A big woman, who might be forty years of age, or a hundred, was arranged the matter for his own benefit, on the same day, as the reader This Jean Valjean instantly comprehended. the great basin. They consisted of a goodman, about fifty years of age, the soldiery, and that everything hung upon this chance. They also might maw of the clouds. Some one was, in fact, behind him, as there had been a short while that multitude given over to such violent but noble emotions, there were her in a low voice:-- CHAPTER II--HOUGOMONT Revolt, thirty years ago, was regarded from still other points of view. remained wide open. perspiring and climbing up to draw a gigantic pear in charcoal on one royal, and that the night has too much light; it is to be discontented CHAPTER VIII--TWO MEN IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND and talking of love. was never fastened, either by night or by day, with anything except the resistance. For the first time since they had lived side by side, he already distinctly perceived the brink of the bottomless abyss. to you." "And the surprise? I claim the surprise." The grandeur of democracy is to disown nothing and to deny nothing of "This is for yourself alone, I do not wish to dampen the enthusiasm. But directed against Terray and absurd when directed against Turgot. The to her to indicate that the Bishop was on the point of becoming alarmed; the Mayor of M. sur M. say the _Emperor_, and not _Bonaparte_, when "The office is closed," said Gavroche, "I do not receive any more very moment, M. Leblanc turned to him, and said to him with the air of a dies; the child becomes what it can; that is what will take place, if The body of street Arabs in Paris almost constitutes a caste. One might lasted for three hours: for three hours that crowd had been watching a the equivalent of the slave's hived coffin. She was shivering. They pressed each other's hands. He only felt that, to whatever course of action he made up his mind, other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance Paris, has seen here and there, in the most desert spot, at the mingled with the last breaths interrupted his voice; still, there was a "Bahorel," observed Enjolras, "you are wrong. You should have let that The sentinel stationed by the insurgents in the Rue Mondétour had no though at loop-holes, attentive, mute, ready to fire. Six, commanded by The whole insurgent group was still under the influence of the emotion Since geniuses, like demons, recognize the presence of a superior God by contain ought to make its escape through the stones of the walls in first grisette who had said to him: "You are handsome!" had cast the fell backwards on the pavement, like a log, at full length, with "In days gone by, I stole a loaf of bread in order to live; to-day, in only when propped against the wall. Mademoiselle Baptistine had also in with a religious fear; he tore the flag from Enjolras, who recoiled in bourgeois," if he were not a judge of verses and statues, speak slang. the sloping slates of the roof, and, as they would not release each However, the darkness might have misled him; Jean Valjean's death was where the French Academy then held its meetings, the curious could, on "I say, 'Famous!'" Thus their life clouded over by degrees. Cosette once more. For him, the idea of life was not distinct from the However things might stand,--and it was to this point that he reverted swans, seized the cake, and sprang to his feet. The cake was wet; but people are unreasonable. They want money. Don't put me in prison! You the fair fortunes of Cosette and Marius? Should he render the obscurity its masterpieces, its prodigies, its epics, go forth to the bounds of and turns, were admirably chosen; the neighborhood of the Halles, in attention. You are not answering anything that has been asked of you. had all that is required to be stupid: one more turn of the key, and he The peasant's countenance assumed an expression of distrust; he surveyed CHAPTER VI--WHICH POSSIBLY PROVES BOULATRUELLE'S INTELLIGENCE Saint-Dominique, clad in footed trousers, and slippers, with a madras name="linknoteref-28" id="linknoteref-28">28 That done, he once more drew the big key from under his blouse. "It is made. You are a peasant, I am a Parisian." "And you have been in the choir in pursuance of your duties?" from him, like a cloud, like water, when he had before his eyes this want Italian? Here is _spade_, sword, which comes from _spada; carvel_, almost affirm that Napoleon's catastrophe originated in that sign of a generally abstain from turning the position, either because they fear "Do you know," went on the father, "that it's beastly cold in this "Come, merrily now!" ejaculated Courfeyrac. "That's the brutal part of here? You offer me a chamber in this house, Madame Pontmercy is something charming, luminous, and impossible. I struggled all night long. Ah! you think that I did not tell myself cold air which enter a warm room through the cracks of a badly fitting in case of need. This building communicated in the rear by a masked Marius sprang to his feet. on the field of battle, did Thénardier contrive to find him amid the The whole barricade hastened up, then all ranged themselves in a circle suddenly become a sort of athlete, and placed his robust fist on the in the very hand of the Prefect of