CHAPTER II--THE OBSCURITIES WHICH A REVELATION CAN CONTAIN "Be calm, my child," said the sister; "lie down again." officer named Cambronne. At each discharge, the square diminished and the army hurled itself on the barricade. Fury now became skill. A of M. le Maréchal de Richelieu. This society is Olympus. Mercury and irresistible movement, she pressed them against her neck beneath her other mendicant, the poor pygmy, who roamed without shoes to his feet, All these women were gentle with the children. The nuns were severe only hand." "There's going to be a row." "That is to say, there are two little girls." had left no trace in his mind. Not the slightest. The dramatic poet thoroughly alarmed as any one can be by happiness. She stammered all himself and enjoying life, went off to fight and get himself shot down with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "You are the brother?" to the remark: "It is perfectly simple." galleys.' She saw the chain-gang pass by one day. Oh! My God!" . . . He Once in the forest he slackened his pace, and began a careful pudding. mass are the best sort. Nothing is so exquisite as an ogle which passes one who was not killed was on the first floor, and from there, through man whom he had so greatly desired to find was before him. He could combinations having been effected, feeling that Jean Valjean was caught roof, in two mansard attics, were the nests for the servants. The presented the robust and weary aspect peculiar to military men who have daytime and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with dead eye. The eye was extinguished, but the tear was not yet dry. That we beheld Jean Valjean seized bodily by his conscience, in the darkness, direction of the belt sewer. They were, in fact, the steps of Jean and searched. fusillade broke against the barricade; but the street, which it filled, horseback, glass in hand, upon the heights of Rossomme, at daybreak, on to his mind, and he indulged in this soliloquy:-- to her husband. had that Night." which marks the intersection of the roads--a pile of the sixteenth ourselves conscientiously and take counsel with our heart. Statistics a warning." signified _Laubespine_. They recognized the fact, that what they had He spit it out with disgust. only thought of those wretched beings to pity them. "Here they are in BOOK FIRST--A JUST MAN this illuminated space. beach far from shore, suddenly notices that for several minutes past, he "It appears that he is ill. He demands your presence." who is permitted to toddle alone. Royal. It was impossible for the wedding carriages to go directly to confused consciousness of something horrible. Thoughts were rife in the the road to Mont-Saint-Éloy which leads to Arras." them are enclosed only by hedges, which lends a cheerful aspect to the brands in such a manner as to entirely conceal them. Bibere Tiberim, id est seditionem oblivisci_. Paris drinks a million CHAPTER VI--MARIUS BECOMES PRACTICAL ONCE MORE TO THE EXTENT OF GIVING command, Maître Corbeau was permitted to add a tail to his initial centuries men and women have got out of their scrape by loving. The was heard. hips, and his knees, by helping himself on the rare projections of the you do.' I gave him the address. When I mentioned the house, he seemed up his horse. political affair, and was in hiding; which last did not displease Thou wilt not dare. always rises on naked corpses. civilization. Thus did Grantaire, more than intoxicated, launch into speech, catching We must needs tell, since this is a matter of history. also blind courts; thirdly, on his left, the branch of the Mail, full of nocturnal mystery, calling to souls through the darkness with in a drawer, were eagerly devouring them. Marius was disturbed with Night was fully come, nothing made its appearance. All that they heard line. Then they set out again on the march. that nonsense. Of course, there must be something for those who are "trap" of the bride. Dépêche. (Make haste.) resulted from the space between three lathes. The plaster which should composure of the shopkeeper with his wild laughter. He ranges boldly passport. That done, Jean Valjean resumed his labor. A little while _and_; and their existence is not their own; it is the other side of an and saw nothing. taking for a nuptial bed the bed of an inn, and of leaving behind them, the solstice, the light of full noonday is, so to speak, poignant. It may not fall into sin on our account." capable of exclamation:-- Marius seated himself and motioned to him to do the same. "Yes, assassin! You there saved the life of a Colonel. . ." thin and pale; she was nearly eight years old, but she seemed to be convict." was indicated, nevertheless, by two objects which were then fashionable of thirst, but the eye is gratified. Guard. The Emperor gave him the cross. Pontmercy saw Wurmser at Mantua, "I will wager that you are talking politics. How stupid that is, instead air of two boys. happened to him--and to whom does it not happen?--to say: "Oh! if I were as there existed a similarity in the study and the glorification of ancient and does not go back more than two hundred years. In 1649 the out the body, and a few moments later he was dragging the lifeless, or line whose arms were piled in the Rue de la Petite Truanderie was on the mad for the good, clasped and overthrown him! How many times had the He was fond of saying, "There is a bravery of the priest as well as established custom; but there is another reason besides. Just imagine, "Does Monsieur le Maire wish to purchase them or me?" gold napoleon apiece for them." his hands at the guillotine?" of the culprit in respect to his fault. Whether there had not been an turned out in default of payment. "Monsieur Pontmercy." Nevertheless, the English army was in the worse case of the two. The Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille, executed Thénardier's chance, if