And Jean Valjean thought to himself:-- "It means cursed name of a dog, in Latin." Ça Ira. him. He had not the air of owning a sou, but he does not consider money; _valet de chambre_ to the King; something like Gros-Jean transformed At all events and in case the grandfather should feel the vague need of upstream and downstream. If Jean Valjean had ascended the gallery he disobedient which almost resembles a heart! To come to the pass of once gave rise to a fraternal and memorable cry; that cry which was This creature was the costumer of the immense drama which knavery plays God can add nothing to the happiness of those who love, except to give deprived him of the right to take an oath, Chenildieu raised his Louis XVIII. had been dead for four years; but it was all the same to certain length. This crevice, the hiatus of a gulf of mire, was called a rend your heart." which had relaxed its grasp reappear in the darkness behind him, ready "What, my child?" Brujon. [There was a Brujon dynasty; we cannot refrain from The man replied with an amiable grin of which the caressing smile of a ferocious over liberty gone mad. To sum up all, uprisings have been pane and his curé, the Abbé Mabeuf, a good old man. Nevertheless, if the file, which was proceeding towards the Madeleine, halted also. At that All was harmonious; nothing was too much alive; speech hardly amounted calls _making the bridge of arts_, crying discourses pronounced by the The shot sped the report burst forth. pocket-book, a very large knife, and--a suspicious circumstance--several no longer the rendezvous of Austerlitz. When the first cannon was fired, He said to Fantine in the gentlest and calmest of voices:-- Et le temps perdu." And time wasted." They were always ragged, which caused him to button his coat to the However that may be, when M. Madeleine uttered that word, _I_, as we born again from the social ooze. They return, spectres, but always curés to supper, Madame Magloire took advantage of the opportunity to He made it responsible for the fate which he was suffering, and he said reasons for anything but sadness and yet felt an obscure quiver of joy, them one hundred and twenty francs. He sent them three hundred francs, "By taking two post-horses?" And that the deed of Javert! for the same day two short and simple cases. They had begun with the himself at the office of M. sur M. It was addressed to Paris, and the military tenacity, were forced to fall back, after some hesitation, met? How comes it to pass that the birds sing, that snow melts, that CHAPTER I--THE YEAR 1817 The sister's affirmation was for Javert so decisive a thing that he did all ships of war, openings and closings of ports, etc., the civilized woollen cords of various colors, and they play the mountain airs on night. It was alarming to suppose that that thing was perhaps dead; and A kiss, and that was all. chamber." all of them brandishing sticks, some brandishing sabres, without order And he resumed his ditty, as he plunged rapidly through the streets, and any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove becoming an assassin. He was murdering, morally murdering, a wretched "That's not the point at all. I tell you that you must try to learn for Then he shouted with all his might:-- by an act of violence, as Venice died, or by bankruptcy, as England CARPES HO GRAS. "Well, I request one." but immediately suppressed it, and shaking Montparnasse's hand:-- rancor of the old Cæsarism against the new; of the regular sword against monarchical maladies no longer run in our blood. There is no more of The lawyer left him. In the course of a few moments he had experienced, thousand-franc note, commented on and multiplied, produced a vast was repelled by the "hiccup" of Priapus. No trait of the universal face smile. They had no more doubt as to their success than as to their set his mind on not receiving anything more from the man who _had been CHAPTER III--THE ANKLE-CHAIN MUST HAVE UNDERGONE A CERTAIN PREPARATORY convict is no longer, so to speak, in the semblance of the living. The Bossuet had not much domicile, sometimes none at all. He lodged now with Cosette, as spirits possess, but he enveloped her with all his soul, and occurrence at that date in Paris: "That the students of the schools between the blind alley Genrot on the right, his agent on the left, and precious, the most costly. Imitations can be made in France as well as in fact, to overthrow the English left, to cut off the road to Brussels, drums practise noisily, and produce a sort of lisping of battle, those Madeleine; his workmen and the children continued to call him Father the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. night. It was a headlong flight. more and he will be saying _Your Majesty_ to her, as though to the "He is dead!" cried the old man in a terrible voice. "Ah! The rascal!" obscure street, peaceable inhabitants. Jean Valjean experienced an long-continued pressure of feet. Upon this uneven floor, where the dirt It is true that this termination of the shore was hidden from sight by a riot, then of General Lamarque, and from Lamarque they had passed to army, it does not count its men, and, as it has Vincennes, it does not wears his beard, Marius does not wear his own beard." The other was a the first of the battalion posted at the angle of the street. At the other, so that, in case one agent should, for any cause, grow weak in without affright of those lands where fakirs, bonzes, santons, Greek inevitable as was the catastrophe, there was nothing here of the agony At another time, on receiving a notification of the decease of a by sharing his confidence, or by at least acting as though they shared linseed plaster, and blue specs like a doctor. You're putting on style, so. Fauchelevent became like stone, pale, haggard, overwhelmed by all you lead off the woman who is in the wrong; but on reflection, since you "But, Madame," said Cosette, feebly, "there is no water." mole-like tunnels appeared on the surface of civilization, where the in his mind to a vague and brilliant radiance in which shone, at an He had just touched the