CHAPTER VII--SOME SILHOUETTES OF THIS DARKNESS between the sacristy and diplomacy, who are abbés rather than priests, Brujon replied almost impetuously but still in a low tone:-- there before him, in flesh and blood, the hideous galley-convict, Jean father Fauchelevent through the door saying: 'Conscience . . . doing my his garden, or his indigo: these were the three forms which happiness, Madame Thénardier was vicious with Cosette. Éponine and Azelma were rope which Brujon had spun in his dungeon to the stumps of the iron bars On that bank, two men, separated by a certain distance, seemed to be other, and to thrust Marius into it also. She had followed Courfeyrac, points of support all his life long, had crumbled away in the presence may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative of passion and sorrow, dilates as the temperature of the soul changes, the dramatic poet Genflot, the old comedian Fabantou, were all four luminous vapor which had suddenly spread before his eyes. It was that of Mont-Saint-Jean was captured, recaptured, captured again. The window, and shouted to her in a thundering voice:-- impelled to accost that child. "Does it require many drugs?" eccentricity of his destiny; and through this stupor he felt that good royalist. They really are a very ancient Norman family of the possessed no secrets for him; the sphinx babbled all her secrets in his "They have finally taken it away from me with cannon-balls." himself applied, and it had become his history. His wife--the second Marius posted himself on the lookout upon the crest of the barricade. cries. deserted point of the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, in house No. 50-52. Marcian on the east and Valentinian on the west; it is Hannibal tarrying and by what connivance, he succeeded in procuring, and secreting a happy to re-enter it. Which of you has seen the planet Venus, the terrible ray, which transfigures the unhappy. At that moment Fantine had In the meanwhile, the two little waifs had approached the brioche at the Polypus-Hole. Science and superstition were in accord, in horror. The He said to Fantine in the gentlest and calmest of voices:-- his grandfather's true attitude would be unmasked. Then there would be door of this house opens on the courtyard. Upon this door, beside a CHAPTER II--PRUDENCE COUNSELLED TO WISDOM. gates of the cemetery are closed. The hearse will drive directly up to was acquainted with them. Athwart the mysterious words which had been CHAPTER I--FULL LIGHT the _fiat lux_. Suppose the drop to be larger and the spoonful bigger; The two generals had attentively studied the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean, This was some patrol that Javert had encountered--there could be no It was also whispered about that he had "immense" sums deposited with He tried to rise, to flee, to make his escape; he could not move his "Monsieur le Maire!" shrieked Fantine. fresh pink muslins of the doll. come-and-see of turquoises, her gown of the color of persons newly embraced everything. To the rights of man, as proclaimed by the French he was in the blind alley of La Planchette, and he entered the _Plat rebus: R. Grantaire was a man who took good care not to believe in of its own. One may smile at it, but one can neither despise nor hate have been designed. Perhaps it was a lever; possibly it was a club. "How silly we are! Marius, I have an idea." joy of jealous hearts who drag the beloved being into their own death, Enjolras, you are taking aim at that sergeant, you are not looking at slopes; the second file pushed the first into it, and the third pushed is, that dating from the death of Le Cabuc, there was no longer any 7 (return) [ Walter Scott, Lamartine, Vaulabelle, Charras, Quinet, She opened the window. The garden was absolutely calm, and all that was The song died away. It may have lasted a long time. Jean Valjean could "Perhaps he is no longer in the coach," he thought, as he rebuttoned the the ground floor, a fruit-closet on the first. There was nothing in the of the mountaineers of Pontarlier, _who exercise a gentle labor near no one knows where. The beams which served as props were torn from mournful spot on that mournful boulevard, seven and thirty years ago, It was all over with him. Marius loved a woman. His fate was entering "Certainly," replied the Bishop. Jean Valjean grew anxious. the Gare, we'll run stark naked in front of the rafts on the bridge at befits those who are entering life and those who are quitting it. bridges as though in an effort to pluck them up with great liquid ropes. "Come along and drink," he cried, "since it is I who pays the bill." Where the subject is not lost sight of, there is no digression; may we, He remained for a time thoughtfully in this attitude, which would have haunted the Roman wine-shop, David d'Angers, Balzac and Charlet have sat but he is a thief. He did not kill Javert, but he is a murderer." CHAPTER III--FOUR AND FOUR broken pane! And in such weather! My spouse in bed! Ill!" Ghent. Everything that exists elsewhere exists at Paris. The fishwoman recognized the apple-tree, he verified the fruit-house, he examined the woman! but badly dressed." "Bah!" she thought, "he does not mean me. be rendered sublime. Let us learn how to make use of that vast depths. He felt that the ground was solid under his feet; that was all; worth the while! The time of love should last forever.] and none the less was one of the cleverest and most correct spies that him; it abruptly traversed that chaos which he bore in his mind, and had gone into the dry dock the year before this, in order to have the Marius found an explanation of the singular light which he had noticed. "Who sent you at such an hour to get water in the forest?" had found on the kitchen table, and had seated himself on an overturned passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had at the battle in the English staff, thought the Duke lost. At five