Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 144 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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“Tam of opinion,” cried Jehanne deja Tarme, “that it would be better for the people,of Paris if that little sorcerer were ly upon a faggot than upona plank.” | and mother had died the precedifig night. An infant ““Ay—e bonny blazing one !’’ added the old dame. “That might be more prudent,’ observed Mistri- colle, For some moments, a young priest had been listen- ing to the comments ef the women and the prothono- | Hitherto he had lived only in learning and science ; he | tary. He was & man of an austere countenance, with | now began to live in life. an ample brow and piercin Pushing aside the crowd without speaking, sorcerer,’’ and extended high time, for all the pious byStanders were agog over the “ bonny blazing faggot.’’ “T adopt this child,” said the priest, He wrapped him in his cassock, and carried him away. The bystanders looked after him with horror, tillhe had passed the Porte-Rouge which then led from the church to thecloisters, and was out of sight. When they had recovered from their first astonish- eye. e examined, “the little | Claude. is hand over him. It was he felt himself rudely roused from the reveries of the | ' | ' ment, Jehanne de la Tarme, stooping till her lips were | near the ear of La Gaultiere, “ Siater,” whispered she, “did I not tell you that yon young clerk, Monsieur Claude Frollo, is a sorcerer ?” CHAPTER II. CLAUDE FROLLO, OCLauDE FROLLO was, in fact, no ordinary rsonage ‘ He belonged to one of those families who, in the im- eet Be agen the last century. were — scriminately bourgeoisie or petite noblesse. family had inherited from the Paclets the fief of Tire- chappe, which was held under the Bishop of Paris, and the twenty-one houses of which had been in the thir teenth century the subject ot so many | before the official. Claude Frollo, as essor of this fief,was one of the one hundred and forty-one seigneurs who claimed manorial rights in Paris and its suburbs; and as such his name was long to be seen registered be- tween the Hotel de Tancarville, belonging to Master Francois de Rez, and the College de Tours, in the car- tulary preserved in the Church of St. Martin-des- Champs. | Claude Frollo had from his childhood been destined by his: for the church. - He was taught to read Latin, to cast down his eyes, and to speak low. While quite % moy his father had placed him in the College of Vorchi in the University ; and there he had grown up on the missal and the lexicon, For the rest, he was 4 dull, grave, serious boy, who studied assiduously,and learned quickly. .He made but little moise in his. recreations, had mingled but little in the bacchanals of the Rue du Fouarre, and had not cuta rein the mutiny of the year 1463, which the chroniclers have gravely recorded under the title of ‘*Sixth Disturbance of the University.’"’ He had scarce- ly ever been known to rally the poor scholars of Mon- taign for the little hoods, after which they were nick- named (Capettes), or the bufsars of the College of Dor- mans for their shaven crowns and their tri-colored frock of gray, blue, and purple cloth—azurini coloris et bruni, as saith the charter of the Cardinal des Quatres- Couronnes. On the other hand, he was assiduous in his atten- dance on the wpper and lower schools of the Rue St. Jean de Beauvais. The first scholar whom the Abbe of St. Pierre de Val, at the moment of commencing his lecture on the canen law, perceived invariably sta- tioned opposite to his chair by a pillar of the schoo) of St. Ven esile, was Claude _* lo, provided with his | which he never quitted but to run for an hour to the ink-horn, chewing his pen, scribbling upon his knee, and in winter blowing his fingers. The first. auditor whom Messire Miles d’Isliers, doctor in divinity, saw enteringevery Monday morning, quite out of breath, on the opeuing of the door of the school of Chet St, Denis, was Claude Frollo. Accordingly, at the age of sixteen, the young clerk might have posted a father of the church in mystic theology, 4 father of the council in canonical theology, and a doctor of the Sorbonne in scholastic a Having passed ugh theology, he had fallen upon the capitularies of Charlemagne, and, with his keen