Chapter 51 Notre Dame de Paris (3) Volume 8 Gold Coins Turn into Dry Leaves (2)

Two Gold Coins Become Dead Leaves (Continued) The corridors were dark and had to be lit in broad daylight; Esmeralda had been escorted by the hideous-looking arresters, climbed up and down several steps, and was finally pushed forward by the arresters of the Palace of Justice. into a spooky room.This room is circular and occupies the entire ground floor of the tall tower.These towers, today, the old city of Paris has been overwhelmed by the modern high-rise buildings of the new Paris but still soaring into the sky.The tomb-like room had no windows, and no other openings. There was only one entrance, which was low and sealed with an extremely thick iron door.Inside, however, there was no lack of light, for a hearth in the thick wall blazed brightly, and the tomb was brightly lit; a poor candle in the corner was dim by comparison.The iron gate used to close the furnace mouth has been lifted at this time.Reflecting on the dark wall, only the lower end of an iron bar of the gate can be seen, which looks like a row of black teeth, sharp and open, and the whole hearth looks like a mythical dragon's mouth that spews flames.By the light of the fire from the furnace, the female prisoner saw that there were many hideous utensils arranged around the room, and she did not understand what they were for.In the middle of the room lay a leather cushion, almost touching the floor, from which hung a leather strap with a buckle, the top of which was fastened to a brass ring which was bitten by a carved snub-nosed monster on the keystone.The stove was filled with ironing tongs, tongs, and large plow shovels, all of which were burning red in the coal fire.The blood-red light from the hearth illuminated the chilling mass of things in the room.

This barbaric place is actually only called the interrogation room lightly. On the leather bed sat the court-appointed torturer, Pierre Totruu, listlessly.His two servants were two square-faced dwarves with leather bibs around their waists and strips of coarse cloth around their lower bodies, and they were fiddling with the iron tools on the coal fire. The poor girl had worked up her courage to come, but in vain.As soon as I walked into this room, I couldn't help being out of my wits. The constables of the court of justice lined up on one side, and the priests of the Inquisition on the other.A clerk, a writing set, and a desk are arranged in one corner.

Monsieur Jacques Charmolue, with a pleasing face and a smile on his face, approached the Egyptian girl and said: "My dear boy, do you still deny it?" "Yes." She replied, her voice so weak that it was almost inaudible. "In that case," continued Charmolue. "We had to, against our will, It is painful for you to have a more severe interrogation. ... Please sit down on that bed. ...Piera, make room for Mademoiselle, and close the door. " Pierre stood up grumbling, and muttered: "The fire will go out as soon as you close the door." "Well then, my dear, leave the door open," continued Charmolue.

At this time, Esmeralda was still standing there.That leather bed, on which so many unfortunate people had been tortured, frightened her out of her wits.She felt so cold from fear that her bones went cold to the marrow.She stood there, bewildered and transfixed.At a signal from Charmolue, two servants grabbed her and dragged her to sit on the bed.They didn't hurt her, but as soon as these two people touched her, and as soon as the leather bed touched her body, she immediately felt that the blood in her whole body flowed back to her heart.She looked around the room in a daze, and seemed to see all those grotesque instruments of torture coming into motion, coming towards her from all directions, crawling onto her body, biting and pinching.Of all the paraphernalia she had ever seen in her life, those tortured ones seemed to her like bats, centipedes, and spiders among insects and birds.

"Where is the doctor?" asked Charmolue. "Here." A man in a black robe replied.She hadn't spotted the man before. She shuddered. "Ma'am," said the Inquisitor in a friendly voice. "I ask you for the third time, do you still deny the facts against you?" This time, she only had the strength to shake her head, and she didn't even have a voice. "No confession?" said Jacques Charmolue. "I am deeply disappointed, then, but I must do my duty." "Mr. Prosecutor, where do we start?" Pierre asked suddenly. Charmolue hesitated for a moment, like a poet contemplating a rhyme, frowning in half.

"Use the iron shoes first," he said at last. The girl who suffered such misfortune suddenly felt that she was completely abandoned by God and the world, and her head drooped on her chest, like a fallen object, with no support for herself. The torturer and the doctor went up to her together.Meanwhile, the two slaves rummaged through the ugly arsenal. At the crisp crash of the hideous instruments of torture, the unfortunate child shuddered as if a dead frog had been electrified.She muttered to herself, her voice so low that no one could hear her. "Ah, my Phoebus!" Then, like a block of marble again, it was motionless and soundless.It would tear anyone's heart apart from the sight of it, but the judge's heart, which seemed to be a poor sinful soul, standing under the torture of Satan in the little scarlet doorway at the entrance to hell.The saw, the wheel, and the torture rack, that horrible mass of torture-instruments were about to take hold of the poor flesh, and the hands of the executioner and the pincers were about to wreak havoc on the man; It's that gentle, tender, and delicate girl!This is poor grain of millet, to be pulverized by the justice of the world in the cruel mill of torture!