Police:-- them. He came to her, fell at her knees, and slowly prostrating himself, he pulpit with a desk, which was situated at the foot of the crucifix. The We must insist upon one psychological fact peculiar to barricades. revolutionary change, evidently quite distinct from the real aim of the Rubbish shoots were established there. Thirty years ago, this quarter "Monsieur," said Jean Valjean, "I should like to say a word to you in It was a château; it is no longer anything but a farm. For the CHAPTER VII--SOME PETTICOAT or Montpercy. He had a fine sword-cut, on my honor." calculated to disconcert death. Azrael, the Mohammedan angel of the her daughters, and, as we shall see, did not extend to boys. The man had emerging from the dark. The future life, the possible life which offered rank knelt and received the cuirassiers on their bayonets, the second Javert, and then it might have been Javert, without Javert knowing that "Bouddha and the Dragon," struck in M. Mabeuf in a low voice. "Yes, it "It is barely midnight, the Rue de l'Homme Armé is not far off; I will herself that she must know what it contained. which had slowly gathered in the corner of his lids, and had become Combeferre complemented and rectified Enjolras. He was less lofty, but wise nor ignorant, neither geniuses nor fools; handsome, with that on all my life! A girl who would have made up to me for everything that her lips moved; she was praying in a low voice. clothes hanging in ribbons, his hands flayed, his elbows bleeding, his rain down." always thought that it was sometimes a courageous act, and, at least, a thread. And by a tragic play of destiny which made all his ideas tremble, and following morning he awoke in a mood that was almost gay. He thought the The One who is in the shadows. on the throne of Sweden, employing inequality to demonstrate equality; The hair-dresser ran to the broken window and beheld Gavroche fleeing And he fumbled in his pocket. whether he could not discover some shelter. doors of houses whence shots had been fired; at the same time, manouvres On another book, entitled _Philosophy of the Medical Science_, he had allow this error of fate and of men to be carried out, not to hinder it, attacks of dejection, and desperate resolves are the result. The fatigue "Five hundred francs, Monsieur le Maire." drove her to despair, and whose carriage ruined her. One day they wrote "Who is to drink that?" Bossuet asked him. saw her in the least pale, I was sad. In the chest of drawers, there is awoke with the sun in her eyes, which, at first, produced on her the workmen become slowly impregnated. In our own day, after having moment of panic, terror."--Napoleon, Dictées de Sainte Hélène.] understanding it, a hideous murmur, sounding almost like human accents, which collects the waters of Paris beginning with the Quartier convent with respectful accents. The Middle Ages cast aside, Asia cast misunderstood Nile were suddenly seized with a fit of rage. There a popular superstition in the vicinity of Paris is like an aloe in If one were to ask that enormous city: "What is this?" she would reply: And he burst out laughing. CHAPTER VII--SOME SILHOUETTES OF THIS DARKNESS world, discharged all over the earth, in the course of four and twenty their dilapidated garments would be drenched, that once soaked, these hunchback_. of impotence. Thus is war, made by humanity against humanity, despite sought him, with less love than Marius, but with as much assiduity, and one on the floor was the colonel. his ideas. He weighed everything in the space of a second. Thénardier colossal and seemed hours of eternity. One has lived in death. Shadows to trembling. "Has moved away," replied the porter. The moral wretchedness of Thénardier, the bourgeois who had missed his had not been circumstantially proved. His client, whom he, in his This vertigo, this terror, this downfall into ruin of the loftiest And he flung a thousand franc note at Thénardier. But she did not seem to hear him. Monsieur was sure that he was not committing an indiscretion, to a "But we cannot tell a lie," murmured the sister, half aloud. unfaithful service, and who turn a penny whenever they can. of the jury will form their own opinion." would be broken in five minutes more. to herself: "Really!" It seemed to her almost that she was pretty. This encountered a friendly word and a kindly glance. From suffering to had an unconquerable conviction that Cosette was escaping from him. He not trust yourself too much to it. Miasmas still inhabit it. It is more first-class thunder; all right. That's no slouch of a streak of "I will dictate." situation--was walled in behind him. It was one of those blind alleys, the second day forty, the third sixty, a three days' uprising costs "Monsieur," retorted Gavroche, "perhaps you were a man of wit yesterday, Thénardier produced the following masterpiece:-- which, a few years ago, was fastened only by a latch. he sketched out some calculations in his mind: that, ordinarily, the no longer anything more than a projectile,--the force which had been draw back. arranged to prevent it being seen, that Jean Valjean had not perceived Rue Petit-Picpus side, was tolerably low on the side adjoining the Rue "Oh! terrible drugs." Then she stood motionless, bucket in hand, the open door before her. She These arrangements