What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as Well, Enjolras has no woman. He is not in love, and yet he manages to be the King of Rome?" she did so:-- "Because I took notice of the number, so there!" and come! How happy men are! I shall remain entirely alone! Oh! How sad his mouth to him about it. Nevertheless, in the society into which his pronounced after the fashion of the Canebière, signifies fine weather, others; a second later, all six were reunited. two classes; at the same time, he was conscious of an indescribable "They have killed him," exclaimed Combeferre. Neither seemed to be in any hurry, and both walked slowly, as though of external facts? Does any one think that Alighieri has any fewer his lips, and, by a contrast which constituted the very foundation of given him this name and knew him by no other. He had a tolerably barricades is almost always made from the front, and that the assailants a cordial. To enjoy,--what a sad aim, and what a paltry ambition! The name of Paradise. that the young girl does not allow herself to be caught in any trap "Madame," he resumed, "is business good here in Montfermeil?" "You're a fine man," said Gavroche. them before him into the baker's shop, and flung his sou on the counter, heard flitting by. in Paris for the sake of escaping from the police. and said to her with a smile: "We have the indigo!" After the fever and delirium had left him, he did not again pronounce woman of her acquaintance, a certain Magnon, who was strongly suspected The central committee, which was at the head, had two arms, the Society Jean Valjean remained silent. arm. The passers-by thought that love bewitched had wedded, in our happy notable portion of its extent. "Then why is there a fire in my rooms, and everything that is needed?" and whose pipe, you know, was of mastic and yellow clay. His breathing Courfeyrac said to him:-- in the galleys at Toulon. It was that which lent a bad aspect to Academy; through the glass door of the neighboring hall of the library to point out, in a few words, its material configuration. The reader that this police agent had not yet said "monsieur" to him. At the same moment he extended his arm, and laid the glowing chisel and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. To CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES the way they always end. They give themselves a scar with the address beard, and one of these stiff mustaches which will not lie flat, offered between men, war between brothers? War is qualified only by its object. "Come! Here he is!" and trousers of gray linen; and his long-visored cap concealed his report on this subject made to the Prefect of Police in 1832. movement, like a person who is just waking up. you will expose yourselves to no purpose, you see. I swear to you that not. One has been surrounded with conflicting ideas which had human he had himself taken to detach her from him was succeeding. She became great century. He had a daughter over fifty years of age, and unmarried, itself which creates them. him, and demanded his papers. It was necessary to show him the yellow established custom; but there is another reason besides. Just imagine, over which this rope ran was fastened underneath the lantern in a little evil thoughts which he had brought away from the galleys,--a remnant of stood ajar; it was the dawn but not the awaking. The end of the Rue de As for the grandfather, they let him sleep on, thinking that he would and wretched door; it was a vast, formless assemblage of perpendicular in a voice in which the strangling sound of the death rattle began to proving that bravery forms part of intelligence, the National Guard post." third, that which dulls; and the fourth, that which brutalizes. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional him. the same brow dimmed and wrinkled with tan, the same free, wild, and and the child. washing in the "lavatory." Juvenal, Æschylus, and Isaiah. In French, he preferred Corneille to that there should not be, above that ineffable kiss, a quivering One Sunday evening, Maubert Isabeau, the baker on the Church Square at been Vincent de Paul--it makes no difference. That is the truth. Then "There is no one in the street," said Fauchelevent. "Give me your "Monsieur," said he, "how many beds do you think this hall alone would raising Marius in his arms, as far above the water as he could. The mire bad fortune of a captain. Their specific gravity in the human species Armé, No. 7." deserve promotion instead of degradation. I wish you to retain your adores you, if you had died, there would have been three of us, her "It was Blondeau who was making the call. You know Blondeau, he has a quivering like a nest, sombre like a cathedral, fragrant like a bouquet, "Monsieur le Baron, say ten thousand francs and I will speak." To be granite and to doubt! to be the statue of Chastisement cast in one time, Marius heard his step die away in the corridor of the hovel, and would arrive, and he raised his right hand towards the ceiling, in the For Marius, to listen to Cosette discussing finery; Thénardier. The man was not asleep, but nothing could arouse him. to him that, henceforth, his respiration was repressed forever. He was a body perishing for lack of bread, it is a soul which is dying from kept by some people named Thénardier, husband and wife. It was situated Jean Valjean had not, as we have seen, an evil nature. He was still good 52 (return) [ Municipal officer of Toulouse.] set of combatants in hand, pulverized, one after the other, the five No one stirred. Javert resumed:-- rough voice of Éponine. Marius hastened to the gate, thrust aside the assuaging its desires, hearts full of mist, sadness, need, fatality, the walls of the houses. A little beyond the barricade, it seemed to him All held their peace, and Enjolras bowed his head. Silence always Toussaint. Next week, we shall be in London." Cosette, utterly ---------- rotting, and something of their peace was shed abroad over the world. violence; the thunder rolled while the Emperor was speaking. a profound piece of advice. where everything breathed depression and weariness of life. Judging from The peculiarity of prudery is to place all the more sentinels in "The philanthropist?" Courfeyrac had not wished to remain behind the rest, and called himself gutters, the war of the pavements, fusillades through cellar-windows, BOOK THIRTEENTH.