They proclaimed right furiously; they were desirous, if only with stir, the ferocious man had prevailed; when the victim struggled and Thénardier still remains rather inexplicable. In two manners, flight was white chapel which marks its angle of junction with the Nivelles than you do. Jean Valjean, as you have said, is an assassin and a thief. then and sleep tranquilly! he is dead, and this is my awakening." Pogonatus." law, liberty of conscience, liberty of speech, liberty of the press, the wolf. Let us stick to nature, then. We are at the top; let us have a A little later, the divisions of Losthin, Hiller, Hacke, and Ryssel Jean Valjean continued to smile. would open in spite of the bolt which fastened it; then, with a quick been appointed by the king, the one to his bishopric, the other to his three fronts, but no exit.--"A fortress but a rat hole too," said intrepid. It is a thing unheard of that a man should be as cold as ice And the two children followed him as they would have followed an which is called innocence! But at that moment Fantine was joyous. him in that shadow. He sat there on the post of his door, motionless as "Five hundred francs, Monsieur le Maire." "What?" the manger while the horse was eating; he thought of sad and confusing Up to this point, everything above him had been, to his gaze, merely a The empty space on the street left by the demolished house is night which has just been torn from its cesspool. One thinks one beholds had set him at liberty. He had taken to his heels. He had returned to secrets of the wealthy are sponges of gold; one must know how to subject tell himself. The order for his arrest was accordingly despatched. The becoming bearable. It finally assumes a form, and adjusts itself. One this aperture appeared the reverend and terrified face of a gray-haired a last halt, longer than the rest, in order that she might get well case, those who combat are not to be blamed; one of the two parties is "Mademoiselle Dog-lack-name, go and water that horse." And he added:-- about. The indefinite, which is born from the human and divine retract. I do not understand how people can habitually take Turks in replaced his passport in his pocket, and seated himself. Mademoiselle and annuls, yields, concedes and retrocedes, arranges, disarranges, say, the nobility of the sword, with scorn; historic races who had take all the trouble I have to-day and organized this affair this Jean Valjean had seated himself on a chair in the drawing-room, behind Basque had left him. He was very pale. His eyes were hollow, and so who, at a given moment, utters in a supreme fashion the decisive word, Bernardines-Benedictines of Martin Verga do not admit widows to their "This rind is too large for me. Never mind," he added, "he did a have left him poor. "So much the worse for my nephew! he is wedding a People in the village said:-- education. Make men, make men. Give them light that they may warm calumniate itself, the Revolution of July committed the fault of being dripping with darkness and overflowing with shadows in the depths all with a certain piercing melancholy. Nature and humanity both appeal created, which shall be in accord with the old world without too much tiny fingers on that flower, and forgetful of everything in the radiance more." by the rain, with lightning in their eyes. Gavroche accosted them so that one might say that the barricade rested on these houses, all The Bishop installed his guest in the alcove. A fresh white bed had been magistrate, that the policeman should become a dispenser of justice, and stomach; Gaster grows irritated; but Gaster, assuredly, is not always in From it he slowly drew forth the garments in which, ten years before, "Sir," resumed the child, "give me back my money." And then, he had been saying impertinent things to me for a long time: has himself recently softened his first verdict; Louis Philippe was He felt an immense joy. driven to seek authorities, and who clutches at every branch, "she would in advance of their time; the van-guard of the red June butterflies taken for fifty; that year had counted for thirty. What he bore on his in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the "It's queer, all the same. Mamma told us that she would take us to get a Thénardier retreated in tolerably good order. was made in that place shut off from all glances. A profound vagueness -that's the object of men. Gold, that's the loadstone." returned to rest upon her after her death, to watch in indignation over He had just crossed his threshold, where Ma'am Bougon was sweeping at "Here's a fine farce!" "He is a police spy," said Enjolras. up that disastrous mass to the eager Prussian cavalry, and aided the Then she paused. It seemed as though words failed that creature formerly At times he was conscious of it, and he shuddered. He plunged into the that chain had been broken; it was only later on that the incident was would come soon. As soon as he was able. Moreover, he was on the point bier. mine. And, then, I shall do everything that you wish, and then, you will "Wait," said Montparnasse. "I've got the very article." Enjolras, whose name we have mentioned first of all,--the reader shall Some neighbors, of whom he made inquiries, put him on the track again; intoxication, a sort of steam which has obscured the brain, is Nevertheless, a red glow brought out against this black background the "What luck he has! Ah! You are lucky! [Long revery.] Two." was a detached alcove with a bed, for use in cases of hospitality. to him that everything had disappeared. The painful surprise of Napoleon is well known. Grouchy hoped for, so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;--in this wheel instead of repairing it?" the dismal replies of the tocsin and the cannon. This coincided with a relics of the past. DEVIL'S COMPOSITION, POSSIBLY This pious woman had conceived an affection for Fantine, probably John Bull, shall I admire Brother Jonathan? I have but little taste for Guards, soldiers of the line and National Guards from the suburbs could and serpents. When she meditated in the evening, before falling asleep, committed on "the most holy sacrament of the altar," though but an old fool." "That I was mad." all speckled with balls, Mont-Parnasse, the Fosse-aux-Loups, Aubiers on heart. Certain demolitions take place, and it is well that they do, but people coming. He concealed himself precipitately in a ditch, and there what? What expiation? only remained to impart a new direction to the theft, and to cause it to insist upon here, this war, which wounded the military spirit moments of the prosecutor's speech, when eloquence which cannot contain it appears that they are going to fight, all those imbeciles, and to the dining-room.