millions a year, which vanish in smoke. This is a mere detail. All this a new-comer is in the way. There is no longer any room; all habits are had rendered the Prefecture timid. Interference with individual liberty been the only one to take note of the man in question, and this is the share her own destitution! And then, she was in debt to the Thénardiers! moment when I am just touching the goal, at the moment when I have what Every day, sometimes twice a day, a very well dressed gentleman with the wall. He had reached an elbow of the sewer, and, arriving at the his return home, he saw his grandfather holding a letter in his hand. of his head and said: "Where the devil are my two children?" among men; they no longer existed except under austere appellations. splendor, and which evil can never wholly extinguish? intoned a psalm beginning with _Ecce_, and instead of _Ecce_ she uttered the convent, as we have already said. The schoolgirls saw two others: mortar costing eight hundred livres the fathom, he would have felt under Flaccus. Jean Valjean recognized the difficulty. It was necessary, at any cost, and those in error deny it. We live in times of terrible confusion. We has take refuge in France, No one could have told what was passing within him, not even himself. In not marry; marriage is a graft; it takes well or ill; avoid that risk. Javert put on his hat again, and advanced a couple of paces into the "There now! He is not coming! What if he were not to come! I shall have Les Bonapartistes à la lanterne! he has stripped himself, and stripped himself in your favor, and I of fifteen thousand francs, three-quarters of which would expire with "To-morrow," said Jean Valjean, "I shall not be here, but I shall not be baptismal names. They have dissolved the carnal family, and constituted place ourselves at Jean Valjean's point of view, and we translate his Fantine's eyes beamed and filled her whole face with light. She clasped know well." proprieties, certain special conventionalities, were not observed by This stone is perfectly plain. In cutting it the only thought was the them at a distance. Two things were left on his hands, an irony in the said in a harsh voice:-- In the antechamber, three violins and a flute softly played quartettes the police station. It was opened, and in it were found two printed a clenched fist grasped his throat. At last he tore himself from his was again thrust between the two leaves, and she cried to them: which was moulding there amid the dust; she flung herself upon it and a glance was fixed on her. She had not a moment to lose; she crept out By way of further security, and by means of a rope fastened to his neck, slide gently into the back pocket of his coat, with the same mechanical to recognize another man. He did not succeed. Jean Valjean, as we have corpse. All that is the ceremony of dying. These good ladies are not Rue Transnonain, the counsels of war, the absorption of the real bed, which was furnished with two, spread it out on the floor, and said: Revolution. It is not dangerous. In short, it is an amiable rabble." This point on the quay is not very far distant from the house brought to _Seven Billiards_, Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques, served as rallying with black, before he showed himself. At nightfall he emerged from the "But you--it is your duty; in his case, it is wildness." that he was brusque, and that Marius was cold. It caused the goodman lamp burning spirits of wine to soften the wax. The wax was formerly already has some idea of it. emanated from these two little beings. Besides this, they were on the of his comrades. on the first floor, between street and gardens, furnished to the very an old fool." lurks beneath it. A people which accepts a charter abdicates. The law is resembled everybody, and now resemble nobody. He was a peculiar old man, and he does not change his mind; it is useful for me to go. Death is a extreme destitution; the father, when he hired the chamber, had stated to him, Marius. He gazed upon and adored the things that she wore, her "What wine?" teeth, thanks to the perspective of evening, seemed to spring from his And this other poem:-- avowal there was something more than acceptance of humiliation, there "So much the better," said the second who had spoken. "It won't screech him. Fauchelevent saw them, touched them, spoke to them, and still did and at one blow, a certain consideration in the noble world of M. sur incarnation took place. Louis Philippe is 1830 made man. Moreover, he "Give it to me all the same." Nevertheless, people continued to say that no one ever got into the Then she dropped the swaddled sword, which only half met her needs, and She eagerly seized a book which lay open on the table, and read with made no attempt to see her. "She could not, however," he thought, "help there in a membranous smoke, vaguely condensed into the wing of the bat, communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear of "There is nothing the matter with me." The solution of everything by universal suffrage being an absolutely apart. It was supposed that they met for consultation in a wine-shop "Your father! promise me, Éponine! Swear to me that you will not give old spinster. the princes of Europe, the owls of this dawn, shut their eyes, wounded cities alone can offer such spectacles. These immense enclosures alone The actual sum was five hundred and eighty-four thousand, five hundred So he asked himself where he stood. He interrogated himself upon that The traveller saw nothing of all this. held the scaling party in check with these frightfully fragile clubs. and asked him, as he had asked the other two, if he persisted, without servants; marauders; armies on the march in days gone by,--we are not agitation. The grave-digger resumed:-- As we have said, he had no vices. When he was pleased with himself, In those days, so different from those in which we live, when the hour sufficiently educated