登陆注册
5256400000168

第168章 CHAPTER IV(2)

He vaguely recalled this populace, and thought that he recognized all the heads who had saluted him as Pope of the Fools some months previously. One man who held a torch in one hand and a club in the other, mounted a stone post and seemed to be haranguing them. At the same time the strange army executed several evolutions, as though it were taking up its post around the church. Quasimodo picked up his lantern and descended to the platform between the towers, in order to get a nearer view, and to spy out a means of defence.

Clopin Trouillefou, on arriving in front of the lofty portal of Notre-Dame had, in fact, ranged his troops in order of battle. Although he expected no resistance, he wished, like a prudent general, to preserve an order which would permit him to face, at need, a sudden attack of the watch or the police. He had accordingly stationed his brigade in such a manner that, viewed from above and from a distance, one would have pronounced it the Roman triangle of the battle of Ecnomus, the boar's head of Alexander or the famous wedge of Gustavus Adolphus. The base of this triangle rested on the back of the Place in such a manner as to bar the entrance of the Rue du Parvis; one of its sides faced H?tel-Dieu, the other the Rue Saint-Pierre-aux-Boeufs. Clopin Trouillefou had placed himself at the apex with the Duke of Egypt, our friend Jehan, and the most daring of the scavengers.

An enterprise like that which the vagabonds were now undertaking against Notre-Dame was not a very rare thing in the cities of the Middle Ages. What we now call the "police" did not exist then. In populous cities, especially in capitals, there existed no single, central, regulating power. Feudalism had constructed these great communities in a singular manner. A city was an assembly of a thousand seigneuries, which divided it into compartments of all shapes and sizes. Hence, a thousand conflicting establishments of police; that is to say, no police at all. In Paris, for example, independently of the hundred and forty-one lords who laid claim to a manor, there were five and twenty who laid claim to a manor and to administering justice, from the Bishop of Paris, who had five hundred streets, to the Prior of Notre-Dame des Champs, who had four. All these feudal justices recognized the suzerain authority of the king only in name.

All possessed the right of control over the roads. All were at home. Louis XI., that indefatigable worker, who so largely began the demolition of the feudal edifice, continued by Richelieu and Louis XIV. for the profit of royalty, and finished by Mirabeau for the benefit of the people,--Louis XI. had certainly made an effort to break this network of seignories which covered Paris, by throwing violently across them all two or three troops of general police. Thus, in 1465, an order to the inhabitants to light candles in their windows at nightfall, and to shut up their dogs under penalty of death;in the same year, an order to close the streets in the evening with iron chains, and a prohibition to wear daggers or weapons of offence in the streets at night. But in a very short time, all these efforts at communal legislation fell into abeyance.

The bourgeois permitted the wind to blow out their candles in the windows, and their dogs to stray; the iron chains were stretched only in a state of siege; the prohibition to wear daggers wrought no other changes than from the name of the Rue Coupe-Gueule to the name of the Rue-Coupe-Gorge*which is an evident progress. The old scaffolding of feudal jurisdictions remained standing; an immense aggregation of bailiwicks and seignories crossing each other all over the city, interfering with each other, entangled in one another, enmeshing each other, trespassing on each other; a useless thicket of watches, sub-watches and counter-watches, over which, with armed force, passed brigandage, rapine, and sedition. Hence, in this disorder, deeds of violence on the part of the populace directed against a palace, a hotel, or house in the most thickly populated quarters, were not unheard-of occurrences. In the majority of such cases, the neighbors did not meddle with the matter unless the pillaging extended to themselves.

They stopped up their ears to the musket shots, closed their shutters, barricaded their doors, allowed the matter to be concluded with or without the watch, and the next day it was said in Paris, "Etienne Barbette was broken open last night.

The Marshal de Clermont was seized last night, etc." Hence, not only the royal habitations, the Louvre, the Palace, the Bastille, the Tournelles, but simply seignorial residences, the Petit-Bourbon, the H?tel de Sens, the H?tel d' Angoulême, etc., had battlements on their walls, and machicolations over their doors. Churches were guarded by their sanctity. Some, among the number Notre-Dame, were fortified. The Abbey of Saint-German-des-Pres was castellated like a baronial mansion, and more brass expended about it in bombards than in bells. Its fortress was still to be seen in 1610. To-day, barely its church remains.