appetite for knowledge, had devoured decretals after decretals, those of Theodore, Bishop of Hispala; of Bouchard, Bishop of Worms; of Yves, Bishop of Chartres ; then the of Gratian, which succeeded the capitularies of Charlemagne ; then tiie collection of Gregory IX.; then Honorius ITT.’s epistle org: ; till he made himself perfectly familiar with that long and tumultuous’ period in which the canon law and the civil law were stmgeting and laboring amidst the chaos of the Middle Ages—s ame opening with Theodore in 618, and closing with ope Gregory, in 1227. aving dispatched the decretals, he proceeded to medicine and the liberal arts. He studied the science of herbs and the science of unguents; he became skillful in the cure of fevers and of contusions, of wounds and of imposthumes. He was qualified alike to practise in medicine and in chirurgery. He passed through all the degrees of licentiate, master, and doc- |.P“** tor of arts. He studied the learned languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, the triple sanctuary at that time but little frequented. He had a real fever for acquiring aud hoarding , knowledge, and it seemed to the oung man as if life had but one object, namely, to It was about this time that the intense heat of the summer of 1466 generated that destructive pestilence which swept away more than forty thousand human beings in the viscounty of Paris, and, among others, Jean de Troyes, ‘‘ Master Arnoul, the king’s astrologer, ® right honest, wise, and le man.” A rumor reached the University that the Rue Tirechappe in particular was afflicted with thia malady. There, in the midst of their fief, dwelt the parents of Claude. The | | THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME. i7 young scholar hastened in great alarm to the paternal CHAPTER III. residence, On- reaching it, he learned that 4 father R THE BELL-RINGER OF NOTRE-DAME, brother was still alive, and crying, abandoned in -his . : cradle. This babe was the only member of Claude's |, Now, by the y me 1482, Geaymode ae 5 ts Be. Fe family that was left to him; he took the child in his | 2&4 been for several years ‘ringer to the Cathedr:, : | of Notre-Dame, thanks to his toster-father, Clanu. arms, and quitted the house, absorbed in thought. | Faslio, whe bind become kucthdencon Of Sasa. Phabies ta his diocesan, Messire Louis de Beaumont, who had been ; appointed Bishop of Paris in 1472, thanks to his patron ® crisis in the existence of Olivier le Dain, barber to Louis X1., by the grace of God, King, etc., etc., etc. ) In process of time, the strongest attachment took This catastrophe was An orphan and head of a family at nineteen, scbools to the realities of the world. Moved with pity, | he conceived a passionate fondness for his helpless in- | Place between the atin aya? ie churel. Cut off fant brother—a strange and delightful thing, this human | forever from society ‘f the double fatality of his un- : known parentage and his mis-shapen nature, imprison. reste ey Mr we or aT ee at | ed from childhood within these impassable boun | the unhappy wretch was accustomed to see no objec in the world beyond the religious walla which had taken him under their protection, Notre-Dame had been This affection developed itself to an extraordinary degree ; in a soul 7 new to mA feeling, it was like a. firat love. ted from childhood from his parents, | successively, to him, as he grew up and expand- whom he had scarcely known, cloistered and, as it| eq, hie egg, his nest, hia home, his ecountry—the were, spell-bound by his books, eager above all things | yniverse. ; to study and to learn, exclusively attentive till then to| “4 sort of mysterious and pre-existent harmony hed ure an his understanding which expanded itself in science, to beso his imagination which grew up in letters, the young grown up between the creat the edifice. While, still yuite a child, he crawled about, twisting and hop- scholar had not yet had time to find out where his heart | ,; : | lay.. That little brother, without father or mother, | Pné 1D the shade of. its arches, he appeared, with his bum ‘im face and hie limbs scarcely human, the native that infant which dropped all at once from the sky into hie ésunie ah of him. He oe hat reptie of that dark, damp pavement, among the gro- rest t ‘rn down ' there was