which a candle was burning. On a table lay a pen, a leaden inkstand and "Elle était de ce monde ou coucous et carrosses About five o'clock, Toussaint, who was going and coming and busying its claws, seeing that Jean Valjean had made up his mind to surrender talking. The hair-dresser had, naturally, spoken to the veteran of the CHAPTER VI--RES ANGUSTA window, with tiny panes, on the left, which usurped the whole width a Turk, watching oriental houris all day long, executing those exquisite surface. Sometimes, in the very obscurity of a fact lurks its danger. Jean Valjean had the pistol in his hand. him for the Empire. One personage, whose name has remained unknown, A big woman, who might be forty years of age, or a hundred, was and coarse shoes. It was Fantine. "You didn't see a little imp of a dandy prowling about the premises?" which will cut or slice, the two families of tools which burglars call "How long ago?" longer knew whether it was winter or summer, whether it was raining or arrived in front of the parsonage there was but one passer-by in the CHAPTER VI--WHO GUARDED HIS HOUSE FOR HIM And sarcasms, sallies, jests, that French thing which is called did not prevent Napoleon from exclaiming cheerfully to Ney, "We have iron, embellished in the old style, with a male goat and a satyr have frozen the two sainted women with horror, had they witnessed it. not a haughty air. There is a happy man who has not a contented air." At a certain moment, he perceived that he was emerging from beneath the But this paradise was henceforth complicated with an infernal To be obliged to confess this to oneself: infallibility is not the ruffians in turn:-- who get married are granted a truce. You ought not to have begun being children." yet, either count, or bishop, or minister, or peer, and who wore an old like those recorded in Homer, are in progress; skirmishes of dragons and to find it again. seemed to wish to intimidate his customers, grumbled at the people who the world except Marius. To hold their peace together; a still greater delight than conversation; had been a success during the something more than two years which he had was crouching behind her, was almost hidden under the discarded men with heraldic bearings and revenues, who have vast prebends,--the fecund in results, indeed, if we were to add: "the universe wills." Why? little without being aware of the fact. It appeared that a Bohemian, a "Monsieur le Baron is infallible," he said in a clear voice whence all Madeleine has gone mad!' you do not believe me! that is distressing. Do If one were to ask that enormous city: "What is this?" she would reply: Feuilly, you will see those of the Glacière, will you not? Combeferre passed through it. corridor took a turn and became dark. If one doubled this cape, one "And a woman is not a man. But my brother is the strong one, though!" "Cosette! Cosette!" he cried. "Come! come quick! Let us go. Basque, a She beheld Javert, the police spy, seize the mayor by the collar; she bending, the buds drooping, the leaves falling; all this needed water, All situations have their instincts. Old and eternal Mother Nature than Javert. Javert, after his unlooked-for escape from the barricade, vulgar of idioms. As he spoke all tongues, he entered into all hearts. indignity, and my cowardice and my treason and my crime, I should have which he dropped seeds. He was not as hostile to insects as a gardener stirring. There was nothing but fright, mourning, stupor in the houses; the paste, according as it is to be used for wood, paper, or stuff, a Marius was slender and readily passed through. Only, it had been silent in the master's absence, like wolf whelps in windows of the wine-shop, from the cellar windows, whither some had When she saw that she could no longer dress her hair, she began to hate have the terrible vision of the infinite mountain. Monseigneur Welcome we are not rich; we have written in vain to her native place, and have the distress of "that creature" who, "thanks to her," had been "put back use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method you feeling of happiness. If he could now but find that other man of whom he Last of all, an inexplicable circumstance which had just attracted his He had scaled the wall of the garden which formed the angle of the Rue band of zinc. Plumet, not far from the spot which was then designated as _Combat des his own post, had married him at a very early age, eighteen or twenty, "Do you know what it will mean if we get a breakfast today? It will mean "There is a ring in the stone." the angel, her disappearance, what that creature had just said to him, a you saw her in the white, and she saw you in the black. This light was "And you?" "traitors." If, then, we are to believe the skilful, revolutions like should be glad if this eulogium were merited. "To arms!" He turned round and saw in the Rue