The enjoyment is interrupted by a new character. Claude Frolo, Archdeacon of the Cathedral, has come to tell the people that their life is not given to them for pleasure and entertainment only, but for repentance and praying.

Ashamed, Quasimodo rushes to fall at Frolî’s feet as if he were his loyal dog for he owes his life to this severe and hard man. Quasimodo is far from forgetting the times when he, a foundling, was doomed by old scandal-mongers to die in the fire because they thought they recognised the seal of devil in his ugliness. And the priest rescued him, gave him shelter, brought him up and made him a bell-ringer.

What is behind his severity and coldness? There is one passion deeply inside Frolî which torments him. Since he saw a Gipsy named Esmeralda dancing on the parvis of the Cathedral, Esmeralda’s tambourine like an obsession, like an intolerable fixed idea has been sounding in his ears. In vain tries he to pray.

Scene 3. Esmeralda

She turns up, so incredibly beautiful, that, truly, " the God would prefer her to the Virgin ". She dances, and her fiery dance calls for love.

Crazy from passion, Archdeacon orders Quasimodo to abduct Esmeralda.

Then a horrifying persuit across the night Paris begins: people of darkness -- beggars, cadgers, pickpockets – all the Parisian outcast, outlaw from the court Yard of miracles, whose empire is night.

Esmeralda escapes only due to the intervention of a group of riflemen, headed by Phebus, their handsome Captain.

The Gipsy gets infatuated with him at first sight. Meanwhile the riflemen arrest Quasimodo and beating him they drag him to the pillory, followed by satisfied looks of the idlers and gapers and children who climb the shoulders of the adults not to miss any detail of this happening.

Touched by the sufferings of the creature from whom she tried to escape a short while ago, Esmeralda now passes through the crowd to give him some water to drink.

This simple gesture of pity, undoubtedly, the first ever given to him and, besides, coming from the girl, as beautiful, as he is ugly, deeply touches the soul of the bell-ringer. It is going to change the whole destiny of his.

Esmeralda is convicted of debauch, witchcraft and an attempted murder despite her pleading. She has nobody to wait for indulgence from - either from the judges or from the public agitated by Claude Frolo. There is only one destiny left to her - to be hanged up.

She is already in the hands of the executor, when suddenly Quasimodo appears. He hasn’t forgotten the magnanimity of the girl.

He pushes away the guards, picks up Esmeralda and carries her away from the crowd into the Cathedral.

He knows that she will be safe there. Anyone can take sanctuary in the Cathedral.

The only thing left to disappointed Claude Frolo is to hold back the people who are rushing into the Cathedral. The crowd, always ready for the events to develop unexpectedly and always sensitive to feats, discloses the air by the ancient joyful call: " Noel! Noel! "

Always being on the alert, Quasimodo patrols his domain to get sure that nothing threatens his rescued beauty. He gives way to his joy when he grabs the cords of the bells and makes them sound in their full force.

Esmeralda appears. With her infinite tenderness and tact she expresses her gratitude to the cripple.
Still ashamed of his ugliness, Quasimodo suddenly feels brave enough to take the girl by her hand and, happy as he is, hospitably shows her around his domain.

Soon, awfully exhausted, Esmeralda falls asleep. The bell-ringer thinks she is secure in the bell-tower. He admires the sight of the sleeping girl for a few instants and leaves her.

But the Archdeacon, too, considers the Cathedral the possession of his own.

He takes the advantage of Quasimodo’s absence and appears in front of Esmeralda. Frolo tries to subordinate her to his will, make her his puppet, who obediently follows his mad desires. He tries to embrace her but she pushes him away with disgust.

Completely beyond himself with anger, he beats her, as if he wanted to kill her.

The justice cannot put up with the fact that it has been thrown down the gauntlet!

By the decision of Parliament the Cathedral is deprived of the rights to give sanctuary to the condemned, and the soldiers rush to storm the Cathedral. They are followed by ordinary people. In despair Quasimodo watches, as if in a dreadful dream, the crowd of soldiers and women, black and violent as antique furies, storming the gates.

Vainly he tries to stop them by pouring down melted lead, but there are too many of them flooding the Cathedral …

Scene 13. The death.

A long funeral train accompanies Esmeralda to the gallows.

This time nothing can prevent the executors from making their awful business.

Her hands slowly go down, and together with Esmeralda the sounds of her tambourine fade and die. They will never pursue the Archdeacon again.

Mad with despair, Quasimodo rushes to Frolî to kill him having realised at last how pernicious this man’s power is. With his mighty hands the cripple throttles the Archdeacon.

The body of the damned priest rolls down the steps of the gallows, while Quasimodo slowly carries away the breathless body of his beloved.