Notes

In the Middle Ages, all cities had a place of asylum and all criminals who entered were saved. At Notre Dame it was a cell installed at the top of one of the towers of the cathedral. It was there that Quasimodo deposited the Esmeralda.

“Why did you save me?” she asks.

He looks at her with sadness, as if trying to guess what she is saying. She repeats her question, but he runs away. A few moments later, he comes back and brings her clothes, a white dress with a white veil; a basket with provisions and a mattress. It’s his own meal, it’s his own bed, that the bell-ringer had been looking for. The bohemian looks up to thank him, but she can’t utter a word. The poor man is really horrible.

“I scare you, I’m ugly, aren’t I? Don’t look at me, just listen to me. By day, you’ll stay here. At night you can walk around the whole church. But don’t leave the church, day or night. You would be killed, and I would die of grief.”

Moved, she raises her head to answer him, but he has already disappeared. She finds herself alone and looks at her cell. It is a small room with a skylight overlooking the roof. At the edge of the roof, she sees the chimneys of Paris. She feels a head slipping into her hands. It is her goat, who has just found her. The bohemian caresses her.

'Oh Djali,' she cried.

The next morning, she begins to tremble with fear when she sees Quasimodo enter.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m your friend. I came to see you sleep, now I’m going to go. Here, I’m behind the wall. You can open your eyes.”

The bohemian opens her eyes and sees the poor hunchback hidden behind the wall.

'Come,' she said gently, taking his arm.

“I am deaf, but you will speak to me by gestures, by signs. I have a master who speaks with me in this way.”

“Tell me why you saved me.”

He looks at her attentively and answers,

“You have forgotten a wretch, who tried to take you away one night. A wretch to whom the very next day you helped on the pillory. You have given me a taste of water and a little pity. You have forgotten this wretch; he has remembered. You see these tricks? A man who fell would have died before he hit the ground. When you like it that I fall, you won’t even have a word to say, a glance will suffice.”

He pulls a little metal whistle out of his pocket.

'Here,' he said, 'when you need me, you will whistle with this. I hear this noise there.'

He drops the whistle on the ground and runs away.

When the archdeacon learns how the gypsy was saved, he locks himself in his cell and spends days looking at her through his window. One night, he leaves his cell and goes to see the Esmeralda. He slips close to her and surrounds her with his two arms.

'Go away, murderer!' she said in a trembling voice. 'Let go of me or I will spit in your face!'

'Love me! Love me!' cries the priest.

All of a sudden, she feels it louder than she does and starts screaming, “Help!”

'No one can hear you,' said the priest.

She takes the whistle that Quasimodo gave her and whistles with force. Almost at the same moment, the priest is lifted by a strong arm and thrown out of the cell. Quasimodo raises a large knife on him, but he recognizes his master and throws himself at his knees.

'My lord,' he said in a grave voice, while giving the priest the knife. “You will do whatever you want with this girl, but kill me first.”

The Esmeralda snatches the knife from Quasimodo’s hands.

'Come closer,' she said to the priest, 'You dare not come closer, coward!' she cried to him. 'Haha, I know that Phoebus is not dead.'

The priest kicks Quasimodo to the ground and disappears on the stairs.

The girl, upset by this violent scene, falls on her bed and starts to cry.