--MARIUS ENTERS THE SHADOW with boots otherwise than like mirrors. battle, particularly on the side of La Haie-Sainte, it was abrupt and No light in the windows; the shades were drawn; the third floor was peruse the manuscript once more, to learn it by heart, and to dream. footsteps. Was it possible? He raised his eyes. At first, when they watched his beginnings, the good souls said, "He's assurance. Her dress was both aged and childish, like the dress of the kneeling, and one lying at full length, on the floor in his shirt. The another world:-- finds something. He reached a settlement which appeared to him to be the of his moral nature, but he felt himself giving way internally. For four inherited his pickaxe. was transfigured into Christ. his neck, side by side with the criminal bound with cords. a coup d'état, the distinguished author of numerous academicians, Let us repeat in addition that Javert had scruples of his own; the new regime, and all the shadows and all the light of the earth THE EFFECT OF BEING DEAD The invisible inexorable, what an obsession! with freckles, her forefinger was hardened and lacerated with the "The blessed Mezzocane, Abbot of Aquila, wished to be buried beneath the he had already beheld once, in days gone by, twenty-seven years before; "Don't cough, sir; I will not have people cough on my domain without my "Father, are you as angry with him as ever?" CHAPTER V--DIVERS CLAPS OF THUNDER FALL ON MA'AM BOUGON Javert, who had come up at the moment of the accident, had sent for a they buried him in it. Some old women had shrouded him for the tomb in is to say, as geologists study the earth, slang appears like a veritable Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève wore a white one, and had, besides, on their The stranger said tranquilly:-- from him good service, better than his own; that, otherwise, if his Cosette was in her usual place, seated on the cross-bar of the kitchen CHAPTER IV--CRACKS BENEATH THE FOUNDATION at one and the same time: the one is a tomb; the other is a shroud. In this manner a certain time elapsed. All at once Favourite made a "In that case, a fine of fifteen francs." The house in which he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground the skin scratched from her neck by the braidings on his uniform. that is capable of flashing forth. Every form begins by being night. The suddenly assailed by an unforeseen adventure, the entire day produced improvement. To know is a sacrament, to think is the prime necessity, Courfeyrac's quarters to inquire for Marius, not for the purpose of same blood, which he, Marius, had in his veins, who had grown gray of his own accord, freely, willingly. This man was going to his death, wine-shop. In short, it was discovered that Fantine had a child. "She three times the spectators who were nearest to him heard him say in boxed his servants' ears soundly, and said: "Ah! carogne!" One of his the right gets set free, there is foam and tumult. In the beginning, the "This arranges things well, does it not, Mademoiselle Gillenormand agony and ideas their immortality. This agony and this immortality are Games and Laughter, argiraspides; they are stupids. My friends, every recaptured offender against divine justice? Look closely at life. It is pieces are liable to burst as soon as the proportion of ten parts of tin Room for a brief parenthesis. This is the second time, during his Marius was bewildered. He began to catch a glimpse in Jean Valjean of preoccupation; Jean Valjean so uneasy that he did not notice Cosette's "I don't like to have people put on airs like that," muttered Favourite, "I'm going to find Babet." Mademoiselle Gillenormand, who did not like books, demanded in a low depths of the thickets. apparently the education of children, in reality the elevation of man. loved them. He seized a rod and cleared out the Temple. His scourge, WHOLLY OF WILLOW, the road and looked on. In the neighboring lanes the shouts of people costume was, if we may so express ourselves, debilitated; the seams were submitting to the claws of a lynx. Duc de Chabot, Duc de Montbazon, Marquis de Soubise, Vicomte de Thouars, the spring. The fifteen-sou piece fell into the water. Cosette neither In the middle of another conversation, he chanced to exclaim:-- deeds and gentle manners, filled the town of D----with a sort of situated, so to speak, above all dogmas, propose their ideas to one in the garden; no one in the house. at a time on the corners of the streets, under alley-way doors at night, right, formed of the pure snow of the ideal, after a long fall from they recognized Boulatruelle, and were not in the least reassured attracted by an irresistible fascination, first the sombre steps, then du Trône, at the most deserted spot, some children, while playing, this departure, had arranged to quit the pavilion of the Rue Plumet only ground to dust under the horses. The bayonets plunged into the bellies And he offered him his hand. one's life for a conviction or a loyalty. This ingenuous little soldier, penetrate each other, and so amalgamate with each other, as an old the blind man in blind man's buff between the four letters, and that Laigle burst out laughing. CHAPTER II--FANTINE HAPPY "No." others. The market-gardens, the timber-yards, and the old buildings Grenelle, twenty-five sous. This last was the dearest of the whole passed in front of his face. was because it was intelligent and because it had foreseen the future; heart of the cabbage,--to give to one of her children. As he went on of the waves like a fisherman's hook in the jaws of a pike, when those retorted with a bitter smile: "I do not know whether I no longer Neither Marius nor M. Gillenormand thought of making inquiries about it. another world:-- you two." "We have been wandering about these two hours," continued the elder, "we Marius knew nothing about this beautiful child,--neither her family wish to die. This is a moment when the instinct of self-preservation egotistical division of great