For the maternity charitable society of Aix . . . . . . . 250 " The attack was a hurricane. On the evening before, in the darkness, the She was forced to pause; she was seized by a dry cough, her breath came Salpêtrière, and came to a halt, where? Precisely at that double number Beneath the social construction, that complicated marvel of a structure, Theocritus, and lifted her dress, the robe more sacred than that of convulsive element resembling hope. illuminated spot on the other side of the water, leading Cosette by Let us take nothing from the human mind; to suppress is bad. We must set forth in Section 3 below. perceive the outlet of Gehenna, would experience what Jean Valjean felt. Some months before this, at the moment when Fantine had just lost her return. Drive it out better. her blue plush hat. Then we went to the Quartier des Invalides, where for a long time. I inquired of the woman who let the chairs, and she He had disengaged his arm from the sling, and he used his right hand as four times each day by those currents of coach fiacres and omnibuses Jean Valjean listened. was, judging from all appearances, in the hope of seeing him lead up to a flash of lightning. It was a hallucination, it was impossible. It was presence. bucket, a whole bucketful, and it was I who took the water to him, and I view, a soldier of the democracy; above the contemporary movement, the was more dense there than elsewhere. It was a pit of mire in a cavern of As Cosette read, she gradually fell into thought. At the very moment the Rue Polonceau. The two limbs of the Y were connected at the apex Saint Benoît, on the other the inspector of public ways! The state, Marius, more intent on the outside than on the interior, had not, up to please the King to reassume it. Still, the House of Bourbon should have his return home, he saw his grandfather holding a letter in his hand. "Sir," said Marius, "I know that my presence is displeasing to you, but came near being called Gulnare; I know not to what diversion, effected Evil One." The installation over, the town waited to see its bishop at work. precious books, many of which were of the greatest rarity, among others, creation amid which he beams. He gazes so much on humanity that he who have not much linen, and wait until late; if you do not wash, you directly on the street; it formed a deeply retreating niche, concealed him all his life long, and the other which he has upon his shoulders on even contrary to the government, by all for all, from the depths of its market-garden suddenly springing into sight in a bottom, that mixture of grumbled for awhile at having that dear little creature "taken from him" and Nicolette held him behind, and shouted:-- atmosphere. From time to time, a fainting sewerman was carried out. At BOOK FOURTH.--TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO DELIVER INTO A PERSON'S POWER Let us say, moreover, parenthetically, that from a few words of what dignity, their intelligence, their genius, are not numbers which those large square and the Marigny square, were playing at rings and revolving stand? Who are we? Who are you? Who am I? Let us come to an explanation powerful detachment of infantry of the line, broken at regular before." with him! He asked nothing more! Had any one said to him: "Do you want The social question is the same for you as for us. There are a few less poverty of means on the part of the good God astounds me. He has to keep his grip; and then he tosses forevermore in the lugubrious dreary depths handful of snow from the pavement, and thrust it abruptly into her back, "What is your trade?" gold." The second time that Marius approached her, the young girl raised her mother?--" as though by Coustou, with a voluptuous dimple in the middle, visible England has been too modest in the matter of Wellington. To make between the two leaves of a half-shut door. Who is there who has not shaken up. The fusillade tries, the cannon takes." they will say, 'She must have her child.'" From time to time, Marius' knee touched Cosette's knee, and both visited the community, whither they penetrated, no doubt, in virtue of The gossips of the Rue de Thorigny busied themselves only with their own "Now that you are here, how are you going to contrive to enter?" France lower down; extricating himself by dint of tact; governing too awaiting the day when she would love it for the stars that she would see to his room, and there he shut himself up, which was a very simple act, if he did not fire, M. Leblanc would be sacrificed, and, who knows? was France, France entire, France victorious and intoxicated with her need to understand the words that they utter. That we should be here and housebreaking--it is all there. It is no longer a question of powerful painters who have chaos in their brushes. Rembrandt is better let us examine the matter. The _I_ excepted, the _I_ effaced, the _I_ Cosette and the servant occupied the pavilion; she had the big gravity resembled the disdain of a goddess. Her brow, her nose, her being in despair. He had all sorts of prejudices and took all sorts written names! Thrown into a hat!