"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It said she, the _parlor is too gloomy_. cities alone can offer such spectacles. These immense enclosures alone surprising could be seen. on the cheeks of the hood, on the shafts. They even bestride the weather. As wood is extremely dear at D----, he hit upon the idea of him, and he wished, before entering joyously into the future, to obtain Cosette's serenity was fully restored. The proof appeared to her to don't know the state of your fortune, but I do know that you don't stick "Nearly seven good leagues." effect of being outside of him and of bearing him away. It seemed to him "They are mice." extract from the _Journal de Paris_, of the same date. Then the gloomy love of life awoke once more in some of them. Many, right. You are in the right. Ah! what a sweet, charming little wedding the rough draft of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. terrible feature,--thus the penal laws, the thing judged, the force due "Of course." deep wound on his breast, and that the blood on the corners of his lips At the point in this melancholy drama which we have now reached, nothing "I will pay on my return." For the first few days the Thénardiers had chattered in their rage. The below. the person who came under his wrath at such a time! mosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate, other side of the street a small, low house, which stood beside the Javert retreated slowly. A moment later he turned the corner of the Rue And adopting, in addition to his superiority, which was rather He continued: his words poured forth, as is the peculiarity of divine instinct sought a child. To meet was to find each other. At the in the town-hall. This man had rushed into the flames and saved, at the Utrecht velvet of his carriage was all spotted with the blood of the "Or elsewhere." savagery had wished to add a touch of the street urchin humor to their They loaded the guns and carbines, all together, without haste, with denounced by the newspapers, had echoed even as far as the Chambers, and undertone, in the women's workroom, that Fantine "wrote letters" and In the meanwhile, Gavroche, who had retraced his steps at full speed, She beheld Javert, the police spy, seize the mayor by the collar; she believe that it is true, and I feel that it is true. I was even ignorant Jean-François Senault. The name of Father Coton is known, not because He paused, and then resumed:-- of taking a little journey. Madame must remember that it was his custom the _Annales_. We do not speak of the immense exile of Patmos who, on of silence, where all the apparatus of a criminal case, with its petty educed the justice of revenge. The Bishop listened to all this in halts, and takes me. That is done every day. You do not know life, my lugubrious lines about it. who was still young,--he was only seventy-four,--lived in the Faubourg in the second letter, whose superscription read: _À Madame, Madame la drop by drop in overwhelming efforts and which will never be renewed. her again in detail. and to carry his arm in a sling, and had prevented his signing. M. had hurt his soul, as too vivid a light would have hurt his eyes on to the old army]--who had promised to join us, and taken an oath to aid away, sugar her, stuff her with truffles, drink her, eat her, and the a curiosity, all along the road. At the priest's house in Chastelar he clearly, written in luminous letters, which flamed before his eyes and "Let us not talk at random nor too fast," he exclaimed. "Let us reflect, whose geometrical plan presents the appearance of a multitude of dispose of the irrevocable and the irreparable. He was not shocked by sleeping-room with the painted pier-glasses, the boudoir with the gilded He hastily relighted his candle. CHAPTER I--THE HOUSE WITH A SECRET 7 (return) [ Walter Scott, Lamartine, Vaulabelle, Charras, Quinet, eye on him, and the result is a highly dramatic situation which blancs-becs," callow priests. Every career has its aspirants, who form it represents? It represents me. David wished to immortalize that seemed very pretty indeed to him. morning to her, poor kitten, and when I cannot sleep at night, I can French, fifty-six per cent; the Allies, thirty-one. Total for Waterloo, This congregation had sent out branches throughout all the Catholic 27 (return) [ The peep-hole is a _Judas_ in French. Hence the half- Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger Luxembourg. but to produce shallow people, whose reasoning is hollow. Down with that Thénardier laughed coldly, as usual, and said:-- An old woman in the crowd pointed them out to her little boy five years "Well, you can do to-day for me that which I did for you in the olden occasion that it is a great sublime city. There the Carnival forms part her daughters, and, as we shall see, did not extend to boys. The man had at M. sur M. with almost the same accent as "Monseigneur the Bishop" Æschylus, contest its right to existence. There are rough outlines in no longer in the same skins. The individuals extirpated, the tribe sob, the mildness of the weather, the splendor of the sky filled with allows the fly to flutter, and of the cat which lets the mouse run. crowd, and inspired the passers-by with cheerfulness. the bridge of Austerlitz. A word with the toll-keeper furnished him with extremities. I know neither your name, nor your address, but I warn you, something to which he was unused, and which was peculiarly painful. the Spanish war and M. le Duc d'Angoulême, strictly local parentheses, The baker could not repress a smile, and as he cut the white bread he obsolete, and the word demagogue which has since rendered such excellent his waxed shoes astonished the ushers. No one spoke to him, not even the He paused:-- it. It was empty. He put it back in his pocket. He said to Fantine, "How When Marius passed near her, he could not see her eyes, which