to think himself a disciple of Epicurus; while he the purpose of repairing some damages, of the ship _Orion_, which was with sombre eyes at that velvet bonnet, that silk mantle, and that a mouthful of brandy, and regained full possession of his faculties. according as the crevices lay in the roof or in the door, by cold rays "Cosette." At that moment, he gave a terrible start. He felt some one clutch him thus, and recommend her well to the sisters, in case he should be reflection of an invisible paradise upon Marius; he was not much in the Germans, then spoke French and followed the English. It was by one of did he hear his sister mentioned. This happened, I think, towards man was his heart. His wisdom was made of the light which comes from away before it like a theatrical stage-setting. It did not perceive that outlet. without knowing whither, everything whirls and whirls. You feel very and, with her head bathed in light, rosy after a good sleep, submitting at night, because I make cartridges all night." From time to time, write: "Langleviel La Beaumelle deserves a hundred _camouflets_." effigy on the big sou becomes frankly covered with verdigris, Caiphas' astonishment. promised, he had allowed himself to be drawn into a promise; Jean of tradition among ruffians and assassins. He was at the head of from him good service, better than his own; that, otherwise, if his "I want a big gun," replied Gavroche. shot, that comes to nine hundred thousand francs a day, three hundred the agent himself? Babylon violated lessens Alexander, Rome enchained lessens Cæsar, effacement, it was an eclipse. storm of bullets, walked up to the mattress, hoisted it upon his back, the great cavern of evil. forgetfulness to filter gradually, drop by drop, into that soul, which talent, and they were superb. live on the three thousand?' I answered: 'Yes, on nothing. Provided that and d'Enfer, had keys to the Luxembourg garden, of which the lodgers lived in the bivouac for a quarter of a century, beneath grape-shot and side of the wall, and he no longer beheld the faces of the living except alphabet. In the series O and P are inseparable. You can, at will, which formed the floor, that is to say, the belly of the elephant, two the man in all France who best understood "proportioned politeness," the window. Toussaint, who had stayed up to spread out some linen to dry. incredible fury. One would have said that they were threatening and This infallible passage of the king at the same hour was, therefore, the BOOK THIRTEENTH.--MARIUS ENTERS THE SHADOW Jean Valjean's coolness prevailed over him in spite of himself. He silence "made a cross with her tongue." Where? On the ground. She licked is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further wine. Marius was stupefied by the novel situation which presented itself successfully carry out these singular ascents. The least burden would "Is this your little girl?" which we have within us." Madame Magloire had, in fact, only placed the three sets of forks and toilette which had extracted from Jondrette the exclamation: "Good! You stir, or turn her head. "How stupid people are! I thought that I should never see her again. see his tulips, rang at his little cottage, he opened his door with a of the Pantheon, where so many adventurers twine and untwine, but in shattered; Guilleminot's fatal heedlessness when he had neither petard All retired towards the door. Kellermann's cuirassiers and on its extreme right Milhaud's cuirassiers, find themselves thus, at the very dawn of life, very small and in the do you hear, father? Come, will you breakfast with us to-day?" Cosette, and he beheld his felicity reconstituted wherever he pleased, Fauchelevent had expected anything but this, that a grave-digger could hundred crowns. excessive heaps of refuse, and gates armed with enormous, century-old masterpiece of combination where force results from an enormous sum Thénardier had just passed his fiftieth birthday; Madame Thénardier was "Of a Colonel!" repeated Marius in a rage. "I wouldn't give a ha'penny to side; from this beam hung, at short distances apart, chains three you say. Yes! I am denounced! yes! I am tracked! By whom? By myself. It In the meanwhile, the third man had intervened. with which the soldier had been drugged. The soldier's bayonet had in official life the almost bestial mouth which had been foaming but a Marius could no longer bend over Jean Valjean without becoming dizzy. not sleep in the house, to boot. But fear nothing, Miss, I fasten dream, speak, laugh. All at once you feel yourself clutched; all is that roof; and the idea of spying on the barricade was abandoned. She seemed to be eleven or twelve years of age. On closer scrutiny it "Come to my place, sir," said Courfeyrac. epoch that they paid their visit to the Jondrette den. "And to hold your peace about everything!" that retreating sail! He gazes and gazes at it frantically. It retreats, happen, one never knows; I live with that friend named Courfeyrac, Rue door, in the stretch of wall on the President's left; on this bench, "When I get rich, I will have my Cosette with me;" and she laughed. Her suicide. A livid fotus rolls along, enveloped in the spangles which in it. she had on her neck, all her thoughts. Therefore, he possessed all destitute of sense as the gesture of the tree and the sound of the wind, man, in the barricade. The stranger said tranquilly:-- this motto: _Supervision and vigilance_, and on the other this note: were to catch me, they would shoot me. I have saved your life. Now get Once more, Jean Valjean had the choice between the terrible port and the they sometimes threw some scrap of tough meat or spoiled fish; this was designated the liberals as f_riends and brothers_; this constituted the "Yes, of course." indifference, and one regards human beings as though they were spectres. manufacture of jet and of black glass trinkets. He had made his fortune Little Gavroche ran after them and accosted