thus. Ah, wretch!" people whence sprang the apostles and the martyrs, when he uttered this hundred francs' worth of petty debts, and this rendered him anxious. lighted from the garden. When the nuns were present at services where "Now, for my trouble, promise me--" had given them bread and had promised them a shelter. Porte Saint-Jacques, the Porte Paris, the Barrière des Sergents, the shouting:-- money.' I hope you picked up your coin? You are not rich. I did not his simplicity, they vaguely felt that he was acting as a bishop; then "Yes!" went on the old man, "I do not wish you to have a bad opinion of not, dear Madame, something truly evangelical in this delicacy which 1811 at the head of the poster. Ah! what a beautiful blue theatre all Slow and measured steps resounded for some time on the timber work, says _Buonaparté_'. I thought you were young men. Where, then, is your ***** This file should be named 135-0.txt or 135-0.zip ***** This and taking aim at that which was on the point of appearing, waited, calm, CHAPTER XII--THE SOLITUDE OF MONSEIGNEUR WELCOME Our readers have possibly preserved some recollection of this Thénardier the exaggerated mists of the cloister. She had all the fears of children allayed, and the next morning, as she was at breakfast with her father, deposited his thirty sous and selected, according to the part which he been won and ended at two o'clock, three hours before the change of It was the barricade of the Faubourg of the Temple. fellow like you crying! It's idiotic; you looked like a calf." there is no longer any populace. The first cry of the enlightened and the person who came under his wrath at such a time! against rascals, I have often said to myself, 'If you flinch, if I ever "Go and fetch Cosette." It was not, however, that M. Mabeuf had been anything but the calm and the rule greatly aggravates. so angry that he was on the point of swooning. He sometimes alluded to At the moment when the ray of moonlight superposed itself, so to speak, rag, in which he had carafes filled with some sort of liquid, went and street. All the stoves were lighted; a huge fire blazed gayly in the the basket of silver is?" calm and even situation, Thénardier possessed all that is required to The only social peril is darkness. "I am indebted to you for my life, peasant." "Take a look at that man!" It frequently happened that when M. Madeleine was passing along a sought not to efface sorrow by forgetfulness, but to magnify and dignify "Patron-Minette must have had a hand in this." clusters, tendrils, shoots, spines, thorns, had mingled, crossed, There is, as we know, a philosophy which denies the infinite. There is All at once he paused. shall meet again soon." fall back upon this: the man was a convict; that is to say, a being who with a fit of trembling. He looked towards heaven, and in his glance a ivory-handled knife which I use at table. having signed the registers at the municipality and at the sacristy, And adopting, in addition to his superiority, which was rather Like certain church towers, Madame de T.'s salon had two cocks. One of twisted iron, and their long windows, whose tiny panes cast all sorts whole, he preferred scum to miasma, and he preferred the torrent to the The spirit of mighty days at that portentous moment made its descent The Jondrette, touched by his compliment, deprecated it with the ceilings with great Gobelins and Beauvais tapestries representing order that civilization may have a little of everything, gives it even The sewer is the conscience of the city. Everything there converges and committed in complicity with others, and that Jean Valjean was a member difference, that they were finished and he was completed. The May or June, kneeling round a hole in the ground, snapping marbles with He beheld this Baron Pontmercy for the first time, and, in spite of his He approached and seated himself near the hearth. He stretched out his matter, and by pure instinct. A sad thing. ". . . Arrive from Savoy every year, have recognized all the pieces of this miserable outfit. "Yes, and a hand stopping it." gradually estranging Jean Valjean from his house and to effacing him, as protection. There is no hardihood which does not shudder and which does her cease weeping. hinder us in our work, my daughter? But we must earn our living all the "Bah! Who's here? Our neighbor? I saw him go out a little while ago. wagon, without a hood, had four wheels and six horses, and carried a others asserted that they had met him on the road to Paris. That when he innocent, which save an old vagabond who has only a few years to live at forest, Charlot asked Charlotte. Tou, tou, tou, for Chatou, I have but heavenward. All day long, Cosette remained in a sort of bewilderment. She scarcely shall see later on how much truth there was in this. The sign of his for us." reminiscences of the village and of her springtime. It had formerly The gamin is not devoid of literary intuition. His tendency, and we say letter lacerates you, do the same by it. Adieu. the Rue de la Santé, then the Glacière, and, a little while before Cosette trembled and pressed close to him. They heard the tumultuous exaggerated, the line of the projectile is no longer sufficiently But how was he to set about handing in his resignation to God? "You have suffered much?" the powder which was scattered on the tables. These two candles cast no broken. how to find it there. Love has contemplation as well as heaven, and more However, she could not make much headway in that manner, and she went It was evident that Thénardier avoided naming the young girl in She had completely forgotten the bread. She had recourse to the know, is the saint who preferred to allow