* Cut-throat. Coupe-gueule being the vulgar word for cut-weazand.

Let us return to Notre-Dame.

When the first arrangements were completed, and we must say, to the honor of vagabond discipline, that Clopin's orders were executed in silence, and with admirable precision, the worthy chief of the band, mounted on the parapet of the church square, and raised his hoarse and surly voice, turning towards Notre-Dame, and brandishing his torch whose light, tossed by the wind, and veiled every moment by its own smoke, made the reddish fa?ade of the church appear and disappear before the eye.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 电竞王者:大神来带飞

    电竞王者:大神来带飞

    网络上,她是神龙见首不见尾,有奖金的比赛必上,有敌方英雄必锤,凶残得不像个女孩子,找她陪打的人都能成功躺飞的宁神;现实中她是叛逆少女,嚣张学霸,外加动不动为金钱折腰,能屈能伸,亮瞎众人眼球。无心撩汉但身边桃花无数。 青春热血,越挫越勇;权门恩怨,阴谋厮杀从未间断,是结束,也是开始。复仇文,高甜巨宠帅裂天!简介无能,自行入坑。 系列文《帝国盛宠:纨绔校草是战神》已完结。
  • Confidential Clerk

    Confidential Clerk

    The Confidential Clerk was first produced at the Edinburgh Festival in the summer of 1953.'The dialogue of The Confidential Clerk has a precision and a lightly felt rhythm unmatched in the writing of any contemporary dramatist.' Times Literary Supplement'A triumph of dramatic skill: the handling of the two levels of the play is masterly and Eliot's verse registers its greatest achievement on the stage-passages of great lyrical beauty are incorporated into the dialogue.'
  • 神罪大明

    神罪大明

    木偶临世,宿命难逆!大明的落幕,满清的崛起,各种匪夷所思的历史进程到底蕴含了何等惊天秘闻?木偶活,大明兴;木偶死,大明亡!诡秘的谶语到底是阴谋还是天命?局中局,计中计,真真假假,虚虚实实,最终带来的难道只有黑暗王朝的开端吗?一个意外的来客,他无视历史的洪流,他拒绝腐朽的奴役,即使神之降罪,他也只会用手中之刀斩出一个朗朗乾坤!
  • 贵族校园之我的王牌会长

    贵族校园之我的王牌会长

    冷冀宇,贵族学校学生会会长,学校里的风云人物,却冷漠高傲。韩一诺,拥有绝世身手的女生,被众多学校退学,性格泼辣。篮球场上初遇,互留好感;校门口再遇,他主动帮忙。因收养孤儿,他和她被迫同居!从冤家到恋人,最后双双深陷感情之中!
  • 天价宠妻:总裁夫人休想逃

    天价宠妻:总裁夫人休想逃

    前男友给她下了药,让她和神秘男人纠纠缠缠。为了报复,她嫁给了他,从此被他宠出了新高度。说好的约法三章呢?为何他却对她各种撩?“以后我宠你。”他在他耳边柔情似水,对她各种宠溺,可是原来他对她另有所图.......“离婚!”她得知真相,愤而离他而去,几年后,她的出现再次惊艳了他的世界,可她不明白,他已经达到目的了,为何又一直折磨着自己,纠缠着自己......
  • 盛唐不遗憾

    盛唐不遗憾

    没有屈辱和遗憾,只有胜利和辉煌。铁轨铺向哪里,大唐的利益就延伸到哪里。火炮战车所向无敌,一带一路再创辉煌。
  • 孟子集注

    孟子集注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金刚寿命陀罗尼念诵法

    金刚寿命陀罗尼念诵法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • TRANSFORMATION

    TRANSFORMATION

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 你应该知道的商务礼仪

    你应该知道的商务礼仪

    礼仪是人类生活学习的道德规范,它是在人们在长期共同生活和相互交往中逐渐形成的,对一个人来说,礼仪代表了一个人的气质修养,对国家来说,礼仪是文明的体现。从古至今,中国一直都是礼仪之邦,而社会发展到今天,工作中逐渐形成了一套独有的商务礼仪,这本书全面介绍了商务礼仪的规范,让我们在工作应酬时更加大方得体。