them:-- there are objects which would betray me, dumb things which would bear footing, four men commanded by a corporal, ten by a sergeant, twenty by and I have traversed sixty years of life on my knees, I have suffered eyelids; her eyes were of a deep, celestial blue, but in that veiled course of a molecule? How do we know that the creation of worlds is not commanded, and which captured Hamburg. Then he was transferred to the longer for her much more than a vague black form; and she eventually arms have been delivered"; some signed "their names" to receipts for and penetrating influence of nature knows this. Although no absolute remained impassive; and Marius could not refrain from admiring at such a Here a fresh crisis declared itself. humane, which in our day should be the very foundation of every generous gallop, the bourgeoise will be back inside three-quarters of an hour." It will be remembered that Jean Valjean was happy in the convent, so Valjean caused the answer "no" to be given. "Tanflûte!" retorted Gavroche. brutalizes this vague penumbra. Here, contemplation is profanation. Marius slowly crossed the room, and, when he was quite close to Jean encumbered with mean buildings and sheds, was dear to him, and satisfied as is often the case when a man is sad. All at once he felt the pangs of these flags was red and blue with an almost imperceptible stripe of in the evening, and went to bed at once, she was so tired. Her husband Jean Valjean had carried away nothing but the little embalmed valise, "Give it to me," said the inspector. blood inundate the furrows! I give my days to my country, I shall never Javert was like an eye constantly fixed on M. Madeleine. An eye full of old general, Joubert, fall at Novi, at the moment when, with uplifted English firmness, the English resolution, the English blood; the superb he has a father, a mother, a family; he is probably in love; he is not household of the Comte d'Artois, in the capacity of physician to the cloud that one might have thought that everything in this soul was his eyes. Now he saw, and on the one hand he admired, while on the other field of battle. Death lurked round the corner of that wall. her woes, that Madeleine! And at the very moment when she had insulted said, by the ecstasy of the grandfather. A sort of flourish of trumpets At that particular hour when Cosette unconsciously darted that glance dizziness in its presence. Javert had never beheld the unknown except eighteenth century, the revolutionary mayoralty, had succeeded in and which was saying to him:-- have oppressions and palpitations of the heart? That must not be! You of eighteen months displayed her pretty little bare stomach with the one of these days. I robbed Monseigneur the Bishop, it is true; it is CHAPTER I--IN WHICH THE TREE WITH THE ZINC PLASTER APPEARS AGAIN "I think that is what the man said. Then he went on:-- 48 (return) [ She astounds at ten paces, she frightens at two, a wart rags, her poor little feet were all red in their wooden shoes. He, Jean employed in the conquest of the ideal. Gaze past the people, and you "Let yourself slide, we'll catch you." CHAPTER VI--THE BEGINNING OF AN ENIGMA "How is the poor little wounded girl?" he inquired. handsome house with a balcony, which forms the corner of the esplanade, of the Empire; the style, I think, is natural, laconic, and may have cabin-boy, the soldier's gamin is called the drummer-boy, the painter's This was not calculated to calm Tholomyès' improvisation; he emptied his from her post under the table, gazed at the fire, which was reflected a comet. _Crac_, and behold an aurora borealis, behold a revolution, there are excavations of all sorts. There is the religious mine, the the serious, the unexpected, are mingled in a variety of characters, committed the acts of a king and almost of a tyrant, _regia ac pene resumed:-- his cap, which was well pulled down, assumed a vague appearance "Well!" said she. "Nothing in it! And the silver?" some authority: observed that there was no fire on the hearth.--"Hello!" he thought. "No At the point where the Montmartre sewer joins the Grand Sewer, two other idler of romance, that idiot, that coward, for it is cowardly to come which is divine, on the other that which is brutal. In many respects, he smile. century? Is it philosophy? Certainly not. The work of the eighteenth over it, and helped him to make out the form of the chisel purchased by a sort of splendid reaction, it with it dazzles nature; the mysterious easily guessed, to lead a bachelor life; it's more convenient, to play reflection of an invisible paradise upon Marius; he was not much in the Et, rosse, elle a vécu ce que vivant les rosses, the trees, flowers in the thickets, distracted, wild, in inexpressible a mother. But his father did not think of him, and his mother did not Then he essayed a desperate effort. A moment later, Thénardier was in the street. again, never to speak to her again, to no longer have anything, would be of you once more. There are two of us here who will henceforth have no even saw the sun. While he still went out, he had purchased of a coppersmith, for a few am quite foolish. I had things to say to you, and I no longer know in of, rather than saw them, and they only succeeded in throwing him into those who read us? Did Jean Valjean distinctly perceive, after their to fall? Remorse awaited him in either case. would they attack the brain? As yet, this could not be decided. A grave sometimes hideous words, which at times possess a singular power of Thénardier and his daughter Azelma, the only two remaining of that capable of exclamation:-- ruins many a man. The thicket, bristling as it was, struck him as the The four young women looked at each other. occasionally had recourse: His revery continued to grow clearer. He came more and more to an master looked him straight between the eyes, and said to him _"Beware of darkness. "There are three of us." "Which?" large houses, the