To Notre Dame
Come, get a sight
Of the young woman
Who dies to-night!
This gypsy woman
Who stabbed, they say,
The handsomest officer
In the King's pay.
In vain did Heaven
Beauty lend her!
Is it possible—
God defend her!—
A soul so black,
An eye so tender!
A frightful thing,
Human nature is so!
The poor unfortunate!
Come, let us go
To Notre Dame
To get a sight
Of the young woman
Who dies to-night!
[The crowd increases; noise; a gloomy procession begins to appear on the Place du Parvis. Rows of black penitents. Banners of La Miséricorde. Torches, archers, officers of the law and the watch. The soldiers disperse the crowd. Esmeralda appears. She wears a chemise; a rope is around her neck; her feet are bare, and she is covered with a long black veil of crape. Following her, come the executioners and the King's officers. As the prisoner reaches the front of the church, a somber chant is heard in the distance, coming from the interior of the church, whose doors are closed.
CHORUS (in the church).
Omnes fluctus fluminis
Transierunt super me
In imo voraginis
Ubi plorant animæ.
[The chant draws nearer. It bursts forth, at length, when near the doors, which open suddenly and discover the interior of the church. It is filled with a long procession of priests in their robes of ceremony; banners are borne before them. Claude Frollo, in sacerdotal costume, leads the procession. He goes toward the criminal.
THE PEOPLE.
Alive to-day, to-morrow dead!
Heaven! thy wings around her spread!