Early in the next morning, Adèle left the Court of Miracles. She remembered Esmeralda’s warnings, but she wasn’t afraid of the guards.

At the same time, Quasimodo was ringing the morning bells. Again, he was thinking about Esmeralda: would the beautiful girl return to him soon? Did she care for him? How could he show her his love?

At the moment, he heard quiet knocking at the door. Hesitantly, he went to see who was coming. One may guess how surprised he was when seeing a pretty, curly-haired girl dressed like Gypsies! He remembered he had seen her during the Festival.

"Good morning! Who are you?" he said shyly.

He looked so nice that the girl gave him a dazzling smile.

"Hello! I thought you might remember me. My name is Adèle, and I made my latest visit here twelve years ago. I live in the Court of Miracles among the Gypsies."

"No, I don’t remember you visiting here", answered Quasimodo, after deliberating for a while, "but I saw you yesterday at the Feast." He sighed and said nothing more.

Adèle looked sympathetically at him. "I recognized you when you were standing on the stage, and I was very sorry to see how the crowd treated you." Quasimodo was embarrassed.

"How did you get in here?" he asked, "Esmeralda was here yesterday, and Frollo ordered guards at every door."

Adèle smiled mischievously. "I wore a disguise – the soldiers thought I was a much older bourgeois woman going to pray!"

"You are brave!" admitted the bellringer. "Please, come in – I can show you the bells and my miniature world."

Adèle followed him. First, she noticed a pretty figurine looking like a Gypsy girl.

"Is this Esmeralda? It’s wonderful! She told me you helped her escape."

"Yes…She was the first person ever to show me kindness, except the Archdeacon", Quasi answered, softly.

"Don’t say that! I loved you when we were small", exclaimed Adèle, "and do you remember my mother Charlotte? She was always kind to you."

"Oh, I’m terribly sorry…of course I remember Charlotte", replied the young man, "is she still alive?"

The girl sighed. "No, she died more than a year ago. But do you remember how she rescued you and later took you to her own son?"

"No, I don’t…but I do remember how gently she treated me. And I remember something about the Gypsy man who was our father."

"It was Clopin! He is my stepfather", smiled Adèle, "he is our leader now."

"Yesterday, he said I had ’the ugliest face in Paris’", noted Quasimodo. "Why did he say that if he once treated me as his son?" Adèle was annoyed. Clopin’s jesting had gone too far!

"I don’t think he really meant that", she said, "but on Topsy Turvy Day, it’s an honour to be ugly."

"Do you think I am ugly, then?" asked the young man, taking the wooden Quasi in his hand.

"Definitely NOT!" exclaimed Adèle. "Your face is softening."

Quasimodo said nothing for a while. Then he took another figurine from the table – that of an aged man dressed in black. He pointed at the figurine’s face and said:

"Frollo is my guardian, and he has always made me believe I am ugly. That’s why I was sad yesterday."

Adèle looked hard at the figurine. "You are very clever with your hands, Quasi! This looks exactly like our persecutor! I know he is cruel…When we were small he once kept me imprisoned in the south tower!"

"Really?" Quasimodo was stupefied. "Why did he do that?"

"I remember he tried to make me tell him where you had disappeared", said the girl after deliberating for a moment, "and because I refused to tell, he whipped me!" She seemed to get furious and threw the figurine on the table.

"That’s terrible!" admitted the bellringer. "However, I have always thought he is good to me…He has told me to stay in here, and you saw what happened when I defied him."

"Oh, those soldiers are louts, you don’t need to care for their mockery!" assured his new friend. "How does Frollo treat you?"

Quasimodo hesitated. Finally, he reluctantly repeated the "teachings" he had last heard a day before. Adèle was stupefied, and she felt that her heart was filled with rage and despair. When the young man told her he was always forced to repeat what the guardian said about his appearance, the girl burst into tears, put her arms round him and sobbed inconsolably. Quasi had never experienced anything like that, and he didn’t know what to say.

"Adèle…Adèle…I’m sorry…I should never have told you", he said gently. "Maybe I have been too weak – but I don’t believe I could defy him any more."

"None of that would have happened if we had taken you with us when we left Paris", cried Adèle. "But now you MUST leave this place with me! I won’t let you stay here a moment longer – at least not without me!"