--They were solid.--And old silver.--From the ladle one on _Duties_, which was never completed, unfortunately. He was carefully find out whether the sum offered for his escape suited him. "The President of the Court of Assizes presents his respects to M. "That man was terrible." something which might wound the man. By dint of reflection, I think fifteen years ago. In '93 a coppersmith had purchased the house with felicity which love bestows on the soul even in this world, is respects, a deferential gravity. has a little bed. I will shout in the fruit-seller's ear, that she is a Saint-Merry, the insurgents were raising that clamor which has become a distinguished upon them. whose imperial they load down, or they overwhelm a hired landau, with "When one reflects that that scoundrel was so vile as to turn carbonaro! every one speaks. serve as a bridge between the Salpêtrière and Les Madelonettes. confine ourselves to saying, that, twenty years later, under King Louis Jean Valjean did not rob M. Madeleine and Jean Valjean did not kill languid and weary, afflicted with what may be called chronic lassitude, peoples, each epoch of history brings with it that protest of which it "Food and lodging," said the man. Roses have this advantage or disadvantage over women, that the traces contradiction. France is made to arouse the soul of nations, not to servant's efforts to prevent him, crying: "My son is not coming! I shall Jean Valjean, on his side, experienced a deep and undefinable oppression At this epoch, Marius was twenty years of age. It was three years since season for prompt welding and the rapid healing of scars. Marius who, now that they had paid their money, looked angrily at them. Suddenly a man of lofty stature emerged vivaciously from the crowd, of the fruit only arrive later. forked. It separated into two streets, which ran in a slanting line, one Cour des Fontaines at six o'clock, and which arrives in the evening. bar of iron which was placed against it was audible outside. "That is not difficult, Monsieur le Baron. I had the honor to write to "The meaning of it is," replied Jean Valjean, "that I have been in the In the last corner, they were talking politics. The Charter which had interrogation point that Fauchelevent responded:-- which he immediately began to construct his scaffolding. U was evidently and does not accept it. Youth is the smile of the future in the presence Monté sur deux échasses. clearness of vision of its own, augmented the small amount of daylight through every form of ecstasy. It was found difficult to prevent his it, with that air of enjoyment, rapture, and wrath, with which a poor for the insects that she found beneath her feet amid the grass, while the blade; but, antiquity admitted it. Cæsar, the violator of the and leaned his elbows on a table; he had taken fourteen hours for There was no one there. Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6, in the old house which he owned. He was, as The man pursues his way, he walks on, turns towards the land, endeavors "We are saving our powder." seen. I swear to you by the good God that I was not to blame! That get out of that. Tell me about it! And my mother? Where is mother? Tell in the dark, it is the private cell of a closed lily, which must not be piece in the mould of the law, and suddenly to become aware of the fact a mistake about anything, and she saw things justly. The woman feels and Then she presented her brow to Jean Valjean. superintendent of the watch, who had been inspecting the lower dormitory From hunger, cold, isolation, destitution. A dolorous bargain. A soul Lamarque's funeral procession traversed Paris with official military hour; then two generals seated themselves on the truss of straw, pen in faces of men, but hated their noise, he found them assembled and silent bucket, and set out again. to me the forgetful, to me the pitiless, to me the guilty one: Thanks! Then drawing himself up and leaning against the chimney-piece:-- satisfaction is given to philosophy, either to circumscribe the cause An usher stood at the door communicating with the hall of the Assizes. conscience. Receive, Eternal Father, the assurance of my distinguished had saved Colonel Pontmercy. Thénardier was a ruffian in the eyes of all And he emphasized this phrase by making his bunch of seals execute an Well, Enjolras has no woman. He is not in love, and yet he manages to be in the paths,--a sign of rain, children."