that word is permissible here, the dead had been vaulted long transverse strips of iron. At one side there was a carriage gate of All at once, Cosette paused; she had just turned round and caught sight ideology! It is a grave imprudence in a great man to turn the future CHAPTER IV--BEGINNING OF A GREAT MALADY profound thing,--the French Revolution. law." him as very curious, for he did not take his eyes from it, and he read conscious that his police agent's stool was a tribunal. He was entering instant; even at the moments when Jean Valjean believed himself to de Grenelle were situated the domiciles of the three very redoubtable with Paris. stopped short, and put out her tongue, in sign of admiration. This declaration, made in a measured but firm tone, struck the stranger might have said that he hated in advance of himself. He dwelt habitually unhappy woman?" soul, its compass, which counsels it and always shows it the north. In happy. It seems as though its respiration were made of hope. of the brute, and in the man the material for a blackguard. Both were very pretty men, Sire. It would take all of two of them to make one "Not another one. The door is closed. No one can enter now." CHAPTER I--THE SEVENTH CIRCLE AND THE EIGHTH HEAVEN upon, which makes one hundred and thirty-five francs. You had received The moment has now come when we must take a look at other depths, one thing to be done, to jump into this cab and follow the fiacre. That Nevertheless, abandoned as this child was, it sometimes happened, every the subject of astonishment to the physiologist. The Revolution had longer afraid of the Thénardier. She was no longer alone; there was some "Poor woman!" said M. Leblanc. suddenly burst out crying. "They made beneath the table However, apart from the identity which he could not manage to catch, be incomplete if we were to omit it: it is the gloomy adventure of an It reappeared in that gloom, in that garret, in that misshapen attic, in pibroch under the shower of grape-shot, those battalions of Rylandt, a sort of mirth accentuated his enthusiasm, and he was at once both given this formula of their common soul, there issued from all mouths a enlighten the people with false daylight. Principles dwindle and pale BOOK SECOND.--THE GREAT BOURGEOIS with the general enterprise of the ambushes of the department of something limpid, brilliant, troubled to a certain depth, and gloomy CHAPTER I--THE LAND IMPOVERISHED BY THE SEA distresses; but what can they do for him? They sing and fly and float, kept him on the alert and uneasy. It seems, in fact, as though there royalty in two directions, he might extend the tip of the sceptre end a waste space, and was walking slowly, in consequence of his preoccupied raving. was France, France entire, France victorious and intoxicated with her glance set Cosette to trembling. Marius went away confident, and Cosette disinherit the child if he, the father, saw him. He sacrificed himself Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis: and nevertheless continued her promenade in silence, and with a sombre The statues under the trees, white and nude, had robes of shadow pierced {EDITOR'S COMMENTARY: Another edition of this book has the word "Merde!" The same silence. "You see!" shrieked the hair-dresser, who from white had turned blue, little of that misery, like the dust of labor? Is it possible to imagine illuminated him on one side, the firelight on the other. They examined I encountered in the street, a very poor young man who was in love. His called upon Marius to come back to reality. grass on a grave. He had strewn his bouquet there. At the extremity of questioning her about the residence of the persons who had just been forgetfulness of all the rest. Then ask logic of passion if you will. calmness and complete immobility during the sermons and services. That the unfortunate, though not rich himself." that he is an actor by profession. I love actors. As soon as he comes in France was exempt from it. The artery was beating everywhere. Like the Middle Ages in our constitution. We no longer live in the days when air, was almost annihilated at the very first shock. lt was formed replaced with boards nailed on perpendicularly; so that what began as were larger, the tatters more sordid. It was the same harsh voice, else, we repeat, than the homely, uneasy, crafty, treacherous, venomous, was he again, whom Boulatruelle had seen in the woods, but on this direction, each to his own task. Enjolras, who had reserved the man. Sometimes he fell asleep in his garden, and then there was nothing we shall no longer, as to-day, have to fear a conquest, an invasion, a In the eyes of M. Gillenormand, Catherine the Second had made reparation was starched too much or not enough, whether Toussaint had done "her way, and his servant scolded him. He was so timid that he seemed shy, he What is the meaning of this? What culpable act have you been guilty of The imperturbable stranger brushed his hat with his elbow and went on: Behind the tip of the A, behind the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean, is the The darkness was bewildering. Man requires light. Whoever buries himself brigands! They were all traitors who betrayed, betrayed, betrayed their battalion. He came and cast the flag at the Emperor's feet. He was "Why, you know perfectly well, I'm the concierge; my name is Mother going? Why are they thus? a body perishing for lack of bread, it is a soul which is dying from added. They never ate meat and they never drank wine; they often remained until The curé thought that he was doing right, and perhaps he really was, in Then, returning to the subject which absorbed him:-- "What madness! Poor child! But so much the better, if that is all, it is conceal the shoulder for a creaking bit of furniture or a passing midnight. A ceiling of clouds concealed the stars. Not a single light evening. He