ed half-past one o'clock in the morning."

"Oh," retorted Gringoire, "'tis no fault of mine, but of the watch and
the king. I have just had a narrow escape. I always just miss being
hung. 'Tis my predestination."

"You lack everything," said the other. "But come quickly. Have you the
password?"

"Fancy, master, I have seen the king. I come from him. He wears fustian
breeches. 'Tis an adventure."

"Oh! distaff of words! what is your adventure to me! Have you the
password of the outcasts?"

"I have it. Be at ease. 'Little sword in pocket.'"

"Good. Otherwise, we could not make our way as far as the church.
The outcasts bar the streets. Fortunately, it appears that they have
encountered resistance. We may still arrive in time."

"Yes, master, but how are we to get into Notre-Dame?"

"I have the key to the tower."

"And how are we to get out again?"

"Behind the cloister there is a little door which opens on the Terrain
and the water. I have taken the key to it, and I moored a boat there
this morning."

"I have had a beautiful escape from being hung!" Gringoire repeated.

"Eh, quick! come!" said the other.

Both descended towards the city with long strides.

CHAPTER VII. CHATEAUPERS TO THE RESCUE.

The reader will, perhaps, recall the critical situation in which we left
Quasimodo. The brave deaf man, assailed on all sides, had lost, if
not all courage, at least all hope of saving, not himself (he was not
thinking of himself), but the gypsy. He ran distractedly along the
gallery. Notre-Dame was on the point of being taken by storm by
the outcasts. All at once, a great galloping of horses filled the
neighboring streets, and, with a long file of torches and a thick column
of cavaliers, with free reins and lances in rest, these furious sounds
debouched on the Place like a hurricane,--

"France! France! cut down the louts! Chateaupers to the rescue!
Provostship! Provostship!"

The frightened vagabonds wheeled round.

Quasimodo who did not hear, saw the naked swords, the torches, the
irons of the pikes, all that cavalry, at the head of which he recognized
Captain Phoebus; he beheld the confusion of the outcasts, the terror
of some, the disturbance among the bravest of them, and from this
unexpected succor he recovered so much strength, that he hurled from the
church the first assailants who were already climbing into the gallery.

It was, in fact, the king's troops who had arrived. The vagabonds