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+ Hansel and Grethel Near a great forest there lived a poor woodcutter and 
his wife , and his two children ; the boy 's name was Hansel and the girl 's 
Grethel . They had very little to bite or to sup , and once , when there was 
great dearth in the land , the man could not even gain the daily bread . As he 
lay in bed one night thinking of this , and turning and tossing , he sighed 
heavily , and said to his wife , “ What will become of us ? we cannot even 
feed our children ; there is nothing left for ourselves . ” “ I will tell 
you what , husband , ” answered the wife ; “ we will take the children 
early in the morning into the forest , where it is thickest ; we will make them 
a fire , and we will give each of them a piece of bread , then we will go to 
our work and leave them alone ; they will never find the way home again , and 
we shall be quit of them . ” “ No , wife , ” said the man , “ I cannot 
do that ; I cannot find in my heart to take my children into the fo
 rest and to leave them there alone ; the wild animals would soon come and 
devour them . ” “ O you fool , ” said she , “ then we will all four 
starve ; you had better get the coffins ready , ” and she left him no peace 
until he consented . “ But I really pity the poor children , ” said the man 
. The two children had not been able to sleep for hunger , and had heard what 
their step-mother had said to their father . Grethel wept bitterly , and said 
to Hansel , “ It is all over with us . ” “ Do be quiet , Grethel , ” 
said Hansel , “ and do not fret ; 1 will manage something . ” And when the 
parents had gone to sleep he got up , put on his little coat , opened the back 
door , and slipped out . The moon was shining brightly , and the white flints 
that lay in front of the house glistened like pieces of silver . Hansel stooped 
and filled the little pocket of his coat as full as it would hold . Then he 
went back again , and said to Grethel , “ Be easy , dear littl
 e sister , and go to sleep quietly ; God will not forsake us , ” and laid 
himself down again in his bed . When the day was breaking , and before the sun 
had risen , the wife came and awakened the two children , saying , “ Get up , 
you lazy bones ; we are going into the forest to cut wood . ” Then she gave 
each of them a piece of bread , and said , “ That is for dinner , and you 
must not eat it before then , for you will get no more . ” Grethel carried 
the bread under her apron , for Hansel had his pockets full of the flints . 
Then they set off all together on their way to the forest . When they had gone 
a little way Hansel stood still and looked back towards the house , and this he 
did again and again , till his father said to him , “ Hansel , what are you 
looking at ? take care not to forget your legs . ” “ O father , ” said 
Hansel , “ lam looking at my little white kitten , who is sitting up on the 
roof to bid me good-bye . ” “ You young fool , ” said the
  woman , “ that is not your kitten , but the sunshine on the chimney-pot . 
” Of course Hansel had not been looking at his kitten , but had been taking 
every now and then a flint from his pocket and dropping it on the road . When 
they reached the middle of the forest the father told the children to collect 
wood to make a fire to keep them , warm ; and Hansel and Grethel gathered 
brushwood enough for a little mountain j and it was set on fire , and when the 
flame was burning quite high the wife said , “ Now lie down by the fire and 
rest yourselves , you children , and we will go and cut wood ; and when we are 
ready we will come and fetch you . ” So Hansel and Grethel sat by the fire , 
and at noon they each ate their pieces of bread . They thought their father was 
in the wood all the time , as they seemed to hear the strokes of the axe : but 
really it was only a dry branch hanging to a withered tree that the wind moved 
to and fro . So when they had stayed there a long time thei
 r eyelids closed with weariness , and they fell fast asleep . When at last 
they woke it was night , and Grethel began to cry , and said , “ How shall we 
ever get out of this wood ? “ But Hansel comforted her , saying , “ Wait a 
little while longer , until the moon rises , and then we can easily find the 
way home . ” And when the full moon got up Hansel took his little sister by 
the hand , and followed the way where the flint stones shone like silver , and 
showed them the road . They walked on the whole night through , and at the 
break of day they came to their father 's house . They knocked at the door , 
and when the wife opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Grethel she said , 
“ You naughty children , why did you sleep so long in the wood ? we thought 
you were never coming home again ! ” But the father was glad , for it had 
gone to his heart to leave them both in the woods alone . Not very long after 
that there was again great scarcity in those parts , and the childr
 en heard their mother say at night in bed to their father , “ Everything is 
finished up ; we have only half a loaf , and after that the tale comes to an 
end . The children must be off ; we will take them farther into the wood this 
time , so that they shall not be able to find the way back again ; there is no 
other way to manage . ” The man felt sad at heart , and he thought , “ It 
would better to share one 's last morsel with one 's children . ” But the 
wife would listen to nothing that he said , but scolded and reproached him . He 
who says A must say B too , and when a man has given in once he has to do it a 
second time . But the children were not asleep , and had heard all the talk . 
When the parents had gone to sleep Hansel got up to go out and get more flint 
stones , as he did before , but the wife had locked the door , and Hansel could 
not get out ; but he comforted his little sister , and said , “ Do n't cry , 
Grethel , and go to sleep quietly , and God will help us 
 . ” Early the next morning the wife came and pulled the children out of bed 
. She gave them each a little piece of “ bread -less than before ; and on the 
way to the wood Hansel crumbled the bread in his pocket , and often stopped to 
throw a crumb on the ground . “ Hansel , what are you stopping behind and 
staring for ? ” said the father . “ I am looking at my little pigeon 
sitting on the roof , to say good-bye to me , ” answered Hansel . “ You 
fool , ” said the wife , “ that is no pigeon , but the morning sun shining 
on the chimney pots . ” Hansel went on as before , and strewed bread crumbs 
all along the road . The woman led the children far into the wood , where they 
had never been before in all their lives . And again there was a large fire 
made , and the mother said , “ Sit still there , you children , and when you 
are tired you can go to sleep ; we are going into the forest to cut wood , and 
in the evening , when we are ready to go home we will come and fe
 tch you . ” So when noon came Grethel shared her bread with Hansel , who had 
strewed his along the road . Then they went to sleep , and the evening passed , 
and no one came for the poor children . When they awoke it was dark night , and 
Hansel comforted his little sister , and said , “ Wait a little , Grethel , 
until the moon gets up , then we shall be able to see the way home by the 
crumbs of bread that I have scattered along it . ” So when the moon rose they 
got up , but they could find no crumbs of bread , for the birds of the woods 
and of the fields had come and picked them up . Hansel thought they might find 
the way all the same , but they could not . They went on all that night , and 
the next day from the morning until the evening , but they could not find the 
way out of the wood , and they were very hungry , for they had nothing to eat 
but the few berries they could pick up . And when they were so tired that they 
could no longer drag themselves along , they lay down und
 er a tree and fell asleep . It was now the third morning since they had left 
their father 's house . They were always trying to get back to it , but instead 
of that they only found themselves farther in the wood , and if help had not 
soon come they would have been starved . About noon they saw a pretty 
snow-white bird sitting on a bough , and singing so sweetly that they stopped 
to listen . And when he had finished the bird spread his wings and flew before 
them , and they followed after him until they came to a little house , and the 
bird perched on the roof , and when they came nearer they saw that the house 
was built of bread , and roofed with cakes ; and the window was of transparent 
sugar . “ We will have some of this , ” said Hansel , “ and make a fine 
meal . I will eat a piece of the roof , Grethel , and you can have some of the 
window-that will taste sweet . ” So Hansel reached up and broke off a bit of 
the roof , just to see how it tasted , and Grethel stood by the w
 indow and gnawed at it . Then they heard a thin voice call out from inside , 
“ Nibble , nibble , like a mouse , Who is nibbling at my house ? ” And the 
children answered , “ Never mind , It is the wind . ” And they went on 
eating , never disturbing themselves . Hansel , who found that the roof tasted 
very nice , took down a great piece of it , and Grethel pulled out a large 
round window-pane , and sat her down and began upon it . Then the door opened , 
and an aged woman came out , leaning upon a crutch . Hansel and Grethel felt 
very frightened , and let fall what they had in their hands . The old woman , 
however , nodded her head , and said , “ Ah , my dear children , how come you 
here ? you must come indoors and stay with me , you will be no trouble . ” So 
she took them each by the hand , and led them into her little house . And there 
they found a good meal laid out , of milk and pancakes , with sugar , apples , 
and nuts . After that she showed them two little white bed
 s , and Hansel and Grethel laid themselves down on them , and thought they 
were in heaven . The old woman , although her behaviour was so kind , was a 
wicked witch , who lay in wait for children , and had built the little house on 
purpose to entice them . When they were once inside she used to kill them , 
cook them , and eat them , and then it was a feast day with her . The witch 's 
eyes were red , and she could not see very far , but she had a keen scent , 
like the beasts , and knew very well when human creatures were near . When she 
knew that Hansel and Grethel were coming , she gave a spiteful laugh , and said 
triumphantly , “ I have them , and they shall not escape me ! ” Early in 
the morning , before the children were awake , she got up to look at them , and 
as they lay sleeping so peacefully with round rosy cheeks , she said to herself 
, “ What a fine feast I shall have ! ” Then she grasped Hansel with her 
withered hand , and led him into a little stable , and shut him
  up behind a grating ; and call and scream as he might , it was no good . Then 
she went back to Grethel and shook her , crying , “ Get up , lazy bones ; 
fetch water , and cook something nice for your brother ; he is outside in the 
stable , and must be fattened up . And when he is fat enough I will eat him . 
