Notre Dame de Paris - Bartleby.com
Notre Dame de Paris - Bartleby.com
Notre Dame de Paris - Bartleby.com
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“Sir,” returned the big man with a yawn, “for what?”<br />
“I see the cause of your annoyance,” resumed the poet. “This infernal din prevents your listening in<br />
<strong>com</strong>fort. But never fear, your name shall go down to posterity. Your name, if I may ask?”<br />
“Renault Château, Keeper of the Seal of the Châtelet of <strong>Paris</strong>, at your service.”<br />
“Sir, you are the sole representative of the Muses,” said Gringoire.<br />
“You are too good, sir,” replied the Keeper of the Seal of Châtelet.<br />
“The one person who has paid suitable attention to the piece. What do you think of it?”<br />
“H’m, h’m,” replied the big official drowsily. “Really quite entertaining.”<br />
Gringoire had to be content with this faint praise, for the conversation was abruptly cut short by a<br />
thun<strong>de</strong>r of applause mingled with shouts of acclamation. The Fools had elected their Pope.<br />
“Noël! Noël! Noël!” roared the crowd from all si<strong>de</strong>s.<br />
In truth, the grimace that beamed through the broken rose-window at this moment was nothing short of<br />
miraculous. After all the faces—pentagonal, hexagonal, and heteroclite—which had succee<strong>de</strong>d each<br />
other in the stone frame, without realizing the grotesque i<strong>de</strong>al set up by the inflamed popular<br />
imagination, nothing inferior to the supreme effort now dazzling the spectators would have sufficed to<br />
carry every vote. Master Coppenole himself applau<strong>de</strong>d, and Clopin Trouillefou, who had <strong>com</strong>peted—and<br />
Lord knows to what heights his ugliness could attain—had to own himself <strong>de</strong>feated. We will do likewise,<br />
nor attempt to convey to the rea<strong>de</strong>r a conception of that tetrahedral nose, that horse-shoe mouth, of that<br />
small left eye obscured by a red and bristling brow, while the right disappeared entirely un<strong>de</strong>r a<br />
monstrous wart, of those uneven teeth, with breaches here and there like the crenated walls of a fortress,<br />
of that horny lip over which one of the teeth projected like an elephant’s tusk, of that cloven chin, nor,<br />
above all, of the expression overlying the whole—an in<strong>de</strong>finable mixture of malice, bewil<strong>de</strong>rment, and<br />
sadness. Picture such an ensemble to yourself if you can.<br />
There was not a single dissentient voice. They rushed to the Chapel and in triumph dragged forth the<br />
thrice lucky Pope of Fools. Then surprise and admiration reached the culminating point—he had but<br />
shown his natural countenance.<br />
Rather, let us say, his whole person was a grimace. An enormous head covered with red bristles;<br />
between the shoul<strong>de</strong>rs a great hump balanced by one in front; a system of thighs and legs so curiously<br />
misplaced that they only touched at the knees, and, viewed from the front, appeared like two sickles<br />
joined at the handles; huge splay feet, monstrous hands, and, with all this <strong>de</strong>formity, a nameless<br />
impression of formidable strength, agility, and courage—strange exception to the eternal rule, which<br />
<strong>de</strong>crees that strength, like beauty, shall be the out<strong>com</strong>e of harmony.<br />
Such was he whom the Fools had chosen for their Pope. He looked like a giant broken and badly<br />
repaired.<br />
The moment this species of Cyclops appeared in the doorway of the Chapel, standing motionless, squat,<br />
almost as broad as he was long, squared by the base, as a great man has <strong>de</strong>scribed it, he was instantly<br />
recognised by his party-coloured coat, half red, half violet, sprinkled with little silver bells, and above all,