At this time, two of Pierre Totrulu's servants stretched out their calloused hands and roughly took off her shoes and socks, revealing her charming calves and feet.How many times have these legs and feet amazed passers-by with their beauty in the streets of Paris! "It's a pity!" The executioner couldn't help muttering as he looked at such elegant and slender legs and feet.If the archdeacon had been present, he would have thought of the symbolic spiders and flies at this moment.Immediately, through the bewildered cloud before her eyes, the unfortunate girl saw the iron shoes approaching; immediately, she saw that her feet were caught between the iron plates and completely covered by the terrifying torture equipment.At this moment, fear gave her strength.

"Take it off!" she screamed, straightening up with disheveled hair. "Forgive me!" As soon as the words fell, she jumped out of the bed, trying to fall at the feet of the king's prosecutor, but her foot was caught by a heavy iron shoe made of oak and horseshoes, and she fell down all at once. On iron shoes, it is worse than a bee with lead weights on its wings. With a wave of Charmolue's hand, the servant again threw her down on the leather bed, and with his fat hands tied the leather strap hanging from the vault to her slender waist. "I ask you for the last time, do you admit to the crime you accused?" Charmolue still pretended to be kind.

"I am wronged!" "Then, madam, how do you explain the crimes against you?" "Oh, my lord! I don't know." "Then you deny it?" "everything!" "To be executed!" said Charmolue to Pierre. Pierre twisted the handle of the lifting pole, and the iron shoes tightened immediately, and the unfortunate girl let out a scream that no human language can describe. "Stop!" said Charmolue to Pierre, and then to the Egyptian girl: "A confession?" "All moves!" cried the miserable girl. "I'll do it! I'll do it! Spare me!"

Facing the torture, she did not correctly estimate her own strength.The poor child, who had been happy, sweet, and comfortable until then, was overpowered by the first torture. "Out of humanity, I have to tell you," Prosecutor Wang Shang reminded. "Once you confess, you will die." "I wish I could die," she said.As soon as she finished speaking, she collapsed on the leather bed again, dying, and her body was folded in two, allowing her to be suspended by the leather strap fastened around her chest. "Cheer up, beauty, and get over it a little longer." Pierre helped her up,

Said. "You look like a golden sheep hanging around the neck of Monsieur Burgoni." Jacques Charmolue said aloud: "Scribe, write it down quickly. Listen, homeless woman, do you admit to often attending hell's feasts, trolls, and demon walks with evil spirits, masked ghosts, and vampires? Answer quickly!" "Yes," she replied, her voice low enough to be drowned out by gasping. "Do you admit that you have seen Beelzebub, in order to summon a group of demons, do demon tricks, so that the he-goat that only wizards can see appears in the clouds?" "yes." "Do you admit that you worshiped those hideous idols of knights of the Knights Templar, those heads of Beauphomet?" "yes." "Do you admit to having any association with the devil who turned into a goat, who is so often implicated in this case?" "yes." "Finally, do you confess that you murdered and assassinated a captain of the guard named Phoebes de Châtopelle on the night of March 29 this year, using the devil and the ghost commonly known as the wild monk?" Hearing the name, she looked up at the judge with her big dull eyes. There was no twitch, no vibration, no reaction at all. She just replied mechanically, "Yes." Obviously, everything in her heart collapsed. ① The Knights Templar was established in 1119 to carry out various evil activities in the name of defending the Holy Land. Beauforme is an idol worshiped by the Knights.During the reign of Philip IV the Handsome, the order was tortured and outlawed. "Remember, clerk," ordered Charmolue, and then to the torturer: "Put the female prisoner down and bring her back for interrogation." After the prisoner's shoe was taken off, the Inquisitor inspected her foot, which was still numb with pain, and said: "Come! It doesn't hurt very much. You shouted just in time. You may be able to dance, too. beauty!" Then, turning to his accomplices in the Inquisition, he said: "The truth is out at last! What a relief, gentlemen! This lady can testify for us that we have just acted in the most amicable manner."