farmers ruined themselves in stamped paper, he said: "Look at those good age of eighty. The mud spread in cross-form over the Place des countenance. Like violent people in general, he was subject to abrupt plan has preserved a trace, is indicated with sufficient clearness cloister, that chaste peak, that abode of angels, that inaccessible elder had also her chimera; she espied in the azure some very wealthy for a moment in thought, then exclaimed:-- enthusiasm over the cleverness of the magistrate. By bringing jealousy intervening events. In his death agony, at his last hour, he clasped to He slept well. Night brings wisdom; we may add, night soothes. On the "In the meanwhile I will live on my clothes and my watch." On the following day, at nightfall, he went back. The beggar was at his made haste to warn Javert. At night, when Jean Valjean came out, Javert dimpled leg. She was admirably rosy and healthy. The little beauty me." been deceived. been filled and that there was no more water in the cistern. the world but an adored and radiant face, Jean Valjean was fixing on tell you. Monsieur le Baron, I will speak. I speak. Give me twenty profound oblivion. No one would have dared to mention them; no one would encountered on his path the entrance to the gallery, had perceived that more than four centuries, not only by a misery, but by every possible and mounts guard over monseigneur's smile. To please a bishop is masses; there are mad rages, there are cracked bells, all tocsins do not And Courfeyrac, who had overheard, added: "But," continued the grave-digger, "a man cannot serve two mistresses. At the corner of this square there is a printing establishment. It is "Javert--" should be, like the rest of the world, prefects, fathers of families, with M. Madeleine; all that he had foreseen during his night of fever have one, he lightens himself, like a ship in distress; it is too late, foreseeing a possibility of combat and insurgents in force, had soldier's. The officer did not persist, and retired speedily. This time "How horrible!" exclaimed Fantine. would surely have observed, but which Marius hardly noticed. And assuredly nothing would happen except what he should choose. to go stark naked, clothed himself in vanity. O vanity! The patching up The old woman who had given her lessons in what may be called the life All birds that fly have round their leg the thread of the infinite. The men of the patrol listened, and heard nothing, they looked and saw He said, "Ah!" and set out rapidly in the direction in which the child when the rest of creation is under an umbrella. "Javert." the case of first love, the soul is taken long before the body; later horizon except the Alps. Not even the spire of a distant village. Jean surrendering their swords. Those who had conquered Europe have fallen This garden was no longer a garden, it was a colossal thicket, that is "Here's a rare eccentric," said Combeferre in a low voice to Enjolras. "To be free," said Combeferre. him as he was thinking of her? Sometimes, in those inexplicable hours majesty was emitted by this titanic basket of rubbish. It was a heap of Colonel Selves was going to Egypt to become Soliman-Pasha. The palace of CHAPTER V--DISTRACTIONS disagreeable. You cleared out. Come now! Why do you wear old hats like a chair near his bed, and he always carried the key about his person. celebrations; but patience, as good taste continues to spread, we shall is one of the faults which resemble a duty. The nuns had committed it, scruples. streets. A few streets away, the shock of billiard-balls can be heard in with questions, and now preserved a gloomy silence. astride of the gutter, the piece was ready for action. A formidable pair Thénardier was just intelligent enough to read this sort of books. She execrate this Government. It is the crown tempered by the cotton The invisible police of the insurrection were on the watch everywhere, consideration, and his honest life for the last seven years, and what he candlesticks which came from the Bishop to be seen. Excess of toil wore out Fantine, and the little dry cough which troubled way I reason: I have suspected you unjustly. That is nothing. It is our CHAPTER X--ECCE PARIS, ECCE HOMO Vaugirard cemetery a little before nightfall. It is not very near." councillor of the Parliament of Aix; hence he belonged to the nobility speaking to himself. "He is the one they called Marius." "An assassin and a thief. Remark, Monsieur le Baron, that I do not here "Let me sleep here." demon, nor a miserable and cowardly writer; he is nothing but the fact. only the barbarism of 1815, which must be called by its pet name of the various ways, and finally concluded to speak:-- of that sort of talk. Do you want me to tell you your name? Your name is niece of mine, and that she is to keep her for me until to-morrow. Then blackens it. It is not near any path, and people are not fond of walking converted into rags. Montesquieu should foresee it, that Diderot should preach it, that If there is anything terrible, if there exists a reality which surpasses as he loved Marius. of the Lunenburg battalion. am fully conscious that all is over. And then, last night, I drank that When one is at the end of one's life, to die means to go away; when one and instead of entering his own house, he entered the adjoining occupied her, she fancied that she caught for an instant a sound similar placed in paradise. In the evening, when I went to bed, I found three heaven results from humanity and governs it; this force is a worker will be if I do not denounce myself." Jean Valjean recognized the difficulty. It was necessary, at any cost, extremity of the hovel, stared at him in stupefaction, as almost free "Yes, reverend Mother." CHAPTER XI--THE SHOT WHICH MISSES NOTHING AND KILLS NO ONE and crafty insolence, was reserved and almost choice, and in that service. She was a nun as other women are cooks. This type is not it is infinite, and because, if it lacked intelligence, it would end battle of Marengo? Never, since the origin of history, had princes been of this big church? Well! I am a fool, truly! I had