” Grethel began to weep bitterly , but it was of no use , she had to do what 
the wicked witch bade her . And so the best kind of victuals was cooked for 
poor Hansel , while Grethel got nothing but crab-shells . Each morning the old 
woman visited the little stable , and cried , “ Hansel , stretch out your 
finger , that I may tell if you will soon be fat enough . ” Hansel , however 
, used to hold out a little bone , and the old woman , who had weak eyes , 
could not see what it was , and supposing it to be Hansel 's finger , wondered 
very much that it was not getting fatter . When four weeks had passed and 
Hansel seemed to remain so thin , she lost patience and could wait no
  longer . “ Now then , Grethel , ” cried she to the little girl ; “ be 
quick and draw water ; be Hansel fat or be he lean , tomorrow I must kill and 
cook him . ” Oh what a grief for the poor little sister to have to fetch 
water , and how the tears flowed down over her cheeks ! “ Dear God , pray 
help us ! ” cried she ; “ if we had been devoured by wild beasts in the 
wood at least we should have died together . ” “ Spare me your lamentations 
, ” said the old woman ; “ they are of no avail . ” Early next morning 
Grethel had to get up , make the fire , and fill the kettle . “ First we will 
do the baking , ” said the old woman ; “ I nave heated the oven already , 
and kneaded the dough . ” She pushed poor Grethel towards the oven , out of 
which the flames were already shining . “ Creep in , ” said the witch , “ 
and see if it is properly hot , so that the bread may be baked . ” And 
Grethel once in , she meant to shut the door upon her and let her be 
 baked , and then she would have eaten her . But Grethel perceived her 
intention , and said , “ I do n't know how to do it : how shall I get in ? 
” “ Stupid goose , ” said the old woman , “ the opening is big enough , 
do you see ? I could get in myself ! ” and she stooped down and put her head 
in the oven 's mouth . Then Grethel gave her a push , so that she went in 
farther , and she shut the iron door upon her , and put up the bar . Oh how 
frightfully she howled ! but Grethel ran away , and left the wicked witch to 
burn miserably . Grethel went straight to Hansel , opened the stable-door , and 
cried , “ Hansel , we are free ! the old witch is dead ! ” Then out flew 
Hansel like a bird from its cage as soon as the door is opened . How rejoiced 
they both were ! how they fell each on the other 's neck ! and danced about , 
and kissed each other ! And as they had nothing more to fear they went over all 
the old witch 's house , and in every corner there stood chests of pear
 ls and precious stones . “ This is something better than flint stones , ” 
said Hansel , as he filled his pockets , and Grethel , thinking she also would 
like to carry something home with her , filled her apron full . i ! Now , away 
we go , ” said Hansel , ” if we only can get out of the witch 's wood . ” 
When they had journeyed a few hours they came to a great piece of water . “ 
We can never get across this , ” said Hansel , “ I see no stepping-stones 
and no bridge . ” “ And there is no boat either , ” said Grethel ; “ 
but here comes a white duck ; if I ask her she will help us over . ” So she 
cried , “ Duck , duck , here we stand , Hansel and Grethel , on the land , 
Stepping-stones and bridge we lack , Carry us over on your nice white back . 
” And the duck came accordingly , and Hansel got upon her and told his sister 
to come too . “ No , ” answered Grethel , “ that would be too hard upon 
the duck ; we can go separately , one after the other . â€
  And that was how it was managed , and after that they went on happily , 
until they came to the wood , and the way grew more and more familiar , till at 
last they saw in the distance their father 's house . Then they ran till they 
came up to it , rushed in at the door , and fell on their father 's neck . The 
man had not had a quiet hour since he left his children in the wood ; but the 
wife was dead . And when Grethel opened her apron the pearls and precious 
stones were scattered all over the room , and Hansel took one handful after 
another out of his pocket . Then was all care at an end , and they lived in 
great joy together . My tale is done , there runs a mouse , whosoever catches 
it , may make himself a big fur cap out of it . 
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+ CHAPTER V. RESULT OF THE DANGERS . Gringoire , thoroughly stunned by his 
fall , remained on the pavement in front of the Holy Virgin at the street 
corner . Little by little , he regained his senses ; at first , for several 
minutes , he was floating in a sort of half-somnolent revery , which was not 
without its charm , in which aeriel figures of the gypsy and her goat were 
coupled with Quasimodo 's heavy fist . This state lasted but a short time . A 
decidedly vivid sensation of cold in the part of his body which was in contact 
with the pavement , suddenly aroused him and caused his spirit to return to the 
surface . " Whence comes this chill ? " he said abruptly , to himself . He then 
perceived that he was lying half in the middle of the gutter . " That devil of 
a hunchbacked cyclops ! " he muttered between his teeth ; and he tried to rise 
. But he was too much dazed and bruised ; he was forced to remain where he was 
. Moreover , his hand was tolerably free ; he stopped up his nos
 e and resigned himself . " The mud of Paris , " he said to himself--for 
decidedly he thought that he was sure that the gutter would prove his refuge 
for the night ; and what can one do in a refuge , except dream ? --"the mud of 
Paris is particularly stinking ; it must contain a great deal of volatile and 
nitric salts . That , moreover , is the opinion of Master Nicholas Flamel , and 
of the alchemists-- " The word " alchemists " suddenly suggested to his mind 
the idea of Archdeacon Claude Frollo . He recalled the violent scene which he 
had just witnessed in part ; that the gypsy was struggling with two men , that 
Quasimodo had a companion ; and the morose and haughty face of the archdeacon 
passed confusedly through his memory . " That would be strange ! " he said to 
himself . And on that fact and that basis he began to construct a fantastic 
edifice of hypothesis , that card-castle of philosophers ; then , suddenly 
returning once more to reality , " Come ! I 'm freezing ! " he ejacula
 ted . The place was , in fact , becoming less and less tenable . Each molecule 
of the gutter bore away a molecule of heat radiating from Gringoire 's loins , 
and the equilibrium between the temperature of his body and the temperature of 
the brook , began to be established in rough fashion . Quite a different 
annoyance suddenly assailed him . A group of children , those little 
bare-footed savages who have always roamed the pavements of Paris under the 
eternal name of _gamins_ , and who , when we were also children ourselves , 
threw stones at all of us in the afternoon , when we came out of school , 
because our trousers were not torn--a swarm of these young scamps rushed 
towards the square where Gringoire lay , with shouts and laughter which seemed 
to pay but little heed to the sleep of the neighbors . They were dragging after 
them some sort of hideous sack ; and the noise of their wooden shoes alone 
would have roused the dead . Gringoire who was not quite dead yet , half raised 
himse
 lf . " Ohé , Hennequin Dandéche ! Ohè , Jehan Pincebourde ! " they shouted 
in deafening tones , " old Eustache Moubon , the merchant at the corner , has 
just died . We 've got his straw pallet , we 're going to have a bonfire out of 
it . It 's the turn of the Flemish to-day ! " And behold , they flung the 
pallet directly upon Gringoire , beside whom they had arrived , without espying 
him . At the same time , one of them took a handful of straw and set off to 
light it at the wick of the good Virgin . " S'death ! " growled Gringoire , " 
am I going to be too warm now ? " It was a critical moment . He was caught 
between fire and water ; he made a superhuman effort , the effort of a 
counterfeiter of money who is on the point of being boiled , and who seeks to 
escape . He rose to his feet , flung aside the straw pallet upon the street 
urchins , and fled . " Holy Virgin ! " shrieked the children ; " 'tis the 
merchant 's ghost ! " And they fled in their turn . The straw mattress remained
  master of the field . Belleforet , Father Le Juge , and Corrozet affirm that 
it was picked up on the morrow , with great pomp , by the clergy of the quarter 
, and borne to the treasury of the church of Saint Opportune , where the 
sacristan , even as late as 1789 , earned a tolerably handsome revenue out of 
the great miracle of the Statue of the Virgin at the corner of the Rue 
Mauconseil , which had , by its mere presence , on the memorable night between 
the sixth and seventh of January , 1482 , exorcised the defunct Eustache Moubon 
, who , in order to play a trick on the devil , had at his death maliciously 
concealed his soul in his straw pallet . 