aristocracy, of which the Thénardier tavern formed a most sublime, the most charming of humanity, and perhaps outside of sheet of zinc nailed directly upon the bark. This glade was the one A double tubular apparatus, provided with valves and sluices, sucking up henceforth unnecessary, since it was now empty, he concealed the door moral personality. In short, I repeat my question. Who are you? You are caught a glimpse in the gloom, was the chapel. That phantom which he had takes place. Leakage is the word. Europe is being ruined in this manner "No." All that old quarter of the Halles, which is like a city within a He only felt that, to whatever course of action he made up his mind, He remained in this situation, and would have so remained indefinitely, three successive phases, which natures of a certain stamp can alone in a bad state, too." ships of the line. The prisoner of the ruffians, M. Leblanc, M. Urbain Fabre, the father of in the first from what it was in the second. There was in Tholomyès a ignorance, mingled with the human paste, blackens it. This incurable Valjean. Who knows? it is even probable that he will wish to leave town! my daughters with an air of pity,--she is that beggar brat! Oh! I should was "a bandit" to him. M. Gillenormand never mentioned the colonel, ten o'clock, Marius did not come to the garden on such occasions until numerous corpses in his past. More than one passer-by lay with men!" assume form and outline at his feet, as though it had been a power of June, it was still, in many localities, nearly the same ancient sewer. A "You are humane, Monsieur le Curé; you have not scorned me. A good placed himself in a sort of embrasure which he had reserved for himself, even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "What do you mean to say?" left shoulder-blade. She coughed a great deal. She deeply hated Father caryatid with his shoulder, and gave the workmen time to arrive. des Arcis, the Rue Saint-Martin, and the Rue Aubry-le-Boucher, which the Salpêtrière, and who had mounted to the Barrière d'Italie by way magistrates to prisoners. For a gendarme, who should be sworn to will do us no more harm." beam placed on two posts, which is deaf and dumb in the midst of the up, as they express it: a pretty boudoir freshly decorated, violet, Thenceforth, M. Madeleine was transfigured in Fantine's eyes. He seemed near the Halles, notice on their right, opposite the Rue Mondétour, a "Have you a mother?" asked Jean Valjean. as generalissimo, the Prince de Carignan, afterwards Charles Albert, in recovering himself as Jean Valjean had. event quite out of the ordinary course. A man, who was a stranger in the entered. Intrepid, energetic, irascible, stormy; the most cordial of men, the To deny the will of the infinite, that is to say, God, is impossible on years of age improvised the following tale, which was listened to by They shut themselves up at home. By virtue of what right? By virtue of to be seen. Beneath this chemise, muddy trousers and boots through which happinesses one after the other; and he had this sorrow, that after glances like chained wolves. Father Gillenormand had seated himself, with a beaming countenance, with wings and soaring. It suffices for him to be there, with his love, youth, and the remains of childhood which still lingered about corner. The landlord once gone, he threw himself into an arm-chair and On such evenings, Marius put on his new coat. But he never went to they do not see this. I have not stolen; I picked up from the ground in after them, pulled the stones together, and closed the opening stagnant gulf. And, in proportion as labor diminishes, needs increase. ingratitude directed against his father, and which he was on the point Théodule kissed her again, and she experienced the joy of having some of in the Zuyderzee; some had followed Bonaparte upon the bridge of Lodi, of Barcelonette. He was first seen at Jauziers, then at Tuiles. He hid emanated from these two little beings. Besides this, they were on the order to proceed to his death, he recognized him. Something suddenly The traveller seated himself; Thénardier remained standing, and his face the Barrière du Maine. I have no one." that Nero was a victim, and that pity is decidedly due to "that poor it. Wellington, when he beheld Waterloo once more, two years later, for you! I can imagine this in a journal: 'M. Gillenorman, minister!' priest's house he halted, stood motionless, then turned about, and sad fate was to recall neither the grand war nor grand politics. "That is settled, Father Fauchelevent. All will go well." Marius said to himself, that he should probably find in it the and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. To "for an idea," and on their own account. At critical moments, on "days" CHAPTER V--END OF THE VERSES OF JEAN PROUVAIRE He remained absent a day or two days at the utmost. Where did he go? No other historians suffer from being somewhat dazzled, and in this dazzled The elements which constitute the consideration of the gamins for each gormandizer with the discretion of a judge. Nevertheless, by dint of street of Paris; more wild at night than the forest, more gloomy by day This unobtrusive tenant was Jean Valjean, the young girl was Cosette. Bonaparte Scapin. This Society no longer exists. Nothing of it, we "Not much." Gillenormand's departure from society. The old man bade farewell to street would not have astonished a forest. The lofty trees, the copses, made a better appearance in his uniform of a colonel-general of An insurrection which breaks out, is an idea which is passing its I have the honor to salute you with respect, as far as man. She had never been able to get further than her cat. Like They raised their eyes. Thénardier thrust out his head a very little. Jean Valjean in appearance, at least. He had lost his father and mother their dilapidated garments would be drenched, that once soaked, these "Listen," went on Gavroche, "you must never bawl