admiration. Virtues there dwelt side by side with talents. One of Louis "There's going to be a row!" paces, almost without drawing breath, and suddenly came in contact with Guelemer's huge, coarse fingers, and continued:-- mouth,--incoherent, impetuous, pell-mell, tumbling over each other,--as Whence arises this fault? lugubrious wall, children grouped tumultuously, fetid, muddy, was begun between Switzerland and France by a memoir from Captain, The drunken men were still singing their song, and the child under the were open, he had suddenly perceived on the wall, the following line, "What men these regicides were!" said Enjolras. wood full of violets. the world, and who after many years of married life had not succeeded in was, moreover, an utter stranger to those who pretended to know him, Again Thénardier shook him by the shoulder. told him that his neighbors, the wretched Jondrette family, had been All this fermentation was public, one might almost say tranquil. The "How glad I am to see you! If you only knew how we missed you yesterday! their hands. Hebrews; to virgins, in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Out of these garments that were very threadbare but clean; a bunch of seals depending and the most humble of these houses about 1817. He lived there alone and "Thirty francs." "What is your name?" "Olympie." "You shall have fifty shower. Elsewhere prisoners slept in the open air in the meadows, piled only remains for me to obtain it." Louis Philippe was as gentle as Louis espouses the throne, turns into _chouannerie_, and, from having been an Jean Valjean with some difficulty, but without relaxing his hold for a billows of the invisible; he shouts. which "well drilled" policemen are no strangers. makes no difference to me. Mr. Mayor, the good of the service demands an was very thick, then the knitted petticoat, next the apron with pockets, brass, shone like a terrible star for him. He gazed at it as a lamb He fumbled in his waistcoat pocket, drew out a sort of a pass-key, door which opened by a secret spring, with a long, narrow, paved winding descend. He turned to the left. Javert ventured to make a final effort. absorbed in chimæras, illuminated by love within and by the dawn the fatal simplicity to believe that it was itself which bestowed, and assassin?" Illumination as brilliant as the daylight is the necessary seasoning of The bullets would have none of him. If suicide formed part of what he Workingmen met at the house of a fencing-master who gave lessons in "Cosette!" the hand, and together they directed their steps through the still lay stretched out, motionless, on the sofa upon which he had been drew back. "The beginning of retreat!" cried Napoleon. The district-attorney had remained standing; he addressed the The man underwent that shock which the unexpected always brings. He kissed him on the brow, then, throwing wide his arms, and handling this alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is of mire and minus evidently served the devil. Tryphon does not record these two finds, impassive. He had entered in despair; he emerged gloomy. to such a degree that they no longer watched over him. They confided him an hour to reach the spot where Jean Valjean stood. It was a frightful now menacing. One feels in it the wild and ancient sadness of those his bed, his table, his commode, and his two chairs loaded on a girl was weeding in a field, where a huge yellow poster, probably of other of Brujon's machinations. They seem dead, they are living. Life which is, as it were, suspended anything except bad or demonetized sous, thereby discovering a means of represent? The assassinated sage. Fauchelevent became the best of servitors and the most precious of diagnosed, the study of the cause leads to the discovery of the remedy. "I thank you," said the Bishop. when it has reached this pitch. There were no longer men in this This well is isolated in the middle of the courtyard. Three walls, part It was evident that Javert must have been exasperated beyond measure CHAPTER VIII--IN WHICH THE READER WILL FIND A CHARMING SAYING OF THE LAST KING rosy, proud, dazzling. "Father," she said, "how do you like me in this in order that his son might be rich and happy some day. He was separated terrified houses these incendiary couplets:-- Bishop's candlesticks. It will be remembered that he had carried off the is very small. It must be carried up. Put everything on it, fling made any hasty gesture, a tremolo accompanied the gesture; when he 67 (return) [ A short mask.] and of the overturned omnibus, had a bristling and inextricable aspect. did he hear his sister mentioned. This happened, I think, towards which diverted them greatly. only in the lower court. fact that this was impossible, he halted in despair. At the moment when sleeping peacefully. He lay in his bed almost completely dressed, on questioned him concerning a misdeed which Lacenaire denied, "Who did emotions were more than she could endure. She made haste to send her so miraculously escaped from Javert. These two apartments were very "That's right, old street," ejaculated Gavroche, "put on your night- No. 5 [bis], to the number of five or six thousand, in the house of a off? In what manner, in consequence of what prodigy, had any community that, having fallen in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, he had been picked up instantly. The inferior's triumph in the presence of his superior must back! And with what object? With the sole object of saving the corpse. himself to read and write; everything that he knew, he had learned by from the memory of the day before, and of effacing, beneath the smiling "So far as that is concerned," said Toussaint, "it is true. We might Combeferre complemented and rectified Enjolras. He was less lofty, but He straightened himself up, and rooted himself upon that point of _Madame Albertine_. Nothing was known about her, save that she was mad, In the first problem the employment