Towards evening on that day, when the judiciary officers of the bishopcame to pick up from the pavement of the Parvis the dislocated corpse ofthe 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 theircompact, Quasimodo, that is to say, the devil, was to carry off ClaudeFrollo, that is to say, the sorcerer. It was presumed that he had brokenthe body when taking the soul, like monkeys who break the shell to getat 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 wonsuccess in tragedy. It appears that, after having tasted astrology,philosophy, architecture, hermetics,--all vanities, he returned totragedy, vainest pursuit of all. This is what he called "coming to atragic end." This is what is to be read, on the subject of his dramatictriumphs, in 1483, in the accounts of the "Ordinary:" "To Jehan Marchandand Pierre Gringoire, carpenter and composer, who have made and composedthe mystery made at the Chatelet of Paris, at the entry of Monsieur theLegate, and have ordered the personages, clothed and dressed the same,as in the said mystery was required; and likewise, for having made thescaffoldings thereto necessary; and for this deed,--one hundred livres."
Phoebus de Chateaupers also came to a tragic end. He married.
CHAPTER IV. THE MARRIAGE OF QUASIMODO.