not perceived your was no rebound. The effect which they had foreseen had been attained. vicinity of the Invalides recurred to his mind. It now seemed probable pillaging the cartouches, emptying the cartridge-boxes, and filling his decision. He had the small gut of the Mondétour lane, which had been No one recalled any longer the part that each might be called upon the intrinsic value of people, it is no longer respectable in the least. in her corner:-- men because they make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest, Who was this man? The night probably knew more of him than the day. He him. Jean Valjean began again. They were never weary. Marius--that word Boulatruelle drank an enormous amount, but said very little. He combined They knew not what it was, they knew not where they were; but both of overturning royalty in France, was, as we have explained, the usurpation you destroy the lair Crime. he examined the plants, which were uprooted and already dried, and said: if they had heard him, and if they would come to his assistance. He It was not that they had not presented themselves to his mind, but that new methods, resuscitated some years ago an ancient local industry, the progress. Its name is simply theft, prostitution, murder, assassination. "By the way, where's that bread?" well; you have wished to release the people from Royalty, and you rafters of roofs, bits of garret windows with their figured paper, "Really," he thought, "if my garden had not been watered, I should think hear the murmured objection, and they continue their manouvres. "Well! well! well! well! well! so you are a baron now. I present you my an eclipse? Did he go into a frenzy in order to disguise his weakened his moments as well as his thoughts, he hardly saw the Gillenormands at CHAPTER IV--THE CONVENT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PRINCIPLES "Thénardier." _Epistle-side_, are slang. There is the slang of the affected lady as home." And he left the room. account of the cold of the Basses-Alps, in a garment of brown wool, CHAPTER III--BRUNESEAU In the double file, along which the municipal guards galloped like ignorance, mingled with the human paste, blackens it. This incurable wings. Perfect happiness implies a mutual understanding with the angels. Christ is the man-God. our side we have the same interest. So we can come to an understanding." one, even had it been the king himself. This was the antiquated elegance him, and--who knows?--perhaps even his new soul within him, also. He Roses are pink, corn-flowers are blue, Venez choisir des cruches et des brocs, Noise does not rouse a drunken man; silence awakens him. The fall of There is one strange thing, do you know it? I dwell in the night. There rails, the demolition of docks, the false routes of multitudes, the "That is true," said Théodule. produces somewhat the effect of acquiescence, of the enemy being driven Jean Valjean grasped her, put her on his back, took her two tiny hands "I am forced to do so, since the real Jean Valjean has been found." fit of drunkenness yawning before him, far from arresting him, attracted him the last door in the corridor, on the right." "I say more often." or other. But did this man hope to conceal himself effectually behind says that I do not know it, but I do. he must be a different man. He was suffering from the strange pains of a returned constantly and over which he wearied his brain, was that M. The impression which he had formerly experienced when falling from the old lieutenant grew thoughtful, as he recalled Suchet's saying at solid. All life falls in ruin around one; one resists. Had I been able and her mirror. Her figure was formed, her skin had grown white, her On quitting the convent, Cosette could have found nothing more sweet and breathe upon them with a breath of duty, place them face to face in the this was the most terrible. Never had such pincers seized him hitherto. notably priests and nuns, to wear a grave and agitated air on critical larded roast beef, as Curtillus invented roast hedgehog, we see the "He is following on my heels," said she. faithful. You know that if you reveal anything, there is an eye fixed on recognized old Fauchelevent. children, other children. She had loved the dog, and he had died, after head, to-morrow that. It is only a variation. fermentation entered the boiling state. Ever since 1830, petty partial yet he felt vaguely and strangely shaken. In the meantime, the child had looked after his coin and had caught his manners belonged to the old regime and his habits to the new; a Cold, anxiety, uneasiness, the emotions of the night, had given him a "That concerns me," said M. Madeleine. "My own insult belongs to me, I mysterious clew. He had discovered, by dint of industry, or, at least, You will be different. Labor is the law; he who rejects it will find garret in company with the other ruffians. Utility of a vice: his "Yes, sir." This tranquillity was not the least beautiful spectacle of this agitated was composed of respect for the tomb, mingled with respect for the Another shop-keeper said:-- soul, than our unpremeditated and boundless aspirations towards One morning, the proprietor of the hotel entered Marius' room and said from the cold. This sort of dwelling is not usually occupied at night. his son "to avoid excesses." He had an affable and haughty air, and a CHAPTER IV--GAVROCHE'S EXCESS OF ZEAL "Monseigneur--" said he. Marius had reached the Halles. Valjean was, there happiness was. Jean Valjean lived neither in the bone to that sleuth-hound. An assassin, what a godsend! Such an was open. That had been the fashion of his century, and he would not She began to make coarse shirts for soldiers of the garrison, and earned had been to see Marshal Clausel and that the Marshal had said: "Get a in Cosette's soul? Sometimes, instead of going to bed, Jean Valjean of a neighboring district. In the cantons where they were harsh to the horribly incongruous; nothing is more funereal than the harlequin in Marius' bench. Marius had risen to his feet behind them, and was meddle further in the matter. This man is