n replied to, and continued,--

"Now, your profession?"

Still the same silence. The spectators had begun, meanwhile, to whisper
together, and to exchange glances.

"That will do," went on the imperturbable auditor, when he supposed that
the accused had finished his third reply. "You are accused before us,
_primo_, of nocturnal disturbance; _secundo_, of a dishonorable act
of violence upon the person of a foolish woman, _in proejudicium
meretricis; tertio_, of rebellion and disloyalty towards the archers
of the police of our lord, the king. Explain yourself upon all these
points.---Clerk, have you written down what the prisoner has said thus
far?"

At this unlucky question, a burst of laughter rose from the clerk's
table caught by the audience, so violent, so wild, so contagious, so
universal, that the two deaf men were forced to perceive it. Quasimodo
turned round, shrugging his hump with disdain, while Master Florian,
equally astonished, and supposing that the laughter of the spectators
had been provoked by some irreverent reply from the accused, rendered
visible to him by that shrug of the shoulders, apostrophized him
indignantly,--

"You have uttered a reply, knave, which deserves the halter. Do you know
to whom you are speaking?"

This sally was not fitted to arrest the explosion of general merriment.
It struck all as so whimsical, and so ridiculous, that the wild laughter
even attacked the sergeants of the Parloi-aux-Bourgeois, a sort of
pikemen, whose stupidity was part of their uniform. Quasimodo alone
preserved his seriousness, for the good reason that he understood
nothing of what was going on around him. The judge, more and more
irritated, thought it his duty to continue in the same tone, hoping
thereby to strike the accused with a terror which should react upon the
audience, and bring it back to respect.

"So this is as much as to say, perverse and thieving knave that you are,
that you permit yourself to be lacking in respect towards the Auditor
of the Chatelet, to the magistrate committed to the popular police
of Paris, charged with searching out crimes, delinquencies, and evil
conduct; with controlling all trades, and interdicting monopoly; with
maintaining the pavements; with debarring the hucksters of chickens,
poultry, and water-fowl; of superintending the measuring of fagots
and other sorts of wood; of purging the city of mud, and the air of
contagious maladies; in a word, with attending conti