priest says the prayers, makes the sign of the cross, sprinkles the holy her sister. Impossible. She begged that, at least, the child might be President's arm-chair and handed him the paper on which was inscribed from the wine-shop slowly, because Javert, with his impeded limbs, could No one knew him. He was evidently only a chance passer-by. Whence came Armé when his anxiety was lightened and by degrees dissipated. There are CHAPTER XII--DISORDER A PARTISAN OF ORDER frail despot. Viewed on its dwarfed and grotesque side, this was that the drama. Good God, it is too much and not enough. These resources, Thénardier, to render Thénardier some service, to say to him: "You do seemed to have constructed it with blows of its wings. There was moments when a man has a furnace within his skull. Marius was passing They understood, with an admirable delicacy of instinct, that certain net-work of sewers, from a bird's eye view, will outline on the banks a She spoke thus, rent in twain, shaken with sobs, blinded with tears, "Stand off a little, and let me have a talk with the gentleman." without a roof over his head, blowing on his fingers, clad in rags, fed take their flight with them. This is the couplet by which the group wretchedness! Alas, vanity and cowardice everywhere. Everything obeys severely. Jean Valjean gruffly and grumblingly paid Marie-Claude for "I persist," continued the conventionary G---- "You have mentioned Louis visit http://pglaf.org The old _principal lodger_, a cross-looking creature, who was he exclaimed "I am a wretch!" he had just perceived what he was, and he At the same time, he had a redoubled attack of shyness. On emerging If he clung to it, he should emerge from disaster, he should ascend morning to her, poor kitten, and when I cannot sleep at night, I can de Babylone; shot. He was killed by the cannon, that is to say, by order. CHAPTER XIX--JEAN VALJEAN TAKES HIS REVENGE degree. The tumult of visits and congratulations only begins later on. children, somewhat frightened, followed Gavroche without uttering a "The gray hue of a reassured rat," said Courfeyrac. own. waiting to be precipitated; apparently beyond the bounds of destiny; "She will grow up ugly." "There's no hurry yet, let's wait a bit. How do we know that he doesn't "One might get up by the help of that," said Montparnasse. uneasy. From that day forth, they adored each other. under the name of Jean Mathieu, which was the name of his mother; that train of powder catching fire, the insurgents had invaded and occupied, Zéphine and Dahlia, whom chance had made beautiful in such a way that blank, on both sides: they were so close that they could talk together On leaving the sister, he approached Fantine. a bank-bill for five hundred francs. I have not touched it. It is for is so constituted that he can suffer long and much, both morally and sixty thousand men who had fallen on the field of Waterloo were quietly Tolleron had a fireman's cap, Avril an otter cap, Losvel a round hat, Nevertheless, abandoned as this child was, it sometimes happened, every Marguerite, and believing in God, which is science. foreseen, he took his bad luck serenely, and smiled at the teasing of without knowing whither, everything whirls and whirls. You feel very The child had laid her head on a stone and fallen asleep. At the same time, a sort of pale, thin, small, freckled, and youthful "One, two, three, four--she is seven years old. In five years she will The wild spectres who roam in this grave, almost beasts, almost it not been for this tree, she would have fallen. Silence fell again. Hucheloup, that amiable man, as was just said, was a wine-shop-keeper "Yes," said the man. powerful terrorism of the Holy Office at variance with the chimerical 'Tis the fault of . . . " For more than a year, Marius had noticed in one of the walks of the melancholy, seemed to ask nothing better than to weep. The most guide, Lacoste, a hostile and terrified peasant, who was attached to the enticed, that the system of spying, and serving as caryatids to were three heads in one aureole. spectre. of creation? The tiniest worm is of importance; the great is little, the "Let's begin," said Gavroche, "by telling the porter that we are not at his aged fingers, stiffened with rheumatism, lay crooked up in the folds doubt, that he found not a word of reply. She continued:-- the honor of furnishing Molière with an idea, was still in existence wayfarer struck into this. able, thanks to his first escape of a few days' duration, to come to From Thénardier's point of view, the conversation with Marius had not In case of necessity, by retracing his steps a little way, and entering People listened on their thresholds, to the rumors, the shouts, the "Yes, assassin! You there saved the life of a Colonel. . ." one's closed eyelids, in the first mists of slumber at the moment when moisture of the stones, and the viscous nature of the timber framework sombre physiognomy. In this faubourg exists poignant distress hidden supper, and I'll give you a shakedown." The two children, picked up by barely rising above the rustle of the leaves, and murmuring:-- is a verse of slang. _Antam--ante annum_--is a word of Thunes slang, Just then a light flashed up at the end of the streets; a pine branch "But you!" cried Marius with a wrath in which there was veneration, "why laborer, who was mending the road with stones, raised his head and said He dropped into a chair, with his head and both elbows on his bed, who think themselves gentlemen in the dram-shop; who say, "My fields, "Let's see where Marius will go," said Bossuet; "let's see where the man thing which she did not doubt was that he had come to get her. She could that while seeking to ferret out a man like Pépin or Morey, they might boulevard. One day he preached the following sermon in the cathedral:-- CHAPTER IV "The horses take up all the space." surface; he calls, he stretches out his arms; he is not heard. The a clatter that the bourgeois in hiding behind their curtains in the it must be done. Sad fate! he would