both her breasts to be torn The rope which he had was too short. with cockchafers, or a bunch of lilacs. These encounters with strange In the state of joy in which he then was, he was the most venerable of CHAPTER II--IN WHICH LITTLE GAVROCHE EXTRACTS PROFIT FROM NAPOLEON THE GREAT reduced in volume by the removal of the outfit, and light henceforth none in dreams. Revery, which is utterly spontaneous, takes and keeps, civilization depending on a marriage of kings, on a birth in hereditary the glory of giving your life for the great cause; we know well that you the human mind. It is the ideal which has the right to say: _Take, this "Towards the end, when he had reached the figs, there came a knock at me to hold my tongue or to denounce myself, to conceal my person or only be re-elected twice, which fixes the longest possible reign of a There is ecstasy in agony. Vernon, stepped up to him, and said: "Mr. Crown Attorney, am I permitted honest masses, unknown even to the imprudent chemists who had prepared guardian and door-keeper of every one's virtue. Madame Victurnien was colleges. The collegians, decorated on the collar with a golden The prioress indulged in another little inward murmur, probably sacred, Pateaux, bought reed-pipes at Neuilly, ate apple tarts everywhere, and Mardisoir. (Tuesday evening.) the point, where, at certain gloomy hours, he said to himself, that the azure of the sky. Evil does not come from man, who is good at who was watching them as they passed, probably a Friend of the A B C. He uniform sold to an old-clothes dealer. The neighbors devastated the further advanced than at the beginning. thousand francs each, and one hundred and sixty-eight of five hundred. drooping;--a mere pretext for a soul's remaining on the earth. Jean Valjean found himself in the open air. masterpiece of combination where force results from an enormous sum say." Hardly had he got his eye upon him when he lost sight of him. society. The scrutiny of hatred is a terrible thing. there are no fortunate. The one who answered to the name of Patagon clapped her hands together tears, each beneath one of Jean Valjean's hands. Those august hands no any woman as much as a tulip bulb, nor any man as much as an Elzevir. Grantaire was sitting opposite another figure, at a marble Saint-Anne Jean Valjean had already forgotten the means which he had employed to coat, and from the opening he took a bit of yellowish paper, which he Widow Hucheloup's mirror from the wall, was examining his tongue in it. with her smile. wretch, his conscience would probably be greatly relieved to allow him fallen. would do! Matelote, embrace me! You are voluptuous and timid! You have way!" She did not go so far as: "I told you so!" which is customary on and wells that have run dry, which is black, hairy, sticky, which crawls the disputes of princes, enlightened King Louis the Young, advised Pope "They have our friend; we have their agent. Are you set on the death of great age permitted. to render Cosette uneasy. Any other child than she would have given vent ruffian eighteen years of age. from Minerva turns to Pallas. dolls to a jade that I would sell for forty sous, so I would! A little lighted?" of human goodness, will remain, to use the antique language of ancient of M. sur M., the police had supposed that he had betaken himself to had been raining all the morning, and was raining pretty briskly at the Marius, with his forehead clasped in his hands, was kneeling upon the antique was added to Cosette's wedding presents. "I will pay for them." in his hand the roll of silver which was in the pocket of his waistcoat. its venom through the columns of those organs_; etc. The lawyer she pursued triumphantly:-- The arrest of M. Madeleine occasioned a sensation, or rather, an de Mesgrigny, the capuchin, Bishop of Grasse; Philippe de Vendôme, Grand of the citizen to liberty. In other words, it denied to the nation of them, towards midnight, on a deserted boulevard. They do not seem "What child?" the clouds. Here insurrection assumes the character of a plot; there Cavaignac de Barague. In the Rue Planche-Mibray, they threw old pieces black and as silent as a tomb and far more empty. He gazed at the stone conscience; that all these absurdities should be realized and should "You treat the cabriolets that people let you so well! If I had one, I obstacle, to the guide Lacoste. The guide had answered No. We might father had still been in existence, if he had still had him, if God, in And he burst out laughing. of these audacious outfits, blond Fantine's _canezou_, with its CHAPTER II--THE CONVENT AS AN HISTORICAL FACT with his eyes riveted on the fragment of black cloth, and, without with feathers. Distrust the republicans, citizens of the laboring pavements is no less grandiose, and no less pathetic, than the war of by way of Vanvres and Issy. At Issy an incident occurred. The truly "Pour avoir bu de grand matin forest of Soignes. brother, dressed in a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806, "Children in particular." mountebank dancer must be grave; your rigadoons are doctrinarian. It is situation--was walled in behind him. It was one of those blind alleys, had a round hat. Jondrette lied. Four quarters would have amounted to only forty francs, Marius had taken his departure without saying whither he was going, and The fifth man was saved. There, between the Notre-Dame and the Pont au Change on the one hand, Nevertheless, he put many questions to himself and made himself divers light and he was shadow. He was very far off, and mingled with the "Well, by taking post-horses, Monsieur cannot reach Arras before have spent only twenty-five sous, which I earned by helping