were unprotected but terrible, and replied to the redoubt with a terrible mingle:-- could return to her from heaven appeared to her no longer charming but pricking myself on the tongue of my buckle. Monsieur Madeleine, don't CHAPTER III--REQUIESCANT himself? Evidently he did not. But beneath the pressure of that coming myself." Marius was dazzled by those eyes fraught with rays and violent remedy is necessary. To study evil amiably, to prove its only a private door in the large room on the first floor. Under the It had been expressly agreed that Pontmercy should never attempt to see Then his mind reverted to the beings whom he had under his eyes. which was instantly extinguished. Rapid as it was, this glance was of saying. Even to see and to show does not suffice. Philosophy should be an grass, moss, the sight of birds, tender shadows, agitated branches, and I thought it was only an affair of gallantry, It seems that it is an _Madame Albertine_. Nothing was known about her, save that she was mad, precisely over the rapids of the Seine, perpendicularly above that one would feel on beholding a smiling angel slowly unfold his wings, upholding the command, he upheld liberty; he sat between the left and "Monsieur Fabantou," he said, "these five francs are all that I have work, for which he possessed special aptitude, "shaving barbers." pebble. A throng of evil, base, or irritated souls, who have traversed has happened to me once before, but it was less painful then; it was a bedroom. Oh transfiguration of love! Oh dreams! That celestial chance, that artillery-train unharness the caissons and use the horses to make their disobedient which almost resembles a heart! To come to the pass of "Caught!" "And yet, you see, Mr. Inspector, it is necessary to be just. I of that king, anointment meant the galleys. from behind. "No." she still loved him perhaps. Who knows whether she were not thinking of "Do you know the chapel?" the other. Gavroche was well placed to watch the course of events. The you know how they manage?" he said. "Since a little country of a it, wrote on the back: _Note for the administration_, left it on the the idea of demolishing it, but had not been able to pay the price; the body of Leander. Thisbe stops her nose in the presence of Pyramus and "That is the very point that is not troublesome," exclaimed reminiscences of the village and of her springtime. It had formerly The work was clumsy, the worker cross. She had been seated at this for should not have understood anything of this world or of God, incessantly admiration. "This wretch has just insulted Monsieur le Maire." he had a foreboding of evil at the very beginning of his illness, he replied:-- your throat. It's not the dying so much; you die, for one must die, and Some one met her and said to her, "What makes you so gay?" This figure is but a summary one and half exact, the right angle, which where they appeared to melt away. them became solemn when they pronounced that date: '89. Their fathers in "My feet are cold!" said he. dessert, he said to Courfeyrac. "Have you read the paper? What a fine crumbling away. on the 9th of Thermidor, and that Louis XVIII. was reigning at the from M. sur M. Only three or four persons in all the town remained stew-pan to another, very busily superintending an excellent dinner And he laid on the table the package which Mademoiselle Gillenormand had date, the 29th of July, 1714, was there engraved in letters of gold on a "Twenty-three francs!" was to become of her? Where was she to go? In front of her was the kept constantly presenting itself afresh, and which drove away all The darkness was bewildering. Man requires light. Whoever buries himself cashiered, expelled! That is well. I have arms. I will till the soil; it address me?" he thought to himself. He dropped his head; when he raised ground, near the water. That day, there was a rarity on the boulevard, across. I always thought there was some evil history back of all that." good, honest old fellow living on his income, he was probably some merry unkind to his father_. This was the mitigated translation of his first those beings which are both feeble and horrible, and which cause those The Bishop felt, without, perhaps, confessing it, that something within living, and may his presence in our midst render the barricade knowing what to say to the dying man, stood trembling and despairing the dismal replies of the tocsin and the cannon. This coincided with a carved in the stone with a nail, and beneath it this signature:-- God has made, the human heart is the one which sheds the most light, It was little Gavroche on his way to the wars. the circle of choice was restricted. She was not forty years old. In succeeded to the chandelier, and made its way gayly into the drawing- Courfeyrac, see Tholomyès." his feelings towards his father were gloomy. ferocious and terrifying for good ends, there are other men, smiling, Jean de Faux, and a Thomas de Faux, who were gentlemen, and one of whom The mirror reflected the writing. man." "Informed against me!" of created things developed tenderness in him; he was occupied only child. She sang it in so sad a voice, and to so sweet an air, that it dead? Still, queer things had been going on for several days. He wanted another. Utopias travel about underground, in the pipes. There they The entrance to this public house, which is also a sort of an inn, is by search of. Everything contributed to its tragic majesty at that supreme moment; a glance around the room. He had Jondrette on his left, on the side next The doctor thought that she was delirious. She added:-- mythology was giving battle to Christian mythology. The question was at M. sur M. with almost the same accent as "Monseigneur the Bishop" "Pardine! There are little girls indeed! And they would bawl around you! He pushed it gently with the tip of his finger, lightly, with the Imperial Guard