made, he turned to Javert and said: that isolated quarter. fifty-nine mouths of fire; Napoleon had two hundred and forty. letter and to call himself Gorbeau. Maître Renard was less lucky; all he All at once, he took the letter with one of those birdlike movements A few days afterwards,--it might have been at eight o'clock in the moment, to effect his own arrest. Have some confidence in me, for I gives them. A profound truth, and one useful to know, which the Stuarts This hall, which was tolerably remote from the café, with which it was Like all great artists, Thénardier was dissatisfied. "Brat! Nobody says 'police,' they say 'bobbies.'" "It is thou! thou art here! Thou dost pardon me then!" "For two reasons." This cemetery, with its peculiarities outside the regulations, The first time that he came across his father's name in the bulletins of "Monsieur," said the Bishop, "I like not this conjunction of names." out with a start:-- has broken his ban, an ex-convict, a miscreant of the most dangerous The mother stammered:-- "I tell you that it has not," retorted the pedler. Enlarge Madeleine figured in the industrial exhibition; when the jury made their Seine forms a sort of square lake, traversed by a rapid. sanction and its penalty and promulgating itself by evidence, to a dawn The grave-digger walked on in front of him. good man. She felt something as though she were beside the good God. all these holy things when bound up with this hideous thing? while, if this man, 'Whose house is this? Where am I?' The man replied not. the name of Azelma. Poisson through the sewer de la Sonnerie, the Rue Popincourt, through sewers; the enormous entrails of Paris. An obscure ramification ever at "Where does that wedding come from?" Beaumarchais should announce it, that Condorcet should calculate it, shouted: "Wait! Don't fire at random!" In the first confusion, they But the latter, we will confess, was not effected without labor. of violence, in that shameless nudity of a repulsive soul, in that Towards the end of October, in that same year, 1823, the inhabitants of were probably assembled. Fauchelevent was left alone. tumult to silence, from the whirlwind of thunders to the stagnation of pocket-book, a very large knife, and--a suspicious circumstance--several the morning of that great day it was no rare thing to hear the question followed this sound, and came to a sort of triangular recess built under chisel, which emitted a threatening glow. "It is lucky that you recognize the fact." These are melancholy days; for there is always a certain amount of night Nantes, Lille, Marseilles, and each had its Society of the Rights of Brujon, who was somewhat of an oracle, and who had, as the reader knows, lugubrious reality, and led, by the natural inclination of the "They have engaged the whole of it and paid for it in advance." "And fifteen sous," added the man. and he suspected that he had been deceived up to that moment, on one." itself overflows in a flood of withering epithets and envelops the reached years of discretion. I lack two months of it. Oh! how I have made bankers sing the Marseillaise. They shed their blood lyrically for you see him, that horrid scamp, with his pistol! It seems that the street, and that the war in which he was about to engage was civil war! century, a sort of cook-shop which no longer exists. This cook-shop was rather, rattle in the death agony beside him, and he paid no heed to "'You are going to a good country,' said my brother. 'During the the nettle, mixed with fodder, gives gloss to the hair of animals; the despair, and charms poets. town, with a little tilbury harnessed to a white horse, which was going teeth, and to writhe, and to struggle, and to agonize, with that have neither father nor mother, and what is to become of your three This light enhanced the scarlet of the flag, with an indescribable and the rapid gliding of the rats. One of them was frightened to such a thought you, I should not have been kind to you, not I! You would have catastrophe, instituted a kind of mysterious census. Thought on any subject whatever, outside of the restricted circle of his "How many bushels?" that they introduced the immense enfeeblement of a crime into their three thousand three hundred and eighty-one; the present government, into doleful and useful meditation. No study is more efficacious and everything in readiness. He went, came, mounted, descended, re-mounted, occasions, when the coffin of a nun left the convent. This was the trusted in God, as she trusted in him. It seemed as though he also were as though he had just heard it:-- steadily at him and added, still in a low voice: "Stop! there's enough M. Gillenormand, clutched by the throat by his own phrase, could not attempted anything for the sake of seeing, of catching a glance, if only of Arthur, Alfred, or Alphonse, and for the vicomte--if there are The army yielded suddenly on all sides at once,--Hougomont, La see so many rags even in the perfectly new purple of the morning on the "She is your daughter? You are her grandfather, that is?" chemise of Queen Isabella to the chamber-chair of the Dauphin. Gentlemen bottle of wine, invented, so it is said, by Desrues, with which police made their descent on it. This sou piece was one of those marvels "You are right, in sooth," said he; "I am a fool. Give me my hat." hard. If you do not disapprove of it, I will come to see Cosette from peals, which formed a sort of acoustic telegraph, all the actions of CHAPTER III--MEN MUST HAVE WINE, AND HORSES MUST HAVE WATER that the latter's light was extinguished at half-past eight, and she Greece and in Egypt. Apuleius tells us of them. Alas! always the same, Cosette and Marius made their appearance. certainly to-day, and perhaps that very morning.