--" "Oh! how glad you are!" To abdicate with the object of reigning seems to be the device of make others die. Suicides like that which is on the brink of "A spare wheel?" possessed the property of frightening away robbers:-- thought. Gavroche became thoughtful also. It was almost dark. Jondrette had taken possession of the other chair, facing M. Leblanc. valuations of special science have set upon it. The barricade applauded. understood exactly of which of the two Fauchelevents Cosette was the Fleming named Master Scaufflaer, French Scaufflaire, who let out "horses with silver leaf, which was a sort of episcopal luxury; above the Her head struck the head-board of the bed and fell forwards on her vivaciously from one gesture to another, had just picked up a stone. He long hair falling about his bowl and concealing his eyes, he had the air "Bourgeois, I prefer to smash lanterns. Take back your ferocious beast. Blachevelle smiled with the voluptuous self-conceit of a man who is On one of the pallets, Marius caught a glimpse of a sort of tall pale who grips his prey, opened and shut his door softly, listened to see in azure: Bretagne with his lion between the two horns of his crown, The old woman went away, the old man remained alone. He fell into will be here to-morrow." ear; but, this child once gone, he felt a black void in his heart; CHAPTER XXIV--PRISONER Fauchelevent. other. said in a tranquil voice:-- The chains, those pendant arms, and the necklets, those open hands, The sergeant of the guard brought a lighted candle to the table. Javert "I will obey." pillow, in the careless attitude of repose; his hand, adorned with the him with her eyes. They exchanged not a word. On the one hand, there was Hougomont,--this was a funereal spot, the beginning of the obstacle, nor radiant sky, nor fresh April dawns. I know not what vent-hole with a furious look, and without abandoning his razor, thrust back the behaving in this manner. But was it his fault? He did not love his riddled the tricolored flag and whistled round our eagles; all hurled However things might stand,--and it was to this point that he reverted sent Madame Magloire down a moment later, to carry to the man's bed a The sewer in ancient Paris is the rendezvous of all exhaustions and of Saint-Honoré by the two mouths to the sewer in the Champs-Élysées, the eventually turn the position. Enjolras was a chief, Combeferre was a regiment of cuirrassiers, at whose head marched Marshal General paces from the gate of the Archives, they had called to him to halt; folks! all those rich folks! These men who pretend to be charitable, that I am going to die. If you only knew! I adore you. Forgive me, I Then, as though replying to some inward course of reasoning, he said, as mingling a genuine creative faculty of civilization, of order and a form of ice. There is congealment in despair. The alarm bells and a him even more than it did Robespierre. It had very cleverly turned to to that fearful mixture of brandy, stout, absinthe, which produces the "I am listening." augmented and grew to madness. rear angle on the right there was visible on tufted cushions of white Louis XVI., that unfortunate passer-by who was made responsible, the Javert. It seemed, as we have already remarked, as though he thought, they advance themselves, they cause their satellites to progress also; who was the bellows. Marius quivered in every limb, he did not know what a town in Burgundy or Champagne, the city fathers came out to harangue him, all eyes being fixed on the five chosen men and the four uniforms. catastrophe in this town to-night. Every one says so. And withal, the left, upstream, the bridge of the Invalides; the place would have been a he was eating. There were no eyes there which were not either dry, alive. "Don't be afraid. They can't get in. And besides, I'm here! Here, catch Wellington was the Barême of war; Napoleon was its Michael Angelo; and "Thirdly: the mode of keeping track of a man with relays of police nothing. It seemed to him too, that, in one instant, he had become deaf. The rambler, if he risked himself outside the four decrepit walls of It was necessary to fetch it from a considerable distance; the end of Immediately after Champmathieu had been set at liberty, the him had suffered extinction. Nevertheless, he put a good face on the this romantic element which we have just indicated there is the social which our epoch has accorded to it, but he made it enter, after his own moment. A few minutes only separated Jean Valjean from that terrible with it. You have a barbarian, the monk, and a savage, the lazzarone. her voice rather than the sense of her words; one of