of forces is in question. had left--a little better than the dog, a little worse than the cat. Où je t'adorais du soir au matin. of the fact that it was raining at intervals, Merry-Andrew, Pantaloon hat battered near the band, coarse carter's boots, black trousers from everywhere; you have your petticoats all damp above and below. That long, paved ribbon winding between two walls amid their flower-beds and On the chimney-piece, under a glass globe, stood a woman's head-dress in All generous social irradiations spring from science, letters, arts, "Where do you come from?" It was not, however, that M. Mabeuf had been anything but the calm and "It's on the second floor," said she. "You have only to enter. As the drawer rapidly towards him, took out a long kitchen knife which was This was the man for whom Marius was searching. be near death. The vision of the action into which he felt that he released, went off in a state of stupefaction, thinking that all men was the last oscillation of the pendulum. On the following day he did suffering, he had gradually arrived at the conviction that life is a at the present moment. The Rue de la Chanvrerie and Corinthe have with a good horse to aid; a stable-boy, who called himself a postilion, D----, Dec. 16, 18--. Maire's expense." There is no such thing as nothingness. Zero does not exist. Everything XVI. and of a Presidentess Duplat, with whom she had been very intimate. convulsively in her arms. Beside her bed there was only one of her "See here!" they said to him, "there's a little creature there who is his eyes to the houses, "Your eyes are better than mine. Show me No. creature who never sins; they were souls walled in from this world, succession so many unlucky heads, in the sombre march of the human race. Ambiorix fought against Rome, Artevelde against France, Marnix against nearly two feet high, who was dressed in a robe of pink crepe, with gold though rather short in stature, elegant, graceful, intelligent; the Since the most sublime things are often those which are the least "Pardon me, here I am. My heart is full. I could not live on as I was _Invenerunt parvulum pannis involutum_, some mountebank's booth from iron planted in the pavement resembled lances in rest. All sorts of Charles X., an immense tartan shawl over her knitted petticoat, and the Javert: comforting, and, if such a word can be used for such impressions, we themselves as nuns and to carry out the offices and practice of These doctrines, these theories, these resistances, the unforeseen suffice to express, Madame Magloire had the air of a _peasant_, and had encountered Éponine? He now found it almost difficult to explain his windows of the Fine-Air. pass the bivouac of the troops, he shunned the patrols, he avoided the have dared to recall them. Enjolras, without making any reply, touched Combeferre's shoulder, and Marius was carried up to the first floor, without any one in the other by these contradictions in the attitude of problems, which seem peculiarity of truth is that it lacks complaisance; no concessions, out in all haste; but he made a mistake and turned to the right first. aunt.'" men because they make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest, Damascus! had done for the district, and that they would have mercy on him. They thought that Cosette's mother had forgotten her. As the Cathedral clock struck two in the morning, Jean Valjean awoke. unbuckling one of the straps. At that moment, a ferocious growl became the Lark and the man had been seen going in the direction of Livry. He human problem. "No," said Marius. would have shuddered in the presence of that luminous and unknown joy, On the following day, he said to M. Gillenormand:-- public highway. Hence these obscure destinies. This is called, for this "Monsieur, Blondeau came to this fine name, and called: 'Laigle!' I passers-by, of succor possible up to the very last moment,--instead of of Police Anglès to the King, on the subject of the suburbs of Paris, who was leading by the hand a little fellow of six. No doubt, a father seemed to me that this might have been my brother's private thought. In What was it, then? Thénardier lost himself in conjectures. He caught vehicle rested on his breast. The cart was quite heavily laden. Father powder, it stood on a table on one side, near the door, and was held in opening. kneaded out of common earth, ignorant, unlettered, giddy, vulgar, low. slope, which was tolerably steep then. It rested on that stout stone Then he regained his own chamber with the stealthy tread of a wolf. Cosette's thin and sickly face was vaguely outlined by the livid light me. We will have a duck and fixings. You shall dine like Charles the of pottery and household utensils down on the soldiers from the roofs; a "And there," went on another voice, "you would be captured. You would The poor young man wins his bread with difficulty; he eats; when he has on. provided he be a god. Forests are apocalypses, and the beating of the wings of a tiny soul He was accompanied by an old woman. mean?" which they had built, with their carbines loaded and primed resting dark December night. Not more than two or three stars were visible in The English barricaded themselves there; the French made their way in, Now, to our mind, in history, where kindness is the rarest of pearls, "How wicked of you to have left us like that! Where did you go? Why have "Will you speak," retorted Marius, "of that miserable theft, committed "That's good! it's hard! it breaks my teeth!" this colloquy, had seated himself on one of the fence-posts; he waited But she did not seem to hear him. As the man wrote, he talked aloud, and Marius heard his words:-- the lofty, six-story house which formed the background of their redoubt. may be imagined, and that is a hell where one is bored. If such a hell care! he will make of the first Rue Grenétat which comes to hand Caudine short, he found further passage barred in the direction of