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+ CHAPTER III . _IMMANIS PECORIS CUSTOS , IMMANIOR IPSE_ . Now , in 1482 , 
Quasimodo had grown up . He had become a few years previously the bellringer of 
Notre-Dame , thanks to his father by adoption , Claude Frollo , --who had 
become archdeacon of Josas , thanks to his suzerain , Messire Louis de Beaumont 
, --who had become Bishop of Paris , at the death of Guillaume Chartier in 1472 
, thanks to his patron , Olivier Le Daim , barber to Louis XI . , king by the 
grace of God . So Quasimodo was the ringer of the chimes of Notre-Dame . In the 
course of time there had been formed a certain peculiarly intimate bond which 
united the ringer to the church . Separated forever from the world , by the 
double fatality of his unknown birth and his natural deformity , imprisoned 
from his infancy in that impassable double circle , the poor wretch had grown 
used to seeing nothing in this world beyond the religious walls which had 
received him under their shadow . Notre-Dame had been to him succe
 ssively , as he grew up and developed , the egg , the nest , the house , the 
country , the universe . There was certainly a sort of mysterious and 
pre-existing harmony between this creature and this church . When , still a 
little fellow , he had dragged himself tortuously and by jerks beneath the 
shadows of its vaults , he seemed , with his human face and his bestial limbs , 
the natural reptile of that humid and sombre pavement , upon which the shadow 
of the Romanesque capitals cast so many strange forms . Later on , the first 
time that he caught hold , mechanically , of the ropes to the towers , and hung 
suspended from them , and set the bell to clanging , it produced upon his 
adopted father , Claude , the effect of a child whose tongue is unloosed and 
who begins to speak . It is thus that , little by little , developing always in 
sympathy with the cathedral , living there , sleeping there , hardly ever 
leaving it , subject every hour to the mysterious impress , he came to resemble
  it , he incrusted himself in it , so to speak , and became an integral part 
of it . His salient angles fitted into the retreating angles of the cathedral ( 
if we may be allowed this figure of speech ) , and he seemed not only its 
inhabitant but more than that , its natural tenant . One might almost say that 
he had assumed its form , as the snail takes on the form of its shell . It was 
his dwelling , his hole , his envelope . There existed between him and the old 
church so profound an instinctive sympathy , so many magnetic affinities , so 
many material affinities , that he adhered to it somewhat as a tortoise adheres 
to its shell . The rough and wrinkled cathedral was his shell . It is useless 
to warn the reader not to take literally all the similes which we are obliged 
to employ here to express the singular , symmetrical , direct , almost 
consubstantial union of a man and an edifice . It is equally unnecessary to 
state to what a degree that whole cathedral was familiar to him , af
 ter so long and so intimate a cohabitation . That dwelling was peculiar to him 
. It had no depths to which Quasimodo had not penetrated , no height which he 
had not scaled . He often climbed many stones up the front , aided solely by 
the uneven points of the carving . The towers , on whose exterior surface he 
was frequently seen clambering , like a lizard gliding along a perpendicular 
wall , those two gigantic twins , so lofty , so menacing , so formidable , 
possessed for him neither vertigo , nor terror , nor shocks of amazement . To 
see them so gentle under his hand , so easy to scale , one would have said that 
he had tamed them . By dint of leaping , climbing , gambolling amid the abysses 
of the gigantic cathedral he had become , in some sort , a monkey and a goat , 
like the Calabrian child who swims before he walks , and plays with the sea 
while still a babe . Moreover , it was not his body alone which seemed 
fashioned after the Cathedral , but his mind also . In what condition 
 was that mind ? What bent had it contracted , what form had it assumed beneath 
that knotted envelope , in that savage life ? This it would be hard to 
determine . Quasimodo had been born one-eyed , hunchbacked , lame . It was with 
great difficulty , and by dint of great patience that Claude Frollo had 
succeeded in teaching him to talk . But a fatality was attached to the poor 
foundling . Bellringer of Notre-Dame at the age of fourteen , a new infirmity 
had come to complete his misfortunes : the bells had broken the drums of his 
ears ; he had become deaf . The only gate which nature had left wide open for 
him had been abruptly closed , and forever . In closing , it had cut off the 
only ray of joy and of light which still made its way into the soul of 
Quasimodo . His soul fell into profound night . The wretched being 's misery 
became as incurable and as complete as his deformity . Let us add that his 
deafness rendered him to some extent dumb . For , in order not to make others 
laugh , 
 the very moment that he found himself to be deaf , he resolved upon a silence 
which he only broke when he was alone . He voluntarily tied that tongue which 
Claude Frollo had taken so much pains to unloose . Hence , it came about , that 
when necessity constrained him to speak , his tongue was torpid , awkward , and 
like a door whose hinges have grown rusty . If now we were to try to penetrate 
to the soul of Quasimodo through that thick , hard rind ; if we could sound the 
depths of that badly constructed organism ; if it were granted to us to look 
with a torch behind those non-transparent organs to explore the shadowy 
interior of that opaque creature , to elucidate his obscure corners , his 
absurd no-thoroughfares , and suddenly to cast a vivid light upon the soul 
enchained at the extremity of that cave , we should , no doubt , find the 
unhappy Psyche in some poor , cramped , and ricketty attitude , like those 
prisoners beneath the Leads of Venice , who grew old bent double in a stone
  box which was both too low and too short for them . It is certain that the 
mind becomes atrophied in a defective body . Quasimodo was barely conscious of 
a soul cast in his own image , moving blindly within him . The impressions of 
objects underwent a considerable refraction before reaching his mind . His 
brain was a peculiar medium ; the ideas which passed through it issued forth 
completely distorted . The reflection which resulted from this refraction was , 
necessarily , divergent and perverted . Hence a thousand optical illusions , a 
thousand aberrations of judgment , a thousand deviations , in which his thought 
strayed , now mad , now idiotic . The first effect of this fatal organization 
was to trouble the glance which he cast upon things . He received hardly any 
immediate perception of them . The external world seemed much farther away to 
him than it does to us . The second effect of his misfortune was to render him 
malicious . He was malicious , in fact , because he was savag
 e ; he was savage because he was ugly . There was logic in his nature , as 
there is in ours . His strength , so extraordinarily developed , was a cause of 
still greater malevolence : " _Malus puer robustus_ , " says Hobbes . This 
justice must , however be rendered to him . Malevolence was not , perhaps , 
innate in him . From his very first steps among men , he had felt himself , 
later on he had seen himself , spewed out , blasted , rejected . Human words 
were , for him , always a raillery or a malediction . As he grew up , he had 
found nothing but hatred around him . He had caught the general malevolence . 
