The vagabonds of the Court of Miracles were preparing for the festivities of Topsy Turvy Day. Adèle and her siblings left the hideout among the first people – they were impatient to see the chaos in the city. They were amazed to see Esmeralda sitting on the street, disguised as an old man.

"What happened?" Adèle asked.

"The guards started harassing me, but a handsome young captain helped me escape", told the dancer with a dazzling smile. Adèle knew her friend was always fascinated with brave men, especially if they had good looks, but now she found it best to warn her.

"A captain? If he is one of Frollo’s soldiers you should be VERY careful!"

Adèle had a brother and a sister, twins Mertzi and Mirette who were fifteen years of age now. Clopin had become the leader of the vagabond community, but the family had also experienced a great sorrow: Charlotte, Clopin’s beloved wife and the mother of the youngsters, had died a year and a half ago. After her death, Clopin had changed a lot: he was hardly ever really serious – except when he told children dark stories – and he no longer interrogated trespassers arriving at the Court of Miracles.

Charlotte had always enjoyed the Feast of Fools greatly, and now that she was gone Clopin and the youngsters felt the day wasn’t the same any more. However, the whole vagabond community was rejoicing, and the leader’s family did their best to hide their sad thoughts.

When it was time to crown the King of Fools, Adèle saw a very strange-looking young man among the crowd. He had covered his head and back with a blue cloth, but he seemed to be hump-backed. He had a strange protrusion above his left eye, and his nose was big and angular. Adèle smiled at him, because he looked benevolent, and for her delight, the young man smiled back.

Right then, however, Esmeralda grasped his hand and drew him on the stage among the competitors. As always, she took all the masks off, and the crowd cheered enthusiastically. But then, the Gypsy girl hastened to the hunchback and tried to detach his mask. The crowd stirred – for now everyone noticed that the mask was his own face!

"That’s no mask!" a man exclaimed in amazement.

"It’s his face! He’s hideous!" continued a woman with fright. Another man recognized the boy.

"It’s the bellringer from Notre Dame!" Adèle was startled and looked hard at the hunchback who, unfortunately, covered his face when realizing he had been recognized.

Where have I seen him before? Clopin was as stupefied as his daughter. Could that be Quasimodo – his adopted son whom he had been bound to give up long ago? He had become big and strong, but his appearance was as peculiar as Clopin remembered. The same morning, he had told the story of Quasimodo’s mother to the children of the city. Now he deliberated what he should say; in fact, he had nothing against the bellringer’s appearance, but he knew most Parisians thought that a face like that was ugly.

Indeed, many people seemed to be even disgusted. So, the Gypsy leader jumped by Quasimodo’s side and exclaimed to the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, don’t panic. We asked for the ugliest face in Paris and here he is: Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame!"

The whole crowd cheered and threw flowers round the young man, and Clopin declared him to the King. He was given a crown and a robe, and the crowd carried him along the streets. All the people hailed the new King, but Minister Frollo was furious.

Adèle was bewildered. That name! It could be no-one else but her beloved little adoptive brother. Memories poured into her mind. She remembered how bitterly she had cried when the vagabonds had left Paris and Quasimodo had stayed in the Cathedral, and how she had got furious when Charlotte had told her she was expecting a baby. "You replace our Quasi with some screaming, dribbling baby!" she had shouted in despair. At first, she hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with her little sister and brother, but as the years had passed, she had learned to love them.

She also remembered that when her family had returned to Paris after four years, she had gone to Notre Dame as soon as possible and asked the friendly archdeacon to take her to Quasi. The priest had agreed, and the children had spent the afternoon together. Quasimodo had been very shy, but Adèle had liven him up and encouraged him. Afterwards, however, Charlotte and Clopin had rebuked her and strictly forbidden her to go to the belltower any more, for they remembered how Frollo had threatened Quasimodo’s life.

The new King of Fools was sitting on the stage, smiling proudly. Suddenly, Frollo’s guards started to mock him and pelt him with fruit. Quasimodo was frightened and fell down, and the soldiers bound him to a rotating platform. Adèle pitied him and looked angrily around; almost everyone was laughing and bullying the bellringer, and Clopin had disappeared. Obviously, he was afraid of Frollo and his guards, as usual.

At the very moment, Adèle heard Quasimodo shout: "Master! Master, please, help me!"

She looked over the platform and saw Frollo among the people watching. Beside him, a pleasant-looking blond officer was sitting on horseback. Now, this man addressed Frollo:

"Sir, request a permission to stop this cruelty."