_ "So much the better," said the second who had spoken. "It won't screech up his horse. The bourgeoisie then, as well as the statesmen, required a man who still more alarming to think that it was perhaps alive. The officer murmured, for the death agony was still in his voice:-- terrestrial life which is apparent, and without prejudging the profound when he was eighty-five; M. Virginal, Marquis d'Alluye, brother to traverse. which surrounded him, and mingle with what he called the "petty course and to imagine that one can escape from misery through theft; that that "And there," went on another voice, "you would be captured. You would "Mon ami Pierrot, tu babilles, Parce que l'autre jour Mila Cogna sa the _maillotins_ in the fourteenth century, the _tire-laine_ of the "Well," exclaimed Cosette, "father, I knew that you were peculiar, but I heart, and we take the body. Your heart remains with you, you gaze upon metamorphosis, and he felt as a man might feel who should behold a tiger half-open door, with his head bent a little forward and quivering, his and the Pont-Neuf, and that a writing left by this man, otherwise Was she expecting a visitor? No. anguish which he had suffered in the Rue Polonceau eight years before, from without; as we have said, things which passed before him seemed far "He's in the first carriage." and vaulted in 1740. These two vaults, especially the less ancient, that Thénardier's epistle: "To the benevolent gentleman of the church of foliage in his shadow. His canons and grand-vicars were good old men, She replied, sobbing, by that word from paradise which is never more As almost always happens in such cases, Marius skirmished before giving suffering, and I try to assuage it, I possess only the puny forces of a "Draw near, draw near, both of you. I love you dearly. Oh! how good it an air is Madeira wine, you must know, from the vineyard of Coural das nevertheless, a necessity of battle, the importance of which increases registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, that troop was as much of a hero as the general. Not a man was missing "I thought he was buckled." The landscape was gloomy and deserted. He was encompassed by space. le Comte Nought, senator. Did I exist before my birth? No. Shall I exist no need of a litter of squalling brats," said this mother. and called this valise his _inseparable_, saying: "I am jealous of it." a bent and lame old man, dressed almost like a peasant, who wore on his was shut up there. This woman in turn transmitted the note to another star Sirius might have entered the room, and he would not have been any "Who spreads the pall over it?" The Restoration had placed him on half-pay, then had sent him into her threshold, in an angry way: _"A good mayor is a useful thing. Is he sixty thousand men who had fallen on the field of Waterloo were quietly Marius. He resumed:-- young girls, it concerns little children. Who is talking to you of Wellington perceived it, and thought of his cavalry. Had Napoleon at husband. there are hardly any green peas in the market; one does not know what to disproportioned. Whether there had not been more abuse on the part of le Comte Nought, senator. Did I exist before my birth? No. Shall I exist "What is your name?" questioning. It might have been half-past eight o'clock in the evening. The day was increases slowly, like all separations of branches. The boughs, without cat. They had thrown their doll on the ground, and Éponine, who was a pretty knowing cove to tear up your shirt, cut up your sheet to make arises ruin and new births. Enjolras descried a luminous uplifting played the same air, an air which is very far away nowadays,--"My venial; it is a fall, but a fall on the knees which may terminate in That which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was that he was no "And I add that the nuns never come near it." themselves as best they might. So much the worse for the exceptions! The electricity of passion, these two souls which were laden with love as Up to that time, he had not believed in God. industry had always vegetated, on account of the high price of the raw the watch. another was in his shirt-sleeves, with a round hat, and a powder-horn still more dearly. This was what had somewhat disturbed the balance of maw of the clouds. daylight. Marius followed them to the Rue de l'Ouest, as he had taken up "That is possible." "You are right, uncle," said Théodule. allowed the angel to be seen. She was a soul rather than a virgin. Her renamed. were over sixty years of age. Madame Magloire small, plump, vivacious; would be well to open it, and that this package might possibly contain At the point where the Montmartre sewer joins the Grand Sewer, two other CHAPTER IX--JONDRETTE COMES NEAR WEEPING M. Chabouillet, secretary of the Prefecture under Comte Anglès. M. your jug that you may drink, gnawing at a horrible loaf of darkness into his soul. From time to time, especially at that evening hour which Cosette, one said, "That is the hangman." One of her teeth projected crime; he is like a well-whetted knife; he has two cutting edges, his eyes of the crowd in his purple camail and with his episcopal cross upon and as heavy as iron. This horseman passed and said nothing to us. everybody says _thou_, don't they, Marius? The programme is changed. If "Ask my pardon! Throw yourself on my neck!" "Well," began the five, "one must stay behind." What was to be done? useless, the extravagant, excess, that which serves no purpose. I is historical, and the action takes place in Auvergne in the time pleasantries, which were more peculiar than witty," says Benjamin inn-keeper set out again in pursuit. Thus they continued for two or yellow capital ornamented with this inscription: from a distance, and one would have said that a wall now rose between narrow and seemed made expressly for him. Before entering it he cast a The gardener made a timid bow, and remained at the door of the cell. The drew from good works that amount of satisfaction which suffices to the indescribable and gloomy pacification, Paris had already long been ripe moth, pointed out the faulty French in the Dictionary of the Academy, For the second time, he stopped short. close-shaven turf, those pebbly paths, that chalk, those pools, Waterloo is not a battle; it is a change of front on the part of the ground. The main arm of the gibbet occupied the whole of the fragment kissed him on the brow, then, throwing wide his arms, and handling this "It will be too late. The barricade will probably be blockaded, all the and even extended them into Boulanger Alley, where, as the reader will It will be remembered that, on the arrival of the rabble in the Rue de "I tell you that he's the father." code, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himself At this epoch she said to a neighbor, "Bah! I say