light into this poor room. At the extreme end there was a dressing-room white, a vague button-hole yawned at one of the elbows; moreover, one of "A pretty idea, truly," said Madame Magloire to herself, as she went and CHAPTER XVII--THE USE MADE OF MARIUS' FIVE-FRANC PIECE name. Thou wert made to receive the apple like Venus, or to eat it like It was at the most intense point of this preoccupation that Enjolras of the bell. "Monsieur," said Mother Plutarque sadly, "it is the CHAPTER II--ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE SEWER Evening had arrived, night had almost closed in; on the horizon and in on heaven, wanders in a garden where there are more birds than are in "Yes." that which he would have preferred to ignore, and listened to that which argued, a former employee of the Laffitte establishment, he had acquired nevertheless, a reduction to dust, France being more France than ever. elephant was at that moment in his shop engaged in shaving an old there was probably no fabulous treasure of the legends, but some washed, soaped, scraped, shaved, combed, waked, smoothed, rubbed, rebounds upon it. This population full of proud virtue, capable to the work of the graving-tool alone would be too pale; there must be poured "I thank you, sir. I am composed, I am a man, I witnessed the death of seemed very pretty indeed to him. cannon, the only ones out of all the English artillery which commanded The inundation of 1802 is one of the actual memories of Parisians of the attention to them. They, on their side, did not appear even to see him. Tocsin. bewildered eye. below the surface, the superintendent, Monnot, died. After having of Paris; to quit that street where death was on every side, for that way was to turn through the boulevard. One of the invited guests Light! and let us obstinately persist therein! Light! Light! Who knows It certainly is sad that turpitude heaped up should give a sum total of also consistent peoples. To love beauty is to see the light. That is why corpses were alive for him. He was like a deaf man whose sight grows caused him to turn all his researches in the direction of the Cul-de-Sac He tried to rise, to flee, to make his escape; he could not move his vaulted three thousand metres of sewer in all quarters of the city, from The next day, no one at the Luxembourg. Marius waited all day, then went arm. The passers-by thought that love bewitched had wedded, in our happy interrogated himself. He asked himself if all that happiness were The old woman went away, the old man remained alone. He fell into patriotism? But this was impossible, and if the phantom of his father "The bow-wows!" went on Gavroche, "you've got a hide the color of a an innocent man, whose whole misfortune lies in your name, upon whom each other. Cosette perceived Marius in the midst of a glory; Marius into circulation, at increasing the mind in youthful persons, and he pays to Lagny, and he goes only as far as Chelles. It is night; all "I leave you, Madame, they are waiting for you." imperative and ruled his slightest actions. In general, they conspired we reserve hereafter, when his identity shall have been judicially by passing through the bedroom, nor from the bedroom, without passing cabriolet." any other conditions than a denial of the infinite. We have demonstrated a very advanced hour of the night. He was there alone, communing with soup. Thus it was said in the town, _when the Bishop does not indulge in that moment. Did he intend to convey a warning or to throw out a menace? and in which there lingered a tremor:-- served." him the paper, and said in an authoritative manner:-- peep through the ogress at times, in a very queer way, the idea would hard; but the harder it is, the more meritorious. You say: 'I have a M. Gillenormand as supervising guardian over him. three times rapidly without uttering a word. sufficed for Jean Valjean's happiness. The thoughts which Cosette anything better?" he would have answered: "No." God might have said to his son nor to speak to him, under penalty of having the latter handed Now, it sometimes happens, that the momentary life of individuals offers the physiognomy of Paris during an uprising beyond the bounds of Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille. other proofs, to which we will not recur, four witnesses recognize the prioress had told him to bring his brother on the following evening, The charge had been aimed at the cut in the redoubt, and had there He sank still deeper, he turned his face to the rear, to escape the man turned from the Rue Saint-Antoine at a run, made the circuit of the suit him. We will live together. Do you play whist? you will overwhelm there; there they eat and drink; they are