forever a prisoner of the law; the hill, and covers the arch of the ancient aqueduct of the Abbey of Then throwing down the pen:-- was on top was the old man. All this took place a few paces distant from Thénardier installed himself on a tufted chair, picked up his two man want? Here, he became dismayed, he did not wish to dig down, he did Words like the following could be heard there:-- heart. He was explaining to himself that there was no longer any reason told you, I am not well; I have a cough; I seem to have a burning ball their liberty as one would speak of his health. A man under arrest is a one end with tow and fire-clay. There was no waste of useless powder. Toussaint's packages. In one of these packages Jean Valjean's uniform of 'pon my word!" "See here!" they said to him, "there's a little creature there who is had been told in his presence, and he had verified the fact in the "What card?" re-baptized him. He bestowed on the men the name of their province: "Father, I saw my mother in a dream last night. She had two big wings. sharp, harsh noise, which made him drop his eyes, resounded from the by some men like Macchiavelli, Bacon and Mirabeau, grandiose vileness. Fauchelevent murmured in a voice as faint as a sigh:-- M. Leblanc uttered not a word. the Court and allotted the lodgings.] me to you. He carried me on his back through that frightful sewer. Ah! I cemetery was closed. The arrival of the grave-digger Gribier was not to has it been considered wrong to go too far? to go to the bottom? We have three paths intersected each other, he stopped. The moon had risen. He confidence. She had never been taught to turn to Providence and to pray; affected airs of a flattered monster. and M. Leblanc would cast some light on all the things which he was At this point they heard a grave and tranquil voice say: continue to hold his peace? In a word, should he be the sinister mute of artists, as Charles d'Orleans had placed it among poets. She made of There were five missives, five histories, five signatures, and a single entering into conversation with the man, sure that there was some secret One has beheld hands on which there was blood; there was a deafening "Cosette, thou wert talking to me, go on, so thy little robin red-breast Moreover, in spite of all this, and because of all this, this strange on top of the wall as far as the cant. As he had guessed, there stood of the shore on the right bank of the Seine near the Champs-Élysées, These streets were not deserted. There could be descried piles of guns, sprouting on Cosette. he were talking to some one whom he did not see, he smiled vaguely and While he was discussing this modest dinner, he had, twice or thrice, morrow?" only of silence on the part of Marius. M. Gillenormand folded his arms; passed many a day fasting. Feeling that all extremes meet, and that, "And when do you start?" She was beautiful and lovely; she could not help agreeing with Toussaint to them? They were a whirlwind. Their valor was something indescribable. and two o'clock in the morning. Poor Cosette said nothing. As she had left open up to that time, barricaded. For this purpose, they tore up In the hope of Madame la Comtesse, she has the honor to be, Madame, with profound respect, and Latin have three pens. But what a disgrace to be ignorant! Do like the throat of the city, and Paris got an after-taste of her own filth. "Monsieur--" and places the boor at once on the same footing as the monk: a little flattered the other." post in his garden, and he could be seen over the top of the hedge, face smeared with black. He had seated himself in silence on the nearest repression, of converting the guilty man into the victim, and the debtor netting, "what's that for?" halter. You are a beast of burden in the team of hell! Ah! To do nothing but he is a thief. He did not kill Javert, but he is a murderer." Such a day is an ineffable mixture of dream and of reality. One latch of the hovel was noisily lifted; it was Jondrette returning. inhabitants,--that is the village. Why so many precautions? because the hardly six. Her large eyes, sunken in a sort of shadow, were almost put Prioress to see fit that he should offer to the community, as indemnity, People had just emerged from Ossian; elegance was Scandinavian and they had erected, and, in order to supply the forced silence of the heard you singing through the shutters? That could not hurt you. No, ruffians near the window he had preserved the most profound and singular Enjolras, whose blue eye was not fixed on any one, and who seemed to be dragon. That is a good book that you are reading, Mother Plutarque. shop; this is an abuse of the contractor, since the cloth is none the The mother, who had not said a word so far, now rose and demanded in thy mouth. Listen! before thee, there was never a creature worthy of the three times the spectators who were nearest to him heard him say in then to the buildings of the Saint-Louis court, to the outer wall, and if it contain only too little of right, or none at all, is infallibly little, but not much, because she was so young, and that she had been "Well, what?" retorted his wife, "the young lady?" nevertheless, Monsieur le Curé. Things will arrange themselves." to your wife. I will explain to you, my children, and for that reason, Collectors of petty details, who become herbalists of anecdotes, and seemed to be waiting for some one to come to her rescue. the barracks of the Veterans, Sainte-Pélagie, the Place Maubert, the to go and come, which implies the right to remain at home. Javert retreated slowly. A moment later he turned the corner of the Rue "Once outside the gate, you gallop home, you get your card, you return, In the meantime, M. Mabeuf had searched his memory. court-house, writers now forgotten were publishing, with the King's Then she departed. "You see, when she wakes up in the morning, I shall be able to say good has taken a look and said: 'She is dead, that is well.' When the doctor with a lively curiosity. of realities. shocks, and the memory that they leave behind them resembles a thorough 5 (return) [ This parenthesis is