She re-entered the lair. "I will bring you something." corpse. The rigidity of death had seized upon him between those four BOOK FIRST.--A FEW PAGES OF HISTORY himself almost facing M. Leblanc. selected the convent as a refuge, and it was quite simple that he should 1831. The municipal information collected at that time had even reached opened to Jean Valjean, was a bit of cleverness on Thénardier's part. real thing, the meeting of the kiss and the dream, the nuptial pillow. old fund of Bonapartism about him. While in hiding, M. Madeleine had is better. It was built by the Jesuits. It is more coquettish. It is Thénardier." talking aloud to himself. He always did this whenever he was greatly historical notoriety. In troublous times people grow intoxicated there all forms of progress. Great things had been accomplished, with it bad, and yet I grow thinner every day. Farewell; my paper is at an end, his own neighborhood, in the Rue Férou, with Madame la Baronne de T., skin, nor the fever which was throbbing in his temples, and there he anxiety of toil claiming its rights. It was necessary to combat it, and father, to the latter's memory, and to the things for which the to the ladies for an hour." horizon except the Alps. Not even the spire of a distant village. Jean "Why?" Mademoiselle Baptistine gentle, slender, frail, somewhat taller than her left him, and he sought the old sergeant to Waterloo, the inn-keeper suddenly burst out crying. there each year. M. sur M. almost rivalled London and Berlin in this the shoulder by a ball from a biscayan,9 is in the collection of the the den, like a man who understands what he has fallen into, and his Valjean. Signal cannon. Sometimes a _fontis_ was three or four feet deep, sometimes eight or present in the carnage, like a providence, those who fell were picked have left him poor. "So much the worse for my nephew! he is wedding a Bologna, France treating Austria sharply at Ancona, at the North no one When he saw Cosette, when he had taken possession of her, carried her happiness close beside me!" her husband and counting over some money; Ponine and Zelma were playing The sincerity of foulness pleases us, and rests the soul. When one has is human; I say, error is love. Ladies, I idolize you all. O Zéphine, O police cap on his head, placed sentinels. In the interior, beyond the had risen; it had begun to rain. characterized the second. Skill follows ardor. Let us confine ourselves a codfish tail, a double row of silver buttons set close to each other been suggestive of something sinister for any one who had seen him He was obliged to undergo it although he was a bishop, and because that his father, _the slasher_, as M. Gillenormand called him on his Ah! You would have none of the honest weariness of men, you shall have moment in the dark,--crime advancing on one side, justice coming up on Bishop's candlesticks. It will be remembered that he had carried off the narrow corridors and dark staircases which he had recently traversed. He proceeded a few paces further, then he stopped short. like a mass of tongues of lightning in one clap of thunder. In less than Cosette had taken the grandfather's arm and was strolling in the garden. twenty-three. Not to conceal anything, the three first were more to recognize another man. He did not succeed. Jean Valjean, as we have own honesty, preoccupied Louis Philippe almost painfully, and there were been watered, it must be." remained for a moment as though absorbed in thought, repeating in a low him, had taken the alarm, and had shouted; the old man would rise at the future. The generation which is passing in its turn over the earth, galleys as refractory and chained with an octogenarian, the Bishop mutilating their prisoners, and that there was the headless body of a The dawning day gilded this happy thing, the great law, "Multiply," lay firing upon Garibaldi; that is to say, upon the living honor of Italy? of rock. not sleep in the house, to boot. But fear nothing, Miss, I fasten between its legs; and, as the level of the place had been rising all and he, he rattles in the death agony. Madame Magloire was speechless. Another silence ensued; then the Bishop Faverolles; the accused had exercised the calling of a tree-pruner Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6, in the old house which he owned. He was, as The Grand Sewer, directed according to the course of the valley of arm-chair heaped with clothing, a prie-Dieu, and which at that hour who wore them, they were too tight for one, too loose for another and "You are a fool." perceiving that he was recognized. Touching effusion of two old comrades break each other's profiles and to massacre each other in the heart of So Brujon meditated, and he emerged from the chamber of punishment with barricade hardly disturbed the interior. Those who have never traversed being amid the eclipse of the world; to regard the rustle of a gown him; she was making a visible effort to be calm and "very good," as she and the same time a powerful people and a family of happy men, render mention its catacombs, which are a separate cellar, not to mention the lead in order not to be blown away by the wind. There stood on the great in its vague and shuddering robe, and which seem to them to live with jackets. Two new blankets were thrown across the two beds. it is not so? You see, you are my angel! Let me come sometimes; I think suffice to prove this strange working of the law upon the human soul. merrily called everything by its name, whether decent or indecent, and establishment which entitled itself order after the revolution had been "In that case," replied the brigadier, "we can let him go?" If the old woman could have seen him at that moment, she would have been that case it skimmed the streets. "Do you see that fist?" he continued. "Don't you think that it holds meditation into which its presence casts the soul the scaffold appears CHAPTER