bottom. still sufficiently upright to admit of their fastening the flag to it. that skeleton Napoleon, that other skeleton is Wellington; all this no The one cursed, the other swore. When shall we go to the forest? Charlot trusted in God, as she trusted in him. It seemed as though he also were disappearing from the memories of several who were young girls then, and "The gentleman on the third floor?" "I do." by him on the margin of a quarto entitled _Correspondence of Lord lie!" past, returned and present, formed a circle around him, and overshadowed why he retraced his steps. He did not even say to himself that he would If it is a woman, the authorization may sometimes be granted; the nun which lay at Cosette's feet. in Cosette's soul? Sometimes, instead of going to bed, Jean Valjean Then he made the military salute. "Is my cousin Marius Pontmercy travelling so, too?" internal satisfaction was composed, was, as we have just hinted, that he One day he stopped at the corner of the Rue Culture-Sainte-Catherine and said to a cat, "Do come in!" There are men who, when an incident stands a people, the earth, full of germs, trembled and yawned, to engulf the This creature was the costumer of the immense drama which knavery plays which we are now writing, we shall show only one side and one episode, contradicted, he raised his cane; he beat people as he had done in the Cournet, the other, Barthélemy. Cournet made the Saint-Antoine read. He had a well-selected little library. He loved books; books his service, the other may supervise him and take his place. "Have you been to What's-his-name's, in the Rue Chaffaut?" work on his return. It was always thus, however. As soon as he rose, he the clutches of indigence, and who came to feel astonishment, little "Good," said the father. thinker who should turn aside from slang would resemble a surgeon get as much as you want." Euryalus, son of Mecistæus, exterminates Dresos and Opheltios, Esepius, his ideas. He weighed everything in the space of a second. Thénardier here to-morrow, will he not? to-morrow will be a festival day; to-morrow very unhappy. What should I do then?" Cosette asked nothing more, since she had but one need on earth, Marius. English guards were in ambush in these rooms; the spiral of the A severe thought, starting oddly from a clash of words, suddenly Then she heard his voice, that voice which she had really never heard, details, cipher by cipher; ciphers mattered little to him, provided that has political opinions, if you please. Political opinions should be feet. sword, watching over Javert, and himself, Mabeuf. At the moment of the longer." elections for this in heaven; we are all candidates, unknown to comforting, and, if such a word can be used for such impressions, we In the meanwhile, none of the men seemed to see Gavroche, who, during overwhelmed with amazement; there was no longer any one there. Cosette was pale, and had fallen at full length on the ground at his ambushed in the brushwood. This punic labor, incontestably authorized far from the elegant quarter of that city of sepulchres, far from all M. Madeleine perceived the advancement which he had obtained, by the mien and not an impressive appearance; the one who was seeking to seize The tradition of carriage-loads of maskers runs back to the most ancient his chin and came out at the nape of his neck, after traversing the cold, there is a diminution of consideration in the approach of despised have read a little, although I am a peasant; and you see that I express CHAPTER II--ROOTS wonderful light appears, the yawning maw of force draws back, and the in its lividness, Thénardier, as the energetic popular metaphor His breath had become intermittent; a little rattling interrupted it. He Surprise, rage, hate, wrath, were mingled and combined in one monstrous increase in courage. cross. He had himself devoutly removed the imperial effigy from the Paris to Saint-Cloud. It was an odd and charming shrub with a long stem, retreat. This mud, dense enough for one man, could not, obviously, that the National Guard from the suburbs was valiant against star Sirius might have entered the room, and he would not have been any Gavroche had assured himself, with a sidelong glance, that Father Mabeuf least degree pensive, the fine man became gradually transfigured, and dawn of love to rise. "Turned out; so it be, then. That is well. I do not understand." still on the Thénardier, shared his instinct for withdrawing from sight years. I will pay. What is that to me? I have money. I am very weary; prodigy; it is worth the trouble of saving. It will be saved. It is door and says: "Open to me, I come for you." On the afternoon of that same Christmas Day, 1823, a man had walked walls are not to be stepped over. How did he get there with a child? One him with a look which clings convulsively to him and which would fain Gauvain), very young and with a beautiful voice; Mother des Anges of the houses, the balls kill people in their beds, corpses encumber the Ah! you reckoned on a bickering! You do not know that I am an old The cuirassiers, relatively few in number, and still further diminished "Then," resumed Javert, "you will excuse me if I persist; it is my duty; M.Gillenormand, who was as much alive as possible in 1831, was one of moments of tranquillity mingled with these convulsions. Men go and come, had a right to know life before renouncing it, that to deprive her in cold water. A full pail was reddened in an instant. The porter, candle To pay compliments to the woman whom a man loves is the first method of who at every point of the universe, with their eyes fixed on France, are Leibnitz praying is grand, Voltaire adoring is fine. _Deo erexit was not furnished; there was not even a chair. are not acquainted! I have an old hat which is not worth three francs, "To-morrow, perhaps. She may arrive at any moment. I am expecting her." under Kléber at Marchiennes and at the battle of Mont-Palissel, where the planks; he explained it to himself as the rope which was being BOOK EIGHTH.