The Crown Changed into a Dry Leaf — The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

For a month Gringoire has had no news of la Esmeralda or the goat. Passing the Tournelle, he follows a crowd into the Palais de Justice. A young scholar, brother of the archdeacon of Josas, says they are trying a woman who killed a gendarme. In the hall sit the president, Philippe Lheulier, and Jacques Charmolue.

La Falourdel says a man in black and an officer took her upper room, then the officer returned with a girl and a goat. After a cry, a shape like a priest fell into the Seine. The captain lay stabbed, the girl pretended to be dead, and the goat was terrified. Next day the crown was a dead leaf, which Charmolue calls magic. From the bedside, Lheulier reports, the phantom gave that crown and pressed the meeting. At the name Phœbus de Châteaupers she springs up, and Gringoire knows la Esmeralda. She asks if he lives. The king's advocate says he is dying. The goat Djali strikes seven and paws out his name. Charged with witchcraft and the stabbing on the twenty-ninth of March, she blames a priest she does not know. Torture is granted. She is led out.