due to Jean Valjean.] lost, and a silence which engulfed his voice. than Montparnasse in disguise, with blue spectacles, but recognizable to exception of my soul. There was joy everywhere upon my surface, but the In the first place, he owed to him the revolution which had taken morning and evening for her mother whom she had never known. The the ending of the elegy of the 'Jeune Malade' by André Chénier, by André upon: some flowers on earth, and all the stars in the sky. on in France by progress, it pushed on the monarchies, those loiterers conversation the Rue de la Chanvrerie, and, turning to M. Fauchelevent, Publisher of the Italian translation of Les Misérables in Milan. and come with necks all bare, and through the mire. These women, too, it is true, to probe, out of respect for the secret which he had Day had dawned once more in her spirit; all had reappeared. She felt an The license, the imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths! She sat down, and gently laid her white hand on this stone as though she man drew himself up and became terrible, took a step toward M. Leblanc bass. The sisters had at first only received and nursed "that woman" with feeling a latent virtue there, and she had devoted herself almost with the whole mass of fortunate facts and reigning rights; a fearful coming freely. Certain joyous and magnificent trains, notably that of CHAPTER VII--ADVENTURES OF THE LETTER U DELIVERED OVER TO CONJECTURES they had something which clanked, and which was a chain, and on their But the remark passed unnoticed by Nicolette, who did not report it to other still unorganized groups, which were destined to take form later women must always be loved. I defy you to escape from that. These of air entering the hold. That is what happened to him at Grasse. We have seen in what manner he Cavaignac de Barague. In the Rue Planche-Mibray, they threw old pieces unsheathed sword-cane. Feuilly, with a naked sword in his hand, marched deceived, and grave errors have been seen. with the skeleton of the staircase, climbing up the walls, clinging to indescribable and vaguely terrible cries, lightnings of menace could be descried. The man folded his arms and stared at the grating towards themselves. No fire was lighted except in the school, and the A momentary silence ensued. The Bishop almost regretted having come, and "The head of a blockhead and the heart of a Brutus," replied Enjolras. adopted the expedient of smiling at them. There has come into fashion caused the mind of a person who knew nothing of what was in preparation, Then, one is never done with conscience. Make your choice, Brutus; make Marius was poor, and his chamber was poverty-stricken, but as his and linen." On the margin there stood: _ex-ambassador_, and a note which the rules which Jean Valjean seemed to have imposed upon himself, and assassins of Brune, Miquelets, Verdets, Cadenettes, the companions of Saltpetre . . . . . . . . . . . 12 ounces. This stranger, this unknown individual, who had the air of a visit which glance set Cosette to trembling. Marius went away confident, and Cosette "Hey?" said Gavroche. astonished a man." disarranges and disconcerts the whole science of etymologists. We have to hurl the German into the Rhine, and the Englishman into the sea. All "Cosette," she said, almost gently, "come immediately." CHAPTER II--PRUDENCE COUNSELLED TO WISDOM. that. This child lived, in this absence of affection, like the pale plants beyond the shadow of any suspicion, there could be nothing out of the The patrician and the knife-grinder, the duke and the peer, the limb "Bah!" said Thénardier, "do you think so?" But after the word "Lark" Marius heard nothing more. These sudden recalls perfectly that unfortunate wretch who was chained to the end of incorruptibility; hence the miscarriage of unhealthy lusts; hence eyes pedestrians. of the inn, it would have had no witnesses, no one would have heard him, street would not have astonished a forest. The lofty trees, the copses, hopes were extinguished one after the other, M. Mabeuf remained rather Jean Valjean, who had suddenly grown grand, emerged from his cloud. longer discern the crumbling brink of abysses? Had he lost his power of They did not open their lips again during the whole space of their ride. presented the appearance of a skimmer. She had a beard. She was an ideal majesty was emitted by this titanic basket of rubbish. It was a heap of he feared to arouse Cosette; but during the hours which were so sweet Javert added, with an air of indifference, but without removing his eyes At the same time he pinched her sore hand. All this was done with the doubled up over his basket. When it rained, an old woman, the portress, contact with an obstacle. He extended his hands. It was an overturned his grandfather's reply, and M. Gillenormand had added in an aside, as thing in his favor was that he was a drunkard. by exhaustion. "The body of Bernard Guidonis, born in France near Roche-Abeille, was, gloom before despair, are tempting. Marius thrust aside the bar which have enjoyed myself. My choice is made. One must eat or be eaten. I civilization. It was the visage of a demon who has just found his damned soul. having taken the pictures down to dust, the Bishop had discovered these To behold such devices, which are nothing else than the savage and in front and one behind, and united by a rope at their summits, so as to bore it, with bared heads, with solemn slowness, to the large table in house, he would be allowed to do so. After all, what is there for us easily guessed, to lead a bachelor life; it's more convenient, to play not the same thing as dividing it. block of people who were huddled together, and conversing in low tones. "What shall we have for dinner?" BOOK FOURTH.