He had picked up the weapon with which he had been wounded . After all , he 
turned his face towards men only with reluctance ; his cathedral was sufficient 
for him . It was peopled with marble figures , --kings , saints , bishops , 
--who at least did not burst out laughing in his face , and who gazed upon him 
only with tranquillity and kindliness . The other statues , those of the
  monsters and demons , cherished no hatred for him , Quasimodo . He resembled 
them too much for that . They seemed rather , to be scoffing at other men . The 
saints were his friends , and blessed him ; the monsters were his friends and 
guarded him . So he held long communion with them . He sometimes passed whole 
hours crouching before one of these statues , in solitary conversation with it 
. If any one came , he fled like a lover surprised in his serenade . And the 
cathedral was not only society for him , but the universe , and all nature 
beside . He dreamed of no other hedgerows than the painted windows , always in 
flower ; no other shade than that of the foliage of stone which spread out , 
loaded with birds , in the tufts of the Saxon capitals ; of no other mountains 
than the colossal towers of the church ; of no other ocean than Paris , roaring 
at their bases . What he loved above all else in the maternal edifice , that 
which aroused his soul , and made it open its poor wings , w
 hich it kept so miserably folded in its cavern , that which sometimes rendered 
him even happy , was the bells . He loved them , fondled them , talked to them 
, understood them . From the chime in the spire , over the intersection of the 
aisles and nave , to the great bell of the front , he cherished a tenderness 
for them all . The central spire and the two towers were to him as three great 
cages , whose birds , reared by himself , sang for him alone . Yet it was these 
very bells which had made him deaf ; but mothers often love best that child 
which has caused them the most suffering . It is true that their voice was the 
only one which he could still hear . On this score , the big bell was his 
beloved . It was she whom he preferred out of all that family of noisy girls 
which bustled above him , on festival days. This bell was named Marie . She was 
alone in the southern tower , with her sister Jacqueline , a bell of lesser 
size , shut up in a smaller cage beside hers . This Jacqueline
  was so called from the name of the wife of Jean Montagu , who had given it to 
the church , which had not prevented his going and figuring without his head at 
Montfauçon . In the second tower there were six other bells , and , finally , 
six smaller ones inhabited the belfry over the crossing , with the wooden bell 
, which rang only between after dinner on Good Friday and the morning of the 
day before Easter . So Quasimodo had fifteen bells in his seraglio ; but big 
Marie was his favorite . No idea can be formed of his delight on days when the 
grand peal was sounded . At the moment when the archdeacon dismissed him , and 
said , " Go ! " he mounted the spiral staircase of the clock tower faster than 
any one else could have descended it . He entered perfectly breathless into the 
aerial chamber of the great bell ; he gazed at her a moment , devoutly and 
lovingly ; then he gently addressed her and patted her with his hand , like a 
good horse , which is about to set out on a long journey
  . He pitied her for the trouble that she was about to suffer . After these 
first caresses , he shouted to his assistants , placed in the lower story of 
the tower , to begin . They grasped the ropes , the wheel creaked , the 
enormous capsule of metal started slowly into motion . Quasimodo followed it 
with his glance and trembled . The first shock of the clapper and the brazen 
wall made the framework upon which it was mounted quiver . Quasimodo vibrated 
with the bell . " Vah ! " he cried , with a senseless burst of laughter . 
However , the movement of the bass was accelerated , and , in proportion as it 
described a wider angle , Quasimodo 's eye opened also more and more widely , 
phosphoric and flaming . At length the grand peal began ; the whole tower 
trembled ; woodwork , leads , cut stones , all groaned at once , from the piles 
of the foundation to the trefoils of its summit . Then Quasimodo boiled and 
frothed ; he went and came ; he trembled from head to foot with the tower . The
  bell , furious , running riot , presented to the two walls of the tower 
alternately its brazen throat , whence escaped that tempestuous breath , which 
is audible leagues away . Quasimodo stationed himself in front of this open 
throat ; he crouched and rose with the oscillations of the bell , breathed in 
this overwhelming breath , gazed by turns at the deep place , which swarmed 
with people , two hundred feet below him , and at that enormous , brazen tongue 
which came , second after second , to howl in his ear . It was the only speech 
which he understood , the only sound which broke for him the universal silence 
. He swelled out in it as a bird does in the sun . All of a sudden , the frenzy 
of the bell seized upon him ; his look became extraordinary ; he lay in wait 
for the great bell as it passed , as a spider lies in wait for a fly , and 
flung himself abruptly upon it , with might and main . Then , suspended above 
the abyss , borne to and fro by the formidable swinging of the bell
  , he seized the brazen monster by the ear-laps , pressed it between both 
knees , spurred it on with his heels , and redoubled the fury of the peal with 
the whole shock and weight of his body . Meanwhile , the tower trembled ; he 
shrieked and gnashed his teeth , his red hair rose erect , his breast heaving 
like a bellows , his eye flashed flames , the monstrous bell neighed , panting 
, beneath him ; and then it was no longer the great bell of Notre-Dame nor 
Quasimodo : it was a dream , a whirlwind , a tempest , dizziness mounted 
astride of noise ; a spirit clinging to a flying crupper , a strange centaur , 
half man , half bell ; a sort of horrible Astolphus , borne away upon a 
prodigious hippogriff of living bronze . The presence of this extraordinary 
being caused , as it were , a breath of life to circulate throughout the entire 
cathedral . It seemed as though there escaped from him , at least according to 
the growing superstitions of the crowd , a mysterious emanation which animat
 ed all the stones of Notre-Dame , and made the deep bowels of the ancient 
church to palpitate . It sufficed for people to know that he was there , to 
make them believe that they beheld the thousand statues of the galleries and 
the fronts in motion . And the cathedral did indeed seem a docile and obedient 
creature beneath his hand ; it waited on his will to raise its great voice ; it 
was possessed and filled with Quasimodo , as with a familiar spirit . One would 
have said that he made the immense edifice breathe . He was everywhere about it 
; in fact , he multiplied himself on all points of the structure . Now one 
perceived with affright at the very top of one of the towers , a fantastic 
dwarf climbing , writhing , crawling on all fours , descending outside above 
the abyss , leaping from projection to projection , and going to ransack the 
belly of some sculptured gorgon ; it was Quasimodo dislodging the crows . Again 
, in some obscure corner of the church one came in contact with a s
 ort of living chimera , crouching and scowling ; it was Quasimodo engaged in 
thought . Sometimes one caught sight , upon a bell tower , of an enormous head 
and a bundle of disordered limbs swinging furiously at the end of a rope ; it 
was Quasimodo ringing vespers or the Angelus . Often at night a hideous form 
was seen wandering along the frail balustrade of carved lacework , which crowns 
the towers and borders the circumference of the apse ; again it was the 
hunchback of Notre-Dame . Then , said the women of the neighborhood , the whole 
church took on something fantastic , supernatural , horrible ; eyes and mouths 
were opened , here and there ; one heard the dogs , the monsters , and the 
gargoyles of stone , which keep watch night and day , with outstretched neck 
and open jaws , around the monstrous cathedral , barking . And , if it was a 
Christmas Eve , while the great bell , which seemed to emit the death rattle , 
summoned the faithful to the midnight mass , such an air was spread
  over the sombre façade that one would have declared that the grand portal 
was devouring the throng , and that the rose window was watching it . And all 
this came from Quasimodo . Egypt would have taken him for the god of this 
temple ; the Middle Ages believed him to be its demon : he was in fact its soul 
. To such an extent was this disease that for those who know that Quasimodo has 
existed , Notre-Dame is to-day deserted , inanimate , dead . One feels that 
something has disappeared from it . That immense body is empty ; it is a 
skeleton ; the spirit has quitted it , one sees its place and that is all . It 
is like a skull which still has holes for the eyes , but no longer sight . 