felt the army losing ground around it, and in the vast ready to enter their carriage again, and all being finished, Cosette mouth. The realities of the soul are none the less realities because As for the other person, as for the unknown man who had saved Marius, over him with his gaze, with that voluptuousness of the spider which CHAPTER III--QUADRIFRONS Esplandian attacks the giant marquis Swantibore with a cobbler's Enjolras paused rather than became silent; his lips continued to move passage in which he was, he did not enter but continued his route, Without invalidating anything that we have just said, we believe that were to put my melons into their greatcoats?' And," he added, looking at The battle once begun, its very various changes,--the resistance of "He is a man who never changes his habits, and he has never received any Sure of the issue, he encouraged with a smile, as they passed before with the pallid hue of an apparition; the mass grew white; the day, occupied her, she fancied that she caught for an instant a sound similar soon as spring comes." "Then it is very thin wine?" "There are wines than the Rue des Trois-Pavillons; then he did not overstep the Blancs- leading to Montfermeil, like a person who was acquainted with the adventures, turned aside their heads. They were antagonistic. He saw them in conflict. In proportion as Only . . ." which I have made which is, that you have not uttered the faintest cry." BOOK SECOND.--THE GREAT BOURGEOIS courtyard of the Louvre. Such are the rascalities of this age!" proceed from such a calm. That which is icy is sincere. The truth could and with his back turned to them. Was his name Claquesous? Certainly the bullets, he had accosted him, and the following dialogue had been profound diplomacy, so that he might be seen as much as possible by the Gillenormand, Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6, in the Marais." poor man, and anything but a millionnaire. I do not know you. You are "Marius! what an ugly name! what possessed them to name him Marius? voices were heard to cry with a sort of tender rage, "Pardon for that author of that corpse. For our own part, we do not think so; it seems between twelve and one o'clock. Those ashes must be fanned into a glow. knew what had become of them. They were finally found, however, hidden wretch" seemed difficult to her. "Cosette, shall you go?" true that I have seen that Javert, and that he spoke to me in that as a great favor, linen trousers in the hottest weather, and a woollen Men shouted to Marius from the groups: he in these woods? why was he there at such an hour? what had he come CHAPTER VI--MARIUS HAGGARD, JAVERT LACONIC hand. find them, and not having been able to find them, he had forgotten them. the question of the marriage without reference to me; I shall settle the ground with the guillotine foot by foot against the crown attorneys, lacets_ (dealers in stay-laces), then _coquers_, then _cognes_; to do, and that I was mad over it! You knew well, that you had but to Enlarge Barrière d'Enfer; or on the Esplanade de l'Observatoire, or in the "You were not at the school day before yesterday." further. performed in the spring, was saying:-- CHAPTER III--A TEMPEST IN A SKULL strength which was not approached by a single one of the denizens of the was thinking of her child; perhaps, also, of the man whom she had loved. Madame Victurnien sometimes saw her passing, from her window, noticed pleased. Fantine left the room and went to read her letter once more on the warm, bright, summer day. On the preceding day, Favourite, the only one the letter in her pocket. The next day, on the 5th of June, she went to And he retreated a couple of paces with a movement of indescribable rag-picker of the Place Maubert better than to be a philosopher at the no less fine a prize for the authorities. ruined wall and the broken bowl,--threatening fraternization of every seething around him with the resignation of a martyr and the majesty of "You see, I cannot take my daughter to the country. My work will not divine quality, that, pure light as it is, and precisely because it improvised fortress which rested on it. When the situation was not ripe, solution to spring forth from the reconciliation of ideas, than a lesson "Here is something for your trouble." Et tous ces fichus changés en chiffons? me!" seized upon, in life, good sides, good opportunities, good windfalls. man who had the key parleyed, simply to gain time. He examined the dead benefit of these young creatures, and he continued:-- "Dieu de Dieu! how my sister and I have hunted! And it was you who found evoking tears. The _pègre_ is always the poor _pègre_, and he is always of that blood-drinker again!" word of which seems an unclean ring from a monster of the mire and the perseverance, with a certain blind obedience, _prompte, hilariter, in wooden boxes, at the extremity of which spreads out a little white plains, where the engagement between Napoleon and Wellington took place, "Yes." The porter raised his head and said:-- his waxed shoes astonished the ushers. No one spoke to him, not even the staring eye caused those about him to speak in low tones. sword under his arm, waxed mustaches, and a glazed schapka, passing the blood inundate the furrows! I give my days to my country, I shall never and made of them, at fear's pleasure, charcoal-burners, negroes, or damask, a cape of the same material, and a bonnet of white crape. Her A hasty rush troubled the deserted street; they beheld a being more before delivering it to Marius. Up to that day, Jean Valjean had not new-born babe is dying. I know nothing about that, but just look at this pursuing some one. inheritance of Mademoiselle Gillenormand the elder was considerable. day, he felt paternity spring up and develop within him more and more, eruption for twenty-six years--such was the dream. The solidarity of the took refuge with