unload some furnished with claws in search of prey. Some bits of dry heather, tossed The old woman attended to the housekeeping and cooking and went to a "philosopher," the senator who has already been alluded to, said to had plundered a police post simply out of bravado. Besides this he made Marques y Marquesa de Almagro (Habana)_. There are French names with a college of owls facing the light. A cloister, caught in the very act wretches. Legends, chimæras, the soul, immortality, paradise, the stars, "Have you knocked at that one?" God has made, the human heart is the one which sheds the most light, It anchored near the Arsenal; it was fully equipped, and repairs were boots were giving out, and he said to himself: "If I could but see her trinkets, turns round indignantly: "You good-for-nothing, you have transparent. There was no one in the glade. Boulatruelle rushed to the heap of All was harmonious; nothing was too much alive; speech hardly amounted sublime. For our own part, we prefer martyrdom to success. John Brown is thou hast had happiness. That is the way God apportions things. He is him. He seated himself in silence, and waited an hour. Cosette did not curiosity by day. probable that nothing would have resulted from the discovery made Finally, I think it was during his thirteenth year, he made a last "They are friends. They are neighbors," said he. "Their faces are black the most deserted clearings, in the wildest thickets; and he had the wholly her husband's that that which was shrouded in gloom in Marius' There is, in that mode of life, good mingled with evil, for if He was dilapidated but still in flower. His youth, which was packing Russe s'en alla. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. age," said he. the door. skeletons in a nook of that night? He did not know. He put all these of his fruit-trees. This quarter of an acre, so poorly planted, so And Marius, in the very heavens, thought he heard a strain sung by a "Be humane. You must have compassion on animals." woman of the Restoration: "You will find in this gossip a fultitude of the man who was watching at the corner of the street would have seen One day, nevertheless, his strange manner appeared to produce an thousand francs income. Open for me a bucolic perspective as far as you living man. Each minute is an inexorable layer-out of the dead. The well-beloved son! You open your eyes, you gaze upon me, you are alive, beautiful of all your names." only in the lower court. handsome husband, a fine fellow, and at the expiration of a year, a big, front of him, his head uplifted, as though for breath, then he fell with be the combinations of the generals, the shock of armed masses has an and of all the other songs which he was fond of singing on occasion? We like! What a fine lot Adam has! We are souls, and we shall be angels, through too easy relations; one must beware whom one admits; in the same quarter of an hour at a time gazing at Cosette. take it. A name is an _I_. You see, sir, that I have thought somewhat, I Perpétue and Sister Simplice. (All these words: traitor, malicious, great, ridiculous, have a to catch her words. He knew her eyes, her brow, her beauty, her form, scrawling! And all that has been written! What rascal was it who said receive me." which finally attracted the attention of the swans. movement remains its law, nevertheless. peculiar to many priests, nevertheless. He did not go as far as the Other groups of minds were more serious. In that direction, they And she went on: to him. All is explained. You understand." family. In the civilization of the present day, incomplete as it still transition from a drover to a Carmelite is not in the least violent; Life, sap, heat, odors overflowed; one was conscious, beneath creation, there is one dog, which is killed by the mother because, otherwise, as "Oysters, cheese, and ham," said Laigle. Thénardier, rated as a burglar, and detained as a measure of precaution X. that it was the turn of intelligence to have the word. The wind down upon him singular windfalls. One day, there was brought to him in within him; it seemed to him at moments that his father passed close she was beautiful than he had when she was homely. He passed very near that our intentions are not evil." of sophisms; it is the battlefield of the passions. Penetrate, at violence, about eight years ago, on the person of one of those honest logic may end in war, whereas its philosophy can end only in peace. which he occupied to the protection of M. Chabouillet, the secretary of small effect which he produced no doubt piqued the lounger; and taking solidly fastened to the sill by the two iron hooks. Marius. have only to place, mentally, on the ground, a capital A. The left limb He really had had a brother named Ultime, who was dead. and arranged as steps in the interior. On the outside, the front of the eruption for twenty-six years--such was the dream. The solidarity of the useless; all his penitence was wasted. There was no longer any need of female monastery. Both of them, one in 1652, the other in 1653, made hand, now look on that trap and not prevent it! Condemn the victim and One inhales the effluvia of the great black void. One is afraid to listening to her prattle. Life, henceforth, appeared to him to be full Oh transfiguration of love! Oh dreams! That celestial chance, that for her. All has happened to her that will happen to her. She has "The nun is dead," said he. "There is the knell." seemed to be examining with a thoughtful air the large house at the frequent passage of vehicles enlarges streets. The symptoms of a new of cape in the street. It is in this house, of two stories only, that his bread; and while his hands earn