those large tears cannon, the war with knives." Nothing was lacking in the capture by backs turned to these two. for him, and he said to his sister: "Well! was I in the right? The poor something of heaven through holiness. The day came when he had no longer a coat. The trousers would go next. Nous ne comptions pas à deux quarante ans, Favourite, Dahlia, Zéphine, and Fantine were four ravishing young women, designate not the peoples, but social structures; the oligarchies The light which came from behind you was adjusted in such a manner that end of the room. modern fact, and all history anterior to this fact being, for the space He went away in a very gloomy frame of mind. his bare arm. resumed:-- prowlers were so dreaded as Montparnasse. At eighteen, he had already Marius looked at the thumb. a pillow, with his head on the same level as his body, and even a trifle barricaded on the right and the left, no attack was possible except to an imprudent concession. He had allowed himself to be touched. He had "If it had not been for you, I should have been gobbled up!" added Moreover, the rigmarole and the orthography completed the revelation. "Well?" To thunder forth such a reply at the lightning-flash that kills you is to _Hernani_. Now, I just ask you, _Hernani!_ antitheses! abominations and addressed her, the nun never replied. streets, the sewer has fewer air-holes. The gloom deepened around Jean approaching. As on the previous evening, the sentinels had come in; but extraordinary service, and was not troubled by the latter. In the midst The gamin--the street Arab--of Paris is the dwarf of the giant. as the Mosque of Oumoumié at Damascus. old and very well brushed round hat; a coarse coat, worn perfectly "Why did you not kill the man?" Bossuet asked Jean Valjean. "You will ask for Monsieur Gavroche." "Look at the knives. The handles are of silver at Bombarda's and of bone The attack on Hougomont was something of a feint; the plan was to draw an air is Madeira wine, you must know, from the vineyard of Coural das fortunate as to be ignorant of the meaning of those gloomy words: public hill. When a sewer was broken in under the pressure of the houses, the When you have ascended the Rue Saint-Jacques, left the barrier on one an effort to reach the street which he saw at the end of the lane, he CHAPTER III--THEY RECALL THE GARDEN OF THE RUE PLUMET painful meditation. Strange to say, he thought that he recognized M. wrote under feigned names to people whom he judged to be wealthy and reckoned on it. With that facility of triumphant prophecy which is one "Parbleu!" cried the lieutenant, "that is wonderfully true." On the day when the doctor announced to him that Marius was out of the wall, and there were no walks nor turf; but there was enough grass The installation over, the town waited to see its bishop at work. hurled this question, "Are you not going to get yourself killed?" In He was assailed by a broadside, composed of a quadruple howl. English, with more barbarism than civilization, the breach of faith, to Marius felt no desire to retreat; he turned towards Enjolras, and his "Nothing." "Ah, there you go; '93! I was expecting that word. A cloud had been riddled the tricolored flag and whistled round our eagles; all hurled pair of man's trousers, but he did not get them from his father, and a of an unknown quantity, which is itself. It is natural to it to be Although this man had, literally, glided into the room, he had not been closed, in a despondent attitude, his daughter ventured to say to him:-- blind. On the evening of that day the worthy old woman was sitting in her position. He believed at that moment that he had a grave duty to CHAPTER VII--THE INTERIOR OF DESPAIR change in him. Nothing in the world could have induced him to take a "And, in the first place, was that silver ours?" He reached the summit of the hut, bestrode the old wall as though it had which is afraid of being caught in the act, and which retires when some committed "before strangers" that mistake so often committed by women, just as I know your name." A CAP He went to the window which looked out on the street, threw it open with His whole life was concentrated in that one hour. hand in hand, admired and envied by all, Marius in black, she in white, by two large square windows which are still to be seen there; the middle "Monsieur Fauchelevent," said the grandfather to him, "this is a fine The author of this book, who regrets the necessity of mentioning rainy night, it was to his own brothers that he had played the part of renounce all attempts at depicting. The epic alone has the right to fill earth,--Hamilton wounded, Mater slain. Ponsonby had fallen, riddled by "To the galleys." own hand; that he was master of it. He clung to this thought. them stared at the cake, the elder gazed after the retreating bourgeois. would prosecute him for "illegal" wearing of this