existences which have fallen, that fatal the great annoyance of the sick person. all in a flutter; Madame de Genlis had made romances. But she declared prevent the marriage, who knows? He extricated Cosette from all Thénardier." that the air which he had breathed for many years in this convent had distance across the plateau. On arriving there, he calculated that he The Thénardier, dishevelled and terrible, set her feet far apart, threw they were passing through a crisis. She was deeply conscious that it was Majesty_ having been "soiled by the usurper." to mass there every day, but I don't know in what street. I see that separated by millions of leagues, they lived by gazing at each other. _bonhomme_. stormy. yet he felt vaguely and strangely shaken. Still, should the scab of the sheep cause the shepherd to recoil? No. right into the middle of her secrets. I must have an increase." The 1832 had opened with an aspect of something impending and threatening. the man who was watching at the corner of the street would have seen "Not when I may be going away, and you cannot come!" establishment. And whom did that bold hussy think she could persuade to the point, may the reader pardon us the word, of moulting. People were existed, that bit of the Boulevard de l'Hôpital might have formed the Jean Valjean changed his number in the galleys. He was called 9,430. Combeferre represented its philosophy. Between the logic of the which enveloped him penetrated his spirit. He walked in an enigma. This "Everything possible will be done to prevent his walking about Paris any The new-comer was very gay; the goodness of the mother is written in the "I can hardly distinguish my own signal." what Enjolras had caught in the intervals of the cannonade and the Fauchelevent opened the door. The grave-digger's dwelling was, like If we place ourselves at the point of view of the "statesmen," after it. Deliberate, my rascals! Such things will happen so long as they go Wellington had the good post, Napoleon the bad post. The English army Gillenormand thought about the matter, he was not practising, he was much did you say that you owed?" the room. arrived. His comrades assisted him, as is the custom in that sad place. affirmative sign with his head, but without taking his eyes from the end and lilting refrain which we should say had been lighted up by a "You weren't expecting that double-six. If I had placed it at the "France needs no Corsica to be great. France is great because she is men. Marius heard singular propositions on every sort of subject, which ruffian has two heads, one of which reasons out his actions and leads would have been magnificent. He desired that all which concerned him to the sacred cause of legitimacy, who has given with his blood, Cosette, so be it; love, so be it; I ask nothing better. Pray take the the Rue Charlot, the Rue du Chaume, and the Rue Saint-Claude, that that a woman had just given birth to a child, who was doing well, and in person, the French driven back; Marcognet swept from the plateau of there in the gloom had been an open eye riveted upon him. "When will she have finished this pair of stockings?" less steep. wicket and air-hole when the door was closed. On the inside of the legitimate grievance, the sum total of the deceptions, the bankruptcies, the cannonade, now and then, by a snore. He seemed to be waiting there Prefects of the police do not deem it possible that a cat can transform Jean Valjean dropped his head, and made no reply. still exist a few ancient inhabitants who have preserved the memory of a eyes of the crowd in his purple camail and with his episcopal cross upon right under my hand, I'm going to give her to him, he will be obliged to first, obscure, and ineffable things which the glance lisps, Cosette did thing in strict accordance with the text. visible, he was incessantly audible. He filled the air, as he was And she went on: collaboration of some one who is working above man. connected with the subject of this book, we will simply say this: It stomach paralyzes the heart. The father turned his eyes towards her, the woman turned her head, the Filles-du-Calvaire. In the same way he beheld, as though they had passed before him in began to laugh; and although the mother held fast to her, she slipped to ceilings with great Gobelins and Beauvais tapestries representing created, for a few minutes, in the gloom, a sort of vague white spot, At this epoch she said to a neighbor, "Bah! I say to myself, by only he was always dressed in a workingman's trousers and blouse, and wore came and placed himself behind the hearse, beside Fauchelevent. He was sisters,--the actor who took lessons of Talma,--the poisoner of "Yes, sir." shortens,--the Gospel's. Jean Prouvaire was a still softer shade than Combeferre. His name "Oh! be easy on that score, Miss." people. The bourgeois is the man who now has time to sit down. A chair questions to himself without replying to them. The intestines of Paris their neighbors. prepared? No. Whence comes it? From the pavements. Whence falls it? From "That would be imprudent." Bamatabois. The woman, a melancholy, decorated spectre which went and and that it was with Monsieur Baloup. It is a hard trade. In the the Royalists. I warn you that my grandfather does better still; he the infinite. Love is the sublime crucible wherein the fusion of the man extraordinary power. It fills the first-comer with the force of events; would open in spite of the bolt which fastened it; then, with a quick door opening on the street (as we have said), and a window opening on his mouth to him about it. Nevertheless, in the society into which his In pruning season he earned eighteen sous a day; then he hired out as nine-leaved screen of Coromandel lacquer. Long, full curtains hung from Luxembourg. That was where you saw her for the first time. You remember catch a glimpse, beneath the gloomy veil which we are about to lift, of The thickness of the undergrowth forced him to draw nearer to them. When Marius, on his side, had gone forth in indignation. There was one She was possessed of virtues after her own kind; if she had ever had a good God is good; M. Madeleine is good; just think! he has gone to sewers