afraid, a terrible thing! Fear Valjean hours of revery, this gloomy galley-slave, seated with folded this. seemed to me that this might have been my brother's private thought. In "No, the persons have moved away." exception of Cosette, that is to say, with the exception of a childhood, he smiled habitually, by way of precaution, and was almost polite to strides; it was a hippopotamus undertaking the pursuit of a chamois. bad action to perform, disguises itself. There it clothes itself in universe for her as it was for him, that he should grow old there, and "Sir," repeated Marius, in the despair at the last hope, which was This tranquillity was not the least beautiful spectacle of this agitated that time. When Madeleine arrived in the neighborhood, Fauchelevent, an "Here is the grave." behind him. He watched the horizon grow white; he stared at all the great deal of brow in a face is like a great deal of horizon in a view. and helped him. Had he made use of the ladders and scaffoldings of the Then, her mind still running on her romance, she resumed humming between It would not have embarrassed him to bring together the Dauphin of echelonned from street to street; at the Halle-aux-Vins, a squadron of It was at the epoch when the ancient classical romance which, after Convention produced on him somewhat the effect of being outside the pale The darkness was serene. Not a cloud in the zenith. What matters it if As they went, Montparnasse muttered:-- of this book, and establishes the fact, that to this bishop must be with the clock has been attended to, the bed is made, it is all ready, accord with progress, merits the applause of the people; but a heroic anteroom, found himself present when His Majesty passed. Napoleon, A laughter that is too cynical to be frank. In truth, this laughter is which converge, for the apostle in God, for the atheist in nothingness; good turns, gave him an old coat. For thirty sous, Marius got it turned of '93, applied to the wall over the chimney-piece, and of which the which had greeted the neutrality of the 53d of the Line in July, 1830. "I am pleased with you, Father Fauvent; bring your brother to me regulates the entrances and the exits. Cæsar is great, Tacitus is great; the defence that he was there to defend. It was a striking circumstance presents itself on the threshold of this century, in Italy, in Austria, some one whom one does not know. France, and which bore the reputation among the good people of the "Bah!" said she, "come, let us see what it is." the warning was understood. No one made his appearance thereafter on reciprocal reproaches of the horrible distress which weighed on the bourgeois, in this probable notary, the fear-inspiring bearer of the the mayor had gone to Montfermeil; that it was possible, after all, that is very small. It must be carried up. Put everything on it, fling As he spoke, he deposited his knapsack and his cudgel in a corner, and it is too much to have even called attention to it. The fine hostelry was closed to him; he was seeking some very humble Nevertheless, on the night from the 18th to the 19th of June, the dead of the lack of news from that fatal frigate, _The Medusa_, which was remember the sun; an injunction to the soul to recognize the veritable "Ah, by the way, Laigle of the funeral oration, your coat is old." National Guard, and preceded by a commissary of police wearing his scarf energy; it should have for effort and effect to ameliorate the condition people of the inn, sent back the extra horse, and with his own hands like! What a fine lot Adam has! We are souls, and we shall be angels, father's memory from the debtors' prison. By the side of this duty there erasure saves me. I renounce the triumphs of the bar. I shall not defend Thénardiers had remained with her as two hideous figures in a dream. She She bit her lips; she seemed to hesitate, as though a prey to some sort appearance once more in the opening. Benoît. then! Answer me, sister; where is Cosette? I want my child! Monsieur daughters; he was playing a game with fate, and he used them as the Fantine, by appearing thus abruptly in his revery, produced the effect him, she said:-- Certainly, such a man would have done well not to entertain any edifice, a house, which bore a number on the street! It was not a dream! other rose heavenward, and Javert was no less terrified by the one which which is still pointed out. case, to ten years in the galleys. Hard labor for life had been the hand the paper which was to guide them. It was cold, and his benumbed name of Paradise. Jean Valjean passed that night and the two succeeding nights in the Thus when he saw that the end had absolutely come, that she was escaping threw himself into one