\ No newline at end of file

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 Nil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio . Seneca . At Paris , just after dark 
one gusty evening in the autumn of 18 — , I was enjoying the twofold luxury 
of meditation and a meerschaum , in company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin , 
in his little back library , or book-closet , au troisiême , No. 33 , Rue 
Dunôt , Faubourg St. Germain . For one hour at least we had maintained a 
profound silence ; while each , to any casual observer , might have seemed 
intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that 
oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber . For myself , however , I was mentally 
discussing certain topics which had formed matter for conversation between us 
at an earlier period of the evening ; I mean the affair of the Rue Morgue , and 
the mystery attending the murder of Marie Rogêt . I looked upon it , therefore 
, as something of a coincidence , when the 
 door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance , 
Monsieur G — — , the Prefect of the Parisian police . We gave him a hearty 
welcome ; for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the 
contemptible about the man , and we had not seen him for several years . We had 
been sitting in the dark , and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting a 
lamp , but sat down again , without doing so , upon G. 's saying that he had 
called to consult us , or rather to ask the opinion of my friend , about some 
official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble . " If it is any 
point requiring reflection , " observed Dupin , as he forebore to enkindle the 
wick , " we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark . " " That is 
another of your odd notions , " said the Prefect , who had a fashion of calling 
every thing " odd " that was beyond his comprehension , and thus lived amid an 
absolute legion of " oddities . " " Very true , " said Dupin , as h
 e supplied his visiter with a pipe , and rolled towards him a comfortable 
chair . " And what is the difficulty now ? " I asked . " Nothing more in the 
assassination way , I hope ? " " Oh no ; nothing of that nature . The fact is , 
the business is very simple indeed , and I make no doubt that we can manage it 
sufficiently well ourselves ; but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the 
details of it , because it is so excessively odd . " " Simple and odd , " said 
Dupin . " Why , yes ; and not exactly that , either . The fact is , we have all 
been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple , and yet baffles us 
altogether . " " Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you 
at fault , " said my friend . " What nonsense you do talk ! " replied the 
Prefect , laughing heartily . " Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain , " 
said Dupin . " Oh , good heavens ! who ever heard of such an idea ? " " A 
little too self evident . " " Ha ! ha ! ha ! — ha ! ha ! ha ! —
  ho ! ho ! ho ! " roared our visiter , profoundly amused , " oh , Dupin , you 
will be the death of me yet ! " " And what , after all , is the matter on hand 
? " I asked . " Why , I will tell you , " replied the Prefect , as he gave a 
long , steady and contemplative puff , and settled himself in his chair . " I 
will tell you in a few words ; but , before I begin , let me caution you that 
this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy , and that I should most 
probably lose the position I now hold , were it known that I confided it to any 
one . " " Proceed , " said I. " Or not , " said Dupin . " Well , then ; I have 
received personal information , from a very high quarter , that a certain 
document of the last importance , has been purloined from the royal apartments 
. The individual who purloined it is known ; this beyond a doubt ; he was seen 
to take it . It is known , also , that it still remains in his possession . " " 
How is this known ? " asked Dupin . " It is clearly inferred ,
  " replied the Prefect , " from the nature of the document , and from the 
non-appearance of certain results which would at once arise from its passing 
out of the robber 's possession ; — that is to say , from his employing it as 
he must design in the end to employ it . " " Be a little more explicit , " I 
said . " Well , I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder 
a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is immensely valuable . " 
The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy . " Still I do not quite 
understand , " said Dupin . " No ? Well ; the disclosure of the document to a 
third person , who shall be nameless , would bring in question the honor of a 
personage of most exalted station ; and this fact gives the holder of the 
document an ascendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are 
so jeopardized . " " But this ascendancy , " I interposed , " would depend upon 
the robber 's knowledge of the loser 's knowledge of the robber . Who
  would dare — " " The thief , " said G. , " is the Minister D — — , who 
dares all things , those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man . The 
method of the theft was not less ingenious than bold . The document in 
question—a letter , to be frank—had been received by the personage robbed 
while alone in the royal boudoir . During its perusal she was suddenly 
interrupted by the entrance of the other exalted personage from whom especially 
it was her wish to conceal it . After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it 
in a drawer , she was forced to place it , open as it was , upon a table . The 
address , however , was uppermost , and , the contents thus unexposed , the 
letter escaped notice . At this juncture enters the Minister D — — . His 
lynx eye immediately perceives the paper , recognises the handwriting of the 
address , observes the confusion of the personage addressed , and fathoms her 
secret . After some business transactions , hurried through in his ordinary man
 ner , he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question , opens it 
, pretends to read it , and then places it in close juxtaposition to the other 
. Again he converses , for some fifteen minutes , upon the public affairs . At 
length , in taking leave , he takes also from the table the letter to which he 
had no claim . Its rightful owner saw , but , of course , dared not call 
attention to the act , in the presence of the third personage who stood at her 
elbow . The minister decamped ; leaving his own letter—one of no 
importance—upon the table . " " Here , then , " said Dupin to me , " you have 
precisely what you demand to make the ascendancy complete—the robber 's 
knowledge of the loser 's knowledge of the robber . " " Yes , " replied the 
Prefect ; " and the power thus attained has , for some months past , been 
wielded , for political purposes , to a very dangerous extent . The personage 
robbed is more thoroughly convinced , every day , of the necessity of 
reclaiming 
 her letter . But this , of course , cannot be done openly . In fine , driven 
to despair , she has committed the matter to me . " " Than whom , " said Dupin 
, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke , " no more sagacious agent could , I 
suppose , be desired , or even imagined . " " You flatter me , " replied the 
Prefect ; " but it is possible that some such opinion may have been entertained 
. " " It is clear , " said I , " as you observe , that the letter is still in 
possession of the minister ; since it is this possession , and not any 
employment of the letter , which bestows the power . With the employment the 
power departs . " " True , " said G. ; " and upon this conviction I proceeded . 
My first care was to make thorough search of the minister 's hotel ; and here 
my chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his knowledge 
. Beyond all things , I have been warned of the danger which would result from 
giving him reason to suspect our design . " " But , " said I , " you
  are quite au fait in these investigations . The Parisian police have done 
this thing often before . " " O yes ; and for this reason I did not despair . 
The habits of the minister gave me , too , a great advantage . He is frequently 
absent from home all night . His servants are by no means numerous . They sleep 
at a distance from their master 's apartment , and , being chiefly Neapolitans 
, are readily made drunk . I have keys , as you know , with which I can open 
any chamber or cabinet in Paris . For three months a night has not passed , 
during the greater part of which I have not been engaged , personally , in 
ransacking the D — — Hotel . My honor is interested , and , to mention a 
great secret , the reward is enormous . So I did not abandon the search until I 
had become fully satisfied that the thief is a more astute man than myself . I 
fancy that I have investigated every nook and corner of the premises in which 
it is possible that the paper can be concealed . " " But is it 
 not possible , " I suggested , " that although the letter may be in possession 
of the minister , as it unquestionably is , he may have concealed it elsewhere 
than upon his own premises ? " " This is barely possible , " said Dupin . " The 
present peculiar condition of affairs at court , and especially of those 
intrigues in which D — — is known to be involved , would render the instant 
availability of the document—its susceptibility of being produced at a moment 
's notice—a point of nearly equal importance with its possession . " " Its 
susceptibility of being produced ? " said I. " That is to say , of being 
destroyed , " said Dupin . " True , " I observed ; " the paper is clearly then 
upon the premises . As for its being upon the person of the minister , we may 
consider that as out of the question . " " Entirely , " said the Prefect . " He 
has been twice waylaid , as if by footpads , and his person rigorously searched 
under my own inspection . " " You might have spared yoursel
 f this trouble , " said Dupin . " D — — , I presume , is not altogether a 
fool , and , if not , must have anticipated these waylayings , as a matter of 
course . " " Not altogether a fool , " said G. , " but then he 's a poet , 
which I take to be only one remove from a fool . " " True , " said Dupin , 
after a long and thoughtful whiff from his meerschaum , " although I have been 
guilty of certain doggrel myself . " " Suppose you detail , " said I , " the 
particulars of your search . " " Why the fact is , we took our time , and we 
searched every where . I have had long experience in these affairs . I took the 
entire building , room by room ; devoting the nights of a whole week to each . 
We examined , first , the furniture of each apartment . We opened every 
possible drawer ; and I presume you know that , to a properly trained police 
agent , such a thing as a secret drawer is impossible . Any man is a dolt who 
permits a 'secret ' drawer to escape him in a search of this kind . The 
 thing is so plain . There is a certain amount of bulk—of space—to be 
accounted for in every cabinet . Then we have accurate rules . The fiftieth 
part of a line could not escape us . After the cabinets we took the chairs . 
The cushions we probed with the fine long needles you have seen me employ . 
From the tables we removed the tops . " " Why so ? " " Sometimes the top of a 
table , or other similarly arranged piece of furniture , is removed by the 
person wishing to conceal an article ; then the leg is excavated , the article 
deposited within the cavity , and the top replaced . The bottoms and tops of 
bedposts are employed in the same way . " " But could not the cavity be 
detected by sounding ? " I asked . " By no means , if , when the article is 
deposited , a sufficient wadding of cotton be placed around it . Besides , in 
our case , we were obliged to proceed without noise . " " But you could not 
have removed—you could not have taken to pieces all articles of furniture in 
which
  it would have been possible to make a deposit in the manner you mention . A 
letter may be compressed into a thin spiral roll , not differing much in shape 
or bulk from a large knitting needle , and in this form it might be inserted 
into the rung of a chair , for example . You did not take to pieces all the 
chairs ? " " Certainly not ; but we did better—we examined the rungs of every 
chair in the hotel , and , indeed the jointings of every description of 
furniture , by the aid of a most powerful microscope . Had there been any 
traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect it instantly . 
