Chapter 46 Notre Dame de Paris (3) Volume VII Fate (5)

five or two men in black The person who came was wearing a black robe with a gloomy expression.Our friend John (who, as might be expected, huddled in a corner and tried to see and hear all that was going on in the closet at will), first noticed that the clothes and faces of the visitors were very shabby, and the faces were slightly shabby. There is a bit of tenderness, but it is a hypocritical tenderness like a cat or a judge, a kind of hypocrisy, a tenderness that makes people feel nauseous.This person has gray hair, wrinkled face, nearly sixty years old, blinking eyes, white eyebrows, drooping lips, and big hands.John saw that the person who came was nothing more than that, that is to say, he was probably a doctor or a judge, and this person's nose was far away from his mouth, which showed that he was stupid.Then John retreated into his hole again, and grieved to himself as he wondered when all this huddling, with such a hideous company, would be over.

The archdeacon did not even stand up to this visitor, but only gestured to him to sit down on a bench by the door, and remained silent for a while, looking as if he were still lost in thought. Then he said to him in a kind of benefactor's tone: "Good day, Mr. Jacques." "Hello, my lord!" The man in black replied hastily. One addressed Monsieur Jacques, the other addressed Monsieur meaningfully. Although the two titles were the same Monsieur, their meanings were vastly different, like a distinguished person called "Your Excellency" and an ordinary man called "Monsieur", master and servant. The difference between people ①.

① The original text is Latin. The archdeacon was silent for a while, Lord Jacques was careful not to disturb him, and then he continued: "Hey, is it done?" "Oh! My lord!" The other party replied with a wry smile. "I keep blowing. There's enough ash. Not even a speck of gold." Don Claude waved his hand impatiently: "That's not what I'm talking about, Mr. Jacques Charmollu, I'm asking about the wizard case you took on. The chief catering of the audit court, isn't your name Is he Marc Senene? ​​Did he confess to being a witch? Did the torture succeed?"

"Oh, no." Master Jacques replied, always with a sad smile on his face. "We haven't had that kind of comfort. The man is a rock, and if he were taken to the pig market and boiled alive, he wouldn't confess a word. But we will do whatever it takes to make him tell." Sincerely. He's all mutilated now. We've used all sorts of torture, as old Plotus the comic clown said: Confronted with goads, knives, crucifixions, chains, Violence, chains, nooses, fetters, pillory. ① But it didn't work at all.This man is terrible, there is really nothing to do with him. "

"Didn't he find anything new in his house?" "Of course I found it." Master Jacques replied, while digging out his trouser pocket. "The parchment was found. There were writings on it that we did not understand. M. Philippe Leliere, the criminal attorney, knew a little Hebrew, which he learned in the case of the Jews in the Rue Condestin, Brussels." ① The original text is Latin. Saying so, Lord Jacques slowly opened the parchment.The archdeacon said at once: "Here." Then, glancing at the scroll, he exclaimed: "Pure sorcery, Monsieur Jacques! Emmand-Edan! This is the vampire's visit to the witch's night." The code word for shouting. By yourself, with yourself, by yourself! ②This is the password to order the hell devil to be locked up again. Haha, haha, maha! This is a medical skill, a prescription for the bite of a rabid dog. Lord Jacques Ah! You are the Inquisitor of the King's Inquisition, and you are heinous with this parchment."

"We still have to torture that guy. And this..." Lord Jacques fumbled in his pocket again. "It was also found at Mark Senena's house." It was a jug, like the bottles and jars on Don Claude's stove.The archdeacon looked at it and said, "Ah! A cauldron for alchemy." "I'll tell you the truth," said Monsieur Jacques with a timid smirk, "I tried it on the stove, but it didn't seem to work any better than my own." The archdeacon studied the jar carefully. "What's on that cauldron? Oh shh! oh shh! A spell to repel fleas! This Marc Senene is a wretch! I'm sure it's a fantasy of yours trying to make gold out of it! Put it in the summer." It's pretty much the same in your bed niche, that's all!"

"We have obviously made a mistake," said the King's Prosecutor. "Before I came up just now, I studied the porch downstairs; can your lordship be sure that the door next to the main palace hospital really symbolizes an open physical book? Of the seven nude statues on the ground floor of Notre Dame, the Is it Mercury with wings on his heels?" "Very well," replied the priest. "That's what Augustine Nefo, the Italian polymath, said. He learned everything from a bearded devil. But it's time for us to go down, and I'll explain it to you."

①The legendary half-dog, half-woman evil ghost who specializes in sucking human blood. ② The original text is Latin. "Thank you, my lord." Charmolue bowed to the ground and said. "That's right, I almost forgot! Excuse me, when will I catch that little elf?" "Which goblin?" "It's the little gypsy girl that adults know who comes to dance in the square every day despite the ban of the Holy See! She has a ghost-possessed she-goat with two devil-like horns, who can read, write, do arithmetic, and calculate. As fine as Picatri. That one goat alone would hang all the vagrant bohemians. The indictment is ready, ready to go, and lo and behold! I bet, What a beauty this dancing girl is, with those black eyes that are unrivaled in all the world! They are two glorious Egyptian gems! When will we do it?"