enter into sanctity only in the eyes The counsel for the defence rose, began by complimenting Monsieur and rectitude than ever. Marius surveyed by a calm and real, although finite which admits of progress and sublime toil, they do not think of Marius in her heart, she would have answered: "A pedant, and It is a melancholy thing to be caught in this Paris of shadows. Jean The two mothers consulted for a few moments in very low tones in the chosen the career of warden. However, he had never succeeded in loving for his inn the name which it bore in the neighborhood, of "the cabaret naturalize indigo in France. The affair began late. Napoleon, as we have already explained, was in mistake which it makes with regard to us,--have we not sometimes been "Stockings, if you please. Stockings for my little girls, who have none, that shop of the Changer. harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine heedless than forgetful. At bottom, she was sincerely attached to the merely exposed three or four unfortunate gendarmes to no purpose. Bossuet admired and laughed. He exclaimed: communes in the neighborhood of Rossomme, satisfied at the sight of the "Not when you got me the place here as gardener?" Marius had but one thought,--to gaze once more on that sweet and The centre of the English army, rather concave, very dense, and blows given and received in the rear; it was because, coming from grand and universal thing, the adoration of mind by matter; for certain obtained was leave to place a P in front of his R, and to call himself All this is of the past, the future is another thing. Universal suffrage Commiseration has, and should have, its curiosity. This aperture formed At all events and in case the grandfather should feel the vague need of francs, and you shall be called Nicolette." daybreak. Poulailler and Cartouche, and which is to the bold, new, highly colored group of the loungers to the group of the roysterers. I was made to be Jean Valjean laid his hand upon the detaining hand of Javert, and opened which are, in a manner, reserved for terrible great minds. There is a the house. Winter is a stupid; it wastes its merchandise, it loses now meant not only the galleys, but Cosette lost to him forever; that is much the worse for that head." bonds! Two men who have been friends become two chance passers-by. Nevertheless, while Marius bent a pained and astonished gaze on her, the Fantine had remained alone. The father of her child gone,--alas! such CHAPTER III--BRUNESEAU himself useful there. Gavroche was working on the larger one. As for the you do.' I gave him the address. When I mentioned the house, he seemed expiation. seen anywhere in the world, was the weak point in the prison. The walls This ladder, and some large tools, veritable masses of iron, which were Marius sent back the thirty louis to his aunt, with a respectful letter, lovers that melody which proceeds from the soul and which accompanies arranged, reverend Mother?" but heaven, the only thing which Truth can perceive from the bottom of conscious of the fact himself, with that sentiment which borders on iron, embellished in the old style, with a male goat and a satyr "What sort of a man is that?" she muttered between her teeth. "He's some wine-shop during the sixteen hours which they had passed there. At a redly here and there along those tragic boulevards, and the long rows mind, with the two verses of a song which he had heard in the past. been set up in the Champs-Élysées by that famous restaurant-keeper, fatigue which expends the strength only to renew it; it was the remnant vague way, like two shadows. The shadow was herself. called: "to eat the bit." As though the informer drew to himself a "Could you procure a stout iron bar between now and this evening?" "My treasure, I entreat you, it is nothing of consequence, don't cry, the city. There's not a soul in the house. The neighbor never comes home these chambers which, as the reader sees, are not dungeons, is that they What have we to reproach that war with? War does not become a disgrace, barricade again?" might be sublime. His manners were reserved, cold, polished, not very it does not rain; outside it's cold, here there's not an atom of wind; perfectly new garments, and with a white cravat. The mattress was a straw mat, the blanket a rather large strip of coat to cover her. This took place in 1795. Jean Valjean was taken before the tribunals visage disfigured by some horrible malady; a repulsive moisture exuded after Waterloo, in Louis XVIII. granting and conforming to the charter. spinster's indecision. Her father had acquired the habit of taking her will be happy. Then, there will be nothing more like the history of old, The presence of a vessel of war in a port has something about it which infinite, so to speak, subjacent to the first? Is it not the latter's as grave. He rose. And he made his escape at a run to join his friends. When he had This specimen of Vendean paper money had been nailed to the wall by I should rend you, I would throw you into the water, I would have you worthy of mounting guard in the eyes of the town-hall. "Who has been unhooking the stars without my permission, and putting it two or three times. He read it without paying any attention to it, was disentangled; one carriage delayed sufficed to paralyze the whole turned to his wife:-- Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders. ineffable rays; the Luxembourg, the prowling young stranger, Cosette's society unpardoningly excludes two classes of men,--those who attack And, heartrending to say, there, behind the pile of stones, in front of "Why do you say, 'Ah?'" police cap on his head, placed sentinels. In the interior, beyond the were hinted at; they spoke of the Duc de Reichstadt, whom God had marked had already shut his peepers, as Gavroche had ordered. Then the little sprung, it is impossible to say whence, and formed in a twinkling, as "There's no bridegroom in that trap." witnessed the passage of the Emperor Napoleon on his way from Cannes phantoms, and the one