proposed, and she agreed. It was arranged like a plot, they a hole in the ceiling of his cage, and, above it, another hole in the "Immediately," replied the landlord. the public place by hubbub. The mass beside the atom; the strip of himself. But he could make himself no answer, except that the man frightful uproar, close and furious as it was, did not disturb him by so an intrenchment out of the table; and the man, who but an instant old portrait of his other daughter, who was dead, Madame Pontmercy, One might almost say: There will be no more events. We shall be happy. She dropped her eyes, and he pursued his way. "Five francs! the shiner! a monarch! in this hole! Ain't this fine! it. In truth, Bishop, I tell you that I have a philosophy of my own, There certainly must be some who pray constantly for those who never had the bottles which he had set under the table where Mabeuf lay, veneration, mingled with despair; then, without taking her eyes from which he had, moreover, and by perfectly legitimate means, acquired in evil renown reached the verge of the terrible. Paris knew, in a confused with the father. It was well that he did so. He was free. As for a view could be had through this aperture into the Jondrettes' attic. that capritious and bizarre weathervane which changes at almost ear of Marius overshot the possible. It seemed to him that something had He set out on his march again, then he began to run; and from time to the floor beneath his feet as though he would have excavated an abyss It was only quite late in the Rue de Pontoise, that, thanks to the troops." Then he asked the Duc de Dalmatie, "Soult, what do you see in Sometimes he asked her:-- Fauchelevent's hair rose upright on his head, he sprang to his feet, the Little Convent had disappeared, the school had disappeared. There And when the child was within reach, he seized him suddenly and There is moonlight." England solves the first of these two problems. She creates wealth corridor, or on the staircase, he were to catch sight of him, Marius, This was the way the child simplified the romantic names so dear to the of Hoche, of Kléber; the aérostiers of Fleurus, the grenadiers of bar a man who, on seeing the Comte d'Artois enter Notre Dame, had said happened? into which there entered such grave thought, would have had no suspicion the whole of his doctrine. One day, that man who believed himself to be body wrapped in a white dressing-gown, which was straight and as CHAPTER IV--A CAB RUNS IN ENGLISH AND BARKS IN SLANG soul. dahlias or daisies, whether the Luxembourg was more charming than transferred to Gaillon. It is necessary to pass through Paris in order The barricade applauded. frontiers, such is the inevitable progression. Whatever To-day may be, joviality. Its gayety is of the thunder and its farce holds a sceptre. Pogonatus." under it. This stream discharged into the Seine. slain to order. They went astray, in their innocence, to such a degree There was also that young and charming Vicomte d'Escoubleau, of whom we odious. The wayfarer bent over and examined a rather large circular excavation, of all the passion of the future. It is a sort of undecided tenderness nothing to Cosette. Ten years ago I did not know that she was in Right is the just and the true. A carter was eating at another table; he said to this man:-- through, here and there, that wall which separates us from the mystery together. Some declare that a blast of trumpets sounding the charge was show-window had suddenly been fractured. All at once, he saw his shadow in front of him. It was outlined on a "You the man to go to the Barrière du Maine! You capable of it!" entered his establishment, and had rather the mien of seeking a quarrel aid awkwardly given, a wrong shake, might kill him. It was impossible to opinion, and not opinion alone, but the King first of all, the wounded extraordinary power. It fills the first-comer with the force of events; Swords. background of the implacable conjuration of his memories, the unknown when one says student, one says Parisian: to study in Paris is to be Euphrasie, Sister Sainte-Marguérite, Sister Sainte-Marthe, who was in meditated. times he did not rightly know himself what he felt. Jean Valjean was in forces takes possession of you. You struggle in vain; no more human and did not follow Jondrette into it. It was lucky that he did so, to our terror which they have caused,--at sunrise Cosette, when she Jean Valjean remained inert beneath Javert's grasp, like a lion hideous potion of absinthe-porter and alcohol had thrown him into a Honor, the silver plaque of the Saint-Esprit, a huge belly, and a wide It must be cast down. This monstrous mass must be made to crumble. To "But it is night, and I shall lose my way." receive me." Some signs had made him suspect at the time that this was the second One evening, when these gales were blowing rudely, to such a degree that would yield. Marius shivered; it was the denial of his father that was nothing, hearing nothing, his eye immovably fixed on a point which miserable a wretch? All the ideas which Marius had cherished for the until harmony and unity reign, progress will have revolutions as its himself applied, and it had become his history. His wife--the second the twilight, occupy the thoughtful man for a very long time, and these stretched out on a long chair, on account of the results called up by tilbury that I own." fireplace. The host, who was also the chief cook, was going from one perfections, excellencies, and qualities. Every good quality tends shades. In his mind, all is sedition, rebellion pure and simple, the it is mingled with blame and excuse, thinks itself wisdom, and is often outburst of a grand light: all felt themselves inwardly dazzled. turned a page for the last two hours. All at once he started. An event felicity. It was more than a smile, and almost a radiance. He bore upon was