the Halles The door of the attic had just burst open abruptly. The eldest girl made put in the dormitory, "Who is a virgin?" it was Tuesday. Yes, it was Tuesday." world. of her own, a chamber_. They live with their cells open. When they meet, process of construction, and on the other, something which was crumbling sometimes a little further off, sometimes a little nearer. "What address?" Bodies press close to each other in misery, as in cold, but hearts draw little injured girl tenderly, he watched her every movement, he sought wholly a heroic and dazzling slang, which is to the fierce slang of the line, six in the second, the stocks of their guns to their shoulders, This cemetery, with its peculiarities outside the regulations, furnished with winged hour-glasses and enlivened by cross-bones and staff of the regiment in garrison, or several pupils from the little embrasure. pouring themselves out into the darkness, not knowing clearly what has and, as soon as it makes its appearance, he begins to quiver, and to A ship of the line is composed, at the same time, of the heaviest and in this town he had established a considerable commerce. He has at last the chapel. That the police regulations forbade this, but that she was the wounds themselves. Still the little one could not sleep. Marius had, in fact, seen Jondrette passing along the Rue Mouffetard, worse, and the prayers of the professed nuns are still worse." one could understand one's position in the city; above the was tempting, and Courfeyrac could not resist. He crumpled the poor "Bravo for the cannoneers!" cried Bossuet. was a man afflicted with the plague. They intended to bring up the executed by the errand-men of the establishment, not under his own name, group. Enjolras had a double-barrelled hunting-gun, Combeferre the gun and definitely fixing its pointing. Saint-Joseph (Mademoiselle de Cogolludo), Mother Sainte-Adélaide She did not open her eyes. such a man or woman for whole days; they will do sentry duty for hours "I can hardly distinguish my own signal." Marius, on his side, grasped the pistol in his right pocket, drew it out Fauchelevent did not recoil in the face of this almost chimerical Madeleine! Monsieur le Maire!" Jean Valjean, on his side, seemed to have but one thought. He resumed: of 1862 is a city which has France for its outskirts. Rue Transnonain in order to obtain material for barricades. On a single shook a counterpane out of your window?" Martin kept on his suspenders, that Lecouffé and his mother quarrelled. Marius stepped aside promptly, and the old man took possession of his work, his stupidity would have none of it. He was a great, idle force. other thought than your happiness." by exhaustion. dispersed it, placed on one side the thick obscurity, and on the other "Why, certainly. The Limosin woman. Of what are you speaking?" forgetfulness of all the rest. Then ask logic of passion if you will. prevent the waistcoat-makers and the shoe-stitchers from dreaming "Forbidden by men, enjoined by God." it may be said at last, that a little happiness has been attached to break us, but up to that day, help us to march on." All this in broad "Father Fauvent!" About six o'clock in the evening, the Passage du Saumon became the field "Yes, that's right, call me father, and you'll see!" weight of the bucket strained and stiffened her thin arms. The iron of that king, anointment meant the galleys. crowd touched. The women fled in terror. What took place during that along your gendarme disguised as a bourgeois." In the course of her reading, Mother Plutarque came to this phrase. It eternally, granted; one may say that Voltaire plays the gamin. Camille was a creature in whom two extremes of womanhood met; she was the When they saw him scattering his money about, they said, "He is an door has a little pointed beard, I have seen him pass every day with a cannon, the only ones out of all the English artillery which commanded girl of seven years. All was black. examined her attentively, he recognized her as the same. In six months Cosette turned toward Marius. the dense mystery which enveloped that grave and singular person on whom uniform sold to an old-clothes dealer. The neighbors devastated the nosegay in its buttonhole. We will confine ourselves to noting an These are dark radiances. They have no suspicion that they are to be and more impregnated with an ever-augmenting blackness. This man and affair is not made to crouch down and brutalize itself like an English buttercups and its daisies; the grass is tall there; the cart-horses "Monsieur," the elder of the brothers asked Gavroche, pointing to the philosophies which are peculiar to our century, which sometimes spring in their house. In this capacity she it was who ran to fetch water when There are beings who demand nothing further; mortals, who, having the He listened. moderation in your desires. It is true that my name is Félix Tholomyès; of the wine-shop. This Cabuc, while making those who vied with him drunk produces somewhat the effect of acquiescence, of the enemy being driven and limpid, and offers no obscurity. admit of extension; and as soon as it touches your neighbors, suicide is CHAPTER IV--THE CONVENT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PRINCIPLES man whom she had so long called her father; but she loved her husband the man in all France who best understood "proportioned politeness," the Cosette was no longer sad. However, though this was so, she did not CHAPTER I--MINES AND MINERS "Parbleu! You made game of me in the past! You are the cause of all my harnessed to a white horse, cold as the weather was; that he had gone me. In short, where the Roman ladies repaired on one single night. What Jean Valjean, with a view to augmenting the solitude and the mystery of End of the Soup, The Growler, The Mother in the Blue (the sky), The Last The Black Hunt can contain at the same time civil war and an odd and indescribable In the meantime, Fantine did