The Judge replied: "In just a moment, Captain. A lesson needs to be learned here."

Adèle was extremely annoyed. How could that man be so indifferent although the poor bellringer was mocked by the whole crowd? But before she had time to climb on the stage to help the young man, she was startled to see Esmeralda ascend the steps and approach him.

The whole crowd went silent. Esmeralda had always been Adèle’s best friend. Adèle had taken care of her when they had been small, they had always played together, and Adèle had familiarized Esmeralda with the facts about the life of young women. She admired her friend who had become the most beautiful Gypsy girl ever in the Court of Miracles, and Esmeralda, in turn, was deeply affected with her.

Now, Adèle was delighted at her friend’s bravery. It was hard for her to believe that Minister Frollo didn’t care for Quasimodo’s suffering, and she almost laughed when Esmeralda determinedly defied him. But then he ordered Captain Phoebus to arrest the Gypsy girl, and the celebrities changed into an incredible mess.

At first, Esmeralda was irresolute – how could she escape from the soldiers? – but then her friends saw her disappear in an explosion of smoke. Adèle couldn’t help laughing, for the Gypsies had often done the same trick to cheat Frollo’s men. In a moment, however, she noticed there was nothing to laugh at. The guards dashed after Esmeralda who succeeded to escape with the help of the crowd. The blond officer who was chasing her with some of his men was very near getting a hit of a helmet that the dancer threw toward her pursuers. When Esmeralda was approaching Frollo’s stand Adèle threw the guards a staff, and in a moment, the dressing tent crashed down, covering Frollo who wrenched it away, very annoyed.

Meanwhile, Esmeralda and her goat Djali had jumped on the stand behind the Minister, and before he even noticed what was happening, they had disappeared. The crowd cheered. Adèle scouted about for the bellringer, but Mirette and Mertzi urged her to take a flight with them. So, the siblings joined the other vagabonds and hastened back to the Court of Miracles. Adèle went immediately to Clopin.

"I’m so worried about Esmeralda!" she said, "she is headstrong, and I saw she succeeded to escape, but that Frollo…! Did you notice how he looked at her? What about if the guards catch her?"

Clopin was embarrassed. He didn’t want to admit that he was afraid of Frollo and his guards, because his people liked and respected him. He made his best to comfort his daughter: "Adèle, my dear, I’m sure Esmeralda will manage. She is used to defend herself, and Djali will never leave her. Many of our comrades would like to help Esme, but I can’t let them leave because Frollo would surely attack them and could even follow them here – and we all know what that would mean!"

Adèle quivered. Indeed, Frollo had been searching for the Court ever since she had moved there with her mother. She found it best to talk about something else.

"Did you recognize the hunchback who was chosen King? I’m absolutely sure he was our Quasimodo, for no-one else can have a name like that!"

"Yes, of course! Don’t you remember it was I who introduced him to the crowd?"

"But did you REALLY realize who it was? Our boy, our little Quasi whom I loved more than anything! It was awful that Frollo let all the people torment him. I hope I could go to meet him!"

"Darling, I definitely can’t let you go to the city as long as Esmeralda is not safe. Your clothes would make the guards convinced of that you live among the Gypsies, and you would soon be in danger of your life! It’s enough for me to be worried about Esmeralda."

The whole vagabond community was restless about the dancer, but late in the evening, she returned to the hideout and told her friends that she had befriended the bellringer of Notre Dame. Adèle was enthusiastic.

"Tell me everything!" she asked.

Esmeralda described how she had fled in the Cathedral and how Captain Phoebus had surprised her.

"I thought he was going to arrest me, so I attacked him with a big candlestick! But he introduced himself…His name means ’Sun God’." Esmeralda dazzled, but Adèle asked in surprise:

"Did he himself tell you that?"

"Yes, he did, and it’s a beautiful name – although at first I wasn’t interested in his name at all. But he is different from the other guards."

Suddenly, she looked angry. She told how Frollo had opened the door and tried to get her arrested and how Phoebus and the Archdeacon had helped her.

"Djali tossed Phoebus, and he agreed to leave, but right then – AARRGH! – that abhorrent Frollo grasped my belt and made advances to me!" She quivered. "I have never experienced anything so disgusting! He pawed my neck and said he was imagining a rope around it…Think about if he had kissed me!"

"Esmeralda, that’s enough, don’t make me furious!" exclaimed Adèle, turning pale. "Please, tell me about the bellringer! What is he like?"

