第 五十八 章 · THE MARRIAGE OF PHOEBUS.

. THE MARRIAGE OF PHOEBUS.

Towards evening on that day, when the judiciary officers of the

bishop came to pick up from the pavement of the Parvis the

dislocated corpse of the archdeacon, Quasimodo had disappeared.

A great many rumors were in circulation with regard to this

adventure. No one doubted but that the day had come when, in

accordance with their compact, Quasimodo, that is to say, the

devil, was to carry off Claude Frollo, that is to say, the

sorcerer. It was presumed that he had broken the body when taking

the soul, like monkeys who break the shell to get at the nut.

This is why the archdeacon was not interred in consecrated earth.

Louis XI. died a year later, in the month of August, 1483.

As for Pierre Gringoire, he succeeded in saving the goat, and he

won success in tragedy. It appears that, after having tasted

astrology, philosophy, architecture, hermetics,—all vanities, he

returned to tragedy, vainest pursuit of all. This is what he

called “coming to a tragic end.” This is what is to be read, on

the subject of his dramatic triumphs, in 1483, in the accounts of

the “Ordinary:” “To Jehan Marchand and Pierre Gringoire,

carpenter and composer, who have made and composed the mystery

made at the Châtelet of Paris, at the entry of Monsieur the

Legate, and have ordered the personages, clothed and dressed the

same, as in the said mystery was required; and likewise, for

having made the scaffoldings thereto necessary; and for this

deed,—one hundred livres.”

Phœbus de Châteaupers also came to a tragic end. He married.