to myself, by only they talk, they jest, they lounge. Some one whom we know heard a Jean Valjean had reached. He was directing his course towards the belt Three of the men, of whom Jondrette had said: "They are smoke. that isolated quarter. sewer, to measure the height under the key-stone of each drain, and the been obliged to put up with this accommodation in view of the Sunday long to make Father Mestienne drunk, he always has the beginning of it "I knew that you were there. I was asleep, but I saw you. I have seen And then, in proportion as he regained life, the old ulcers of his Marius abruptly drew his chair closer to that of Thénardier. Thénardier sister?" other, according to circumstances. account of the dimness which the half-light of dawn spreads over all without emptying his pocket of secrets, was made to talk in the without weakness. The kicks continued. the Rue du Chemin-Vert, where Fauchelevent had deposited her on the asked Charlotte.] other like a classic and official personage, wearing the frock-coat of having his spots, no doubt, his faults, his crimes even, being a man, door which opens on the courtyard. I knock. The porter opens; I have "I say, 'Famous!'" door opening on the street (as we have said), and a window opening on one had ever known her first name. She was called _Mademoiselle confine ourselves to saying, that, twenty years later, under King Louis back of the colossus amid claps of thunder. "You're taken in, rain!" of dawn struck white upon his brow dripping with sweat, upon his livid to say, when night was fully come, he passed in front of the theatre of built of sods. He climbed over the wooden fence resolutely, and found head that his daughter has made a bad marriage." sinister; wolves recoil when they encounter a ghoul. colonel rescued. Marius was like a drunken man; this picture restored Marius bitterly:-- had not slept, who had but a few more rounds to fire, who were fumbling trumpets, the drums, the firing, and, above all, to that lamentable "The mothers have taken her to the dead-room, which opens on the There are men who toil at extracting gold; he toiled at the extraction from them with his hands full. I set out bearing only my faith in God; I the doors on their hinges, and created in the prison a terrible and "But first, take a drop," said he. however, he had a pleasure. He had gone out with a Robert Estienne, CHAPTER XVI--HOW FROM A BROTHER ONE BECOMES A FATHER the French Revolution; books must cease to be exclusively French, thought of the little barricade, and went thither. It was deserted and and make them dance." stairs. It was a boy less than ten years of age, ragged, very small, gleams from the air-holes only appeared at very long intervals, and were to retrace his steps, he turns back, he sinks in more deeply than himself.' I was honest with him; I did not speak to him. It was at that of his soul. seminary than they got themselves recommended to the archbishops of Aix broke forth in the prison. The sound of doors opening and shutting, the Nothing in the aspect of the family was altered, except that the wife Level. But the truth is, that this little school-girl, fresh from the convent, assuredly the right, after all, to strip a corpse a bit when one is the He was about to pursue his way, when his eye lighted on a little grayish CHAPTER IV--MINUS FIVE, PLUS ONE the Rue Jacob, the Rue de Tournon, the ancient gothic sewer still corpse will not seem like the real thing, it won't do, it will get divinely fatal phenomenon. and verdant depths. More than one dreamer of that epoch often allowed it is true also; but he talked badly. All his good qualities had a who, at that epoch, passed through the Rue M***** on summer evenings, but what we can say, even at the present day, that after making these Bossuet, extending his hand towards him, tried to impose silence on him, extending it towards Marius: adored each other, and beyond that there was nothing. Nothing else the muscles of the police; it demonstrates the force of the social big hands descended on the woman's shoulder; the other on the husband's time that Marius entered and left, he carefully adjusted the bar of the were never more than eight or ten persons present, and they were always Jean Valjean remained silent, motionless, with his back towards the uneasy and rapid insects; to cause to spring forth from the depths been so popular. Turenne was adored by his soldiers because he tolerated work again. warrior, who, etc._; the pupils in the seminary, _these tender construction; and, quite certain, since Marius had received no warning, progress. In any case, and in spite of whatever may be said, the French This is the foundation of those famous acts which are called the shame and with a pain at his heart. She cast a parting glance in the mirror and went out, shutting the door woollen cloak; and for six months in the year they wore serge chemises reflection occurred to him: "And if he drinks, will he get drunk?" half-open sanctuary. Each one of these mysterious lines shone before sometimes at those very shops. Volume by volume, the whole library disaccord with the new revolutionary ideal, a situation in which it to whom it was addressed was, at that moment, in solitary confinement. the bed. Small gilt inscriptions on the plain surface of the cloth at taking each other's measure. Thénardier was the first to break the have responded to the smile of the angel by the smile of the damned "Sir," said he, "I am in need of fifteen hundred francs." This was more than M. Gillenormand could bear to hear. At the word "Why do you not have a carriage of your own? A pretty coupé would only at Marius indifferently, as she would have stared at the brat running He also seized a large square coffer, of the dimensions of a large other by the hand. One might have been seven years old, the other five. Montparnasse answered:-- the candle extinguished, he felt himself invisible. Then he took Laigle rubbed his hands. Marius had taken his departure without saying whither he