Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 144 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

© broke this iron-work. at Se OF NOTRE-DAME. THE HUNCHBACK “ She said at first above a year,’’ observed the soldier. ‘* That looks suspicious,’’ said the provost.’ ; ~'* Monseigneur,”’ she exclaimed, still standing close to, This man always accompanied Tristan, who always _ac- gan | covering her with her body, listen companied Louis XI, ‘My friend,” said Tristan.the Hermit, ‘‘I presume the-window, and trembling lest they should think of | that yonder is the sorceress whom we are séeking. putting in their heads and looking about the cell, “ Monseigneur, I swear to you that it wos a cart_which I swear it by the angels in Para- an If it'was not acart, may eternal perdition be my oer? « buen : f ‘‘Thou.art in good earnest in that, oath,’’ said. Tris- tan, with ascrutinizing look. The poor creature felt her dssmrance forsaking her by degrees» She was so contoundedas to make awkward "b)unders, and she perceived with terror that she was not saying what she ought to have said. . ‘A soldier now came up, crying, ‘‘ Monseigneur, the old witch lies. The girl has hot been in the Ruedu ‘Mouton. ‘The chain has been up all night, and the ' keeper has not seen acreature pass.”’ Tristan, whose look. became evéry moment more | threatening, turned to the recluse, ‘‘ What hast thou to say to this ?”’ ‘‘I know not; Monseigneur,’”’ replied she,still striv- ing to make head against this new incident; ‘I may be mistaken. Im fact, 1 almost think she must have crossed the water.’’ " | “ Why, that is the very contrary way,’’ said the pro- vost.’ “ Besides, ‘tis not likely that she would have gone back to the city, where search was making for her. Thou liest, hag!’ " . ‘and then,’ added the first soldier, “‘there is no boat either on this side of the water or on the other.”’ “She must have swam over,’ replied the recluse, defending the sere inch by inch. ‘Who ever heard of womeu swimming ?’’ cried the soldier. ““ Tete-Diew! 014 woman! thou liest! thou liest !” em@laimed Tristan, with vehemence. “I‘have a good mind to let the young sorceress go,anl to take thee instead. A quarter of an hour's torture will bring the truth out of thy throat. Come, thou shall go along with us.’”’ “ “Ags you please, Monseigneur,;” said she, eagerly catching at these words. ‘Go to, go to! The torture | I am ready. Take me. Let us be gone for:iwith !” Meanwhile, thought she, my daughter will. have opportunity to escape. ; ~'Sblood !” cried the provost, ‘“what greediness of . torture! The mad creature completely puzzles me.” a : - An old gray headed sergeant of the watch advanced from the ranks. ‘‘Mad, indeed! Monseigneur,” said he; addressing the provost. ‘Ifshe has let loose the Egyptian, ‘tis not her fault, for she is not fond of the Egyptians. For these fifteen years that I have be- longed to the watch I have heard her every night curs- ing the Bohemian women with bitter and endless exe- erations. Ifthe one we are seeking be, as I suppose, | - the dancing girl with the goat, 1 know that she hates | her spoveai’” ro * nee ered he between his teeth, * let. us be o sue our ‘search. I will not sleep till the Egyptian is « Gudule made anveffort, and repeated, ‘‘ Above all.” The unanimous testimony of the men belonging to the watch confirmed the representation of the old ser- ‘geant. Tristan the Hermit, despairing of being able to” -extract any information from the recluse, turned his back upon her, and with inexpressible anxiety she be- “held him slowly proceeding toward his horse, “‘ Come,” n and pur- hanged.” *~ He nevertheless paused for some time before he > in?” | Thou wilt.hang her forthwith. Hast thou thy lad- der ?’’ / . ; NN gee me — $3 ST The recluse had sat down in front of her daugiter the poor girl, who stirred not, who spake , Save t).: she murmured in a low tone: “ Phasbus! Phebas!" Tn proportion as the work of'the besiegers see: to advance the mother mechanically drew back au | “There is one under the shed of the Maison-anx- | pressed the girl closer and closer against the wall. Ali | Piliers,” replied the man. “Is it at this justice that we | at once she saw the stone shako—for she kept strict _areto do the business?’ continued he, pointing to the | watch, and never took ler eyes from it—and she heard. stone gibbet. dik eg, 1 Ly be _ “Ho! bo! ho!” rejoined the man, with a more yul- gar, more bestial grin than even that of the provost, _/* we shan’t have far to go.” ' ‘‘ Make haste,’’ said Tristan, ‘‘and laugh afterward.” ‘ « Ever since Tristan had espied the girl, and all hope} ho, hol But this is horrible. the yoiceof Tristan encouraging the laborers. This roused her from the stupor into which: she had sunk for some minutes, and she cried—the while her voice sometinies rent.the ear like @ saw, sometimes stam- mered as if ell the maledictions thronging’ forth at. Once were jostling one another upon her ipa“ Ho. Robbers, 46 ye really | was at anend, the recluse had not uttereda word. She | mean totake my daughter from me? I tell youit is _had thrown the poor Egyptian, half dead, in the corner of the cell, and posted herself-again at the window, | of the entablature, In this attitude, her eyes, which had again become wild and fierce, were wont to wan- der fearlessly over the, surrounding soldiers. At the moment when Henriet Cousin reached the cell, her | look was so ferocious, that he started back. ‘‘ Monseigneur,’’ said he, returning to the provost, _ “The young one.” “So much the better; for yon old hag looks like a Tartar.”’ ‘ Poor dancing-girl with the goat !"’ sighed the veteran sergeant of the watch. . Once more Henriet Cousin approached the window. His eye quailed before that ofthe mother, “ Madam ”’ he began very timidly, ‘*What would’st thou ?” cried she. interrupting him, in a low but resolute tone. , “’Tis not you IL want,’’ said he; ‘’tis the other.” “ What other?” , “The young one.” She shook her head, crying: tell thee—nobody—nobody !" ‘“‘There is,” replied the executioner, “and well you know it. Let me take the girl. I will not harm you.” “Oh! thou wilt not harm me!” said she, with a strange sneer. , “There is nobody, I “Let me take the other, madame; ’tis by the order of Monsieur the provost.”’ With a frantic air she repeated: ‘There is nobody— nobody !”’ » “I tell you there is,’’ replied the executioner: “ We all saw that there were two of you.” ' _ “Look then!" said the recluse, grinning. “Put thy head in at the hole.” > , 4 The hangman spied her nails, and durst not venture. ‘‘Make haste!’ cried Tristan, who had drawn. up his men in @ semicircle round the Trou-aux-Rats, and post- ed himself on horseback near the gilbet. Henriet returned once more to the provost, quite. at a loss how to proceed. He had laid his rope upon the ground, and, with a clownish air, twirling his hut upon his hand, ‘‘ Monseigneur,’’ he asked, “how are we to i which are we to take?’ “By the door.” ** There is none.” “By the window.” , “Itistoosmall.” °. “Enlarge it then,’’ said Tristan, angrily. ‘‘ Hast ,4 thon not pickaxes ?’’ | ‘The mother watched them from her den, still leaning - Mounted his horse: Gudule wavered betweén life and | against the window-sill. She had ceased to hope; she * “dle, The heart. of Gudule, so cruelly oppressed, once. same place a ladder, death, on seein m cast around the Place tlie restless | knew not what she would have, but she would not look of a hound, which is aware that the lair of the | have them take her daughter from her, mé is near at hand and is unwilling to leave the spot. t lengthy he shook his head and vaulted into the. sade | _ ‘Henriet.Cousin went to the shed of the Maison-aux- | Piliers to teteh his tools. He also bronght trom the which he immediately set. up ' a's Ip, my daughter! Oh, the cowards! Oh, the han lackeys! Oh, the journeymen murderers! with her two hands like claws.restiny upon the corner | help, fire! But will they rob me of my child in thie manner? Can sucli a thing be suffered by the Al- Mishlity ?’ Then turning to Tristan, with foaming lips, glating eyes, on all fours like a panther, and bristling with rage: ‘‘ Come alittle nearer to rob me of my daughter ! Dost thou not comprehend that this woman eee itis her daughter! Knowest thou what it is to be the mother ofachild? And ifthou hast young ones, when they how], hast thou not within thee something that yearns at their cry ?” ; . “Down with the stone!” said Tristan; “it is loos- The crow-bars displaced the ponderous stone, It was, as we have said, the mothers last part. So she threw herself upon it; she would have it fast; siie scratched it with her nails; but the massive block. set in motion by six men, slipped from her grasp, and glided to the ground along the iron levers. Tie mother, seeing an entry made, threw herself athwart the aperture, barricading the breach with her body, waving her arms, s!rikiny her head against the top of the window, and shouting with a voice so husky with fatigue that it could scarcely be heard: “Help? fire! fire!’ . wm day “Now take the girl,” said Tristan. cool as ever. The mother scowled at the soldiers in so fo ble a manner that they were much more disposed to fal} back than to advance. . On, there !’’ shouted the provost. ‘‘Henriet Cou- sin, on !"’ , - * Not a creature stirred a step. a. _ The provost exclaimed, ‘‘ What ! men-at-arms afraid of a woman !"’ af 9 “ Monseigneur,” said Henriet, “call you that a wo. ang | bn ‘ “She has the mane of a lion,” said another. ~ * Advance!’’ replied the provost, “the gap is }:. ter three abreast, as at the breach of 1’ enough. | he b: toise. Let us Suis} the business. be a ata © Mahound! the first that recoils I will cut in two.” Placed re at gn. prove and a niother, and threatened by both, the soldiers hesitated for a .mo- ment; then making their choice, they advanced toward the Trou-aux-Rats. — ; Wy Cag oan, + When the recluse saw this, she suddenly. raised her- self upon her knees, threw back her long hai ¥ face, and dropped her lank and lacerated hands upon her thighs. Big tears started from her eyes, tri ig one by. one down the wrinkles in her cheeks, like a torrent along the bed which it has wrought for itself. At the same time she began to speak, erie gice sO suppliant, so meek, so subdued, so cutting, that more than one old trooper who could have eaten human flesh had to wipe his eyes. ‘ wed ter. . le ' “Gentlemen, and Messieurs se its; one word! There is one thing that I must lyou. Itis my more expanded, and, casting an eye upon her daughter, | against the gibbet. Five or six of. the provost’s men ‘at whom she had not dared to look while the soldiers» armed themselves with mattocks and crow-bars, and daughter, look you—my dear little girl, whom "I had lost. Listeti—'tis quite a history. Iam no stranger to were there, she ejaculated in a low tone; “ Saveti!”’ » The poor girl had remained all this time in her . corner, without stirring, without breathing, and liay- ~ Iag the image of déath before her eyes. She had not | her mother could prevent her, darted to the window, | niattocks and the ctowbars sapping her fortress, she | should not say a word—but. as for her, a git crying, “Phebus! my Phebus! come hither !’’ gave a terrific scream ; and then began to run round | teen, give her time to see the sun! What harr Phebus was gone; he had just turned ata gallop | her cell with frightful swiftuess—one of the habits | she done to you? None whateyer, Norleither, Did the corner of the Rue de la Coutellerie. But Tristan | of a wild beast, which she had contracted {rom confine- | you but kuow, that I have none but her, that I am was there still. | ment. She said nothing, but her eyes flashed fire. The | getting old that she was 4 blessing op mc The recluse rushed u n her daughter with the | soldiers were thrilled to their hearts’ core. All at once | by the Holy Virgin herself! _ then yon are all! su | . mar of a wild beast. Striking her nails into her necie | she caught up her paving stone in both hands, laughed, | kind-hearted! You knew not it was Iny datghte: she drew her back with violence. A mother tigress is The stone, feebly | till I told you. Oh! how I love her! Monseigne. E lost any incident of the scene between Gude and an, and she had sharéd all the agonies endured by hermother. She had heard the successive snap- pings of the threads by which she was suspended over the abyss ; twenty times she expected to see them all break ; and she at length began’again ‘to breathe and to feel herself upon solid. ground. At this moment she heard a voice saying to the provost, “Corbe /! Mr. Provost, tis no business of mine, whoam a soldier, to hang witches. The begyurly crew are beneath one. scribed. He was there, then, her friend, her protector, her refuge, her Phabus. She sprang up, and, before not very particular. But it was too late. Tristan had sven her. ® ’ ; “EKigh! eigh!” cried he, with a grin which dis- covered all bis teeth, and made his face resemble the muzzle of a wolf, ‘‘ two mice in the trap !’’ ‘Tristan proceeded with them to'the cell: F | “Old woman,”’ said the provost, in a stern voice, |“ yield up the girl to us quietly.” : he gave him such a look as though she understood not what he said. , on “ Tele-Dieu!’’ resumed Tristan, “ what ‘reason canst ‘thou have for preventing this sorceress from being ? hanged according td the king's pleasure ? The wretehed woman burst into one of her wild laughs. ‘*What reason havel? | "Tis. my daugiter!’’ |The accent with which she uttered that word made even Henriet Cousin himself shudder. , “I am sorry for it,’’ replied the provost, ‘‘ but it is the good pleasure of the king.” + ' sufficiently wide than to displace one massive stune under the window. When the mother heard the ‘and hurled it at the workmen. | thrown—tor her hands trembled—missed them all and rolled to the feet ot Tristan’s horse. teeth. | Meanwhile, though the sun had not yet risen, it was broad ‘daylight; the old decayed chimneys of the She guashed her *“T suspected as much,” said the soldier. Maison-eux-Piliers were sawed of a beautiful roseate “Thou art an excellent cat!’’ replied Tristan, pat- hue. It was the hour at which the earl ting him on the shoulder. “‘Come,” added he, “ where | the great city open cheerily upon the roof’. Certain of windows of » Messieurs the sergeants. They were always very ‘kind to me at the time when the boys in -tlie ‘eets pelted me With stones, because I led a loose-Jife, You will leave me my*child when you know all. I- a poor unfortunate girl. The Botemians ftole my in- fant. Stay, here is* her shoe, whieh I haye Kept for fifteen-years. Her foot was no bigger thax that. “La Chantefleurie, Rue Folle-Peine, at Re 1us—perhaps you know that name. Well, I was the person. You will take pity on me, will you not, gentlemen? The Egyptiaus stole her from me, and hid her away for these fifteen years. I concluded she was dead. Only think, my good friends, I thought she was dead. I have liyed here these fifteen years, in this den, with- ae _ Lieave you to attend’ toit alone. You must permit| ‘What is thy king to me?” cried she, redoubling | out fre in winter, ‘Tis hard, is it mot? The poor ine to go and rejoin my company, because it is with- | herterriblelaugh. “1 tell thee itis my daughter!’ |. little shoe! I have prayed so earnestly th a out acaptain.” That voice was the voiee of Phebus | “ Break down the wall,” said Tristan, ‘Almighty has heard me, This very morning he has de Chateaupers.’ What she then felt is not to be de-| Nothing more was required to make the opening | restured my daughter to me. "Tis a doing. She was not dead, you see. | her from me,I am sure. If i High Provost, I would rather have a hole throug): :: bowels than a scratch upon a good, kind gentleman. What every | ) had a mother! You are the ) child! Consider that I am prayir knees, as one prays to Jesus Christ.. ¥ one. I am from Reims, gentlemen, I have | ape left me by my uncl snot Prutibn. “ is Henriet Cousin 7?” the inhabitants—sundry costermongers riding on their A mam who had neither the garb nor the look of d |'asses.to the markets—began to cross the Greve. They | beggar. I want nothing but mychild! | ighty soldier stépped forth from the ranks. He wore a dress | paused for a moment before the party, of soldiers col- | who is the master of us all, gave her n Ihe for half gray and half brown, and leathern sleeves; had | lécted around the Troux-anx-Rats, surveyed them with nothing. The king, you say! the king! How could lank hair, and carried a coil of rope in his huge fist, ' looks ol astonishment, and pursued their way, — ‘ it pleasure him were you to kill my daughter? And €om (E| OVO )O) pon her nals! You lo ai , you explai. ing—is it not so? Ob, Mansetign sts |W yoneve. 7GO x cee