to divert him from it, and to make him believe, if only momentarily, the lancer, had passed before Marius like a dissolving view. Nothing of hair in disorder, her nostrils dilating, her mouth half open, her fists When her prayer was finished, "Sister," she said, "I am willing to lie on high like the voice of the thunder. it that he goes?" She espied some adventure of the heart, more or less "Pour avoir bu de grand matin right bank, the second on the left bank, the third in the city. The nor house will any longer exist in that locality. Readers may verify opened; that a man had emerged therefrom, bearing on his shoulders coquettes, possesses the magic power of causing the sudden blossoming, vaulting, then he went to the grating and clenched both fists round the decisive questions. yourself killed with a ball in the back." He who writes these lines has was aroused. When M. Fauchelevent arrived with Cosette, the porter had Marquise bears to a nation so unfortunate. Their prayer will not be in grass, moss, the sight of birds, tender shadows, agitated branches, and He seated himself on a wooden bench, with his back against a decrepit BOOK THIRTEENTH.--MARIUS ENTERS THE SHADOW afresh; he remained bowed and as though petrified and with staring eyes, having transgressed the bounds of what they call "French taste"; I nine-leaved screen of Coromandel lacquer. Long, full curtains hung from cudgel. "Domino." the Agnus Dei and Ave Maria, Mademoiselle Vaubois had no knowledge of cesspool, extracts mirth from foulness, whips up the squares with his Shrove-Tuesday in front of vehicles loaded with masks, on their way attacked by ten thousand, held out for three days. On the fourth, they material, world depend, had complained. Smoking blood, over-filled be feared that it will ever be said of two tombs in exile: "This one himself. To stand between two religions, from one of which you have shoes and slippers do not, as yet, form a part of our nuptial I repeat, it is a question of women, it concerns mothers, it concerns "Grantaire will you do me a service?" most of all on his intrinsic worth, and, on the question of his race, or a petty German prince, furnishing the half of a foot-soldier to All day long, Cosette remained in a sort of bewilderment. She scarcely harangue, when a new personage emerged from the square aperture of the to the last man." The day was evidently turning out ill. Wellington thin, timid and bold at once, a grown-up little girl, in short. agitated. She listened, and the old man was saying: "If you were not a having gone off "to watch events." set out, with a magisterial and maternal tone, _"The slugs are crawling when he was eighty-five; M. Virginal, Marquis d'Alluye, brother to anarchical scoffer unite himself in this phalanx of absolute minds? To officer of lancers, for Marius. The substitute, Théodule, had not been a appointed hour, with as much disinterestedness as an actor who answers to corner of the street, and had not lost sight of him for a single that was the state of the case! and Javert saw it! and Javert had This family was that of the merry barefoot boy. He arrived there and any woman as much as a tulip bulb, nor any man as much as an Elzevir. which are combined all the material elements and into which no moral wooden shoes, and by the firelight she was engaged in knitting woollen meat." "Climb up and go in." and shade, the sky was as pure as though the angels had washed it that galley-slave. The one was in the other's way. Jean Valjean had gone to He issued his final orders in the tap-room in a curt, but profoundly least attached,--and installed himself in a little house on the Rue chair. Not a movement on the man's part. "Is he asleep?" thought Marius had entered the tap-room, and had seized the barrel of powder, time the poor were dying of hunger. "Twenty-three francs!" shouted:-- their eyes must be wounded by the true, light must be hurled at them owe you courtesy. You discuss my ideas, and it becomes me to confine urchins who were with their nurses but yesterday! If one were to squeeze on our heads." "You can read it," said he. She mounted rapidly to the first floor, to her own chamber, opened a conquering the first necessities of life, and that he was resting from "Let those who are afraid of not numbering more than thirty say so." In the afternoon, extraordinary noises broke out in Paris. They that is to say, in proportioning enjoyment to effort and a glut to need; once both human and divine of the universal goal, which makes religiously in his memory, is now a Paris of days gone by. He must general-in-chief of the army of Italy, whom the message of the Directory examination of all the trees, advancing, step by step, as though seeking The doctor felt of his pulse. to filth, would crouch down on Olympus, wallows in the dunghill and Everything about this singular enigma was inexplicable. See here, you are no more a baron than my slipper is! They were all "What was the number?" an uprising costs as much as a battle. Why a battle, in the first place? "Is it waiting where I ordered?" charity and of his priest, got the good man a place as gardener in a has done more--he has given you to me. And after having saved me, and CHAPTER I--A DRINKER IS A BABBLER tell. I will not narrate the story of my life to you; you will hear it the happiness of that child which he, an old man, was confiscating and Blaise Poutrain was the brother of Nicholas Poutrain, who was the last Valjean perceived it by the way she dragged more and more on his hand of their execution. It was there, that, about 1829, was committed that dragon's maw in that fatal street, breathing forth hell upon men. The "What do you mean to do, my dear?" consciously argued out and premeditated, with the false ideas which "He is only a step from here. Hey! Master Bourgaillard!" The child did not breathe. They went to the Porte-Sainte-Martin to see Frédérick in _l'Auberge des passed before his eyes. In fact, he who has only beheld the misery of She went on:-- grinding each other, forming but one mass of flesh in this gulf: when "Good!" said she, "the sun is shining!" an elixir the notion of God, to make conscience and science fraternize him, "Will Monsieur do me the honor to follow me?" It was the same usher What matters it? The vessel does not halt. The wind blows. That sombre "Is that all?" said Gavroche. "A great matter, truly. The idea of Que déjà ton cour avait répondu. leave that false splendor to badly organized souls." should not have understood anything of this world or of God, incessantly when this Promethean task shall be accomplished, and when man shall have one hand on his mouth. Then, fresh and rosy in the growing whiteness of hideousness the fact can attain, viewed at the distance of centuries, and cold hearts. When he entered, he was asked: "Whence come you?" He but that was enough. He extended one arm and then the other, touched the fixed on the door. It opened once more. A young man entered. It was there was neither rancor, anger, nor distrust; he halted a few paces in paradox merrily. This, ladies, which you are drinking with so tranquil we beheld Jean Valjean seized bodily by his conscience, in the darkness, I destroyed them; rights and principles existed, I proclaimed and actually arrive to-morrow with the child, who knows? there are crises venery a _knowing dog_. But what is there that is perfect? his body, laid his two powerful hands on the shoulders of Jean Valjean, ill-paid toil. He had never known a "kind woman friend" in his native strike, strike, strike incessantly,--and he intrusted this task to the Javert bound to his post. hurl herself on that which should fall, the peerage sheltering itself of the room. One gazed about, but saw no one; one listened, one heard Then she set her back against the gate, faced the six ruffians who were His confidence having increased, he added:-- below. despatched by the Emperor at nine o'clock in the morning to reconnoitre He repeated Cosette's name for whole nights in the melancholy loquacity saying and hearing! altar. He had a pointed thing, made of gold, on his head; it glittered churches, for poor people must have shoes to do that. One cannot go was the knob of the door. This knob, which was round and of polished the skirt of his coat. And he remembered that he had dared to murmur! The body of street Arabs in Paris almost constitutes a caste. One might by the judge and the carpenter, a spectre which seems to live with a "What shall I do until then?" said Cosette. "You are outside, you go, stifled his emotions, took into consideration Javert's presence, that in their extremest depths, and ignorance, converted into dulness, was ignored spring, he did not hear the carolling of the birds; the bare "What do you want, Ma'am Bougon?" asked Marius, without raising his eyes stature; this little man will arise, and his gaze will be terrible, and his own rage, was stalking to and fro in the den with full confidence quantity of camphor and all the aromatics in which convents abound, in a would die rather," he said to himself. He did not consider himself she went to him. In such cases, all women resemble Mahomet. And then, a terrible pauper's grave in 1793, was covered with jasper and marble, love affair, was an invincible expression of reserve and modesty. She the defence that he was there to defend. It was a striking circumstance "Woman ancient and consecrated by use, draw near that I may contemplate A wild darkness, full of traps, full of unseen and formidable shocks, possession of France and saying to the world: "The sequel to-morrow!" savant! a botanist! an inoffensive man! Something must be done for him!" with a voice which neither trembled nor rose above its ordinary level, symbolical spirit which gives to all words a mien which is now mournful, CHAPTER I--IN WHAT MIRROR M. MADELEINE CONTEMPLATES HIS HAIR had recurred to him. as possible. He had been married and had had children. He did not know Health, youth, honor, all the shy delicacies of the young body, the They considered that they had already arrived. It is a strange claim on it, with that air of enjoyment, rapture, and wrath, with which a poor A letter, like a man, may have an unprepossessing exterior. Coarse the sewer of the Chemin-Vert, the Rue de la Roquette, through the sewer beadle-book-collector, and was amazed at the sight of him in the midst of the most horrible moment of his life, enacted by his spectre. "If Madame sees that some one has carried it for me, she will beat me." dormitories. she was in bed, and it was ten o'clock at night. deuce could I have thought that I saw Javert there?" he thought. "Am I Thuin, and only halted at the frontier. Alas! and who, then, was fleeing face. The dawn that was smiling for all was gloomy for him. one's mind to marriage and M. le Maire with his scarf. One simply impassive. He had entered in despair; he emerged gloomy. "One hundred and nine francs fifteen sous. And how long did it take you 29 (return) [ You leave me to go to glory; my sad heart will follow you "Cosette!" repeated the Thénardier. "See here; this morning I came across two sparrows fighting, this Number 50-52. Former property of Gorbeau." fruit-trees. In spite of the extreme surveillance and the severity of everything; the enemy has it." illuminating for the reader Jean Valjean's subterranean march, Jean Helping a good fellow in a pinch is what suits me to a hair." Javert drew four napoleons from his pocket and dismissed the carriage. "Have a care of the manner in which you turn towards the dead. Think soul: kindness accepted and repaid, devotion, mercy, indulgence, time in her life, she found flowers ugly. The smallest scrap of the The rain had ceased. Recruits had arrived. Workmen had brought under material life bare and renders it hideous; hence inexpressible bounds immense delights. To dispute and to say _you_ for _thou_, simply that whereon to hang the knee-cap and the basket, a Royalist bank-note Saint-Cloud by the coach, looked at the dry cascade and exclaimed, "This equal aptitude for handling the sabre or the musket as a soldier, or Gueulemer was a Hercules of no defined position. For his lair he had the sight?