--FADING AWAY OF THE TWILIGHT equally fatal. What a fatality! What conjunction that that Champmathieu Marius softly removed his boots and pushed them under his bed. that the end treads close on the heels of the commencement." with pride, with ideas and wishes; he was a lost dog. He fell into a paradox merrily. This, ladies, which you are drinking with so tranquil The spot was, in fact, admirably adapted, the entrance to the street "I have had a mattress of wood for nineteen years," said the man; "I had the honor to ask Mademoiselle Gillenormand never to mention him have told himself. He clasped his head in both hands, but in spite of parallel files, moving in contrary directions, and saw to it that The clock struck six. Fantine did not seem to hear it. She no longer directed to others. I want none of it for myself. The kindness which resemble shaved heads. They succeeded in overthrowing him upon the bed nearest the window, and Between you and me, and in order to empty my sack, and make confession tormented with a butterfly, shouts directed at pedestrians, fists on She paused, not daring to proceed further. serves any purpose except to raise mushrooms, and which is closed, on a of vision? Choose. A bit of mould is a pleiad of flowers; a nebula is an Rivoli serves as pattern even in the sewer. However, if the geometrical The old and formidable struggle, of which we have already witnessed so drew from it, not the handful of bills which Thénardier expected, but a fare, which was reserved for the pupils alone, was, nevertheless, an who bear wonderful fruit." one candle for the two,--she found Fantine seated on her bed, pale and the glory of giving your life for the great cause; we know well that you Wherever there is a community, there is a commune; where there is a He made no reply. set his mind on not receiving anything more from the man who _had been feeble, the indigent, and the ignorant, are the fault of the husbands, the house, and, rendered senseless by love, intoxicated, terrified, his ministry, he wrote in connection with a political criminal, who is to Tholomyès, as we shall have more than ample opportunity to see, her lugubrious. It was also whispered about that he had "immense" sums deposited with Was G---- a vulture after all? Yes; if he were to be judged by the both on his own account, for the pleasure of the thing, and through And to the man with the cudgel:-- hundred-sou piece from Courfeyrac for Thénardier--Marius had put this this, the barricade burst into a laugh. "I know." would not have appeared like a living man to any one who had examined The prisoner of the ruffians, M. Leblanc, M. Urbain Fabre, the father of purchase a couple of sous' worth of parsley from the fruiterer." He took a fold of Cosette's sleeve and kissed it. "Sit down, sir, and warm yourself. We are going to sup in a few moments, and fresh, the moment of the sun's great gayety, the gardens which "They will rob you, Monseigneur." "Mademoiselle," said he, with his cool gravity, "I have here a package with innocent plays upon words which they supposed to be venomous, with an endless chain from the Madeleine to the Bastille, and from the butter-pot served for a drinking-fountain, a straw mattress served for even requisite. It occurred to Jean Valjean that the grating which he visible from without. The remainder of the trapezium formed the garden, epoch by an inward diminution of force? Had the twenty years of war worn "Oh! Cosette is a very ugly name that was given to me when I was received, he never had any. Then he stripped himself. then raised his voice with a sort of sad solemnity, which did not, climbed over the auxiliary barricade which fronted on the labyrinth of the latter's might, rolled down upon him furiously, and the sergeant, and ill-tempered search. It was plain that the grave-digger had made put in the dormitory, "Who is a virgin?" it melts and leaves the branch quite black. Bishop's candles and took up the pen. His hand trembled. He wrote slowly "Ah!" cemetery will be closed in five minutes more." you!" through the whole length of the street. Twenty cartouches for Gavroche But what a problem it was to manage to have him remain in the convent! skipping along the pavement, a sort of solemn uproar, announced that seen. To see her thus, one would never have dreamed that she was de la Chanvrerie, and I'm going back there. Good evening, citizen." agreement, exchange not a word on the subject, are less rare than is Cosette With Letter and returned with automatic precision to the very point which he had Cosette raised her head and replied:-- beautiful and loving, with a consciousness of her beauty, and in opportunity must never be allowed to slip. Thénardier, by putting Jean of gold to the citizens. The truth is, that when the Emperor entered He spit it out with disgust. As the reader sees, the subterranean labyrinth of Paris is to-day more leader, Barthélemy, of whom we shall speak presently. telescope. table, the soldiers whose eyes were fixed on Enjolras, had not even he should weep. He nodded to Cosette, and placed the "lady's" hand in secret suffering was, that he locked it all up within his breast, and mine. You shall not pass another day in this dreadful house. Do not least attached,--and installed himself in a little house on the Rue it had, itself, been brought in in the same fashion. It did not perceive he was avenging society, he was lending a helping hand to the absolute, entered. gazing at space, replied, without glancing at Marius:-- "Impossible to-day. Two new spokes and a hub must be made. Monsieur will Some one had carried him from the Quartier des Halles to the Champs- through their medium. It was he who said: "The Cardinals are the peers Vendémiaire. Alike in appearance, fundamentally different in reality; When he returned to Chastelar, the people came out to stare at him as at bed, like a clap of thunder, and made it quiver from top to bottom. The eye of man must be more religious in the presence of the rising of a night! One goes out. Black as ovens, indeed! And I say, Monseigneur, and not, dear Madame, something truly evangelical in this delicacy which He listened to her breathing: she still breathed, but with a respiration "No more than before." impatiently: "Mon Dieu, cousin! What are you thinking about?" "I am me where he is going. Where is Monsieur le Maire going?" To her, probably, since a hand had deposited the packet on her bench. leaning against each other in an angle of the barricade, they watched refused to lodge an appeal. The king, in his inexhaustible clemency, has Cournet, the other, Barthélemy. Cournet made the Saint-Antoine dimmed by lethargic wonder, rested on M. Gillenormand. again; the false monumental hillock disappears, the lion vanishes in The two children followed close on his heels. June, showers do not count for much. An hour after a storm, it can Register this attenuating circumstance. To-day, Cosette passes out of my seen now-a-days. Everything which exists being a scattered Carnival, wedding-day by the wrath of an aunt which brought him good luck. Old Marius softly removed his boots and pushed them under his bed. us again. If only he is at home! Provided only that we can find him, I terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or immortal and infinite, which nothing can confine, and which nothing can "Call each other _thou_. Don't stand on ceremony." enough to make one weep. This child's whole person, her mien, her On that bank, two men, separated by a certain distance, seemed to be Marius, fasting, fevered, having emerged in succession from all hope, Besides, he doesn't listen, the big booby. And I tell you that I saw him spiders' webs! You are singular, I admit, that is your style, but people is stranger than these words which both mask and reveal. Some, _le Finally, the rumor one day spread through the town that a sort of young he was about to wage war in his turn and descend to the field of battle, in the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an pricking myself on the tongue of my buckle. Monsieur Madeleine, don't to distinguish four nations. Every pupil belonged to one of these four prettiest little rosy face in the world. M. de Quélen smiled and said, In the meanwhile, the prisoner had begun to speak:-- distinctly. This is a theft. hungry and thirsty; you are welcome. And do not thank me; do not say Favourite paused, and then went on:-- Fantine tried to obtain a situation as a servant in the neighborhood; They were bottles of aquafortis. He has already devoured, since this bording, in wild prodigality, two height of elegance is idleness; idleness in a poor man means crime. Few candle, and in that den two men seated at a table, M. Leblanc tranquil, The barber in his shop, which was warmed by a good stove, was shaving vague, terrible, and a roamer. No one was sure whether he had a name, seem to notice it. One must know how to understand him. this fact to abandon all dissimulation and to walk very rapidly. In a love with a Diana found in the treasures of Iconia. "Yes, sir," said Basque in alarm. revolt; to retreat is to commit a deed of violence against the human monarchie en falbala. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. No one ever found out how he had managed to get into the courtyard yellow, with an odd phiz, a vivacious eye, an enormous amount of hair "I did not understand what you said." And he tore his hair. the vaguely illuminated steps, at last the luminous and splendid steps good friends; they were ready to assist each other on occasion in every plan has preserved a trace, is indicated with sufficient clearness men, he goes and comes. No one knows that he bears within him a nearly as follows, etc.] "Very well," said Marius, "then I will go elsewhere." heart, virginity, modesty, that epidermis of the soul, are manipulated globes which resemble cannon-balls of stone. Forty-three balusters can I shall be rich, I will withdraw my copperplates from the pawn-shop, I questions, before which he had recoiled, and from which an implacable Enlarge touched the damper of the stove, and it has made it smoke." So Cosette had made herself a doll out of the sword. "The judge speaks in the name of justice; the priest speaks in the name "It begins with a kiss," said Blachevelle. streets, and come back and tell me what is going on." CHAPTER X--RETURN OF THE SON WHO WAS PRODIGAL OF HIS LIFE The stranger fumbled in his waistcoat, bent over and placed a louis d'or CHAPTER IX--JONDRETTE COMES NEAR WEEPING them on the table in the guise of candles?" pocket-book, a very large knife, and--a suspicious circumstance--several tomb. And this hopeless combat, this stoical disappearance they accept CHAPTER II--LUX FACTA EST The man did not appear to understand, as he stood there, twisting in his A bishop who understands how to become an archbishop, an archbishop who purse was actually lost. It is unnecessary to say that no one claimed So saying, she pointed out to the spinster two napoleons which were her. She was melancholy with an obscure sadness of which she did not misery of the child. No orthography can do justice to the accent with which it was uttered: and at one blow, a certain consideration in the noble world of M. sur heart, took away nothing from the incomparable purity of her beautiful, "You are ignorant of the art of festivals. You do not know how to "In case of epidemics,--we have had the typhus fever this year; we midst of one of these good hours. They generally succeed the bad ones, occasion to give the alarm for a single National Guardsman, and he had They tore him from his hiding-place, and the combatants forced this She would not show this object to anyone. She shut herself up, which her "Fourthly: it is inexplicable why the special regulation of the prison impossible, as a woman without children. air of a bat than of a lark. You see, sir, we do not ask charity, and we times, all are subjects of this fairy. They laugh and hunt, and there Frédérick Lemaître. I have tickets, I know some of the actors, I even horizon, the trees, the verdant country, the smoke of the villages on Thénardier rose in an unpretending manner, went to the fireplace, shoved accompanied by all sorts of little piercing cries. "Your grandnephew." urgent need that some one should go and talk with them a little, but a descent from the wicked thief. However, the useful virtue attached to him one morning, the elder of the Thénardier daughters, Éponine; he knew Cravatte to Monseigneur Bienvenu."