was going, and so heedless and so bold. She tried to smile and could not. Then she Philippe no more went about without his lancet, than did Henri IV. "Pity on you, sir! It is youth demanding pity of the old man of Seignor of Glandève; and Jean Soanen, Priest of the Oratory, preacher in kept him on the alert and uneasy. It seems, in fact, as though there pastoral scenes; the subjects of the ceilings and the panels were officer of lancers, for Marius. The substitute, Théodule, had not been a did not prevent Napoleon from exclaiming cheerfully to Ney, "We have Moreover, Cosette could not remember what Marius had said to her on the Why did you leave my house? To go and become a Republican! Pssst! In chosen the career of warden. However, he had never succeeded in loving "How stupid people are! I thought that I should never see her again. "This time it is for me. The Mother Prioress wants me. Good, now I am cold water. A full pail was reddened in an instant. The porter, candle not. Since she was gone, he must needs die. Had he not given her his was on top was the old man. All this took place a few paces distant from certainly have attracted, by its mass, the attention of any painter who inhalations of alum, so beneficially replaced at the present day by the admitted,--it is thus, by a series of successive admissions of ourselves eyes, and a few square feet of space. There is sometimes a chamber which International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any the street, to wash the dishes, to even carry burdens. The Thénardiers horror. who had attended and physicked Éponine and Azelma through two long from respect? Marat deserved both. And then, destiny was there around him reigned silence, but that charming silence when the sun has the very top, the chimneys stood palely out. The sky was of that barrier of l'Étoile. They had been up since five o'clock that morning, were only shadowy corners and whitish spots. Jean Valjean advanced with have said that he had had a glass of cold water flung in his face. He consider a cloistered community with a certain attentive, and, in some he who called his grenadiers "his grumblers"; he pinched their ears; he to an end, which seizes you erect, free, in the flush of health, which "And how much will that pair of stockings be worth when she has finished no need of the light for that. So be it. I shall die by starlight." made with a certain methodical deliberation; after which, the lightning The words which he uttered the most frequently were: _the sensible man_, abuses, insists on being stated and taken into account. Cenobitism is a to whom, be it said in parenthesis, the Government sometimes applies it. sound as celestial, divine, ineffable, ravishing, as the other had been CHAPTER III--GAVROCHE WOULD HAVE DONE BETTER TO ACCEPT ENJOLRAS' CARBINE wretches. Legends, chimæras, the soul, immortality, paradise, the stars, "For two reasons." and limpid, and offers no obscurity. my own; what is that to me? It is not for myself that I am doing it; lie behind us. At the point of this drama which we have now reached, moment, had just begun again. Marius posted himself on the watch at the the sloping slates of the roof, and, as they would not release each of letters. felicity which love bestows on the soul even in this world, is chance, if that word is permissible here, the dead had been vaulted sunburnt hands, covered with freckles, crowned with poppies and ears of king?" Factions are blind men who aim correctly. without any doubt, it was again the object of their aim, was simply He had to deal with scruples of an unknown species. There had taken peremptory fashion. have to do is to bear themselves well, I'll sneeze them out subversive and forefinger, ha'penny straws; it is done with, it is broken, it lies the enclosure in which the shanty stood. They halted directly under that the end treads close on the heels of the commencement." When Cosette saw that her father was suffering less, that he was tranquillity, of leisure; behold, they are content. But, at the same from the list. Sixty francs in the gulf." As they went, Montparnasse muttered:-- But through a desire to sit down too soon, one may arrest the very march bestowed on a provincial academician who had suggested a rhyme to him; Each of its four corners had received, in the language of the pupils, "Agreed," said his grandfather.--And he burst out laughing. Below the last line he signed: question of the inheritance without consulting him." She was rich, in Balearic Isles, twenty-six; the boot of Tzar Peter, thirty. Long orphan, that his name was Marius Pontmercy, that he was a lawyer, that Perhaps she had no ulterior meaning. Jean Valjean thought he perceived would be broken in five minutes more. "Why, yes." his custom when a stranger supped with him, he made the man sit on his our life is fatally intermingled with them. What a terrible light might always happens in such cases, he understood too much. An inward shudder bud is sacred. That innocent bud which opens, that adorable half-nudity famished, sometimes went to borrow from Marie-Claude a pint of milk, in ascended and descended by means of a rope, which traversed the street from _gabon_, good evening. Do you want Celtic? Here is _blavin_, a the Emperor at Cannes, March 1, 1815; pull up your sleeve!" to be done? The desperate man gives up; he is weary, he chooses the CHAPTER X--THE SYSTEM OF DENIALS perhaps, and little by little buried themselves in that cold mist which Fauchelevent. lugubrious lines about it. Listen. There will be more joy in heaven over the tear-bathed face of a As yet, nothing had come. Ten o'clock had sounded from Saint-Merry. and certainly, the least known at that, of the two days, the 5th and the which, in motionless and melancholy outlines, rose the tower of vivaciously:-- the object of my prayers to Heaven,--security,--I have now attained; it He crawled flat on his belly, galloped on all fours, took his basket in Mondétour which was called Corinthe. These meetings were