She looked at the young man with fiery eyes. Before Quasimodo had time to answer he heard screaming in the streets below, and he hastened on the balcony.

"Adèle, the guards are harassing the Gypsies!" he exclaimed. His friend followed him and saw he was right: Frollo and his soldiers were searching for the Gypsies’ hiding places and interrogating the townspeople.

"For Heaven’s sake, they must be searching for Esmeralda!" exclaimed Adèle. "I should be down there helping my friends!"

"No, don’t go!" Quasi asked, "you would be involved in trouble, and after I told you about Frollo you’d best not meet him."

"But Esmeralda…I have taken care of her since she was a baby!" Adèle hesitated. "She told me HE had…some intentions towards her." Quasimodo got worried. However, he didn’t want to reveal his feelings for the dancer.

"HE really hates Gypsies", he sighed, "and I don’t think it would be good for you to show yourself to the guards." Then he remembered something and took the girl to see the bells. Adèle was fascinated and asked Quasi to ring them for her. The young man agreed, flattered, but when hearing the sound of Big Marie Adèle covered her ears.

"Quasi, how on earth have you avoided becoming deaf?" she shouted as loud as she could. The bellringer was enthusiastic, and for a moment, Adèle thought he had forgotten her, but then he jumped down and explained, with a dazzling smile:

"I always shelter my ears. I suppose you liked that?"

"Oh, definitely I did", smiled his friend, "and I understand you love them."

When they were returning on the balcony Adèle heard someone say:

"Quasi is having a crush on this girl, too – he didn’t ring the bells for Esmeralda!"

"Hush!" said another voice, and a third one asked:

"Do you think she’ll return?"

Adèle was startled.

"Quasi, is someone else in here? I heard talking."

The bellringer was startled as well. "Did YOU hear that, too? I have always thought…"

"Yes, I did! Two voices of men and one of a woman. Who were they?"

"Hey, she heard us!" shouted the voice of a woman, "Quasi, come and introduce us!"

"My goodness", exclaimed Quasimodo, "that’s Laverne, and she is a gargoyle made of stone. I have always talked to her and the two others, but I was quite sure no-one else could hear their voices."

Touched, Adèle hugged him. The gargoyles cheered.

"They have noticed I’m your friend", she said. "Well, now you can introduce them to me."

But when they were on the balcony again they saw something horrible happen in the city. Minister Frollo was taking a torch from one of the guards, and he set a windmill on fire with it! Adèle screamed, and Quasimodo exclaimed:

"Good Lord!" Even the gargoyles seemed to be upset.

"Please, Quasi, let me go!" begged Adèle. The bellringer was irresolute. He had helped Esmeralda escape when she had longed for her freedom, but the previous day, the guards hadn’t persecuted the Gypsies like this.

"I don’t want you to get into danger!" he said. Fortunately, the gargoyles started to talk again and did their best to liven Adèle up. She noticed soon that Hugo, Victor and Laverne were very nice, although she didn’t understand everything about their fun-making. She was delighted to hear Quasi joke and laugh with his friends.

"Honestly, I wouldn’t have managed all these years without them", he said to her. Indeed, it seemed to Adèle as if the gargoyles really had been alive, but when she touched them they returned to stone again.

"Remember you mustn’t tell anyone what you have seen and heard here!" Victor warned her.

Every now and then, Quasi returned to watch the city and saw the fire spread. He still thought about Esmeralda and dreamed of her, but he didn’t mention a word about her to Adèle. He was more and more affected with his newly-found sister, and finally, he decided to make a wooden figurine looking like her as well. When it was ready the gargoyles grimaced at it, and Adèle was flattered.

Soon, it was time for Vespers, and the youngsters returned to the bells. Adèle happily listened to the ringing, and the gargoyles tried to scout about for Esmeralda. Victor and Laverne started to lose their hope, and when Quasi and Adèle returned they couldn’t help revealing their restlessness. Even Quasi got worried, but Hugo tried to encourage him:

"If I know Esmeralda, she’s three steps ahead of Frollo, and well out of harm’s way!"

