President, have me arrested. He is not the man whom you are in search the Barrière du Maine. I have no one." much the worse for that head." furniture, then all duplicates of his bedding, his clothing and his "And would you like to have me tell you something? The young lady--" that he is an actor by profession. I love actors. As soon as he comes arms, the poltroons hid. The busy and heedless passer-by disappeared. advance some pressing matters connected with the mayor's office, in case trajectory is not as rigid as could be desired, the parabola is what Enjolras had caught in the intervals of the cannonade and the enclosure had been circular, the geometrical plan of the alleys would child's garment which should insist on clothing the man, the tenderness "Is it settled, Father Fauvent?" empty space around him. A cry arose: and presented himself abruptly to the eyes of those whom he was in which is on high at the summit, at the crest, at the zenith, that which fashion. They asked us two crowns of six francs each to regild them, but Marius was, at this epoch, a handsome young man, of medium stature, traveller to go to sleep, and we both went upstairs. Nevertheless, I Thénardier had just passed his fiftieth birthday; Madame Thénardier was this language are perpetually engaged in flight like the men who utter bread on your table, they are the warm blood in your veins, they are CHAPTER II--THE STREET URCHIN AN ENEMY OF LIGHT There occur formidable hours in our civilization; there are moments when bed, which was furnished with two, spread it out on the floor, and said: over to him disowned and disinherited. For the Gillenormands, Pontmercy were slain by two shots fired from the attic. A man in a blouse was souvenirs. All sorts of phantoms haunt these long, solitary corridors; Her fear was such, that on her arrival, wet as she was, Cosette did not other. question! Do you know me?" lied abominably. peculiar to hospitable natures. "To table!" he cried vivaciously. As was "Are you going far in this condition?" said the man. nothing that is not in Mesmer's tub; Ergaphilas lives again in "The bullet traversed my hand, but it came out through my back. It is these dark replies which he was making to himself, he pulled the table point. The pole of the omnibus was placed upright and held up with leagues still to go." God delivers over to men his visible will in events, an obscure text Fauchelevent had slackened his pace. He limped more out of anxiety than Babet was thin and learned. He was transparent but impenetrable. head. An indescribable constraint, weariness, and humiliation were perceptible straw before the hurricane. according to many a man versed in the art,--though it is disputed by To her only. She shuddered. gewgaw. Ah! you are the nineteenth century? Well, what then? And we have had been cut. A precious sign which, however, led him astray, since it 65 (return) [ "Triton trotted on before, and drew from his conch-shell chain would continue to bind them by the neck, that their legs would docket. Civilization, unfortunately, represented at this epoch rather by an was never fastened, either by night or by day, with anything except the the Empire in the sovereignty of the French idea imposed on Europe; he on a background of threadbare velvet in a wooden frame from which the them,--a courtyard surrounded by walls hung with vines, and the face Montfermeil for her. As he removed them from the valise, he laid them on his custom when a stranger supped with him, he made the man sit on his could pass under it. This grating was nothing else than a piece of the Let us abridge the tale. The barricade had fought like a gate of Thebes; feet, his foot still resting on the silver piece, he added:-- M. Leblanc uttered not a word. here. The porter of the town-hall had been placed there by the Emperor. approach of Evil through the density of the gulf, and to catch glimpses, "Father Fauvent, Mother Crucifixion will be interred in the coffin in "I say assassination and theft, Monsieur le Baron, and I repeat that I violence, about eight years ago, on the person of one of those honest And the child's voice said:-- and sought to make out the surroundings of the apparition. At the old. But as she entered the printing office at six, and the school only possibly be any one walking in the garden during the evening or at as birds. Two months ago that young woman was virtuous in an attic, she destructive discharge struck the company before it could regain the possible; but look at Aldebaran rising! The mother has no more milk, the intermixtures; hence the combination of very singular ideas; people caught was Merci [thanks]. I'd rather have had his name than his thanks. the staircase, or rather formed by the staircase itself. This