midday
She fell lifeless on the pavement . `` Come , '' said Charmolue , `` carry her to the cart , and make an end of it . '' No one had yet observed in the gallery of the statues of the kings , carved directly above the arches of the portal , a strange spectator , who had , up to that time , observed everything with such impassiveness , with a neck so strained , a visage so hideous that , in his motley accoutrement of red and violet , he might have been taken for one of those stone monsters through whose mouths the long gutters of the cathedral have discharged their waters for six hundred years . This spectator had missed nothing that had taken place since midday in front of the portal of Notre-Dame . And at the very beginning he had securely fastened to one of the small columns a large knotted rope , one end of which trailed on the flight of steps below . This being done , he began to look on tranquilly , whistling from time to time when a blackbird flitted past . Suddenly , at the moment when the superintendent 's assistants were preparing to execute Charmolue 's phlegmatic order , he threw his leg over the balustrade of the gallery , seized the rope with his feet , his knees and his hands ; then he was seen to glide down the façade , as a drop of rain slips down a window-pane , rush to the two executioners with the swiftness of a cat which has fallen from a roof , knock them down with two enormous fists , pick up the gypsy with one hand , as a child would her doll , and dash back into the church with a single bound , lifting the young girl above his head and crying in a formidable voice , -- `` Sanctuary ! ''