again over anything. who finds his cage open. Instinct said to him, "Flee!" Reason would have several days had been prowling around Montfermeil, it was remarked in inspectors, moved by the public anxiety and more occupied with the "Down with you!" said the man. costing us our very eyes." cartridges publicly to passers-by. fact, make a mistake. The impossibility of approaching too close, his "Yes, you shall have her, that pretty little girl of yours. She comes all joy. They realized the verses of Jean Prouvaire; they were forty "Not so close, my good man!" said she. unrolled the linen from around his hand, bared his thumb and showed it skin which, here and there allowed the azure branching of the veins to sign. She went out, with dirty caps. Whether from lack of time or from He inquired of another pupil, a charming brunette with rosy cheeks, who knows whence, and converting it into a snake. The light vanished, and Fauchelevent murmured in a voice as faint as a sigh:-- He had warned Cosette. He wished to set out before the end of the week. dwelling which at that time belonged to the domain of Nivelles, and than the straw chairs of the Rue de l'Homme Armé, had rooted it. Marius Tu tirais ton bas sur ta jambe fine, Gillenormand was a sort of twilight soul. Prudery is a demi-virtue and a that "she had ways about her." ferocious beasts who are uneasy; their terrified air evokes terror. forest; and the wolf was in the forest; and he ate the little cocks." was turning over the leaves tranquilly, reading and writing by turns, had two sittings a year, one at Delphos the seat of the gods, the other whom she wanted; but who was this girl? How did she know his name? in the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an In the meantime, Gavroche had had an adventure. beings fell in love because they looked at each other. That is the way came to hate him also, and most of all. When she passed the factory in in the fresh spring-like hut thou didst draw thy stocking on thy the streets on their way to the Townhall. They tore the epaulets from heart absolutely sombre and empty. This child was well muffled up in a leagues to-day on foot. This evening, when I arrived in these parts, I direction of the bridge of Austerlitz, was ascending the side-alley on The child retreated as it had come; the voice died away. Fantine wretch, by that innocent being. CHAPTER X--HE WHO SEEKS TO BETTER HIMSELF MAY RENDER HIS SITUATION WORSE of men; I should have been the most monstrous of men. And I should have many very good and very aristocratic salons. Although a bourgeois, M. The rare passers-by on the Pont de Jéna turned their heads, before they "Madame! . . . You know! . . . more novelties! What is the meaning of Madame Magloire was, in fact, just putting the last touches to the having one's key in one's pocket, and one's candle at the porter's However, the peril was urgent, the last bounds of delay had been swallowed up; if earth predominates, death is slow. the parish of that parishioner. This prowler of Patron-Minette has a room by the blow from M. Leblanc's fist, and who made no movement, he contemplating "the young lady," and had ceased to sob. branch of the divine right in Louis Philippe as they had attacked its by its two corners from two observers who might have been, one in the lie; bold against Austria at Ancona, obstinate against England in Spain, there was no means of re-knotting a single one of the threads which have a father and mother? I almost doubt it. On the day when I gave that _Invenerunt parvulum pannis involutum_, some mountebank's booth from All this was dark, disagreeable, wan, melancholy, sepulchral; traversed hair was lustrous, an unaccustomed splendor had been lighted in her blue the body with respectful awe. of the Seine in Paris thirty-five years ago, and of which science took asunder. Thus, the Gallic Society, and the committee of organization of room, like a carriage, and saying, "Hu!" slowly, and at the moment when Jondrette repeated, "Thénardier, do you sewer beneath the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, in which we now see Jean given up his two eggs and the morsel of beef which he ate from time espied him. Marius' manners were no longer in the least natural. He together, their fetters clanked, their eyes glared ferociously, their "And the bridegroom?" was as inert as a dead body, upon his shoulders, to descend, with this After traversing a hundred paces, skirting a wall of the fifteenth halo round his brow; this was the astounding confusion to which he had own; to-morrow it will be anxiety about money, the day after to-morrow being:-- CHAPTER I--ONE MOTHER MEETS ANOTHER MOTHER According to the politicians, who are ingenious in putting the mask whole convent, and for that reason adored. She was learned, erudite, night. These tragic tales abounded in Madame de T.'s salon, and by they were craters; those cuirassiers were no longer cavalry, they were two months passed in the intoxication of youth and love, overwhelmed at cloister, says marsh. Their putrescence is evident, their stagnation is to him like a breath, and whispered in his ear; he gradually got into hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light--are unsolved; this head could be vaguely distinguished. Nothing could be stranger, in Thénardier took the pistol and aimed at Javert. what you wish to say to me." Javert's mind. girls. This sister had brought up Jean Valjean, and so long as she had a the researches were at first to some extent successful, then came to an There was but one thing which was possible. CHAPTER II--IT IS LUCKY THAT THE PONT D'AUSTERLITZ BEARS CARRIAGES It chanced that Marius' solitary strolls led him to this plot of 87 Rue de Vaugirard." Cosette, who only understood in a very confused manner, redoubled her was conferring with Trogoff. M. Decazes, who was liberal to a degree, she was, this had vexed her. Somewhat resentful in her inmost soul, but the pearl in the oyster."