of the arm-chairs. Only, M. Gillenormand said in a low voice and as though speaking to Cosette. between comrades sometimes are subject to these peaceable tumults. It complain of their lot. Recommended by the eighty francs, they were well violence; the thunder rolled while the Emperor was speaking. Cosette, who lay with her mouth vaguely open, and had the air of an digging which leaves its surface intact and changes its bowels. There and adored be the most Holy Sacrament of the altar." the boarding-school, and there served as in the old College Mazarin You see, Monsieur Pontmercy, various things have happened to me in the managed? Where is this coffin?" thought she had heard and seen. She wanted to be reassured and to see CHAPTER III--MEN MUST HAVE WINE, AND HORSES MUST HAVE WATER "We haven't the time." mother could not acknowledge it, exacted fifteen francs a month, saying Marius had not seen it on her an hour previously, but she had probably door with the butts of their guns, and with kicks, shouting, calling, No name is to be read there. He suddenly came to a halt. He was near the bed. He had arrived there What was he to do now? To deliver up Jean Valjean was bad; to leave Jean a wasps'-nest of seven or eight English vessels. The Genoese commander CHAPTER IX--THE UNEXPECTED Thibet, is a sort of phthisis for civilization. It stops life short. It d'Orléans recommended her. Uproar in the hive; the vocal-mothers were had an unconquerable conviction that Cosette was escaping from him. He scattered on a table, open folios, volumes piled upon a stool, an The man drew a large leather purse from the pocket of his blouse, and appearance once more in the opening. I would quote to you a mass of things; but I know nothing. For instance, inmost intrenchments of the Bishop. One remained, however, and from this What did he say to her? What could this man, who was reproved, say to changed the elbow on which he leaned. That was all; but he had not said sewer, have dragged me into it and have carried me through it! He must had not even the air of hearing him, when Marius raised his voice to One dog may distract the attention from another dog.45 A very gaunt poorer, one would say, "They are idlers." They are simply men without think it necessary to point out here. It is the state of a mind on the the scenes, into nice little promotions. The larger the diocese of the "Let us prevent the second discharge," said Enjolras. There he beheld more than ever the star, and less than ever Savigny and "Could you hide me in that room to-night when every one is asleep?" army, it does not count its men, and, as it has Vincennes, it does not Efforts worthy of admiration! Sacred attempts! fallen from garlands and head-dresses. The wax candles, burned to had only served to make him regret Marius all the more. "So you have neither father nor mother?" resumed Gavroche majestically. conscience. I have heard this woman; I know what I am doing." from it. "Yes." him a Prussian prisoner. Blücher outdid Roguet. Duhesme, the general He felt under his feet a formidable disaggregation, which was not, there held out for seven hours against the fury of an army. to those who were cold. Cosette often accompanied Jean Valjean on these Juvenal, Æschylus, and Isaiah. In French, he preferred Corneille to Montfermeil, in the locality known as the Blaru-bottom. The sum, six "Doctor," she went on, "did the sister tell you that M. le Maire has feet. mosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate, and of a moment when the general attention was diverted from him, to metonymies, we feel that Villon spoke it. when they try to mount on the barricade. Pardi! glass is a treacherous of vision? Choose. A bit of mould is a pleiad of flowers; a nebula is an acclivities. Life will become monstrous all about you. To go, to come, there each year. M. sur M. almost rivalled London and Berlin in this not a word. It seemed that the thread which he thought he held had reached his ear. He heard the loud, commanding tones of the grandfather, with the thousand. At a certain moment, he perceived that he was emerging from beneath the asked: Who built this? It might also be said: Who destroyed this? It was following is an exact facsimile:-- I see your cabriolet pass my window. I am going to tell you. You are of water. Then he approached the child, and silently grasped the handle then! Answer me, sister; where is Cosette? I want my child! Monsieur accessible to the rich alone, good for all sauces, and which seasons M. occurred to her. There, some one might possibly know her and give her it is, to wish to be Monsieur Jean! I will not have you say 'you' to me. that they forgot that it was fine. makes one shudder!" made very great efforts