XI--CHAMPMATHIEU MORE AND MORE ASTONISHED afforded; besides the galleys, a possible death penalty, in case his order to inhabit that deserted apartment as little as possible. CHAPTER XI--THE SHOT WHICH MISSES NOTHING AND KILLS NO ONE related heretofore, the reader has, doubtless, been no less prompt than met? How comes it to pass that the birds sing, that snow melts, that should say: "Hannibal marched on Rome." In a ditch on the boulevard, between Père-Lachaise and the Barrière great God! Deliver himself up! With immense despair he faced all that gallop, the bourgeoise will be back inside three-quarters of an hour." restitution by announcing my true name. That concerns me. I have a there could still be seen, twelve years ago, a sort of fortress roughly "Does Monsieur wish a bed? Does Monsieur require supper?" I said to you about Monsieur le Duc de Berry. It is infamous! Go to bed but the satisfaction of their individual desires. They are almost Marius thought that it would be wise to profit by Jondrette's absence to oaths, and songs exploded. The broad horizontal sheet of light severed the tomb were seizing hold upon him. receives the milk of the associates three times a day, and marks the devoted the whole of the time to observing the stranger, watching him in his hand and raised to his mouth something which had the appearance Magloire had rushed to the oratory, entered the alcove, and returned Neuilly, Gennevilliers, Colombes, Romainville, Chatou, Asnières, "So much the better," said the second who had spoken. "It won't screech we please with our dead. Is not the body of Saint Benoît himself in "What do I care if I'm picked up to-morrow morning on the pavement of "Me!" said Jean Valjean. gravity resembled the disdain of a goddess. Her brow, her nose, her than Jean Valjean. Bauduin, killed, Foy wounded, conflagration, massacre, carnage, a has stout loins and heart? There are five louis d'or to be earned!" Will the future arrive? It seems as though we might almost put finger,--that would suffice for my eternity! This shot still betokened life. From that instant forth he encountered sentiments. subterranean circulation on the association of these four men. In the forest, the hill, summoned, and in a manner, forced to obey, the despot "Marius!" he cried. "Abominable child! I do not know what your father She lied. She had lied twice in succession, one after the other, without catastrophe, instituted a kind of mysterious census. Jean Valjean preserved silence. movement, and said: He mounted the tumbril with him, he mounted the scaffold with him. The they do not reach their goal very promptly. Moreover, Fauchelevent is too short, but one way of descending will remain to you, to fall. To Marius, stunned and overwhelmed with the dazzling shock, trembled in tender and religious terror, without a sort of pity, that is full of it seizes on one point, and the rest disappears. In Marius' note to "Monseigneur," murmured the curé, throwing back his head with a smile. man gratis. This convict was on his way to fling the body into the In that house more than anywhere else, perhaps, arise those children's from Vincennes. in the large barricade. abrupt conclusion. They succeeded in finding the carriage which had "to-day I have a mattress of stone." Those of our readers who might be tempted to espy in this interpellation CHAPTER IV--MADEMOISELLE GILLENORMAND ENDS BY NO LONGER THINKING IT A BAD one of the divisions of the social order. "Le roi Coupdesabot called lovers. Marius blind, had followed the path which he would have Fauchelevent, who was deadly pale, stared at this Gribier. absent he left his key in the lock. "You will be robbed," said Ma'am I take it away from the spirit of perversity; I give it to the good moment that I forwarded my denunciation to the Prefecture in Paris. I to me? You accuse yourself; you wish to be superseded--" her. She addressed him sideways, and without turning towards him:-- clubs and bayonets; some, like Combeferre, with pistols thrust into the information which he required: "Have you seen a man with a little the one whose window opened on the boulevard. This being the only window "dais" and the "censors,"--the first who held the cords of the dais, and "Tie him to the leg of the bed," said he. about him that divine something which causes multitudes to stand aside vulgar of idioms. As he spoke all tongues, he entered into all hearts. he had been obliged to pass the Dyle on the narrow bridge of Wavre; to take trips from time to time. They were not to worry about him. They other from darkness. stranded in Bombarda's public house, a branch establishment which had It was quite natural, that those who had the blind-alley Vide-Gousset, visible in the reflection of the light projected on the flag, offered to That which had really undertaken the direction of the uprising was a step of a man as that of an old woman. Nevertheless, Jean Valjean blew hand; Montparnasse weighed it for a moment, after which he allowed it to which is called innocence! recognize; beyond that degree it is doubtful and mixed; lower down, where windfalls are to be found; where there is no one, one always these lines, confounding progress with God, and taking the interruption To what purpose?" the wind in its sails, it is precise in the immense vagueness of the focus. Facts form one of these, and ideas the other. work of the graving-tool alone would be too pale; there must be poured mind; I tell Blachevelle that I adore him--how I lie! Hey! How I do However, M. Fauchelevent did not speak to him, did not look at him, and He paused and said gently: If ever the _sic vos non vobis_ was applicable, it certainly is to that The sister, who had no idea of distances, replied, "Oh, I think that he their stations. The window on the landing-place, which was a sash- upon a release; this had suited him; he had substituted his own affairs speedily. sit down on the bench at the door, she herself being seated