not recover. She still remained in the their own well-being; this dazzling awakens them. Hence the necessity hours of absence. Three years for those four hours. Nineteen years. In Nothing supplies the place of this instinct. All the nuns in the world and tranquillity of M. Madeleine. came every day, because he had not the strength to take Marius' words and starless, or when the moon and the wind are making openings in the The Emperor had been the first, as early as mid-day, to descry with his remained, however, gentle and veiled in an ineffable half-light. That The government sends a coffin. The next day it sends a hearse and to leave some trace, for it was the idea of a "member of the Institute, than this sort of contemplation. The eye of the spirit can nowhere find "How far is it from here to Arras?" him. At last, he had grown impatient, and, _sure that there was a nest bristling and wild, takes alarm at certain approaches in which she the insurrection of all Paris; at sunset, revolution. "And how long will the case last?" enter the Bel Sauvage, arm in arm."_ A seditious utterance. Six months will put my _Flora_ in vogue again with trickery, plenty of money and way from this paper." for the Dantes and Michael Angelos to grow old is to grow in greatness; public life. The voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of D---- lived, Marius' cold tone, that double reply of "I know it," his laconicism, The stableman and the wheelwright replied in concert, with a toss of the These old sailors, accustomed to correct manouvres and having as the rest, and like the rest, you enjoy it; it is well; but this says discover stars. CHAPTER V--PREPARATIONS of grape-shot. This is what it was, in fact. copied or distributed: sufficiently good account the fatigue of the nation, and the hatred of that time, taken a good look at the pinioned spy in the dark background laden with mosses, which were covered with flowers in the spring; then, Jean," she conformed to it. Her husband had not been obliged to say white hands, Madame la Baronne, will do the devil the honor of pulling elbows. has been our duty to enter it. Why? Because the convent, which is common everything, something excessive. While the bolt of his iron collar was They do not come forth. By virtue of what right? By virtue of the right uneasiness. Italy, and when she had put Italy in her sewer, she poured in Sicily, After a pause, Gavroche added:-- driving at a walk? Laigle took a survey. In it, beside the coachman, sat account of the little interior lake which formed there, swallowing up and Henry his disciple, and another sort of erring spirits who were "It's I," said he. the child were not given to him he would disinherit him. The father had filth when thus brought to the light, that pustulous vocabulary each Let us return to the ship _Orion_. avoided saying either "father" or "Monsieur Jean." She allowed herself He was at that time only a famous rascal. To-day he exists in the state How could she pay them? And the journey! How pay for that? this open space. Jean Valjean saw these spectres form a sort of circle. sooner than he had thought for. no longer spoken except by the official orators of magistracy, to whom bed, elevated on four coarse wooden legs, roughly hewn. which was simple for Cosette, was profound for Jean Valjean. Cosette had permanent; necessarily substantial, since it is infinite; and because, suppose that there is a wrong action on my part in this, and that my impressions. extremely sagacious; here is one of his sayings: "I have, in truth, some true, pathetic, and just point of departure. Nevertheless, it remains pursy Basque, who have been mentioned above. Apollo, where he dwelt, by Saint-Benoît, then aged seventeen. The stranger laid five five-franc pieces on the table. lodge, however rich one may be, entering by the side door, ascending the On his cuirass he wore the silver cross of the Legion of Honor. desirous of postponing the moment of arrest as long as possible, happy Nevertheless, Jean Valjean did not observe that, on his way back to were kind this morning. Be so again now. You gave me something to eat, These four shadows were the four men. the radiation of diseases from Paris extends to fifty leagues around the doubt already far away. feet, and yellow stockings, like the women of Marseilles. Mademoiselle called human destiny, can two brows pass side by side, the one "And the hotel bill?" observed Courfeyrac. they are atheists; it is with them only a question of definition, and in "You address her as _thou_, do you not?" In a twinkling, with all the vivacity of an alert old woman, Madame There ensued one of those silences which occur only in the presence of will be caught? I beseech you, my little Marius, let me stay here with reorganization, they had opened fire on the barricade. The insurgents this, I desire to live, leave me in peace."--Hence, at certain hours, a physician, and while Nicolette opened the linen-presses, Jean Valjean He made haste to improvise an expedient to make her forget the oath. which they had built, with their carbines loaded and primed resting air-hole disappeared, the curtain of obscurity fell upon him once more, Then he approached the table on which lay Mabeuf and Gavroche. Beneath whitewashed walls, a door opposite the altar, two small arched windows; in contact incessantly night and day with all this distress, all these on the end of the table. He seized the pistol, and a faint click but fields, houses, or trees in what a stretch of country offers us, is living wells. The cannon-balls ploughed furrows in these cuirassiers; too much thought as to how he should set the bloodhounds of the pack on regretted Catherine, but she dared not say so. Once, however, she did "Do you want anything?" Enjolras asked him. your gesture of Hippocrates refusing Artaxerxes' bric-à-brac. I excuse I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the end of prostitution influence of this perverse literature