Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 144 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

= ee ee eee ee a a ae ae ae ee ee ee f , peal began ; the v ) “stones, all groaned éther, trom the piles of the foundition to thé trefoils of the parapet. ‘Quasimodo | , he crouched down is con*nse the view which he took of things. He received cireely a single direct perception. The exterior world a)peared to him at a greater distance than it does to us. The second: result of his misfortune was that it r ndered him mischievous. He was, in truth, mis- ‘chievous because he was savage; he was savage be- cause he was tgly. There was logic in his nature, as *thore is in ours. is strength, develope@in a most ex- tradrdinary manner, Was another cause of his propen sity to mischief. Malus puer robustus, says Hobbes. We must nevertheless do him justice ; malice was proba- bly not innate in him. with men he had felt, and afterward hé had seen, him- self despised, ‘rejected, cast off. Human speech had never been to him aught but a jeer or a curse. As he grew up, he had nnd nothing but hatred about him. He had adopted it. He had acquired the general malignity. He had picked up the weapon with which he had been wonnded. ’ After all, he turned toward mankind with reluctance; | his cathedral was enough for him. It was peopled with figured of marble, with kings, saints, bishops, who at Teast did nof laugh in his‘ face, and looked upon him only with an air of tranquillity and benevolence. The other statues, those of monsters and demons, bore no mialice agaimst him. They were too like him for that. Their taillery was rather directed against other men. The Saints were his friends, and blessed him : ‘the mon- stérs were his friends, and guarded hiny; he would therefore pass. whole hours crouched before one of these statues, aud holding solitary converse with it. Tf | any one came by, he would run off like # lover sur- prised inva Serenade. ~ . * Lhe cathedral was not only hig society but his world in $hort, all natiré'to him. He thonght of no other trees than the paimtéd windows, whicl were always in blossom ; of no other shades ‘than the foliage of*stone adorned with birds in°the Saxon capitals» of no other mountains than the colossal towers of the church ; of tio’ other ocean than Paris which roared at their feet. : ; : But tliat which he loved most of all in the maternal edifice, that which awakened his soul and caused it to spread its r wings that ee ge remained “so ey fol up in its prison, ‘that whiclt even conferred at times‘a feeling of happiness, was the bells.’ He loved them, ho caressed them, h@ talked to them, he understood them — from the chimes*in the steeple ofthe transept to the great bell above tlie porch. The belfry. of the ‘tranSept and the two towers word like three immense tages, in which the birJjs that he had reared sang for him alone. It was ‘these same birds, however, which had deafened him ; but mothers are often fondest of fle child which has caused them the greatest pain. It is trne that theirs '' Svere the only voices he could stil! hear. On this ac- * “ount ‘the great bell was his best beloved. He pre- | ferred her before all“the other sisters of this noisy § family, who finttered about * him “on festival’ days.) mass, the gloomy facade of the cathedral wore suc ‘This great bell he called Mary. She was placedin the —— — — NS EIS 'rie@ to and fro in the From his earliest intercourse | THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME. ES Ss formidable oscillation of ' manding intelligence ; but, above all it was gratitude— the bell, heseized the brazen monster by the but gratitude so carricd to its extreme limit that woe earlets,. strained it with his knees, spurréd it know not what.to compare it with. This virtue is not with his heels, and with the whole weight and force | one of those of which thé most striking examples of his body imcreased the fury of the peal. While are to be foundamong men, We shall therefore the tower began to. quake, he would shout and say that Quasimodo loved the archdeacon as never dog, grind his teeth, his red hair bristled up, his; breast, never horse, never elephant loved his master. heaved and puffed like the bellows of a forge, his! In1482, Quasimodo was about twenty, Claude Frollo eye flashed fire, and the monstrous bell neighed | about thirty-six. The one had grown up, the other breathless under him. It Was then no longer the began to grow old. bell. of Notre-Dame and Quasimodo; if.was a dream, Claude Frollo was no longer the simple student of a whirlwind, a tempest, yertigo