for a burgomaster to eat a spoonful of
soup. Our cause is just, we will plunder Notre-Dame and that will be the
end of it. We will hang Quasimodo. Do you know Quasimodo, ladies?
Have you seen him make himself breathless on the big bell on a grand
Pentecost festival! _Corne du Pere_! 'tis very fine! One would say he
was a devil mounted on a man. Listen to me, my friends; I am a vagabond
to the bottom of my heart, I am a member of the slang thief gang in
my soul, I was born an independent thief. I have been rich, and I have
devoured all my property. My mother wanted to make an officer of me; my
father, a sub-deacon; my aunt, a councillor of inquests; my grandmother,
prothonotary to the king; my great aunt, a treasurer of the short
robe,--and I have made myself an outcast. I said this to my father,
who spit his curse in my face; to my mother, who set to weeping and
chattering, poor old lady, like yonder fagot on the and-irons. Long live
mirth! I am a real Bicetre. Waitress, my dear, more wine. I have still
the wherewithal to pay. I want no more Surene wine. It distresses my
throat. I'd as lief, _corboeuf_! gargle my throat with a basket."

Meanwhile, the rabble applauded with shouts of laughter; and seeing that
the tumult was increasing around him, the scholar cried,--.

"Oh! what a fine noise! _Populi debacchantis populosa debacchatio_!"
Then he began to sing, his eye swimming in ecstasy, in the tone of a
canon intoning vespers, _Quoe cantica! quoe organa! quoe cantilenoe!
quoe meloclioe hic sine fine decantantur! Sonant melliflua hymnorum
organa, suavissima angelorum melodia, cantica canticorum mira_! He broke
off: "Tavern-keeper of the devil, give me some supper!"

There was a moment of partial silence, during which the sharp voice of
the Duke of Egypt rose, as he gave instructions to his Bohemians.

"The weasel is called Adrune; the fox, Blue-foot, or the Racer of the
Woods; the wolf, Gray-foot, or Gold-foot; the bear the Old Man, or
Grandfather. The cap of a gnome confers invisibility, and causes one to
behold invisible things. Every toad that is baptized must be clad in red
or black velvet, a bell on its neck, a bell on its feet. The godfather
holds its head, the godmother its hinder parts. 'Tis the demon
Sidragasum who hath the power to make wenches dance stark naked."

"By the mass!" interrupted Jehan, "I should like to be the demon
Sidragasum."

Meanwhile, the vagabonds continued to arm themselves and whisper