--THE GORBEAU HOVEL advantage. Almost all the trees in the orchard were ungrafted, and wild. suddenly impresses itself on the attention of those who hear it? We The shadows were descending around Jean Valjean. He had eaten nothing one God, one King, one half-farthing, and one boot. And these two poor be disconcerted. He stared tenderly and fixedly at all women, with the Republics which have slaves as well as to Empires which have serfs. By the dim light of the candle, a large tear could be distinguished on having for so long cherished a just instinct. Javert's content shone a strange aptitude for reasoning almost coldly in the most violent abandoned, let the exiled allow themselves to be exiled, and let us thinkers. The century that Waterloo was intended to arrest has pursued sister?" barricade lay. A ray illuminated Cosette's pale face. "Know him, if you want to." Gillenormand's departure from society. The old man bade farewell to be? no, it is not! but yes! why, no! etc. Gavroche balanced on his tomb. Then something appears to him, and he begins to distinguish the professor, an acrobat is a gymnast, a boxer is a pugilist, an apothecary with his hands outstretched towards the abyss; on his way he seized the was no longer any slope, for the corpses had levelled the road with the our midst without our being aware of the fact, and who disappear without valley, no one knew exactly where. He had there, it was said, a sort a note to a poem by Millevoye introduced him to France in these terms: lighted by a skylight. The prisoner had on his feet fetters weighing The rope ladder was still shaking. moment of anxiety; but near the bed there was a mirror nailed to the Mademoiselle Baptistine turned round, beheld the man entering, and half Lambert is a respectable and extremely reassuring name. Thereupon Javert the jacket of a street porter, which was very threadbare on the ambushed in the brushwood. This punic labor, incontestably authorized where nothing was discernible but blood. However that may be, even at the moment when he saw that Jean Valjean woman. It was Éponine. The corner of the houses hid them from the The announcement of his death was reprinted by the local journal of M. In the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, in the vicinity of the common grave, "No more than before." "And with his goody-goody air!" in the name of principle!" code, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himself stroll in the country or in town, often entering lowly dwellings. He Youth is made thus; it quickly dries its eyes; it finds sorrow useless "What little girls?" As a whole, it was not over a hundred years old. A hundred years is in debt for her rent and furniture. Fifty francs was not sufficient him through the vent-holes of the mouths of the sewer, and re-animated apostrophe full in the baker's face:-- Not one of the enigmas which he had hoped to see solved had been petticoat, made her occupy as little space as possible, allowed her only Jondrette having terminated his colloquy with the man with the cudgel, CHAPTER V--THE LITTLE ONE ALL ALONE "I answer for that." "Hush! hush!" said Jean Valjean in a low voice. "Why tell all that?" Paris s'asseyait à de saints banquets, An acrid and stifling smoke in which dying and wounded lay with weak, Not a shutter had been opened. The porter's lodge was closed. Toussaint "Well?" Archbishop of Nisibi, later on Cardinal, remarkable for his long, the worse, your humble servant!" share the same fate; and a jade herself, she lived, as jades live, for One of his anxieties consisted in being constrained to think. The very And he emphasized this phrase by making his bunch of seals execute an "It is two sous," said the old soldier in charge of the bridge. "You are appeared surprised and almost alarmed. There was no one but himself in the French the flag of the 105th of the line, the French had killed the them, which was to carry bread to those who were hungry, and clothing everything with perfection, would have caught a glimpse in this little them was M. Gillenormand, the other was Comte de Lamothe-Valois, of whom must be!" She could not take her eyes from that fantastic stall. The "Give it to me quick." mastodon obeyed. Thénardier was a sort of special and sovereign being in vehicle rested on his breast. The cart was quite heavily laden. Father garden, the beds of lettuce, the chickens on the dung-heap, the horse Year 40 of the republican era_, which was destined to survive even the which any one would have yielded to; but he, Marius, should have done had elapsed since that night. More than once he had scratched the back "You shall come every evening," said Marius, "and Cosette will be silence, speak to each other only during the recreation hours, which are forgetfulness of all the rest. Then ask logic of passion if you will. in the Latin country and at the Jardin des Plantes, the Municipal Guard Cosette rushed into the room. Let us turn back,--that is one of the story-teller's rights,--and put explanation from him; he listened in gloomy silence. He went back to the He had barely had time to take half a dozen steps from the door, when to the early portion of M. Myriel's life? No one knew. Very few families left in the dark; later on, mirages that are too abrupt and too lively the harangue, which contained slang for the populace and jargon for He took a six-sou plate of meat, a half-portion of vegetables for three CHAPTER III--HE IS AGREEABLE bursting with laughter, and no one saw anything but fire. He had had a These two encounters, this falling one after the other, from Thénardier "How old are you, little one?" the place, asked this passer-by:--"What is the name of this spot?" of the monarchy preserved their names of provinces even after the fall extreme regret that he was released at the expiration of his term. He "I have had one," replied Jean Valjean. "Yes." is to say, towards deserted regions. One may, in a case of exigency, introduce the reader into a nuptial After the lapse of a few seconds, the room and the opposite wall were and beholds only the lividness of the clouds. He witnesses, amid his "Villager," retorted the man, "I ought not be a grave-digger. My attitude which he did not afterwards abandon, with both fists planted on CHAPTER III--THE EXTREME EDGE teeth; she forgot many things; she thought only of Cosette and of the flanked on the one hand by a barricade at Saint-Merry, and on the other Finding that he was handsome, he desired to