A single grain of gimlet dust , for example , would have been as obvious as an 
apple . Any disorder in the glueing—any unusual gaping in the joints—would 
have sufficed to insure detection . " " I presume you looked to the mirrors , 
between the boards and the plates , and you probed the beds and the bed clothes 
, as well as the curtains and carpets . " " That of course ; and w
 hen we had absolutely completed every particle of the furniture in this way , 
then we examined the house itself . We divided its entire surface into 
compartments , which we numbered , so that none might be missed ; then we 
scrutinized each individual square inch throughout the premises , including the 
two houses immediately adjoining , with the microscope , as before . " " The 
two houses adjoining ! " I exclaimed ; " you must have had a great deal of 
trouble . " " We had ; but the reward offered is prodigious ! " " You include 
the grounds about the houses ? " " All the grounds are paved with brick . They 
gave us comparatively little trouble . We examined the moss between the bricks 
, and found it undisturbed . " " You looked among D—— 's papers , of course 
, and into the books of the library ? " " Certainly ; we opened every package 
and parcel ; we not only opened every book , but we turned over every leaf in 
each volume , not contenting ourselves with a mere shake , according t
 o the fashion of some of our police officers . We also measured the thickness 
of every book cover , with the most accurate admeasurement , and applied to 
each the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope . Had any of the bindings been 
recently meddled with , it would have been utterly impossible that the fact 
should have escaped observation . Some five or six volumes , just from the 
hands of the binder , we carefully probed , longitudinally , with the needles . 
" " You explored the floors beneath the carpets ? " " Beyond doubt . We removed 
every carpet , and examined the boards with the microscope . " " And the paper 
on the walls ? " " Yes . " " You looked into the cellars ? " " We did . " " 
Then , " I said , " you have been making a miscalculation , and the letter is 
not upon the premises , as you suppose . " " I fear you are right there , " 
said the Prefect . " And now , Dupin , what would you advise me to do ? " " To 
make a thorough re-search of the premises . " " That is absolute
 ly needless , " replied G — — . " I am not more sure that I breathe than I 
am that the letter is not at the Hotel . " " I have no better advice to give 
you , " said Dupin . " You have , of course , an accurate description of the 
letter ? " " Oh yes ! " — And here the Prefect , producing a memorandum book 
proceeded to read aloud a minute account of the internal , and especially of 
the external appearance of the missing document . Soon after finishing the 
perusal of this description , he took his departure , more entirely depressed 
in spirits than I had ever known the good gentleman before . In about a month 
afterwards he paid us another visit , and found us occupied very nearly as 
before . He took a pipe and a chair and entered into some ordinary conversation 
. At length I said , — " Well , but G — — , what of the purloined letter 
? I presume you have at last made up your mind that there is no such thing as 
overreaching the Minister ? " " Confound him , say I—yes ; I ma
 de the re-examination , however , as Dupin suggested-but it was all labor lost 
, as I knew it would be . " " How much was the reward offered , did you say ? " 
asked Dupin . " Why , a very great deal—a very liberal reward—I do n't like 
to say how much , precisely ; but one thing I will say , that I would n't mind 
giving my individual check for fifty thousand francs to any one who could 
obtain me that letter . The fact is , it is becoming of more and more 
importance every day ; and the reward has been lately doubled . If it were 
trebled , however , I could do no more than I have done . " " Why , yes , " 
said Dupin , drawlingly , between the whiffs of his meerschaum , " I 
really-think , G — , you have not exerted yourself—to the utmost in this 
matter . You might—do a little more , I think , eh ? " " How ? — in what 
way ? ' " Why—puff , puff—you might—puff , puff—employ counsel in the 
matter , eh ? — puff , puff , puff . Do you remember the story they tell of 
Abern
 ethy ? " " No ; hang Abernethy ! " " To be sure ! hang him and welcome . But , 
once upon a time , a certain rich miser conceived the design of spunging upon 
this Abernethy for a medical opinion . Getting up , for this purpose , an 
ordinary conversation in a private company , he insinuated his case to the 
physician , as that of an imaginary individual . " 'We will suppose , ' said 
the miser , 'that his symptoms are such and such ; now , doctor , what would 
you have directed him to take ? ' " 'Take ! ' said Abernethy , 'why , take 
advice , to be sure . ' " " But , " said the Prefect , a little discomposed , " 
I am perfectly willing to take advice , and to pay for it . I would really give 
fifty thousand francs to any one who would aid me in the matter . " " In that 
case , " replied Dupin , opening a drawer , and producing a check book , " you 
may as well fill me up a check for the amount mentioned . When you have signed 
it , I will hand you the letter . " I was astounded . The Prefect 
 appeared absolutely thunder stricken . For some minutes he remained speechless 
and motionless , looking incredulously at my friend with open mouth , and eyes 
that seemed starting from their sockets ; then , apparently recovering himself 
in some measure , he seized a pen , and after several pauses and vacant stares 
, finally filled up and signed a check for fifty thousand francs , and handed 
it across the table to Dupin . The latter examined it carefully and deposited 
it in his pocket book ; then , unlocking an escritoire , took thence a letter 
and gave it to the Prefect . This functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of 
joy , opened it with a trembling hand , cast a rapid glance at its contents , 
and then , scrambling and struggling to the door , rushed at length 
unceremoniously from the room and from the house , without having uttered a 
syllable since Dupin had requested him to fill up the check . When he had gone 
, my friend entered into some explanations . " The Parisian police 
 , " he said , " are exceedingly able in their way . They are persevering , 
ingenious , cunning , and thoroughly versed in the knowledge which their duties 
seem chiefly to demand . Thus , when G — — detailed to us his mode of 
searching the premises at the Hotel D — — , I felt entire confidence in his 
having made a satisfactory investigation—so far as his labors extended . " " 
So far as his labors extended ? " said I. " Yes , " said Dupin . " The measures 
adopted were not only the best of their kind , but carried out to absolute 
perfection . Had the letter been deposited within the range of their search , 
these fellows would , beyond a question , have found it . " I merely 
laughed—but he seemed quite serious in all that he said . " The measures , 
then , " he continued , " were good in their kind , and well executed ; their 
defect lay in their being inapplicable to the case , and to the man . A certain 
set of highly ingenious resources are , with the Prefect , a sort of Pro
 crustean bed , to which he forcibly adapts his designs . But he perpetually 
errs by being too deep or too shallow , for the matter in hand ; and many a 
schoolboy is a better reasoner than he . I knew one about eight years of age , 
whose success at guessing in the game of 'even and odd ' attracted universal 
admiration . This game is simple , and is played with marbles . One player 
holds in his hand a number of these toys , and demands of another whether that 
number is even or odd . If the guess is right , the guesser wins one ; if wrong 
, he loses one . The boy to whom I allude won all the marbles of the school . 
Of course he had some principle of guessing ; and this lay in mere observation 
and admeasurement of the astuteness of his opponents . For example , an arrant 
simpleton is his opponent , and , holding up his closed hand , asks , 'are they 
even or odd ? ' Our schoolboy replies , 'odd , ' and loses ; but upon the 
second trial he wins , for he then says to himself , 'the simplet
 on had them even upon the first trial , and his amount of cunning is just 
sufficient to make him have them odd upon the second ; I will therefore guess 
odd ; '—he guesses odd , and wins . Now , with a simpleton a degree above the 
first , he would have reasoned thus : 'This fellow finds that in the first 
instance I guessed odd , and , in the second , he will propose to himself , 
upon the first impulse , a simple variation from even to odd , as did the first 
simpleton ; but then a second thought will suggest that this is too simple a 
variation , and finally he will decide upon putting it even as before . I will 
therefore guess even ; '—he guesses even , and wins . Now this mode of 
reasoning in the schoolboy , whom his fellows termed 'lucky , '—what , in its 
last analysis , is it ? " " It is merely , " I said , " an identification of 
the reasoner 's intellect with that of his opponent . " " It is , " said Dupin 
; " and , upon inquiring , of the boy by what means he effected the t
 horough identification in which his success consisted , I received answer as 
follows : 'When I wish to find out how wise , or how stupid , or how good , or 
how wicked is any one , or what are his thoughts at the moment , I fashion the 
expression of my face , as accurately as possible , in accordance with the 
expression of his , and then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in 
my mind or heart , as if to match or correspond with the expression . ' This 
response of the schoolboy lies at the bottom of all the spurious profundity 
which has been attributed to Rochefoucault , to La Bougive , to Machiavelli , 
and to Campanella . " " And the identification , " I said , " of the reasoner 
's intellect with that of his opponent , depends , if I understand you aright , 
upon the accuracy with which the opponent 's intellect is admeasured . " " For 
its practical value it depends upon this , " replied Dupin ; " and the Prefect 
and his cohort fail so frequently , first , by default of this
  identification , and , secondly , by ill-admeasurement , or rather through 
non-admeasurement , of the intellect with which they are engaged . They 
consider only their own ideas of ingenuity ; and , in searching for anything 
hidden , advert only to the modes in which they would have hidden it . They are 
right in this much—that their own ingenuity is a faithful representative of 
that of the mass ; but when the cunning of the individual felon is diverse in 
character from their own , the felon foils them , of course . This always 
happens when it is above their own , and very usually when it is below . They 
have no variation of principle in their investigations ; at best , when urged 
by some unusual emergency—by some extraordinary reward—they extend or 
exaggerate their old modes of practice , without touching their principles . 