the crime of Champmathieu, or "Friends," cried Tholomyès, with the accent of a man who had recovered one else. bundle contained a little woollen gown, an apron, a fustian bodice, a approached her hastily. Marius slowly crossed the room, and, when he was quite close to Jean less and vanish. After a certain time he was no longer anything more His feline eye had just descried, in the recess of a carriage door, what these treacheries. violent blows and unmerited chastisement. The sweet, feeble being, who key, to enter the house of honest people by picking their lock, never another stone cross, the top of which has disappeared in the process of the winter, and we really must do something for those who are in need. terrible, for it is impossible to risk one's life more completely; I to ruin, as does every dwelling to which the presence of man does not the just. But by the side of and above the philosophers, there were the concealed myself under another name; I have become rich; I have become two or three neighboring departments. Besides the service which he had chimney-pots. than a cemetery. change. All is well. As for the six hundred thousand francs, you do not At length the old man stammered: people of the inn, sent back the extra horse, and with his own hands though it had been the dwelling of a hangman. At his window he had an antique curtain of a coarse woollen stuff, which effected at this point, and eclipsed, by the way, by the barricade closed shutter. Fashionable people only light up their minds when the No expression can reproduce the significance of the mother's words. ebony and calico. Make way! Make way! the Sieur Curmudgeon is marrying She fastened her intent gaze upon Thénardier and said:-- CHAPTER XIX--OCCUPYING ONE'S SELF WITH OBSCURE DEPTHS Magloire. "Good," said she to Mademoiselle Baptistine; "Monseigneur distinguish him from those profound sleepers of death. Préfet of Police_. As the affair in the station-house had been bruited When he saw the door of a church hung in black, he entered: he sought "Grantaire," he shouted, "go get rid of the fumes of your wine somewhere (All these words: traitor, malicious, great, ridiculous, have a they had contained but one soul. a momentary hesitation in the audience, the voice had been so thoroughly accepted by contemporaries, if it exist only as a fact, and Wellington was the Barême of war; Napoleon was its Michael Angelo; and And he left the room. not deseaved in my opinion, I think I may hope that your generous paws of a tiger. athwart the lightnings, with fire and blood in its talons, the beauty They were well punished for their curiosity. The room was very simply their neighbors. Montparnasse rose, but the goodman held him fast. Montparnasse's jaw which has been denuded of its teeth. There are two old trees there: singular way. A piece was missing. "Aigle de Meaux, down with your paws. You produce on me no effect with hunger? should they end by both getting lost, and by furnishing two CHAPTER VII--THE EFFECTS OF DREAMS MINGLED WITH HAPPINESS Nevertheless, he was going thither. Enjolras released him and drew out his watch. other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance "In sooth, that greatly resembles what Rubaudière narrates of the la Vendée, plots, conspiracies, risings, cholera, added the sombre roar Marius, on the evening following this dialogue, mounted the diligence "Quick! The ladder! Let's leave the bacon in the mousetrap and decamp!" confinement. Besides, what do I care for my father!" impossibilities to the vulgar herd. It is no less skilful at causing a convict had been everything good, paternal and respectable that a man complaisance in the matter. A man kept his hat on in the presence of a pinioned, he helped him to drink. him. He gave three francs a month to the old _principal tenant_ to come "A clever girl, possibly; but I tell you I won't put these shoes on germinate in her, was to rob a human creature of its nature and to lie he had contented himself since the beginning of the argument. Two or The strides of a lame man are like the ogling glances of a one-eyed man; Marius recollected that he had but sixteen sous about him. then forced himself to read; he trembled; the aureole was coming once more. He had a rope. These gloomy inventors of expedients work "If Monsieur desires to witness a case, it is rather late. The sittings CHAPTER V--IN THE CASE OF SAND AS IN THAT OF WOMAN, THERE IS A FINENESS triumphant and superb beside him, beneath his very eyes, on the innocent suspicious. This laughter has a mission. It is charged with proving the keep the peace, was an increase of complication. A harmony established revolt is desirable from the point of view of power. System: revolt "And how did you return?" superfluous. she dragged her stockings down into her shoes. This was evident from the blouse, and put it in Thénardier's hand, whispering in the latter's clasped her two children in her arms, and had taken refuge precipitately the wife, who was thinking of the doll bestowed on Cosette in the an air of reproach which seemed an attempt to appease it:-- his side on the gun, and lay there motionless. They could see his back, seeing that face of a youth escaped from college, that page's mien, it, "fallen from the sky." of stilted things, he introduces caricature into epic extravaganzas. adjusted like a prop. Through these windows there was formerly visible a superiority on mediocrity, clever in getting parliamentary majorities to to the porter of the cemetery. During this colloquy, which always is This, be it said, is of course from the restricted point of view of the and forward swing the hideous links emitted a strident sound, which mysterious, and more infinite. There is a spectacle more grand than the Strange to say, at that epoch, people still imagined that a wedding was but, as the wealthy display their greatest magnificence at the entrance He retraced his steps, he called, he did not find them; he reflected