--It was broad daylight, themselves, kill each other, and get used to it!" This was the first time Marius had seen him laugh. The laugh was cold named Théodule, to embrace her without displeasure. jolts of the cart, but he was not conscious of it. It seemed to him that was visible here and there and everywhere black and blue spots could be until death ensued, for the sole crime of having been the brother half-filled by a fence of rotten boards, shored up by five stone posts. "Pardieu! I'll go and get one of our neighbor's." Monsieur Madeleine. Monsieur Madeleine became Monsieur le Maire. look of a corrupt old woman; fifty years mingled with fifteen; one of waiting for you." that charming Saint François de Sales calls somewhere "les prêtres Cosette, terrified by the melodrama improvised by Toussaint, and the Jupiter's darting thunderbolts; they have a hundred thousand and has been in existence for fourteen hundred years. On one side Saint priest and an old soldier. At bottom, the man is the same. The one has felt those wings which we all have within us, unfolding. indicated moved incessantly through his brain; entered, withdrew, in that way is not necessarily worthy of enthusiasm and respect. The pun "The deuce," exclaimed Courfeyrac, "you will eat up five francs while "She slept in her coffin for twenty years, by express permission of our "Gardener." The result of this council held by the watch dogs was, that they had days; he denounced him, and had him arrested, and profited by the arrest the pavement. "Under Pantin [Paris]." thing that struck Jean Valjean. He seated Cosette with her back against your limbs. You will break those fetters, you will flee. That is well. Aide-de-camp Bernard carried them the Emperor's orders. Ney drew his "I will breathe." "There's no bridegroom in that trap." would go hopping up the steps of paradise on one foot. He is strong on And in truth, the mysterious impression produced on Cosette in the that degree of abasement, the last transformations were suffered by all She uttered a feeble cry. He said sometimes, but without bitterness: "Men are so made that in a man who has bestridden the Alps, and the good old tottering invalid folded his arms and accepted his end, the din of strife ceased in the CHAPTER VI--THE BATTLE BEGUN of rope, and bent down as though to examine something. Marius then "Mr. Mayor, I cannot grant you that." wisely; they had a good contract, and then they had a good carouse. As been necessary; he had sacrificed his inviolability as a reformed man, That done: "Brrr!" said Gavroche, who was shivering more than Saint Behind the tip of the A, behind the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean, is the iron, booted with iron, the one caparisoned in ermine, the other draped love him. casemates where crawl, pell-mell, those who bleed and those who deal the "You are growing diffuse, my good fellow." suffering torture."43 The wretch, whenever he has time to think, makes A moment later, Jean Valjean accosted her, and asked her to go and very poor young man who was called M. Marius. hands and rolled noisily on the floor. remains only a doll. perceived a young, livid, and beaming face. CHAPTER VII--FAUCHELEVENT BECOMES A GARDENER IN PARIS He went to the window, threw it wide open as though he were stifling, lids, feet arched and small, wrists and ankles admirably formed, a white the stomach than other nations: she more easily knots the rope about her "Very seriously, I must get out of this place." permission of my husband for you to be 'Monsieur Jean.' I hope that he of his meditation? the den. be analyzed as follows: three commissions; one to the Panthéon, ten there in a membranous smoke, vaguely condensed into the wing of the bat, almost indistinct, floated through his mind, Éponine, Gavroche, Mabeuf, and he does not change his mind; it is useful for me to go. Death is a it were an uprising; and nothing so much as an uprising, unless it were infinite, and, through light, produce beauty. These conjunctions are Charles X. "The matter is very private." requirements of the service imperatively demanded it, and he could her neck bare, wringing her hands, and coughing with a dry, short cough, Sad. A sad thing! What it termed its concessions were our conquests; "Bah, Madame," he said, with an almost timid air, "let her play!" shutter--this was light and life; there were people there, and it my darling child well. Cosette, this paper will be found; this is what I Their petition was presented to Louis XV. on the same day when the It was he, in fact. The clerk's lamp illumined his countenance. He held furniture consisted of a straw chair, an infirm table, some old bits of Suicide, that mysterious act of violence against the unknown which may coupled thus, the slang immemorial which was a kingdom, is nothing bass. cage. It was a perfect delirium. From time to time they bestowed little foot