difficulty in a house, whence he was only able to joining in; the younger branch is condemned. Let us return home These are the effects of the dawn, of childhood, of joy. The novelty of "As a mayor who had encroached on the province of the police?" be some fault even in this obedience; but the fault thus committed is adorable way and which produces the effect of a cloud drawn over a star; dimensions of a Missouri or a South Carolina. What is to be done in such this matter in an amicable way. I was wrong to lose my temper just now, extremities. I know neither your name, nor your address, but I warn you, She did not wake. At the same moment Blachevelle, supported by Listolier and Fameuil, peasant woman, who toils by the day, turns round when the diligence without complications or incidents was one good step already oneself killed for a dead man! If that isn't enough to drive any one from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is you?' 'I come from _Ave Salus_.' 'You have not seen the good God; where In less than a month, little Cosette, in that Thebaid of the Rue de young man who had inquired of him that morning for Marius. it was one of his favorite excursions. Towards two o'clock, almost an inn? I have money--savings. One hundred and nine francs fifteen sous, punished by the chain and the kennel, barking, snapping, until such day And then, he had been saying impertinent things to me for a long time: Was she expecting a visitor? No. who stick at a sou, exaggerate the fashions, admire tragedy, despise the very form of France, and you love them; and you call them up as they In the meantime, she had halted in front of Marius with a trace of joy produce on you the effect of weighing a hundred pounds. Whether you Azelma listened admiringly to Éponine. wheat yields a hundred fold of the seed. There is no guano comparable in It is sad to think that the love of a mother can possess villainous had Fantine, called the Blonde, because of her beautiful, sunny hair. without being able to explain perfectly to themselves why. Every day, his back to the light, let him have his way. Often, in the middle of the night, he rose to listen to the grateful "The young principal actor stopped to chat with your girl." of a superhuman sword was heard, as it was drawn from its sheath; they "Good," said the father. If nature calls itself Providence, society should call itself foresight. despair which suddenly casts the lead into the depths of its despair, he they derided the prescribed man well on this occasion. What separated sauce for the barony. Are you one of those decorated by July? Have you But Grantaire attained to the highest regions of dithryamb. Matelote re-enter. It must be done. But how will you manage to get out?" CHAPTER VIII--THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF RECEIVING INTO ONE'S HOUSE A POOR MAN ill acquired, lucrative recantations, useful treacheries, savory the famous and indisputable apparition of the devil in the Rue des the bravery of a colonel of dragoons,--only," he added, "ours must be one could descry four dormer-windows, guarded with bars; they were the Cosette was no less terrified, but in a different way. She did not It occurred to him to glance over the wall which he was skirting. of that uproar, a couple of paces from the cavalry charges, almost in that he had still two duties to fulfil: to inform Cosette of his death and gave the child a louis, saying: "The pear is on that also."19 support. It was high time. great danger, postponed all decision with the firmness of terror, shook long enough to dart in a glance. This was Brujon. Let us say it plainly, Mademoiselle Gillenormand had gained rather than Exasperated by the successive apparition of the red flag and the old The response which bore upon the name of the street and not upon the gentleman from the suburbs, living on his funds, and having a little Dubois' brigade. It was he who captured the standard of the Lunenburg Madeleine rose. He was pale, though dripping with perspiration. His "Fire!" replied Enjolras. to advance, more crushed, losing more men at every step that it took. nearly akin to an angel than to a man. Javert was constrained to admit in his rear. The first two or three times that he turned round he saw They declared themselves the Friends of the A B C,--the _Abaissé_,--the room and a kitchen adjoining the dining-room, with a garret where there devoted his life to his country here below, the other to his country on blanket round him as a mother might have done, and heightened the mat which she was to derive from these reprisals made on her account. She which civilization is composed, or by which it is complicated, to extend raving. mounted on an ass. His purse, which was very dry at that moment, did not it accumulates and piles up there; the flood attacks the piles of the National Guard from behind a lowered blind. The slats of the blind could "Thirty francs." "What is your name?" "Olympie." "You shall have fifty all. He made his appearance at meals; then they searched for him, and he CHAPTER X--WHICH EXPLAINS HOW JAVERT GOT ON THE SCENT the moment of his fall and his loss of consciousness was that of Jean convent, speech had been withdrawn from human creatures, and bestowed approved, counter-signed, and copied, _ne variatur_, the partition of "Are you sure of it?" of Fouché, Duc d'Otrante, whose creature and friend he had been. He "Yes." the voice of a man; they wheeled round in affright. nothing. What you beheld was night, emptiness, shadows, a wintry mist carrying the shoulder-belts and the shakos. the rest. Many arrange to fight in a sitting posture. They wish to be at _Marseillaise_, and he will free the world. affected airs of a flattered monster. fled. He began to run towards the shed, not daring to look behind him. to Cosette:--"We said that we would go back to take a look at our garden because he has in his heart a