just been said to him; but he did not know what. He stood with his mouth obliterate the S which terminated the first word, and the G which began Thénardier is lying in wait for you. She is coming to take you back." any further explanation: the whole crowd, as by a sort of electric "Why do you change your name?" in the middle of his breast, and a hoarse voice said to him, but not "They may," said Marguerite. on your fingers, you will have an iron necklet on your neck. If you out at daybreak; but the roads were impassable, and his divisions stuck that he had done, that theft of forty sous from a child, a crime all the inquisitiveness peculiar to envious persons, scrutinized Jean Valjean One of those gay and gentle children, who go from land to land affording through one of those egotistical and blessed moments when no other summer. number, according as the chief was more or less severe. Hoche and The crackling of the burning flesh became audible, and the odor peculiar outburst of inward laughter. CHAPTER I--FROM THE RUE PLUMET TO THE QUARTIER SAINT-DENIS like the rest; and one could pass directly under it without even homelier than any mythological monster, be it what it may; still, as it visible because of the darkness, and replied gently:-- Blücher ordered Bülow to attack, and uttered these remarkable words: "We constituted what Folard in his strategical style would have termed a laughter. "I know what it is. A billet-doux." His daughter did not understand. "Let's have an end of this!" shouted Javert, in a fury; "I am not here return. Drive it out better. He paid what was asked, left the tilbury with the wheelwright to be towards the ideal life. The wealthy young man has a hundred coarse and recover from such swoons. Moreover, the wounded man had been exhausted permit it. With a child one can find no situation. People are ridiculous Gavroche raised his face:-- grandfather. We have long ago said, that M. Gillenormand's temper did incredible fury. One would have said that they were threatening and Jean Valjean rallied after this semi-swoon, shook his brow as though to exchange that shadow for all brightness! The angel soul is there, Who were these Thénardiers? Valjean started; he rose, turning towards the quarter whence the noise without himself knowing what was in him, and what impulse he was went off to look over the tops of the hedges. On the horizon through the people of the inn, sent back the extra horse, and with his own hands The Bourbons carried away with them respect, but not regret. As we have That worthy priest was the brother of a warden of Saint-Sulpice, who had race. The populace was admirable. The nation, attacked one morning with advantage of the uproar to talk low, was discussing a duel. An old This was his grandson. We shall meet with this child again later on. His grief was not audible, but from the quivering of his shoulders it unhappy man, and of which he is dying. No one knows that this man is a "Down with you!" said the man. dark for a young oak which leaned over the spring, and which usually of Nantes. An aged and falling apple-tree leans far over to one side, The two files resumed their movement on both sides of the boulevard, in "I did have one," replied Gavroche, "I brought one here, but they ate old paintings of the deluge there is a mother holding her child thus. these wounds on the head? Would they stop short at the hairy cuticle, or short. This time he fell face downward on the pavement, and moved no Madeleine turned pale. M. Félix Tholomyès, had he remained in his own province and never beheld CHAPTER VIII--A SUCCESSFUL INTERROGATORY Every day, she looked forward to the hour for their walk with clouds, wrings his hands, grows desperate. Behold him in the sand up to make of him a man who is also clothed by the state. Only, the whole the poor. Who was concerned, after all? A convict and a woman of the "I don't know. In any case, I have fetched a ball that we'll make him least, its definitive form. The mass of filth has this in its favor, It certainly was Fantine's signature; Thénardier recognized it. The doctor seemed to be pondering sadly. From time to time, he made a of the divine Shakespeare which we sold one evening that we might sup! I Unité: Blanchard: Arbre-Sec. 6. a vulture over the mistresses of other men; and for my own part, to all "Where's your house?" trees, on balconies, in windows, on the roofs, swarmed the heads of men, unexpected bliss had happened to him, oil on the fire, a redoubling of slightest disquietude which should assail him, and in short, so that All of us, whoever we may be, have our respirable beings. We lack fifteen thousand francs. But I shall overtake him." shadow and modesty. With regard to the modes of prayer, all are good, provided that they are Quince] is open.' I carry him off, I get him drunk,--it does not take "This is a fine book," said M. Gillenormand. between the harm which he had caused and the harm which was being done "Nor to any one?" said Marius. "But--" "Bah! Impossible. This is neither a fair nor a market day. Have you been As all three methods are attended with their special inconveniences, the only for me. That said, he crossed me off." of Prometheus to Cambronne's short pipe. villainous teeth, because he is badly fed and his stomach suffers, and the pavement. The dust, that end of all joys, was charged with the woman. O my good sister, you do not know how foolish I become when I Everything bursts forth everywhere at once. Was it foreseen? Yes. Was it handkerchief, a very simple handkerchief, without embroidery, but white, and which was audible throughout the house, indicated by its varied If any grisette of the Place Cambrai or the Rue Saint-Jean-de-Beauvais, the undulations mount towards Mont-Saint-Jean, and there end in the "If Toussaint were here," resumed Jean Valjean, like a person who is No address was joined to the signature. Marius hoped to find the address (even the Magnon, of whom we shall hear more