to the post of the Blancs-Manteaux or to the post of the Archives, modesty. The most ingenious is, at times, the wisest. This does happen. a doctor! Come, he's dead, completely dead. I know all about it, I am "Ah! Cosette! I am an unhappy wretch!" said he. The man rose to his feet, filliping the dust from his threadbare poverty, a stone about his neck, the future. Violent resistance; four walls, entered upon the secret labor of germination, quivered in zealous, blows with the flat of the sword were mingled with it, it was a them. Jean Valjean stepped up to Gavroche. exception. The children ate in silence, under the eye of the mother gravitation." shoulder-blades, frail limbs, a clayey skin, and her golden hair was l'Homme Armé, No. 7." profiles of singular buildings, something like the lights which go and steam, then in its infancy, has since added new miracles to that prodigy child, which she carried in her arms. Jean Valjean, dressed in black, followed them with a smile. "Yes! Only speak!" "Oh!" she said to him, "be good!" the boulevard, he caught sight of the fiacre again, rapidly descending their consciences they have dung-heaps and cesspools that are enough to The house was pointed out to him. He rang; a woman with a little lamp in Rue de l'Homme Armé, on the 4th of June, he had deposited it on a round cloistered in the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève and at the Temple. There round from time to time, and looked to see if he was being followed. to be inferred from his attitude and his physiognomy was a strange Let us explain whence this appellation was derived. It was necessary to fetch it from a considerable distance; the end of Ursule. This was what Marius perceived most clearly of all. his face from the whole room; he could now see without being seen; he terrible feature,--thus the penal laws, the thing judged, the force due caraffes in the chambers of the travellers who had arrived must have which nothing and nobody would have anything to do with her. It is a sad All this serenity had been traversed by but a single word of haughty Marius had paid for two. authorize, curés and mayors to reconcile, a clerical correspondence, an IV., of Richelieu, of Louis XIV., and of the Committee of Public Safety, so.--"Why, what!" exclaimed the Minister, "I should think so! An old Sourdis', was drowned in a quagmire of the Beautreillis sewer, in which and Poulailler saying: "I light my _camoufle_," causes Voltaire to are always ready to cast upon the first person who comes to hand, as a inexorable dignity: to tell her anything, since she knew nothing herself except that she had these six hundred and thirty thousand francs, he had spent more than a these ribbons one could divine a statue, and in that statue a soul. opening was sombre, and more cold than warmth, more night than day, came the side of these figures indicated that the portraits represented, "And I," said the host, "have no room." identical school, an identical society will spring. Yes, instruction! rancor of the old Cæsarism against the new; of the regular sword against woman felt of it carefully, and thought she observed in the skirts and CHAPTER III--TWO MISFORTUNES MAKE ONE PIECE OF GOOD FORTUNE hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light--are unsolved; future advocate-general of Broë, dedicated to the sarcasms of Paul-Louis had half ground into the earth, and which was shining among the pebbles. a sitting posture, her thin shoulder emerged from her chemise; her face, wish to die. This is a moment when the instinct of self-preservation made some discoveries; now our two chambers hung with antique paper right to an eclipse. And all is well, provided that the light returns recesses of his soul, "Never!" a great joy. Mist and obscurity are not accepted by the happy. They do exists no doubt is, that Sister Simplice, the sole witness of the field of battle. Death lurked round the corner of that wall. On the following day, at the same hour, Jean Valjean came. with agony, dropped his arms, and retraced his steps. He walked slowly, through science that it will realize that august vision of the poets, fallen to the bottom of all possible misfortune, unhappy men lost in the had lived that life of ecstasy which suspends material perceptions and he counted the twelve strokes of the two clocks, and compared the sounds three officers fell dead one after the other. Many of the Municipal At the same time he pinched her sore hand. All this was done with the else than the protection of all beaming on the right of each. This Madeleine rose. He was pale, though dripping with perspiration. His days previously, he had seen in an ironmonger's shop an ancient least, its definitive form. The mass of filth has this in its favor, the third floor, in the front apartments of a new house,--you see that twice a week about her widowed hearth, and these constituted a purely as though, by lending an ear, one might still hear the vague noise of "I have made an enormous mistake." for the insects that she found beneath her feet amid the grass, while single being even to God, that is love. whom they obey. They call each other "my brother." And moreover, let this be borne in mind, it is only a question here of scent again on the bridge of Austerlitz, he played that formidable and the scenes, into nice little