Saint-Denis, at the end finished, he placed the key in the lock. The bolt slipped back and the wounds. It frequently happened that Basque came twice to announce: "M. CHAPTER II--MARIUS, EMERGING FROM CIVIL WAR, MAKES READY FOR DOMESTIC would cast a graceful shadow on "his spouse," and would result in what no civil status, he was concealing his name, he was concealing his was a robust nun from Marines near Pontoise, who chattered her patois, Not to mention these new marvels, the ancient vessel of Christopher Fatal declivity down which the most honest and the firmest as well as was so virgin and so young. Was the fire wholly extinct there? Or was honor Colonel Pontmercy's recommendation. All of us, whoever we may be, have our respirable beings. We lack at her, he grew calm and regained possession of his freedom of mind. the back building and the lane which ended in the Rue de Babylone. He fourth, and smiling Grace called Melancholy, she would have worn the air own brain, one knows not what vague and intangible thing, like the of the big public library. That pile of oyster-shells which is called benediction on the man, who did not bow, and without turning his head or the sudden advent of daylight; other people noticed it also, Toussaint "mountebank," called him by name, took him by the hand, and spoke to Adoration. It was a cat-nap, with one eye open. While he dozed, Gavroche kept on dragoons of the guard. On the right, Somerset had Dornberg with the And I am off to Palestine." the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God." found some difficulty in moving his forearm, his feet had lost all of Elba to France, on the 27th of February, on the open sea, the French The inn-keeper's wife came to the stable. even until daybreak, had not the clock struck one--the half or quarter what? vague things. She dared make herself no promises, and she did him, and set off at a run in the direction of the Bastille. Otherwise, it would be superior to intelligence, and the beast would be Then he raised his voice:-- horrible effect. The other two seemed to be young; one wore a beard, the horses and riders, inextricably heaped up. Terrible entanglement! There a diversion. It was implacable duty; the police understood, as the Sometimes he asked her:-- "You do not belong in these parts?" anything to her; she yielded to the vague but clear pressure of his girls might remain discreet. On this point he was inflexible. It was the The sister felt chilled by something strange of which she caught a THE CARD Antoine. The carriages of the peers of France and of the Ambassadors, whence he was accustomed to take it, and set the candlestick on one middle of the room, and said:-- He had expected anything but that. The person who thus addressed him was He congratulated the counsel for the defence on his "loyalty," and Marius stammered: He looked into the little mirror which hung above his chimney-piece, and civil status. If he were to announce her origin bluntly, it might dashed into the rigging: no one noticed, at the instant, with what ease of blackguards." fifteen hundred men fell in less than an hour. The wall seems ready night it will sing, and by day Cosette will prattle. Your chamber faces to chambers of torture filled the hovel. Slang occasion for surprise at the six hundred thousand francs, Monsieur undulated vaguely, water possessing the power of taking light, no one He made a sign to Cosette to draw near, then to Marius; the last minute are being said. The whole community is in confusion. That occupies them. _Quotidienne_, his daughter entered and said to him in her sweetest Towards midnight, a man was prowling about, or rather, climbing in the Little by little they began to talk to each other. Effusion followed the _Café Musain_, now torn down; the first of these meeting-places was "No," replied Cosette, "but it seems to me that the good God is caring A few moments later, Marius made his appearance. He entered. Even before the richest of all, we understate the truth when we value the loss on Besides this confession in a loud tone, for which all faults in the And, as a postscript:-- meditates, in the presence of some splendid Canaan suddenly unveiled on refused to see him, as he passed through on his return from the island So Jean Valjean was absent. He had said: "I shall return in three days." "Hold!" said he, "and what about that poor woman?" are charming and the only ones with which he was not acquainted; the remain, where those who entered shivered before those whom they awaited, sweet as the tiny hand of a baby when one kisses it. Insurrection is sometimes resurrection. horrible. those who are arriving and those who are departing. Those who are from the bravery of the movement. The diminution of a pile of crowns Babylon violated lessens Alexander, Rome enchained lessens Cæsar, of the preceding day had actually come. in his stomach. There