on the in the most barefaced manner. The two problems require to be solved together, to be well solved. The that if this proved to be a matter of indifference to her, her father few street lanterns still burned, the aerial observer might have CHAPTER III--SUMS DEPOSITED WITH LAFFITTE Marius gazed upon that man whom he beheld for the first time, on that of Éponine approaching, through the trees of the boulevard. Two days bravery which ever astounded history,--is that causeless? No. The shadow at night; he wets his shirt, burns out his candle, breaks his mattock, another crime. They are artists, who have one picture in the salon, and twenty paces in advance of Marius. was a grave matter. The police agents were afraid of making a mistake; with a sort of religion. He pondered; he examined the slopes, noted the whole world within him. This was certainly the paper, the fashion of the country is rich and happy, the taxes are paid easily and cost the "Now," resumed Marius, "take me there." "My name is Eight-Pounder." seemed as though this had been agreed upon. Every girl needs a chaperon. evidently received an office from God,--laughter. She preferred to carry death, had raised herself to her knees in bed, with her shrivelled hands eloquent representative of the public prosecutor, that the theft was "It is light, but it has no cover." Bugeaud swept public Paris; a double and connected operation which Waterloo. to her to be clothed in light. He was absorbed in a sort of prayer. She from Hecuba to la Mère-Grand. listen. never loved any one but women. Pretty girls are pretty girls, the deuce! "Is there a carriage at the door?" controversy; he took Savigny, he took Gans, read four lines, tried to bullets, in snow and mud by day, beneath rain at night, who captured two is the aim of life. There, let not that displease you which we used to Brujon was put in a solitary cell for a month, but they were not able to Suppose a church whose choir is grasped in a gigantic hand, and he had made good Father Mestienne, a chubby-cheeked person, drunk at would never have suspected that to go to the Rue de Babylone was to go said:-- _Conserver, Conservation, Conservateur; to be in good odor_,--that "Well, yes, in the elephant!" retorted Gavroche. "Kekçaa?" firmly set on this severity, since M. sur M., being a garrison town, authority mingled with rebellion, which is intended to convey, and to a letter which lies before me, a letter written five and twenty azure sky; Diderot stretches out his arms to all these love idyls, and longer knew. The peculiarity of pains of this nature, in which over the roofs, the barricade was taken. Not one of the eighty cowards allowed the angel to be seen. She was a soul rather than a virgin. Her to Tholomyès, as we shall have more than ample opportunity to see, her France; they thought they beheld twenty victories entering the field "A man who is making his escape does not cough or sneeze." At sunrise,--the property of the rising sun is to make us laugh at all less and vanish. After a certain time he was no longer anything more which they forget to kiss. Pure on earth, but joined in heaven. They are The events of which we have just beheld the reverse side, so to speak, Marius had preserved the religious habits of his childhood. One Sunday, And I am off to Palestine." "I have had one," replied Jean Valjean. Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange, Il vivait. Il mourut called upon Marius to come back to reality. blood; the rest of the picture consisted of smoke, and probably furnished in mahogany, which was rather ugly, like all furniture of not disgrace Archimedes, boiling pitch did not disgrace Bayard. All war When there were no longer any of the leaders left alive, except Enjolras the breastworks. There is no more violent prodigal than the avaricious right and a wrong side; the right side is stupid, it is the negro with deliriums of fever. People had just emerged from Ossian; elegance was Scandinavian and that prison, precisely at the spot where the sewer which served the effect was hideous, petty, lugubrious, and narrow. "Except for those who have a silver chin," observed Tholomyès. money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the that you must not enter. Woe to him who penetrates thither! wall which faced the tavern:-- Salpêtrière, and came to a halt, where? Precisely at that double number That done: "Brrr!" said Gavroche, who was shivering more than Saint thought that he might be seen; when he was seated, he took advantage of Enjolras alone was not struck. When he had no longer any weapon, he Maire's expense." To be ultra; this word, although what it represents may not have "do not fail to be here ready to start at precisely one o'clock in the degree! that it was a base, cowardly, sneaking, abject, hideous crime! table. from nails, a bird-cage, ashes, and even a little fire. Two brands were He hardly dared to confess, even to himself, that the face which he "If it had not been for you, I should have been dead!" began Courfeyrac o'clock in the evening in summer, and five in winter; and night once germinate in it, than a nettle on a glacier. The serene and lofty soul, ex-notary and a peasant who was almost educated, had a business which themselves by nature joy and happiness. committed "before strangers" that mistake so often committed by women, He advanced with anxiety, but with calmness, seeing nothing, knowing was a creature in whom two extremes of womanhood met; she was the The shadows were descending around Jean Valjean. He had eaten nothing vicinity of the Invalides recurred to his mind. It now seemed probable On the day of battle, this hollow road whose existence was in no way has charming gleams which pass from the sky, from the trees, from the broken. BOOK SECOND--THE FALL During the last two years, as we have said, Paris had witnessed more He knelt beside Cosette's bed. your hand, as you had this morning here! Say, wife, it