Everyone please remember that PLAGIARISM is unethical and very much frowned upon by all institutions of learning, so please give Victor Hugo, the other writers referenced on my page, and myself credit for referenced material.
The Recluse is Esmeralda's natural mother. It were the gypsies who stole Esmeralda as an infant from the Recluse. There are three premonitions of this occurence early on in the book.
The first one:
In ’66, it’ll be sixteen years ago this month, the feast of Saint Paul, Paquette gave birth to a little girl. Poor unfortunate creature! She was overjoyed. She had wanted a child for so long. book6 chap3
It was stated earlier in the book that La Esmeralda is 16 years old. Second premonition is the shoe. The recluse carries a shoe with her as one of her few possessions. La Esmeralda carries with her the other shoe and calls it her good luck charm. This was the shoe she was wearing on the night of her abduction.
Third premonition simply enough is that La Esmeralda was taken by gypsies and now is a gypsy herself. Her mother knows that she was taken by them and now she proclaims hatred of all gypsies. Of course everyone else in town just assumes she was eaten by the gypsies. Even the ladies make such a statement about La Esmeralda herself.
"But one thing is to be sure: they are Gypsies."
"And is to be sure," added Gervaise, "that they have teeth long enough to eat small children. And I wouldn’t be surprised if La Smeralda herself eats a little, for all she purses up her mouth so small." book6 chap3
These two characters are reunited near the end of the book. After Esmeralda chooses the gibbet (gallows) over Claude Frollo’s bed, the archdeacon tells the recluse to restrain the gypsy through the bars of her cell. Meanwhile, Claude Frollo leaves to find the sergeants in order to turn Esmeralda over to the law for execution on charges of witchcraft. Since the recluse hates gypsies she gladly detains Esmeralda and begins arguing with her. However, later in the struggle the recluse realizes that this is her daughter when she sees Esmeralda’s shoe.
She tries in vain to save Esmeralda from the gallows by hiding her in the cell. However, this fails and the guards break the cell open and take Esmeralda away while the recluse is screaming that this is her child and they can’t kill her. She persists all the way to the gallows where she bites the hangman’s hand, drawing blood. In response, the executioners thrown her to the stone floor of the gibbet where her heads hits with such force that she dies. Thus, perishes at the feet of her long lost child who is about to be hung herself.