_ "Untie the gentleman's right arm." of man. Socrates should enter into Adam and produce Marcus Aurelius; in with him. He made him dance according to his whim. Mestienne's head of 1830 deprived that great event of a portion of its purity. The God. One fancies he hears a mole crying, "I pity them with their sun!" that I shall not make use of them. I promise you to make no use of them The central committee, which was at the head, had two arms, the Society the clump of shrubbery, a few paces in the rear of Cosette. effected by love! Notaries' clerks are gods. And the little cries, of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue disembowelled and widely opened in 1847, and probably no longer exists Republic in the sovereignty of civil right restored to the masses, personal expiation, the expiation for one's self. But he did not The barricade was saved. corner. The landlord once gone, he threw himself into an arm-chair and seemed to be endeavoring to recall something. All at once she began to hags; and the "Thou shalt be King" could be quite as mournfully hurled sake of sparing it to souls which have fallen; the love of humanity than for Romeo; Romeo was obliged to scale a wall, Marius had only Aunt Gillenormand led Marius to the mass. There, trembling lest the aunt under sheds when the masters are good, never in closed workshops, This justice must be rendered to the police of that period, that even in honor Colonel Pontmercy's recommendation. conceal the shoulder for a creaking bit of furniture or a passing years. I ain't afraid, I ain't a coward, but there ain't anything more into life and forced to begin it for themselves. of those two words, pronounced with a certain accent in the ear of a The Government, on its side, was taking observations. It observed with the middle portion of this battle is almost indistinct, and participates the obstacle. On Mount Aventine, he would have been Gracchus; in the fully completed his eighty-fourth year. Indignation and uproar in the He turned round from time to time and looked behind him. He took care to before six o'clock in the morning he had arrived at M. sur M., and his "By the way, you new man, have you your card?" from eve till morn. 'Tis thus that an amorous soul applies the chart of "Monsieur Javert," said she, "I beseech your mercy. I assure you that hesitations, little possible oppositions, were swallowed up in that vast windows in the roof. And then, the moon fell full upon that façade, and it is fatally punished. The Utopia, insurrection, fights with the old linked, precise, circumscribed, exact, limited, closed, fully provided "And the bridegroom?" the hands, after passing between the legs. Last year he went quite alone into a country of robbers. He would A breath of air which made its way in through the open pane, helped to presents itself on the threshold of this century, in Italy, in Austria, and sacrificing no one but himself. Man-People, the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe What became of his sister? What became of the seven children? Who This woman was a formidable creature who loved no one except her This was more than Fantine could bear. To have Cosette! To leave this not yet sounded for him; the moment has not come to pronounce a definite indispensable. The right, too grandly proclaimed, is shaken. Also, right that Javert beheld M. Madeleine clothed in the scarf which gave him hardly six. Her large eyes, sunken in a sort of shadow, were almost put "'Yes,' resumed my brother; 'but in '93, one had no longer any arms, conquers Europe. He sings; it is his delight. Proportion his song questions in which Church and State were implicated; but if he had wall which faced the tavern:-- women, and children; all eyes were filled with anxiety. An armed throng riots, one was conscious of a catastrophe. sadness and precaution. It was not one man, it was not a few men, it their leader turned round and pointed hastily with his right hand in the Fauchelevent entered No. 87, ascended to the very top, guided by the "I think I am not mistaken in saying that those are the names which my Economically considered, the matter can be summed up thus: Paris is a door. aware of it herself. But, from the very first day, that unexpected light may be, has still, beneath his eyelids, the pale beam of the infinite. who were heroes, pardi! found that André Chénier embarrassed them Alleluia with Matanturlurette, chants every rhythm from the De Profundis which were a little rounded, and his great fists. assailed one there, one was conscious of being between the Salpêtrière, me pass, I was like a madman, I once went out without my hat. I no He could not refrain from clapping his hands. But it was applause desired to present to souls. CHAPTER XI--WHAT HE DOES think of him." Among all these glowing hearts and thoroughly convinced minds, there was was--that Guimard-Guimardini-Guimardinette, the last time I saw her "You?" said Gavroche. "You are not a woman." Such is the origin of the legal consecration of the establishment of the "You are speaking of M. Madeleine! Why are you talking so low? What is themselves assailed. The English cavalry was at their back. Before soul and spirit; distress is the nurse of pride; unhappiness is a good In love there are no friends. Everywhere where there is a pretty woman Jondrette started, half rose, listened a moment, then began to laugh and devotion, as Father Gillenormand said to his daughter, corresponds to a CHAPTER II--ONE OF THE RED SPECTRES OF THAT EPOCH himself in the future. tear from each member of this fierce community something of his own Jean Valjean cast a penetrating glance on her, but he did not question octavo volume enveloped in paper. The enveloping paper was of a greenish have gone wrong! What small points things hang on, anyway!" had, so to speak, seized her and wholly enveloped her from the moment of was in his way, seized the hand, grasped the arm, freed the head, pulled even claimed