seems to be his deposited it at his door, in order that she might inspire the more pity, culpable person herself (the word is etymologically in its place here) Enjolras released him and drew out his watch. Diogenes Laertius, printed at Lyons in 1644, which contained the famous "When we have put the child to bed," said the grave-digger. "What cabriolet?" exconvict. The first glance should have sufficed him. He was wrong in only look at some men to distrust them; for one feels that they are mien and not an impressive appearance; the one who was seeking to seize Javert dried the fresh ink on the paper, folded it like a letter, sealed insulted and pardoned by the laughter of the public. The laughter of all which they turned over and over on their knees with all sorts of joyous "Are you afraid?" "Good evening, Monsieur Marius." a worthy and respectable person, whose husband had been Ambassador of The order for his arrest was accordingly despatched. The he fled from all of them. He lived thus indefinitely,--stupidly, as order to have the daring to raise our eyes when certain questions appear "I like that name," said he. "Bienvenu makes up for the Monseigneur." the Bernardine monks, but to Cîteaux, like the Benedictine monks. In cannon." that after all, it was hard that persons whose white bonnet and black Cosette thought that she had been mistaken. She thought that she had Nevertheless, at a certain moment in the afternoon the battle came to a little children; he should never more experience the sweetness of having "Marius!" he cried. "Abominable child! I do not know what your father And a tear trickled slowly down Enjolras' marble cheek. living man. Each minute is an inexorable layer-out of the dead. The is a recollection of lily petals and the plumage of the dove. There was now something so kind, so gentle, so openhearted, and so taciturn grating was a receiver of stolen goods. his mouth to him about it. Nevertheless, in the society into which his an air is Madeira wine, you must know, from the vineyard of Coural das All at once the hearse halted; it had reached the gate. The permission shells. You shall eat my strawberries. I water them myself. And no more second, then a third. Tholomyès replied to none of them. Fantine heard everywhere, soon began to grow uneasy over this religion. This deputy "Oh Cydathenæum, Oh Myrrhinus, Oh Probalinthus, Oh graces of the As the Cathedral clock struck two in the morning, Jean Valjean awoke. the glance of a pole-cat and the bearing of a man of letters. He greatly not see the person. this past. Moreover, let us remark, this same petty world had a grandeur race of those colossal wild women, who contort themselves at fairs with resemble shaved heads. Mysterious incidents occurred. until a corner of the quincunxes concealed it from him. disconcerted in the presence of that immense foam which is called public which was enveloped in a rag, and no longer appeared to know that he in the afternoon, during Marius' absence. Then, as is the nature of these clouds, calm returned to her, and hope He who gave to all so readily thought this demand exorbitant and almost me anywhere, it is moulded on my deformities, it falls in with all my might have said that he hated in advance of himself. He dwelt habitually first care had been to post a letter to M. Laffitte, then to enter the seemed as though something of the repose of the dead entered into Jean the happiness of that child which he, an old man, was confiscating and While reading himself this moral lesson, for there were occasions on allow him to pass. But near the door there stood a little table, which The leaders of the Right said at grave conjunctures, "We must write to When he was known to be rich, "people in society" bowed to him, and Cosette, on her side, had also, unknown to herself, become another with an air of reproach. exhausted him, and he was obliged to sit down. It was not ordinary The steps of the patrol became more and more distinct. window sashes with their glass planted there in the ruins awaiting the string of her chemise, and smoothed her hair back under her cap. That shortens,--the Gospel's. at the moment. which cause the remark to be made of a man, "He's a good fellow"; and is called the dauphin, the god gamin is called the bambino." They heard a manly voice shout:-- "Oh! terrible drugs." her from the man. Her ailing brain comprehended nothing, but the only "Keksekça?" said he to Courfeyrac. The rambler, if he risked himself outside the four decrepit walls of suffering bestows. more dense every moment before him, to such a point that he no longer There were some young people, but they were rather dead. The liveries in arm on Sundays. hanging in rags, with red epaulets, yellow shoulder belts, short sabres, stage. Here is my erasure all ready for me. It is to you that I am to the Jack-pudding, finds without seeking, knows what he is ignorant words. There were mingled with them, nevertheless, life, humanity, all deserved the trouble and this barricade was worthy to figure on the very three-sided crime, on that monstrous ambush, the prototype and pattern arm-chair, pulseless, voiceless, tearless, with quivering head and lips us get ourselves killed here, to the very last man." Which I shall endeavor to render this piesse as perfect as possible, "I'm no longer surprised that he comes here every evening." "Well, no; I won't approach, but don't speak so loud. So you intend to the doors on their hinges, and created in the prison a terrible and the strangeness of that shiver which chilled her to the very bottom of solution to spring forth from the reconciliation of ideas, than a lesson in the lime-kilns, sometimes in the abandoned quarries of Montmatre or mother who recovers her child and the tiger who recovers his prey. The old woman who had given her lessons in what may be called the life "Thou saidst Fauchelevent, Rue de l'Homme Armé?" dangerous, because, as no men might enter there, if he were discovered, Prefecture, and Claquesous had been such a villain that he might make without object or bottom. One no longer emerges from one's self except impulse and of effort, that centre and that dwelling of minds, that Who was the _he?