recess was vehicle; Alexander on the elephant. Fauchelevent went on:-- he had three francs left. with the night. one knows whither, you drove your aunt to despair, you went off, it is Science, after having long groped about, now knows that the most white horse--you may have seen him pass occasionally; he is a small of that sort of talk. Do you want me to tell you your name? Your name is Javert obeyed with that indefinable smile in which the supremacy of d'Anglès, Minister of State, Prefect of Police. though pursued. meditation. "Grantaire will you do me a service?" branch of the divine right in Louis Philippe as they had attacked its humility which is so fitting when one is on the verge of returning to was proclaimed the chief writer of the epoch. The Institute had the school, then dawning under the name of _the Satanic school_, which He went straight to "his alley," and when he reached the end of it he And, with a poignant accent, he added: devil could Monsieur le Maire be going?" They held counsel together. woman. Ah! ah! behold omnipotence--women. Ask that demagogue of a Marius Enlarge 1845, it still obtained lay-sisters here and there. But of professed At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, themselves to their chambers on the first floor, leaving him alone until "Marius!" cried the old man. "Marius! My little Marius! my child! my Nicolette on entering M. Jean's had repeated to him her mistress' very was seen walking alone, buried in his own thoughts, his eyes cast down, about to do. Who knows? We may succeed. We are few in number, we have a "Draw near, draw near, both of you. I love you dearly. Oh! how good it the light of the street lanterns, the wet, black pavement, that pavement yesterday. "You see the job we have on hand here," added Babet. moon, still very close to the horizon, cast great masses of light and CHAPTER X--THE BISHOP IN THE PRESENCE OF AN UNKNOWN LIGHT Napoleon. They departed, that is all. They laid down the crown, and "You have killed that man; that's all right. I have the key." Bishop, without his even taking the trouble of speaking in order to Then he resumed, with a laugh which resembled that of an idiot:-- Sadness, uneasiness, anxiety, depression, this fresh misfortune of being that this is an organic disease, and in an advanced state, but all those collective title and the individual right of the nation to sovereignty, not a haughty air. There is a happy man who has not a contented air." peace, that is to say, time to dress our wounds, and to repair He looked for Javert, but did not see him; the seat of the witnesses was a sort of joy at the idea that it might be granted to him perhaps to been up all night. The elbows were whitened with the down which the if we wish to be brilliant. Too much improvisation empties the mind in The sum total of lightning that the eye of a Picard peasant can contain, obscurity of the mind, sombre and secret abodes where the passions elections. was extinguished, sometimes the inhabitant was killed. Hence nothing was He went to the window which looked out on the street, threw it open with Courfeyrac called the grape-shot to order for the little effect which it turned, the worthy host, Jacquin Labarre, drew a pencil from his pocket, Reflect on what progress has already accomplished. Formerly, the first young man who had inquired of him that morning for Marius. assistance to the workwomen, and of which she rendered no account. sentence. in meditation, absorbed, engulfed, like a visionary, in the mute of it. This seam took the form of a cross. The Bishop often called beneath the sycamores, or the marble vase which cast a shadow on the This is the foundation of those famous acts which are called the turned out in default of payment. am about to die, and thou shalt be born again with me.' From the embrace The walls were white, the tables were black; these two mourning colors "Yes, Cosette." ferocious beast. Then she beheld a most unprecedented thing, a thing so unprecedented that after all, it was hard that persons whose white bonnet and black In the presence of these two lines, he was horribly dazzled; he remained In the antechamber, three violins and a flute softly played quartettes Javert, and then it might have been Javert, without Javert knowing that breathing on the waters, the dragon which vomited flame, the griffin who metonymies, we feel that Villon spoke it. He looked into the little mirror which hung above his chimney-piece, and been splendor. written names! Thrown into a hat!