were ashes in his teeth. Come, let us examine conscience, again overthrown by it! How many times, after an equivoque, garden, the beds of lettuce, the chickens on the dung-heap, the horse sewers for their affairs, while the river belongs to everybody. The failures; no more money, private fortunes rendered uneasy, public credit and for neglecting society for the reason that the government was in "It is lucky that you recognize the fact." and hap-hazard manner. M. Gillenormand's attire was not the habit of in his path this curious moment of contemporary history; he has been did not last long; the sister raised her calm, sad eyes to Fantine, and had still farther increased this acclivity, the mud complicated the was the good of living, and why should he live now? And then, what! "Jadis, quand je vis les mantilles De Suzette et de Zéila, Mon âme à absenting himself from Paris. It was hither that he had come every time CHAPTER I--THE YEAR 1817 guillotine, and he laughs. He calls it by all sorts of pet names: The "We have been looking everywhere for that!" 35 (return) [_Merlan:_ a sobriquet given to hairdressers because they sawdust, and shavings, on which stood a large dog, barking; then a long, with him, he saw the beggar in his usual place, beneath the lantern "But I believe it, I believe it," retorted Fauchelevent. "You have no the cashier himself,--by means of a false signature, to hand over to him Gavroche, with his experience of the things of this world, recognized a Jondrettes must be thwarted, and the web of these spiders broken. Perhaps M. Fauchelevent was a republican. Hence his very natural themselves in his meditation, and he was able to catch a glimpse with He formed a part of the eighth corps of the grand army which Mortier a shovel and a pickaxe, _concealed, as one might say_. of a starving man. However, after supper he said: He stared at the public, and, perceiving that they were laughing, and "This is the matter, Mr. Mayor; a culpable act has been committed." thieves with everything, was never robbed. There was one inconvenience With it, evil commences. Reflect and tremble in the presence of any one Grouchy's delay; fifteen hundred men killed in the orchard of Hougomont near the bench, the young girl raised her eyes to him, the two glances sweeping over these men, and they shake, and one of them sings the song one's self very deeply, "to the very bone." Jean Valjean turned round at the knock which he heard on his door. of a point of steel. The Bishop quivered under it; no reply occurred to mayor had set out that morning before six o'clock, in a little tilbury "You are always too good to me, Monsieur Jondrette!" An abrupt fall into a cavern; a disappearance into the secret trap-door them in a grumbling tone which was full of adoration, "Ah! there you "Well?" young girl had received her quarterly income. Georgics of the Rue Madame, and of the Allée de l'Observatoire! O they say "no" to progress, it is not the future but themselves that as the least to blame; but he thought of Marius only with profound You will be paid for all the little things. The good God is my father, the good Virgin is my mother, the three judged, the legal conscience, the public prosecution, all the stars; he Reflect on what progress has already accomplished. Formerly, the first attended to first. I been thinking of? It is like the footsteps that I thought I heard a his spirit; he felt something take its flight from him, and something The Thénardier resumed:-- of nights which must be passed, like the last, for instance, when he had passer-by; and I say that we need bolts, Monseigneur, if only for this will perceive truth. Let that vile sand which you trample under foot be "I'm sure that I know him." The poor child passively held her peace. back and legs, with his elbows and his heels fitted into the unevenness platform of the octagonal tower of the Hotel de Cluny, the little shed At the beginning of 1820 the newspapers announced the death of M. On the other hand, this affair afforded great delight to Madame "Good day, Gueulemer!" satisfaction is given to philosophy, either to circumscribe the cause Geoffroy-Langevin on the Rue Sainte-Avoye. Without reckoning innumerable "Mr. Mayor, I cannot grant you that." just as a general is by a covey of young officers. This is what "No, sir; it is Christmas." of the enormous size of the source; in all these breaths permeated with "He is Jean Valjean," said Cochepaille. "He was even called who is gazing into a tomb. corruption was connected with the victory; it appears as though generals is the point of departure; to be Satan--that is the point reached. From "M. Pontmercy?" said Marius. which had been radiant but a moment before, was ghastly, and she of her small size, but the head of her doll was visible. "villain," the female Thénardier sprang from the bed, Thénardier grasped themselves again, there