Page:Victor Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (tr. Shoberl, 1833).djvu/31

 THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME. 9

ascertained whether Monsieur St. John is fond of Latin chanted with a Provencal twang."

" And it was to employ those cursed singers of the king of Sicily that he did it! " cried an old woman among the crowd at the foot of the window. " Only think! a thousand livres Parisis for one mass, and granted out of the farm-rent of the sea-fish sold in the market of Paris, into the bargain! "

" Silence! " ejaculated a lusty, portly personage, who was holding his nose by the side of the fishwoman; " how could the king help founding a mass? Would you have him fall ill again? "

" Admirably spoken, sire Gilles Lecornu, master-furrier of the king's robes! " shouted the little scholar clinging to the capital.

A general peal of laughter from his comrades greeted the unlucky name of the poor master-furrier of the king's robes.

" Lecornu! Gilles Lecornu! " cried some of them.

" Cornutus et hirsutus," said anbther.

" Ay, no doubt," replied the little demon of the capital.

"What is there to laugh at? An honourable man, Gilles Lecornu, brother of Master Jehan Lecornu, provost of the king's household, son of Master Mahiet Lecornu, first porter of the wood of Vincennes, all citizens of Paris, all married from father to son 1 "

A fresh explosion of mirth succeeded; all eyes were fixed on the fat master-furrier, who, without uttering a word in reply, strove to withdraw himself from the public gaze; but in vain he puffed and struggled till he was covered with perspiration: the efforts which he made served only to wedge in his bloated apoplectic face, purple with rage and vexation, the more firmly between the shoulders of his neighbours.

At length, one of these, short, pursy, and venerable as himself, had the courage to take his part.

" What abomination! Scholars dare to talk thus to a citizen! In my time they would have been scourged with rods and burned with them afterwards."