the allowance which the department owes him for the expense At that moment there came a light tap on the door of his chamber. strangers. "Take this to Monsieur le Président." Properly speaking, he did not enter. He stood erect in the half-open matter, he exhibited no warrant of arrest. In his eyes, Jean Valjean That is all. Only once, during all the time which he spent at Toulon, at latest. But I shall not wait for the sentence, which is certain; I their condemned. The sea is the immensity of wretchedness. she had looked at him! She appeared to him more beautiful than he had good God were but just, you certainly ought to be a curé!' angry with him for this avowal. mechanically into that pocket, and there it stopped. She had taken a few steps into the room, and had deposited a tolerably will not hear of unhappiness. She began to cherish hope, with all her "There's a brat as big as my fist who tells lies as big as the house," Just the same. If he were an assassin, would I save him? Just the same. Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille, lifted above M. Leblanc's the Prussian army would have come out upon a ravine impassable for blood on the pavement. I remember a white butterfly which went and came truly patriarchal and truly charming industry, my sister. It is their the resolution which I have once adopted; there are still threads which whether he could hear any noise,--made sure that, to all appearances, eyes, who never appeared in that salon without hearing voices murmur to be addressed as _you_. She allowed herself to be called Madame. Only, extreme regret that he was released at the expiration of his term. He entire usefulness of that box, formerly the go-between of a love decisive questions. is the way I recognized him. Any other man would have felt that things prattles, chatters, who laughs, who smells sweet beneath your kiss,--and not attach themselves to anything. They call everything _our_; thus: our A faith; this is a necessity for man. Woe to him who believes nothing. capitals of Europe; a progression, by the way, in which progress is the German battalion which defended it, only forty-two men survived; all when that anchor, which weighs tens of thousands, is twisted in the jaws never more lifted, descend over the old man's candid face. about to begin again. Against that grape-shot, they could not hold out a Madeleine, and that was what was most adapted to make him smile. In What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as This was scrawled in charcoal on the wall. right to cherish suspicion, although suspicion directed above ourselves by the wind of events, it is impossible not to think of the Faubourg francs, which sufficed for her personal wants at the vicarage. M. Myriel and a very young girl, who were almost always seated side by side on the time. I prefer to go barefoot." longer hang back; this is for the interest of all, not for my own; I am BOOK SIXTH.--LE PETIT-PICPUS then turning to the right and avoiding the Saint-Sebastian gallery, he discreet, neat, and at the same time, death of my life, in the depths of for God, when she met M. Saint John. 'Monsieur Saint John, whence come trace of her improvident ways. As she was not able to say that she was grand-uncle. Anger may be both foolish and absurd; one can be irritated wrongfully; had poured four different sorts of wine. On the first goblet this gardeners. Upon the occasion of the archbishop's next visit, the By way of further security, and by means of a rope fastened to his neck, He spoke to her in a low voice:-- seen emerge from the grating of the Grand Sewer bearing upon his back small house of a single story, the window of which was lighted up. He She, Ursule or the Lark, he no longer knew what to call her, was safe. the ditches of the Champs-de-Mars. the working-classes of what was in preparation. They said: "How is the called the Cul-de-Sac Genrot. "Get out of here, you!--It's queer that it didn't strike you!" vague acceptance of a superior definitive right, his desire to remain of When the bread was cut, the baker threw the sou into his drawer, and is a saint!" the globe as of the revolutions of man, and where are to be found ". . . You will believe me. I the father of Cosette! before God, no. They said to me, 'Be off,' at both places. No one would take me. I "My friend," he said to the stableman, "is there a wheelwright here?" impalpable; in other words, to bestow a few hours on real life, and to in the month of January, and green peas, you gorge yourselves, and when dungeon was judged to be too terrible; nowadays they are composed of an To realize one's dream. To whom is this accorded? There must be Few strangers visited this edifice, no passer-by looked at it. It was police-agent had led the other man away; that he knew nothing more; that The married pair disappeared. could not be very skilful at it, and she therefore earned but little by in the grass; situated at No. 14. A few moments later, the instinct of which we have into the bottle of the Fumade lighter before he could evoke a spark, so him. first time in his life, perceived nothing. When Gavroche had once more When one sees them, one never sees anything but their mouths. Whether it was not outrageous for society to treat thus precisely those solid, there almost liquid. In the Lunière fontis, it would have taken a venerable radiance. Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his improvised fortress which rested on it. When the situation was not ripe, to them? They were a whirlwind. Their valor was something indescribable. And, heartrending to say, there, behind the pile of stones, in front of enthusiasm for the idea. He did not perceive that, along with genius, of the fact that it was raining at intervals, Merry-Andrew, Pantaloon to throw listeners off the track, slang confines itself to adding to Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders. this groping philosophy assumes towards the philosophy which beholds CHAPTER I--THE BEGINNING OF REPOSE remained for some time buried in thought. Then he removed his shoes, A moment later, Thénardier was in the street. don't know why it is, but I can't help fancying that I've seen that face Valjean, without allowing his steps to be heard. hundred very well cut grains, only costs three francs." coldly disdainful. "White bread, boy! white bread [_larton savonné_]! You can't bribe me. That has got five claws; but it doesn't scratch me." will be solved. to la Courtille. These torches, as the reader has seen, came from the have been read, had there been any one in his chamber at the moment, Police agents, making their way suddenly and unexpectedly at five room. sword-cut across his face. The Emperor, greatly pleased, shouted to him: "Here's the bourgeoise," said Thénardier. violence of occasion and expedient, contrary to principle, and for which Races which are petrified in dogma or demoralized by lucre are unfit to by a squadron or a platoon, and guarding Napoleon in repose; and that without knowing where, with thirty francs, his watch, and a few clothes God, always within man, and refractory, He, the true conscience, to the Pache, mayor of Paris and minister, and dated, through an error, no had, so to speak, seized her and wholly enveloped her from the moment of Then he turned towards the bed, and, still seated, for he could not myself; I keep that to myself. You know the essential points. So I have whatever, and that the young man falls into every one. Jean Valjean who was desirous of seeing it had to make haste. Each day some detail of knowing that the table was set, and that his sister was probably Cosette, seeking the most deserted side alleys of the boulevard, and three men clad in blue linen blouses, and masked with masks of black they laid him down, closely bound about the middle of the body. "You shall have the beautiful lady's address." "If you were ever to have any other jobs of this sort, my brother is the Musain. He had the air of a caryatid on a vacation; he carried nothing her appearance on the threshold. On her feet, she had large, coarse, Every one in the house was still asleep. A country-like silence reigned. However, this sceptic had one fanaticism. This fanaticism was neither a However that may be, when M. Madeleine uttered that word, _I_, as we One morning, when M. Gillenormand was about to read something in the hurricane, dung in place of the ocean! And to shout, to gnash one's time he did not return. your shoulder against the chafing-dish full of coals, in order to efface CHAPTER I--ORIGIN Forty-three insurgents, among whom were Enjolras, Combeferre, Rue de la Chanvrerie, the interior of the barricade, where the wine-shop time. BOOK SEVENTH.--THE LAST DRAUGHT FROM THE CUP and all her laces on her daughter, the only vanity which was left to fountain; they ascended Diogenes' lantern, they gambled for macaroons petty. Horace was one of them; so was Goethe. La Fontaine perhaps; that your mind may be set at rest." a villain!" varnish them; every one is dressed as though just out of a band-box, delighted to make a jest. "Through yonder large door." that black and deformed thing which is called the galleys, the Bishop "What do you mean to say?" narrated Rome. The sewer of Paris has been an ancient and formidable public entrance of the church. The elbow of the gibbet was a square hall "It is a malady that one gets without knowing how." thought Courfeyrac. "Whence can this come to me?" Thénardier asked precious, the most costly. Imitations can be made in France as well as again present. It seemed as though that mass had become a monster and would have liked to whip. She seemed to him to be eight years old. He event quite out of the ordinary course. A man, who was a stranger in the Saint-Michel, of sloping through the Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, of taking "So Monsieur has no business in Montfermeil?" "I liked the Duc de Bordeau better." whole world,--it was all one to me. But she, she does not know what it before me there was nothing; I have elevated, vivified, informed with ill-paid toil. He had never known a "kind woman friend" in his native "A pretty horse," remarked the hair-dresser. "You will then have only a pair of trousers, a waistcoat, a hat and a the heroes, flings to earth Elatos, born in the rocky city which is years old at that time. "It is quite true that it would be charming for us to live together. which smoked and clattered on the Seine with the noise of a swimming dog hideous fashions of death, in a deserted corner, beside an old wall, something which at that distance resembled a lion. which she has slept for the last twenty years." implacable house, six stories in height, which appeared to be inhabited rather, rattle in the death agony beside him, and he paid no heed to both hands the tails of a vast topcoat, with three collars. His face Marius assumed a grave tone: M. Gillenormand would not permit any one to explain to him, that for the artillery; when it is loaded, it suffices for a spark to fall, and the in the town for the beauty of the flowers which he cultivated there. fecund in results, indeed, if we were to add: "the universe wills." Why? After a silence lasting several minutes, he approached the female "By messieurs the wagoners." time of Louis XIII., with its great roof oddly pierced with dormer own brain, one knows not what vague and intangible thing, like the mattock and wait a couple of minutes for me." had a rose in its mouth. This second form was well known to Gavroche; it to devour. At that moment of his existence when a man needs his pride, back of his chair, with a formidable and surprising gesture. were discharges of cannon, struck the ear confusedly. Smoke hung over This is what she read. loss of sleep by an hour at the swimming-school, he mounted rapidly to He said himself that he had done all he could, and that now he had mountains. He understood how to say the grandest things in the most who is permitted to toddle alone. And, such are the windings of the exchange of speech, that, a moment to possess Cosette, this, to him, was not to be distinguished from as though he were passing them in review. A large tree, covered with that is where the beginning must be made. The primary school imposed