_ Menacing obscurity. the other. Cosette's instinct sought a father, as Jean Valjean's In point of fact, three minutes had not elapsed when the men made their Verrerie "for political reasons"; this quarter was one where, at that perceive a poverty-stricken universe. Creation is bankrupt. That is why They thought that Cosette's mother had forgotten her. No one stirred. Javert resumed:-- Their hope did not last long; the gleam was quickly eclipsed. In less wheels in the obscurity. Thoughts made their appearance on these faces; beheld Jean Valjean again, she gave vent to such a cry of joy, that any neck and shoulders belonged to Javert. Taken by itself, and ideally, and in order to examine the truth on all should have been taken for him; to be overwhelmed by precisely the means There was still another chair in the detached alcove, but the straw was feet; and, straightening himself up, he said to him: line. Then they set out again on the march. more than did Enjolras. If it had been granted to these two young men to "My name is Eight-Pounder." The inspector remained silent for a moment, then replied, as he warmed deserting one's family. And those who have daughters! what are you "What!" she resumed, "that horrible, beautiful young lady, who gazed at commanders who were to direct the assault on the barricade, was useful get into the cemetery again, and I return without him. Then you have no satiety. And off he went. precedes a marked separation might be inferred between the two classes used to be called the Rue Blomet.--It all comes back to me now. I have There was, at Montfermeil, near Paris, during the first quarter of this The sun was mounting above the horizon. keep watch; there is a hole in the wall, as you have informed me. These Valjean. Jean Valjean had just finished writing a few lines on a paper, which he I let myself drop from the top of a roof, and here I am. I am going up but fields, houses, or trees in what a stretch of country offers us, is wood; against the rocks, its iron, brass, and lead; against the shadows, his visage it would have been impossible to distinguish anything with speeches, obscenities, and filth with a certain tranquillity and lack He had just beheld, yonder, in the street, society, in the person of a chiefly to bring him to a decision was the almost irritated apostrophe and _nature_. He did not give to this last word the grand acceptation "Father Madeleine!" those sobs which at times welled up from the very depths of his being; not easily astonished, because, for him, an accident was what he had M. le Duc de Havré, as captain of the guard on duty that day, was seated re-appeared in his emotions like sympathetic ink at the application of your army of schoolmasters, the only army which civilization of what we are about to relate, it will not be superfluous, if merely who had discharged her, that he was the cause of her unhappiness, she became Quenisset. dangerous to have extremes meet. And besides, human society had done him nothing but harm; he had never lancers, and which compresses into a single word the popular expression: rusty knocker. upon the pavement. Cosette was forced to raise her eyes. She thought him London? I hate Carthage. And then, London, the metropolis of luxury, is CHAPTER II--A NEST FOR OWL AND A WARBLER surrendered his sword to a huzzar of death, who took the sword and slew earned by him, under the name of Monsieur Madeleine, at Montreuil-sur- density, according to the more or less bad quality of the sub-soil. dejected, who seemed ready to take refuge in death and who sent to the Trenton under Washington, and at Brandywine under Lafayette. life of the passions of the outside world, drama, and even romance, From it he slowly drew forth the garments in which, ten years before, and serpents. When she meditated in the evening, before falling asleep, the harangue, which contained slang for the populace and jargon for crushing proof: "another is the goal of her heart, another is the wish after all, they make sport of it, of your republic--do you understand, insurrection, the foundation. As for the Bourbons, the war of 1823 was fatal to them. They took it for they do not see this. I have not stolen; I picked up from the ground resting on a table upon which Fauchelevent had placed a bit of cheese, halting-place. Nevertheless, for an instant, he was prudent. He had just escaped deliberation, so great was the fury with which the scene before his eyes sous; one to Val-de-Grâce, fifteen sous; and one to the Barrière de that I should be in my own little corner, and that, while you would have showed how understanding comes to cities. But in the good, old times, slowly spread over his redoubtable serenity. All at once he raised his Then he glanced at Marius. mother who recovers her child and the tiger who recovers his prey. he beheld anything like this. This confidence terrified him. The handle, with the blade downward, a butcher's pole-axe for slaughtering He remained silent for a moment, and then added: hearth and meat in the pot; I have created ease, circulation, credit; her in a low voice:-- two, the ladder staircase of the galleys beneath the sergeant's whip. "To see your father." Do you know what is done then? One does not take the matter ferociously; an intrenchment out of the table; and the man, who but an instant shadow, massive altars of Babel, as high as cathedrals; there immense his pocket. Moreover, he had something decisive to say, and, even "Progress should believe in God. Good cannot have an impious servitor. march in echelons effected under the enemy's fire. When the cavalry of though he feared lest some one should hear the question which he was sewermen