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content/post/chapter-6.md

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+---
+date: 2017-04-14T11:25:05-04:00
+description: "Esmeralda"
+featured_image: "/images/esmeralda.jpg"
+tags: []
+title: "Chapter VI: Esmeralda"
+disable_share: false
+---
+We are delighted to be able to inform the reader, that during the whole of
+this scene, Gringoire and his piece had stood firm. His actors, spurred on
+by him, had not ceased to spout his comedy, and he had not ceased to
+listen to it. He had made up his mind about the tumult, and was determined
+to proceed to the end, not giving up the hope of a return of attention on
+the part of the public. This gleam of hope acquired fresh life, when he
+saw Quasimodo, Coppenole, and the deafening escort of the pope of the
+procession of fools quit the hall amid great uproar. The throng rushed
+eagerly after them. “Good,” he said to himself, “there go all the
+mischief-makers.” Unfortunately, all the mischief-makers constituted the
+entire audience. In the twinkling of an eye, the grand hall was empty.
+
+To tell the truth, a few spectators still remained, some scattered, others
+in groups around the pillars, women, old men, or children, who had had
+enough of the uproar and tumult. Some scholars were still perched astride
+of the window-sills, engaged in gazing into the Place.
+
+“Well,” thought Gringoire, “here are still as many as are required to hear
+the end of my mystery. They are few in number, but it is a choice
+audience, a lettered audience.”
+
+An instant later, a symphony which had been intended to produce the
+greatest effect on the arrival of the Virgin, was lacking. Gringoire
+perceived that his music had been carried off by the procession of the
+Pope of the Fools. “Skip it,” said he, stoically.
+
+He approached a group of bourgeois, who seemed to him to be discussing his
+piece. This is the fragment of conversation which he caught,—
+
+“You know, Master Cheneteau, the Hôtel de Navarre, which belonged to
+Monsieur de Nemours?”
+
+“Yes, opposite the Chapelle de Braque.”
+
+“Well, the treasury has just let it to Guillaume Alixandre, historian, for
+six hivres, eight sols, parisian, a year.”
+
+“How rents are going up!”
+
+“Come,” said Gringoire to himself, with a sigh, “the others are
+listening.”
+
+“Comrades,” suddenly shouted one of the young scamps from the window, “La
+Esmeralda! La Esmeralda in the Place!”
+
+This word produced a magical effect. Every one who was left in the hall
+flew to the windows, climbing the walls in order to see, and repeating,
+“La Esmeralda! La Esmeralda?” At the same time, a great sound of applause
+was heard from without.
+
+“What’s the meaning of this, of the Esmeralda?” said Gringoire, wringing
+his hands in despair. “Ah, good heavens! it seems to be the turn of the
+windows now.”
+
+He returned towards the marble table, and saw that the representation had
+been interrupted. It was precisely at the instant when Jupiter should have
+appeared with his thunder. But Jupiter was standing motionless at the foot
+of the stage.
+
+“Michel Giborne!” cried the irritated poet, “what are you doing there? Is
+that your part? Come up!”
+
+“Alas!” said Jupiter, “a scholar has just seized the ladder.”
+
+Gringoire looked. It was but too true. All communication between his plot
+and its solution was intercepted.
+
+“The rascal,” he murmured. “And why did he take that ladder?”
+
+“In order to go and see the Esmeralda,” replied Jupiter piteously. “He
+said, ‘Come, here’s a ladder that’s of no use!’ and he took it.”
+
+This was the last blow. Gringoire received it with resignation.
+
+“May the devil fly away with you!” he said to the comedian, “and if I get
+my pay, you shall receive yours.”
+
+Then he beat a retreat, with drooping head, but the last in the field,
+like a general who has fought well.
+
+And as he descended the winding stairs of the courts: “A fine rabble of
+asses and dolts these Parisians!” he muttered between his teeth; “they
+come to hear a mystery and don’t listen to it at all! They are engrossed
+by every one, by Chopin Trouillefou, by the cardinal, by Coppenole, by
+Quasimodo, by the devil! but by Madame the Virgin Mary, not at all. If I
+had known, I’d have given you Virgin Mary; you ninnies! And I! to come to
+see faces and behold only backs! to be a poet, and to reap the success of
+an apothecary! It is true that Homerus begged through the Greek towns, and
+that Naso died in exile among the Muscovites. But may the devil flay me if
+I understand what they mean with their Esmeralda! What is that word, in
+the first place?—‘tis Egyptian!”