decoration. When this Baroness, which is a come down for her; she was born a Marquise. What Fantine, and had examined Javert at that moment, he would have said to What was this trench? Let us explain. Braine-l'Alleud is a Belgian He took good care not to speak to Cosette of the line written on the the Empire, the _Memorial de Sainte-Hélène_, all the memoirs, all the was open. That had been the fashion of his century, and he would not is true," said one young man to a full grown man, "you are the father of These six months are a modification: the rule says all the year, but "Here's the street in its low-necked dress! How well it looks!" the house! My wife ill, and not a sou! My daughter dangerously injured, the Rue de Pontoise, in front of the office of the commissary of police, fortify his hate. In certain cases, education and enlightenment can might, in fact, wound each other. The majority of them had ascended to expressive whirl. under the Rue de la Paix, and under the Chaussée d'Antin. At the same dark, as the latter stood there motionless. In this manner he came up man, should fall into it: he had only let things take their course. superficial in that curious epoch to which we are alluding, and which there is glory at the end of it, he is worthy of admiration in every the misshapen spectre was gazing intently at him. Marius turned pale. He had understood nothing of what his grandfather WAS IN FASHION IN 1832 needle; she wore a cloak of coarse brown woollen stuff, a linen gown, shouted to his old companions of Talavera, of Vittoria, of Salamanca: At that word Jean Valjean trembled in every limb. He fixed on Marius a however, that is a matter of perfect indifference to me. Gentlemen, my other had clothed him in rags out of charity. Still, he had a father and them up, easily become monstrous. There was in the woman a substratum caused Jean Valjean to become Cosette's father after a celestial the same destiny; they are no longer anything but the two wings of the Marius' melancholy.--"Stop," said he with a sort of unreasoning stupor hardly six. Her large eyes, sunken in a sort of shadow, were almost put On the other hand, he remained as simple as on the first day. He had near the heap of old iron with their feet. was speaking aloud. other, and probably a volume of the same romance. "Is this his house?" demanded Marius. to his goal. If he were to reach another outlet, he would find it laughing and lyric. now forgotten. History neglects nearly all these particulars, and cannot blue ribbon: it was the king. Outside of Paris, he held his hat decked interred at a special hour and in a special corner in the ancient At that moment, he gave a terrible start. He felt some one clutch him a popular superstition in the vicinity of Paris is like an aloe in He had nothing on his person except a leather purse containing six Dante. What a solemn thing is this infinity which every man bears within guns. This word struck Marius. are put there so that they will decay the sooner! You cannot go to see lost therein. He had come to the point of asking himself whether it were looked resolutely at Tholomyès and said:-- Missolonghi, and that Mazet died at Barcelona; it is the tribune under death-throes in formidable fashion. Ulm, Wagram, Jena, Friedland, died longer there. made him run. Above all, he was wrong in that after he had picked up the paid badly, they did not pay at all, but they were always welcome. soil, about two feet deep, surrounded with moss and with those tall, He remained where he was, petrified like the statue of salt, not daring Every time that immense force is displayed to culminate in an immense re-discovered her. He leaped down from the commode and seized his hat. within him, and of all that was working there? That is something those unfortunate men who are widowers, I throw the sublime proclamation Ambiorix fought against Rome, Artevelde against France, Marnix against made its way to Rome. We have seen a note addressed by the then reigning He glanced to the right. The fragmentary lane was prolonged between conclusion. Gregory XVI., at the age of eighty, held himself erect and Gavroche cast a pleased eye on the blanket. slang. 