History of a Leavened Cake of Maize — The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Oudarde and Gervaise walk with Mahiette of Reims towards the Grève. Mahiette's boy, Eustache, carries a maize cake for the recluse. A tambourine sounds, and Mahiette runs, afraid the Egyptian dancer will steal her child. She tells of Paquette la Chantefleurie, ruined young, who bore a daughter, Agnès, and lived for her. After gypsies told the baby's fortune, Agnès vanished. One tiny pink shoe remained, and a lame, one-eyed child had been left behind. Ribbons and the trace of a fire convinced the town the child had been eaten. Paquette's hair went grey, and she disappeared. The strange child was sent to Notre-Dame as a foundling.

On the square, Eustache asks to eat the cake, and the women turn back to the Rat-Hole. A woman in a brown sack crouches there, staring at a little embroidered shoe. Mahiette knows her as Paquette, called here Sister Gudule. She asks for water, black bread, and a sack. The child's voice shocks her. She begs not to see other children, and cries that the Egyptian will pass. When Mahiette speaks her old name, she springs to the bars, sees the pillory, and curses the daughter of Egypt as a stealer of children.