Notre-Dame de Paris · Chapter
End of the Crown Which Was Turned Into a Dry Leaf explained
Esmeralda, having confessed under torture, is brought back to the audience hall for sentencing.
What happens
Esmeralda, having confessed under torture, is brought back to the audience hall for sentencing. The judges, impatient for supper, rush through the proceedings. Charmolue delivers a bombastic Latin oration, and the goat Djali inadvertently mimics his gestures, which is taken as further proof of witchcraft. Her lawyer's plea for a fine is dismissed, and she is condemned to death by hanging, along with her goat, for sorcery, debauchery, and murder.
Themes in this chapter
Social Injustice and Class
Esmeralda, a poor Bohemian outsider, is swiftly condemned by a court more concerned with supper than justice, highlighting class-based inequity.
Religion and Hypocrisy
The ecclesiastical court uses religious authority to condemn Esmeralda, while the judges' impatience and Charmolue's theatrical oratory reveal their hypocrisy.
Characters to notice
- La Esmeralda
The accused, pale and limping after torture, confesses and is condemned to death.
- Master Jacques Charmolue
The king's procurator in the ecclesiastical court, who delivers a lengthy Latin oration and points to the goat as evidence of Satan's presence.
- Djali
Esmeralda's goat, who mimics Charmolue's gestures, providing what is seen as a final proof of witchcraft.
- Pierre Gringoire
Present in the hall, he sighs at Charmolue's bastard Latin.
- Captain Phoebus de Châteaupers
Mentioned as the victim of the alleged assassination; Esmeralda is condemned for murder upon his person.
Key passages
“When she reentered the audience hall, pale and limping, she was received with a general murmur of pleasure.”
As she came back into the hall, looking pale and walking with difficulty, the crowd murmured with satisfaction.
The audience's pleasure at her return underscores their impatience for the conclusion of the trial.
“Bohemian wench, on the day when it shall seem good to our lord the king, at the hour of noon, you will be taken in a tumbrel, in your shift, with bare feet, and a rope about your neck, before the grand portal of Notre-Dame, and you will there make an apology with a wax torch of the weight of two pounds in your hand, and thence you will be conducted to the Place de Grève, where you will be hanged and strangled on the town gibbet; and likewise your goat; and you will pay to the official three lions of gold, in reparation of the crimes by you committed and by you confessed, of sorcery and magic, debauchery and murder, upon the person of the Sieur Phoebus de Châteaupers. May God have mercy on your soul!”
The president sentenced her to be taken in a cart, barefoot and in her shift, to Notre-Dame to make a public apology with a candle, then to the Place de Grève to be hanged along with her goat, and to pay a fine of three gold lions for her confessed crimes of sorcery, debauchery, and murder of Phoebus de Châteaupers.
The formal sentence details the humiliating public penance and execution prescribed for Esmeralda.