The archdeacon turned pale. ① The original text is Latin. "I'll tell you." He stammered, his voice slurred.Then he said emphatically, "Just leave your Marc Senene alone." "Please rest assured, my lord." Charmolue replied with a smile. "I'll have him tied up on a leather bed as soon as I get back. But this fellow is a monster, and even Pierre Totrulu is tired from beating him, and his hands are thicker than mine. Like that wisecracking P. What Lotus said: Tie you up naked, and hang you upside down, which will weigh a hundred pounds. Hang him upside down with a winch and torture him!That's the best way we can do it, we must let him try it out. "

Don Claude looked gloomy and seemed absent-minded.Turning suddenly, he said to Charmolue: "Monsieur Pierre... Monsieur Jacques, I mean, leave your Marc Senene alone!" "Yes, yes, Don Claude. Poor fellow! He should have suffered like Mumor. He was lucky enough to think of it, to go to the witch's night! As a steward of the Auditorium, he should know Charlemagne's literature is either a vampire or a murderer! As for that little girl, everyone calls her Esmeralda, I am waiting for your lord's orders. Ah! Please tell me when you pass the porch later What is the meaning of the flat-faced gardener at the entrance of the church? Could it be the sower! . . . Hey! What are you thinking, my lord?"

Don Claude, thinking only of his own thoughts, did not listen to what he was saying.Charmolue followed Claude's line of sight and found that he was staring directly at a large spider web in the window opening.Just at this moment, a fly, looking for the sunshine of March, became dazed, bumped into the spider's web and got stuck.As soon as the spider web vibrated, the big spider rushed out of its small room in the center of the web, swooped at the fly, snapped the fly in two with its two front tentacles, and at the same time pierced its ugly proboscis into the fly's head ."Poor fly!" said the king's procurator, and raised his hand to save it.When the archdeacon saw it, he seemed to wake up suddenly, his whole body convulsed violently, he grabbed his arm tightly, and said: "Lord Jacques, let fate be the master!" The Prosecutor of the Holy See turned his head, astonished.He felt as if his arms were being clamped in iron vices.The priest's eyes were fixed, frightened, and gleaming, fixed on the frightful pair of flies and spiders. ① The original text is Latin. ② Mumor: Unknown. ③ Refers to God. "Ah! yes," continued the priest, with a voice that seemed to come from within him. "This is the symbol of all things. The fly is just born, very happy, flying here and there; it looks for spring, it looks for openness, it looks for freedom; oh yes, but it is fate, and it just hits the lattice window , the spider sprang out, that hideous spider! Poor dancer! Poor, damned fly! Monsieur Jacques, let it go! This is fate! ... Alas! Claude, you are the spider, Claude, You are also a fly!... You fly to science, to the light, to the sun, you only want to fly to the vast world, to fly to the eternal truth like the broad daylight, but when you fly to the dazzling window, To another world of light, intelligence and science, you blind fly, absurd learned man, you don't see that between the light and you, fate has already stretched a thin cobweb, but you frantically rush Go up, poor lunatic, and now you struggle desperately, your head is broken, your wings are broken, and you are clamped by the iron pincers of fate!... Monsieur Jacques! Monsieur Jacques! Let fate arrange it!" "I assure you, I will never touch it," replied Charmolue, looking at him in bewilderment. "But let go of my arm, my lord, please! Your hand is like a pair of iron pincers." ① Semantic pun.The French word for "fly" is feminine, so "dancing girl" here can refer to both flies and Esmeralda. The archdeacon didn't hear it at all, and still looked at the window and said: "Oh! Absurd! You are so crazy that you want to use your little fly wings to smash through that terrible spider's web, and you think you can fly to the light. Alas! How could you imagine that there is a glass window a little far ahead, this transparent barrier, this crystal wall harder than brass, separates all philosophy from truth, how can you cross it What? Ah, the truth of science! How many philosophers have flown from far away lands, and have been beaten to death! How many systems of all sorts have crashed into this eternal pane of glass and buzzed like flies!" He paused.These last thoughts brought him back to science unconsciously, and he seemed to calm down.Jacques Charmolue asked him: "Hey, my lord, when will you come to help me refine gold? I can't do it all the time." Hearing this question, the archdeacon completely returned to reality coming. The archdeacon smiled wryly, shook his head, and said: "Monsieur Jacques, read the book "The Dialogue of the Energy and the Magic of the Ghost" by Michel Pouchéru. What we have done is not quite innocent." "Be quiet, my lord! I expected that too," said Charmolue. "However, when you are only the King's Prosecutor of the Holy See, with an annual salary of only thirty tures, how can you do without some alchemy! We'd better keep our voices quiet." At this moment, there was a sound of chewing food from under the stove. Charmolue, who was already restless, became more nervous and asked: "What noise?" It turned out that the student was hiding under the stove and felt very uncomfortable and bored. He searched around and finally found a piece of old bread and a triangular piece of moldy cheese. As a comfort and a breakfast.He was so hungry that he chewed very loudly, and every time he took a bite, the chewing sound was very crisp and loud, which aroused the vigilance and panic of the prosecutor. ① The original text is Latin. "That's one of my cats. It's eating mice under there, and it's having a good meal." The archdeacon said hastily. After hearing his explanation, Charmolue was relieved. "Actually, my lord," he said with a condescending smile. "All philosophers have their favorite little animals. You know what Servius said: Verily, spirits exist everywhere." At this time, Don Claude, worried that John would come up with some new tricks, reminded the venerable disciple that they still had to go to the porch to study some statues together, so the two walked out of the secret room, the student was relieved, " "Oh," he breathed a sigh of relief, because he was worrying, and he was afraid that his knees would touch his chin, and he would develop calluses.