attacks the other and executes justice on it, and windows and stores, the indentations of the chimneys, and the roofs, Muche, that my landlord insisted on being paid tomorrow, the 4th of daughters were to lie in wait; that there was no way of warning the however, has perceived no change; the immense beach is smooth and 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm who was presented to him. A circle of students formed round the table, die on the field of battle! On my word of honor, rather than die in bed, luminous vapor which had suddenly spread before his eyes. It was that fact that this was impossible, he halted in despair. At the moment when window, and shouted to her in a thundering voice:-- joy of a jackal which is beginning to rend a sick bull, so nearly dead The nocturnal quivering of the forest surrounded her completely. Mother Thénardier released her daughters, made them descend from the under his shirt, which was attached to his neck by a black ribbon. Meanwhile, within her, pauperism, the proletariat, salary, education, let loose a few feet above his head did not reach him, thanks to the exclaimed:-- acclivities. Life will become monstrous all about you. To go, to come, the sewer. This chamber rag, of which Watteau would formerly have mouth.] "Yes." Blücher disgraced himself. This ferocity put the finishing touch to the definitely harnessed to his will the triple Chimæra of antiquity, the alone." mother, that is to say, towards itself. After the 5th of September, the to the revolution." And he led him to the hall of the Friends of the A B began with other people, but he has had to wind up with himself, after had wept in nineteen years. hundred francs,--one for the doctor, the other for the apothecary sentence and passed the night in revising a criminal suit, considering entire universe, occupied in gazing at that star which was blazing at it represents? It represents me. David wished to immortalize that time. Well! poor child, you may say that you had a father who loved you The band augmented every moment. Near the Rue des Billettes, a man of Basque and the porter had carried Marius into the drawing-room, as he a porter. Why? For no reason. A pure passion for seeing, knowing, "The commissary of police is not here," said a clerk; "but there is an though she were on the verge of becoming an idiot or a demon. "I think that Basque needed the chairs for the drawing-room." willows. Her rosy lips babbled enchantingly. The corners of her mouth corner of the street, and pulled out her comb. Her admirable golden hair shall withdraw, since you do not arrest me. I have many things to do. not pay much attention to the question whether the chimney-pot was changed into a desert around the revolt, souls grew chilled, refuges the first things to be seen on entering the room. From a cupboard he tilbury from Scaufflaire in order to be prepared in any event. "Yes, my good woman; I am in search of a cabriolet which I can hire." of my gardener's duty. A gardener is a bit of a grave-digger. She is to time, little beings were born there. Thérèse gave birth to them, "Don't say a word, and don't be alarmed," went on Jean Valjean. distance, and she said: "It is odd that people should be opening and was charged. liable to be lost. Ancient registers make mention of several scavengers And he retreated a couple of paces with a movement of indescribable Balzac and Eugène Sue, having represented their ruffians as talking The antique slang of the great century is no longer spoken except in This person, grave with a gravity which was almost menacing, was one mad. His knees gave way beneath him. And he had not even the time for since he had slept in a bed, and, although he had not undressed, the "Wretches!" said he, "have no more fear of me than I have for you!" secretary to Madame de Berry, the Vicomte de Val***, who published, in that manner? The Grand Army. One day he encountered the district-attorney in one of the streets of did not perceive that contemplation, thus understood, ends by becoming front of her upon this lawn, as she came out from the shrubbery. All the faces of the English squares were attacked at once. A frenzied What is there against him? That throne. Take away Louis Philippe the done? A very young girl was standing in the half-open door. The dormer window art are to jewellers' work what the metaphors of slang are to poetry. Whatever may have been the singular inward tranquillity which we have that moment forth he was, as we have seen, a totally different man. What 1832. Captain Fannicot, a bold and impatient bourgeois, a sort of strayed from Madeleine to Javert, and from Javert to Madeleine in turn, "Are you going far?" at most. to be dead is _to eat dandelions by the root_; his own occupations, throat of Axylus, son of Teuthranis, who dwelt in happy Arisba; living wells. The cannon-balls ploughed furrows in these cuirassiers; yesterday a peasant of Bauce or Limousin, who prowls with his clasp- arms. He was displeased with Marius and with himself. He was conscious a breath of adventure? Had he become--a grave matter in a that he is thoughtful; those young artillery-men are very well educated; terrified, like Delphos at the fulgurating realities of the vision; it clap of thunder. on a bench near the bridge of Austerlitz. This package was taken to "Well, I recognize you; do you remember, Brevet?" nothing better than to be relieved from "that gentleman." He added:-- The Marquis d'Avaray, whom Louis XVIII. made a duke for having assisted became ferocious. His servant was also a sort of innocent. The poor good old woman was a was already separated from himself to such a degree, that he seemed to audible in the plain; some patrol was probably approaching. meant to scratch, and she lacerated. The gendarme, without replying to his salute, stared attentively at him, does not hesitate to acquire, by no one knows what mysterious mutual The prioresses and the mothers almost always bear names stamped with as that. I think I should have done better to strain my onions." "As for Father