Page:Victor Hugo - Notre-Dame de Paris (tr. Hapgood, 1888).djvu/165

Rh In the first row, and among those who were most bent over the bed, four were noticeable, who, from their gray cagoule, a sort of cassock, were recognizable as attached to some devout sisterhood. I do not see why history has not transmitted to posterity the names of these four discreet and venerable damsels. They were Agnés la Herme, Jehanne de la Tarme, Henriette la Gaultiére, Gauchére la Violette, all four widows, all four dames of the Chapel Ètienne Haudry, who had quitted their house with the permission of their mistress, and in conformity with the statutes of Pierre d'Ailly, in order to come and hear the sermon.

However, if these good Haudriettes were, for the moment, complying with the statutes of Pierre d'Ailly, they certainly violated with joy those of Michel de Brache, and the Cardinal of Pisa, which so inhumanly enjoined silence upon them.

"What is this, sister?" said Agnés to Gauchére, gazing at the little creature exposed, which was screaming and writhing on the wooden bed, terrified by so many glances.

"What is to become of us," said Jehanne, "if that is the way children are made now?"

"I'm not learned in the matter of children, " resumed Agnés, "but it must be a sin to look at this one."

"'Tis not a child, Agnés."

"'Tis an abortion of a monkey," remarked Gauchére.

"'Tis a miracle," interposed Henriette la Gaultiére.

"Then," remarked Agnés, "it is the third since the Sunday of the Lœtare: for, in less than a week, we had the miracle of the mocker of pilgrims divinely punished by Notre-Dame d'Aubervilliers, and that was the second miracle within a month.

"This pretended foundling is a real monster of abomination," resumed Jehanne.

"He yells loud enough to deafen a chanter," continued Gauchére. "Hold your tongue, you little howler! "

"To think that Monsieur of Keims sent this enormity to Monsieur of Paris," added la Gaultiére, clasping her hands.

"I imagine," said Agnés la Herme, "that it is a beast, an