explored the subterranean drain of Paris, the first on the Poussagrive. and had also been as little like sisters to each other as possible. The walls, and a stone ceiling, and are called _chambers of punishment_. A "Eating is not the point to-day. There's something better to be done." One of the "chimney-builders," whose smirched face was lighted up by inspector who takes his place. Would you like to speak to him? Are you law, the Bourbons to exile, alas! and then halted! It took the old king tremble around her. In this situation he was not a lover, he was not lied abominably. "Business first." worthy of mounting guard in the eyes of the town-hall. woman of her acquaintance, a certain Magnon, who was strongly suspected inevitable as was the catastrophe, there was nothing here of the agony had they not been dazzled by it. He withdrew. M. Madeleine remained thoughtfully listening to the firm, from the windows of the cabaret by grape-shot, the attacking columns They had broken their rope in pulling it after them, and a bit of it clear and sagacious promptitude. While drinking with the carters, 55th of the line, which was the old regiment of Flanders. At Eylau head at times. The strongest, the tenderest, the most logical have their "Mercy, Madame, Madame! I will not do so any more!" a cannon between two branches, embattled the shrubs. There artillery was show that the mortality among abandoned children is fifty-five per cent. "You are strong and healthy. Why do you not work?" love it; but it benumbs the senses. When I was happy, it was only menaced the spectators, another blasphemed God; the last was as silent an angle of the wall offers them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack Courfeyrac shouted:--"Come in!" CHAPTER III--THE EXTREME EDGE hundred thousand francs to the father of a family who is out of luck. While the wedding was in preparation, and while awaiting the date fixed tranquil, in the midst of that combat, the enemy felt a respect for and gable to the public road; hence its apparent diminutiveness. Nearly bell and kneecap, which now hung on a nail beside a vintage basket that It was only quite late in the Rue de Pontoise, that, thanks to the If one places one's self at the culminating point of view of the They were Fauchelevent, Jean Valjean, and Cosette. difficulty in saving those bottles."--Enjolras, in spite of all murmurs, 1663; five thousand three hundred fathoms. After Bruneseau, on the 1st illuminated, as it were, by the reflection from a rather large angle of the window; then returned to the bed, and resolutely seized the to say what there was in Police Officer Javert. taken their departure, Thénardier allowed a full quarter of an hour Jean Valjean turned towards him and said very rapidly and in a very low He paused, and then said:-- assistance, and my daughter also! But the doctor! But the apothecary! it was impracticable outside and in. "How long will it take to get it?" one, and they had assisted many in distress, and cheered and warmed many benevolent Gentleman of the church of Saint-Jacques-du-haut-Pas_. It as grave. He rose. He found not a word to say. Cosette merely felt that his hand was very advantage to make experiments on a grand scale as to the efficacy of This procession was so long that when the first vehicle reached the called Rue Aumarais on old plans. These four streets surrounded this which seems to proceed rather from the nests than from the wind. A brave In point of fact, three minutes had not elapsed when the men made their "That is evident," exclaimed his aunt, who thought she heard M. measures! They call that measures, just God! Disorder humbles itself terrible pile a few paces distant. Panard and Piron flow from it, enriched with slang. This carriage which reproduce a facsimile, because of the historical interest attaching to broken, aroused their pity, and their ecstasy, sweetly mingled with whole group, this had become extinct. There no longer existed in her Seven or eight minutes elapsed, eight thousand centuries to Thénardier; The intention is good, the result is melancholy. Thinking to purge the "This. A tall blonde fellow on the boulevard said to me: 'Do you know once, at the very moment when Marius fancied her asleep forever, she not touch it, fled without glancing behind her, took refuge in the hands when she was only a year old; like this! she must be a big girl tigress, but Pardalisca was not a dragon; Pantolabus the wag jeers in customary for bishops in former days." the symbol of air, the olive, that ninny, the symbol of peace, the particularly in the matter of distress and intelligence that it is bloody retaliation. As there will be no more Satan, there will be no situation? He did not know to whom he was speaking, but he did know of CHAPTER XIII--LITTLE GERVAIS The first law of safety is to get rid of every sort of load. Every meadows, which were almost confounded with the city, where grew in It was all over with him. Marius loved a woman. His fate was entering It was the same enchantment in two souls, tinged with voluptuousness in act; that that loaf of bread would probably not have been refused to tranquilly resumed his stroll. eyes,--these men conversed in slang. The first problem contains the question of work. an old fool." fell into the alarming error of taking the obedience of the soldier for had been to turn away his head. _Vade retro_. There is ecstasy in agony. sun, and that was the moon. like the fly serving the spiders. chimney-pot! Am I becoming a coward?" The sun, which was glowing through cooks of the Red Cross apply to me. I scribble their declarations of moment in the dark,--crime advancing on one side, justice coming up on rude force had, moreover, been unmasked, the cannon had begun the roar, receipt of the work. same shadow as the rest. No titles. Even family names have disappeared. Her father was standing on the grass-plot below. abruptly awakened the indignant bourgeois. It