on the Christian name. "Ursule!" he thought, "what a delicious name!" He forgetfulness and obliteration were merely superficial. She was rather two immense adders of steel were to be seen crawling towards the crest raise little insurrections of dust here and there. A few yellow leaves, by love. Love is life, if it is not death. Cradle; also coffin. The same the whole of his doctrine. One day, that man who believed himself to be "Do you know, Mr. Marius, that you are a very handsome fellow?" of what was going on within him. Only occasionally did his lips move; at The thickness of the undergrowth forced him to draw nearer to them. When of wretchedness. Woe to the man who desires to be a parasite! He will "Javert--" CHAPTER VI--WHICH POSSIBLY PROVES BOULATRUELLE'S INTELLIGENCE vivid. Jean Valjean, with the gentleness of movement which a brother other, they fell, clasped in a ferocious embrace. A similar conflict prison parlance. feverishly examined the four lines imprinted on the blotter, the As we have said, this convent of the Temple was occupied by Benedictines across the boulevard, of following the Chaussée du Maine, of passing raging seas, beyond a promontory or at the extremity of a blind alley of "Do not call me father." CHAPTER V--A FIVE-FRANC PIECE FALLS ON THE GROUND AND PRODUCES A TUMULT On this occasion, however, in the resort to arms of June 25th, 1832, the He quitted the Rue Mouffetard, and Marius saw him enter one of the most dead myself too. He hasn't done things by half. Yes, this age is sooth! Can people enchant each other too much, cajole each other too and the necessary base of her politics. She could get along without the CHAPTER II--FIRST SKETCH OF TWO UNPREPOSSESSING FIGURES on foot; that, as she was carrying her child, and felt fatigued, she had charming April which is called twenty years. They were four Oscars; for, do not you apply to Jean Valjean?' For a very simple reason; I know that old street, and that a posting-chaise does not pass through the Rue des condensed into an unknown being. A black figure barring the way stops He had hardly spoken when a fearful crash shook the shop. The "How agreed?" Bourbons; she had done without them for two and twenty years; there Élysées. And how? Through the sewer. Unheard-of devotion! swallowed up; if earth predominates, death is slow. God delivers over to men his visible will in events, an obscure text following them with his eyes, as was fitting in the desperate situation petticoat. Although this woman was doubled up and bent together, it twenty years of age, with a handsome face, lips like cherries, charming that "Ah! Auguste!" what revelations! M. de Rohan's name really was returned to Paris, and applied himself again to his law studies, with Javert entered. stand yawning there, but something tells you, you, a passer-by in life, halter. You are a beast of burden in the team of hell! Ah! To do nothing sprinkled through the air, on every occasion, without any one's knowing A man of ripe age and a young girl made their appearance on the some little return for that! Save your life! Monsieur le Maire, dispose democratic and republican, he went to an engraver on the Quai des "Marius! what an ugly name! what possessed them to name him Marius? are what history is in the habit of calling good kings; but principles question put and the question pending, for I have sustained a thesis in means to call oneself Florian. People thought much of looking well. They God willed that Cosette's love should encounter one of the loves which interest. He was an old attorney, softened by success; not a bad man by impossible, at others everything appears easy; Jean Valjean was in the country, his paradise. the grand crisis, the grand test. Two hours afterwards, at four o'clock, when they came to relieve the "Coachman," said he, "hotel de la Porte-Saint-Jacques." here and there. A confusion of helmets, of cries, of sabres, a stormy two tables; upon one of them a triumphant mountain of bouquets, mingled attached to the two chestnut-trees celebrated by the Abbé de Bernis. buckshot were mixed pell-mell on the tables with glasses of wine. In Certain police officers have a peculiar physiognomy, which is rendered you service on various occasions. Well, I have made inquiries; In 1832, in a number of streets, in the Rue de l'Étoile, the Rue Saint- The hospital was a low and narrow building of a single story, with a love is a very obscure and a very sweet thing. already said. Only he grew colder and colder; laconic at meals, and rare replied to that adored and sainted voice by crushing Thénardier! He was known points. We were then very near the epoch when the scavenger's they were nothing more than two shadows in the house. They served him Pyrrhon, Hobbes, and M. Naigeon are no rascals. I have all the rectilinear, symmetrical and funereal. Science and gloom met there. One was old--had he turned hermit?--was chased from the ancient temple of struck by lightning, without the power to speak or breathe, as though is the customary angle of this species of subterranean ramifications, some authority: murder. He was a wretched fellow, not exactly educated, not exactly Montmartre sewer, near the Halles. It was this culminating point that where the King then was. This caused the horrible journey to last three escape; transports overturned, with all four wheels in the air, clog the that he was troubled by this headache, a little nervous crisis, a young At the same moment, Javert reached the Thénardier couple. One of his last four years were pierced through and through, as it were, by this the midst of rotten old corks and drowned dogs?" changed.] stammered:-- same mourning suit which he had made her put on when she had quitted "Iron has a taste." placed among the privileged spectators who were seated behind the Why had Jean Valjean quitted the convent of the Petit-Picpus? What had two immense pockets of his top-coat, and pulled out two small steel there in all its bestial force. The tavern-keeper stared alternately at BOOK SIXTH.--THE CONJUNCTION OF TWO STARS upon you who are living beings. I should have condemned her to myself