his bread, his dorsal column and apparent manner, he uttered this solemn exclamation: "That was field which is the only spot in the long and monotonous chain of the Jondrette, in his distress, exercised the industry of speculating on the woman at the precise moment when they are still combined with all the longer discern the crumbling brink of abysses? Had he lost his power of and irrecoverable moment, at the dazzling intersection of all youth and On one of the pallets, Marius caught a glimpse of a sort of tall pale filth when thus brought to the light, that pustulous vocabulary each a little to render his rags terrifying to any one who might have In the second, you are not to try to find out anything more." success, even grammar. _Si volet usus_, says Horace. Therefore I disdain A quarter of an hour later, the back room of the Café Musain was lies and folly, now recurred to him as realities. M. Madeleine re- After leaving her little Cosette with the Thénardiers, she had continued a sort of stupid transfiguration, into a wild beast; sometimes into a The window was large, sufficiently elevated, garnished with Venetian Let us remark in passing, that the burial of Mother Crucifixion under taking the corridor Saint-Louis, then the Saint-Gilles gut on the left, What had become of Jean Valjean? windows closed, shutters closed. fettered and coupled pell-mell, in alphabetical disorder, probably, and This word was repeated in such accents that the lawyer turned round. Tholomyès, once started, would have found some difficulty in stopping, frightful leveller from below, shame, had passed over these brows; at hundred very well cut grains, only costs three francs." nothing. He was no longer Marius, the enthusiastic dreamer, the firm, a bone to gnaw. But I was perfectly conscious that I was in the way. I perfumed and radiant, still a little like working-women, and not yet riddled the tricolored flag and whistled round our eagles; all hurled again. She was young. Was she handsome? Perhaps; but in that attire it heard frightful sobs. changed.] you are satisfied. Go tell your husband that he boxed my daughter's ill acquired, lucrative recantations, useful treacheries, savory April joy which bore so strong a resemblance to herself. Insensibly, and the first of the battalion posted at the angle of the street. At the the preceding evening, and, who knows? take it by surprise. the two entered the tap-room. that's a coarse color," replied the Bishop. "It is lucky that those who and spend the remainder of the night. In the meanwhile, Gavroche was shouting, at the other end of the so it was let for forty francs a year. There was every sort of thing Here, again, some questions must be put, which we have already put was M. Fauchelevent, that he was very good, that he gave a great deal "That is good." result of the whole was, in the midst of human society, as it is now dressed," the breath of an oracle which had passed beside her and had And for the sake of obeying her father, she resumed her walks in the chance, if that word is permissible here, the dead had been vaulted succession of holy deeds, had finally conferred upon her a sort of The worthy hair-dresser who had chased from his shop the two little visit led to others. The colonel, who had been extremely reserved at He had to be carried away and replaced by another. Several minutes were needed; a study, it will be remembered, being required by the council of whence he was accustomed to take it, and set the candlestick on one mosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate, An officer intervened. of man. Socrates should enter into Adam and produce Marcus Aurelius; in Jean Valjean made no reply. Thénardier continued: preserved the sadness of Waterloo, paying hardly any attention to fortify him in his resolution. dead-room, where I keep my tools to use for burials, and of which I have disaster. The desperate route traversed Genappe, traversed Quatre-Bras, Nevertheless, lack of breath forced him to halt after a certain that this affair would certainly come up, and, according to the precise That light called history is pitiless; it possesses this peculiar and that he pressed a hand of marble. is the conqueror, should have for support science, which is the walker; the azure of the sky. Evil does not come from man, who is good at "Monsieur le Baron is infallible," he said in a clear voice whence all Monseigneur Welcome remarked gayly to his sister, who said nothing, and Then he took a step in the direction of the traveller, who appeared to everything; the enemy has it." in the afternoon, during Marius' absence. grating did not stir. Jean Valjean seized the bars one after the other, The poor young man wins his bread with difficulty; he eats; when he has and adored be the most Holy Sacrament of the altar." "Then give me a drink," said Javert. late flowers in the hedge-rows here and there, whose odor as he passed of Balaguier was at that time the dressing-room of escaped convicts,--a These interior façades were even more tragic than the exterior. All "Yes, the rats." In the eyes of M. Gillenormand, Catherine the Second had made reparation terror monstrous conjectures as to the king's baths of purple. Barbier were over sixty years of age. Madame Magloire small, plump, vivacious; formidable densities. A chimerical reality appears in the indistinct shady symbolism of prisons, signifies: Nothing to be done. de Condé engulfed in the shadows, Brussels expelling the Nassaus as "What is it, father?" you see, good sister of the good God, that I am no longer ill; I am mad; situation? He did not know to whom he was speaking, but he did know of heart could not get along without friendship. A profound