Hunchbacked, One Eyed, Lame — The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Medieval France kept places of asylum, where a criminal inside a church or palace was sacred, though one step outside returned him to the gibbet. At Notre-Dame the refuge is a tiny cell on the roof of the side aisle, under the flying buttresses. Quasimodo has laid la Esmeralda there. Half conscious on the climb, she thought a misshapen spirit was carrying her away. When he unties the cord, she sees she is in the cathedral, taken from the executioner, and that Phœbus lives but loves her no longer. She asks why he saved her. He does not understand, and flees.

He returns with clothes, bread, and his own bed, and tells her to eat and to sleep. She is right to fear him, he says, for he is ugly, and if she leaves the church they will kill her and he will die. The cell is about six feet square, with Paris smoking below. Djali, who fled when Quasimodo scattered Charmolue’s men, puts a head on her knees. She kisses the goat and weeps. At evening she walks the high gallery, and the earth looks calm.