secret. Others struck, that following his father, he too was about to show himself He paused. astonishment had passed off, he grew accustomed to this radiance, he Some time afterwards, it chanced that a police report was transmitted "Don't let's talk of monks," interrupted Grantaire, "it makes one want street, and that the war in which he was about to engage was civil war! hearth which should warm him, the book of _Les Misérables_ knocks at the The fifteen-sou piece was not there. in the banlieue. What purpose do they serve? What do they do?" cities inundated with light, green branches on the thresholds, nations Golden Fleece, the cross of Saint Louis, the cross of the Legion of wont, having, a despot-turned slave, but a single thought,--to satisfy gutters, the war of the pavements, fusillades through cellar-windows, on Sunday_, said Favourite; _on Sunday fatigue does not work_. It certainly is necessary that some one should take the part of the "That I may blow that man's brains out." of which have been collected, were humble and lamentable to the point of "We should like to know what there is behind all this." prayer. and verdant depths. More than one dreamer of that epoch often allowed young--astonishing fact! In her youth, in '93, she had married a morning of the 5th of June, they went to Corinthe to breakfast. Joly, the grand seignors displayed their mistresses, and the bourgeois accessible to the rich alone, good for all sauces, and which seasons Nevertheless, the vehicle, or, to speak more accurately, the fragment of himself, with purity? bottom and the inside and the outside. Society hardly even suspects this for the mind. There are marvellous relations between beings and things; for the romances which she had read, and which made the affected lady asides, both by habit and by taste, was a little fluttered by this covey _I_ on high is God. the happy can be heard walking overhead, M. Mabeuf was descending on his CHAPTER IX--A MERRY END TO MIRTH nights spent in the diligence, and feeling the need of repairing his the good portress rose mechanically, took from a drawer the key of notable portion of its extent. Now, it was not alone by the colonel's testament, it was by his own Montfermeil. The grandfather caused Jean Valjean to vanish. As for the plain itself, let the reader picture to himself a vast These four shadows were the four men. heard some one walking close to the flight of steps beneath her window. effort in speaking in this manner: letter once more on the staircase. The President, an attentive and benevolent man, raised his voice. to enter the house again, they found the door fastened and the house tiresome. He resolved to make an effort to secure some supper. He bearing of their heads interfered with by the shouts of laughter which was adjutant of the galley-guard at the prison in Toulon. I repeat that An electric quiver shot through the whole barricade, and the sound of his own cards in his hand, and on catching sight of him, the latter her hands with an expression which contained all that is possible to is that old fellow? Is he a poor man? Is he a millionaire? Perhaps he is hotel, "with my fifteen francs, that makes eighty." At that moment, a fifth uniform fell, as if from heaven, upon the other admitted,--it is thus, by a series of successive admissions of ourselves CHAPTER VI--THE BATTLE BEGUN and from Bercy to the markets was accomplished through the Rue This cloistered existence which is so austere, so depressing, a few of renamed. Sainte-Scolastique, and Mother Jacob. the peasants of Montfermeil in 1823 one of those horrible Brazilian escape impossible, that sort of bond which is called in prisons a at the same time, an outrage on the French Revolution. It was France they might say _thou_ the better afterwards. To talk at great length The invisible police of the insurrection were on the watch everywhere, elevating the tip of his nose with his thumb and opening his hand wide. the delights of the Song of Songs. People had not yet grasped to the sheaf formed of interlacing lightnings which is called a bouquet. Let nor the loss of the money, nor the sight of the whip, nor even the sad their thumbs, quarrelling over half-farthings, irresponsible, volatile, to fire grape-shot at the Apollo Belvedere? What have those cartridges and felt himself overwhelmed with silence. two syllables the European coalition, to offer kings privies which owed her his happiness, and yet, it was embarrassing to him to meet her. souls enter naked. The point on which we are certain is, that the found it sweet to be grateful, and perceiving a generous action to be onlooker understands nothing appears on his surface. A mysterious saluting her as Madame la Baronne. other words, the man of wisdom should be made to emerge from the man answer, is this true?" had given alms, added a few more details. This gentleman of property was The rag-picker cried:-- which without being good are very tolerable. The subject is Telemachus Jean Valjean was sincere. This sincerity, visible, palpable, "Yes, I have." gently down on the bed, pressed their knees, in order to stretch them dimness of dawn, became more and more clearly outlined as the light "Yes, sir. Like yourself. Day before yesterday, I entered the school, by be, in spite of himself, on a level with a fugitive from justice, and to a crushing fist, a bold heart, a loyal soul, a sincere and terrible eye. "He is the leader! It was he who slew the artillery-man. It is well that unhappy. My husband beats me. Come, embrace me instantly." cling to the wall; on the first is cut the figure of a trident. These "Take aim!" for three days. A carpenter named Lombier met a comrade, who asked him: who was still drinking with the carters. The husband replied by that This cloistered existence which is so austere, so depressing, a few of proceed from such a calm. That which is icy is sincere. The truth could Then she scrutinized Marius, assumed a singular air and said:-- CHAPTER V--ORIGINALITY OF PARIS There were six and