Chapter 7: The Secret of the Pouch
Let's take a moment to turn your attention to the neighborhood of Grevo Square. Not far from the square, on the west side of the pier, there is a half-Gothic, half-Romanesque Roland Tower. The Roland Tower has a pointed vaulted window hole embedded in the thick wall, facing Grevo Square, with a cross-shaped iron fence running across the opening. The pointed vault window openings are the only place where the old building can let in some air and sunlight, and it is figuratively called the "rat hole".
Readers want to know who lives in the rat hole, and only have to listen to the conversation of the three wives. Judging by the dress of the three ladies over there, the two in front were Parisian locals, and the one in the back was obviously a provincial woman, dragging a fat boy in her hand, and the boy was holding a large loaf in his hand. At this moment, they were talking as they walked along the river bank from the Chartres de Chéres to Grevor Square.
We've got to hurry, Mrs. Mayette. The youngest and fattest of the three said, "I'm afraid it's too late, for we heard at the gates of Châtre that he was about to be brought to the execution table." ”
What do you say, Mrs. Udard?Another Mrs. Gilves said, "He's going to be on the torture table for two hours, and we're in good time." Let's go and deliver bread to the hermit first, dear Mrs. Mayette”
Okay, I'll tell you the story of that poor man. The provincial wife, who was called Mayette, said, and the other two wives listened attentively.
Baggett La Chant-Fleuri was the daughter of the violinist Gubeldeau in the city of Reims, and her mother was a kind woman who taught Baggett how to do needlework and toys. At the time of Jubildo's death, Baggat was still very young, and the mother and daughter lived in great poverty, living on the Folpana street in the slums of Reims. In 1461, at the age of 14, Baggett had a beautiful and beautiful appearance, but he still had to earn money with his mother and live a hard life. One Sunday that winter, we saw her go to church with a gold cross on her chest, and we knew that this girl had fallen. A 14-year-old girl, think about it, the first lover is the Viscount of Golmanteje, the second lover is Henry, that is, the king's knight, the third lover is a deacon with a badge, count them one by one, and the king's servants, the barber of His Royal Highness the Prince, the court chef, etc., and finally she fell into the hands of the old wandering singer and the lamp bearer, and became their **. Ladies!She was only 14 years old. ”
Madame Mayette sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes, and continued, "In 1466, at the age of 20, Baggett gave birth to a daughter, and she was very happy, but her mother died that year, which meant that she had to feed the child alone. She returned to her old business and bought her children a shirt, a hat, a ribbon and a silk headscarf, but never thought of buying herself a quilt. The little girl's name at baptism was Agnès, and her dress was indeed more beautiful than that of a princess, with ribbons and lace, and especially a pair of delicate little shoes on her feet, which Baggett had made with the finest handiwork and the finest embroidery. ”
One day, some strange people came here on horseback, most of them gypsies, who came here to tell fortunes. Those people were stationed outside the city, and the people in the city were running to **, and they were going around telling some ridiculous prophecies. At the same time, rumors spread throughout the city about abducting children, stealing food, and eating human flesh. Poor Bagget, caught by curiosity, took the child to meet the gypsies. The gypsy woman kept praising little Agnès, praising her beautiful feet and beautiful shoes, and ** she would be queen in the future. Bagh Tee mentioned how happy he was, and excitedly carried his daughter home. The next morning, she saw that the child was still asleep in bed, and gently pushed open the door and went out to meet an acquaintance, who wanted to share the good news that her daughter was going to be queen with her friends, but when she returned, she found that the child was gone, and there was nothing else on the bed except a beautiful little shoe that had fallen.
One can imagine what this mother will be in a hurry!She ran out of the room, ran downstairs, and searched everywhere like crazy. She ran all over the city, skewering everywhere, banging on the doors and windows of every house. She stopped every passer-by and shouted, 'My daughter!'My beautiful little daughter!Whoever gives me my daughter, I will go to him as a servant, and serve his dogs, and if he wants to eat my heart, I will let him eat it. 'Udad, I saw a very hard-hearted lawyer friend crying. ”
Mrs. Oudad and Mrs. Gilves sighed in unison, and Mayette calmed down a little, and then said: "When she returned that evening, a woman from the neighbourhood said that she had seen two gypsy women with large bags creeping up the stairs, and had not been long before they ran downstairs. Can you imagine?The young mother was so ecstatic that she ran upstairs like wings, pushed open the door with a bang, and pounced on it. However, she saw something even more terrible—the fresh, pink little Agnès still did not appear, only a little monster with looped legs, one eye, and a hunchback screaming and crawling on the floor!Then the people who came up hurriedly took Xiao Luo away, he must have been a monster born and abandoned by a gypsy woman. The little monster was about four years old, and could only mumble things that people could not understand, and poor mother, all the time kneeling at the heels of her little shoes, that was the only thing that the lovely little Agnès had left her.