Adèle was startled. She had almost forgotten Esmeralda! She listened to the joking of the gargoyles and turned to look at the figurines on the table – Quasi, herself and the dancer – and suddenly, she was sure her newly-found brother was in love. Strange as it was, she wasn’t delighted at the thought of Quasi and Esmeralda being together, but however, she knew that Quasi needed love. Maybe Esme would be the right partner for him…He looked hopeful, and the gargoyles were just assuring him

"who wouldn’t love a guy like you?"

Suddenly, however, Adèle was startled again. Quasimodo was hers…No, what was she thinking about? She was the bellringer’s sister who had just returned to him, and she didn’t have the right to regard him as her private property. At the very moment, the door was opened, and both of them heard the Gypsy girl’s voice:

"Quasi? Quasimodo?"

The gargoyles turned to stone again, and the bellringer hastened to the dancer.

"Esmeralda?!? Esmeralda! You’re all right! I knew you’d come back!"

Esmeralda hugged him, but then she noticed Adèle and exclaimed: "Have you been here all day long? We have been so worried about you! Clopin will surely have something to say to you when you come back to us!"

"I have had such a good time here – although, of course, I have thought about you and the others a lot", convinced Adèle.

"Quasi has rang the bells for me, and we have talked about our childhood memories. But where have you been hiding? Do you think the burning of the city has something to do with you?"

Esmeralda’s eyes flashed. "I told you what that abhorrent Frollo did! But I will rather die than give myself to him!" Then she looked gently at Quasi and said softly: "You have done so much for me already, my friend, but I must ask for your help one more time."

"Yes, anything!" Quasimodo smiled.

Esmeralda led inside a Gypsy man who was supporting the unconscious Captain Phoebus. Quasi remembered he had met him the previous evening, but he was amazed at Esmeralda having something to do with him. Now she asked him to hide Phoebus, and Quasi couldn’t refuse. In a moment, he saw that the dancer was fully concentrated on taking care of the officer. Phoebus moaned, and Esmeralda praised his bravery. They looked tenderly in each other’s eyes, and the Gypsy girl bowed to let the Captain kiss her.

The bellringer looked at them and realized the wonderful Esmeralda could never love him. He took a card with a heart in it and tore it into two pieces. He should have known a person looking like him wouldn’t be allowed to find love. He hid his face, sad. But this scene had an eyewitness none of them remembered. Adèle saw Quasi’s depressed expression, and her mind was filled with anger. How COULD her dear Esmeralda treat like this the most lovable person she had ever met? She looked at his back and drooping head, and suddenly, she remembered the dreadful "teachings" he had repeated to her in the morning. If Esmeralda had known about them she couldn’t have done this to him!

Adèle knelt behind Quasi and reached her hand to touch him gently, but unexpectedly, she had a moment of clairvoyance. Quasimodo was not just "our boy" but a young man who needed love – and maybe she, Adèle, could give that to him! True, she had originally been a sister to him, but since they were not real relatives and they had been separated already sixteen years ago, there was not any real hindrance between them. Adèle flushed at her thoughts and glanced at the lovers. I have a secret! At the very moment, Djali bleated restlessly, and Quasi rushed to the window.

"Frollo’s coming!" he exclaimed and asked Esmeralda to leave.

"Be careful, my friend", said the Gypsy girl, "promise you won’t let anything happen to him." Adèle looked at her with fiery eyes, but Quasimodo said, hard as it was:

"I promise." After thanking him Esmeralda turned to Adèle. "Come, quickly! Let’s go down the south tower steps!"

But Adèle grasped Quasimodo’s hand. "I won’t leave you! What if HE says again that you are deformed?"

"Hush! He can hear that!" whispered the bellringer. "You have to go!" Adèle snatched the figurine looking like herself. "I’ll bring this back to you when I return!"

She didn’t quite understand why she took the doll. Then she reluctantly followed Esmeralda and heard Laverne’s voice behind her:

"Quick! We gotta stash the stiff!" When the two friends were returning to the Court of Miracles Adèle rebuked Esmeralda.

"You shouldn’t have shown Quasi you are in love with that man! Don’t you remember how kind he has been to you?"

"Yes, of course I do, but Phoebus helped me before I even knew Quasi", remarked the Gypsy girl, "besides…"

Fortunately, she decided not to say more. But Adèle guessed what she meant, and it was hard work for her to control herself. In fact, she should have rejoiced because Esmeralda was not a rival to her, but when she remembered Quasi’s bitter disappointment she couldn’t help being angry both with her friend and that Phoebus.