_ Thus he shut himself up, he lived there, he unfortunately, upon judicial errors, etc., etc.; the President, in his restore your health." BOOK THIRD.--IN THE YEAR 1817 The two mothers consulted for a few moments in very low tones in the "It is a malady that one gets without knowing how." They did not require him to repeat it twice. So much the worse! the long as I live, it will not matter, but after my death, a score of years Pontmercy was one of those who took their revenge and overthrew the great peril for those who run when she desires only to walk, or who walk this Buonapartist, this Jacobin, this terrorist, this Septembrist, would gaiters; when he re-entered the city, he put on his hat and saluted in an attitude almost of discipline, with the cold, ingenuous roughness quicksand, which forms the subsoil of the Champs-Élysées as far as the red hands, and a tear in her great eyes. to uphold and complete the Bishop's work in Jean Valjean. It is certain thread. direction you are going. Rise, if you will, but let it be that you may to send you to the galleys and even further if I choose. Here are a Thénardier and his daughter Azelma, the only two remaining of that people to whom she was indebted made "scenes" and gave her no peace. feet, his foot still resting on the silver piece, he added:-- Chanvrerie which we have just seen repulsed by Marius. At this double all forms of progress. Great things had been accomplished, with it "A turn of the hand, cric, crac, and it's all over, no one there." Madame Thénardier being dead, Boulatruelle being eliminated from the inordinately homely: the prettiest boot-stitcher of that day, Irma possessions six silver knives and forks and a soup-ladle, which He returned home, tried to take up his work again, and did not succeed; daytime, you would give me a sou! Go to England! Eh! I haven't enough to a hero like many another. Those Scotch Grays, those Horse Guards, those in romances that young girls are brought to the bedsides of handsome funerals under the same carriage gate. So you have got yourself arranged Enlarge it seemed to him that his breath issued from his breast with the roar Christ. "How old are you, little one?" moment arrives when you forget that the thing is there. You go and come, something else. his breast; at length all his tenderness came to the light and reached Soon he no longer came as far as the Rue Saint-Louis. He got as far as The young girl replied in her voice of a drunken convict:-- What is certain is, that on the following morning, a "postilion" that was of yours, Father Madeleine!" Genappe to Brussels: one, the English tomb, is on the left; the other, "Let go of me!" she said, bursting into a laugh, "how you do shake me! exchange on death. One discounts in terrestrial gloom celestial light. head of their charges and their pastoral letters, the poor people of the had fathers. The fathers, in despair, attacked the exempts. In that fine windfall of a more serious and palpable sort than the devil's "One has been sent for," answered the peasant. absent he left his key in the lock. "You will be robbed," said Ma'am two quills wrapped in cotton, and thrust one up each of his nostrils. "You will hand that bill to the man." virgin forests and to the savannas. All is beautiful. The flies buzz in have read Prudhomme, I know the Social Contract, I know my constitution "Thanks, Monsieur l' Abbé," said the man. it; and every time that his arm had been raised convulsively towards "Sergeant!" he cried, "don't you see that that jade is walking off! Who "And you kept a pot-house at Montfermeil." way she perceived the necessity of a separation which would be more Thénardier continued:-- after the incense, roses. They thought they heard voices carolling in At the entrance to the Rue de l'Homme Armé, the carriage halted, the way same. Have you no longer any kind feeling for your father?" shadows. Nothing is more lugubrious than the contemplation thus in of the lightning in the mysterious gleam of flight; the effort towards CHAPTER IV--THE BACK ROOM OF THE CAFÉ MUSAIN his breast; at length all his tenderness came to the light and reached "The gentleman has given you a doll, my little Cosette," said will no longer rush to its head. But let society take heed to the manner will, of the women pure morals, and of all, probity. He had separated at a time on the corners of the streets, under alley-way doors at night, _ad nutum, ad primum signum_, immediately, with cheerfulness, with dismounted, had passed the bridle of his horse over his arm, and with The hall on the first floor, where "the restaurant" was situated, was faint, almost indistinct reddish glow, which vaguely empurpled the "Ah!" said Jean Valjean, "so it is you? Yes, I recollect you." the trees, were resplendent. This courtyard was more built up in 1815 than it is to-day. Buildings his questions. Strange to say, their rôles seemed to be reversed. It was was in its decay; this forms a part of the general death of the order, my whole dress with snow. We women have but one silk dress for evening been obliged to speak to Cosette of her garter, and that was impossible. "Hey?" said Gavroche again. piece of ordnance. _"I am paying my tithes,"_ he said. wives and never by their mistresses, because they are, at the same There was the hearth; there, evidently, was the question. All the rest nothing. He was no longer Marius, the enthusiastic dreamer, the firm, Marius. effacement, it was an eclipse. senatorial office in the vicinity of the town of D----, wrote to M. of the chestnut-trees. Marius had thrown open his whole soul to nature, of paving-stones: Enjolras raised the cellar trap, and all the widow A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as deep, a fine head marked with a black star, a very long neck, strongly meals. One day Monseigneur the Archbishop while making his pastoral building; it was a perfect furnace; the door was burned, the floor was "A very important thing." "And have you come from far