Read Online The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo - Free Book Online Page B

hear him.
    At last the tall fair-haired fellow, growing impatient, shouted almost in his ear,—
    “Michel Giborne!”
    “Who calls me?” said Jupiter, as if suddenly wakened.
    “I,” replied the person dressed in black.
    “Ah!” said Jupiter.
    “Begin directly,” continued the other. “Satisfy the public; I take it upon myself to pacify the Provost, who will pacify the Cardinal.”
    Jupiter breathed again.
    “Gentlemen and citizens,” he shouted at the top of his lungs to the crowd who continued to hoot him, “we will begin at once.”
    “Evoe, Jupiter! Plaudite, cives!” m cried the students.
    “Noël! Noël!” n cried the people.
    Deafening applause followed, and the hall still trembled with acclamations when Jupiter had retired behind the hangings.
    But the unknown person who had so miraculously changed “the tempest to a calm,” as our dear old Corneille says, had modestly withdrawn into the shadow of his pillar, and would doubtless have remained there invisible, motionless, and mute as before, had he not been drawn forward by two young women, who, placed in the foremost rank of the spectators, had observed his colloquy with Michel Giborne-Jupiter.
    “Master,” said one of them, beckoning him to come nearer.
    “Be quiet, my dear Liénarde,” said her neighbor, pretty, fresh, and emboldened by all her Sunday finery. “That is no scholar, he is a layman; you must not call him Master, but Sir.”
    “Sir,” said Liénarde.
    The stranger approached the railing.
    “What do you wish of me, young ladies?” he asked eagerly.
    “Oh, nothing!” said Liénarde, much confused; “it is my neighbor Gisquette la Gencienne who wants to speak to you.”
    “Not at all,” replied Gisquette, blushing; “it was Liénarde who called you Master; I told her that she should say Sir.”
    The two young girls cast down their eyes. The stranger, who desired nothing better than to enter into conversation with them, looked at them with a smile.
    “Then you have nothing to say to me, young ladies?”
    “Oh, nothing at all!” answered Gisquette.
    The tall fair-haired youth drew back a pace; but the two curious creatures did not want to lose their prize.
    “Sir,” said Gisquette hastily, and with the impetuosity of water rushing through a floodgate or a woman coming to a sudden resolve, “so you know that soldier who is to play the part of Madame Virgin in the mystery?”
    “You mean the part of Jupiter?” replied the unknown.
    “Oh, yes,” said Liénarde, “isn’t she silly? So you know Jupiter?”
    “Michel Giborne?” replied the unknown. “Yes, madame.”
    “He has a fine beard!” said Liénarde.
    “Will it be very interesting—what they are going to recite up there?” asked Gisquette, shyly.
    “Very interesting indeed,” replied the stranger, without the least hesitation.
    “What is it to be?” said Liénarde.
    “‘The Wise Decision of Madame Virgin Mary,’ a morality, if you please, madame.”
    “Ah, that’s another thing,” replied Liénarde.
    A short pause followed. The stranger first broke the silence:—
    “It is quite a new morality, which has never yet been played.”
    “Then it is not the same,” said Gisquette, “that was given two years ago, on the day of the legate’s arrival, and in which three beautiful girls took the part of—”
    “Sirens,” said Liénarde.
    “And all naked,” added the young man. Liénarde modestly cast down her eyes; Gisquette looked at her, and did the same. He continued with a smile,—
    “That was a very pretty sight. This, now, is a morality, written expressly for the young Flemish madame.”
    “Will they sing pastorals?” asked Gisquette.
    “Fie!” said the stranger, “in a morality! You must not mix up different styles. If it were a farce, that would be another thing.”
    “What a pity!” replied Gisquette. “That day there were wild men and women at the Ponceau Fountain, who fought together and made all sorts of faces, singing