e unexpected abductor of the gypsy, he thought of the
archdeacon. He remembered that Dom Claude alone possessed a key to the
staircase leading to the cell; he recalled his nocturnal attempts on
the young girl, in the first of which he, Quasimodo, had assisted, the
second of which he had prevented. He recalled a thousand details, and
soon he no longer doubted that the archdeacon had taken the gypsy.
Nevertheless, such was his respect for the priest, such his gratitude,
his devotion, his love for this man had taken such deep root in his
heart, that they resisted, even at this moment, the talons of jealousy
and despair.

He reflected that the archdeacon had done this thing, and the wrath
of blood and death which it would have evoked in him against any other
person, turned in the poor deaf man, from the moment when Claude Frollo
was in question, into an increase of grief and sorrow.

At the moment when his thought was thus fixed upon the priest, while
the daybreak was whitening the flying buttresses, he perceived on
the highest story of Notre-Dame, at the angle formed by the external
balustrade as it makes the turn of the chancel, a figure walking. This
figure was coming towards him. He recognized it. It was the archdeacon.

Claude was walking with a slow, grave step. He did not look before him
as he walked, he was directing his course towards the northern tower,
but his face was turned aside towards the right bank of the Seine, and
he held his head high, as though trying to see something over the roofs.
The owl often assumes this oblique attitude. It flies towards one
point and looks towards another. In this manner the priest passed above
Quasimodo without seeing him.

The deaf man, who had been petrified by this sudden apparition, beheld
him disappear through the door of the staircase to the north tower. The
reader is aware that this is the tower from which the Hotel-de-Ville is
visible. Quasimodo rose and followed the archdeacon.

Quasimodo ascended the tower staircase for the sake of ascending it, for
the sake of seeing why the priest was ascending it. Moreover, the poor
bellringer did not know what he (Quasimodo) should do, what he
should say, what he wished. He was full of fury and full of fear. The
archdeacon and the gypsy had come into conflict in his heart.

When he reached the summit of the tower, before emerging from the shadow
of the staircase and stepping upon the platform, he cautiously examined
the posi