Jewel of his Heart

Chapter 5

The festivities went on until well into the evening. The citizens of Paris returned to their homes and the gypsies were packing up their caravan's and started making their way back to their main camp site outside of the city gates. There was one citizen who remained outside and that was Pierre Gringoire, he was sitting on the steps of the stage in the middle of the square huddling into his thin, ragged cloak trying to keep warm because he had nowhere else to sleep for the night. He watched the gypsies move along then spotted two familiar figures coming up at the back, Esmeralda and Sapphira. He felt an unexplainable compulsion to follow the two girls in the hopes of finding a warm bed amongst the gypsies for the night.

The evening bells rang to let the city know it was now eleven o'clock and unbeknown to everyone a terrible plot was about to be carried out.

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Inside the Cathedral, Archdeacon Frollo mind was consummed thought of a young woman with flowing raven hair, snow white skin and deep blues eyes. He tried to put her out of his mind by using the 'discipline' but that did not help so he had to think of another way. It then occurred to him that if he had rid himself of the one whose image was tormenting him then he could finally live in peace once again and so he had sought the help of two men for hire in order to do this task. He paid them up front with money taken from the church collection whilst no one was around, except he did not count on Quasimodo watching from the balcony up above. As he gave the money to the men they took one look at the amount and were not satisfied.

"It's not enough!" said the tallest man.

Archdeacon Frollo mumbled in response and started digging out more coins, only for the bag to be snatched from his hand but he made no attempt at getting it back from the men. Without another word the men left the Cathedral to carry out their tasked. As Quasimodo watched what was transpiring his instincts told him he had to follow the men and find out what they were up to and that's exactly what he did.

XXX

The two gypsy girls and their animal companions continued on with their journey home with Pierre following closely behind them. As they were getting closer to home they were suddenly attacked by a group of vagabonds in all directions, they screamed in fear.

"HELP! HELP!"

Pierre heard their fearful screams and ran in the direction they were coming from.

"Hey you there! HELP! GUARDS ON THE WATCH!" he exclaimed.

He made the daring attempt in trying to save the two girls, only to be grabbed two of the vagabonds. One held him whilst the other went to stike him with his fist..

Suddenly Quasimodo jumped down from the rooftops letting out an animalistic scream. He sprung in to action by grabbing and throwing the men away from Sapphira whilst Esmeralda and Djali made their escape. Moshi out of loyalty to his mistress hissed at the men before jumping on top of one, biting and scratching. After not putting up much of a fight the men disappeared into the night leaving a frightened Sapphira, a relieved Pierre and a breathless Quasimodo and Moshi. Before either one of them could make a full recovery the sound of horses hooves were approaching them and around the corner appeared the King's Guard led by Captain Phoebus.

"Stop the retches!" he yelled as the soldiers surrounded Quasimodo, Sapphira and Pierre.

Poor Quasimodo backed up against the wall in fear of the soldiers whilst Sapphira and Pierre did their best to reassure him he had nothing to fear but still Quasimodo's fear grew when Captain Phoebus drew his sword and pointed it at him.

"Hold the freak!" he commanded his men.

"No wait officer, he was trying to help!" exclaimed Pierre as he held up his hand in a 'stop' motion.