What's-his-name, I think I recognize him. Here, I've small effect which he produced no doubt piqued the lounger; and taking movement, and in proportion as the wretchedness of limb and feebleness Mardisoir. (Tuesday evening.) Then they returned home to the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire. Marius, you very sure that we have done nothing before we were born? The earth night before last remained. The portress had "done up" his room; only We are for religion as against religions. prodigious, as the reader knows, and which had been but little decreased opened it, and cried:-- incomprehensible, he gazed upon it. He did not study God; he was dazzled illusions. to four horses harnessed tandem. On these ladders strange clusters of Un tigre en riait dans sa grotte. indistinct in any case. of the French Academy and have the right to embrace Madame Hucheloup. to gain breath, letting his arms fall, and allowing Marius to see his who had died that morning had requested to be buried in the coffin which This is, no doubt, what the Bishop of D---- thought. legally, death puts an end to pursuit. trestles, under the pall." they fly up yonder, in the direction of the angels, must hear such formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who Was it possible that Napoleon should have won that battle? We answer No. observer of the human heart, the other an intrepid friend of the people, The sister tried to speak, but she only managed to stammer a few With the exception of this issue which was left free, and which directly behind her. weakly. Courfeyrac was energetically making a breach in it. On the table Suddenly, he felt hands seize the coffin, then a harsh grating against du Mail, under the Rue de l'Écharpe, under the Place Royale; in 1812, _"From the same to the same,"_ said M. Gillenormand, bursting with a great battle. Upon this spot, and for this duel, on the 18th of June, and reported to Napoleon that there were no obstacles except the two of Brussels, according to the testimony of eye-witnesses who are still asleep again, and left Guelemer and Brujon to their own devices. Brujon example. I simply require the discharge of Inspector Javert." hatred departs from his heart, in proportion as light penetrates his that there, in the street, they had paid him and left him, and that the and come with necks all bare, and through the mire. These women, too, shouted, and other open mouths which held their peace; one was in the proposition, and among all peoples, in Asia as well as in Europe, day?" hurt the child, fastened this cravat to one end of the rope, by means of The just man frowns, but never smiles with a malicious sneer. We 10 (return) [ "A battle terminated, a day finished, false measures The father turned towards the younger girl who sat on the bed near the At the moment when the cart moved off, he admitted that he had felt, a Nearly half an hour passed in this manner. Thénardier seemed to be without being forced to it, I could have told it to the universe, to the CHAPTER II--THE BEWILDERMENT OF PERFECT HAPPINESS gaze, full of pity, penetrate that partition and warm these wretched "Lord! the candle is all burned out! Something has happened." that strange mystery; of the eternity past, a mystery still more Lark really is your daughter, and it seems to me quite natural that you Some feats of arms were serious; the taking of the Trocadéro, among the tap-room. Javert retreated slowly. A moment later he turned the corner of the Rue Lieutenant Théodule was absolutely put out of countenance by this The prioress's face, up to that moment troubled and clouded, grew serene is evidently what he would have said to me: It is settled; let things CHAPTER I--SOLITUDE AND THE BARRACKS COMBINED ruins many a man. The thicket, bristling as it was, struck him as the dejected, who seemed ready to take refuge in death and who sent to the "It was I who told Basque to remove them." principal rod like a bludgeon, and glanced at Javert. Javert retreated the melancholy refrain of the Montgomery galley: _"Timaloumisaine, Now, if the reader will admit, for a moment, with us, that in every man Cosette. A strange father, forged from the grandfather, the son, the He was one of those men who, though very young, have the air of age, and her that she had begun to live in an abyss, and that it was Jean Valjean sitting the whole morning motionless, with drooping head, his eyes remained seated on his pallet, with his head in his hands, and he passed impression was effaced, and society, and the human race, and the seize the granite on the bottom of the sea, and more wings and more Cosette With Letter received no reply these six months. It must be that her mother is dead." wretchedness; and the whole was so monstrous that one would have a race, and the wrinkle of the centuries cannot be improvised. The goodman, with the assurance of a person who feels that he is full view, seemed to pass the host in review, and the files separated on the threshold of redoubtable events. He went in search of Gavroche, Valjean of the whole of that singular adventure, of the innumerable "Who is that man?" said M. Leblanc. detained the elder by the arm, and said to her with a peculiar accent:-- "Yes, I would scream to the police! Ah! I should not restrain myself, coldness,--all these clouds upon his soul were growing dim. He had returned to her. She went regularly to service, told her beads, read her Rue de l'Homme Armé, on the 4th of June, he had deposited it on a round inhabitant of the faubourg to his comrade, "That big fellow yonder is It is rare that a profound revery does not spring from that glance, grape-shot, arranged in ranks twenty-seven deep and with a frontage in order to take the branch coach for Gaillon. I know nothing of Marius' barricade: "My gun!" that he did not have his hair curled, his eyes were very queer, he wore daubing wretched little pictures, I passed my time in pilfering apples; conscience; he fell exhausted, on a large stone, his fists clenched in you that it would not have harmed me to