astride of uproar; a the college of Torchi, the tender protector of an spirit clinging to a winged monster; a strange cen- orphan child, the young and thoughtful philosopher, tuar, half man, half bell;. a species of horrible As- so learned and yet so ignorant, He was an austere, tolpho, carried off by a prodigious hippogriff of living grave, morose churchman, second chaplain to the brass. . bishop, archdeacon_ of Josas, haying under him the two The presence of this extraordinary being seemed deaneries of Montlhery and Chateaufort, and one hun- to infuse the breath of life into the whole cathedral. dred and seventy-four parish priests. He wasasombre A sort of mysterious emanation seemed—at least so | and awe-inspiring personage, before whom trembled tho thé superstitious multitude imagined—to issue from | singing boys in albs and long coats, the preceritors, the him to animate the stones of Notre-Dame, and to brothers of St, Augustin, the clerk who officiated in the make the very éntrails’of the old church heave and | morning services at Notre-Dame, as. he stalked slowly palpitate. When it was known that hewes thére, it | along beneath the lofty arches of the choir, majestic, | was easy tO fancy that the thouSand statues in thé pensive, with arms folded and héad so bowed upon his gallerfes and ovyer’the porches moved and were in- | bosom that no part of his face was to be seen but his stinct with life. In fact, the cathedral ‘seemed to be bald and ample forehead. a docile and obedient creature in his hands; waiting Dom Claude Frollo, however, had not meanwhile only his will’to raise her mighty’ voice; being pos- | abandoned either the sciences or the education of his sessed and filled with. Quasimodo as with A familiar young brother, those two oceupations of his life ; but genus: He might be said to make the immense | time had dashed those fond pursuits with the bitter- juilding breathe. He was,“in fact; everywliere; he ness of disappointment. Little Jehan Frollo, surnamed multiplied .himself at all the points of the edifice. Du Moulin, trom the place where he had been nursed, At one time the spectator would be seized with | hadwot as he grew up taken that/bent which Clauilo | aftright, on beholding at the top of one of the towers | was solicitous to give him.» His brother had reckoned an odd-looking dwarf, climbing, twining, crawling on upon @ pious, docile, and virtuous pupil; but the all fours, descending externally inté the abyss, ledp- | youth, like those young trees, which in spite of all the ing from one projecting point to another ‘and fumb- , gardener’s efforts, obstinately turn toward the. quarter ‘ling in the “body of some seulptured” Gorgon; it ' from which they receive air and sun, grew and flou- was Quasimodo unnesting the daws. At anothér, the rished, and threw out luxuriant branehes toward: ide- visitor stumbled, in sonre dark corner of the ‘church, | ness, ignorance, and debauchery alone, Reckless of upon a crouching, grim-faced creature, a sort of living | al) restraint, he was a downright devil, who often mato chimera—it was Quasimodo musing. At another time | Dom Claude kuit his brow, but full of shrewdness and might be seen under a belfry, am enormous head und a | drollery, which as often made him laugh. Claude hal bundle of ill-adjusted Iimbs furiously swinging at the placed him im the same college of Torebi where he had _ end of arepe—it was Quasimodo ace vespers or passed his early years in study and retirement ; amyl it (the angelus. Frequently at night, a hideous figure was mortifying to him that this sanctuary, formerly might be seen wandering on the delicate opemwork | edified by the name. of Frollo, should now be scanda- balustrade which crowns the towers and runs round | lized by it. On this subject he frequently read Jehan the apsis—it was still the Hunchback ot Notre-Dame. | very severe and very long lectures, to which the latter At such times, according to the reports of the sips listened with exemplary composure., After all, the of the neighborhood, the whole church assumed @ fan- | young scapegraceé had a good heart; when the ‘leeture tastic, supernatural, frightful aspect; eyesand mouths was over, he nevertheless. returned quietly to his opened here and there; the dogs, and the dragons, and | profligate courses. At one time it was a new-comer the griffins of stone, which keep watch, day and night, | whom he worried into the payment of his footing—a with outstretched neck and open jaws, around the precious tradition which has been carefully handel monstrous cathedral were heard to bark and howl, At | down to the present day ; at another he liad instigated Christmas, while the great bell, which seemed to rattle | a party of the students to make.a classic attack upon /in the throat summoned the pious to the midnight | some tavern, where, after beating the keeper wit! & | bludgeons, they merrily gutted the house, staving even sinister air, thatthe grand porch séemed | the wine-pipes In the cellar. Then again there would strange and southern tower, along with her sister ‘Jacqueline, a |,to swallow the multitude, while the rose-window above |.be along report in Latin, which the. sub-monitor of bell of itiferior size, inclosed in a’cagé of less magni- | it looked on. tude by the side ofherown. This Jacqueline was t ius named after the wife of Jehan Montague, wlio gave her to the church ; a gift which, however, did not prevent his figuring without his head at Montfaucon. In the ‘second, tower were six other bells ; and, lastly, the, six ‘smallest dwelt in the steeple of the transept, with the ‘wooden bell, whicli was only rung between nodn on Holy ant - the morning of Easter Eve. Thus ‘Quasimodo had fiiteen Del/es in his seraglio, bitt big ‘Mary was his favorite. ~ ; "It 1s impossible to fom 4 conceptidn of his joy on the days of the great pe The instant the arch- eee Tet him off, and said “ Go,”’ he ran up the nding staircase of fle belfry quicker than another h could | one down, Hé6 hurried, out of breath, in-. “to a aerial clamber ot the great bell, looked at her ‘attentively and lovingly for a moment; thén began to ‘talk kindly to her, age Berton her with his hand, as uwould Ao with a good horse which you are goiny 2, put,to his mettle. He woul! pity her for the la- rs she was about to undergo. After these first ‘Caresses, he'shotited to his assistants in ”@ Jower'story ‘of the tower to bégin. They seized thé ropes, the (lass Greaked, and slowly and heavily the enor- us.cone of metal was set in motion. Quasimodo, th heaving bosom, watched the movement. The ‘first shock of the clapper ayninst the wall of brass “shook the. woodwork upon” which it was hung. “Quasimodo vibrated ‘With the bell, “ Vah!’’ “he ‘would ery, with @ burst of idiot laughter, Meanwhile me motion of the bell was accelerated, and as the a gle which it described became more and more ob- the eye of Quitstmodo glistbned and shone out ‘with a more boty light.. At length the grand whole tower trembled ; rafters, leads, then ‘mouth ; paren kward and forward; he trembled “with the tower froin head to foot. The great bell, let ‘loose, an/.as it were fariond with rage, turned first to one Wis aud then to the other side of the tower its ‘enormons brazén throat, whence a i & roar that inight be heard.to the distance of four leagnes around. ‘If before this Bye d._ month ; ) | rose up, 43 the bell swung to and ae inhaled its boisterous breath, and looked by turtis at the abyss two hundred feet deep below him, iled over. with at + he foanied at the Quasimodo placed himself and at the enormous tongue of brass which eame ever end anon to bellow. in. his ear. This was the only t Pg that he could hear, the only sound that broke é universal silence to which he was doomed. He wold spread himself out in it Pat oes tb trek Mke a bird in the sun. of the bell would seize him ; ‘his look became wild ; he would watch the rocki @ngine, 48 & spider watches a fly, and suddenly eee mpon it. Then, suspended over the abyss, car- | 8upplicating eyes, before 4 superior, 4 lofty, a com. All this proceeded from Quasimodo. Torchi carried in woetul wise to Dom Chitde with this | Egypt would have taken him for the god of the temple; painful marginal annotation : Riza; prima causa’ vinun | the Middle Age believed him to be its demon; he'was optimum potatum. Lastly it was asserted—oh ‘horror of the soul of it. To snch oi was he so, that to those | horrors in a lad of sixteen—that” his excesses ofttimes who knew that Quasithodo once existed Notre-Dame cafried him to the gaming-honses themselyesy | « = + | now appears deserted, inanimate, dead. Yon feel that | Grieved and thwarted by these circumstances in his there is something wanting. This immense body is human affections, Clande had thrown himselfewith 0 void; it is a’skeleton; the spirit has departed; yon see | much the more ardorinto the arms of Sctence, who, ‘at | its place, and that is all, Jt is like a skull; the sockets jeast, does not lawgh you in the face, an@always repays of the eyés are still there, but the eyes themselves are | you, though sorhetimes in rather hollow’ coin, for tho one. . come tees which you have bestowed on her. Tirtis