She shuddered and turned round; but applause broke forth and drowned the
morose exclamation.

It even effaced it so completely from her mind, that she continued to
question her goat.

"Djali, what does Master Guichard Grand-Remy, captain of the pistoliers
of the town do, at the procession of Candlemas?"

Djali reared himself on his hind legs, and began to bleat, marching
along with so much dainty gravity, that the entire circle of spectators
burst into a laugh at this parody of the interested devoutness of the
captain of pistoliers.

"Djali," resumed the young girl, emboldened by her growing success,
"how preaches Master Jacques Charmolue, procurator to the king in the
ecclesiastical court?"

The goat seated himself on his hind quarters, and began to bleat, waving
his fore feet in so strange a manner, that, with the exception of
the bad French, and worse Latin, Jacques Charmolue was there
complete,--gesture, accent, and attitude.

And the crowd applauded louder than ever.

"Sacrilege! profanation!" resumed the voice of the bald man.

The gypsy turned round once more.

"Ah!" said she, "'tis that villanous man!" Then, thrusting her under
lip out beyond the upper, she made a little pout, which appeared to
be familiar to her, executed a pirouette on her heel, and set about
collecting in her tambourine the gifts of the multitude.

Big blanks, little blanks, targes* and eagle liards showered into it.

* A blank: an old French coin; six blanks were worth two sous
and a half; targe, an ancient coin of Burgundy, a farthing.

All at once, she passed in front of Gringoire. Gringoire put his hand so
recklessly into his pocket that she halted. "The devil!" said the poet,
finding at the bottom of his pocket the reality, that is, to say, a
void. In the meantime, the pretty girl stood there, gazing at him
with her big eyes, and holding out her tambourine to him and waiting.
Gringoire broke into a violent perspiration.

If he had all Peru in his pocket, he would certainly have given it to
the dancer; but Gringoire had not Peru, and, moreover, America had not
yet been discovered.

Happily, an unexpected incident came to his rescue.

"Will you take yourself off, you Egyptian grasshopper?" cried a sharp
voice, which proceeded from the darkest corner of the Place.

The young girl turned round in affright. It was no longer the voice of
the bald man; it was the voice of a woman, bigoted and malicious.

However,