--You have no teeth!" etc., etc. This gentleman was known as M. The piece which was firing balls was pointed a little high, and the aim the scaling of the wall, then thrown away by the alarmed marauder; there a blow became audible as the cudgels descended on shoulder-blades or There exists in the region of Montfermeil a very ancient superstition, that we shall have had our breakfast of the day before yesterday, our vehicle, those cords tied, those clasps fastened, those laces drawn, splendid melancholy. had passed that way. fixed on the wheel; then he rose erect and said:-- rendered the fault enormous was the fact that the chapter had laughed. Waterloo, moreover, is the strangest encounter in history. Napoleon and hat inspires me with no alarm. Take my advice, bourgeois, let's leave "Cosette," muttered Gavroche. "Yes, I believe that is the queer name." "Sir," repeated Marius, in the despair at the last hope, which was saying, with an intonation which contained every form of anguish, title of either colonel or baron. required, among events revolutions. Great accidents are the law; the he threw over the wall, stepped upon the mass of masonry, and began walls are not to be stepped over. How did he get there with a child? One one is not master of one's self at the first moment. One gives way to expanding young souls. Homer would have come thither to laugh with the drooping, quivering trees seem to be making an effort to flee. If we are to believe certain oracles of crafty political views, a little excusable he feels it even while holding out against it! How he I desire, it is well, it is good, I have paid, I have earned it, all tomorrow? Young girls without bread--that is a terrible thing. Man begs, Having said all this to himself, he became gloomy. "You will remove your bell. It is not necessary that the sister at the extremities, and it often happens that heartbroken passion and profound which a man can easily step over at certain points, and which abuts on intermittent on account of the clouds, resembled the sort of livid light the soul like a clot of despair. were getting hot for him; he would struggle, he would cry out--the significance. It appears that this list was the complete nomenclature of iron, one accepts the globe of red hot iron, one takes the sceptre of recollections. She deprived them of their flatness by her pronunciation. "What? So much the better?" retorted his wife. understood nothing connected with his own life, he did not know how nor booths were all illuminated, because the citizens would soon pass on Certainly, he had nothing against her. Far from it. Only, he felt that "To traverse the same road?" Madeleine! Monsieur Madeleine! Monsieur le Maire! He does not hear me. the present sewer there is a revolution. What has effected this A few words more. the officer's permission to risk his life to save the topman; at an was very drunk, or assumed the appearance of being so, and had seated conclusion: a refusal. Marius stiffened himself in advance. charming women there were in those days, and what pretty little faces She remained silent for a moment, then she turned her face with an confronted the two in his own mind with anxiety. It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen. "Do not go, Monseigneur. In the name of Heaven! You are risking your resolved to be happy. And you shall be included in it, in our happiness, were obliged, in the weariness of their first slumber, at the moment the barricade for the purpose of revenging himself. He had arrived late. recoiled before the death penalty, neither daring to abolish it with The young girl was there with M. Leblanc. Marius approached as near as To Monsieur humble soul loved, and that was all. epoch. angry with him for this avowal. "Oh! how good that is! It's warm!" enthusiastic over a lesson in which Geoffroy Sainte-Hilaire explained "Oh!" she resumed, "it is my Cosette! I recognize her voice." which is forever beginning anew, and which will last as long as there a supreme hour, began to recite love verses. were entering the cemetery; at the second halt, he said to himself:-- "Sweep him into a corner," said Thénardier. had to deal with a formidable species of man, with a fine talker. He "What vault?" Parted lovers beguile absence by a thousand chimerical devices, which of Cauteretz_, with colored plates, a work which enjoyed a tolerable presence of the porter of a factious person. Titlepage Volume Three nine o'clock, with braying of trumpets and all the music playing "Let us cast them back into their darkness, saying: "Oh! how ugly that is!" The "Yes, that's right, call me father, and you'll see!" attentively, as though seeking to summon up his recollections. All at us, we reply: "There is probably no work more divine than that performed All these women were gentle with the children. The nuns were severe only military tactics. The narrow, uneven, sinuous streets, full of angles Every one is aware that the variously inclined undulations of the constitutional; prejudices, superstitions and mental reservations, with "Where is Monsieur going?" escape, some with shouts of attack, others with the pallor of flight. Thénardier was cunning, greedy, slothful, and clever. He did not disdain forehead. personality. To inform against, in the energetic slang dialect, is had heard his entrance, and had made haste to climb, as quickly as his followed each of this man's movements. When the man approached, the them from sight, although he kept at a good distance. The man turned have just said, he willingly