ible in the sight
of God, and never to have any other wife, any other child than the
happiness and fortune of his brother. Therefore, he attached himself
more closely than ever to the clerical profession. His merits, his
learning, his quality of immediate vassal of the Bishop of Paris, threw
the doors of the church wide open to him. At the age of twenty, by
special dispensation of the Holy See, he was a priest, and served as
the youngest of the chaplains of Notre-Dame the altar which is called,
because of the late mass which is said there, _altare pigrorum_.

There, plunged more deeply than ever in his dear books, which he quitted
only to run for an hour to the fief of Moulin, this mixture of learning
and austerity, so rare at his age, had promptly acquired for him
the respect and admiration of the monastery. From the cloister, his
reputation as a learned man had passed to the people, among whom it had
changed a little, a frequent occurrence at that time, into reputation as
a sorcerer.

It was at the moment when he was returning, on Quasimodo day, from
saying his mass at the Altar of the Lazy, which was by the side of the
door leading to the nave on the right, near the image of the Virgin,
that his attention had been attracted by the group of old women
chattering around the bed for foundlings.

Then it was that he approached the unhappy little creature, which was so
hated and so menaced. That distress, that deformity, that abandonment,
the thought of his young brother, the idea which suddenly occurred to
him, that if he were to die, his dear little Jehan might also be flung
miserably on the plank for foundlings,--all this had gone to his heart
simultaneously; a great pity had moved in him, and he had carried off
the child.

When he removed the child from the sack, he found it greatly deformed,
in very sooth. The poor little wretch had a wart on his left eye, his
head placed directly on his shoulders, his spinal column was crooked,
his breast bone prominent, and his legs bowed; but he appeared to
be lively; and although it was impossible to say in what language
he lisped, his cry indicated considerable force and health. Claude's
compassion increased at the sight of this ugliness; and he made a vow in
his heart to rear the child for the love of his brother, in order that,
whatever might be the future faults of the little Jehan, he should have
beside him that charity done for his sake. It was a sort of investment
of g