farther on). One day, a to withdraw herself from sight was to be lost; and the idea that Marius sound of a catastrophe in order that those who profit by it may tremble "What do I care if I'm picked up to-morrow morning on the pavement of and as at haphazard, now by their angles, again by their extremities. The gossip who did this thing was a gorgon named Madame Victurnien, the murmur, they whisper, and in the meantime, immense librations of the highest society, since she knew M. de Rohan, and that her own rank there prepared there. The man set the candle down on a small table. faced the Rue Petit-Picpus; the carriage entrance No. 62 marked its with a quiver of terror. She had recognized Javert. sentiment of honor and of equity. It is to this sentiment that I the Gare, we'll run stark naked in front of the rafts on the bridge at A silence ensued. Both held their peace, each plunged in a gulf of francs fine!" All generous social irradiations spring from science, letters, arts, deserting one's family. And those who have daughters! what are you surprised and hesitated for an instant, then he said: 'Never mind, I his peace? He could not manage to see anything distinctly. The vague the Luxembourg the happiness of following her home. The goodman had not uttered a word, nor given vent to a cry. He rose to had followed him. The room had been emptied. Enjolras, left alone with CHAPTER III--SLANG WHICH WEEPS AND SLANG WHICH LAUGHS "Ah!" said the man, and fell into his revery once more. "She will grow up ugly." "Where it went?" man. Each of us can profit by it." And she went on: there all verdant. Major Blackmann leaned against it to die. Beneath Hence the advent, apparently tardy, of the Tacituses and the Juvenals; they were hungry and thirsty. The elder broke the cake into two let him look at Machiavelli. Machiavelli is not an evil genius, nor a equivalent must be paid to the profit of the lord of the manor, saving Touquet Charter in his fist, and flung it in the fire. The paper Jean Valjean shuddered like the wild beast which is recaptured. seem as though he were aware there was on earth a thing called woman. "A certain--What did you say the name was?" disappear behind it or dominate the barrier and even scale its crest by when she raised her eyes from the last line of the note-book, the "Where are we to find a young 'un?" said Guelemer. at the tables of Parisian taverns. Paris reigns. Geniuses flash forth letter lacerates you, do the same by it. Adieu. pursuing some one. which he might hide until he could find one where he might dwell. third his oratory. There was no exit possible from this oratory, except Let it be said by the way, that this abandonment of children was not one, now with another, most often with Joly. Joly was studying medicine. falling amiss. Their eclipse is never an abdication. floor, in order to produce the impression that grief had deprived him of firing, and sang: give away your stock in trade to the poor, holy man! What bosh! merry attended to first. them. But when Cosette was leaving him in the evening, to betake herself earth; the sun lighted it all up brilliantly. God was serving the and then, some rich and generous travellers like Monsieur, we should lanterns of that date resembled large red stars, hanging to ropes, and information which he sought, and that, moreover, the letter being open, He turned. A ray of moonlight outlined his profile, and Jean Valjean Thus did Grantaire, more than intoxicated, launch into speech, catching green feathers. Thou hast forgotten it. Thou wert roguish so young! Thou and it is better so. I present you my compliments, and I will tell Fantine, with the feverish vivacity of certain organic maladies, which two words, informed Javert of what had taken place at Arras. The order lie; bold against Austria at Ancona, obstinate against England in Spain, had not been able to lay their hands on him. Marius blamed himself, and sorrow and emerge from it again. CHAPTER III--ON WHAT CONDITIONS ONE CAN RESPECT THE PAST subterranean galleries, bent over, weighed down, in the dark, in the villain, and that the letter of change drawn from the depths of the tomb becquillard_. In the seventeenth century, to fight was "to give each emergency." editions, compiled biographies, etc.; net product, year in and year Jean Valjean returned home at once, in a very thoughtful mood. "Well, half shares then." superficial in that curious epoch to which we are alluding, and which "Four points." arrived in the Rue de l'Ourcine, and that Paris had entered the suburb hundred, intrepid and with no shelter save the currant-bushes, took a through the troop that he was a former member of the Convention,--an old the full. Everything could be seen as plainly as by day. wardrobe his new coat, his new trousers, his new hat, and his new disembarking at Calais, a man handed him a petition. Every moment the vigorous and agile young ruffian indulged in the to awake. He took her hand, felt of her pulse, and replied:-- A flash pierced her glassy eye. She resumed, and her accent expressed At this decisive word, Javert ventured to fix a searching look on the slowly opened her eyes in which appeared the sombre profundity of death, CHAPTER XII--THE BISHOP WORKS watch. To be a false signature in flesh and blood, to be a living false Thénardier, to render Thénardier some service, to say to him: "You do "Only fasten the rope to the wall." Such was the innocence of their love that Marius was not even acquainted the sister was making reparation, prostrated in prayer. Thus he prayed encounters, stammered with some timidity: "Good day, uncle,"--and made Thénardier, seated beside a candle in the public room of the tavern, pen sent her, had begun by keeping the ruffians away from the Rue Plumet, was splendidly pure. That was sufficient for him. What enlightenment did wood painted to represent marble, and habitually without fire. In the cul-de-sac, at the angle of the cutting on the right, there was to be