re Dame the
prisoner was secure; the cathedral was a sure refuge, all human justice
ended at its threshold.

_IV.--The Attack on Notre Dame_

Quasimodo did not stop running and shouting "Sanctuary!" till he reached
a cell built over the aisles in Notre Dame. Here he deposited Esmeralda
carefully, untied the ropes which bruised her arms, and spread a
mattress on the floor; then he left her, and returned with a basket of
provisions.

The girl lifted her eyes to thank him, but could not utter a word, so
frightful was he to look at. Quasimodo only said, "I frighten you
because I am ugly. Do not look at me, then, but listen. All day you must
stay here, at night you can walk anywhere about the church. But, day or
night, do not leave the church, or you will be lost. They would kill
you, and I should die." Then he vanished, but when she awoke next
morning she saw him at the window of her cell.

"Don't be frightened," he said. "I am your friend. I only came to see if
you were asleep. I am deaf, you did not know that? I never realised how
ugly I was till now. I seem to you like some awful beast, eh? And
you--you are a sunbeam!"

As the days went by calm returned to Esmeralda's soul, and with calm had
come the sense of security, and with security hope.

Two forces were now at work to remove her from Notre Dame.

The archdeacon, leaving Paris to avoid her execution, had returned--to
learn where Esmeralda was situated. From his cell in Notre Dame he
observed her movements, and, in his madness, jealous of Quasimodo's
service to her, resolved to have her removed. If she still refused him
he would give her up to justice.

Esmeralda's friends, all the gypsies, vagrants, cutthroats, and
pick-pockets of Paris, to the number of six thousand, also resolved that
they would forcibly rescue her from Notre Dame, lest some evil should
overtake her. Paris at that time had neither police nor adequate city
watchmen.

At midnight the monstrous army of vagrants set out, and it was not until
they were outside the church that they lit their torches. Quasimodo,
every night on the watch, at once supposed that the invaders had some
foul purpose against Esmeralda, and determined to defend the church at
all cost.

The battle raged furiously at the great west doors. Hammers, pincers,
and crow-bars were at work outside. Quasimodo retaliated by heaving
first a great beam of wood, and then stones and other missiles on the
besiegers. Finally, w