The Deacons daughter

Chapter 11

Burning Paris

The next morning in front of Notre Dame stood Phoebus and a couple of guards in front of Frollo's cart, the sky filled with dark clouds.

"Good morning, sir." Phoebus salutes, looking up at Frollo as he opened the door.
"Oh." Frollo moaned, rubbing his eyes, a red tint to them from the smoke.

"Are you feeling alright?" Phoebus asked in false concern.
"I had a little trouble with the fireplace." Frollo explained, squinting his eyes in pain.
"I see. Your orders, sir?" Phoebus asks, wanting to get this done and over with.
"Find the three Gypsy's." He orders as he glares.

The screen shifts to a guard knocking down a door, two guards behind him with their swords drawn.

The open door revealed the baker, looking at the guards in shock as he was in the middle of pulling out a loaf of bread from the oven.

The guards began to pull down the shelves that held all the sweets and breads, destroying everything in their path. They move a barrel off a rug, pulling the rug to reveal a trap door.
They pull it up to reveal multiple gypsies.

The screen shifts to Frollo as he holds out coins to the Gypsies they found.

"10 pieces of silver for the gypsies, Mira, Esmeraldo, and Damica." He bargained. The gypsies frowned and remained silent, causing Frollo to clench his fist and shout.
"Lock them up!"

The guards put them in a cart before rolling them into a river, the door opening and letting out the gypsies.

"20 pieces of silver for the gypsies, Mira, Esmeraldo, and Damica?" Frollo bargained again. The soaked gypsies remained silent.
"Take them away!"

Phoebus narrows his eyes, hugging and shaking his head at the scene in front of him.

The scene changes to an old house with a windmill on it.

"Paul Miller. He's never harmed anyone!" A woman said.
"Frollo's gone mad." Another one commented.
A group of people hid behind a few trees, observing the guards as they ransacked the house.
Two cloaked beggars looked at the scene in curiosity, the cloaks lifted to reveal Esmeraldo and Damica. Two of the three gypsies their after.

"We found this Gypsy talisman on your property. Have you been harboring gypsies?" Frollo asks the man in the house, the man's family hiding behind him in fear.
"Our home is always open to the weary traveler. Have mercy, my Lord." The man begged, grasping Frollo's robe as he glared down at him.

"I am placing you and your family under house arrest until I get to the bottom of this." Frollo tells him, not showing a care in the world.
"If what you say is true and you are innocent, then you have nothing to fear."
The man looks at Frollo in shock as he leaves the house.
"But we are innocent. I assure you, we know nothing of these gypsies." He tells him, getting up and following Frollo and Phoebus out of the house.

Frollo shouts the door in the man's face, putting a spear between the door handle causing the door to stay shut.
Frollo sharply turns towards Phoebus with a scowl "Burn it." He ordered.

Phoebus glared at him "What?" He asked Frollo as the man simply walked over to his horse and hopped on.
"Until it smolders. These people are traitors and must be made examples of." Frollo explained, grabbing a torch and handing it to Phoebus, who glared as he took it.
"With all due respect, sir, I was not trained to murder the innocent." Phoebus tells him.
"But you were trained to follow orders." He tells him pointedly, causing Phoebus to back away slowly, torch still in hand.

Phoebus looks back at the house, then at Frollo with a look of spite, before dunking the torch into a barrel of water.
Frollo glared at this "insolent coward." He then grabbed another torch from a guard and made his horse trot over to the windmill that hung low to the roof. The horse rises up giving Frollo the chance to light the windmill on fire, the fire spreading quickly.