What , for example , in this case of D — , has been done to vary the 
principle of action ? What is all this boring , and probing , and sounding , 
and scr
 utinizing with the microscope and dividing the surface of the building into 
registered square inches—what is it all but an exaggeration of the 
application of the one principle or set of principles of search , which are 
based upon the one set of notions regarding human ingenuity , to which the 
Prefect , in the long routine of his duty , has been accustomed ? Do you not 
see he has taken it for granted that all men proceed to conceal a letter , — 
not exactly in a gimlet hole bored in a chair leg—but , at least , in some 
out-of-the-way hole or corner suggested by the same tenor of thought which 
would urge a man to secrete a letter in a gimlet hole bored in a chair leg ? 
And do you not see also , that such recherchés nooks for concealment are 
adapted only for ordinary occasions , and would be adopted only by ordinary 
intellects ; for , in all cases of concealment , a disposal of the article 
concealed—a disposal of it in this recherché manner , — is , in the very 
first instanc
 e , presumable and presumed ; and thus its discovery depends , not at all upon 
the acumen , but altogether upon the mere care , patience , and determination 
of the seekers ; and where the case is of importance—or , what amounts to the 
same thing in the policial eyes , when the reward is of magnitude , — the 
qualities in question have never been known to fail . You will now understand 
what I meant in suggesting that , had the purloined letter been hidden any 
where within the limits of the Prefect 's examination—in other words , had 
the principle of its concealment been comprehended within the principles of the 
Prefect—its discovery would have been a matter altogether beyond question . 
This functionary , however , has been thoroughly mystified ; and the remote 
source of his defeat lies in the supposition that the Minister is a fool , 
because he has acquired renown as a poet . All fools are poets ; this the 
Prefect feels ; and he is merely guilty of a non distributio medii in t
 hence inferring that all poets are fools . " " But is this really the poet ? " 
I asked . " There are two brothers , I know ; and both have attained reputation 
in letters . The Minister I believe has written learnedly on the Differential 
Calculus . He is a mathematician , and no poet . " " You are mistaken ; I know 
him well ; he is both . As poet and mathematician , he would reason well ; as 
mere mathematician , he could not have reasoned at all , and thus would have 
been at the mercy of the Prefect . " " You surprise me , " I said , " by these 
opinions , which have been contradicted by the voice of the world . You do not 
mean to set at naught the well-digested idea of centuries . The mathematical 
reason has long been regarded as the reason par excellence . " " 'Il y a à 
parièr , ' " replied Dupin , quoting from Chamfort , " 'que toute idée 
publique , toute convention reçue est une sottise , car elle a convenue au 
plus grand nombre . ' The mathematicians , I grant you , have done
  their best to promulgate the popular error to which you allude , and which is 
none the less an error for its promulgation as truth . With an art worthy a 
better cause , for example , they have insinuated the term 'analysis ' into 
application to algebra . The French are the originators of this particular 
deception ; but if a term is of any importance—if words derive any value from 
applicability—then 'analysis ' conveys 'algebra ' about as much as , in Latin 
, 'ambitus ' implies 'ambition , ' 'religio ' 'religion , ' or 'homines honesti 
, ' a set of honorable men . " " You have a quarrel on hand , I see , " said I 
, " with some of the algebraists of Paris ; but proceed . " " I dispute the 
availability , and thus the value , of that reason which is cultivated in any 
especial form other than the abstractly logical . I dispute , in particular , 
the reason educed by mathematical study . The mathematics are the science of 
form and quantity ; mathematical reasoning is merely logic appl
 ied to observation upon form and quantity . The great error lies in supposing 
that even the truths of what is called pure algebra , are abstract or general 
truths . And this error is so egregious that I am confounded at the 
universality with which it has been received . Mathematical axioms are not 
axioms of general truth . What is true of relation—of form and quantity—is 
often grossly false in regard to morals , for example . In this latter science 
it is very usually untrue that the aggregated parts are equal to the whole . In 
chemistry also the axiom fails . In the consideration of motive it fails ; for 
two motives , each of a given value , have not , necessarily , a value when 
united , equal to the sum of their values apart . There are numerous other 
mathematical truths which are only truths within the limits of relation . But 
the mathematician argues , from his finite truths , through habit , as if they 
were of an absolutely general applicability—as the world indeed imagine
 s them to be . Bryant , in his very learned 'Mythology , ' mentions an 
analogous source of error , when he says that 'although the Pagan fables are 
not believed , yet we forget ourselves continually , and make inferences from 
them as existing realities . ' With the algebraists , however , who are Pagans 
themselves , the 'Pagan fables ' are believed , and the inferences are made , 
not so much through lapse of memory , as through an unaccountable addling of 
the brains . In short , I never yet encountered the mere mathematician who 
could be trusted out of equal roots , or one who did not clandestinely hold it 
as a point of his faith that x2+px was absolutely and unconditionally equal to 
q. Say to one of these gentlemen , by way of experiment , if you please , that 
you believe occasions may occur where x2+px is not altogether equal to q , and 
, having made him understand what you mean , get out of his reach as speedily 
as convenient , for , beyond doubt , he will endeavor to knock you d
 own . " I mean to say , " continued Dupin , while I merely laughed at his last 
observations , " that if the Minister had been no more than a mathematician , 
the Prefect would have been under no necessity of giving me this check . I know 
him , however , as both mathematician and poet , and my measures were adapted 
to his capacity , with reference to the circumstances by which he was 
surrounded . I knew him as a courtier , too , and as a bold intriguant . Such a 
man , I considered , could not fail to be aware of the ordinary policial modes 
of action . He could not have failed to anticipate—and events have proved 
that he did not fail to anticipate—the waylayings to which he was subjected . 