The dancer smiled, abatedly. "Quasimodo heard me pray and came down from the tower, and I followed him back there. He is very shy, so he tried to flee, but I caught him on the stairs. In the belltower I saw a whole miniature world he has made. It’s incredible – the small wooden dolls look exactly like the townspeople! I really like Quasimodo, he is so warm-hearted, and imagine: he has spent all his life in that tower, for it was Frollo who raised him, and he even thinks he is a monster!"

"That’s absolutely horrible!" Adèle exclaimed. "I’m so interested in Quasimodo because…I knew him when we were small!" She had never before told that.

"REALLY?" Esmeralda was bewildered. "How is it possible?"

Adèle told her how Charlotte had found out that Quasimodo was in the tower and taken her to meet the boy. She told about Clopin and Charlotte’s romance and how Quasimodo had first lived with his aunt’s family and then been adopted by Charlotte and Clopin.

"All of this happened when you were still a baby", she said. "I will never forget how disappointed I was when Charlotte and Clopin were bound to leave my dear Quasi in the belltower!"

"He helped me to escape", told Esmeralda, "and I asked him to come here with me, but he didn’t want to disobey Frollo any more."

Adèle asked enthusiastically: "Do you think I could go to meet him?"

"Why not?" smiled her friend, "if only you are careful – there are guards at every door of the Cathedral. In fact, I promised to return there soon."

Then she remembered Frollo again and turned pale. "What on earth did that man-beast want of me? He should realize that after everything he has done to our people I would rather die than have anything to do with him!"

"Let’s not talk about him", Adèle said quickly. "That captain…Are you interested in him?"

Esmeralda looked embarrassed. "He helped me in the morning and advised me to claim sanctuary from the church", she noted, "besides, I think he is handsome."

"Well…I don’t have anything against his appearance", admitted Adèle, "and obviously, he is honorable since he didn’t make any advances to you. But still, you mustn’t forget that he is one of Frollo’s soldiers."

That night, Esmeralda stayed awake long and thought about everything that she had experienced in one day. She admitted to herself she had a crush on Phoebus, and she laughed a little when remembering how she had unjustly doubted him of tricking her. Then she thought about Quasimodo with deep sympathy. Seldom had she met anyone so kind. However, she wasn’t able to think the bellringer as a man like Phoebus – she didn’t even know why. Did that have something to do with his appearance? True, she liked handsome men, but Quasimodo was at least as warm-hearted as Phoebus! She also remembered the Judge and felt depressed again. She knew many men found her attractive, but like she had said to Adèle, she was horrified by the thought that the cruel, ugly old persecutor would be interested in her!

At the same time, Quasimodo was ringing the bells in his tower. He, too, was thinking about his new experiences. He had been very sad after the townspeople had mocked him, but then the wonderful Gypsy girl had come to the belltower with him, and he had learned for the first time what real friendship meant. He couldn’t forget that Esmeralda had said he was not a monster! Quasimodo didn’t want to defy his guardian, but it was wonderful to know that every Gypsy was not as evil as he had said. To crown the lot, the dancer was the most beautiful woman Quasimodo had ever seen – and this lovely creature had treated him in a friendly way!

The bellringer remembered how often he had watched happy lovers walking out there and hoped that he once would find someone to love…Of course, he knew he was too ugly to be loved, but now that Esmeralda had been so kind to him he dared dream that she would be the angel who would give him true love.

The sound of the bells reached Minister Frollo’s ears, as he walked in front of the fireplace in the Palace of Justice, more restless than ever. The bells could not set his mind at rest, for he was thinking about the Gypsy girl. He felt he had been bewitched; a man so pure and righteous could not have felt such passion for a woman unless she was a witch, a demon. Frollo prayed the Saint Virgin to free him of this desire, but at the same time he knew that the only way to get rid of it was either to have Esmeralda or to destroy her.

At the moment when the Judge was praying for Esmeralda’s destruction, one of his guards opened the door and addressed him. The visions disappeared, and Frollo turned impatiently to the soldier.

"She’s nowhere in the Cathedral, she’s gone."

"But how?" snapped Frollo, stupefied. Suddenly, he was furious. "Never mind. Get out, you idiot!" he told, and the guard closed the door behind him, amazed at the Minister’s reaction.

Frollo, in turn, looked at the fire again and swore: "I’ll find her, I’ll find her if I have to burn down all of Paris!"

For a moment, he imagined he saw Esmeralda in the flames, and prayed for God to help both her and himself, but then he was overcome by lust and rage again.

"She will be mine or she will burn!" he declared, after which he fell down on the floor, unconscious.