something in the world besides the apecula- | ort 1 Wanan whi own upon it by the capitals tions of the Sorbonne and the verses of Homer; that; 4¢} ew up, the first time that h hani Ove a tte dee enon of “4 ci gerig ‘4 life Deis ia a ap ian th eed “1 ange) ; ing to | ‘4 rd ove uta wheel, creaking and gfatin re- ‘ht VW ir ffect unor 4 r-fath volves, He fancied, it is true, for he was at Ps age When sae ha Sas ae Se De ert cnet was lile that produced upon a parent by the first ar- ticulat } sounds uttered Mf his oid. Thut, by little and little, his spirit.expanded in har- mony with the cathedral; there he liyed, there he slept; « -arcely ever leaving it, and, being perpetua subject to its mysterious influence, he came last to resembie it, to be incrusted with it, to form, as it were, an integral part of it, His salient : contents if one illusion only gives place to another, that the family affections, the ties of blood, were alone needful for him, and that the love of his little brother was sufficient to fill his heart for his whole life. He gave himself up therefore to the love of his little Jehan with the passion of a character already ardent, energetic and concentrated. This poor, frail, fair, deli- cate creature, this orphan without any protector but | we may be allowed the expression, il 6 peseeng an orphan, moved him to the bottom of his soul; and, | anglesof the b ,80 that he “i to be no grave thinkeras he was, he began to muse upon Jehan | merely ite inhabitant, but to have en ite form and pressure. Between the ancient church atid him there was an instinctive sympathy so profound, so many magne ic affinities, that he stuck to it in some measure valuable. ‘He was more than a brother to the infant; | as the tortoise to its shell. he became a mother to him. rie eae aa ae nae how eet, he ped Little Jehan was still at the-breast when he lost his | ™ yy ver ee b bed hg Hin 80 jokg an mother: Claude put him out to nurse. ‘Besides the *° intimate a cohabitation. There was no depth that fief of Tirechappe he had inherited from his father a Y"#simodo had not fathomed, no height that ae ee mill situated ona hill near the castle of Winchester, | Bt sealed. Mauy a time had he climbed up the fa since corrupted to Bicetre. Thé miller'’s wife wasjust C@mposed of several elevations, assisted only by the suckling & fire boy; it was not far from the University, *®*Petities of the sculpture, Often might he have with feelings of infinite compassion. He bestowed on him all possiblé care and attention, justas if he had been something exceedingly fragile and exceedingly and Clatide carried little Jehan to her himself. Seen crawling up the outside of the towers, like ai upa iculer wall ; Thenceforward the thonght ofhis little brother became | thicetening ad, foreiitabia: wooaned " GaP? fat 9 notonly a recreation but eyen the object of his studies. vyertiyvo, fright, nor sudden giddiness. So gentle He resolved to devote himself entirely to the care of they appear under his hand, and so easy to clin.b, thet him, and never tohave any other wife, or any other | yoy would have said he had tamed them. By dint of child, but the happiness and prosperity of his brother. jeapiny, scrambling, gliding, struggling: among the He attached himself therefore more 5 ag than ever | precipicea of the venerable cathedral, he had become to his clerical yocation. His mai. his learning, his something between a monkey and ® mountain-goat, condition of immediate vassal 6 Bishop of Paris, just as the boy of Calabria swi before he cau walk threw the doors of the church wide open to him. At and disports in the sea as if it w his native Clement. the age of twenty, by a special dispensation of the holy | Not only did the person but also mind of Quasi. see, he was a priest, and as the youngest of the chap- | yodo appear to be molded by the cathedral, Re caia lains of Notre-Dame he performed the sérvice of the | be difficult to determine the etate of that & altar, called, on account of the lateness of the mass said | ¢)4. jt had contracted, what form it had ed, there, altare pogrorum. under its knotty covering, during this wild and savage There, more than ever absorbed by his beloved books, | life. Quasimodo was born one-eyed, huinpbacked, and lame. It was not without difficulty and great mill, this mixture of learning and austerity, sa uncom- | patience tliat Claude Frollo taught him to speak ; mon at his age, quickly —_ him the admiration and | but there was a fatality attached to the ey y found- eee Te ee nT TaTs raalin ths posvhk bad teemog | At thd.agh ok focmten, a heat SOEAEP ta Ran eee on for learnin amo 6 people, an age of fo . 