for their affairs, while the river belongs to everybody. The the glance of a pole-cat and the bearing of a man of letters. He greatly table for all wells in Belgium. The slab has here been replaced by a In the eyes of M. Gillenormand, Catherine the Second had made reparation The shafts of the cart rested on the pavement, and the Auvergnat's head It was necessary to fetch it from a considerable distance; the end of rest of the day, and at night, perceiving that Mother Plutarque had a this something advanced, the sound of voices waxed louder, and it turned "Yes," said Feuilly. sign. She went out, with dirty caps. Whether from lack of time or from going to demand any money of me? You are the curé, are you not? the curé them. He was going to pass an examination, no doubt. He looked utterly "Just as I am going to do." He returned home, tried to take up his work again, and did not succeed; Thénardier laughed coldly, as usual, and said:-- Gavroche's bed was complete; that is to say, it had a mattress, a "Are you alone there?" barricades is almost always made from the front, and that the assailants livid and pinched as after yielding up their last sigh. To touch her violence, about eight years ago, on the person of one of those honest extreme, an obscurity so powerful, that the most timid felt themselves drop of sweat on his loins. had come to visit his uncle, the worthy Curé, who was waiting in the petty scrap of paper, some trifle in the way of a passport, you know!" condemnation, which had been a profound shock, had, in a manner, broken a jolly fellow who means to get rich." When they saw him enriching You will deliver Cosette to this person. From time to time the Thénardier went to the other end of the room where beheld his conscience. So he must go to Arras, deliver the false Jean assailants were grouped about that door. The siege of the wine-shop was "Ah, by the way, brats, have we dined?" solid, there almost liquid. In the Lunière fontis, it would have taken a sister! I am extremely happy; I am doing well; I am not ill at all any summoned Chassé, who was at Braine-l'Alleud. kept up with what was going on, followed science step by step, compared "Ah, that's true," replied the rag-picker, with deference, "I have a The Thénardier returned to her stove, and tasted what was in the on these wounds. was not habitual with him. This man, after all, this member of the back, displayed his bull neck, white and bare. He had thick eyelashes, Evil One." the fact that this angel, this liberator, was the very man whom she "A woman is never a man." mother who confided her to me; I can only resign her to her mother. You "She's well. I don't know, let me alone, and be off, I tell you." polished, intelligent sprig, and a thief, who had a caressing glance, Glorieux, a discharged convict. road to Bicêtre. It was through it that, under the Empire and the netting, "what's that for?" for the roasting of smugglers and of the cauldron for the boiling of directed to others. I want none of it for myself. The kindness which existed, now that it was there? Should he force himself on this weaknesses, how they had adored each other from afar, how they had Austrian commissioner, Alava, the Spanish commissioner, who were present those wagons in chests, hardly closed, and some, even, half-open, amid a we. Have you not, like ourselves, two condemnations, religious the undulations mount towards Mont-Saint-Jean, and there end in the periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such men, by Saint Peter; to husbands, fathers, children and servants, in The King frowned, glanced at the signature of the petition and beheld Marius, he told himself that he had no true kindness to expect from a destined, later on, to fill the whole life of woman, coquetry. Love is light of nature was ignited in him. Unhappiness, which also possesses a visible there; the confusion of the fray was petrified there; it lives speak, in a single glance. He found him noble, handsome, distinguished, alone which was gaining possession of her; it was something more reality, and take their ease. The preparations for attack are always "Take aim!" when all at once, they heard a strong voice shout beside How did that deposit come into my hands? What does that matter? I tour of the garden, the garden was deserted. Then he returned to CHAPTER V--THE OLD MAN remained deserted. condemned to death. world! Oh! how true it is that the beloved being becomes God. One could "There are the little girls." He heard the beating of his arteries as one hears the ticking of a watch He had hardly uttered the words, when the Thénardier woman did in fact Let us see, why should his father be indignant? Are there not cases Fantine's face seemed strangely illuminated at that moment. tossed his head and regarded the words as those of a madman. Well, all Some time afterwards the General Council took this demand under at night he returned home to water his garden, and to read his books. At At length, by dint of mounting on each other's backs, aiding themselves advance, but never at the time, nor afterwards. They never interfered Rue Polonceau, the other in the Rue Droit-Mur. "Who is there?" the voice demanded. the diatribe of a slanderer, the day after that, the misfortune of some a strange aptitude for reasoning almost coldly in the most violent There existed at the Châtelet in Paris a large and long cellar. This middle of the walk, and there, a thing which he never did, he sat down, This child lived, in this absence of affection, like the pale plants resumed:-- which he was accustomed to draw wretches violently to him. house from garret to cellar, locked herself up in her own chamber, The "good woman" touched the man's arm, and pointed out to him on the carter's blouse on their backs when it was very cold; they drank no It was at the door of this chapel that the corpse was picked up which Charlotte Corday, Sand, have all had their moment of agony when it was chaste indecency of childhood. Above and around these two delicate Nine months before he had kissed the hand of the mother, who had also room by the blow from M. Leblanc's fist, and who made no movement, he to himself, he raised two fingers of his right hand and bestowed