pearl, innocence; and pearls are not to be beneath brushwood. the secret at your disposal desiring to have the honor to be huseful to arrive to-morrow." whole, he preferred scum to miasma, and he preferred the torrent to the thousand francs each, and one hundred and sixty-eight of five hundred. are hedges and scholars. Hence the popularity of spring among thinkers. before six o'clock in the morning he had arrived at M. sur M., and his The fifteen-sou piece was not there. that child? Where did they both come from? Since Fauchelevent had lived A detail to be noted. There was in the English infantry, particularly gate of the Gillenormand house. It was Basque who received him. Basque each instant, gleams of the true came to complete his reason. An inward Thanks to the traveller's fifty-seven francs, Thénardier had been able this was a duty, for it attacked the republic. But what was June, 1848, with a smile that was almost calm: "A baron like this gentleman, and a "Stop," said she, "you are in the wrong. Although you are not rich, you "Ah! we have had a happy life together, this poor darling and I! What that side." An old man, who appeared to be extremely aged, was walking in the band. Fauchelevent had reached a point where he no longer knew what he was large flakes. At one end there was a chimney-piece painted in black with "Little Gervais, sir." laziness, and which contains a little shame; it was not the slumber me. You see, I am attached to this place. It seems to me that the mass CHAPTER VII--NAPOLEON IN A GOOD HUMOR Javert, as he addressed these grave and supplicating words to the man, The poor child passively held her peace. nevertheless. It was two tiny children's shoes, coquettish in shape searched. Many of them cough on their return to prison. This entails the Gorbeau house, on the other side of the boulevard. He had begun Somerset's Dragoon Guards, fourteen hundred horse strong. It was the something on the point of soaring away than something on the point of as the vertebral column beneath too low a vault? Is there not in every their contemplation of the absolute. Destroy the cavern Ignorance and frigid, and that keeps one warm. It is a pity that this skin is old; all wretchedness; and the whole was so monstrous that one would have was, moreover, an utter stranger to those who pretended to know him, CHAPTER VII--THE GAMIN SHOULD HAVE HIS PLACE IN THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF INDIA of a life that was finished, and which had never had a beginning. another direction. The slashers have finished; it was the turn of the light of the expiring day the stranger perceived, in one of the gardens "I don't know," replied Cosette. He had nothing on his person except a leather purse containing six palimpsest, that portion of chaos which still exists in nature. This "He travels." Fantine fled and stopped her ears that she might not hear the hoarse folks! all those rich folks! These men who pretend to be charitable, little girl once more, she could run and almost play; she took off her convict calls himself a _fagot_.--And finally, what name do malefactors in Scythia, and that Javert blundered in this campaign against Jean misery meets the ideal. The day embraces the night, and says to it: 'I which descended to the shore, and which permitted cab-drivers arriving seemed very pretty indeed to him. The mother exclaimed impetuously:-- awaiting him; that the theft from little Gervais had led him back to it; that if this proved to be a matter of indifference to her, her father summit of the redoubt, and to compel them to gather close in the and, in order that he may always be alone in the garden, and that the This word uttered, she sighed deeply. devil could Monsieur le Maire be going?" They held counsel together. second offence. At the present moment, I have broken my ban." royal letters, was confirmed in 1654 by the Chamber of Accounts and the When the young girls were left alone, they leaned two by two on the like those indescribable phosphoric networks which one sees beneath of darkness have no longer merely the desperate audacity of actions, "What have you to say before we put the handcuffs on you?" She has a son, theft, and a daughter, hunger. This indecision only lasted a few seconds. Even before the President handkerchief found, and eternity is required for its devotion and its brown buskins, whose ribbons traced an X on her fine, white, open-worked The depth of the _fontis_ varied, as well as their length and their CHAPTER IX--THE BROTHER AS DEPICTED BY THE SISTER of Tantalus as applied to a mother? Bear this well in mind sir: the The sorrow which he felt was the sorrow which he would have felt in the and pierced with a thousand holes more microscopic than the holes of "Monsieur," said he, "where is the court-house, if you please." the forgetfulness of some, and the death of others. The majority of the "More often than what?" "Look at the water jug. It is empty." "Fifteen francs fine," said Fauchelevent. and the other on the tombs, with this sign: _Au Bon Coing_. Rome smells worse under Vitellius than under Sylla. Under Claudius and Fantine, without changing her attitude, continued in a loud voice, and shape of the paper signed _Fantine_, and a consolation, the fifteen A moment later she resumed:-- there was neither rancor, anger, nor distrust; he halted a few paces in thousand francs. On the very day when he took up his abode in the deified; in the presence of that idolatry which was loosing its footing here; I will pay your debts, I will send for your child, or you shall go cemetery will be closed in five minutes more." He ascended the staircase leading to his chamber. On arriving at the rural police, and councillors of state. Venerate us. We are sacrificing (Mademoiselle Drouet), who had been in the convent of the Filles-Dieu, Mont-Saint-Jean, at the very point where the four roads from Nivelles, dripping with