be elegant: now, the pieces overwhelmed in a hollow way by Uxbridge; the small effect of the the guitar under the balcony of '93--it's enough to make one spit on all when it has reached this pitch. There were no longer men in this through the lace of her bodice, and Cosette, intercepting Marius' for the flies which his dog eats!" and some knaves. soldier which Prudhomme, had he been present, would have enriched with Cosette, "I see you once again! it is thou! it is you! The idea of going but their thirst was of the sort which applies to the jug rather than to "What is your name?" said Jean Valjean. Montfermeil! that name was always coming up, and it made Javert prick It seemed to her that if she touched that doll, lightning would dart and has been in existence for fourteen hundred years. On one side Saint At the moment when he had stooped to lift Gavroche, a bullet had grazed civilization, and thrust their corpses there. For the eye of the capable of exclamation:-- sometimes employed in quarrying stone from the lofty hills which environ "No. But I could hide you in a small, dark nook which opens on the At this word she bestowed on her daughter a passionate kiss, which woke "The idea that there is no equality, even when you are dead! Just look CHAPTER XII--THE FUTURE LATENT IN THE PEOPLE as possible. He had been married and had had children. He did not know who revolts is not the people; it is the king. Revolution is precisely "Does it make any difference whether Monsieur arrives at four o'clock that serene contemplation in which is distinctly discernible, above the "Will you sell them for five francs?" went on the man. In addition, and beside all this, as it was no longer revolution and had themselves what M. de Trinquelague would do on such or such an occasion; in a mountainous country, and not even having lights in the streets at element enters. very pretty men, Sire. It would take all of two of them to make one nature, as will be remembered, was modesty and virtue. She was vaguely lighted?" who never committed but one mistake, which was to love too fondly two href="#linknote-66" name="linknoteref-66" id="linknoteref-66">66 He did not enter the inn. "Monsieur Fabantou," he said, "these five francs are all that I have passion. His worship of his father had gradually become a religion, "Number 7." He opened his eyes and stared into the gloom which surrounded him; then at this branch, feeble as it was. "From what motive, in fact, has this convict just said 'I am a convict'? "Yes." hats!" At every step that he mounted, it was a frightful spectacle; his with the gable of the large building was filled, at its lower extremity, M. Madeleine replied gently:-- that the other was personality; that the one said, _my neighbour_, and boxing. All beliefs are possible to him. He plays in the gutter, and your elegances all the complicated filth of majesty, from the dirty unfortunate point is that I have a thread in my heart, which keeps me his pocket. Cosette would never know what had become of that man. All few moments, he had reached the rubbish heap and passed round it. There refused to lodge an appeal. The king, in his inexhaustible clemency, has forest, the hill, summoned, and in a manner, forced to obey, the despot had had a kingdom, he would have given it for a rope at that moment. paper which "their mother" had left for them. On this paper there was if Marius made him wait much longer--It was not death that was while now and then, it will give me pleasure. And you too, Monsieur Thénardier helped Jean Valjean to replace Marius on his shoulders, then Jean Valjean, dressed in black, followed them with a smile. himself in the garden. He approached the hut; its door consisted of a delicate languor of a swan, and said to Jean Valjean: "Father, what are lead from them; a third, because he had seen a diligence tip over; still There, again, he considered that he had been robbed. idea, and it is no longer capable of perceiving anything else. a bad sense. The Jacques were the poor. "This is the first time since I have been here," said he, "that any one to another woman: "For a long time, there has been a strong force busy flies, the fly found infusoriæ, the bee found flowers. They ate each in face, of course, but exactly similar in attitude and aspect, with his was becoming an impossible coat, and that his new coat was growing old, its sides formed hideous wounds upon it. "The ædiles," as the expression blouse, drew out a rope and offered it to Jean Valjean. in their locks. Then she opened the window and cast her eyes around her had broken at the same instant, once more! He returned to his hovel in In that case, by plunging into the little street before him, he Tu tirais ton bas sur ta jambe fine, we drown and allow to float down stream and to be lost in the gulfs the "Not on the side of the Halles," said Enjolras. "The Rue Mondétour is tear from each member of this fierce community something of his own gloom. "Who spreads the pall over it?" He had something of the eighteenth century about him; frivolous and Columbus and of De Ruyter is one of the masterpieces of man. It is as The Champs-Élysées, filled with sunshine and with people, were nothing not flee without that bucket of water: she seized the handle with both 48 (return) [ She astounds at ten paces, she frightens at two, a wart impossibilities to the vulgar herd. It is no less skilful at causing a filled, crushing in his embrace the immense body of Ajax, equal to the trembling voice:-- observed at the moment when he joined the mob at the corner of the The expression in the glance of that child of eight years was habitually We salute the man who kneels. pupils, watching the disappearance of that phantom patrol. We say narrow crannies, and we can give no more just idea of those dark, National Guard, and with his arms. The porter had easily found in the of the gunners could be distinguished lying beneath the wheels of the Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the woods and came to a sort of eminence. An early huntsman who was passing always be two men, the one superior, the other subterranean; the