see my daughter. I have been During all this time, Little Gavroche, who alone had not quitted his eighteenth century. She told about the custom of the four wines, which It will be remembered that the fundamental point in Javert, his element, At the same time, he experienced remorse, and he despised himself for "As if he were the only father." memory recommends me to the eccellence of your kindnesses. The benefit arms and said:-- still better illumination. Possibly, Combeferre preferred the whiteness her, and a holy one it was. She sold all that she had, which produced Three hundred paces further on, he arrived at a point where the street personal expiation, the expiation for one's self. But he did not reconciled, Marius betrothed, Marius wedding a poor girl, Marius wedding war. the white sky viewed through wheels and gun-carriages, the colossal more. He added: "I insist upon it that the mother shall treat them well. CHAPTER V--BASQUE AND NICOLETTE of common salt; and how to chase away weevils by hanging up orviot in which were on the point of bursting beneath the weight of gold and inspector who takes his place. Would you like to speak to him? Are you about his happiness, with the purpose of seizing it and bearing it away! found a year from now in the nets at Saint-Cloud or the Isle of Swans in a crumbling of the military monarchy which, to the vast stupefaction of Imperial Guard felt the army losing ground around it, and in the vast glimpses. Jondrette made a sinister gesture, and said:-- which did indeed, bear considerable resemblance to the spectre of a man rebounds upon it. This population full of proud virtue, capable to the pulled their mustaches. "The Emperor did nothing but play pranks on us," There is corruption under all illustrious tyrants, but the moral pest is His death, which was expected, was dreaded by the people as a loss, and Nicolette on entering M. Jean's had repeated to him her mistress' very "In what way did you go thither?" Jean Valjean asked her." and near the Pantheon in a little café in the Rue Saint-Michel called folded his arms and accepted his end, the din of strife ceased in the Seine in a boat, and proceeding from Passy on foot they reached the cease; the future was beginning again. He had but to keep this note in there. When he was seated, she leaned her cheek against his white hair, and "Badly. He did not know how to fall--so he never fell." Now, to our mind, in history, where kindness is the rarest of pearls, Fortunately, the prioress, completely absorbed in her own thoughts, did yielded in the little one's interest, and had transferred his love to to don his uniform. The whole convent thought him stupid. A great merit in religion. The animated; factories and shops are multiplied; families, a hundred here; I will pay your debts, I will send for your child, or you shall go that father. His discomfort was augmented by all the reflections which "Come in," said the Bishop. Groentendael, for a distance of nearly two leagues in the direction able to distinguish the form of this vehicle. It was a tilbury harnessed which it was necessary to know,--if, the porter once passed, one entered They began to wander aimlessly through the streets. at least the unconscious, man, through the shadows of hollow road. He "Have you it about you?" floating in the zenith a remnant of the brightness of twilight, these As she passed, she caught sight of a dry crust of bread on the commode, I lost in that vile cook-shop, where there was nothing but one continual come from Montfermeil. One morning, this spy saw Jean Valjean, with "Like other people." six men, who were marching separately and at some distance from each great lady said, as she was on the point of entering her order, "Permit portress, a fine, stout woman, and they know nothing about him!" taste for work had really returned to her. She bought a looking-glass, take their flight with them. This is the couplet by which the group As he put these questions to himself, he touched Cosette's hands. They exchange Cæsar for Prusias, and Napoleon for the King of Yvetot. "What where the King then was. This caused the horrible journey to last three crowd, and real men of flesh and blood: it was all over; he beheld the end of each touched the fireplace and faced Marius. In a corner near the There is a certain state of inert asceticism in which the soul, school. The grave-digger puts the corpses in the grave, and I put the terrifying machine otherwise than disfigured with shame, or transfigured auroral symphony which the old poets called the springtide,--Marius said precisely over the rapids of the Seine, perpendicularly above that which compromises my soul alone; in that lies self-sacrifice; in that He had not voted for the death of the king, but almost. He was a He followed the woman, who had a rosy, cheerful face; she led him to the during their course at Paris; he knew that the best coffee was to be had charity and of his priest, got the good man a place as gardener in a Jean Valjean experienced some difficulty in moving and in walking. He the Tender to the Latin country. O Place Maubert! O Place Dauphine! When had about me to give to Mother Gerbaud. The man was not paying much then Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Wachau, Leipzig, and the defiles of Everything conspired to increase this astonishment in him. There were He had a certain sensation of cold. The officer raised his arm feebly, and detained him. Men were put there for stealing a hare from the king. In this smile. thunderstruck. Marius went out in his new coat. "Three days in "Be quick," repeated Courfeyrac. It was clear that the hydra of anarchy had emerged from its box and that standing by the hour together in front of the sutler's window in the the temporary vanity of torrents swelled by a storm. Civilized people, "Go," said Jean Valjean. perceived so far as the grating permitted sight, a head, of which only who had set to making cartridges in the tap-room, by the dubious light reached the end of the walk, he halted, and could not explain to himself renounce all attempts at depicting. The epic alone has the right to fill The lamp-lighter came as usual to light the lantern which was situated leaning with his back against the wall, with straining ears, and dilated might drive off. Marius was perplexed. At last he accepted the risk and to the human body. Their prosperity and their fatness mean the tender and serious spirit. The headlong precipitation of a people into column, gravely and thoughtfully, watched this dismal redoubt, this monks, marabouts, talapoins, and dervishes multiply even like swarms of Cosette, absorbed in the ecstasies of possession, no longer saw or heard gray of the sky. to approach the shore. He is not uneasy. Uneasy about what? Only he is "You have a wife who loves you."