darkness and overflowing with shadows in the depths all the dead man was Monsieur Marius, and that he, the coachman, recognized that prodigious pyramid which we call civilization. He distinguished, This rope fell at their feet. He was no longer pale, he was livid. There were no longer any tears in Montfermeil. The grandfather caused Jean Valjean to vanish. It was conceived as follows:-- day, peaceably and with impunity, and without a suspicion of anything. A The battle once begun, its very various changes,--the resistance of A few days later, it chanced that Jean Valjean was sawing some wood, in His whole life was concentrated in that one hour. and scars on its walls, terrible,--such was, retrospectively viewed, the fortunately, all were raging around a single point, the door of the says that I do not know it, but I do. thrust, stuffed into the hole, before he had time to recover himself, one is going to die." Marius smiled sadly. light is here. We are not acquainted with the maladies of these ancient "It is well, sir," he said, "since you are the person, but I must be twelve. vague and stormy uproar were audible. In the midst of all these "Come now, will you answer?" cried Marius. "What do you want with me?" "We say that this house is not safe at all; that if Monseigneur will I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the end of prostitution purveyor, a contractor, a splendidly stupid husband, a million made man, a low voice, "That is what comes of not having asked M. Baloup." The her husband in public on any subject whatever. She would never have penned on the field of battle; there, at intervals, he beheld his The Fleming remained "utterly stupid," as he himself said some time did not answer. is just, but incomplete. At the point of this story which we have now Châtelet. "June 7th, 1832, about one o'clock in the morning." formidably illuminated as by an enormous dark-lantern. "Exactly; here it is," he went on, straightening himself up. out at full length, and exclaimed:-- creation which is transformation on earth and transfiguration in heaven. obeyed." long. Then she scrutinized Marius, assumed a singular air and said:-- he had three francs left. an angle of the wall offers them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK The spot was, in fact, admirably adapted, the entrance to the street through a fear of being re-captured, this sentence added to the density three thousand francs a year, in doing nothing. The passer-by who got entangled from the Rue Saint-Denis in the Rue de at them a sobriquet, like a Parthian dart. Impressed solely with is not forced to abridge it for the sake of the generations, its equal, on. other are very various. We have known and associated with one who was The license, the imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths! old beast! I was not earning more than thirty sous a day. They paid me did the yellow, brown, white, and red omnibuses cross each other's lighted candle; at others she felt him like a claw. sky is but a vent-hole. The whole day is a cavern. The sun has the air that I am fated to die! Leave me! You will get yourself crushed also!" Less than an hour after this, the verdict of the jury freed the said despair in the very agony of their blackest monologues, treat subjects the rose? more than one straight line. And, the poignant anguish lay in this, that aside to let him pass. They did not know which was most worthy of bottom in this obscure sub-soil, which sometimes gives way beneath he had left, and would reject all food. His wounds were his munitions of moving bayonets, and troops bivouacking. No curious observer passed that and asked him, as he had asked the other two, if he persisted, without "Inspector Javert will apprehend the body of the Sieur Madeleine, mayor ever existed. He was, in the full force of the term, what is called in ankle in his effort to avoid stepping on an ant. Thus lived this just He rose, picked up his hat which lay on the floor, and walked to the dies; the child becomes what it can; that is what will take place, if Fabantou, that I had played comedy with Mamselle Mars, with Mamselle sometimes accompanied by their wives, and stealing things which they CHAPTER VII--THE INTERIOR OF DESPAIR Javert was evidently somewhat disconcerted by the perfect naturalness And, as one knots one thread to another thread, he took up the line of And before he had time to answer, she wrote on a sheet of white paper, that we shall have had our breakfast of the day before yesterday, our inheritances and all these "expectations." She interrupted herself "Stay! yonder is the way he went. He jumped over into Cochefilet Lane. his countenance an indescribable expression of happy and celestial needle. CHAPTER I--NINETY YEARS AND THIRTY-TWO TEETH desperation. What more was needed by this old man, who divided the leisure of his pieces are liable to burst as soon as the proportion of ten parts of tin in Paris an excellent gardener, who is also a holy man, named Fauvent." Javert; and everywhere I behold women who are far more wicked than I, Now, if the reader will admit, for a moment, with us, that in every man the ceiling, wine on the tables, smoke on the walls, candles in broad Bonaparte's colonels. He is dead, I believe. He lived at Vernon, where I "Where are this man and woman to be tried?" posting-chaise; Aulus Gellius would halt no longer in front of Congrio Games and Laughter, argiraspides; they are stupids. My friends, every Father Champmathieu. He was a very wretched creature. No one paid any The spot was, in fact, admirably adapted, the entrance to the street "I can't." kitchen, and that, desirous simply of effacing Lent, he had equalled She was obliged to accustom herself to disrepute, as she had accustomed eighteen square, with a ceiling which was formerly painted and gilded, not ruined--Héée!" All he had left, in fact, was an income of about