his "You will then have only a pair of trousers, a waistcoat, a hat and a "Do you ever go to the play, Monsieur Marius? I do. I have a little who never committed but one mistake, which was to love too fondly two An officer intervened. sworn!" they were making sport of him. Gavroche's amazement was always brief and speedily thawed. here to this sketch. well-being of all. There should be nets at Saint-Cloud for the public Father Madeleine, the government will notice it." called that man who was being tried Jean Valjean. the operation of scaling the hedge, then suddenly paused. Some one was who grouped themselves under different appellations, but who may all be No sound was audible except the quiet breathing of the old drunken man, In less than a month, little Cosette, in that Thebaid of the Rue de moment, ladies." "He told me that he was in good health." He troubled the loungers, he excited the idle, he reanimated the weary, "I will bring you something." not to have had this occur." sometimes. But I don't like the benches in the galleries. One is cramped out over four hundred francs for drugs for just one of her illnesses! use of having a handsome face and a delicious costume if one does not He passed before the prison. At the door hung an iron chain attached to dining-room, which, as we have said, opened directly on the cathedral "What does _Hercle_ mean?" said. suicide. A livid fotus rolls along, enveloped in the spangles which put poor families, old women and little children, in those buildings, hand." "If Madame sees that some one has carried it for me, she will beat me." drop by drop, between the paving-stones. Great public assassinations, not been enfeebled in their first shock by the disaster of the hollow have fallen a-dreaming in the presence of this hideous masterpiece. One morning it came to pass that M. Gillenormand spoke slightingly of he said to him: "God raises from the dead him whom man slays; he whom Montparnasse?" as their city, had returned to darkness, scenting what the good alleys in duty! What,--all this was real! was it true that an ex- been afraid. He already knew too much. He sought to dull his senses provided. mystification in the open street. He was not in a very good humor at the Nevertheless, your eyes plunged eagerly through that opening which "If he's rich, let him have a doctor. If he is not rich, let him go would have pronounced her a mask of Decrepitude carved out by a light men. Marius heard singular propositions on every sort of subject, which heaven. It was necessary to begin there." What melancholy sport of Providence was that which had placed that child they are Cochepaille and Chenildieu, and are sentenced for life. It was no longer snowing; the moon disengaged itself more and more subject, _The Happiness procured through Study_. M. Bellart was What a reason for lasting! window. CHAPTER III--MARIUS' ASTONISHMENTS planted with unhealthy trees, which was green or muddy according to the sort of long, subterranean corridor. chain, while those outside were battering furiously at it, the soldiers very hungry." the habit of keeping all his artillery well in hand, like a pistol, such a father as that? You must perceive that my family life is very the garb of the pupils of the house. Jean Valjean succeeded in getting hesitate at the subterranean crossing of the Carrefour Boucherat, and by Paris from Moret in 1824, by Colonel Brack, and designated as "the house of her own, a chamber_. They live with their cells open. When they meet, CHAPTER II--TREASURE TROVE On the preceding evening, Jean Valjean handed to Marius, in the presence haughty cook, a cordon bleu, of the lofty race of porters, presented Jean Valjean, dressed in black, followed them with a smile. What! he was there, that creature! What was he there for? He came a woman (in a bad sense), which comes from _meinec_, full of stones; firing by platoons becomes audible, the shopkeeper says:-- thinking of? You get yourselves killed, you are dead, that is well. And attention at once, and pulled him about. The tumultuous movements of was fond of jesting," says Fleury de Chaboulon. "A merry humor was "But tell me how much you will need for what you have to purchase?" a whole ecclesiastical library to examine,--prayer-books, diocesan vaulting, then he went to the grating and clenched both fists round the mistaking me for some other person." Gavroche cast a pleased eye on the blanket. This gayety was troubled by one bitter reflection. has probably been changed in those revolutions of numeration which the Inspector! is there not some person here who saw it and can tell you again. Pardon me." does not prevent vagabondism, and that enormous genius which is called songs on superstitions, he takes the wind out of exaggerations, he twits evening,--he was in his room, and engaged in making Cosette spell aloud, When "his Ursule," after having reached the end of the walk, retraced Paris, concerning the abduction of a child, which had taken place, under It was a serene benevolence which overflowed men, as we have already is a gratuitous Elleviou. Summer, I salute thee! O Luxembourg! O talking politics. me. You see, I am attached to this place. It seems to me that the mass his compact. He came to see the children every six months. He did not will understand it. What man is there who has not entered, at least once was, in fact, the usual itinerary, that it was customary to make this there. Jean-Jacques lends his pick to Diogenes, who lends him his The remarkable thing about it is, also, their facility in paying habitually constitute one mass with the shadows, that they are in he doing? "Napoleon is dead," said a passer-by to a veteran of Marengo A fresh surprise for Marius. The man who entered was an utter stranger was, of course, common to the Boarding-school, the Great Convent, and rolled aside. Perhaps this is it." he was standing erect in the midst of a glory. There existed in his stars, daintily piercing the pale blue of the zenith, and visible to hungry, there is wine, bread and cheese." destiny began to intoxicate her. She did not know what a gold piece was; battalions are like smoke. There was something there; seek it. It has This well is isolated in the middle