was open
and empty. These objects were of so little value that the executioner
had probably not cared for them. The other, which held this one in a
close embrace, was the skeleton of a man. It was noticed that his spinal
column was crooked, his head seated on his shoulder blades, and that one
leg was shorter than the other. Moreover, there was no fracture of the
vertebrae at the nape of the neck, and it was evident that he had not
been hanged. Hence, the man to whom it had belonged had come thither and
had died there. When they tried to detach the skeleton which he held in
his embrace, he fell to dust.

NOTE

ADDED TO THE DEFINITIVE EDITION.

It is by mistake that this edition was announced as augmented by many
new chapters. The word should have been unpublished. In fact, if by new,
newly made is to be understood, the chapters added to this edition are
not new. They were written at the same time as the rest of the work;
they date from the same epoch, and sprang from the same thought, they
have always formed a part of the manuscript of "Notre-Dame-de-Paris."
Moreover, the author cannot comprehend how fresh developments could be
added to a work of this character after its completion. This is not to
be done at will. According to his idea, a romance is born in a manner
that is, in some sort, necessary, with all its chapters; a drama is born
with all its scenes. Think not that there is anything arbitrary in the
numbers of parts of which that whole, that mysterious microcosm which
you call a drama or a romance, is composed. Grafting and soldering
take badly on works of this nature, which should gush forth in a single
stream and so remain. The thing once done, do not change your mind, do
not touch it up. The book once published, the sex of the work, whether
virile or not, has been recognized and proclaimed; when the child has
once uttered his first cry he is born, there he is, he is made so,
neither father nor mother can do anything, he belongs to the air and
to the sun, let him live or die, such as he is. Has your book been a
failure? So much the worse. Add no chapters to an unsuccessful book. Is
it incomplete? You should have completed it when you conceived it.
Is your tree crooked? You cannot straighten it up. Is your romance
consumptive? Is your romance not capable of living? You cannot supply it
with the breath which it lacks. Has your drama been born lame? Take my
advice, and do not provide it with a wooden