________________________________________________
_ When she re-entered the audience hall, pale and limping,
she was received with a general murmur of pleasure. On the
part of the audience there was the feeling of impatience
gratified which one experiences at the theatre at the end of
the last entr'acte of the comedy, when the curtain rises and
the conclusion is about to begin. On the part of the judges,
it was the hope of getting their suppers sooner.
The little goat also bleated with joy. He tried to run
towards his mistress, but they had tied him to the bench.
Night was fully set in. The candles, whose number had not
been increased, cast so little light, that the walls of the hall
could not be seen. The shadows there enveloped all objects
in a sort of mist. A few apathetic faces of judges alone could
be dimly discerned. Opposite them, at the extremity of the
long hail, they could see a vaguely white point standing out
against the sombre background. This was the accused.
She had dragged herself to her place. When Charmolue
had installed himself in a magisterial manner in his own, he
seated himself, then rose and said, without exhibiting too
much self-complacency at his success,--"The accused has
confessed all."
"Bohemian girl," the president continued, "have you avowed all
your deeds of magic, prostitution, and assassination on
Phoebus de Châteaupers."
Her heart contracted. She was heard to sob amid the darkness.
"Anything you like," she replied feebly, "but kill me quickly!"
"Monsieur, procurator of the king in the ecclesiastical
courts," said the president, "the chamber is ready to hear you
in your charge."
Master Charmolue exhibited an alarming note book, and began to
read, with many gestures and the exaggerated accentuation of the
pleader, an oration in Latin, wherein all the proofs of the suit
were piled up in Ciceronian periphrases, flanked with quotations
from Plautus, his favorite comic author. We regret that we are
not able to offer to our readers this remarkable piece. The
orator pronounced it with marvellous action. Before he had
finished the exordium, the perspiration was starting from his
brow, and his eyes from his bead.
All at once, in the middle of a fine period, he interrupted
himself, and his glance, ordinarily so gentle and even stupid,
became menacing.
"Gentlemen," he exclaimed (this time in French, for it was
not in his copy book), "Satan is so mixed up in this affair,
that here he is present at our debates, and making sport of
their majesty. Behold!"
So saying, he pointed to the little goat, who, on seeing
Charmolue gesticulating, had, in point of fact, thought it
appropriate to do the same, and had seated himself on his
haunches, reproducing to the best of his ability, with his
forepaws and his bearded head the pathetic pantomine of the
king's procurator in the ecclesiastical court. This was, if the
reader remembers, one of his prettiest accomplishments. This
incident, this last proof, produced a great effect. The goat's
hoofs were tied, and the king's procurator resumed the thread
of his eloquence.
It was very long, but the peroration was admirable. Here
is the concluding phrase; let the reader add the hoarse voice
and the breathless gestures of Master Charmolue,
"~Ideo, domni, coram stryga demonstrata, crimine patente,
intentione criminis existente, in nornine sanctoe ecclesioe Nostroe-
Domince Parisiensis quoe est in saisina habendi omnimodam
altam et bassam justitiam in illa hac intemerata Civitatis insula,
tenore proesentium declaremus nos requirere, primo, aliquamdam
pecuniariam indemnitatem; secundo, amendationem honorabilem
ante portalium maximum Nostroe-Dominoe, ecclesioe cathedralis;
tertio, sententiani in virtute cujus ista styrga cum sua
capella, seu in trivio vulgariter dicto~ la Grève, ~seu in insula
exeunte in fluvio Secanoe, juxta pointam juardini regalis, executatoe
sint~!"*
* The substance of this exordium is contained in the president's
sentence.
He put on his cap again and seated himself.
"Eheu!" sighed the broken-hearted Gringoire, "~bassa latinitas~--bastard
latin!"
Another man in a black gown rose near the accused; he was
her lawyer.--The judges, who were fasting, began to grumble.
"Advocate, be brief," said the president.
"Monsieur the President," replied the advocate, "since the
defendant has confessed the crime, I have only one word to
say to these gentlemen. Here is a text from the Salic law;
'If a witch hath eaten a man, and if she be convicted of it,
she shall pay a fine of eight thousand deniers, which amount
to two hundred sous of gold.' May it please the chamber
to condemn my client to the fine?"
"An abrogated text," said the advocate extraordinary of the king.
"Nego, I deny it," replied the advocate.
"Put it to the vote!" said one of the councillors; "the
crime is manifest, and it is late."
They proceeded to take a vote without leaving the room.
The judges signified their assent without giving their reasons,
they were in a hurry. Their capped heads were seen uncovering
one after the other, in the gloom, at the lugubrious question
addressed to them by the president in a low voice. The
poor accused had the appearance of looking at them, but her
troubled eye no longer saw.
Then the clerk began to write; then he handed a long parch-
ment to the president.
Then the unhappy girl heard the people moving, the pikes
clashing, and a freezing voice saying to her,--"Bohemian
wench, on the day when it shall seem good to
our lord the king, at the hour of noon, you will be taken in a
tumbrel, in your shift, with bare feet, and a rope about your
neck, before the grand portal of Notre-Dame, and you will
there make an apology with a wax torch of the weight of
two pounds in your hand, and thence you will be conducted to
the Place de Grève, where you will be hanged and strangled
on the town gibbet; and likewise your goat; and you will pay
to the official three lions of gold, in reparation of the crimes
by you committed and by you confessed, of sorcery and
magic, debauchery and murder, upon the person of the Sieur
Phoebus de Châteaupers. May God have mercy on your soul!"
"Oh! 'tis a dream!" she murmured; and she felt rough hands bearing
her away. _
Read next: VOLUME II: BOOK EIGHTH: Chapter 4 - ~Lasciate Ogni Speranza~--Leave all hope behind, ye who Enter here
Read previous: VOLUME II: BOOK EIGHTH: Chapter 2 - Continuation of the Crown which was Changed into a Dry Leaf
Table of content of Hunchback of Notre Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris)
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
