ceived that his mother and her friends were look-
ing through the window at something; and, curi-
ous to learn what it was, he clambered upon a
post, and thrusting his red chubby face in at the
aperture, he cried : " Only look mother I who is
that?"
At the sound of the child's clear, fresh, sonorous
voice the recluse started. She instantlv turned
her head; her long, attenuated fingers drew back
the hair from her brow, and she fixed her sad,
astonished, distracted eyes upon the boy. That
look was transient as lightning. " Oh my God ' "
she instantly exclaimed, burying her face in her
lap; and it seemed as if her harsh voice rent itself
a passage from her chest, "at least keep those of
others out of my sight ! "
This shock, however, had, as it were, awakened
the recluse. A long shudder thrilled her whole
frame; her teeth chattered; she half raised her
head, and, taking hold of her feet with her hands
as if to warm them, she ejaculated, "Oh! how
cold it is ! "
"Poorcreature," said Oudarde, with deep com-
passion,   would you like a little fire ? "
She shook her head in token of refusal
"Well, then," rejoined Oudarde, offering her a
bottle, " here is some hippocras, which
will warm you."
Again she shook her head, looked
steadfastly at Oudarde, and said :
"Water!"
Oudarde remonstrated. "No, sis-
ter," said she, " that is not fit drink
for January. Take some of this hip-
pocras and a bit of the cake we
have brought you."
She pushed aside the cake, which
Mahiette held out to her. "Some
brown bread," was the reply.
"Here," said Gervaise, catching
the charitable spirit of her compan-
ions, and taking off her cloak; "here
is something to keep you warm. Put
it over your shoulders."
She refused the cloak as she had
done the bottle and the cake, with the
single word, "Sackcloth."
"But surely," resumed the kind-
hearted Oudarde, "you must have
perceived that yesterday was a day
of public rejoicing."
" Ah ! yes, I did," replied the re-
cluse; "for the last two days I have
had no water in my pitcher." After
a pause she added : " Why should the
world think of me who do not think
of it? When the fire is out the
ashes get cold."
As if fatigued with the effort of
speaking, she dropped her head upon
her knees. The simple Oudarde con-
ceived that in the concluding words
she was again complaining of cold.
"Do have a file then," said she.
"Fire !" exclaimed the recluse, in
a strange tone ; " and would you
make one for the poor baby who has
been under ground these fifteen
years?"
Her limbs shook, her voice trembled,
her eyes flashed ; she raised herself
on her knees ; all at once she ex-
tended her white, skinny hand toward
the boy. "Take away that child,"
cried she. "The Egyptian will près-
ently pass."
She then sank upon her face, and
her forehead struck the floor with a
sound like  that of a stone falling
upon it.    The   three   women con-
cluded that she was dead.   Presently,
however, she began to stir, and they
saw her   crawl   upon   hands   and
toees to the corner where the little shoe was.
She was then out of their sight, and they durst
not look after her : but they heard a thousand
Kisses and a thousand sighs, mingled with piercing
shrieks, and dull heavy thumps, as if from a head
striking against a wall : at last, after one of these
blows, so violent as to make all three start, they
heard nothing more.
"She musthave killed herself!" said Gervaise,
««l;!1"^-'? p# .»her head in at the aperture.
Sister! Sister Gudule!"
„ Sister Gudule ! " repeated Oudarde.
.w ,•     £,od!" exclaimed Gervaise—" she does
m r,'7.She mustbe dead !—Gudule ! Gudule ! »
maniette, shocked to such a degree that she
could scarcely speak, made an effort. "Wait a
S?^t. said she. Then going close to the win-
ffiurie^"                                 Paquette Ia Chan-
A bt,°ïwll° thoughtlessly blows alighted cracker
i» w ang. ?re, and makes it explode in his eyes,
««S * ".^f frightened than was Mahiette at the
euect of this name thus abruptly pronounced.
Aa k recluse shook all over.sprang upon her feet,
„™ "eunded to the window, her eyes at the same
time flashing fire, with such vehemence, that the
inree women retreated to the parapet ofthe quay.
a^iATif1^ face of "ie recluse appeared pressed
against the bars of the window, "Aha ! " she cried,
With a laugh, "'tis the Egyptian that calls me."
niiwlscene which was just then passing at the
E e^ugM her eye. Her brow wrinkled with
aorror, she stretched both her skeleton arms out
THE HUNCHBACK  OF NOTRE DAME.
29
huMe^-'so^rt1^ V°iCe Unlike that of a
isthnrï nhïïlf U i ' ltl8 thou, spawn of Egypt, it
th™, fnV ÎÏStealer, that callest me. Cursed be
thou for thy pams ! cursed !-cursed !-cursed! "
Chapter IV.-The Pillory.
ootatrf wlfnrT^6'," we may 80 exPre8S »*! the
Far been nr.nir,r,n„°f*tW0 Scenes which had thus
tar been acting contemporaneously, each on its
§etalîeUdaat8fe the one, that whic^ has just been
„™ ii! Xat th? TJ0U aux Rats ; the other, wliich
we are about to describe, at the pillorv    Tie first
w1thwhomWtbfS8^ °nly b? the tSee female
witn whom the reader has just made acauaint
crowlwhiT^8 0frthe ot-her eonsfstedTtne
frth^T Pi.™hf?%som* tlme J51™6 saw collecting
gillows                      ar°Und the pUlory and tfae
This crowd, to whom the appearance of the
four sergeants posted at the four corners of the
pillory ever since nine in the morning intimated
that some poor wretch was about to suffer, if not
^p'talP"mshnient yet flogging, the loss of ears,
or some other infliction-this crowd had increased
so rapidly that the sergeants had been obliged
¦
SB
.--
the- haggard face of the recluse appeared.
more than once to keep it back by means of their
horses' heels and the free use of their whips.