The next day, it was discovered that the Gypsies outside the city had moved away, and where they had been stationed, Baggat found a few ribbons pierced by the little Agnès, as well as a few drops of blood and horse dung. Because the night before was a Saturday, it was assumed that the Gypsies had eaten the children during the Sabbath. When Baggett learned of this, she didn't even cry, but her lips moved, as if she wanted to speak but couldn't, and the next day her hair turned gray, and on the third day she disappeared. ”
It's poignant and scary. Mrs. Ouldard reluctantly addressed Mrs. Gilves, and the men went on in silence, with Mrs. Mayette holding up her son's collar to block the wind. At this time, Mrs. Gilves asked, "Does no one know what happened to Bagget?"”
Some say she was seen walking out of Reims, others say she may have jumped into the river and drowned, and others found the lost gold cross, the same jewel that had fallen her in 1461. In the end, this unfortunate mother went to **, whether she was dead or alive, no one knows. Mrs. Mayette replied.
(Tips: The full text ** can be read by clicking on the card at the end of the article).
Mrs. Gilvais couldn't help but ask again, "What about the little shoe?"”
and with the mother he was gone. ”
And what about that little monster?”
Oh, you mean the hunchbacked, one-eyed, loop-legged little monster. Gilves, the bishop of Reims, painted him with a cross, baptized him, removed his demonic energy, sent him to Paris, and finally put him on a small wooden couch in Notre-Dame as an orphan, and I will not know about it again. Mrs. Mayette replied.
At this time, we have arrived at Grevo Square, and the number of people on the other side of the torture table is gradually increasing. The three of them turned to the vicinity of Roland Tower, and they stood on tiptoe and walked gently to the cross-shaped iron fence, and secretly looked inside, as if they were looking at a dying man.
The scene inside was indeed very miserable. In the corner of the bare stone floor, a woman crouched, her chin resting on her knees, her hands tightly crossed and clasped in front of her chest, her whole body curled up. The woman was wrapped in a crumpled brown robe of coarse cloth, and her long gray hair hung down her face and down her legs to her feet. Her blue lips quivered occasionally, and there was a deep, cloudy, blank stare in her dim eyes. Whoever sees this woman will feel like a ghost at first glance and a statue at second sight. She is what people talk about as the hermitage nun because of the coarse cloth robe on her body, and the hermit nun is often called "little sack".
Mrs. Mayette stared straight at the emaciated and emaciated nun in front of her, and when she retracted her head from the window, her face was full of tears. Her son, Estachet, the fat boy, also struggled to climb the boundary stone, tiptoeing to put his chubby face against the window, shouting, "Mom, I saw it too!"”
The clear, fresh, loud voice of the child made the nun tremble violently. She turned her head with difficulty, swept the hair from her forehead back with her two long hands, and fixed her eyes on the child with a startled, painful, disappointed gaze that was like a bright lightning bolt in the darkness.
Oh my goodness!She buried her head in her knees and cried out in pain, "At least don't show me other people's children!"She trembled from head to toe, her teeth rattled as she struggled to press her elbows against her knees, trying to hold them in her hands to keep them warm.
Mrs. Mayette choked up and couldn't speak, and she bent down and shouted to the window, "Baggett!."Baggette la Chantfrary!”
This sound was like a thunderbolt from the sky, and it completely shook the unfortunate woman lying on the ground. She trembled all over, stood straight with her bare feet, her eyes shining, and sprang quickly to the window, where the three ladies and the fat boy were all frightened to avoid her.
The nun's miserable face was pressed against the iron lattice of the window. At this moment, a certain scene on the torture platform in Grevo Square happened to be seen by the hermit nun who rushed to the window, her forehead immediately wrinkled, and she stretched out her arms outside the iron fence, and roared hoarsely: "It is you, gypsy woman!".The woman who stole the child!Wow, you damn it!You damn it!”
On the execution platform, La Esmeralda, who heard this scream, suddenly turned pale and staggered down. "The little sack is losing his temper again. People whispered.
At this time, the time came for Quasimodo to be released, he was removed from the pillar of shame, and the lively people gradually dispersed and left. After visiting the nun, the three wives also left Roland Tower with their children.
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