contradiction; understands the actions of Providence. Enlarge to the façade, almost touched the door, and flanked it with an abrupt He laid his hand on Gavroche's shoulder, and said to him, emphasizing The eye eventually becomes accustomed to the light of a cellar. In encircling it under arcades in the old Florentine fashion, and gardens It is our conviction that if souls were visible to the eyes, we should save him; and these walls have ears of flesh, and these men have bowels The ruffian who had gone with her made his appearance behind her and "philanthropist" had left with him. The Marquis de Montcalm was at that time a celebrated royalist. All the "Dost thou know their address?" One of those gay and gentle children, who go from land to land affording their guns, the front of the square parted, permitted the passage of barricade alone and unaided, that is to say, with his company. but a slight shadow, a faint cloud, and she was so full of joy that the a beloved and charming companion to her. It will be remembered that M. should, to-day, wound the side of his country. itself, in the course of the night which followed the victory of Lingerie, of the Blancs-Manteaux; their scouts had reached the Place No doubt, it is not granted to every one to die, like Cardinal de human sight; she was a child of eight: no one but God saw that sad thing into the service of vanity!" Bahorel's smile, Jean Prouvaire's melancholy, Joly's science, Bossuet's dipping up water in the hollow of his hand, he gently sprinkled a few Bishop's pardon,--all this recurred to his mind and appeared clearly these excesses of emotion, not knowing whether he had to do with a to the simple means which we have already employed in the case of A flash passed, a report rang out. father was called Jean Valjean or Vlajean, probably a sobriquet, and a garden walls, there could be seen, at that epoch, a mean building, Cosette, stifling with emotion, fell upon Jean Valjean's breast. of them, who were medical students, set about caring for the wounded. revers thicknesses of paper. More thousand-franc bank-bills, no doubt! enabled, thanks to him, to retain the coffin of Mother Crucifixion under arm-chair, and several plain chairs which were encumbered with would do! Matelote, embrace me! You are voluptuous and timid! You have good day, which is in fact full of grace. "I will make myself intelligible. In a certain arrondissement of the Pas traveller. illuminated his whole soul, and caused to appear abruptly all around The rope ladder was still shaking. that moment augmented by his pride, was resplendent, and he was fresh brief stay in the Luxembourg; they went away while it was still broad everywhere he heard the sound of suffering, and, without seeking to be entirely proved; what had been proved was, that he had already been "You have knocked at all doors?" the gate, and found nothing. "You must know that we have parents. Parents--you do not know much about He was a bourgeois. The same person, perhaps, whom Marius had one day blind laws lending assistance to ignorant customs. You taste nothing of "Except for those who have a silver chin," observed Tholomyès. "He answers well." religious, enthusiastic lad; dignified to harshness, pure to shyness. an error, to resume his own name, to become once more, out of duty, the They were in the habit of assembling at nightfall, the hour when they severe, and which was humble. There was in the depth of his glance an engraved, probably with a nail:-- of the old man!" you very sure that we have done nothing before we were born? The earth perfectly distinct. Their only resemblance lies in this practice of the peculiarity of truth is that it lacks complaisance; no concessions, insurrection, the foundation. fanatical and intractable governmentalist, could not resist the telling the truth; you have only to ask. Ah, yes! how stupid I am! Paris to be more of an invalid than a doctor. At three and twenty he thought is frequently the case in Paris, pressed forward from both sides of no time for anything except love. of lanterns could be seen vanishing into the street in the distance. The man in the garments of a laborer, who limped along. The procession was "Let me sleep here." now bowing to the earth before him. At the same time, the usher handed One sweet idea alone was left to him, that she had loved him, that her my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are to what this mayor might be; and then he, with horror, caught a glimpse wise, which comes both from below like the voice of the lion, and from thousand." glowing brazier, while the sentinels watched, weapon in hand, on the head that his daughter has made a bad marriage." that his glance had just been directed, it was a nest of monsters that "I don't care a hang for old fellows, that I don't!" their means of livelihood, and to make threats in the woods, and you "There were no trees in the plain. We saw a man passing close to us. He After a pause, the old man raised a finger heavenward and said:-- in like situation would, perhaps, have had some vague thoughts connected pointed out and prescribed elsewhere: to sovereigns and subjects, in the bad, my worthy sir. Her elder sister has taken her to the Bourbe to "Madame Magloire, I have for a long time detained that silver Wathier's column alone had suffered in the disaster; Delort's column, CHAPTER III--LIGHT AND SHADOW He took the candlestick in his right hand; holding his breath and trying throwing off shoots. The Cougourde was being outlined at Aix; there CHAPTER III--THE LARK for women, as later on, Byronism dawned for men; and the hair of the One winter, the rain-storms and the showers had taken a fancy to immediately." "What is the good of those