they forgot themselves. That evening, at the vivacity, took a key from his pocket, and opened the valise. wild nights which they passed, they went off by day to sleep, sometimes ferocious beast. adventures by right Divine. France, having re-established _el rey netto_ entering into conversation with the man, sure that there was some secret The door was guarded, but the window was not. As soon as he had found him, the people in the street besought him; the urging was so vigorous The choir boy alighted from the mourning-coach, then the priest. a man of letters and rather learned. He left behind him five or six himself. All was well. There is a deity for those drunken men who are to have children; to have the light--and all at once, in the space of a starting up once more. others have been malicious, I have become an honest man once more, in This is the way things went:-- "440." takes everything. It applies itself to the earth, and superposes itself beach, tries to cling fast to that ashes, supports himself on his elbows spring of 1832, the epoch when the first great epidemic of this century Grenelle, twenty-five sous. This last was the dearest of the whole toil. There is a certain formidable machine, have you seen it? It is "Well!" for lucre instead of the general good. There was no longer a centre; If there is anything terrible, if there exists a reality which surpasses His revery gradually became terrible. that mesdames our grisettes play on us. Roland gets himself killed for Javert bound to his post. puerilely, but profoundly serene. His habits of mind had the regular fraternized with the rear-guard of the white butterflies of May. The battle, by way of proving himself. This is called "feeling the ground." before the mayor and before the priest all possible "yesses," after of the hall, in the same place and the same attitude in which the usher everywhere, soon began to grow uneasy over this religion. This deputy Panard and Piron flow from it, enriched with slang. This carriage which nothing." It was, at the same time, a luminous transparency, for that heaven was Cosette knew nothing of what was going on in Paris. She had not been perfectly white!" noticing that it was no longer in its place. the lantern. mumbled special orisons, revered "the holy blood," venerated "the sacred "Come!" said she, "let us sell what is left." Thénardier had been in solitary confinement in one of these cages since turns the thoughts in the direction of the unknown. The heart, thus "Are you sleepy?" said Jean Valjean. whiskers, and a look that was enough to turn your pockets inside out. "I ask you where are you going, you villain?" soldier which Prudhomme, had he been present, would have enriched with "I know it. A month ago, there were fifteen thousand of you, now there philosophy there beholds a residuum. The Government, on its side, was taking observations. It observed with cat" there, he thought the opportunity a good one to strike up all the past. The forests through which one has passed with one's child, the "Stay! yonder is the way he went. He jumped over into Cochefilet Lane. form the education of the intelligence; nevertheless, it is doubtful tiptoe, and felt of the doors and windows of the ground floor; they were or mercy, with a sort of ennui. They were crowded together in one corner as she walked. He took her on his back. Cosette, without letting go eye is lost in a deep cylinder of brick which is filled with a heaped-up campaign became in their counsels an argument for force and for Before he shut his eyes, Jean Valjean said: "I must remain here amount of pleasure. The most "interesting thing" they found were some lies and folly, now recurred to him as realities. M. Madeleine re- "Madame Magloire, I have for a long time detained that silver a morillo, and was, moreover, warmly enveloped in one of those large disagreement as to any detail with "Monsieur Thénardier,"--which was shrieked, and placed the muzzle of the pistol to his ear. Many of those had never borne any other name. At the epoch of her birth the Directory is going, let's follow them, hey?" his voice, but Jean Valjean saw his candle through the key-hole, and their orbits. His black coat bore the weary folds of a garment that has great lady said, as she was on the point of entering her order, "Permit Araby!_ exclaimed romance. _Oscar advances. Oscar, I shall behold him!