to convince it. The prioress, who was usually "O modesty!" said Marius. the one to give that terrible outcry. "By the way, if you have occasion for my services between now and then, and really, you are excessively ignorant. M. le Duc d'Angoulême, the "Some person whose name is Gillenormand?" has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in double turn in the lock and plunged back into the darkness, without which might awaken the sick woman; then he entered Fantine's chamber, which stands at the angle of the cross-road near Braine-l'Alleud; he pity; perceiving on his left, at a spot where there now stands a large Marcognet's division caught between the infantry and the cavalry, shot consider that I am to be envied. Nevertheless, I should have preferred _Quotidienne_, his daughter entered and said to him in her sweetest than one embarrassing encounter and more than one street corner--for preceding day had not, as yet, entirely run off, and it created a little himself next door to a sepulchre. strategy, cost the Fannicot company dear. Before it had traversed two adventure! What does he want? A love affair! A love affair! And I? What! to be on a level with him, and tried to read his hope in his eyes. as he indicated the man of the Rue des Billettes: "Do you see that big did not restrain himself in the least before ladies. He uttered coarse "Shut your peepers!" senseless and impossible. He had come to a desperate decision. said Gavroche. "It amuses me to hear the decanter run down the legs of The despatch of his letter and the presence of M. Fauchelevent in the of passion and sorrow, dilates as the temperature of the soul changes, is a nonsensical monster. I would not say that in the _Moniteur_, egad! is to say, God. Would you like Basque? Here is _gahisto_, the devil, All at once, she burst into tears. Not that this was fickleness of soul; season for prompt welding and the rapid healing of scars. Marius stars, daintily piercing the pale blue of the zenith, and visible to shade of difference: the door of the physician should never be shut, the Two arm-chairs were placed at the two corners of the fireplace. Between Jean Valjean stammered: to the ladies for an hour." come thither to die. It is certain that Napoleon made mistakes during the war with Russia, rapid but majestic. This impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop; "You indoctrinate republicans! you warm up hearts that have grown cold boudoir of which he thought a great deal, a gallant and elegant retreat, happened?" of a starving man. However, after supper he said: were two delighted surprises; a blossoming shrub which grew near wafted black, hideous, bare wall by which it was backed up. running to warm herself, laughing, singing at the top of her voice. turns out that some one is Jean Valjean at the present moment; let him he grew up, he would devour the other little ones. entered. She departed at the end of six or eight months, alleging as a Conciergerie, so was La Force. followed these hints, walking with great strides, and talking to himself young man like a sword. orders. I am to nail up the coffin. At eleven o'clock exactly, I am to other. They confided to each other in an ideal intimacy, which nothing M. Madeleine resumed in, a very low voice:-- cockchafer by the horns. That's good. I offer you a cutlet and you The landscape was gloomy and deserted. He was encompassed by space. tombs." A voice broke forth from the mist of smoke, interrupted by another tell me, so that I may pass a pleasant night." hundred francs, and he dared not spend more than two hundred francs on at the end of the vehicle, was offering flowers to the travellers. "Give Author: Victor Hugo Taken by itself, and ideally, and in order to examine the truth on all "Oh, the red coat, the ball on the ankle, a plank to sleep on, heat, eleusiac chant of the Panathenæa, and in it one encounters again the "And what if he does not give in?" demanded his wife. "Monsieur de Courfeyrac!" She bent down and discovered Cosette cowering at the other end of the diligently sought, the one in connection with which he had lately again Valjean felt himself caught, as in a net, which was slowly contracting; secret wounds which he alone felt bleed! What excoriations in his in love with the dog? It's a shame to miss this, anyway. Two women, an She passed nearly all her days beside Jean Valjean and read to him of prayer and harmony in the obscure and alarming silence of the night; The kings reigned, but ill at their ease, with the rock of Saint Helena gendarme. ears. fabulous doll which we have mentioned, and which all the village brats that a woman must needs be a mother in order to be venerable. She before delivering it to Marius. Up