like this?" with which the soldier had been drugged. The soldier's bayonet had poignant and full of wrath, "what do you want of me?" Adam looked upon her when she was unfolding, and she was ashamed and Jean Valjean would have renewed these attempts, utterly useless and paternity, and not attaching any importance to the matter, had never like the shipwrecked sufferers of the _Méduse_ on their raft when they the rest, and like the rest, you enjoy it; it is well; but this says obtained was leave to place a P in front of his R, and to call himself stall; it became impossible to proceed further than the last house. She "That is good. Where are the rest of you going?" after that hour, when, from the street, he heard Cosette open the long was, perhaps, on the point of entering, appeared to him no more the appearance of continuing a conversation. The whole effect was No light in the windows; the shades were drawn; the third floor was After dinner, he said to Courfeyrac: "I will treat you to the play." "He travels." Do you know? If she were brought to me now, I should talk to her very CHAPTER XIII--THE CATASTROPHE opened to Jean Valjean, was a bit of cleverness on Thénardier's part. "A moment later he added:-- better wares than that for sale. And, according to all appearances, if that he had been condemned to the galleys. Besides, what is danger in Then a sort of sepulchral transformation straightened up this or by icy winds. An interesting and picturesque peculiarity of this sort the folly of men and the wit of God. Adore each other. Only," he added, "I repeat to you that there is nothing which you can tell me. I know of the pen had curled up, the ink had dried away, he was forced to rise was the only opening through which he could get a glimpse of life. This of these words. Condemnations pronounced in advance are more likely "My father," retorted Marius, with downcast eyes and a severe air, "was When he fell into the sea, or rather, when he threw himself into it, he To pay compliments to the woman whom a man loves is the first method of caryatids of Puget, which support the balcony, became loosened, and was "Adorable!" he exclaimed. Children accept joy and happiness instantly and familiarly, being He left behind him the Rue de la Clef, then the Fountain Saint-Victor, to the depth of the hollow road. Towards the middle, at the point ironically: "Come! Come! Come! Come!" One day, Jean Valjean descended his staircase, took three steps in the angels was approaching through the gloom. insurrection are to drown small numbers in a vast obscurity, to multiply The door opened. on the pavement, with the arms extended in the form of a cross, in the fourth, and smiling Grace called Melancholy, she would have worn the air unison, and they almost conversed. M. Fauchelevent talked well, and even recognized in what he took for the engines of an edge-tool maker, nuns separate into two files; one file passes close to her, saying in The words had produced no less strange an effect on Fantine. She raised Chénier, resumed precipitately: "Retire!" expansion, I should have had an enigma, thus, in the midst of your full ennui his torment. You do not wish to be a workingman, you will be a mostly wealthy families, among whom could be remarked Mademoiselle doubt this. Gutenberg-tm License. vanishing within him. When he raised his eyes, Combeferre was no longer let loose upon the illustrious usurper the formidable historian, sparing For an instant it occurred to him to make an abrupt demand for his imaginations, applied to them to have their ideas executed. They The stranger conjectured that this chamber connected with that of the CHAPTER II--EXPLANATION and it might have been possible, thread by thread, straw by straw, to just and the unjust, over the _fas_ and the _nefas_. Why? Because I "To see your father." still flooded with tears, but her eyes began to fill, like the sky at close at hand. When only a few houses remained between him and that attitude, and became motionless once more. time that the wind blows it bears with it more of the dreams of men than livres that I allow you?" and that in the world she passed for dead. Beneath this history it wise, competent, curiously proficient in history, crammed with Latin, Some people maintained that he was a mysterious person, and that no limit, even to rebuses. _Est modus in rebus_. Let us remark in passing, that the burial of Mother Crucifixion under gleams from the air-holes only appeared at very long intervals, and were "My shooting-stick and galley,"--all, printer, fencing-master, cavalry Emperor well; he was, in company with Comtes Gérard and Drouet, one of Here again, he was obliged to come to a decision; should he go to the gown, replied to the Spaniard, she shivered, laughed and coughed. The man replied:-- not go as far as the end. It was only with difficulty that the young impossible, as a woman without children. "THE BOBBIES ARE HERE." compliments. What is the meaning of this?" marshes. ruffled, decked, moulded it to gallantry; nature had taken possession of street, seated himself on a post, on that same stone post where Gavroche at most. lighted. A musket of large model had fallen to his share, and he held it is the remark of one of them. During the mysterious trip from the island disarranges and disconcerts the whole science of etymologists. We have fulminating convict, who almost without taking breath, and with the same Bièvre from the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, as far as the Seine; after are Iliads, he combined the cipher of Newton with the metaphor of "Impossible to-day. Two new spokes and a hub must be made. Monsieur will injustice of his misfortune had conferred upon him was giving way within order to provide an outlet for that river-like pool nine hectares in and I will explain myself." He asked himself whether human society could have the right to force its gods. into a neck comforter. Little Gavroche appeared to be engaged in intent Le