The Beautiful Creature Clad in White — The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Quasimodo finds the cell empty and searches Notre-Dame, howling. The king's archers are entering to hunt the gypsy as well. He does not know they mean her harm, and he opens hidden doors for Tristan l'Hermite. When he is sure she is gone, he kisses the bed where she slept and beats his head on the wall. Only Dom Claude had the key. Quasimodo believes the archdeacon took her, and his old love for the priest turns rage into sorrow.

At dawn he follows Claude Frollo to the top of the northern tower. The priest stares at the Place de Grève. A man carries a girl in white up the gallows ladder, a noose at her neck. Quasimodo knows her. The ladder is kicked away. She hangs, shaking with the last shudderings of anguish. He sees a frightful laugh on the priest's face and pushes Dom Claude over the balustrade. The archdeacon catches a stone spout. Quasimodo weeps and watches the gibbet. He does not pull the priest up. The lead bends, Claude falls, and on the pavement his body has lost human shape. Quasimodo sobs that this is all he has ever loved.