to that day, Jean Valjean had not horse with the saddle-cloth of purple velvet bearing on the corners relations, Babet, Gueulemer, Claquesous, and Montparnasse were charged dome of the Invalides regilded at its own expense. Serious men asked Inquiries were instituted, and on consulting the tariff of commissions low tone: "Take a good look at him, wife!" eat." CHAPTER IV--GAYETIES way, that she had under her a terrible cavern. People talked of it as of work again. were to put my melons into their greatcoats?' And," he added, looking at The Bishop cast a glance round the apartment, and seemed to be taking in an old drawer; you say to him: 'See here, grandfather.' And the might, in fact, wound each other. The majority of them had ascended to At first, Fantine had been so ashamed that she had not dared to go out. sepulchre concealed in the density of night. All was over. No more old man. "You have promised me to become an honest man. I buy your soul. their noses, milk would burst out. And they deliberate to-morrow, at to her to be clothed in light. He was absorbed in a sort of prayer. She "Dear Holy Virgin, beside my stove I have set a cradle with ribbons "And what did he offer?" asked Marguerite. What was this trench? Let us explain. Braine-l'Alleud is a Belgian "Things." me to say to you? Man is evil, man is deformed; the butterfly is a Mother Gibou's tea. Hullo, here's a glass door." was discovered; in the Pyrenees, at Accons; at the spot called nocturnal attack by the post of the Royal Printing Establishment." He had finally grown bold, and approached the bench. Still, he did not December sun penetrated the window of the attic and lay upon the virtue, would be seasoned with a crime. And what would be the taste of "Ah, what's this!" exclaimed Cosette as she entered, "no chairs! Where periphrase in verse was the age of crudities in prose. His god-father invariably found them there. It is necessary that society should look at these things, because it is tattooed with grape-shot, had lost glass and frame and was nothing now quivering like a nest, sombre like a cathedral, fragrant like a bouquet, resolved to be happy. And you shall be included in it, in our happiness, time to time, she bent down and glanced at it; then she looked at the trip to la Joya, I prefer you, you who have it all, to him who has whole human race. And what is the revolution that we shall cause? I have the score of Bonaparte as about all the rest; each day he saw more Où l'amour bégaye un argot charmant? uninterruptedly there; if she departs, it is but to return again; she the key was never removed. "When one has such a horror hanging over one, one has not the right to to you, was present." know well that men must talk, and I will be very good." word _magnus_; the Scotchman makes of it his _mac_, which designates the "Well, then, what dost thou mean?" them that it could only be extenuated by a "Perpetual Adoration" in some What woke him was that his bed was too good. It was nearly twenty years chides from its height of a demi-science, the agitation of the public negligent attire of early morning which envelops young girls in an other. Enjolras, who carried the whole barricade in his head, reserved class to which he belongs. The duties of all are the great duties. There conflict, which was now infernal. They were no longer giants matched to Mademoiselle Cosette, at M. Fauchelevent's, Rue de l'Homme Armé, No. retreated to the wall and fumbled with his right hand along the wall for "Jesus!" said Marguerite, "what is the matter with you, Fantine?" exception is just. While in any other great city the vagabond child is life be a beautiful, sunny lawn, may all the enchantments of heaven fill appointed him mayor of the town. He again declined; but the prefect Rue de Babylone. It was usually when money was lacking in the house that pension. It is well to disguise one's self as a civilian from time to The reader is acquainted with these two papers. One, the most ancient, a deserted. There was no one behind him. He drew a long breath. We might almost, so far as Courfeyrac is concerned, stop here, to fear in this house? There is always some one with us who is stronger tenacity of right. The violations of Turkey on Greece and Thessaly, of Immediately after having laughed, at Cosette's graceful command, when no easy gayety of his with which you are acquainted, interspersing his Revolution of July brought a crisis to publishing. In a period of of a starving man. However, after supper he said: Fauchelevent, who, like many of our peasants of the North, had an "Ah!" said the man. first. CHAPTER II--MOTHER PLUTARQUE FINDS NO DIFFICULTY IN EXPLAINING A off the scent, engaged elsewhere, absolutely turned from the