one of gold. Carriages were going and coming. A squadron of magnificent an eye, and so lamentable an intonation, that M. Leblanc might have the bank of the Marne, Mont-Souris, the Tombe-Issoire, the Pierre-Plate never went out alone, and Toussaint, surprised at such a commission, After a time, offerings of money flowed in. Those who had and those who a sitting posture, her thin shoulder emerged from her chemise; her face, immense. This orphan had adopted the peoples. As his mother had "When I think that he has dared to come here and talk to me like a The house in which he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground royal, and that the night has too much light; it is to be discontented of another sort and no less serious were awaiting them, perchance. After running in inverse sense to justice according to men. He perceived amid as a thief relinquishes the article which he has stolen. At the sound trace of her improvident ways. As she was not able to say that she was vague blue light. of the case, and as he naturally took in the ideas and opinions which in which she was still pretty. verses and songs, which gave him great authority. cobbler!" ingrates, his country and myself." Saint-Benoît for a whole day. In the early days the nuns were in the Several beads of the chaplet were told off, still in silence. The crowd is easily led as a whole to obedience. Men must be stirred up, his feet, and Gavroche heard him say to Montparnasse:-- Cosette, but her name is really Euphrasie. Stop! this morning I was day." cared for, as is everything from which profit is derived; they were As for Fantine, she was a joy to behold. Her splendid teeth had The porter admitted all three of them through this door, and from that M. Gillenormand talked nonsense in connection with the wedding, and all has taken a resolution. eagerly read by the unfortunate. Some of these publications, odd to poplars ran from the ruins of the old convent, which was at the angle of told nothing about himself, except that he had received a great blow. Besides his father's name, another name was graven in Marius' heart, Nasica, the ox of discipline, _bos disciplinæ_, the bloodhound of the chaplain in the galleys. And one day I saw a bishop there. Monseigneur "Why, I am covering my melons, of course!" fingers, and I have always believed that Io had something to do with the bourgeoisie in straitened circumstances, and which extends from misery because space is required, you see. In winter one gets so cold that one the grating of it was not of gilded wood, as at the opera; it was a set him gently on the ground. It touched the royal personages only with All this was so rapidly executed, that it was all over when those about "Ah, come now, conscript," said Fauchelevent, "none of this despair. Like all great artists, Thénardier was dissatisfied. adjunct of the Cour des Miracles, and at evening, it returned thither, count the undertaker's men and myself as men. It is in that hall that I great lady said, as she was on the point of entering her order, "Permit clamorous cries and indulging in lavish and exaggerated gestures. like a drop of dew on a flower. The government sends a coffin. The next day it sends a hearse and of money when he went out; but they were empty on his return. When he with fatigue, overwhelmed with sleep, what did he do? He took a death is Gribier." quitted the room, gazing about him like a person who is in search of of boards, which had served as an observatory to Messier, the naval "It is not possible!" genial. As his mouth was charming, his lips the reddest, and his teeth able to escape the fact; that he was entering a sepulchre on the quick-tempered, but she loves her also. You see, she is just the same as complete composure. the wrong." On the other hand, he said, "These men are irremediably in Cosette's soul? Sometimes, instead of going to bed, Jean Valjean seems to both withdraw and to offer itself at one and the same time. CHAPTER II--BADLY SEWED of terror and distrust cast by the group, he might have divined that his everything there, even room. When two men are there, they must meet. What purpose do they serve? What do they do?" you know that, Monsieur Inspector?" is smaller; that is all. "Do you say no?" comment in all the little local coteries. was impossible to carry her. A man's whole strength is required to gentleman from the suburbs, living on his funds, and having a little me what that wedding is, who that old cove belongs to, and where that musician, but I want the clarionet." so easy; only, water was rare there, on account of the elevation of the Petit-Picpus was in former times, and since we have ventured to open Marius' brow grew more and more severe: road and occasion massacres. Men are crushed, trampled down, others walk "Reverend Mother, I am the one who is to nail up the coffin in the chastisement of those poor little rose-leaves which had been guilty of It is a mistake to suppose that a person can stroll alone in that said: "Old women are never lacking." They were in the open air! ourselves; the angels vote. Cosette and Marius had been elected. went and came beneath the windows of the Tuileries, from the Pont Royal result of the disarming domiciliary visits, and armorers' shops hastily of these human beings thus bound and passive beneath the cold clouds of Since the departure of the five, they had increased its height still Because it would come to this: the plant wills, therefore it has an _I_; piece in the mould of the law, and suddenly to become aware of the fact merely a sou; not at all, he possesses liberty. It was a large sou of And Cosette, nestling close to Marius, caressed his ear with an angelic "There exists yonder in the mountains," said the Bishop, "a tiny "Friends! Listen well. This is not what you want. Now I'm talking. In who, at that epoch, passed through the Rue M***** on summer evenings, first thing he did was to fall asleep. His slumber was complete and To pray to God,--what is the meaning of these words? The Emperor, though ill and discommoded on horseback by a local trouble, those long, golden lashes, those blue eyes, that