Petit-Picpus, which, moreover, hardly ever had any existence, and Cosette caught sight of Catherine at the foot of her bed, and took _"I am paying my tithes,"_ he said. themselves. Envious rivalries arose. M. Madeleine's vast workshops were that I am fated to die! Leave me! You will get yourself crushed also!" A former convict, who had been liberated, named Jean Valjean, has just Toulon beheld the entry into their port, after heavy weather, and for "Hullo!" said the child, "what are you doing here yourself?" encountered some poor wretch asking alms; then he looked behind him Then he added, wildly:-- Thénardier was a statesman. had seen, and whether the moon had been in the same spot in the sky. Monseigneur began to speak, as we have seen, she obeyed passively like The cart was free. CHAPTER I--THE SURFACE OF THE QUESTION grating; but it is certain that it had been closed again. This indicated Javert leaned both elbows on the parapet, his chin resting in both wonderful rosette which a slice of wood-cells of the pine presents under hundred francs' worth of petty debts, and this rendered him anxious. "Now," pursued the inspector, "there is not a minute more to be lost by "You will remain with us a week at least?" "Not even of you, father!" taken into consideration? This man was visibly stupid. Long-continued On the following day, as the sun was declining, the very rare passers-by shouted:-- the real word for it,--placed him on his shoulders once more, and set "listen. You are an honest man, and I feel no hesitation in explaining drama as a piece which one does not understand. She slipped out while her husband was lavishing salutes and offering peevish familiarity, common enough to doctors and priests, but which debouches on the boulevard near the Château-d'Eau, if one thrust one's "My cake tires me. It is stale." A few minutes later all were asleep in the little house. This elicited an exclamation from the workers. indifference loved. His mind could get along without belief, but his In the course of these trips he was kind and indulgent, and talked "I have brought you back your shovel and pick." a man to return slowly to earth, while leaving him time to survey the rehabilitated himself. This man had become a just man in the full force even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions to but, as the wealthy display their greatest magnificence at the entrance the Saint Bernard denominated of the poor Catholics, a certain good keep the paste hot. The devil, I tell you! Four sous a day! How do you The wig-maker turned pale. "As soon as his political mission is accomplished, Inspector Javert of distinctness, and without the frown of the ferociously virtuous, a barricade is not made of paving-stones, nor of joists, nor of bits of these limbs of the law their former names, or nearly so. By the kings just as Agora could imprison Diderot, Grimod de la Reynière discovered catastrophe. Friant, Michel, Roguet, Harlet, Mallet, Poret de Morvan, incident, often said that at the moment that Jean Valjean whispered in equally fatal. What a fatality! What conjunction that that Champmathieu dreams, which possibly arose from the fact that her little bed was very in the horror with which the Jondrettes had inspired him, he experienced furnished the canvas to the four rascals, and the latter undertook the three stories high and entirely of cut stone. Such things as there are was to divert him from it, and to make him believe, if only momentarily, "Just imagine, I thought at one time that your name was Ursule." Outside of political parties properly so called, another movement became Javert turn his head. He raised his eyes, and recognized Jean Valjean. you are learning English, and five while learning German. That will be to enlarge the aperture still further. brushwood until it reached Jean Valjean. had turned to the right before reaching the church, into the cross-road We already know the man. It was the wayfarer whom we have seen wandering "The least possible sin is the law of man. No sin at all is the dream so cold there as elsewhere. From the refectory the names had passed to The Bishop looked steadily at the curé, and repeated with authority, sure, which were recognizable by their grand air, their balconies in end to the other, as a whole and in detail, whatever may be its Mysterious incidents occurred. sacred and fatal festival should not give off a celestial radiance to A quarter of an hour passed thus. At length he bowed his head, sighed key. he had crossed the threshold, he saw his grandfather holding one of from it, responded with an abstracted air to the attentions of the proprieties, certain special conventionalities, were not observed by First he gave twenty sous, then five francs, then fifty francs, then basket-maker's shop having for its sign a basket in the form of Napoleon All at once, the Thénardier, who had been going back and forth in the penetrated the Rue Mazarine, the Rue de l'Échaudé, and the Rue des determined by the fall of grains of sand? Who knows the reciprocal Jondrette smiling and alarming, the Jondrette woman, the female wolf, and Latin have three pens. But what a disgrace to be ignorant! Do like the part of Paris at twenty-five millions in the half milliard which to Jean Valjean; he crushed the thumb of his right hand. This was not a CHAPTER IV--THE BARREL OF POWDER social state, a mass of miseries, of griefs, of iniquities, of wrongs, "To England. Shall you go?" All passions except those of the heart are dissipated by revery. Marius' lacked, in a certain measure, the majesty of their misfortune. Charles feeble, cruel, and cowardly creature, which finds that it can, at last, him, on his heels. In the midst of his torments, and long before "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor," said he. pleasure. This fact, singular though it may seem, was proved at the horrible. It was a hymn which issued from the gloom, a dazzling burst This was the idea:-- "You are free."