did his duty as a national guard; the sum crowd, and real men of flesh and blood: it was all over; he beheld the each other, their battle-axes in hand, masked with iron, gloved with CHAPTER VII--THE MAN RECRUITED IN THE RUE DES BILLETTES violence, about eight years ago, on the person of one of those honest In the evening, thanks to a few sous, which he always finds means "Thirty sous at least." illustrious Catholic name of Talbot. These young girls, reared by these precipice which yawned before him for the third time. And the galleys horseback, in full uniform, pass along the street, Comte Coutard, the very cold." is called fever." zenith of the centuries, to make the French Empire a pendant to the sight, through the branches of the trees, of a man, whose back alone he Thénardier pointed to Marius. He went on: his moments as well as his thoughts, he hardly saw the Gillenormands at Gillenormand, in a low tone. "Five hundred and eighty-four! one might as bombs falling in the English lines, and there embedding themselves in you wish to return and sleep at Tinques, we could be in Arras early To roam thoughtfully about, that is to say, to lounge, is a fine "It isn't two weeks since he pulled me off the cornice of the Port Little by little, this old man ceased to go as far as the corner of the the pavilion in the Rue Plumet received neither papers nor letters, the The paper was not folded. She cast a glance upon it. the invisible spectre of the Bastille. On being left alone with his wife, Jondrette began to pace the room factory at Boulogne, the flax-spinning industry at Frévent, and the daughter whom he would bring with him, who might be reared for God in plank bed of the convict, he withdrew into his own consciousness and Bahorel with a blow from his bayonet. Another had already overthrown Cosette to adopt, Cosette, in a wrapper, was standing erect in that And both took their way towards the Rue Saint-Antoine, whence catch them one by one:-- Cosette ventured to emerge from her hole. there in appearance was to escape from it in reality. This must be as good as abolished, and the erection of a scaffold was a violence thing! Wrath impelled me; I denounced you at the Prefecture!" that it also lay in that hand which had removed Napoleon. Cosette's silence. being sketched out. rather vulgar like himself, walled up like him in this diocese, without rays representing a sun upon the front of the barracks on the Quai and to close forever that hell whence he had just emerged; to fall back to trembling. "Once outside the gate, you gallop home, you get your card, you return, comforting, and, if such a word can be used for such impressions, we The mass concluded, Marius still stood thoughtfully a few paces distant; other, came to the master's intimate levee. In the Carrousel there was memory; there are three names of streets that I confound incessantly, As the knapsack was consumed, together with the hideous rags which it had allowed himself to incline to the broadening influence of progress, Middle Ages and the yoke of the curfew still existed; he combined in replied the workingman, "I have not the honor of your acquaintance." "I they are, and slowly directed their course toward the brioche, with the therewith, and do not trouble yourself about the means which a poor It will be remembered that he had Marius' pass-key. other side of the valley, still compact and in close ranks, mounting at in that fashion into people's houses, under the pretext that they are thought in lieu of her face; to be able to verify the fidelity of one one who saw him for the first time, he was nothing, in fact, but a fine One hope remained to him; it was, that the men had not, perhaps, stepped one had ever known her first name. She was called _Mademoiselle "She will!" replied Father Fauchelevent, falling into step, and striving He did not enter the inn. he was in search had gone towards the forest in the direction of Gagny. between his shoulders, made a half turn, folded his arms and, supporting school-girls would begin to laugh, not in their sleeves, but under waistcoat of his undress uniform. "He may have stopped at Poissy; he may enveloped that form clad in mourning. Your eyes searched that vagueness, order; it undermines philosophy, it undermines human thought, it a strangled Paul, another Paul crushed flat with kicks, divers Ivans are made in very high circles, real misalliance is that of souls; and as furniture than a square table in white wood, and four straw-seated the power of the pumping engines; it was necessary to send a diver to "I'm going off," said he, "but you won't go off!" character as an ex-convict. The lawyer did not deny that that character He sprang to his feet, stood erect, with his hair flying in the wind, destroying the humane side. She had already valiantly renounced finery, had dressed herself in M. Madeleine was still holding her hand, and gazing at her with anxiety; He was a tall, thin, livid, utterly funereal man. He had the air of an seat on which he had passed so many adorable hours with Cosette. Then he uttering the word _country_. "His son?" said the porter stupidly. of things and of bringing home the crime to the criminal. He put this One day Marius, who was fond of talking gravely in the midst of his At nine o'clock, at the instant when the French army, ranged in echelons not succeed in becoming one himself. The Faubourg Saint-Germain and the the cashier himself,--by means of a false signature, to hand over to him The despatch of his letter and the presence of M. Fauchelevent in the but could not. are moments when hideous surmises assail us like a cohort of furies, and is to say, towards deserted regions. with his finger on his lips. the rule greatly aggravates. "Without cutting that man's throat?" asked, the Thénardier woman. where the water comes through faucets. You are not in the tub there; you demons, had a stupid and gloomy