"Adèle! My goodness, where have you been all the day?" Clopin exclaimed as soon as he saw the girls.

"In Notre Dame with Quasimodo", told his daughter. "He wanted to keep me safe from the soldiers and the fire, that’s why I returned only now."

"That was very kind of him", said Clopin. "I have also been worried about you, Esmeralda."

The friends of the girls, including Mertzi and Mirette, grouped themselves round them and asked them to tell everything they had experienced. The elders, in turn, started to make plans for escaping from the city. Suddenly, however, they heard noise at the entrance. Two strangers had arrived! Clopin approached them.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?"

"Trespassers!" shouted one of the vagabonds.

"Spies!" continued another.

"We are not spies!" assured the other comer, and his companion asked:

"Can’t you listen…?"

"Don’t interrupt me!" grimaced Clopin. "You’re very clever to have found our hideaway. Unfortunately, you won’t live to tell the tale."

The two men were dragged among the crowd of vagabonds, and the Gypsies mockingly told them every Parisian trespassing in the Court was to be hanged. But when they were already putting the ropes around the men’s necks, Esmeralda and Adèle dashed from the crowd to stop them. Adèle yelled:

"Quasimodo!"

Indeed, the "trespassers" were the Captain and the bellringer. Esmeralda assured:

"These men aren’t spies – they are our friends!"

At the same time, she removed Phoebus’s gag and noose, and Clopin did the same to Quasi.

"Why didn’t they say so?!" he grimaced mischievously. As soon as they could speak Phoebus and Quasimodo answered simultaneously:

"We did say so!" Adèle rushed to Quasi and put her arms round him, and Esmeralda explained Clopin:

"This is the soldier that saved the miller’s family, and Quasimodo helped me escape from the Cathedral."

Phoebus addressed the vagabonds: "We came to warn you! Frollo’s coming! He says he knows where you’re hiding, and he attacks at dawn with a thousand men."

"Then let’s waste no time! We must leave immediately!" exclaimed Esmeralda, and all of the vagabonds dashed to pack up their belongings. Esmeralda thanked and embraced Phoebus, and Adèle turned her back on her, offended. But Phoebus saw Quasi looked depressed, and said to his sweetheart:

"Don’t thank me, thank Quasimodo. Without his help, I would never have found my way here."

The bellringer was delighted, and Adèle gave the Captain a dazzling smile, but suddenly…

"Nor would I!" The vagabonds heard an ominous voice they all knew very well. In a moment, the Court of Miracles was full of soldiers who caught the inhabitants. Adèle whispered to Quasimodo:

"How is this possible?" The bellringer was horrified. Before he could answer anything they heard Frollo say:

"After twenty years of searching, the Court of Miracles is mine at last."

Adèle shuddered of rage when he addressed Quasi, smoothing down his back:

"Dear Quasimodo, I always knew you would someday be of use to me."

Fortunately, she succeeded to control herself, hard as it was.

"What are you talking about?" snapped Esmeralda in turn.

"Why, he led me right to you, my dear", the Minister replied, grazing her cheek.

"How DARE you touch Esmeralda!" Adèle hissed, and the dancer snapped:

"You’re a liar!" But Frollo turned to talk to Phoebus, after which he mocked the vagabonds and ordered his men to lock them up. In despair, Quasi knelt in front of his guardian, but he said chillingly:

"Take him back to the belltower, and make sure he stays there."

"Monster! Man-beast!" screamed Adèle who had stayed near Quasi even in custody.

"If you think you will defeat us with your abhorrent words you have made a serious mistake! I KNOW you, although you don’t remember me!" Furiously, she spit and kicked the soldier who was holding her by. She heard Clopin’s voice behind her:

"Adèle, my dear, that’s useless!" Quasimodo turned to look at her, and the expression of his face made the girl burst into tears. She saw the guards grasp the bellringer’s arms and drag him away, and she cried bitterly.

The next morning, all of the vagabonds were locked in cages in the Cathedral square, and they were forced to watch how Esmeralda was bound on a pole in front of a pyre. Frollo declared that she would die for the crime of witchcraft, and the townspeople shouted:

"She is innocent!" Adèle gazed at her friend her heart full of inconsolable grief.