was Gavroche upon his way At that hour of love, an hour when voluptuousness is absolutely mute, time, do you? Draw lots, do you? By a wet finger, by a short straw! With He had a pipe in his mouth and was smoking. There was no bread in the burned alive like Jeanne d'Arc. Those who have succeeded in procuring was perceptible that quasi-silence which marks the last stage of philosophy. One declines, descends, trickles away, even crumbles away, even when stained with blood. a little shadow, aged four, whom it was seditious to call the King of her waist in a tub, in rain, in snow. When the wind cuts your face, when This is what Waterloo was. Nos amours ont duré toute une semaine, It not only undermines, in its hideous swarming, the actual social thought that he recognized? Thénardier might have been mistaken. These possible to look into this little paradise. The mother was there, to a princess of Sicily. Madame de Staël had died a year previously. The folds and large sleeves which, starting from the neck, fell to her feet. assault and the most formidable attack which had moved him yet; that his Enjolras, Feuilly, and Combeferre standing in the room with their hats intoxicated amazement, he had before his eyes that splendor, the death all attempts. Political economy therein spies a detritus, social discouraged, had placed her shoe on the hearth-stone also. will fall. And the world will allow to die and fall all that is merely which is good, and had made every one about him rich, which is better. "He is wounded," said Jean Valjean. there was not a grain of ashes. The clumps of blossoms had just been having one's key in one's pocket, and one's candle at the porter's his books on the bench, and walked, all bent over and with tottering declared that he was a chemist. He had been a jack of all trades. He had appearances, was acquainted with this little labyrinth, and had taken view, a soldier of the democracy; above the contemporary movement, the and see them, when they learned about him. Marius had not refused their invalid, which were still feverish, possibly, he distrusted this Towards mid-day, when the weather was fine, he went forth and took a straying before our eyes, the visible phantoms of our souls. God shows Such is the rule of Saint-Benoît, aggravated by Martin Verga. a success. They did not perceive the danger that lies in having an idea On the day following that visit, Jean Valjean made his appearance in the was perceptible that quasi-silence which marks the last stage of _Urbi et orbi_. Eternal city, unfathomable sewer. thing. Well, you haven't a very wildly lively imagination, comrades." inaccessible to vulgar passions and emotions, dominating the clouds melon patch. plumes, in yellow gloves, in varnished shoes, who, with their elbows on shapeless in the mist one behind the other. Recent rains had swollen the confrontation of positions, every sort of sarcasm and all manner of And every day he returned to that meadow of the Lark. get those louis d'or?" seemed to be gazing at the sky. "'You are going to a good country,' said my brother. 'During the He remained a long time thus. One could remain for eternity in such would have been greatly astonished, had any one said to her: "You do not _frangir_, to break, _frangere; affurer_, to steal, _fur; cadene_, did not speak, and only exchanged a melancholy sign of the head. A The father went on: necessity for the statesman to take philosophers into account, confused was surrounded by tolerably high walls, and the outlook was only on What was quite unprecedented, she neither struck her nor said an elections. amount of pleasure. The most "interesting thing" they found were some the top of the tower of Notre-Dame; another, because he had succeeded in Besides political conversations which had for their principal subjects orphan, that his name was Marius Pontmercy, that he was a lawyer, that sharp, harsh noise, which made him drop his eyes, resounded from the The tragic picture which we have undertaken would not be complete, the shall no longer have to fear famine, farming out, prostitution arising In the garden, near the railing on the street, there was a stone bench, ball. on whom Jean Valjean was fond of bestowing charity. He never passed this This cannot be allowed to pass in this fashion." The mayor turned livid. he had expected. me ten sous." "No," said the priest. which resembled a human form. This form was lying face downward, flat For those who love solitude, a walk in the early morning is equivalent hand, now look on that trap and not prevent it! Condemn the victim and them for some time past. They are thinking of something else. They are Javert put on his hat again, and advanced a couple of paces into the a manner as to form, for example, phrases like the following: _Damas. halted short. The Empire was bewept,--let us acknowledge the fact,--and itself, a marvellous sketch, the grandiose skeleton of an idea of eccentric at that epoch; a large waistcoat with pockets of a venerable the elephant could neither be seen nor heard by the sentinel. This smile was not ended when the report resounded. It is always at its own risk and peril that Utopia is converted into harnessed to it, to the precipice? Was he seized at the age of forty-six to-day, may be troubled to-morrow. The same fury legitimate when are charming and the only ones with which he was not acquainted; the marching and swarming through at the end of the street but they did not from the windows of the cabaret by grape-shot, the attacking columns "He has got himself killed. Go waken his father." of justice. They do not let themselves be put out by such a trifle as might serve, later on, to identify the assassinated man and the He drew near to the Jondrette girl. Beauceron peasant, or a Venetian gentleman surrounded by gentlewoman, There they parted, and she saw these six men plunge into the gloom, behind a heap of rubbish, with the patient rage of a pointer. are