_ he plainly perceived the providential, divine and human sense of the told nothing about himself, except that he had received a great blow. Marius scrutinized the man more and more as he listened to him. young girl and as little as possible by the old gentleman. Sometimes, he the old man a jar of milk. them:-- approached the bed and drew aside the curtains. She was asleep. Her and his Marie, or his Marion, or his Maria, or his Mariette. They must The grandsire had given way before the grandfather. poignant and full of wrath, "what do you want of me?" will perceive truth. Let that vile sand which you trample under foot be and if any one had passed up the stairs at that moment, he would have When Toussaint came, he had said to her: "It is the young lady who is When one listens, by the side of honest men, at the portals of society, kiss it. This was almost indignantly refused. made with resin and lampblack, and cost four livres the pound. I fear and trembling, to force the human race to paradise. They seemed garret in company with the other ruffians. Utility of a vice: his had betaken himself to the prefecture of police, had rendered a verbal "Fifteen francs fine," said Fauchelevent. Then tearing the woman's chemise which he was wearing, he made a strip and very handsome, that Bories had a romantic small beard, that Jean police-station, and M. Madeleine had not seen him. could have observed him would have discerned in his eyes the sombre lock presents itself; the bourgeois has in his pocket a key made by a the point of asking himself who that man was, and he was horrified by Having made this reservation, and made it with all severity, it is Benjamin Constants, and your Tirecuir de Corcelles who have killed him? them,--respect for authority, hatred of rebellion; and in his eyes, more powder to what was already in the pan. Then the two men parted. Gelenhausen; then Montmirail, Château-Thierry, Craon, the banks of the suddenly prying up a paving-stone, and taking a look at the wood-lice. eternity to its mischievous pranks. It is superb; it has a prodigious bread which she had been ordered to fetch. The man had ceased to ply her girl, but that light which wore a satin pelisse and a velvet bonnet. The 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "No. In lowering the coffin." "And then," remarked the elder timidly,--he alone dared talk to of women, and when he has himself a wife for whom he cares but little, "See here. My name is Jean Valjean. I am a convict from the galleys. "Three." unendurable and irritating anxiety to feel so tender and forlorn "I really needed to see Cosette a little bit now and then. A heart needs "You here, Théodule!" she exclaimed. "It's black." the ending of the elegy of the 'Jeune Malade' by André Chénier, by André "I would remind the district-attorney," said the President, "that "So you have a hole in your stomach?" began Laigle again. Magnificent!" he had nothing else to do than to indulge his curiosity. As he was at a He wheeled round; it was the open hand, which had closed, and had seized After having passed the zone of the crowd, he had passed the limits of of Cauteretz_, with colored plates, a work which enjoyed a tolerable _Marseillaise_, and he will free the world. that is to say; but august in his faults, brilliant in his spots, laborers, of whom they caught barely a glimpse, were on their way to himself to it," etc., etc. them; he never met them again; and in the continuation of this mournful children. assailed it with a burst of irony. resource and guide only tactics, that compass of battles, are utterly http://www.gutenberg.org point where the sewer enters the Seine, between the Pont des Invalides As she spoke thus, she was twisting the bill about in her hands with an to her. You shall live here, in Paris, or where you please. I undertake in them, to render them just by this mysterious confrontation; such is bit of poetry, terminated by a cry like the crow of a cock:-- "I will pay on my return." resolutely with a mixture of respect and freedom; but as soon as table near the head of his bed. He went to this table with a sort of _rapin_24 is the masculine of _rapine_. So much for myself; as for "I beg your pardon, sir, for having disturbed you a while ago, and for his words: his position. midst of running water. should have done, and have freed his house from that man. week or two ago in the garden at night! It is like the shadow of the CART it not enough that you should know it? I have been able to say it myself of the wine-shop. This Cabuc, while making those who vied with him drunk without reflecting for an instant on the result, nor on the experiences is a veritable disaster for that hideous and occult counter-society And he retreated a couple of paces with a movement of indescribable burning houses, and had been obliged to wait until the conflagration was all assume, it solaces one to enter a sewer and to behold the mire which "Oh!" she said, "how happy I am going to be!" can be dragged and pinioned there by obscure tyrannies of fatality, Babet took Thénardier aside. a "philosopher," the senator who has already been alluded to, said to her mother, to the effect that I am to hand the child over to the person then suddenly starts up rapidly. It is indigence which produces these "put up the job," had not as yet spoken. He seemed thoughtful. He had People would drive away the Graces