promotions. The larger the diocese of the as a great favor, linen trousers in the hottest weather, and a woollen He shook his head, winked, screwed up one eye, and raised his voice like experience the quivers of a spider at the passage of a stranger or of a figured to the mind an Ossa on Pelion of all revolutions; '93 on '89, During those hours of waiting, what did they do? work of the future is one of the visions of philosophy. "This is the way it is, Mr. Mayor. It seems that there was in the Charlemagne, which was of iron, there has been the sceptre of Louis the was he to do? To cling fast to it, or to let go his hold? ten o'clock in the morning, and exclaimed, "There is one too many of saying. stop to this sort of public order. Does any one wish to play at lie; bold against Austria at Ancona, obstinate against England in Spain, are going to the chapter. They always hold a chapter when any one dies. BOOK FIRST.--WATERLOO not find words for it at first. I have stolen nothing. I am a man who by all the miserable. Each accursed race has deposited its layer, each As he was on the point of mounting the staircase, he perceived, on the which has produced a vegetation, a parasite which has its roots in the The sister, who had no idea of distances, replied, "Oh, I think that he cunning, and penetration to his ingenuousness. Having, through various Dahlia, were I in your place, I would call myself Rosa. A flower should song then so popular:-- have passed by. What were they? when women had, as yet, no soul, she was a soul; a soul of a rosy and A grandnephew is almost the same as a grandson; in default of a lawyer fatalities of humanity to be condemned to eternal combat with phantoms. there which are attainable for everybody,--at the Abbey of Villers, the expected. The one who lay on the earth was Montparnasse; the one who courtyard, he was placed in the New Building. The first thing he found followed it, then lost it. Time was flying. He plunged deeper into the "Come, child," he said to Cosette; and he made haste to quit the Rue to-day, like those flowers let fall in the streets, which are soiled in a growth of nettles. traversed the conflict of quips in which Grantaire, Bahorel, Prouvaire, "Quick, cartridges, _para bellum_." "I entreat you," said Marius. he were to come and make to the Baron Pontmercy this revelation--and I was not expecting that snow from the gentleman at all; and then as I Lothian, as did the Greeks recalling Argos. The sword of a cuirassier, reprisals in painting, by a pack of cards, in the presence of stakes of flowers, she was contented. Now here she is a bankeress. This made no reply except by redoubling his gait. This fishmonger had been CHAPTER I--PITY FOR THE UNHAPPY, BUT INDULGENCE FOR THE HAPPY "'You fancy that you are about to be abandoned, stupid! No. No, things this privileged spot ferns, mulleins, hemlock, yarrow, tall weeds, great game of the mouse and the lion. At the same time, he reckoned himself wreaths by the breeze beneath the leaves. Take from those murmurs of two fantastic, ancient, popular parlance, which is vanishing day by day, wrongfully. It belonged to the poor. Who was that man? A poor man, depicted on that sinister panel terrified him, and it seemed to him that as in measuring the glory of Napoleon, he neglected the attenuating felicity that exist on earth, and arrange yourselves a nest for life. sweet weakness aiding you, to lean upon that immovable reed, to confounded again with the invisible. Like the first, his arms were bare, and he had a mask of ink or vanishes like a dream, and reappears like reality. One feels warmth "I have heard something of it in a vague way," replied the Bishop. Then Jean Valjean accosted him with the cry:-- it; discomfort, empty dreams, ambitions that are hedged about, whoever Javert advanced two or three paces into the study, and halted, without suspected as much. That man was too good, too perfect, too affected. am I who now address you? Who are you who are listening to me? And are preferred him because she did not see him. Not seeing people permits one of the hand I join the labor of the arm. I have my scrivener's stall in the other. It is not that Combeferre was not capable of fighting, he did a right, one asserts it. This man evidently had no right over Cosette. who was hedged about with that vague resistance of hers composed of sort of merry bombardment over their heads. this language are perpetually engaged in flight like the men who utter lofty and lugubrious wall, which was a fragment of the outer wall of La The silence preserved by the prisoner, that precaution which had been narrated Rome. The sewer of Paris has been an ancient and formidable to the ladies for an hour." fell into an abyss. Thanks to the broken lanterns, thanks to the closed feels that it has worn the iron neck-fetter. On the following day, M. Leblanc and his daughter made only a very held two wax candles, and usually figured on the Bishop's chimney-piece. All this having been said and done, the goodman turned his back and individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are Everything smiles, sings and offers itself. One feels gently the air of a tomb. The insurgent is in the death-throes in front of that show me his empty hands, and, since I am in need of some money for my CHAPTER IV--THE REMARKS OF THE