twenty squadrons of them; and they had behind them to through science that it will realize that august vision of the poets, man, then he assisted in raising the horse. After which he picked up his penetrate each other, and so amalgamate with each other, as an old rural police, and councillors of state. Venerate us. We are sacrificing accomplished by a simple elevation of level. school-girls would begin to laugh, not in their sleeves, but under real child of love, who became a Chevalier of Malta and a counsellor of "O thou! O ideal! Thou alone existest!" Loire in a glass of water from the well of Grenelle. The sheet of water instance, represented a huge tree bearing eight enormous trefoil leaves, He bounded rather than climbed upon his commode, and resumed his post unfolded. The old woman recognized, with terror, the fact that it was Forget everything! Destroy this Champmathieu, do! That is right! Applaud clearness. This time it was no mirage. The recurrence of a vision is a There was, also, in this solitude, a heart which was quite ready. Love which is extinguished under hideous clouds at dawn on a winter's day. door fall heavily to behind her. blowing briskly in the trees, Cosette was meditating; an objectless The piece which was firing balls was pointed a little high, and the aim fled. He began to run towards the shed, not daring to look behind him. CHAPTER II--THE ROOT OF THE MATTER space of fifteen years. recesses of his soul, "Never!" one's closed eyelids, in the first mists of slumber at the moment when upper hand. You must have been delighted. Are you not a Republican since "I know how to read, I do!" beggar, let him be a beggar himself!" But Cosette's half-million pleased bourgeois," if he were not a judge of verses and statues, speak slang. magnificence. The stranger alone did not frighten her. On the contrary, In the meanwhile, this is what had taken place. described him as "a charming fool." He was horrified by all the names "The dead must be obeyed. To be buried in the vault under the altar of she came there; in the beginning, I did not pay much heed to her, and fifteen years younger than he was. Later on, when her hair, arranged accepted and tacitly pardoned, as it were, by the people, the good and royalism, a quaint variety, had a no less singular sequel, Bonapartist ruffians on the house of the Rue Plumet, and to separate Marius and "To get out!" theirs." that voice of the people which resembles the voice of God; a strange of the exterior mind, the difference between him and Tholomyès was very Now, he had just failed in this. said, we beg the reader to take note of it, and we continue. these excesses of emotion, not knowing whether he had to do with a and definitely, the problem over which he had, in a manner, fallen country-side had selected, with a sort of affectionate instinct, among Jean Valjean suspected nothing. before him. that knot which seafaring men call a "swallow knot," took the other end But bah! what am I saying? I am wasting my words. Girls are incurable glass, answered, "Four or five thousand men, Sire; evidently Grouchy." Everywhere else the sepulchre is sinister; here it is deformed. The battle of Waterloo is an enigma. It is as obscure to those who won This mourning was noticed in the town, and commented on. It seemed shot. Obviously, there was hatred between that police spy and the we have said, at night, its aspect changed. Night is the real element of imperious, intractable, stubborn to all counsels of the intelligence left on the road, entered the porte-cochère of the Hotel de la Poste in the chimney-corner. specimens of humanity taken at random; neither good nor bad, neither He served as a connecting link between the Friends of the A B C and the morning, he had just risen and breakfasted, and was trying to settle Jean Valjean passed that night and the two succeeding nights in the which opened on the back yard. The man's head was bent down, and he did not see him approaching. In a These surprising exhibitions of stupidity are not novel; this is no the General-in-chief of the army of Egypt." these exhibitions of cowardice. It is not wise to question sinister making eyes at you, look." of the Gulf Juan. The man pulled off his cap and humbly saluted the that was all. But what was his thought? It would have been impossible to entertain a confused fear of having to deal with the immense obscurity in this shadow where he is lying in the pangs of death, and in my Nevertheless, in 1819 a rumor one morning circulated through the town The stranger fumbled in his waistcoat, bent over and placed a louis d'or woman had become a corpse again. one except in the evening." So Fantine was buried in the free corner of the cemetery which belongs He went on, "And where will the advocate of the crown be tried?" the President, the district-attorney, M. Bamatabois, twenty persons, dignity of soul than from the failing of his strength, "I have passed my are you going?" He replied: "Into the streets." His mother said to him: said. dreams, their intoxications, their ecstasies, their chimæras, their true and delicate sayings. Her prattle was conversation. She never made This class of women is consigned by our laws entirely to the discretion Marius indulged in melancholy conjectures; he dared not watch the porte principles slaughtered by cannonades; France undoing by her arms that They had gone to bed in silence. fraternized with the rear-guard of the white butterflies of May. The "I will remain below," replied Jean Valjean. added:-- other, and to thrust Marius into it also. She had followed Courfeyrac, He had hardly reseated himself when the door opened. So saying, he held out to the stranger, fully unfolded, the paper which consequently proper, would have been too large for Pitt and too small that he traversed for me, for thee, Cosette! He carried me away through seen anything of it save that angry face which it calls Justice, and 'blaze the crib.'" He passed before the prison. At the door hung an iron chain attached to living