________________________________________________
_ Towards evening on that day, when the judiciary officers
of the bishop came to pick up from the pavement of the
Parvis the dislocated corpse of the archdeacon, Quasimodo
had disappeared.
A great many rumors were in circulation with regard to this
adventure. No one doubted but that the day had come when,
in accordance with their compact, Quasimodo, that is to say,
the devil, was to carry off Claude Frollo, that is to say,
the sorcerer. It was presumed that he had broken the body
when taking the soul, like monkeys who break the shell to
get at the nut.
This is why the archdeacon was not interred in consecrated earth.
Louis XI. died a year later, in the month of August, 1483.
As for Pierre Gringoire, he succeeded in saving the goat,
and he won success in tragedy. It appears that, after having
tasted astrology, philosophy, architecture, hermetics,--all
vanities, he returned to tragedy, vainest pursuit of all. This
is what he called "coming to a tragic end." This is what is to
be read, on the subject of his dramatic triumphs, in 1483, in
the accounts of the "Ordinary:" "To Jehan Marchand and
Pierre Gringoire, carpenter and composer, who have made and
composed the mystery made at the Chãtelet of Paris, at the
entry of Monsieur the Legate, and have ordered the personages,
clothed and dressed the same, as in the said mystery
was required; and likewise, for having made the scaffoldings
thereto necessary; and for this deed,--one hundred livres."
Phoebus de Châteaupers also came to a tragic end. He married. _
Read next: VOLUME II: BOOK ELEVENTH: Chapter 4 - The Marriage of Quasimodo
Read previous: VOLUME II: BOOK ELEVENTH: Chapter 2 - The Beautiful Creature Clad in White
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