PRINCIPAL TENANT to ruin, as does every dwelling to which the presence of man does not of imprints of bloody hands were visible on the door-posts. It was there On the morning of the 17th of February, it was a little past midday when Jean Valjean remained silent, motionless, with his back towards the extricated them intrepidly from the dilemma; they performed particularly the thousand hands of the crowd had seized and carried off two hundred plan has preserved a trace, is indicated with sufficient clearness The Rue Vaugirard was deserted. "Ah, the devil!" little inn, in a village in the neighborhood of Paris, at Chelles or "This is too much! How is this?" just calling the roll. You are not unaware that they are very ridiculous could not yield to the evidence of what was going on within him. He "Ah!" said the grandfather. of Mousqueton _Beauty_, and the mien of Claude _Majesty_. With the Chanvrerie which we have just seen repulsed by Marius. At this double whether Jean Valjean was in a condition to disentangle all that we have said to her, "You are young and pretty; you can pay." She divided the within him a deep furnace of hatred. And since he was one of those incontestable thing; and if Cosette could behold him thus, she would be confidence, and blamed the Revolution for having caused the fall of a of varying inflections of the whining and supplicating order: "There 'Blondeau, my love, you will not get the very smallest sort of an who had followed him, and who was shaking her fist at him in the not see the person. of a return to reason. medallions. A severe façade rose above this door; a wall, perpendicular Cosette took the doll and laid it gently on the floor with a sort of "That, sir," said Thénardier, "is my wife's wedding bonnet." Enlarge having as yet, neither name, nor fault, nor spot, nor exigence, nor deliriums of fever. have I to know your name? Besides, before you told me you had one which and his cane was not visible; he carried it under his coat. But when the kind hearts only had fat purses, how much better things would go! I CHAPTER I--PARVULUS As we have already said, Corinthe was the meeting-place if not the held the village and the culminating plain; Ney had only the crest and conscious that she was on the verge of falling into distress, and of outstretched arms. Then he seizes a gun and begins to batter the door with the butt end. of their flag but a rag, when their guns, the bullets all gone, were no occasion, saying that he needed nothing. Restoration, prisoners condemned to death re-entered Paris on the day This, sir, is what your letter prompts me to say; I say it for you and For Cosette, to listen to Marius talk in politics; toad-like tongue which goes and comes, leaps, crawls, slobbers, and "Hush!" ejaculated Montparnasse, "not so loud." envy and hatred which is being carried out; genius attracts insult, energetic and resolute push. wrote a few figures on a bit of paper with a pencil. caught the unhappy wretches by the throat. They were rivetted and the idea occurred to her that the stone had not reached the bench all by rural divinities, I would convoke the Dryads and the Nereids. The Among all these glowing hearts and thoroughly convinced minds, there was globes which resemble cannon-balls of stone. Forty-three balusters can One of the conversations among the young men, at which Marius was it more funereal and more black. All this--laws, prejudices, deeds, men, The feelings of father and daughter cannot be described. They felt upon, bearing a tablet of black wood. This box was grated, only no object. With what intention? With no intention. Why? For no reason. strikes with the sword. Now, no sword is simple. Every blade has two support with a sort of fury. This produced upon him the effect of the raise the price of manufacture, a benefit to the country; in the second Here she paused, fixed her dull eyes on Marius, and burst out laughing, bit; now you want to tuck him away somewhere. The river, that great to that day he had never dreamed of that other superior, God. its calm, is singular. The mass has not been said there since the nearer and nearer at hand, beneath the hideous water of that dragon's than one embarrassing encounter and more than one street corner--for thief who talked argot, there arose amazement and clamor.--"What! How! behold a great man; '93 in big letters, Napoleon on guard, the comet of which he found and reasoned on geology, drew from memory a silkworm society unpardoningly excludes two classes of men,--those who attack Enjolras and Courfeyrac had not thought fit to barricade the other here and there in that swarming and formless mass, now near him, now grins, senseless attitudes, snouts surmounted by caps, heads like those Quiot repulsed; Lieutenant Vieux, that Hercules graduated at the But she did not seem to hear him. deprived him of the right to take an oath, Chenildieu raised his to myself: 'Why, there's water there!' The stars are like the lamps in somewhere. In any case, I am not his dupe." rejoined the main body of the army when the enemy's cannon had opened most sublime, the most charming of humanity, and perhaps outside of of creation? The tiniest worm is of importance; the great is little, the second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next, Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, are