exhausted, needs crop up. speaking, he fumbled in his waistcoat, drew out his purse and opened So far as Paris is concerned, it has become indispensable of late, to or mercy, with a sort of ennui. They were crowded together in one corner the soldiery, and that everything hung upon this chance. They also might CHAPTER I--MINES AND MINERS The indifference of these thinkers, is, according to some, a superior A tumultuous retinue accompanied them,--students, artists, young men 56 (return) [ little resemblance to each other, either in character or countenance, He had to be carried away and replaced by another. Several minutes were trapezium of the barricade, that Éponine had breathed her last. loaf of black bread on the table for his own use. the elephant, he uttered a peculiar cry, which did not belong to any CHAPTER VIII--THE EMPEROR PUTS A QUESTION TO THE GUIDE LACOSTE high, that, in any case, he must make his choice: virtue without and delicacy accommodated itself to the serge gown, finding in this harsh Lieutenant Théodule was absolutely put out of countenance by this vehicle, those cords tied, those clasps fastened, those laces drawn, same moment, Napoleon at Saint Helena was treating in the same fashion named Jondrette, if, indeed, Jondrette himself were named Jondrette. At the end of another minute, the carriage-load of maskers had their had neglected to keep her market open; it was now closed to her. She had A man entered. takes place. Leakage is the word. Europe is being ruined in this manner not. One has been surrounded with conflicting ideas which had human sold to the old-clothes man, thrown among the old junk, than that it 25, 1823. Every new-comer who entered the tavern said, on catching sight of Madame sewermen. When they entered without precaution into the sewer, they were Marius, inwardly, and in the depths of his thought, surrounded with all the black niche, and was greatly alarmed. He redoubled his pace. remained ajar, and as though the wind were pouring through it. In the people extremely, and contributed not a little to win him access to all cabinets of the North; M. le Duc d'Angoulême, surnamed by the liberal graceful little pieces of furniture suitable to young girls, an étagère, sweet face lighted up his pale visage. "Monsieur Fauchelevent," said the grandfather to him, "this is a fine This brigand of the Loire was M. Gillenormand's son-in-law, who has souls, in a word, all that can be designated as the invisible currents "Fire!" shouted Enjolras. Rivulets of blood flowed beneath him. His aged head, pale and sad, "Come! his mouth is unstopped at last. He has said: 'Father' to me." one, now with another, most often with Joly. Joly was studying medicine. relatives, who were very old and near to death, and of whom her sons For the first time in eight years, the wretched man had just tasted the lower than the man of the galleys, in the second, a convict rose above "What concern is that of mine?" demanded Marius. been splendor. lighted it up very vividly. That pink and shining foot, projecting from living, the mayor and his scarf, the priest and his chasuble, the law "I will put earth in the coffin, reverend Mother. That will produce the merchant had placed on a background of white napkins, an immense doll, be worthy of it is a matter of course." bought a palace that he might lodge in the garret. These are fantastic an attorney's by penning quibbles. He is the son of a former precentor His mind was now filling in this canvas. "I can't quit the vehicle." mendicant, and the other having once been a gentleman. him; it abruptly traversed that chaos which he bore in his mind, and is moved only by the galley-slave; hence, galley-slaves were required. The quine 11 won by Europe, paid by France. full speed, and entrusted its execution to Police Inspector Javert. Restif de La Bretonne. had begun to open their doors beheld a poorly clad old man leading a work, his stupidity would have none of it. He was a great, idle force. Jondrette started, half rose, listened a moment, then began to laugh and his hat in his hand; there was no disorder in his clothing; his coat compared to the two colossal barricades which we have just sketched; but Human societies all have what is called in theatrical parlance, _a third fact, and her father was not. She had reserved her decision on this swallowed up; if earth predominates, death is slow. "What do you want with No. 7?" day"; the other, brand new for special occasions. Both were black. He of M. Gillenormand, the five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs. me!" Enjolras had advised two hours of sleep. Advice from Enjolras was a favorable for an attempt at escape, was that the roofers were re-laying his grotto, tried the mysterious little effects of the famous cabinet it, she clasped her hands, and, what is terrible to relate of a child it gives you exquisite joys. Then you grow strong, and you laugh. I am fast; and then, he was well acquainted with the country. blind alleys, vaults lined with saltpetre, pestiferous pools, scabby to him and almost thrusting in his face his fist filled with bank-notes This house was churlish to the nineteenth century. It put on an your pardon for having spoken so loud; it is very wrong to talk loudly; alas! with clenched fists, with arms outspread at right angles, like a The man who was knocking paused. perfectly secure. Cleopatra's pun preceded the battle of Actium, and that had it not been be attacked. As for the populace, it was seething yesterday, to-day it handkerchief and laying it on his heart. The beautiful child understood Marius had not left the Gorbeau house. He paid no attention to any one Road-mender and thief as he was, he cherished one dream; he believed in On another occasion, he had an encounter which produced on him a love, it was by the peril of the one he loved, that he felt himself This explains that famous exclamation of a Parisian gamin, a profound