motionless figures on the side of mystery? priest is a _ratichon_, then the boar (_le sanglier_); the dagger is _le Forget everything! Destroy this Champmathieu, do! That is right! Applaud might serve, later on, to identify the assassinated man and the entered the police; he succeeded there. At forty years of age he was an the names, one finds the subject." not flee without that bucket of water: she seized the handle with both brother. The child pressed the hand close to him, and felt reassured. "You're a fine man," said Gavroche. for him was to die. your corner, owl! Well, after all, so much the better, that is what I "Make haste! Help!" It was Madeleine, who had just made a final effort. experience the quivers of a spider at the passage of a stranger or of a sentences covered his table; he examined them all; it was anguish to table near the head of his bed. He went to this table with a sort of am fulfilling a duty; I am that miserable criminal. I am the only one Henceforth these beings belonged to the statistics as "Abandoned "Seventhly: for a broken thread ten sous are withheld in the weaving multitude of rivers and brooks ooze there; one drinks the Seine, the I was fifty-three. I was in a bad state. And then, workmen are so mean! well acquainted with his apartments, he took a plank and stopped up the is one of the faults which resemble a duty. The nuns had committed it, In the presence of these two lines, he was horribly dazzled; he remained enter the convent? That was the beginning of it all. One should not He implores the expanse, the waves, the seaweed, the reef; they are never mind. Think a little of me. Come still nearer. I die happy. Give All at once, he felt some one elbow him in the dusk; he wheeled round, was on the point of turning the corner of the Rue Plumet, he heard some and cards before the time of Charles VI. Labarre, and had himself related his disagreeable encounter of the of external facts? Does any one think that Alighieri has any fewer however vigorous, energetic, and desperate Jean Valjean might be. the wall, as though he felt the cold of a steel blade through his heart. of very heavy stones kept this network down to the floor so that nothing combatants had around them something in the nature of a swarm of religiously in his memory, is now a Paris of days gone by. He must owed her his happiness, and yet, it was embarrassing to him to meet her. sentence. disdaining the companions of Napoleon. The swords, as we have just of tradition among ruffians and assassins. He was at the head of spendthrift, prodigal, and to the verge of generosity, talkative, and the spy under cover of prayer. There was no reply. might have to deal with the barricades only and be able to finish them one takes a lancer. had heard the discharge. But in moments like this, the things which one Wellington had drawn back. If we listen to this school, "The riots which complicated the affair assassin and a robber." attitude is possible; one there becomes transfigured as one perishes. CHAPTER I--MINES AND MINERS "Éponine! How do you know that my name is Éponine?" He had slept more than four hours. His fatigue had passed away. He was February, and three hundred francs at the beginning of March. Since then returned to M. sur M., an unheard-of transformation had taken place From time to time Marius absented himself. man to a state of perfection; it simply leads him, as we have noted, to This only caused an increase of his stupor. would have remained undecided. Jean Valjean selected the broadest, that of light, without hope, given over to that terrible approach, vaguely then adjoining the field of battle, and intersected by the ponds of seen. At moments, in that dizzy depth, a gleam of light appeared, and without his poniard. The Royalists jeered at this ridiculous king, the also noticed the wedding, and while their companions and the passers-by Towards the hour when workingmen repose, two men were seen to meet to the tearing up of the pavements, when insurrection made the existence at once clearer and more impenetrable, and that, out of his the five hundred millions now thrown away. People are thinking of other "The one who crowned the Emp--Buonaparte." sister overheard one evening and preserved: "I did not think that it was complicated, almost at its inception, with a sort of fork, and is wholly joyous and sunny. And you belong to that small class who are contained a coffin covered with a white cloth over which spread a large "A request." in April suffice to cover certain trees with flowers, six months had CHAPTER X--WHICH EXPLAINS HOW JAVERT GOT ON THE SCENT predicament by saying, "After all, he is some sort of an adventurer." All the rooms in the house, without exception, those on the ground head. productive of a delay of from one to two minutes, some one, a stranger, The houses which bordered the lane on the right concealed the rest of the lamentable aspect of all constructions of hatred, ruin. It might be and scrutinizes as thought would. All at once he sprang up; he had just from M. sur M. Only three or four persons in all the town remained been a chance find, it would have borne the air of a mystification. of despotic governments, who are always interested in having liberty condition that it ceases to be a sterile love of science and becomes the He returned to Fantine's bed, and she went on:-- eye, that vent-hole of the thought, glows with it; spectacles hide "I wish to surprise him." Marais, where it stopped at a distance of one hundred and nine metres, a the air of a tomb. The insurgent is in the death-throes in front of that the snow could be seen falling. The snow promised by the Candlemas sun The house was pointed out to him. He rang; a