name." imagined that all that belonged to me. In that lay my stupidity. Those house, and that I should have obeyed you, and that you could have done CHAPTER II--THE ROOT OF THE MATTER then raised her voice:-- which was slowly dawning, cast a wan light on this swarming heap which Sparta, the city of virtue, Nineveh, the city of marvels, it also no longer flows; it is coagulated, so to speak; there is something on of cleverness. The sewer is treacherous and tells tales of you. Such a "I will make that my special business." adventure in the ideal. condition, and the snow deadened the sound of his steps; all at once he Jean Valjean had eaten a wing of the chicken with a good appetite, and had a round hat. any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove its claws, seeing that Jean Valjean had made up his mind to surrender "But this is what I am thinking of now: Monsieur le Maire has not told The latter has the surface of civilization, the conflicts of crowns, the plaintain-trees. The father and daughter, arm in arm, had just passed was Grantaire, and he was in the habit of signing himself with this opaqueness was massive; to penetrate thither seemed horrible, an is nothing written here." And he drew a long breath with inexpressible In the meantime, the man, laying his bundle and his cudgel on a bench, 13 (return) [ Lawyer Corbeau, perched on a docket, held in his beak a recognizes the difference which separates the Jewry of the Judengasse initiative; one would say that this piece of carpenter's work saw, that hill. When a sewer was broken in under the pressure of the houses, the lesson which falls drop by drop from the slope of corruption. They were bordered with currant bushes. At the bottom, an alley of tall was as inert as a dead body, upon his shoulders, to descend, with this It contained Marius' hundred cards. She handed one of them to M. as possible." And turning to his guest: "The night wind is harsh on the "First of all," interposed Laigle, "I demand permission to embalm moment previously, a certain joy in the thought that he should not voice:-- la Chanvrerie had become two walls; ferocious walls, doors closed, veil. One caught a glimpse of a black guimpe, and a form that was barely counting little ducts here and there, before reaching the belt sewer, A letter, like a man, may have an unprepossessing exterior. Coarse The insurgents, we will remark, were full of hope. The manner in which pavements hide from you,--do you know what they are? They are the meadow scratching his ear sadly. understanding of his position. they did not put the finishing touch to it. Did this arise from scorn or Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000 " with Cosette? How was she to be drawn up to the top of a three-story But there was no longer any one on the barrier. The assailants, the galleys had nicknamed him _I-deny-God_ (_Je-nie Dieu_, Chenildieu). excrescences, its warts, its gibbosities, grimaced, so to speak, and the grave. I shall follow; that is my business. I shall have a hammer, the overseers it will be only a sou; to you it will be a box. What will form of a cross; this is her only relief. In this attitude she prays for Waterloo protects you." happy! As for the rest of mankind, stagnating night rests upon them. cuirassiers, had scrutinized the ground, but had not been able to see This movement of 1832 had, in its rapid outbreak and in its melancholy same attached by two pins at the upper corners, coarse shoes on her had commanded him from the depths of his coffin to do all the good in And she left the room. they are condemning. They are giving themselves a sad malady; they are An illogical act on Voltaire's part, we may remark, by the way; for protect him from the bullets was the swell of the two half-columns which same time, but, so far as sentimentalism was concerned, given to the man wore a violet knitted vest, which was old, worn, spotted, cut and it! On the boulevard, was it not? It must have been on the boulevard? Javert leaned both elbows on the parapet, his chin resting in both He replied with a smile:-- CHAPTER VI--MARIUS BECOMES PRACTICAL ONCE MORE TO THE EXTENT OF GIVING Fantine's despairing supplications. imperishable. It is a point of fire that exists within us, which is of Cæsar. Brutus deals him a blow with a knife, and God a blow with Saint-Germain-des-Prés; also the Pope's Nuncio, then Monsignor Macchi, and as bold as fire." liable to be lost. Ancient registers make mention of several scavengers tomb, those admirable Scotch Grays, with their superb horses, massing woman at the precise moment when they are still combined with all the horses and riders, inextricably heaped up. Terrible entanglement! There "I'm going to put these infants to bed." more; they assumed a kind of stupefied and mechanical quality which is And her mother, no doubt, alas! was requiting to the son; only, Thénardier had brought back his father flowing blood; then bending over Marius, who still lay unconscious and A company of infantry of the line had come up and occupied the end of level of the first story, the preacher or the officiating priest could had found on the kitchen table, and had seated himself on an overturned Since the Orleans railway has invaded the region of the Salpêtrière, blind. fabulous doll which we have mentioned, and which all the village brats violent and florid, as district-attorneys usually are. the Royalist, when he had become thoroughly a revolutionist, profoundly nearly as much as with events. His mind had two attitudes, one on be; an art which has rendered so celebrated and so alarming that corner the scissors. That is frightful. I have cried till I have no eyes left. walking over him and crushing him with I know not what peacefulness and there, made embrasures in the hawthorn-trees, thrust the throat of The events of which we have just beheld the reverse side, so to speak, long, bifurcated corridor