dead body that stuck there,
bent double, the back broken, and the skull
empty.
A cry of horror burst from the Vagabonds—
" Bevenge ! " shouted Clopin. " Sack ! sack ! " re-
sponded the multitude. "Storm ! storm!" Then
•followed prodigious yells, intermingled with all
languages, all dialects, all accents. The death of
poor Jehan kindled a fury in the crowd. They
were filled with shame and indignation at having
been so long held in check before a church by a
hunchback.   Bage found ladders and multiplied
SWINGING HIM BOUND OVEE THE ABYSS LIKE A SLLNG.
the torches; and, in a few moments, Quasimodo
beheld with consternation a fearful rabble mount-
ing on all sides to tlie assault of Notre Dame.
Some had ladders, others knotted ropes, while
such as could not procure either, scrambled up by
tbe aid of the sculptures, holding by each other's
rags. There were no means of withstanding this
rising tide of grim faces, to which rage gave a
look of twofold ferocity. The perspiration tnckled
down their begrimed brows ; their eyes flashed ;
all these hideous figures were now closing in upon
Quasimodo. You would have imagined that some
otherkchurch had sent its gorgons, its demons, its
dragons, its most fantastic monsters, to the assault
of Notre Dame.
Meanwhile, the place was illumined with a
thousand torches. A flood of light suddenly burst
upon the scene of confusion, which had till then
been buried in darkness. The fire kindled on the
platform was still burning, and illumined the city
to a considerable distance. The enormous outline
of the two towers, projected afar upon the roofs
ot the houses, formed a large patch of shadow
amid all this light. The city seemed to be in a
bustle.
Distant alarm-bells were proclaiming that
there was some thing amiss. The Vagabonds were
shouting, yelling, swearing, climbing: and Quasi-
modo, powerless against such a host of enemies,
nuddering for the Egyptian, seeing so many fe
a  —-----------¦•-    —OvJfv¦«"«j     uwiajk    a\J  Hindi V   IC-
faces approaching nearer and nearer to the
ed to Heaven for a miracle, at the
gallery, prayed ..
same time wringing his hands in despair.
Chapter V-The Reteeat where Mousnm*
Louis of Fbance says his Prayers;R
• T5e r.eua<3er hasperhaps, not forgotten that Quas
imodo, the moment before he perceived the S'
turnal band of the Vagabonds, while surveying
Pans from the top of Bis tower, had discovered
but a single light, which illumined a window in"
the uppermost floor of a lofty and gloomy build
ing by the gate of St. Antoine. This building was
the Bastille.   The light was the candle of louS
The King had actually been for two days past in
Paris. He was to leave it again on the day S
the morrow for his fortress of Montilz-lez-ToZ
His visits to his good city of Paris were rare and
short : for there he felt that he had not trap-doors
gibbets, and Scottish archers enough about him
He had come that day to sleep în the Bastille
He disliked the great chamber which he had at
the Louvre, five fathoms square, with its great
chimney-piece, adorned with twelve great beasts
and thirteen great prophets, and its great bed
twelve feet by eleven. He was lost amid all this
grandeur. This burgher king gave the preference
to the Bastille, with a humble chamber and suit
able bed. Besides, tins Bastille was
stronger than the Louvre.
This chamber, which the King had
reserved for himself in the famous
state-prison, was spacious, and occu-
pied the topmost floor of a turret in
the keep. It was an apartment of
circular form, the floor covered with
shining straw matting; the rafters
of the ceiling adorned with fleurs-de-
lis of pewter gilt, the spaces between
them colored; wainscoted with rich
woods, sprinkled with rosettes of tin,
painted a fine lively green composed
of orpine and wood.
There was but one long and pointed
window, latticed with brass wire and
iron bars and somewhat darkened
besides by beautiful stained glass, ex-
hibiting the arms of the King and
those of the Queen, each pane of
which cost twenty-two sous.
There was but one entrance, a
modern door, with elliptic arch, cov-
ered on the inside with cloth, and
having without one of those porches
of Irish wood, frail structures ot cu-
rious workmanship, which were still
very common in old buildings one-
hundred and fifty years ago. "Though
they disfigure and encumber the
places," says Sauvai, peevishly, "yet
will not our ancient folk put them
away, but they preserve them in spite
of everyone."
In this chamber was to be seen none
of the furniture of ordinary apart-
ments, neither tables upon trestles,
nor benches, nor forms, nor common
stools, in the shape of a box, nor those
of a better sort, standing upon pillars
and counter - piUars, at four sous
apiece. Nothing was to be Seen there,
save a very magnificent folding arm-
chair. The wood-work was adorned
with roses painted on a red ground,
and the seat was of scarlet Spanish
leather, garnished with silk fringe,
and studded with a thousand golden
nails. This solitary chair indicated
that one person only had a right to
sit down in that apartment. Near
the chair and close to the window
was a table covered with a cloth,
on which were the figures of birds.
On this table were a portfolio spotted
with ink, sundry parchments, pens,
and a chased silver mug. At a little distance
stood a chafing dish, and a desk for the pur-
pose of prayer, covered with crimson velvet
embossed with studs of gold. Lastly, at the
farthest part of the room there was a simple
bed, of yellow and flesh-colored damask, without
lace or any trimming but plain fringe. This
bed, famed for having witnessed the sleep or
the sleeplessness of Louis XI, was to be seen
two hundred years ago in the house of a counselor
of state.
Such was the chamber commonly called, " The
retreat where Monsieur Louis of France said his
prayers."
At the moment of our ushering the reader into
this retreat, it was very dark. An hour had
elapsed since the tolling of the curfew : it was
night, and there was only one flickering wax
candle upon the table, to light five persons who
formed several groups in the chamber.
The first on whom the light fell was a person-
age superbly dressed in hose, scarlet close-Dodiea
coat striped with silver, and a surtout of cloth ot
gold with black designs, and trimmed with fur.
This splendid costume, upon which the light
played, seemed to be braided with flame at all 1»
folds. The wearer had his arms embroidered ai
the breast in gaudy colors ; a chevron, witn a
deer passant in the base of the shield. The escut-
cheon was supported on the dexter side by an
olive branch, and on the sinister by a buck s born.
This personage carried in his belt a rich dagger,
the hilt of which, of sUver gilt, was chased in tue