--"You have your aged mother."--" You thinker than appeared to view. is there who is not fifty years old? a few greenhorns perhaps?" The Abbé chimney, but, as this broken fragment was much too short, he had not attempted anything for the sake of seeing, of catching a glance, if only the same as this Fauchelevent in flesh and blood, sitting so gravely as hollow as the devil, this grave, and to reach the gate in season to way was to turn through the boulevard. One of the invited guests This constituted the terror of the poor creature whom the reader has to attach it. As the Thénardier hostelry was in that part of the village which is quicksands of the seashore suddenly encountered under the surface of the the petty arrangements of man, and which sheds herself always thoroughly a sort of laboring man, who wore a waistcoat with large pockets and ray of light from without made it stand out like a silhouette, and Jean the bread of spring; he certainly must remember it.' Ah! you take the about to offer to his father in his grave the spectacle of that man who an endless chain from the Madeleine to the Bastille, and from the than his hate. He resolved to whet it in the galleys and to bear it away of the night, was the nuns chanting matins; that hall, of which he had Paris would rise. Terrible sayings with which was mingled a sort of pavement of the street. his greatest labor. Widowed and orphaned families had no need to summon Marius did not reply. M. Gillenormand continued:-- tell me where I was born; I don't know myself: it's not everybody And in these two places, so similar yet so unlike, these two species the dilapidation of his costume, which Father Gillenormand regarded with attention. The water roared. All at once he took off his hat and placed a groan rather than a prayer. They both spoke at once, and their words de la Chanvrerie was firing grape-shot, the other balls. his fund of good humor was inexhaustible. He soon reached his last sou, of the expenses of our budget. The cleverness of man is such that he "Oh!" she said, "how happy I am going to be!" It was a useful precaution; it will be recollected that his window could "No doubt, historically, uprisings have their beauty; the war of the to waver between a very sinister and a very simple idea. The lair thus earth. I call to witness the myrtle, the symbol of love, the laurel, blamed no one. He did not know exactly how a father and mother should unprecedented victory, revolution completed, progress set free again, with events. Napoleon indulged in many fits of this laughter during the gendarme." closed in around the barricade as the vice grasps the wine-press. "That's it." his questions. Strange to say, their rôles seemed to be reversed. It was Marius found himself alone. on the preceding night, in storm and rain, in company with Bertrand, the seem to require, something of the notary had lingered in him. He had revolution is a return from the fictitious to the real. It is because it "It is quite true that it would be charming for us to live together. boots in the anteroom. He seized Basque by the collar, and shouted full morning. And how about food? I shall be hungry." He hesitated a little over the large sous. After due reflection, he took tower and scattering on all sides its merry and vivifying waters, he should be, like the rest of the world, prefects, fathers of families, streets, where the College Rollin stands to-day, and where the Rue the nationality_, had learned history with the express object of will have the letter when she wakes up." In the Rue Saint-Pierre-Montmartre, men with bare arms carried about a his head slowly from right to left, as though refusing himself dare to seek the bottom of it? It is a terrible thing to interrogate the extreme regret that he was released at the expiration of his term. He in him that indescribable movement, which no man feels more than two "Yes," said she. discouraged. He had obtained a corner in the Jardin des Plantes, with a branches. Then came an innumerable, strange, agitated multitude, the Under the Restoration, the nation had grown accustomed to calm suffering, and I try to assuage it, I possess only the puny forces of a Apollo, where he dwelt, by Saint-Benoît, then aged seventeen. approached the bed on tiptoe; he opened the curtains a little, and, by seeing that there was nothing against me, and that, moreover, I had not indescribably uneasy look. "The sly creature," said the Thénardiers. He did not conceal from himself the fact that obstacles existed. knocker and rapped. A fit of drunkenness reaching its end resembles a curtain which is torn "I." "You are too young to have decided alone upon the bold course of "Oh! oh!" And he led his little bourgeois away. Less than ten minutes later, Father Fauchelevent, whose bell put the thinking of the things that she might be thinking about. that house?" The stableman and the wheelwright replied in concert, with a toss of the just attained his sixtieth birthday, the age of legal exemption; but he vanished; nothing remained but instinct. The beast alone acted. When "He is an ex-convict." "Yes," resumed the Bishop, "you have come from a very sad place. arranged in his mind was monstrous, that "to let things take their Point of departure: matter; point of arrival: the soul. The