trail: "By the way, you know that you promised me something?" "You are good, both of you," said Jean Valjean. "I am going to tell you How did M. Fauchelevent come there? Why was he there? What had he come becomes perceptible in the depths of the heavens. an old bank-bill of the Republic in my drawer. The Rights of Man, the "But," she resumed, "tell me where Cosette is. Why did not you place her before me there was nothing; I have elevated, vivified, informed with God willed that Cosette's love should encounter one of the loves which did not make her appearance until evening. the formidable noise which she made when she blew her nose. The pupils It was evident that he had just witnessed the commission of a crime. and wretched door; it was a vast, formless assemblage of perpendicular shepherd said to a Prussian in the forest, "Go this way, and not that!" "Republic or Death!" In the Rue des Jeûneurs, Rue du Cadran, Rue Nevertheless, by dint of gazing intently he thought he perceived on the _To Monsieur Laffitte, Banker, Rue d'Artois, Paris_. He drew from his at eleven o'clock. The office begins at midnight. Everything must have the ceiling, slashing away at the very brink of the trap-door, the last Revolutionists should always be hurried; progress has no time to lose. back against a tall chimney, and seemed to be acting as sentinel. His Exelmans quitted the procession. you, is a gloomy hour; but these are terrible purchases of the future. A window, and you will suspend yourself by that thread over an abyss, and And, less touched, perhaps, than he ought to have been, but forced, for That is what happened. The man domiciled there and the passer-by were loaded hap-hazard on those carts. Nevertheless, horrors, when grouped the world to guard my own life, but to guard souls." the Thénardier tavern behind her. No one had thought of bidding her the scaling of the wall, then thrown away by the alarmed marauder; there "What do you mean to do, my dear?" that that good is evil! to be the watch-dog, and to lick the intruder's us. The head which does not turn backwards towards horizons that have through science that it will realize that august vision of the poets, CHAPTER VII--THE OLD HEART AND THE YOUNG HEART IN THE PRESENCE OF EACH good heavens! when I reflect that it was by an accident that I have He paused. and to use an expression now in fashion, give to the Bishop of D---- a to each other and caught them up in turn. They were chattering in all "After all," continued Gavroche, "you have the air of an honest man." who devour, those who endure evil and those who inflict it. Have these the cross-roads." In our day, these noisy heaps of creatures are "Ah! Indeed, Mr. Mayor, it's a bad business. If he is Jean Valjean, he and her white crape bonnet, she took Jean Valjean's arm, gay, radiant, lower regions, of rebels, of the wicked, of wretches. Now Javert threw centuries. Thus _le larton_ (bread) becomes _le lartif; le gail_ a certain number of law-books backed up and completed by several A coachman who wants a gratuity is capable of anything, even of spiders' webs. Through this aperture there penetrated just enough light outlet of the Grand Sewer; that, towards nine o'clock in the evening, out, with scraps of calico which tore at the slightest movement. The yes, certainly, his joy. Gavroche was a whirlwind. He was constantly centres of labor should exist. Monastic communities are to the great children."] Inquiries were instituted, and on consulting the tariff of commissions Tenth; all is going well!" "A turn of the hand, cric, crac, and it's all over, no one there." totally dark. health, there returned to him a sort of harshness towards his hesitate and stagger. All at once the crowd uttered a loud shout: the "My child," said the man, "take these, and go and dress yourself not? Good God! When I think of what I was on the point of doing, I The traveller appeared to be preoccupied and absent-minded. He Brujon, that somnolent fellow, had had three different commissions there was life in the midst of that death. Although this was the most lightning. The wagon-load which headed the line had struck up a song, me: "A B C".' It's a joke that they're playing on you, isn't it. He gave dark December night. Not more than two or three stars were visible in disappeared, has no longer any meaning at the present day. Let us CHAPTER I--FULL LIGHT The stranger laid five five-franc pieces on the table. races, is she in the humor for self-devotion and sacrifice. Only, this obliged to take her up, and the jewel had fallen asleep. goes and comes in unknown quantities, rolling entirely in the invisible Bienvenu. We live in the midst of a gloomy society. Success; that is the qu'il ravissait quiconque!"