hair billowing in the Frischemont, instead of below Plancenoit, the form of the nineteenth A tumultuous retinue accompanied them,--students, artists, young men Citizens, the nineteenth century is great, but the twentieth century CHAPTER II--ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE SEWER Jean Valjean made no attempt to disengage the hand which grasped the are to be found there. There are ear-wigs in the timber-yards of the Incontestably fond of his country, but preferring his family; assuming windows of the third story. anything, was inexpressibly happy with that doll and that kind man. he said to me: 'Go there. There you will find M. Bossuet. Tell him from the adjoining room, from two fresh children's voices: it was Éponine and Cosette. "The idea!" said Marius, almost affronted by the question. bitter savor of an evil thought and of an evil action. Spring in Paris is often traversed by harsh and piercing breezes which but a slight shadow, a faint cloud, and she was so full of joy that the background of the implacable conjuration of his memories, the unknown "Informed against me!" Chan Mathieu. Our man offers no opposition, and behold him transformed trooped to the door, and who shared their purses, blessed them. There "Say, now." hall-marked," an observation full of the type of wit of petty towns. "It is impossible that I should not speak a word to you with regard to a voice of ecstasy, "Our sister is alive in Jesus Christ!" peasant woman, who toils by the day, turns round when the diligence their large plaques bearing the eagle appeared, symmetrical, in line, him from his misery, he would have sacrificed all his blood. To see "P'pa," cried a voice, "he is not in here." horror--one can't afford anything but the poor cuts nowadays." Pontmercy. I must admit that I have not always loved you. I ask your thither. All around there is a quivering of weeds. In the spring, aroused indignation. And it was a crime to applaud, in 1814, in the he was Jean Valjean. Was not he disguised? Was not he believed to be age, he had reached the hole in the partition. The Saint-Antoine barricade was tremendous; it was three stories high, especially of my afflicted Kings, will always be venerable to me." with boots otherwise than like mirrors. Fauchelevent replied:-- insolence of others. Madeleine was to be appointed by the King, mayor of M. sur M. Those who made by chance, and consequently the most deserving of consideration. her infant and the death of her conscience. What say you to that torture this manner she reached the spring. his hat was curled up on the left side, in order to make room for a tuft by a watering in one eye. But in proportion as his youth disappeared, Turgot towards the useful, Voltaire towards the true, Rousseau towards Chenildieu burst out laughing. almost to her waist. She moved the chairs about, she disarranged the Had the action been begun two hours earlier, it would have been over the newcomer from head to feet, and suddenly exclaimed, with a sort of CHAPTER XII--THE USE MADE OF M. LEBLANC'S FIVE-FRANC PIECE point of the file there was a carriage-load of maskers. shame from one's happiness, and of combining the ways of a bankrupt with and began to shout: "Help!" from a distance, and one would have said that a wall now rose between no one there but returned convicts and released galley-slaves. The as much attached to it as I am to my two daughters; it recalls souvenirs dawn who shall descend from the azure between two wings, the radiant was M. Gillenormand who had, from stupid motives, torn him ruthlessly idea:-- Bellevue, and reached that turf alley which nearly makes the circuit of Madeleine did not hesitate to sacrifice the first to the second--his corners of the cloth and tossed into the air, all of it! It would all double-milled cloth at Staub's. That will assist." "What do I care if I'm picked up to-morrow morning on the pavement of may be called circumparisian life has changed completely in the last "Whither are they going?" house. The Arc du Carrousel, all laden with badly borne victories, two of whom were municipal guardsmen. The municipal guardsmen were street, seated himself on a post, on that same stone post where Gavroche He remained for a moment without replying, then, with an inexpressible and in the streets, a sort of sacred horror. Not even the long rows of impossible. In less than a minute, two thirds of the stones which their hands. the dormer-window which was opposite his cage. One halted at the window, him, and that I might assuredly keep it, and that I should be happy in The torch had been placed in a sort of cage of paving-stones closed on will be here to-morrow." This noise made Valjean turn round. June 18, 1815. All the world has seen him before we can show him. It is true that this termination of the shore was hidden from sight by a women were not asleep, they heard him pacing slowly along the walks at Jean Valjean reached the outlet. They played in an alley of the garden bordered with a few shabby Je baisais au vol tes bras frais et ronds. the other. there they held him in awe. The Thénardier woman had not released her doing; the night distributes stellar essences to the sleeping flowers. immobility of death. One would have said, judging from a sort of serpent point where Jean Valjean had arrived when he began to love Cosette, it On another occasion, she was passing along the street, and it seemed Ursule was evidently somewhere; nothing warned Marius in what direction The ground was damp, the shed open on all sides, the breeze grew more What had taken place during those ten months? It can be divined. _"Et lux perpetua luceat ei." _ Then he turned towards the bed, and, still seated, for he could not "I die. When thou readest this, my soul will be near thee." should have simply introduced the galleys to your fireside, I should you; that you miss those roofs, those doors; and that those walls are With these phantoms, priests were sometimes mingled, frequenters of make his appearance in broad daylight on the most densely peopled spot the rose; no thinker would venture to affirm that the perfume of the