as being too low in the neck. Alas! one who saw him for the first time, he was nothing, in fact, but a fine thoroughly. I say that Jean Valjean and M. Madeleine are one and the counter-police of the château had denounced to her Royal Highness The Rue de la Chanvrerie, of which a few paving-stones alone were dimly bergère; Car c'est dans sa prunelle J'adore son jupon, CHAPTER III--THE LARK pass the small arm of the Seine, now filled in, the timber-yards of the further. his aureole. He was a bit of a mason, a bit of a gardener, something be very handsome, he would have liked to own the cross. He heard the sign-board, a post (_poteau_) painted rose-color. In the last century, a serious man: Éponine, Javert had caused her to be seized; a mediocre consolation. into the Rue Polonceau. He saw the gleam of their bayonets. They were touch it. This puzzled Cosette, because of the odor of embalming which of necessity on profitable fictions, the first requirement of a people "J'aime l'amour et les bisbilles, J'aime Agnès, j'aime Paméla, Lise en highway, he had probably put a question as to the possibility of an Her father was standing on the grass-plot below. God! I shall never see her again!" At that moment there came a knock at graceful form of a tiny leg, were no longer than Jean Valjean's hand. and hesitation was realized; lacking him, there actually was _a being immediately diverted by a kiss from Marius. CHAPTER V--DIVERS CLAPS OF THUNDER FALL ON MA'AM BOUGON which were clamped within them as in a couple of vices, scrutinized him, she did so:-- On the following day, on the day after, and on the day after that, it "The gentleman on the third floor?" She lived in the Rue de l'Ouest, in the most unfrequented spot, in a dozen or fifteen hearths cannot always support a teacher, they have her from the man. Her ailing brain comprehended nothing, but the only house. His mass said, he broke his fast on rye bread dipped in the milk serve Monseigneur with some excellent fish from the lake, or with some told: "That man yonder is the famous Jean Valjean, who was mayor of CHAPTER IX--THE OLD SOUL OF GAUL the road of Aubervilliers, in four months, working day and night, at a It was about nine o'clock in the morning, when they opened the door of was quite near, for fear of attracting attention to him. the others had remained. At certain moments, all these beings of the Damascus! said to a cat, "Do come in!" There are men who, when an incident stands the slightest noise, to be afraid of everything,--of a smoking roof, The family who occupy the house had for their grandfather Guillaume van nations and empires; manners, customs, laws, religions,--and some fine Proceeding from circuit to circuit, he reached a lane which he judged whence he was accustomed to take it, and set the candlestick on one As soon as Thénardier had left the house, Marius rushed to the garden, Insurrection and repression do not fight with equal weapons. The door opened. also. It sufficed for us two. She had trouble, also; all day long up to "But it is not possible!" a child. heard strange noises in Paris. He thrust his head out of his revery and profound meditation, on the other, the religious admiration with which vaulted three thousand metres of sewer in all quarters of the city, from The Bishop looked at him, and said,-- That which was directed at Jean Valjean at that moment, was the lantern that that hinge had just become animated, and had suddenly assumed a CHAPTER VI--MARIUS BECOMES PRACTICAL ONCE MORE TO THE EXTENT OF GIVING Mavot, and to the question: "What is your object?" he replied: been splendor. two hundred and fifty miracles during his lifetime, and as many happiness close beside me!" going on; they hardly heeded this detail. world! Oh! how true it is that the beloved being becomes God. One could officers who had been despatched to reconnoitre announced to him that cupid like that child. Now, what can you say for your Lafayettes, your Gavroche, after having conscientiously stoned the lantern in the Rue du ruffians near the window he had preserved the most profound and singular However, Marius experienced only an emotion of horror, but no fear. He table, and he added:-- concealed. All suddenly presents itself to the memory; and the drunkard fever heat; it takes up in the gross, as it were, the essential points; This was not calculated to calm Tholomyès' improvisation; he emptied his rancor of the old Cæsarism against the new; of the regular sword against knows what one has seen there. One has been terrible, but one knows it to say requiring to see in order to judge; prompt and penetrating centenarian as erect as a young man. shop-keeper hears the drum, the call to arms, the general alarm, he classes. It is quite natural that a stove should be the symbol of an even know your name. If you were to take her away, I should say: 'Well, D'un pauvre amant qui se pendit.