The man who wrote that word upon the wall disappeared from the midst of the generations of man many centuries ago the word, in its turn, has been effaced from the wall of the church the church will, perhaps, itself soon disappear from the face of the earth. Thus, with the exception of the fragile memory which the author of this book here consecrates to it, there remains to-day nothing whatever of the mysterious word engraved within the gloomy tower of Notre-Dame,–nothing of the destiny which it so sadly summed up. The priest whitewashes them, the archdeacon scrapes them down then the populace arrives and demolishes them. Mutilations come to them from every quarter, from within as well as from without. For it is thus that people have been in the habit of proceeding with the marvellous churches of the Middle Ages for the last two hundred years. He questioned himself he sought to divine who could have been that soul in torment which had not been willing to quit this world without leaving this stigma of crime or unhappiness upon the brow of the ancient church.Īfterwards, the wall was whitewashed or scraped down, I know not which, and the inscription disappeared. These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic caligraphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as though with the purpose of revealing that it had been a hand of the Middle Ages which had inscribed them there, and especially the fatal and melancholy meaning contained in them, struck the author deeply. (Dante.)Ī few years ago, while visiting or, rather, rummaging about Notre-Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure nook of one of the towers, the following word, engraved by hand upon the wall:– THE RETREAT IN WHICH MONSIEUR LOUIS OF FRANCE SAYS HISĬHAPTER II. GRINGOIRE HAS MANY GOOD IDEAS IN SUCCESSION. CONTINUATION OF THE KEY TO THE RED DOORĬHAPTER I. THREE HUMAN HEARTS DIFFERENTLY CONSTRUCTEDĬHAPTER VI. LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA-LEAVE ALL HOPE BEHIND, YE WHOĬHAPTER VI. END OF THE CROWN WHICH WAS TURNED INTO A DRY LEAFĬHAPTER IV. CONTINUATION OF THE CROWN WHICH WAS CHANGED INTO A DRY LEAFĬHAPTER III. THE CROWN CHANGED INTO A DRY LEAFĬHAPTER II. THE UTILITY OF WINDOWS WHICH OPEN ON THE RIVERĬHAPTER I. THE EFFECT WHICH SEVEN OATHS IN THE OPEN AIR CAN PRODUCEĬHAPTER VIII. A PRIEST AND A PHILOSOPHER ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGSĬHAPTER VI. THE DANGER OF CONFIDING ONE’S SECRET TO A GOATĬHAPTER II.
HISTORY OF A LEAVENED CAKE OF MAIZEĬHAPTER I. AN IMPARTIAL GLANCE AT THE ANCIENT MAGISTRACYĬHAPTER III. IMMANIS PECORIS CUSTOS, IMMANIOR IPSEĬHAPTER I. THE INCONVENIENCES OF FOLLOWING A PRETTY WOMAN THROUGH THEĬHAPTER III.
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