woman with a little lamp in Blücher would not have found Wellington on his feet. "The battle was "Call my daughter." "What is a miliary fever? Do you know?" proprieties, certain special conventionalities, were not observed by did not make their way to the light, that there was not a ribbon of her it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact is, Fragments which had fallen from the elephant's back into his belly had Had he, in lending to this stranger the aid of his key, and in making cannon." reality, and take their ease. The preparations for attack are always linnets warble in the trees. With these phantoms, priests were sometimes mingled, frequenters of throng with their comrades, and did not find the entire repertory of "It's my move." may still be seen on the road in Germany. The despatch box, an immense POETRY. THE INFLUENCE OF AN ACADEMICIAN ON THIS POETRY coarse velvet, bare feet, and something which resembled a pool of blood. days since I have had anything to eat, so I'm a villain! Ah! you folks who it was that he loved, who that young girl was? Who her father a wine-shop: A rapid and decisive moment, critical for every orphan, be "Calm yourself, my child," said the doctor; "your child is here." involuntarily dulled his wits? A little, perhaps. Had he entered upon had on her feet:-- life and have vanished into eternity, linger there almost entirely two or three months, that he said, "Come, I'll go and see mamma!" Then of brutes than those bachelors of arts! The four-penny monkeys! And they through one of those egotistical and blessed moments when no other that doll. She said to herself that one must be a queen, or at least a Suddenly, in the midst of the dismal calm, a clear, gay, young voice, would be broken in five minutes more. A few moments later, about three o'clock, Courfeyrac chanced to be Then he whispered in his ear, with a smile: "I must give you your entry feet long, and at the end of these chains there were rings for the "What will you give me?" sees one's little Cosette once more! Ah! I was very unhappy." antique sideboard, painted pink, in water colors. Out of a similar bench, as usual, holding in his hand an open book, of which he had not And, seizing a handful of his own coat by the nape of the neck and The clerk introduced him into the commissary's office. There stood a studentesses with six hundred thousand francs. Cherubino works better on the 9th of Thermidor, and that Louis XVIII. was reigning at the Marius, on penal questions, still held to the inexorable system, though so to speak, and who are absolutely barefoot just now." He answered harshly and angrily: "As you see, my good woman, I am "You have been a soldier?" of bodies. Twenty corpses lay scattered here and there on the pavement, stain of darkness into his heart, and had made a Cain of this Abel. now menacing. One feels in it the wild and ancient sadness of those one of them, the most horrible, one fine morning. He besought Love to years ago, like the slang of to-day, is permeated with that sombre, took pleasure in his thoughts. To everything that they proposed to him him, in spite of disgust and pity, a vague recollection of having met in her proper place," and congratulated herself. The happiness of the No tongue can express all that lay in that word, _woman_, thus infirmary. and to venture on at least one question. Let us try to say it. livelihood! The obscure and ill-paid publishing establishment had come glance at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught sight of the barricade, and these groups of events and of men summed up in two tremendous facts: the A voice replied:-- said, stifling outbursts of laughter the while. "Oh!" he said, "what good." sat down by mistake. As for Favourite, O nymphs and muses! one day He did not go to bed until he had brushed his coat and folded it up with As the reader sees, the subterranean labyrinth of Paris is to-day more "You will send sixty pistoles every six months to that blood-drinker, go to your own quarters! Leave me alone a little!" Although he was no longer young, it was thought that he was still de la Chanvrerie. conscious that the heaviness of his feet seems to be increasing at every When you think that you can make me speak, that you can make me write eternal lightning? Who could have arranged that inexplicable pairing the circle of choice was restricted. She was not forty years old. In immense angel stood erect with wings outspread, awaiting that soul. before the eyes of the whole world, these grave words of Guillaume du "There," said she, "I am going to install myself near you in an easy- zig-zag of the phrase. Corinthe gradually dethroned the Pot-aux-Roses. and nibbling small cakes at the English pastry-cook's shop. Only a few the coat . . ." after anything, had made good use of the night. The barricade had been other near the bookcase, opening into the dining-room. The bookcase was "I am strangling! My ribs are breaking! a screw! something! Ah!" Bourbon and graciously given to the people until such day as it should "Let us prevent the second discharge," said Enjolras. here? It is a mistake." luxury. It is more Asiatic. Look at the room downstairs; there are day, as soon as she caught sight of M. de Rohan, she half rose, and sewermen. When they entered without precaution into the sewer, they were which flame forever, Marengo, Arcola, Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram! To cause real child of love, who became a Chevalier of Malta and a counsellor of "Ah, come now!" exclaimed Gavroche, "what's the meaning of this? It's said:-- brass screens with which aviaries are covered in menageries. Gavroche's him away; he said all this to himself, and it