He must have foreseen , I reflected , the secret investigations of his premises 
. His frequent absences from home at night , which were hailed by the Prefect 
as certain aids to his success , I regarded only as ruses , to afford 
opportunity for thorough search to the police , and thus the sooner t
 o impress them with the conviction to which G — — , in fact , did finally 
arrive—the conviction that the letter was not upon the premises . I felt , 
also , that the whole train of thought , which I was at some pains in detailing 
to you just now , concerning the invariable principle of policial action in 
searches for articles concealed—I felt that this whole train of thought would 
necessarily pass through the mind of the Minister . It would imperatively lead 
him to despise all the ordinary nooks of concealment . He could not , I 
reflected , be so weak as not to see that the most intricate and remote recess 
of his hotel would be as open as his commonest closets to the eyes , to the 
probes , to the gimlets , and to the microscopes of the Prefect . I saw , in 
fine , that he would be driven , as a matter of course , to simplicity , if not 
deliberately induced to it as a matter of choice . You will remember , perhaps 
, how desperately the Prefect laughed when I suggested , upon ou
 r first interview , that it was just possible this mystery troubled him so 
much on account of its being so very self-evident . " " Yes , " said I , " I 
remember his merriment well . I really thought he would have fallen into 
convulsions . " " The material world , " continued Dupin , " abounds with very 
strict analogies to the immaterial ; and thus some color of truth has been 
given to the rhetorical dogma , that metaphor , or simile , may be made to 
strengthen an argument , as well as to embellish a description . The principle 
of the vis inertiæ , for example , seems to be identical in physics and 
metaphysics . It is not more true in the former , that a large body is with 
more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one , and that its subsequent 
momentum is commensurate with this difficulty , than it is , in the latter , 
that intellects of the vaster capacity , while more forcible , more constant , 
and more eventful in their movements than those of inferior grade , are yet the 
less
  readily moved , and more embarrassed and full of hesitation in the first few 
steps of their progress . Again : have you ever noticed which of the street 
signs , over the shop-doors , are the most attractive of attention ? " " I have 
never given the matter a thought , " I said . " There is a game of puzzles , " 
he resumed , " which is played upon a map . One party playing requires another 
to find a given word—the name of town , river , state or empire—any word , 
in short , upon the motley and perplexed surface of the chart . A novice in the 
game generally seeks to embarrass his opponents by giving them the most 
minutely lettered names ; but the adept selects such words as stretch , in 
large characters , from one end of the chart to the other . These , like the 
over largely lettered signs and placards of the street , escape observation by 
dint of being excessively obvious ; and here the physical oversight is 
precisely analogous with the moral inapprehension by which the intellect
  suffers to pass unnoticed those considerations which are too obtrusively and 
too palpably self evident . But this is a point , it appears , somewhat above 
or beneath the understanding of the Prefect . He never once thought it probable 
, or possible , that the Minister had deposited the letter immediately beneath 
the nose of the whole world , by way of best preventing any portion of that 
world from perceiving it . " But the more I reflected upon the daring , dashing 
, and discriminating ingenuity of D — — ; upon the fact that the document 
must always have been at hand , if he intended to use it to good purpose ; and 
upon the decisive evidence , obtained by the Prefect , that it was not hidden 
within the limits of that dignitary 's ordinary search—the more satisfied I 
became that , to conceal this letter , the Minister had resorted to the 
comprehensive and sagacious expedient of not attempting to conceal it at all . 
" Full of these ideas , I prepared myself with a pair of green
  spectacles , and called one fine morning , quite by accident , at the 
Ministerial hotel . I found D — — at home , yawning , lounging , and 
dawdling , as usual , and pretending to be in the last extremity of ennui . He 
is , perhaps , the most really energetic human being now alive—but that is 
only when nobody sees him . " To be even with him , I complained of my weak 
eyes , and lamented the necessity of the spectacles , under cover of which I 
cautiously and thoroughly surveyed the whole apartment , while seemingly intent 
only upon the conversation of my host . " I paid especial attention to a large 
writing-table near which he sat , and upon which lay confusedly , some 
miscellaneous letters and other papers , with one or two musical instruments 
and a few books . Here , however , after a long and very deliberate scrutiny , 
I saw nothing to excite particular suspicion . " At length my eyes , in going 
the circuit of the room , fell upon a trumpery fillagree card-rack of pasteboard
  , that hung dangling by a dirty blue ribbon , from a little brass knob just 
beneath the middle of the mantel-piece . In this rack , which had three or four 
compartments , were five or six visiting cards and a solitary letter . This 
last was much soiled and crumpled . It was torn nearly in two , across the 
middle—as if a design , in the first instance , to tear it entirely up as 
worthless , had been altered , or stayed , in the second . It had a large black 
seal , bearing the D — — cipher very conspicuously , and was addressed , in 
a diminutive female hand , to D — — , the minister , himself . It was 
thrust carelessly , and even , as it seemed , contemptuously , into one of the 
uppermost divisions of the rack . " No sooner had I glanced at this letter , 
than I concluded it to be that of which I was in search . To be sure , it was , 
to all appearance , radically different from the one of which the Prefect had 
read us so minute a description . Here the seal was large and bla
 ck , with the D — — cipher ; there it was small and red , with the ducal 
arms of the S — — family . Here , the address , to the Minister , 
diminutive and feminine ; there the superscription , to a certain royal 
personage , was markedly bold and decided ; the size alone formed a point of 
correspondence . But , then , the radicalness of these differences , which was 
excessive ; the dirt ; the soiled and torn condition of the paper , so 
inconsistent with the true methodical habits of D — — , and so suggestive 
of a design to delude the beholder into an idea of the worthlessness of the 
document ; these things , together with the hyper-obtrusive situation of this 
document , full in the view of every visiter , and thus exactly in accordance 
with the conclusions to which I had previously arrived ; these things , I say , 
were strongly corroborative of suspicion , in one who came with the intention 
to suspect . " I protracted my visit as long as possible , and , while I 
maintained
  a most animated discussion with the Minister upon a topic which I knew well 
had never failed to interest and excite him , I kept my attention really 
riveted upon the letter . In this examination , I committed to memory its 
external appearance and arrangement in the rack ; and also fell , at length , 
upon a discovery which set at rest whatever trivial doubt I might have 
entertained . In scrutinizing the edges of the paper , I observed them to be 
more chafed than seemed necessary . They presented the broken appearance which 
is manifested when a stiff paper , having been once folded and pressed with a 
folder , is refolded in a reversed direction , in the same creases or edges 
which had formed the original fold . This discovery was sufficient . It was 
clear to me that the letter had been turned , as a glove , inside out , 
re-directed , and re-sealed . I bade the Minister good morning , and took my 
departure at once , leaving a gold snuff box upon the table . " The next 
morning I called
  for the snuff-box , when we resumed , quite eagerly , the conversation of the 
preceding day . While thus engaged , however , a loud report , as if of a 
pistol , was heard immediately beneath the windows of the hotel , and was 
succeeded by a series of fearful screams , and the shoutings of a terrified mob 
. D — — rushed to a casement , threw it open , and looked out . In the 
meantime , I stepped to the card-rack took the letter , put it in my pocket , 
and replaced it by a fac-simile , ( so far as regards externals , ) which I had 
carefully prepared at my lodgings—imitating the D — — cipher , very 
readily , by means of a seal formed of bread . " The disturbance in the street 
had been occasioned by the frantic behavior of a man with a musket . He had 
fired it among a crowd of women and children . It proved , however , to have 
been without ball , and the fellow was suffered to go his way as a lunatic or a 
drunkard . When he had gone , D — — came from the window , whither 
 I had followed him immediately upon securing the object in view . Soon 
afterwards I bade him farewell . The pretended lunatic was a man in my own pay 
. " " But what purpose had you , " I asked , " in replacing the letter by a 
fac-simile ? Would it not have been better , at the first visit , to have 
seized it openly , and departed ? " " D — — , " replied Dupin , " is a 
desperate man , and a man of nerve . His hotel , too , is not without 
attendants devoted to his interests . Had I made the wild attempt you suggest , 
I might never have left the Ministerial presence alive . The good people of 
Paris might have heard of me no more . But I had an object apart from these 
considerations . You know my political prepossessions . In this matter , I act 
as a partisan of the lady concerned . For eighteen months the Minister has had 
her in his power . She has now him in hers—since , being unaware that the 
letter is not in his possession , he will proceed with his exactions as if it 
was . Th
 us will he inevitably commit himself , at once , to his political destruction 
. His downfall , too , will not be more precipitate than awkward . It is all 
very well to talk about the facilis descensus Averni ; but in all kinds of 
climbing , as Catalani said of singing , it is far more easy to get up than to 
come down . In the present instance I have no sympathy—at least no pity—for 
him who descends . He is that monstrum horrendum , an unprincipled man of 
genius . I confess , however , that I should like very well to know the precise 
character of his thoughts , when , being defied by her whom the Prefect terms 
'a certain personage ' he is reduced to opening the letter which I left for him 
in the card-rack . " " How ? did you put any thing particular in it ? " " 
Why—it did not seem altogether right to leave the interior blank—that would 
have been insulting . D — — , at Vienna once , did me an evil turn , which 
I told him , quite good humoredly , that I should remember . So
  , as I knew he would feel some curiosity in regard to the identity of the 
person who had outwitted him , I thought it a pity not to give him a clue . He 
is well acquainted with my MS . , and I just copied into the middle of the 
blank sheet the words — " ' — — — — Un dessein si funeste , S'il 
n'est digne d'Atrée , est digne de Thyeste . They are to be found in 
Crébillon 's 'Atrée . ' " 
\ No newline at end of file