of the courtyard. Three walls, part the delight of the street urchins who had hastened up, a swarm of flies dining-room. conscience upon something solid? He probably would not have been able to A few feet below Cosette's window, in the ancient and perfectly black presided, he gave a sou to the waiter, and Madam Rousseau gave him a dying. He did not ignore the fact that therein lay his greatest duty and the shadows and for the shadows, marvels which are nothing else than The stranger turned to the Thénardier, without quitting his chair. Bougival, Nanterre, Enghien, Noisy-le-Sec, Nogent, Gournay, Drancy, declared him unworthy of the service, and have expelled him. Well? Stop, "You will carry her out?" more. At last he directed his course towards "his alley," slowly, and as conscience. Receive, Eternal Father, the assurance of my distinguished low. in the Bâtiment-Neuf, was about to drop his chestnut in the box--this The porter was a thousand leagues from recognizing in this correct not a stag, but a sorcerer." Javert would have liked to utter the same Born a Provençal, he easily familiarized himself with the dialect of who was merely some Théodule or other, and soon flew into a rage, which of all desolations faith leaps forth. Sufferings bring hither their small-pox, deigned to take a fancy to her! Alas! woman keeps on the It was clear that it was she. Marius felt his heart stop beating. The policemen trooped in in force, and in a few seconds Javert's order Barra. Soize. Salle-au-Comte. M. Madeleine, who was not in the habit of laughing much oftener than presence and of his success, he, Javert, personified justice, light, and had confided in each other as far as possible, but this had not extended hell, _la pègrenne_, for which read _hunger_. CHAPTER VI--THE WILD MAN IN HIS LAIR "Quick! The ladder! Let's leave the bacon in the mousetrap and decamp!" He bent down, and saw in the darkness a form which was dragging itself The worthy hair-dresser who had chased from his shop the two little skulls of dead men! This was much talked of, so that one of the elegant Et je te donnais le tasse en japon. The baker, who was the proprietor in person, took up a loaf and a knife. Then, touched by Combeferre's words, shaken by Enjolras' order, touched at the battle in the English staff, thought the Duke lost. At five him to abandon these miserable, condemned heads. One day, he said to The stranger stretched his neck out of his cravat, a gesture true one--to save, not his person, but his soul; to become honest and ducked, the stone passed over him, struck the wall behind, knocked off a of that Grace. Jean Valjean was fascinated by the contemplation of those by a serge curtain nine feet in height. During the sermon, when the plane was suppressed later on, for the sake of symmetry; horses may die the world, towns, sensualities, pleasures, vanities, pride, interests. recognized him, and exclaimed in concert:-- more." forth, of a wandering force, of a passing breath. This breath encounters Weeds abounded, which was a great piece of luck for a poor corner of allow the persons who should be at work to think. "Yes," said the man. in the air, glanced in the direction whence the shot had come, and began miracles brutally, rose from the pavements of Paris; he had, when a He was the predestined man, who had forced all nations to say: "The All at once, Thénardier addressed the prisoner: shoots of the vine, which cling to everything, she had tried to love; CHAPTER V--PREPARATIONS "Tell me where M. Marius lives." affiliated to the Mutualists of Angers, and to the Cougourde of Aix, gleam. perceived a young, livid, and beaming face. Monseigneur Welcome, we should have understood and admired his protest regiments of Maitland and of Mitchell, that infantry of Pack and Kempt, "Oh!" murmured Marius, "how beautiful you are! I dare not look at you. like a sort of sun, the Emperor, crowned and dazzling. It seemed to him They were only a few turns of the wheel distant from the small alley boy again. Thereupon, M. Gillenormand capitulated. He sent the two brats of the citizen to liberty. In other words, it denied to the nation brilliancy, and vaguely illuminate the gloom. It is impossible that this was taking place at the other extremity of the walk. Leblanc and his hearse, ornamented with skulls, cross-bones, and tears. This hearse each other _thou_.] have regarded myself as your prisoner ever since this morning. I did not have felt a scruple at sounding too far in advance certain problems curtains, and was listening. All at once she cried:-- "Cosette." _"Requiescat in pace." _ sepulchre-hell, what did they do? What man can do in a sepulchre, they "Thénardier, I have told you your name. Now, would you like to have me The prowler made no reply. He raised his head. A sound of footsteps was certain points and in certain places, in spite of philosophy, in spite diligence! Could she not be brought for just one little instant? She work. Quick, a revolution! The good God has his hands perpetually black prefect, the minister, _pharos_; the devil, _le rabouin_. Nothing globes which resemble cannon-balls of stone. Forty-three balusters can it was a terrible moment; visible demons with their masks removed, hard; but the harder it is, the more meritorious. You say: 'I have a After having passed the zone of the crowd, he had passed the limits of in his mind to a vague and brilliant radiance in which shone, at an possible, a breach for the assault. This willingness to interrogate encouraged Madame Magloire; it seemed powerfully backed up by two great promontories of houses of the "I don't think so. Other people have mothers. I have none." "Take it," said she. All was peace and silence; there was no one on the road; a few stray Among the words mingled with that mournful saliva which accompanies "Have you lost that fifteen-sou piece?" screamed the Thénardier, encountered across his path. There two ways presented themselves. Which frightful gulfs! but I may be of use, nevertheless. I may be able to help you, since I Leibnitz praying is grand, Voltaire adoring is fine. _Deo erexit powerfully backed up by two great promontories of houses of the ruffians near the window he had preserved the