“Truants,” or “truands,” in the novel, are thieves, beggars, or street performers who live in the “Court of Miracles” and exist outside the usual city laws. Instead, the truants live by their own social code known as the “truant’s law.” Esmeralda lives among the truants because she is a gypsy and a street performer, and the truants almost hang Gringoire when he wanders into the “Court of Miracles” by mistake.
Truants Quotes in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The The Hunchback of Notre Dame quotes below are all either spoken by Truants or refer to Truants. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 2, Chapter 6
Quotes
As you use our kind among you, so we use your kind among us. The law you apply to the truants, the truants apply to you. If it’s a vicious one, that’s your fault. We need now and again to see a respectable face above a hempen collar; it makes the whole thing honorable.
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Truants Term Timeline in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The timeline below shows where the term Truants appears in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 2, Chapter 6
...fly trapped by a spider—when Clopin suddenly remembers that, according to the law of the “truants,” they must see if any of the women want to marry Gringoire before they kill...
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Book 10, Chapter 3
...rich man, he has squandered it all for the sake of pleasure. He salutes the truants’ plan to raid Notre Dame and calls to the barmaid for more wine.
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While some of the truants talk of Esmeralda, whom they plan to rescue, others discuss the many precious objects Notre...
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Book 10, Chapter 4
...in a booming voice. He demands that Esmeralda be released and given back to the truants. Up in the tower, Quasimodo cannot hear Clopin’s words. Clopin sounds the attack and the...
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A huge crash disturbs the truants. A beam of wood has been hurled from the top of Notre Dame and crushed...
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Up in the tower, Quasimodo tips rock after rock over the balustrade and onto the truants’ heads. He has made his way to part of the tower where building work is...
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Suddenly, a scream goes up from the truants and they glance up, alarmed. Molten lead pours from the mouths of the gargoyles on...
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...propped up against the wall and Jehan begins to climb, followed by a hoard of truants. At the top, Jehan clambers over the balustrade and waves to the onlookers below. Quasimodo...
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The truants below cry out for revenge. They find more ladders and ropes and begin to scale...
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Book 10, Chapter 7
On the battlements of Notre Dame, Quasimodo loses hope of fending off the truants, who continue to besiege the cathedral. Suddenly a cry sounds below and the king’s guard,...
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Book 11, Chapter 2
...led him all over the church to try to find her. Quasimodo thinks that the truants are the ones who want to harm Esmeralda and he believes that the guards want...
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