登陆注册
5256400000202

第202章 CHAPTER II(3)

Meanwhile, the man began to mount the ladder. Then Quasimodo saw him again distinctly. He was carrying a woman on his shoulder, a young girl dressed in white; that young girl had a noose about her neck. Quasimodo recognized her.

It was she.

The man reached the top of the ladder. There he arranged the noose. Here the priest, in order to see the better, knelt upon the balustrade.

All at once the man kicked away the ladder abruptly, and Quasimodo, who had not breathed for several moments, beheld the unhappy child dangling at the end of the rope two fathoms above the pavement, with the man squatting on her shoulders.

The rope made several gyrations on itself, and Quasimodo beheld horrible convulsions run along the gypsy's body. The priest, on his side, with outstretched neck and eyes starting from his head, contemplated this horrible group of the man and the young girl,--the spider and the fly.

At the moment when it was most horrible, the laugh of a demon, a laugh which one can only give vent to when one is no longer human, burst forth on the priest's livid face.

Quasimodo did not hear that laugh, but he saw it.

The bellringer retreated several paces behind the archdeacon, and suddenly hurling himself upon him with fury, with his huge hands he pushed him by the back over into the abyss over which Dom Claude was leaning.

The priest shrieked: "Damnation!" and fell.

The spout, above which he had stood, arrested him in his fall. He clung to it with desperate hands, and, at the moment when he opened his mouth to utter a second cry, he beheld the formidable and avenging face of Quasimodo thrust over the edge of the balustrade above his head.

Then he was silent.

The abyss was there below him. A fall of more than two hundred feet and the pavement.

In this terrible situation, the archdeacon said not a word, uttered not a groan. He merely writhed upon the spout, with incredible efforts to climb up again; but his hands had no hold on the granite, his feet slid along the blackened wall without catching fast. People who have ascended the towers of Notre-Dame know that there is a swell of the stone immediately beneath the balustrade. It was on this retreating angle that miserable archdeacon exhausted himself. He had not to deal with a perpendicular wall, but with one which sloped away beneath him.

Quasimodo had but to stretch out his hand in order to draw him from the gulf; but he did not even look at him. He was looking at the Grève. He was looking at the gallows. He was looking at the gypsy.

The deaf man was leaning, with his elbows on the balustrade, at the spot where the archdeacon had been a moment before, and there, never detaching his gaze from the only object which existed for him in the world at that moment, he remained motionless and mute, like a man struck by lightning, and a long stream of tears flowed in silence from that eye which, up to that time, had never shed but one tear.

Meanwhile, the archdeacon was panting. His bald brow was dripping with perspiration, his nails were bleeding against the stones, his knees were flayed by the wall.

He heard his cassock, which was caught on the spout, crack and rip at every jerk that he gave it. To complete his misfortune, this spout ended in a leaden pipe which bent under the weight of his body. The archdeacon felt this pipe slowly giving way. The miserable man said to himself that, when his hands should be worn out with fatigue, when his cassock should tear asunder, when the lead should give way, he would be obliged to fall, and terror seized upon his very vitals.

同类推荐
  • Volume Seven

    Volume Seven

    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。
  • The Early Short Fiction Part One

    The Early Short Fiction Part One

    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。
  • 端溪砚谱

    端溪砚谱

    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。
  • 订讹杂录

    订讹杂录

    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。
  • 林间录

    林间录

    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。
热门推荐
  • Sketches of Young Gentlemen

    Sketches of Young Gentlemen

    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。
  • 一键修行

    一键修行

    对于穿越到异世的苏辰而言,修行也蛮简单的,只需以下三步:1,打开小册。2,点击菱形方框内的‘提升’按钮。3,然后坐等功法升到顶级。
  • 腹黑萌宝:总裁爹地请自重

    腹黑萌宝:总裁爹地请自重

    这个男人折磨了她六年,既然不喜欢女人,还要跟她结婚?!以为离婚从此两清,却不曾想,这个男人,竟设下陷阱将她送给别的陌生男人……几年以后她回到这个地方,身边却出现了一个小女孩。这个女孩是谁?她为什么叫他爹地?
  • 天岸升禅师语录

    天岸升禅师语录

    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。
  • 断鸿零雁记

    断鸿零雁记

    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。
  • 凤临天下:摄政王的宠妃

    凤临天下:摄政王的宠妃

    一朝穿越,遇到帝国至高无上的摄政王,她对他一见钟情,公然求婚,“一年之后我们成亲如何?”他淡然偏首,只当她是童言稚语。彼时却并不知道,稳固的心防已经开始慢慢失守。他是雍容儒雅却心深似海的帝师,教导着少年皇帝一步步成长,他的眼里,只有家国天下,从无儿女私情。数年之后,身边聚集桃花,面对集体告白。她淡然一眼瞥过去,发丝轻扬,笑容狂肆,“谁有摄政王的俊美无俦,文韬武略,谁能让本郡主心甘情愿喊一声……本郡主就嫁给他!”最后两个字出口,众家俊男齐齐晕倒。书友群:487939197,欢迎勾搭,新坑已开【辣手狂妃:夜帝,跪下】坑品有保证,请大家多多支持!
  • 山药蛋派作家电影剧作精选集2(山药蛋派经典文库)

    山药蛋派作家电影剧作精选集2(山药蛋派经典文库)

    山药蛋派作家电影剧作精选集编委会编的《山药蛋派作家电影剧作精选集2》收录“山药蛋派”作家胡正、马烽等的电影剧本,有《几度风雪几度春》《叔伯兄弟》《咱们的退伍兵》《黄土坡的婆姨们》等等。该书全面地反映了“山药蛋派”作家在电影剧作方面的杰出艺术成就。
  • 梨园传奇:戏曲脸谱故事

    梨园传奇:戏曲脸谱故事

    浙江文艺出版社编著的《梨园传奇——戏曲脸谱故事》为山海经故事丛书中的一册,为我社早期山海经丛书的再版本。内容均以从民间搜集整理的传说故事为主,且各册都有一个核心的人物或主题,内容丰富,风格活泼,保留了很多的民间智慧,体现了民俗风情与历史面貌。《梨园传奇——戏曲脸谱故事》内容围绕海宁潮主题,将从民间搜集整理的传说故事进行整合。
  • 小米制胜之道

    小米制胜之道

    “小米”成功由点到线,由线到面,形成了幅员辽阔的粉丝沃土。被称为“雷布斯”的雷军,到底让小米吃了什么,才让它在众多大鳄们的眼皮底下一骑绝尘,大有舍我其谁之势?是细节、是创新、是渠道,更是用户体验、是团队协作……总之,它成功逮到了你!本书在综合展现小米特色的基础上,梳理了小米的成功之道,提供了富有借鉴的管理和学习经验;语言轻松活泼,又不乏观点精准,因为我们如小米一般,重视读者的阅读体验。不信?你就试试吧!
  • 拯救上神计划

    拯救上神计划

    新书《影后你马甲又掉了》已经上传,求收求票~~~仙界曾经有三个万年钻石老光棍!丰神俊秀的云水上神一千年前弱水边走了一圈,收了个女徒弟,百年后,结为夫妇,大宴群仙!疏离冷淡的秋木上神五百年前蛮荒边走了一圈,收了个女徒弟,百年后,结为夫妇,大宴群仙!现在,就剩羲煜上神了。。。。~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~治愈系,轻松欢快小甜文,欢迎大家入坑,么么哒建了一个书友群,亲们进来玩吧群号:519271634~~~