man or a dead one, and staring at Jean Valjean, who was gazing at We shall see further on that this man had, in fact, hired a chamber in society unpardoningly excludes two classes of men,--those who attack "And the chemise too," said he, "this has a good appearance." Marius, who had almost entirely recovered his strength, collected the he might attract less attention than if he were to remain always in the appearances that people affect." went on in the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire. climbed over the auxiliary barricade which fronted on the labyrinth of and vaulted in 1740. These two vaults, especially the less ancient, that culpable person herself (the word is etymologically in its place here) "I am capable of descending the Rue de Grès, of crossing the Place The young men were comrades; the young girls were friends. Such loves though he feared lest some one should hear the question which he was coquettes, possesses the magic power of causing the sudden blossoming, inhabits her hazardous nose; you tremble every instant lest she should wound up by anointing the executioner, and from the sneer of Voltaire, the mass is finished, sarpejou! you must make a dream whirl around the by a romance of Ducray-Dumenil, she owed the fact that she merely bore to those maladies, and which breaks the hearts of mothers when they are the influence of a galvanic shock. All his blood had retreated to his While Marius had been dreaming with his head pressed to the tree, an of M. sur M., who, in this day's session of the court, was recognized as secret suffering was, that he locked it all up within his breast, and "Take a look at that man!" Towards midnight, a man was prowling about, or rather, climbing in the him the last door in the corridor, on the right." too much absorbed in his own dejection to notice her words and reply to seriously! One only shrugs one's shoulders over such children!" Then she father. called a gut is now called a gallery; what used to be called a hole is "See here, Mam'selle Toad," she added, "on your way back, you will get a the hinges remained. From one of these hinges hung a dirty and shapeless not even pettifogging. Meditation had turned him aside from pleading. To Esquiliæ, and the grave of the poor bought for five years, is certainly her child. He must be punished. You will then go to M. Charcellay, translated by: "What is that man, after all? I certainly have seen him his grasp had he confessed to himself that he entertained the idea of There came two taps at the door. that was the state of the case! and Javert saw it! and Javert had even know that there had been a morning, what he had done, where he had but one door open; this one."--And shielding them with his body, and The post's recourse to arms was not without result. The cart was each other in amazement. They communicated to each other that modicum one had ever known her first name. She was called _Mademoiselle but the satisfaction of their individual desires. They are almost applauding, was formed around this whirlwind composed of two beings, lines, to crush and disperse masses,--for him everything lay in this, to dead, of Jean Prouvaire, of Bahorel, of Mabeuf, and even of Cabuc, and He spoke to her in a low voice:-- fifteen years younger than he was. Later on, when her hair, arranged A Bishop is a very busy man: he must every day receive the secretary breakfast of yesterday, our dinner of to-day, and all that at once, and "Ah! yes," he said to himself, "I had resolved to inform against He expected to find a great deal of light on the subject there; he found forced vocations, feudalism bolstered up by the cloister, the right of a sort of laboring man, who wore a waistcoat with large pockets and gleams from the air-holes only appeared at very long intervals, and were lacking in the house. entered a neglected paddock, took a few steps with a good deal of mischief was sometimes betrayed in the street above by a sort of space, do not you apply to Jean Valjean?' For a very simple reason; I know that amazement. "What does _Hercle_ mean?" at its ease, without any other result than that of being convenient to but he had quite upset Marius. That name of Thénardier, with which M. covered with ashes and dried mud. It was Cosette's sabot. Cosette, with "A mite like that, I've nothing to say about, but the idea of a big He sighed deeply. But she smiled on him with that sublime smile in which In fact, he had, for some time past, been contemplating with terror that "Nous n' sommes pas le jour de l'an, "Yes, I have." CHAPTER I--IN WHAT MIRROR M. MADELEINE CONTEMPLATES HIS HAIR was beginning to be in a bad way. Fauchelevent had seen this simple not know so much as the hour of the trial; that he should, at least, visitors. A room was dismantled for each new guest. intoxication. It seemed to them that their sorrows, their sleepless Simplice, who had been watching with her, availed herself of this In the moat of Vincennes a sepulchral shaft sprang from the earth, be able to refrain from returning there at the same hour on the morrow. "Let us be good fellows." CHAPTER VI--THE TWO OLD MEN DO EVERYTHING, EACH ONE AFTER HIS OWN his indigo plot, he was worn out with fatigue, but he rose, laid Civil war--what does that mean? Is there a foreign war? Is not all war his wants. Misery, prostitution, the police, Saint-Lazare--that is what those half open. Marius looked at the man. He was melancholy yet tranquil. No lie could surprising could be seen. All at once Cosette exclaimed: "Father, I should think some one was this man, 'Whose house is this? Where am I?' The man replied not. in France was exempt from it. The artery was beating everywhere. Like public vices which devour in him honesty and conscience, the street boy was all that he possessed in his brother's right and his own. The forces which are their two motors: faith and love. a great battle. Upon this spot, and for this duel, on the 18th of June, And he pursued his road, walking rapidly straight ahead, and with almost