The mob, accustomed to wait whole hours for
public executions, did not manifest any vehement
impatience. They amused themselves with gazing
at the pillory, a very simple contrivance, consist-
ing of a cube of masonry some ten feet high,
hollow within. A rude flight of steps of rough
stone led to the upper platform, upon which was
seen a horizontal wheel of oak. Upon this wheel
the culprit was bound upon his knees and with
his hands tied behind him. An axle of timber,
moved by a capstan concealed from sight within
the little building, caused the wheel to revolve in
the horizontal plane, and thus exhibited the cul-
prit's face to every point of the place in succession.
This was called turning a criminal.
Thus, you see, the pillory of the Grève was by
no means so interesting an object as the pillory of
the Halles. There was nothing architectural,
nothing monumental about it : it had no roof with
iron cross, no octagon lantern, no slender pillars
spreading at the margin of the roof into capitals of
acanthi and flowers, no fantastic and monstrous
water-spouts, no carved wood-work, no delicate
sculpture deeply cut in stone.
Here the eye was forced to be content with
four flat walls and two buttresses of unhewn
stone, and a plain bare gibbet, likewise of stone,
standing beside it. The treat would have been a
sorry one for the lovers of Gothic architecture. It
is true, however, that no people ever held works
of art m less estimation than the Parisian populace
ihnn?fIïîidKle¥e8'iiand.that "ley cared not a pin
mut he oeauty of a pillory.
The culprit, tied to the tail of a cart, was at
ho^SH^Tï? ;and when * haHeen
noisted upon the platform, where he could bo
seen from all points of the place, bound with
It was a strange reverse for the poor fellow to
be pilloried on the same spot, where the nreced-
ing day he had been hailecfand proclaimeFpooe
E^vnFrZV°f F°2rli esCOrted W thTDuke ^
Egypt, the King of Thunes, and the Emperor of
Galilee. So much is certain, that there was not a
creature in that concourse, not even himself, alter-
nately the object of triumph and of punishment,
who could clearly make out the connection be-
tween the two situations. Gringoire and his nhil-
osophy were lacking to the spectacle.
„„™nS ¥.ichel Noiret, sworn trumpeter of
our lord the King, commanded silence and pro-
claimed the sentence agreeably to the ordinance of
»i?i?^V08t- P6 then fell back behind the cart
with his men in their official liveries.
Quasimodo never stirred ; he did
not so much as frown. All resist-
ance, indeed, on his part was ren-
dered impossible by what was then
called in the language of criminal
jurisprudence, "the vehemence and
the firmness of the bonds," which
means that the chains and the thongs
probably cut into the flesh. He had
suffered himself to be led, and
pushed, and carried, and lifted, and
bound again and again. His face
betrayed no other emotion than the
astonishment of a savage or an idiot.
He was known to be deaf ; you
would have supposed him to be blind
also.
He was placed on his knees upon
the circular floor. His doublet and
shirt were taken off and he allowed
himself to be stripped to the waist
without opposition. He was im-
meshed in a fresh series of thongs: he
suffered himself to be bound and
buckled : only from time to time he
breathed hard, like a calf whose head
hangs dangling over the tail of a
butcher's cart.
" The stupid oaf ! " exclaimed Jehan
Frollo du Moulin to his friend Bobin
Poussepain (for the two students had
followed the culprit as a matter of
course), " he has no more idea of what
they are going to do than a ladybird
shut up in a box."
A. loud laugh burst from the mob,
when they beheld Quasimodo's naked
hump, his camel breast, and his scaly
and hairy shoulders. Amid all this
mirth, a man of short stature and
robust frame, clad in the livery of tbe
city, ascended the platform and placed
himself by the side of the culprit.
His name was quickly circulated
among the crowd. It was Master
Pierrat Torterue, sworn tormentor of
the Chatelet.
The first thing he did was to set
down upon one corner of the pillory
an hour-glass, the upper division of
which was full of red sand, that drop-
ped into the lower half. He then
threw back his cloak, and over hig
left arm was seen hanging a whip
composed of long white glistening
thongs, knotted, twisted, and armed
, ^u j v_wlth ,8harP bit8 of metal. With his
left hand he carelessly turned up the right sleeve
of his shirt as high as the elbow. At length he
stamped with his foot. The wheel began to turn.
Quasimodo shook in his bonds. The amazement
suddenly expressed in his hideous face drew fresh
shouts of laughter from the spectators.
All at once, at a moment when the wheel in its
revolution presented the mountain-shoulders of
Quasimodo to Master Pierrat, he raised his arm ;
the thin lashes hissed sharply in the air like so
many vipers, and descended with fury upon the
back of the unlucky wight.
Quasimodo started like one awakened from a
dream. He began to comprehend the meaning of
the scene, he writhed in his bonds ; a violent con-
traction of surprise and pain distorted the mus-
cles of his face, but he heaved not a single sigh.
He merely turned his head one way and the other,
balancing it like a bull stung by a gadfly.
A second stroke succeeded the first, then came
another, and another. The wheel continued to
turn and the blows to fall. The blood began to
trickle in a hundred little streams down the swart
shoulders of the hunchback; and the slender
thongs, whistling in the air in their rotation,
sprinkled it in drops over the gaping crowd.
Quasimodo had relapsed, in appearance at least,
into his former apathy. He kad endeavored, at
first quietly and without great external effort, to
burst his bonds. His eye was seen to flash, his
muscles to swell, his limbs to gather themselves
up, and the thongs, cords, and chains to stretch.
The effort was.mighty, prodigious, desperate; but
y: X.
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