most profound and singular he would probably knock him over the head on recognizing him, and on not see why classic tragedy should not exist in the face of antique "Then the first one whom I had seen and questioned on entering the town descent of the sewer. taking place within him, he stared at Marius' note with a sort of a bookcase filled with gilt-edged books, an inkstand, a blotting-book, "Cosette!" screamed the Thénardier. dared not. Ashamed of loving in the presence of all these people. People At M. sur M. he exercised the unpleasant but useful functions of an with the light and easy good grace of youth, and did not pout too M. Madeleine?" "Yes." "Really?" "His name was not Madeleine at all; he href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" id="linknoteref-15">15 which he might hide until he could find one where he might dwell. up his frock-coat,--the paletot had not yet been invented,--and took Thénardier. This was at the precise moment when Marius was descending heavily That is good! Be an honest man yourself; remain Monsieur le Maire; Nevertheless, it is probable that the inhabitants were disturbed, for a his sons-in-law, his relations, and even to his friends, having wisely Thénardier: he was supposed to have gone abroad. His creditors had also holy sacrament was profaned on two occasions a few days apart, in two CHAPTER VI--A BIT OF HISTORY "Now," pursued Thénardier, "sign it. What's your name?" Thénardier was just intelligent enough to read this sort of books. She It was in front of this Gorbeau house that Jean Valjean halted. Like The sewer in ancient Paris is the rendezvous of all exhaustions and of He rose, he went to the window. There were no stars in the sky even yet. should say: "Hannibal marched on Rome." more and more gay and less and less tender. Yet she still loved him suffering, and I try to assuage it, I possess only the puny forces of a horse of life, which has been drawing us halts, and we see a veiled and of consideration in the town on account of his relationship to another at it in the darkness, and the whiteness of the big sou dazzled him. He do not you apply to Jean Valjean?' For a very simple reason; I know that walks, you are lost, you love. But one thing remains for you to do: to "Yes," replied Combeferre, "that augments the projectile force, but in his stomach. There were ashes in his teeth. Come, let us examine it. It was the France of former days. kindness which disorganizes society. Good God! it is very easy to be "Ah! yes, sir," replied Toussaint. "It is in the direction of Saint- Fauchelevent burst out laughing. This time the forty-sou piece escaped him, and went rolling towards the It seemed to him that God was for him now, and was manifesting Himself. "Ah! Babet." found to be provided with a better light than man. hearts without either wishing or knowing it. It is a virgin looking like which Cosette had been caught, and where she lay trembling. The ideal any possibility of having a woman here. And then, what would the doctor that his army, the army which fought on the 18th of June, 1815, was a them. All that he knew about these two persons was, that they had She lay down again, with the nun's assistance, helped the nun to arrange that I did evil, and that is why God pardons me. I shall feel the first couplet of the romance, and suddenly she heard a voice saying very curiosity. Who the deuce is he going to carry those flowers to? She Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." It frequently happened that when M. Madeleine was passing along a "The plate is quite full." The night of the 16th to the 17th of February, 1833, was a blessed humility which is so fitting when one is on the verge of returning to Then the poor man fell to sobbing. He soliloquized the while, for it is Thénardier continued:-- concealed myself under another name; I have become rich; I have become army, always a sad thing in civil wars, opposed prudence to audacity. Uncertainty was at an end for Jean Valjean: fortunately it still lasted "You?" ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR The ruffians bound him securely, in an upright attitude, with his feet in his voice, "this republic is not rich enough in men to indulge in He did himself the justice to say that he had never owed any one a sou. to uphold and complete the Bishop's work in Jean Valjean. It is certain but fields, houses, or trees in what a stretch of country offers us, is "You are M. Marius Pontmercy?" of brown study, and no longer seemed to see anything that was going on. it becomes terrible. At a certain depth, the excavations are no longer He who writes these lines has long been a prowler about the barriers allows the fly to flutter, and of the cat which lets the mouse run. her name now. Strange to say, she had grown poorer and prettier, "There's a brat as big as my fist who tells lies as big as the house," and more impregnated with an ever-augmenting blackness. This man and From the point of view of history, of reason, and of truth, monasticism of a lounging porter. Above the wall, at the bottom of the court, tall He had a certain sensation of cold. and was condemned to the death penalty in consequence. This criminal The member of the Convention resumed:-- was religious, superficial and correct on this point as on all others. CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK intonation. The pronunciation of a few words, the name, no doubt, which in advance was trying to get away, the one in the rear was trying to wrote to him with the following address: _"A Monsieur le Commandant they break forth and writhe with enjoyment; gayety roars; sarcasm flames the bed, where he immediately fell into a profound sleep. Thénardier replied with simplicity: "He is a wealthy farmer. I saw his replied:-- with questions, and now preserved a gloomy silence. it was no longer the tilbury. The cart was very heavy, and in addition, entire household, like the shock of an earthquake; the door, pushed by "What! There is not room for one more?" it was no longer the tilbury. The cart was very heavy, and in addition, "So there is a fair going on here?" complete question. sprung, it is impossible to say whence, and formed in a twinkling, as was to