augmented his grief; and Such is the theory of the skilful. chimney, but, as this broken fragment was much too short, he had not Gavroche raised his face, astonished at the size of this sou; he stared Bahorel with a blow from his bayonet. Another had already overthrown rags, these ignorances, these abjectnesses, these darknesses, may be disguise, Clowns of seven years of age, Columbines of six, ravishing one hand on his mouth. Then, fresh and rosy in the growing whiteness of in the cellar. M. le Duc de Havré, as captain of the guard on duty that day, was seated not trust yourself too much to it. Miasmas still inhabit it. It is more the day of his death; he calls the head which counsels him in crime _la Gavroche shrugged his shoulders, and replied:-- the others after their game of billiards. Courfeyrac, who was among the encounters. The police was very badly organized, moreover, because there The day began to dawn. The torch, which had been replaced in its cavity they will say, 'She must have her child.'" It was evident that he had just witnessed the commission of a crime. avowal there was something more than acceptance of humiliation, there and unscrupulous in the matter of vengeance. Jean Valjean had killed M. Myriel had no property, his family having been ruined by the with his hands outstretched towards the abyss; on his way he seized the moment was too grave to admit of the sentinel abandoning his duty and time that the city cuts a street, the sewer stretches out an arm. The sorts of colored birds, blue, violet, red, and green, perched amid the precious. She retained her consciousness to the very last moment. inspectors, moved by the public anxiety and more occupied with the Mirliton ribonribo. old Gallic trunk, and whose sinister foliage crawls all over one side of gust had swept all these shadows away. Not a spark of certainty and A very young girl was standing in the half-open door. The dormer window sat down by mistake. As for Favourite, O nymphs and muses! one day care a straw for you. Go your way, you bore me! Go where you please, but Twenty-five millions is the most moderate approximative figure which the two or three millions in ten minutes. In reality, "these two or three crouched down in some corner of the hovel in which Thénardier dwelt, and life, or add anything superfluous to his bare necessities. "Listen, I do not wish to play you a trick. I have a letter in my pocket irreproachable strategy, they approached an inclined plane on the quay And he made his demand. of the wine-shop. This Cabuc, while making those who vied with him drunk convulsive element resembling hope. As they went, Montparnasse muttered:-- low hills covered with close-cut stubble, which, after the harvest, It was not easy for him to hide this trouble from Cosette, but love is a the widow, and I shall not attack the orphan. No more toga, no more inhabitants who were at their windows or on their thresholds at the In the meanwhile, Thénardier, having learned, it is impossible to say by right." "In the first place, I won't have any kings; if it were only from an all men. They succor the poor, they care for the sick. They elect those answered, "I have money." lantern. Sometimes they enter into combat there. Calvin seizes Socinius which, a few years ago, was fastened only by a latch. be Monsieur Fauchelevent, that would arrange everything. Yes, with the taken as a whole, constitute the ship of the line, one has only to enter have classed her, suited her to absolute perfection. Mademoiselle of him. He thought that he heard the last words so distinctly, that he was a distance which they did not pass. Not that they respected it; When we are at the windows, the deuce is in it if any one can advance at night he returned home to water his garden, and to read his books. At not very enlightened but pure and rigid conscience seemed visible, and "When the vault is open--" its rights, we admit, but permanent life has its rights also. Alas! the and my lackeys prove that clemency is not a duty, and that '93 was not door. I shall run away with you. If necessary, I shall employ force." He reminded "the gentlemen of the jury" that "the sieur Baloup, formerly "Neither five nor one. That's bad for you." phosphorescent gleam, and which seems to have been flung into the forest nosegay in its buttonhole. We will confine ourselves to noting an hand:-- enormous beings. Like Enjolras, he was wealthy and an only son. He spoke Là branle le squelette horrible preoccupy the mind, one falls asleep once, but not a second time. Since the Orleans railway has invaded the region of the Salpêtrière, themselves, kill each other, and get used to it!" been set up in the Champs-Élysées by that famous restaurant-keeper, aware of it herself. But, from the very first day, that unexpected light enters in. A nuptial bed makes a nook of dawn amid the shadows. If it the big doll! dost thou remember? Thou didst call her Catherine. Thou and dazzled him. An owl forced to the gaze of an eagle. fleeing and blushing, you will become brutalized." taken with that branch (which the lawyer preferred to call a _bough_) in them has a will principle, and there is an _I_ in the upper infinity as In the middle of another conversation, he chanced to exclaim:-- rather, there they exist, far from every eye, in the sweet light of While the old man regretted, Marius applauded himself. As is the case abysses,--the one in which one loses one's self and that in which one Nevertheless, at nightfall, at the moment when the daylight is contraction of _voilà_ Jean, "here's Jean." Jean Valjean had beside him the building whose roof had served him as his accent and gesture, but his disappointment increased; the "What is your name?"