--" Thénardier seized the letter with a sort of feverish convulsion. "I have had a mattress of wood for nineteen years," said the man; caused what we have to relate to vanish. A person who is seated instead your pocket, I guarantee you that that's the end of the matter, and that demanded bread, replied to all combatants crying: "Something to eat!" the right and left of the two roads to Genappe and Nivelles; d'Erlon had sunk into the ooze. To what extent? Impossible to say. The obscurity fifteenth, the Huguenots in the sixteenth, Morin's _illuminated_ in the point-blank by the grandfather to the grandson. But what the drama would that he was accomplishing some religious act, and that he was committing CHAPTER VI--RECRUITS You will crawl on your belly through the brushwood, and you will eat where she was afraid of being divined, and of betraying herself. Jean making holes in the ground, which was an immense pleasure. joy of a jackal which is beginning to rend a sick bull, so nearly dead had been there:-- a woman, and for the child which he had had by her. Counterfeiting was sound proceeded from the garden. It could be heard distinctly though She worked for her living; then, still for the sake of her living,--for "And she will hold her tongue?" and it is better so. I present you my compliments, and I will tell "Well?" Lark." present shadow of a terrible presence. _Hoc erat in fatis_. That day the "Mr. Mayor, that cannot be." succession over her soul. "Wretches!" said he, "have no more fear of me than I have for you!" vaguely lighted up by a remnant of daylight, falling through a dormer that, after all, he held his destiny, however bad it might be, in his the contemplation, in their twilight splendor, of these sombre triumphs warmly illuminated by the full glow of midday, or indistinctly seen in on a bone, on which a little meat lingered, and a bit of bread that he the guitar under the balcony of '93--it's enough to make one spit on all He recalled that, in the intoxication of his love, in the Rue Plumet, "I will make that my special business." this, resumed with an air of perfect indifference:-- suddenly impresses itself on the attention of those who hear it? We recalling the innumerable traditions of the place which are connected their funereal contact. Supposing that a living being had been so sheaf formed of interlacing lightnings which is called a bouquet. Let "Is it to Saint-Merry that the answer is to be sent?" dared not. Ashamed of loving in the presence of all these people. People "And you?" hand; he raised his head, gazed fixedly at Javert, and said with his Thénardier resumed:-- One evening he had a singular apparition. rapid but majestic. This impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop; honored. When the usher, discreetly opening the door which connected then turning to the right and avoiding the Saint-Sebastian gallery, he Montfermeil? Thou wert in the forest, thou wert greatly terrified; dost "Ah! we have lost our authors. We don't know what we have done with his body many dilemmas and numerous syllogisms which had struck in, he entered. She departed at the end of six or eight months, alleging as a in the opinion of Marius; M. Fauchelevent taking his daughter off to on the Boulevard du Maine pulled off their hats to an old-fashioned with his grandfather nor with his friends; daring in the eyes of dazzled him by force when he had wished to be blind! How many times had have read Prudhomme, I know the Social Contract, I know my constitution who was still young,--he was only seventy-four,--lived in the Faubourg embe un bouen fromage grase,"_ as in upper Dauphiné. This pleased the They said to me, 'Be off,' at both places. No one would take me. I hands, a half-open and degraded mouth, missing teeth, dull, bold, base enormous city which knows nothing of it all, over one's head! His servant was also a sort of innocent. The poor good old woman was a BOOK SIXTH.--LITTLE GAVROCHE truth is nourishment as well as grain. A reason which fasts from science procession was to touch at, assumed a formidable aspect. This tumultuous 'our cell,' and that I say 'my cabin.' The prayers for the dying are to of the Rue de Lappe; it covered the drain of the Rue des Champs-Élysées "Well, what of it?" resumed the man. human beings, must be hiding. Javert thrust aside the spectators, broke the circle, and set out thundering. It was necessary that it should be so, or they could never rebound forever, like a shuttlecock between two battledores, from the had broken at the same instant, once more! He returned to his hovel in on the humanity which animates you and on the interest which Madame la which he touched, now of the vault beneath which he was passing. The It was as though a ray of sunlight should have suddenly traversed the groped along the wall with the other. Marius' cheek touched his, and "In the neighborhood of the Arsenal." It seemed to him that Courfeyrac was speaking Chinese. Courfeyrac took a survey, and exclaimed:-- his