8 come u some of them fates aoe ig him the character of a | him; the volume of sound had broken the drum of sorcerer—a frequent cifcumstance in that superstitions | eat, and deafness was the comsequence, Thus the on aOR ee ila Seren ped ah ids open Beco Him a It was at that moment when he was returning, on | *"° suddenly Cc and forever. clos- Quasimoilo Sunday, from saying mass at ‘the altar of | aetna hie bok eo ray of light and oy that still the lazy,’’ which etood by the door of the choir on the | poe ie , Which was Row wrapped in profound right, near theimage of the Blessed Virgin, that hia at- Carkness. ame pipe | of the poor fellow became tention was attracted by the group of old women cack- i"CcUrable and complete ag his deformity. His deafness ling around the beds of the foundlings. He approached rendered him im some measure dumb also; for, the the unfortunate little creature, so hated and so threat- Moment he lost his hearing, he resolved to avoid the ened, Its distress, ite deformity, its destitution, the a =, of others an a silence hig ci never broke thought of his young brother, the idea which suddenly | . W qe ryt cy ¥ : re ee tied up that flashed across his mind, that if he were to die his poor S°PE"e, WAlc aude Frollo en such pains to little Jehan, too, might pe be mercilessly thrown loosen ; hence, when necessity forced him to , his : tongue was benunibed, awkward, and like oor thie upon the same spot, assailed his heart all at once; it hinges of which have grows runt melted with pity, and he carried away the boy. , When he had taken the child out of the sack, he found | this thick isa Cpantate bek i io Pal of ouhdel 0; him to be, in fact, a monster of deformity. The poor | if wa could d ot Wg inp! : Little wretch had &prodigions wart over hie left eye, | uate coe ound the deptiie of this punglin Li Pig organization ; if we were enabled to hold a his head was close to hie shoulders, his back arched, his | pina +) ’ Bd ethane! breast-bone protruded, and his legs were twisted; but | thtesiog of this’ dueate” bel. fo Riaipe tee Se 4 appeared ly: aoe reed! it oan: tal cy sate ~ | corners afid its ‘unm . adie 44 throw a tolerable degree of stre ih and health. rg Ba es, lant light u the spirit enchainad This | at the bottom of this de ; we shonld doubtless fina esa only served to increase the com-/| the wretch in some minepable arte stinted and aude; and he vowed in his heart | tickety, like the prisoners under the of Venice, to bring up this boy for the love of his} who grow old, doubled up in a box of stone, to low te brother, that, whatever might be in the time to conte | stand up and too to lie down in, the faults of little Jehan, he me have the benefit) ¢ is certain the spirit pines in a mis-aliapen of this charity done in his behalf. It was a humane act, form. Quasimodo scarcely felt within him the blind laced, as it were, to the account of his brother, one of | movements of asoul m in his own image, The the little stock of good works which he determined to | impressions of objects underwent a considerable re- lay up for him beforehand, in case the young rogue | fraction before they reached the seat of thought. should some day run short of that kind of coin, theonly | wig prain was a peculiar medium; the idéas which one token at the toll-gate at Paradise. * lentered it came out quite twisted. "The reflection re- He baptized his adopted child and named him Quasi- sulting from this refraction was necessarily vergent modo either to commemorate the day on which he had | and devious. Hence a thousand. o tical il usions, a found him, or to express the incomplete and scarcely _ Hhousand aberrations of Judyment, a thousand bywaya finished state of the poor little creature. In truth, into which his sometimes silly, sometimes crazy nlag- Quasimodo, with one eye, hunchback, and crooked legs, | ination would wander. was but an apology for a human being. The first effect of this vieb’™s organization was to extreme U ion O (E(©) (COMMU OXON)