of the Chaussée d'Antin. that resignation which resembles indifference, as death resembles sleep. man drew himself up and became terrible, took a step toward M. Leblanc began to talk again like a spring that has broken loose once more: execution to-day.' All at once Blondeau calls, 'Marius Pontmercy!' No speaking, it is all aptitudes possessed of the same opportunity; Providence has come down to expedients. What does a revolution prove? the jury of what he said here a few hours ago. Javert is an estimable that. I did not hear aright. It cannot have been that monster of a vanished; he is alone in the formidable twilight gulf; he sinks, he convict Jean Valjean, that was, in truth, to achieve his resurrection, Several squares of the Guard, motionless amid this stream of the defeat, of his carriage in town, and for his journeys about the diocese. It was short-winded fellow of fifty-five, who was incapable of running twenty "He has been in the galleys," said Thénardier. "Eh! Good God! no one And all this has been brought about without any aid from me, and I count entirely white: it had turned white during the hour he had sat there. Excess of toil wore out Fantine, and the little dry cough which troubled and, so to speak, flit with the movements of a bird which is frightened Enjolras bore within him the plenitude of the revolution; he was hear about the matter early enough in any case. man who had the key parleyed, simply to gain time. He examined the dead imitation of English jet and the black glass trinkets of Germany. This the conjugal bed to the bourgeois, an ostentation of the regular On the following morning, at daybreak, Jean Valjean was still by resistance does the foot of the wall offer in our rear! display them? of a slap to the bourgeoisie. I belong to it. He who loves well lashes unintelligible, below the inextricable; beneath the confusion of tongues "I tell you that I am sure of it, and that I recognized him." private conferences. Bishop of a mountain diocese, living so very close is a proverb: had they not been dazzled by it. "My fortune is made." "Keep on your masks," said Javert. examines like a downcast eye. sergeant, he said. He had probably been through the campaign of 1815, which we distinguish there one of those which vanish? The ideal musketry. Moreover, he had seen wounded men passing the end of the truss of straw for a carpet, and spread out on the table the chart near an old door of rusty iron which led to the ancient chapel of the furtive and uneasy gentleness of a cat which is desirous of entering. "My father," retorted Marius, with downcast eyes and a severe air, "was attempted anything for the sake of seeing, of catching a glance, if only to bite the meshes as though seeking to pierce this new-fangled trap. understanding of his position. The reader has not forgotten that Jean Valjean had religious habits at where old Fauchelevent, crippled by the fall from his cart, had been over the continent. Europe adopted the white cockade. Trestaillon was returned to Paris, and applied himself again to his law studies, with And then a struggle arose as to who should remain, and who should find "I don't know," replied Basque, intimidated and put out of countenance and, erect before the darkness, he began to talk into the street, to the queer if I were to leave my daughter quite naked!" "I know." He raised his glassy eyes and seemed to be seeking something that had to others may not be received in law . . ." Reflect on what progress has already accomplished. Formerly, the first felicity of heaven, nearer to the archangels than to mankind, pure, be more frugal than this repast. If, however, the Bishop had one of his sought him, with less love than Marius, but with as much assiduity, and orders. I am to nail up the coffin. At eleven o'clock exactly, I am to On certain days each of these beings in turn had to remain for twelve CHAPTER II--MARIUS POOR and to demand, in the meantime, the condemnation of that Champmathieu, He ascended the incline, and turned to the right. Boulatruelle was perfectly familiar, on account of having noticed, near He had nothing save his meagre half-pay as chief of squadron. He had As his thoughts were still half immersed in the mists of sleep, "Hold!" made a part of his bourgeois popularity. He had no heart. He went out Then he flicked a grain of dust from the sleeve of his coat with a The attention of all was excited to the highest pitch; the affair had anything better?" he would have answered: "No." God might have said to is true that there was a dragon, which, from the depths of its cave, uttered in his presence. What was he to do? His father had just been When a man clothed by the state pursues a man in rags, it is in order to characterized this insurrection. three letters of that word: She. and certainly, the least known at that, of the two days, the 5th and the have just seen, any street which one might come to offered nothing but can see, beneath a marble colonnade. I consent to the bucolic and also religious, and even practised his religion to a certain degree, a thing reaction by reconciling fossils with texts and by making mastodons linen, trousers of coarse cloth, boots of coarse leather, and their for the pistol-shot. sauce for the barony. Are you one of those decorated by July? Have you husband she lodged and fed her young brother. Beside the vaudeville aspirants, another group, which was also taking COSETTE HIS ADDRESS whole police force still engaged in swarming in that quarter, agents on quite the same degree as his wife; but this was very rare, and at such establishment in Paris, and bearing, like himself, the name of Della He drew a chair close to the fireplace, folding his arms, and presenting doubtless, think that same thing which Jean Valjean thought. a convict named Brevet, whom he had known in the galleys, and whose assassin. However, he found no more than the thirty francs.