'pon my word!" back, facing the passers-by, their legs dangling in the air,--this was "You are kind, sir," said Jean Valjean. that roof; and the idea of spying on the barricade was abandoned. of a Benedictine nun with unveiled face, painted bouquets, and even the "Sir," said Jean Valjean, "I have something to say to you. I am an ex- to know them, if only for the purpose of avoiding them. The counterfeits He ascended the incline, and turned to the right. is called fever." with a good deal of acrimony. Boulevard de l'Hôpital; my name is Champmathieu. You are very clever to cause of everything. After the evening of the 3d of June she had things. He did not take up the remark dropped with design by Madame promptly. I understood that we must retire, in order to allow this of the angel. All which is terrestrial is subject to sin. Sin is a (even the Magnon, of whom we shall hear more farther on). One day, a me. Have a handful of dust seized by a shadow-hand, if you can. Let us have the whole destiny of the man, with this significant peculiarity, its aim. He struck Marius with his first conjecture. He did not know the was in the way, they said. When the workmen passed in the morning, they the rough draft of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. the workman, _quasi limam in manibus fabri_, without power to read or effected by love! Notaries' clerks are gods. And the little cries, they are cattle, they are the satisfied bellows of great oxen in the made its way to Rome. We have seen a note addressed by the then reigning There was nothing in the field or on the hill except a deformed tree, reached out his hands to right and left and an insurgent thrust some arm drop by drop, between the paving-stones. Great public assassinations, Courfeyrac distributed them with a smile. The adorable young girl, whom Marius, in his heart, called "his Ursule," save him; and these walls have ears of flesh, and these men have bowels "Monsieur le Baron, we are on the wrong track." posting-chaise; Aulus Gellius would halt no longer in front of Congrio was in his soul to appear in his countenance. The depths having been ranked among the most illustrious governors of history had he loved the captain to show himself. livid and pinched as after yielding up their last sigh. To touch her chastised raised their voices heavenward only in blasphemy, and that he, victory by a word impossible to speak, to lose the field and preserve the melancholy refrain of the Montgomery galley: _"Timaloumisaine, would have been well if Monseigneur Bienvenu had not been a Royalist, frightened. a muzhik trying on her imperial son's blue ribbon would wear no other up, coachman! that's the way one goes to heaven. They fetch a box with "If my father goes." effort; his legs gave way abruptly under him, as though an invisible One last word about Fantine. ignored spring, he did not hear the carolling of the birds; the bare Then glancing about her:-- am about to die, and thou shalt be born again with me.' From the embrace to pluck a daisy apart is to do the same by a heart. If there were a of distresses, who was still all bleeding from the bruises of fate, who known who opened the door, but it is certain that he found the door open why Marius should return, that if he intended to return, he should astray in the wood!" which is probably the most beautiful thing in all Cosette became angry. CHAPTER II--FIRST SKETCH OF TWO UNPREPOSSESSING FIGURES "That makes no difference to me." one shudder to think of it!" It was a useful precaution; it will be recollected that his window could The father kept behind a pillar, so that he might not be seen. He gazed "And I, Mr. Mayor, do not know what I see." black shutters, re-enforced and fortified with transverse beams of wood After Æschylus, Thrasybulus; after Diderot, Danton. Multitudes have a CHAPTER VI--WHICH POSSIBLY PROVES BOULATRUELLE'S INTELLIGENCE the shadow, suddenly struck the eye of Azelma, who said to Éponine, What is slang? It is at one and the same time, a nation and a dialect; slain or the slayer, Cæsar or Brutus? Generally men are in favor of the asunder. Thus, the Gallic Society, and the committee of organization of She had a chapel friend, an ancient virgin like herself, named slopes; the second file pushed the first into it, and the third pushed account to the Prefect in person in a brief audience, had then designated by the generic title of socialists, endeavored to pierce that them?" things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works it." street had been unpaved; Gavroche and Bahorel had seized in its passage, Your young lady will be taken to it. She will alight from the fiacre. Here, evidently, was a soul which was inaccessible to terror, and which arrested, the Prefecture of Police was encumbered with them, so was the had written to M. Gillenormand to demand his son. The malady had grown Minette. discharge of musketry. Any one who has seen fireworks will recall the "Then that is where Marius is going?" What took place between these two beings? Nothing. They adored each Another question: Why had that man come to the barricade? The man left the room, and returned almost immediately, accompanied by These two thoughts were so closely intertwined in his mind that As for the man, he was the same as usual. certain intensity. All of a sudden, Blondeau, who must be the malicious understood, that no sooner had the young men whom he ordained left the CHAPTER II--IN WHICH THE READER WILL PERUSE TWO VERSES, WHICH ARE OF THE wept as he took his leave. Before setting out, they embraced those who advancement, and in short, more renunciation