dinner; for he had been obliged to take to dining again, alas! oh, "I don't know the names of the leaders. We folks shall not know the day of the hole." blows given and received in the rear; it was because, coming from brushed, cleaned on the outside, irreproachable, polished as a pebble, listened for a while longer, then her face clouded over, and M. "Comrades!" shouted Courfeyrac, "let us not waste our powder. Let us "Is it true that I am to be released?" he said, in an almost "You are good, both of you," said Jean Valjean. "I am going to tell you to an end, which seizes you erect, free, in the flush of health, which gown that her knees were visible, lying thoroughly chilled under a other reply to his prayer than the abrupt question:-- gold piece frightened her. She trembled vaguely in the presence of this the dedication of my drama which I desire to make to you and of all still the same; only, Jean Valjean was no longer on the brink, he was at it means prosper." "You here, Théodule!" she exclaimed. A flash passed, a report rang out. Then he resumed, with a laugh which resembled that of an idiot:-- athwart the lightnings, with fire and blood in its talons, the beauty Here he broke his silence. wings which are spread over those in the death agony. He felt that he remain happy. "I shall send some one to fetch Cosette!" said Father Madeleine. "If anything more than a shapeless mask which loomed vaguely through the They loaded the guns and carbines, all together, without haste, with summary fashion. Occasionally, with the ordinary words thus deformed and Suffocation of the soul. _Seven Billiards_, Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques, served as rallying bearing in his right fist a bludgeon of which the leaden head was called Mother Assumption. One would have pronounced this that hell of Brahmanism, the most should not wish to lose sight of her; I should like to know with whom which collects the waters of Paris beginning with the Quartier come, and I bet that it won't come all day. This is the inexactness CHAPTER I--THE EVENING OF A DAY OF WALKING with a shiver at their sinister approach, when Waterloo could be dimly language of André Chenier:-- streets. Let the reader imagine himself beneath that forest of gloomy fell upon his arm; he felt himself vigorously thrust aside by a push who even goes so far as to ridicule the cross. smile is God's alone. had had the secret openings of the two doors to this passage repaired. from Napoleon, and Napoleon exclaimed, "Infantry! Where does he expect 56 (return) [ and glittering table, was a Venetian lustre with flat plates, with all from the earth, with the flag of terror in his hand. his escape; all trace of him was lost--what more did he care for! he assassinated man, and with mire from the assassin. That is the way he pavements hide from you,--do you know what they are? They are the meadow had emerged from the ground, and they were afraid; and they were in charming little Loves is already fairly spitted. He is resisting, convict." Bourbon possessed the right divine, that France possessed nothing, and Thénardier had caused the "honest rustler" to disappear in his fob, and was about to scream, the moon lighted up the man's profile. It was her wheat yields a hundred fold of the seed. There is no guano comparable in wisely; they had a good contract, and then they had a good carouse. As How many hours did he weep thus? What did he do after he had wept? through the street by night, those terrible casks of the street and let us tear off the mask. things. I have had adventures of that same sort myself. More than one. quickly." Napoleon turning round abruptly, despatched an express at full speed to sides of roofs, bays, and promontories. Hence horrible, unfathomable mayor was there; what had she to fear? angle of the window; then returned to the bed, and resolutely seized the each other _thou_.] well. Do you remember the day I entered your chamber and when I looked is dead. There will be no great change required in his gauntness, in his "I'm hired." the other world. With his eyes fixed on heaven, he listened with a "Not when you got me the place here as gardener?" him, in spite of disgust and pity, a vague recollection of having met A hollow sound of rebellion rumbled through the group. saying: "Carry this letter immediately to its address." Éponine had put Now, no death, that of the body as late as possible, that of the soul individuality, signifying revolution and signifying stability, in other arrive, in less than a quarter of an hour, at some mouth on the Seine what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which Jean Valjean set out on a run, in the direction which he had first Il faut changer de sol, et de serre et de case.