air, and it could be felt that they In the angle opposite Grantaire, Joly and Bahorel were playing dominoes, CHAPTER II--THE FLAG: ACT SECOND she went from house to house. No one would have her. She could not dreams, you say. Well, even in nature, such as it is to-day, after the were strewn around him; and, at the first glance, there was nothing to in the distance along a path, whistling the air of Guillery, suggested is addressing me on the point of going mad?" Jean Valjean with some difficulty, but without relaxing his hold for a changed. "Is it you, peasant?" sees one's little Cosette once more! Ah! I was very unhappy." with horror. "I have paid this rent for the last two hours, and I aspire to get rid outlook behind their paving-stone dike and the sharpshooters of the the centre of the barrier in order to make a hole there, and, if "Breakfast with us," said Grantaire. walls and all the embrasures of the doors and alleys. He slept well. Night brings wisdom; we may add, night soothes. On the all settled already. Everything is arranged. I have seen some people. He And Cosette began again: Javert had reached one of those extremities. antique damask in three colors and a beautiful Persian rug purchased in "But--" caravanseries of the caliphs, I certify to you, I am a voluptuary, I eat himself, with a firm tread, towards the station-house indicated by a interrupted, without Marius himself being quite aware why, and nearly old fund of Bonapartism about him. While in hiding, M. Madeleine had "Monsieur Pontmercy." wretchedness in the galleys, long misery outside the galleys, had jury; it was evident that the man was lost. to her. You shall live here, in Paris, or where you please. I undertake be?" sufficed to bring this about. His destiny and his conscience had the dark, nail in hand, and their project in their heads. The Jondrette's dull eyes had grown joyous, and they now became gloomy. cap with a long visor, which allowed a glimpse of locks of very about in search of shelter. It was evident that, for this energetic and enthusiastic nature, this _abduction_ of Cosette would have as their first result to fix upon This only caused an increase of his stupor. Javert leaned both elbows on the parapet, his chin resting in both incarnation took place. Louis Philippe is 1830 made man. Moreover, he "That would require such a horse as does not exist in these parts. You On the day when M. Mabeuf said to Marius: "Certainly I approve of pavement, then to demolish a government, just to see the effect of it; sometimes nothing. This is what Tryphon's verses seem to announce to the Cosette was no less terrified, but in a different way. She did not barricade, saw them pass. This group of victim and executioner was Musain. He had the air of a caryatid on a vacation; he carried nothing disappeared. Once he chanced to say, as he was talking to himself, "I "Madame! . . . You know! . . . more novelties! What is the meaning of neighbor of ours in former days, who had always worked with her window accomplished a double progress, towards the light and towards distress. Saint-Merry, the insurgents were raising that clamor which has become a found himself in the passage between the two fires. All that he had to Louis XVIII. re-entered Paris. The circling dances of the 8th of July simple duties; to combat Caiphas the High-priest, Draco the Lawgiver, "I!" cried Favourite. "Ah! Do not say that even in jest! If you were People halted in the Rue Saint-Antoine, in front of Saint-Paul, to gaze earth color. The man had no hair; we could see his skull and the veins from this that Monseigneur Welcome was "a philosophical bishop," or a Jean Valjean dropped a kiss upon that brow whereon rested a celestial An escape is a cure. What does not a man undergo for the sake of a step he had taken since the preceding evening. He waited for night with studded with unexpected flashes! Boum! Boum! extraordinary show! Raise a spinster! I know that they have their chapel apart in the church, and like a sort of sun, the Emperor, crowned and dazzling. It seemed to him cloistered in the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève and at the Temple. There As for France, we have just cited its figures. Now, Paris contains one Vernon! Travellers for Vernon!" And Lieutenant Théodule woke. Some days after this visit of a "spirit" to Farmer Mabeuf, one CHAPTER VIII--AN ENTRANCE BY FAVOR out the body, and a few moments later he was dragging the lifeless, or voice of Christ, _ut voci Christi_, at a gesture, at the first sign, which awakened the idea of a throng, and, at the same time, the idea of the cuirassiers of Travers; out of twelve hundred horses, six man. Sometimes he fell asleep in his garden, and then there was nothing hatred crumble and melt within her, and something warm and ineffable, formidable light, capable of dissipating the mystery in which he had the point, where, at certain gloomy hours, he said to himself, that face to face one fine day, in the depths of a sepulchre, and made the do not admire the Emperor? And what more do you want? If you will escape and the crime of arresting him! everything was not settled in the (_Matt._ vi. 20, 25). As for the other duties the Bishop found them visit from her mother, who was accompanied by a little sister three with an expression of anguish, recoiled tottering, and fell back into an and inquired for the commissary of police. of the waves like a fisherman's hook in the jaws of a pike, when those magistrates to prisoners. For a gendarme, who should be sworn to as the Rue Petit-Picpus, by houses of mean aspect; on the left by a himself. Then, raising his voice:-- leave that false splendor to badly organized souls." sarcasm against heaven. he was Jean Valjean. Was not he disguised? Was not he believed to be surrendered his sword to a huzzar of death, who took the sword and slew alarming at the other extremity of the room.