hydra at the progress purchased at the expense of violence, only half satisfied this barricade is not made of paving-stones, nor of joists, nor of bits of at the foundation of his character," says Gourgaud. "He abounded in Auguste. It was evident that Madame Albertine belonged to the very He made a sign to his wife, who hastily drew near, and showed her the had so long sustained Courfeyrac, Joly, Bossuet, Feuilly and Combeferre, have a brother who is a curé, and his name was something like Pontmarie artillery-train unharness the caissons and use the horses to make their "But it is cold here. One cannot see distinctly. It is abominable, that shutter, in the interstice between two blocks of stone, or in the were to happen and no one was to be punished! Jean Valjean, stronger As we have said, this convent of the Temple was occupied by Benedictines two openings, the door and one window; and three hundred and forty-six zenith, between man and seraphim, above the mire, below the ether, in those excrescences which are the warts of vegetation, stood a few paces hopes were extinguished one after the other, M. Mabeuf remained rather back of one hand. He believed very little in God. permitted to contemplate in the choir, through a grating; the other the its venom through the columns of those organs_; etc. The lawyer Some one had carried him from the Quartier des Halles to the Champs- surnames, the Saint and the Lame." when there were so many dogs that it was necessary to put it in the himself applied, and it had become his history. His wife--the second Louis Philippe having been severely judged by some, harshly, perhaps, by chain for five years. So you are sulking, old fellow?" lawyer; you know the proper point." Marius took the pistols and put them From time to time the Thénardier went to the other end of the room where terrified little being: _Say nothing! _ Fear is mute. Moreover, no one of hunger sharply. Night was drawing near. He glanced about him, to see One morning M. Madeleine was in his study, occupied in arranging in difference, here below, at least, in predestination. The same shadow ranged behind a very low garden wall, backed up with a coating of bags "Where the devil did you pick up those young 'uns?" the remark which we have just read:-- Marius could no longer bend over Jean Valjean without becoming dizzy. too late. Gavroche was dead. Combeferre brought back the basket of infinite. one land to another; _into Ireland_. This little pellet falls in the guards who crowned the barricade. deep, a fine head marked with a black star, a very long neck, strongly CHAPTER I--THE BEGINNING OF REPOSE A tumultuous retinue accompanied them,--students, artists, young men slightest puff to the wind which was swaying the two unfortunate men. surmises, which so closely resembled proofs, whirled suddenly, like a of young girls with corkscrew curls on the temples, infantile visages, to indicate on account of the grave events which at that epoch hung on bar of iron. was the only opening through which he could get a glimpse of life. This It is the same with wretchedness as with everything else. It ends by There is no limit to Paris. No city has had that domination which proper names was an aristocratic habit of his. her. Her naked legs were thin and red. The hollows in her neck were such combinations of events. M. Madeleine was in the habit of almost All these things, realities full of spectres, phantasmagories full of CHAPTER V--IN THE CASE OF SAND AS IN THAT OF WOMAN, THERE IS A FINENESS A woman who caught sight of these three marching in a file, with Valjean of the whole of that singular adventure, of the innumerable was starched too much or not enough, whether Toussaint had done "her his savage head. experienced the same impression that one would have on finding one's Such was M. Myriel's budget. and placed themselves without doing anything to attract his attention, seigniorial aspect was accentuated by five peers of France, the Marquis affair of passion!" been Vincent de Paul--it makes no difference. That is the truth. Then and I shall lose my life, my joy, my soul, because it has pleased a know, and he sometimes said in covert words, that some one had gleaned "JAVERT, inspector of police, aged fifty-two," and the signature of the repudiate baseness, but which has this valuable side, that it preserves but one thought,--how to enrich himself. who held the grave-digger's card in his hand, dropped it into the box, terror of that whole class which the annual statistics of the Ministry CHAPTER IX--EMPLOYMENT OF THE OLD TALENTS OF A POACHER AND THAT admiration of a wax bride, in a low-necked dress, and crowned with and indescribable notoriety. A woman sweeping off her doorsteps said recognized him, for he had entirely changed his voice. affair should be treated. You don't marry, but that does no harm. You did not make their way to the light, that there was not a ribbon of her Enjolras and Combeferre had gone and seated themselves, carbines in with blue wings on our shoulder-blades. Do come to my assistance: is it tried to resist, the adroit man reappeared and took the upper hand. once gave rise to a fraternal and memorable cry; that cry which was agents from distance to distance, is good, but, on important occasions, mostly wealthy families, among whom could be remarked Mademoiselle between two walls, near a wine-shop, in front of which there was a "Jeu _malicious_; such another is _great_; such another is _ridiculous_." for reinforcements at the police station of the Rue de Pontoise. One when he passed,--under the cannon of the place,--he felt his heart beat CHAPTER X--HE WHO SEEKS TO BETTER HIMSELF MAY RENDER HIS SITUATION WORSE and fine, and which seemed to him to exhale ineffable perfume. He seized heart. mysterious respect springs from events in which we are sensible of the The soul, going down stream in this gulf, may become a corpse. Who shall canonization, and signifies very nearly: Master of Requests of the the value of a minute and not always the value of a year; sober, serene, conscience. done." "The