hea noe ony and more learned, and at the same time, : a. y a natural consequence, more and more rigid CHAPTER IV. ry a priest, moré and more gloonty a8 a man. Sas¥ 48 wa As Claude Frollo had from his youth traveled TEE RSF aoe i Pesntee, through almost the entire circle of heinen knowledge THERE was, however, one human being whom Quasi- | positive, éxternal, andlawful, he was foreed, wnless ho modo excépted from his antipathy, and to whom he | could make up his mind to stop»where he was, to” seek Wwas sO much, nay, pérlaps mote strongly attached | further food for the insatiable cravings of ‘his utder- “than to his cathedral—that being was Clatde Frollo. ° | standing: Theantique symbol of the serpent biting its | The thing was perfectly natural. Claude Frollo had | tail is pecyliarly appropMate to science; and it appears | taken pity on him, adopted him, supported him, | that Claude Frollg knew this trom experience. Several > . brought him up. It was between Clande Frollo’s legs, = persons affirmed that after exhausting the yas of | that, when quite small, he had been accustomed to | human knowledge he had dared to penttrate into the seek refuge when teased by boys or barked at by dogs. . He had, it was said, tasted suecessively all tho Claude Frollo had taught him to apes to read, to | apples of the tree of knowledge, and had at last bitten ne To crown all, Claude Frollo had made him bell- | at the forbidden fruit. He had. taken his place by ringer. tiv vt _, The gratitude of Quasimodo was in consequehce pro- the theologians in the Sorbonne, at-the meetings of the found, impassioned, unbounded; and thongh the | philoso hers at the image of St. Hilaire, at the disputes countenance of* his foster-father was frequently | of the ecrétists at thea image of St. Martin, at the gloorhy and morose, though his way of speaking was | congregations of the physicians at the holy-water font habitually short, hargh, and imperious, never had-this | of Notre-Dame. Al} the allowable and approved dishes | gratitude ceased fora moment to sway him. The arch- | which those four great kitchens, called the four facul- | + rac had in Quasimodo the most submissive of | ties, could elaborate and set before the naderstanding, de had feasted. upon, and satiety had snpervened before -glaves, the most docile of attendants, the most vigilant his hunger was appeased. He had then dug further of warders. After the poor bell-riuger had lost his hearing, Claude Frollo and he conversed in a language | of sigus, neysterious and understood by themselves alone. Thus the archdeacon.was the only human, creature with whom Quasimodo had kept up communi- ‘cation. There were but two things in the world With _which he still had intercourse—Notre-Dame and Claude Frollo, ’ > . Nothing on earth can be compared with the empire _of the archdeacon over the bell-ringer, and the attach- _ment of the bell-ringer to the archdeacon, A sign from Clande, and the idea of giving him pleastfe, would have sufficed to make.Quasimodo throw himself ftom the top of the towers of Notre-Dame. It was truly ex- traordinary to see all that physical strength, which at-| less notice of the cross at the head of their grave than tained pak a# surprisin evelopment in _ Quasimodo, of the tonib erected close by it for Nicolad Flamel mad and deeper, beneath al] that finite, material, limited science ; he had, perhaps, risked his‘soul, and had seated himselfim the cavern at that mysterious table ofthe alchymists and astrologers, one end of which was oceupied in the Middle Ages by Averroes, William of Paris, and Nicolas Flame), while the other, lighted by the chandelier with seven branches, runs on to Solomon, Pythagoras, and Zoroaster. So, & was conjectured whether right or wrong. ss vs It is certain that the Archdeacon frequently visited the churchyard of the Innocents, where, to be sure, his parents lay buried with the other victims of the pestilence of 1466; but then he appeared to take much laced implicitly by him at the disposal of another. | Claude Pernelle. esl t bespoke undoubtedly filial submission, domestic at-| It is certain*that) he had often been seen walking tachment, but it proceeded also from the faseination along the street of the Lombardawnd stealthily enter- which mind exercises upon mind, It was an imperfect, | ing a small house which tormesd the corner of the-Rue distorted, defective anization, with head abased and | des Ecrivains and the Rue Marivaux., It was the house ‘built by Nicolas. Plamel, in which he died aboyt ths COMIGIOOKS turns, as our readers have seen, at the conferences of (E(@) a