The crowd received his every utterance with yells of laughter, and seeing that the uproar was increasing round him, the scholar cried: “O glorious uproar! Populi debacchantis
populosa debacchatio!”and set off singing, his eyes swimming in apparent ecstasy, in the tone of a canon chanting vespers: “Quœ cantica! quœ organa! quœ cantilenœ! quœ melodiœ his sine fine decantantur! sonant melliflua hymnorum or gana, suavissima angelorum melodia, cantica canticorum mira.”2
He broke off. “Hey there—devil’s own landlady—give me some supper!”
There was a moment almost of silence, during which the strident voice of the Duke of Egypt was heard instructing his Bohemians:
“—The weasel goes by the name of Aduine, the fox is Bluefoot or Woodranger, the wolf, Grayfoot or Giltfoot, the bear, Old Man, or Grandfather. The cap of a gnome renders one invisible and makes one see invisible things. When a toad is baptized it should be clad in velvet—red or black—a bell at its neck, a bell on its foot. The godfather holds the head, the godmother the hinder parts. It is the demon Sidragasum that has the power of making girls dance naked.”
“By the mass!”broke in Jehan, “I would I were a demon Sidragasum.”
All this time the truands had been steadily arming themselves at the other side of the tavern, whispering to one another.
“Poor Esmeralda!”said a gipsy. “She is our sister. We must get her out of that!”
“Is she there still in Notre-Dame?”asked a Jewishlooking huckster.
“Yes, by God!”
“Well, comrades,”exclaimed the huckster, “to Notre-Dame, then! All the more because in the chapel of Saints Féréol and Ferrution there are two statues, one of Saint-John the Baptist and the other of Saint- Anthony, both of pure gold, weighing together seven gold marks and fifteen esterlins,3
and the pedestals of silver-gilt weigh seventeen marks five ounces. I know it—I am a goldsmith.”Here they served Jehan’s supper. He lolled on the bosom of the girl beside him. “By Saint-Voult-de- Lucques, called familiarly Saint-Goguelu, now I’m perfectly happy!”he cried. “Here in front of me I see a blockhead with the beardless face of an archduke. On my left is another with teeth so long they hide his chin. Body of Mahomet! Comrade! thou hast all the appearance of a draper, and hast the effrontery to come and sit by me! I am noble, my friend, and trade is incompatible with nobility. Get thee farther off. Holá, you there! no fighting! How now! Baptiste Croque-Oison, wouldst risk that splendid nose of thine under the gross fists of yonder bumpkin! Imbecile! Non cuiquam datum est habere nasum.4
Truly thou art divine, Jacqueline Rouge-Oreille! pity ’tis thou hast no hair. Holá! My name’s Jehan Frollo, and my brother’s an archdeacon—may the devil fly away with him! Every word I tell you is the truth. By turning Vagabond, I have cheerfully renounced the half of a house situate in paradise promised me by my brother—dimidem donum in paradiso—I quote the very words. I’ve a property in the Rue Tirechappe, and all the women run after me—as true as it’s true that Saint-Eligius was an excellent goldsmith, and that the five trades of the good city of Paris are the tanners, the leather-dressers, the baldrick-makers, the purse-makers, and the leather-scourers, and that Saint-Laurence was burned with hot egg-shells. I swear to you, comrades,If this be any lie of mine!’
“My charmer, ’tis moonlight; look through that loophole how the wind rumples the clouds—just as I do with thy kerchief. Girls, snuff the children and the candles. Christ and Mahomet! what am I eating now? Hey there, old jade! the hairs that are missing from the heads of thy trulls we find in the omelets! Hark
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