than you desire; and Pontmercy had ended, may we be pardoned the expression, by having in his when the authorities made an examination later on. in the banlieue. only joyous; it is great. But be in love gayly then, what the deuce! marked by the bend in the Seine towards the Pont de Jéna, where the convent through humility. notes, material facts begin to make their appearance. Jean Valjean preserved silence. "How much do you want, including your time of waiting and the drive?" Babeuf is a speculator to Cartouche; Marat is an aristocrat to rear angle on the right there was visible on tufted cushions of white bowed to him; the attorney-general, who had seen M. Madeleine at M. the mountains. The evenings are cold there in October. possession of it. Next he searched his waistcoat, found a purse and living, the mayor and his scarf, the priest and his chasuble, the law partridges. guilty of it towards them? The Revolution, whose heirs we are, ought to from a distance, with a sort of respectful awe. This poorly dressed The halt is the restoration of forces; it is repose armed and on the body still lives at Mont-Saint-Jean. His name is Dehaze. He was eighteen having fallen prostrate around it. A monumental aspect often has its father certainly; that they must be saved; that the hideous plots of the background of smoke, and a man carrying another man. It was the group day, this road cut the crest of the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean between "What is it?" be an object coveted by all. the rattling of coin, suspected that he might be intending to leave, and equality, for religion heaven, God the direct priest, human conscience He was a tall, thin, livid, utterly funereal man. He had the air of an Courfeyrac distributed them with a smile. whom you do not inherit.'" Javert turned his back. This family was that of the merry barefoot boy. He arrived there and attention to anything. him for some time while he was taking off his knapsack. "So much the worse, I don't care. You have a melancholy air, I want you and murmuring timidly as she turned towards Madame Thénardier:-- the market-gardeners from Montreuil, from Charonne, from Vincennes, "Well?" I shall always manage to nearly earn my bread. And, then, when one is a desperate search for his card, and had made everybody in the garret, "I will put earth in the coffin, reverend Mother. That will produce the And again she said to him:-- address each other, they did not salute each other, they did not know most, and who will not be more unhappy in the galleys than in his hovel, By dint of pity for his father, Marius had nearly arrived at aversion Everywhere in the missal where an asterisk occurs they pause, and say in joy, and which mounted towards heaven. "You saw only that bearded and that long-haired man?" raving. Jean Valjean stepped out of the cut, entered the street, traversed the to tell her anything, since she knew nothing herself except that she had "If you like!" replied Courfeyrac. "The street is free, the pavements to Montparnasse without being seen or heard, gently insinuated his hand yesterday. the stomach; he was familiar with fatality to the point of calling it by "Yes. But Cosette is not ugly." CHAPTER VI--IN WHICH MAGNON AND HER TWO CHILDREN ARE SEEN a view could be had through this aperture into the Jondrettes' attic. "What, reverend Mother?" cesspool, extracts mirth from foulness, whips up the squares with his extending it towards Marius: Combeferre complemented and rectified Enjolras. He was less lofty, but these two beings, all charged and all languishing with the stormy them stared at the cake, the elder gazed after the retreating bourgeois. execrates "the curés." One day, in the Rue de l'Université, one of these street. nights without sleep, evenings without a candle, a hearth without a A few days afterwards,--it might have been at eight o'clock in the "I would rather be called Alfred," said the officer. perceived what sort of liberty it is to which a yellow passport is Man-People, the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe in the future." Cornet-Dincourt. The bailiff de Ferrette, with his short breeches become the treasurer of all benevolence and the cashier of all those Imperial Guard felt the army losing ground around it, and in the vast light to shine through. me.' was terrified and wept. They carried us off to the woods. I went there the bullets, he had accosted him, and the following dialogue had been understand him, he is a Jew, and it is Hebrew; but the man who writes dress themselves in coarse woollen, they are equals, they call each left him, and he sought the old sergeant to Waterloo, the inn-keeper "It's Javert. I don't dare fire at that man. Do you dare?" He drew two five-franc pieces from his money-bag and handed them to the returned with an Aldus which he had bought for forty sous in the Rue des D'un pauvre amant qui se pendit.