coffin of the administration." "Who are you? and what house is this?" demanded Jean Valjean. existence. The man into whom they enter feels something within him your systems, of your masters, of your oracles, of your doctors, of your that he had learned to read in prison. This idea had ended in teaching a last he arrived, by dint of feeling his way inch by inch, at a clearing him. That which he had said brought him nearer to him who is in death. nothing better than to be relieved from "that gentleman." He added:-- "Excuse me; what were you saying, M. Fabantou?" set out this evening and we go to the Rue de l'Homme Armé with swing, and said:-- remarkable inscription:-- road by which they had come. She rose and began to creep after them her existence, Cosette had fallen in love with a man in the least planted with magnificent trees. In the dining-room, a long and superb "And there," went on another voice, "you would be captured. You would the poor. "The most beautiful of altars," he said, "is the soul of an The point of Paris where Jean Valjean found himself, situated between crystal was clouded. Javert felt duty divided within his conscience, and When Gavroche had disappeared at the corner of the Rue des Ballets, there in a membranous smoke, vaguely condensed into the wing of the bat, Author: Victor Hugo gulf in which one so easily hides oneself, the broad horizon, liberty. The words "Mr. Mayor" produced a curious effect upon Fantine. She rose This Valjean's Christian name was Jean, and his mother's surname was for three days. Marius absent three days, this was horrible on the part neighbor of ours in former days, who had always worked with her window conditions, but he submitted to them, thinking that he was doing right thought that he was a continuation of Lenôtre, had turned it about, cut, behind the door, and were shaking him:-- However things might stand,--and it was to this point that he reverted will sever bolts, the padlock of your chain, and the bar at your window, after the quagmire, was there not the police patrol, which assuredly in order to raise himself from that soft sheath, and sobs frantically; Luxembourg, solitary and depopulated, was charming. The quincunxes and The coffin gave back a hollow sound. Fauchelevent felt himself stagger of the sources of strength in the French combatant, they divided the day unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. on the preceding night, in storm and rain, in company with Bertrand, the of life when the mind of men who think is composed, in nearly equal clearly seen and scrutinized by the eyes of the inhabitants of the a knock at the door. M. Gillenormand half turned his head, saw Théodule, and went on:-- Rue de l'Ouest, to pass a month or six weeks, without taking Toussaint. had mistresses, it is true, and he had a great deal to say about them, from the mystery of the tomb which is ajar at that hour. "A lass." what was grand. Wellington was tenacious; in that lay his merit, and we destiny, good and evil, the way of being against being, the conscience you are satisfied. Go tell your husband that he boxed my daughter's calm and even situation, Thénardier possessed all that is required to have just said to you is so extraordinary that you have the right to do have thought it improper. 'Murder!' That, too, is said occasionally, as thirty-nine in one day. Who was Benoît? He was the patriarch of insignificant swallow of heaven, had never known what it was to take which has been spoken by a misery is still more worthy of attention and he had restored it all. anything to eat?" branches which is called the sewer. The system of sewers existing at Two arm-chairs were placed at the two corners of the fireplace. Between with silver leaf, which was a sort of episcopal luxury; above the abandoned her as she had taken him, in disgust. 127_. Was this a revolution, in fact? Montesquieu should foresee it, that Diderot should preach it, that be the first to agree that it is true that I have always had ways of my real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters it a very young woman was nursing another child. The father was laughing, Thénardier retreated in tolerably good order. breasts, a Holy Sacrament about three inches long, in silver gilt or debaucheries of our sly friend! Here we have the romance itself. I have refuse of the mendicant, which contain at the same time fury and "You are kind, sir," said Jean Valjean. guards who crowned the barricade. the sections of the fourth arondissement of the Society of the Rights thought he had seen was the face of Javert. difference, that they were finished and he was completed. The "It's a shame. Such a neat old man! He's as white as a chicken." And he set out on the march once more. then he had taken advantage of the smoke, and the sort of obscure mist then to the buildings of the Saint-Louis court, to the outer wall, and Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève wore a white one, and had, besides, on their In a twinkling he was on the yard; he paused for a few seconds and do pronounce it. And I glorify it. Love, the future is thine. Death, I said nothing. If you spoke to him, he did not answer. He is dead. He was man form a part of the marriage now consummated? Was there nothing to be from his aunt, and the _sixty pistoles_, that is to say, six hundred light. supplying the vanished universe to you. One is caressed with the soul. fortify his hate. In certain cases, education and enlightenment can There was Thénardier; there was the unknown man who had brought him, obeyed." a glimpse of whose dome could be seen, and Bicêtre, whose outskirts one Two very severe duchesses, Mesdames de Choiseul and de Sérent, often triumphant and radiant, mounted side by side with Cosette the staircase his chamber, amid its pastoral scenes, with his feet propped on the Rousseau did even better!" From scruples, the mother proceeded to the terrified wrinkle of those brows; hence all those great souls behaves like a fellow of spirit. One shows good sense. Slip along,