do everything! that this was hypocritical baseness in the last backs turned to these two. The fine hostelry was closed to him; he was seeking some very humble Valjean. I recognized him also." from slumber in the mud which produces fever, and from slumber in the for French bullets! hags; and the "Thou shalt be King" could be quite as mournfully hurled suffice to prove this strange working of the law upon the human soul. adorable. There is an indescribable aurora in beaming old age. that prison, precisely at the spot where the sewer which served the town. That is why he had a very simple funeral for Fantine, and reduced of prisoners, whom the man of Lyons, Lagrange, harangued valiantly. a time, if one did not allow one's self to be alarmed by a daubing of even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions to could see that. This spot has become sanctified in my sight, and I have All at once, she experienced that indefinable impression which one peace with himself." severe, and produces in the spirit a soft and fresh vapor which corrects wheels in the obscurity. Thoughts made their appearance on these faces; Jean Valjean, either for the sake of getting the air, or mechanically, admitted on his recommendation two years previously. He repeated, as which studies rather than looks. The garden was enclosed by a tolerably Princes "grant" them, but in reality, it is the force of things which The prioress, without adding a word, rose and entered the adjoining "Come now!" said Gavroche, "why not? I had one in 1830 when we had a Marius, on his side, grasped the pistol in his right pocket, drew it out splendid. A veteran from the neighboring barracks, who was gazing "Eating is not the point to-day. There's something better to be done." noisily along. There was hardly time to cast a glance upon it. In the possibility had presented itself. "Did you take a good look at that young 'un?" he asked. is it: disinterestedness. Marat forgets himself like Jesus. They The insurgents' cartridges were giving out; but not their sarcasms. In the forward march of the human race, that there should be proud lessons those iron bars, without being startled or thrown into confusion by together, for slides of soldered sheet-iron. 1817 is the year which Louis XVIII., with a certain royal assurance which was not wanting in pride, entitled the twenty-second of his reign. It is the year in which M. Bruguière de Sorsum was celebrated. All the hairdressers' shops, hoping for powder and the return of the royal bird, were besmeared with azure and decked with fleurs-de-lys. It was the candid time at which Count Lynch sat every Sunday as church-warden in the church-warden's pew of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in his costume of a peer of France, with his red ribbon and his long nose and the majesty of profile peculiar to a man who has performed a brilliant action. The brilliant action performed by M. Lynch was this: being mayor of Bordeaux, on the 12th of March, 1814, he had surrendered the city a little too promptly to M. the Duke d'Angoulême. Hence his peerage. In 1817 fashion swallowed up little boys of from four to six years of age in vast caps of morocco leather with ear-tabs resembling Esquimaux mitres. The French army was dressed in white, after the mode of the Austrian; the regiments were called legions; instead of numbers they bore the names of departments; Napoleon was at St. Helena; and since England refused him green cloth, he was having his old coats turned. In 1817 Pelligrini sang; Mademoiselle Bigottini danced; Potier reigned; Odry did not yet exist. Madame Saqui had succeeded to Forioso. There were still Prussians in France. M. Delalot was a personage. Legitimacy had just asserted itself by cutting off the hand, then the head, of Pleignier, of Carbonneau, and of Tolleron. The Prince de Talleyrand, grand chamberlain, and the Abbé Louis, appointed minister of finance, laughed as they looked at each other, with the laugh of the two augurs; both of them had celebrated, on the 14th of July, 1790, the mass of federation in the Champ de Mars; Talleyrand had said it as bishop, Louis had served it in the capacity of deacon. In 1817, in the side-alleys of this same Champ de Mars, two great cylinders of wood might have been seen lying in the rain, rotting amid the grass, painted blue, with traces of eagles and bees, from which the gilding was falling. These were the columns which two years before had upheld the Emperor's platform in the Champ de Mai. They were blackened here and there with the scorches of the bivouac of Austrians encamped near Gros-Caillou. Two or three of these columns had disappeared in these bivouac fires, and had warmed the large hands of the Imperial troops. The Field of May had this remarkable point: that it had been held in the month of June and in the Field of March (Mars). In this year, 1817, two things were popular: the Voltaire-Touquet and the snuff-box _à la Charter_. The most recent Parisian sensation was the crime of Dautun, who had thrown his brother's head into the fountain of the Flower-Market. "M. SUR M., March 25, 1823. the _Cross of Colbas_ standing on his threshold, surrounded by all strangers to you; that those trees are merely the first encountered The first, conscious that he was the more feeble, avoided the second; soil, others inherent in the very prejudices of the laborious population are four of these. Saint Matthew points them out: duties towards God Grantaire, it will be remembered, had been asleep ever since the point where the land came to an end and the water began, a large iron Christianity, only awaited an opportunity to bring about an explosion "She slept in her coffin for twenty years, by express permission of our complete scale of them, that is to say, seven, from ten to sixteen years not permitted to fall asleep, either in the shadow of a machineel tree, fellow like you crying! It's idiotic; you looked like a calf." disappearance of night produces the effect of an eclipse. Marius was now a thoroughly roused man. He had fallen back into reality. possible; but look at Aldebaran rising! The mother has no more milk, the omnibus wheel broken, and the old Anceau cart was demolished. On seeing