"Esmeralda…my dear little Esmeralda…how much have we experienced together – and now…" She embraced her sister Mirette, sobbing desperately.

She also thought about Quasimodo…she loved him, and now she would never meet him again! But at the very moment when their persecutor touched the pyre with a torch the prisoners heard clatter of chains and ringing of bells up in the tower.

After a while, they saw Quasimodo rappel down the side of the Cathedral and fly out over the crowd towards Esme’s pyre. On the platform, he pushed the guards out of his way, broke the Gypsy girl’s ropes and sped her safe to Notre Dame. Adèle dazzled of pride, and Phoebus smiled in his own cage.

"Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" shouted the bellringer as loud as he could.

A horrible fight came out. Frollo’s soldiers attacked the Cathedral, obeying his orders, but Quasimodo who had taken Esmeralda safe inside defended the building valiantly. At the same time, Phoebus succeeded to free himself from the cage and encouraged the citizens to fight back the guards.

Quasimodo and the gargoyles continued dropping things on them, a cage full of Gypsies was broken, and Clopin, Adèle, the twins and many of their friends dashed to participate in the battle. Finally, Quasi and the gargoyles poured liquid lead on the guards, and many of them died.

Meanwhile, however, Frollo had succeeded to break the door of the church and went inside. Adèle was in despair. Had Clopin not prevented her she would have pursued the Judge up to the tower.

"Quasi…and Esme…!"

A while later, the crowd saw Frollo harass the bellringer who was holding the dancer in his arms. They narrowly dodged his blows, and finally, Esmeralda got safely on the balcony. Frollo chased Quasi, but when he was just going to throw him down from the tower the bellringer pulled him off below himself. Esmeralda grasped Quasi’s hand, and Frollo once more tried to swing at them, but suddenly, he was thrown off balance, screamed – and fell! At the moment, Esmeralda lost her hold of Quasi. Adèle screamed and cowered her eyes, but Mirette exclaimed:

"Look, the Captain caught him!"

The next morning, the whole city cheered at Esmeralda and Phoebus when they stepped out of the Cathedral, hand in hand. On the stairs, Esmeralda turned back and led Quasimodo into the light. A little girl approached him and gently touched his face. The crowd began to cheer as Quasi and the girl stepped down the stairs and joined the people.

"Three cheers for Quasimodo!" shouted Clopin, and the crowd milled round the bellringer. Adèle looked up to the tower and saw the gargoyles rejoice. She rushed to Esmeralda and Phoebus.

"I thought I would never see you again!" she exclaimed, squeezing her friend.

Then she smiled at the Captain. "Congratulations! Take good care of my Esmeralda!"

Next, she dashed to Quasimodo and put her arms round him. "You defeated HIM! I’m so proud of you!" Quasi looked a bit embarrassed.

"Actually…I was ready to rescue him, but he fell as he was frightened by a gargoyle", he said. "After all, he was my guardian."

"Why didn’t you just let him fall?" Adèle asked, looking angry. But then she embraced Quasi again. "That doesn’t matter…he is dead, and you are free at last! Will you come with us to the Court of Miracles later today?"

"I don’t know…What if they try to hang me again?"

"Nonsense! No-one is going to hang you – you are a hero!"

Indeed, in the afternoon Esmeralda, Adèle and the twins led Phoebus and Quasimodo to the hideout. Many of the Gypsies observed the Captain suspiciously, but all of them smiled at the bellringer.

"His mother was one of us, but the other one was Frollo’s soldier!"

Suddenly, a middle-aged Gypsy woman hastened to Quasimodo.

"My nephew! You saved us all! How big you have grown!" It was Sarita, Quasi’s aunt. The young man was embarrassed.

"I’m…not sure if I remember you", he admitted.

"No wonder, you were just four years old when you were living here", Sarita laughed. All of Quasimodo’s old friends wanted to talk to him. He met Rosita and her family, Melina and even old Alain who had been the first hump-backed person he ever saw.

"You should move here among us", Alain said to him.

"Thank you, maybe I will", answered Quasi, "but I’m still the bellringer."

When hearing this Adèle handed him the wooden figurine she had kept with her all the time.

"I promised you would get this back", she whispered. "I’ll come with you the next time you go up there."