Page:Victor Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (tr. Shoberl, 1833).djvu/25

Rh montories into the irregular basin of the Place. In the centre of the lofty Gothic façade of the palace, the grand staircase, with its double current ascending and descending, poured incessantly into the Place like a cascade into a lake. Great were the noise and the clamour produced by the cries of some, the laughter of others, and the trampling of the thousands of feet. From time to time, this clamour and this noise were redoubled; the current which propelled the crowd towards the grand staircase turned back, agitated and whirling about. It was a dash made by an archer, or the horse of one of the provost's sergeants kicking and plunging to restore order—an admirable manœuvre, which the provosty bequeathed to the constablery, the constablery to the maréchaussée, and the maréchaussée to the present gendarmerie of Paris.

Doors, windows, loopholes, the roofs of the houses, swarmed with thousands of calm and honest faces gazing at the palace and at the crowd, and desiring nothing more; for most of the good people of Paris are quite content with the sight of the spectators; nay, a blank wall, behind which something or other is going forward, is to us an object of great curiosity.

If it could be given to us mortals living in the year 1830 to mingle in imagination with those Parisians of the fifteenth century, and to enter with them, shoved, elbowed, hustled, that immense hall of the palace so straitened for room on the 6th of January, 1482, the sight would not be destitute either of interest or of charm; and all that we should have around us would be so ancient as to appear absolutely new. If it is agreeable to the reader, we will endeavour to retrace in imagination the impressions which he would have felt with us on crossing the threshold of the great hall, amidst this motley crowd, coated, gowned, or clothed in the paraphernalia of office.

In the first place, how one's ears are stunned with the noise!—how one's eyes are dazzled! Over head is a double roof of pointed arches, ceiled with carved wood, painted sky-blue, and studded with fleurs de lis in gold; under foot, a pavement of alternate squares of black and white marble. A few paces from us stands an enormous pillar,