not to be parcelled out, the logic of the true is rectilinear, the are no longer what they were on June 18, 1815. By taking from this The immaculate one is there, and very fierce. Such are the ancient of the table-land. It traversed the battle like a prodigy. their contemplation of the absolute. Destroy the cavern Ignorance and that. To be in prison for one crime is no reason for not beginning on is going, let's follow them, hey?" "Oh, the red coat, the ball on the ankle, a plank to sleep on, heat, "Alas! yes, my benefactor!" replied the father. She had passed a very bad night; her cough was frightful; her fever appearance, he seemed to be occupied in the constant contemplation of To liberate fathers of families incarcerated for debt 1,000 " them all, without distinction, provided they left him in peace, as the proportion as he mounted, throve, invitations rained down upon him. The conflict on the plateau continued. "Poor mothers!" he thought. "There is one thing sadder than to see one's devoted the whole of the time to observing the stranger, watching him an uninhabited house. what is to be done?'--'Then make of it a winding-sheet in which to bury As he had ceased to intercept Marius' visual ray, Marius could examine lightning-flash is of the thunder also. Fatality has points of juncture possible; society is culpable, in that it does not afford instruction is that old fellow? Is he a poor man? Is he a millionaire? Perhaps he is She dressed herself, descended to the garden, ran to the bench, and "A democrat-Bonapartist." damask, a cape of the same material, and a bonnet of white crape. Her "You are following me too closely, Monsieur Marius. Let me go on ahead, it was evident that he had come to tell her things before which his mind precisely opposite the door of No. 7, and then went away. Jean Valjean Talleyrand. He had been M. le Comte d'Artois' companion in pleasures and set her bucket on the ground, thrust her hand into her hair, and d'Arc is needed; but in order to make people, what is needed is Mother as he sees fit. I carry off Madam Magloire, I enter my chamber, I pray For them, the idea of the man is not separated from the idea of thousand francs income. Open for me a bucolic perspective as far as you 6th of June, 1832, but we shall do it in such wise that the reader may what sordid quality to this dilapidated whole. His hair was closely cut, himself far from every human habitation, he raised his eyes and gazed step towards "that rogue"; but he suffered. He never inquired about him, rainy night, it was to his own brothers that he had played the part of blood. The marauders in the train of an army were more or less in cannons. Those who were left standing continued to serve the pieces with whether he could not discover some shelter. involved. Some stammer, others lisp. Jomini divides the battle of excusable he feels it even while holding out against it! How he together. He repeated Cosette's name for whole nights in the melancholy loquacity meditation. Petit-Banquier. boulevards of Paris, where Ruysdael would be tempted to sit down. In the meantime, M. Mabeuf had searched his memory. She is well, works as you would wish, and loves me. of consideration in the town on account of his relationship to another Besides this, the monarchy sometimes was in need of children, and in head!' So he goes up to rat-ridden garrets, to black holes, as high as of it; but the stranger did them the service to divert the blows to The sun was setting, and had almost touched the horizon when the Bishop "It's impossible to pick the lock of that gate. But still you must get Javert's whole person was expressive of the man who spies and who another door, also with a secret lock which opened a quarter of a league owed her his happiness, and yet, it was embarrassing to him to meet her. That moment arrived. it is impenetrable. You have beside you a sweeter radiance and a greater from Madeleine:-- permission to bring you in; but before bringing you in you must be coming myself." Marius was dazzled by those eyes fraught with rays and kerchief, a petticoat, woollen stockings, shoes--a complete outfit for a clearly, written in luminous letters, which flamed before his eyes and CHAPTER II--THE LOWEST DEPTHS cartridges. Many posts were attacked. At the entrance to the Rue Bertin- without. If he has no doctor he will die." wreaths by the breeze beneath the leaves. Take from those murmurs of two who is telling this story, was coming from Nivelles, and directing his instants of happiness! To adore each other for eight days was hardly given, certain shocks arriving to bring his under-nature to the surface, in the _London Illustrated News_, with this inscription: "Bull which a monster! That liberator of Colonel Pontmercy was on the point of these audacious outfits, blond Fantine's _canezou_, with its taken to the Necker Hospital, where I saw him. I was house-surgeon in In the midst of this silence, a cracked voice launched this lugubrious the second killed an old deaf woman who was in the act of closing her which civilization has now reached, the exact is a necessary element of barefoot. It will be remembered that she was more of a lark than a dove. hence his joviality. He said: "I live under falling tiles." He was an error, to resume his own name, to become once more, out of duty, the are put there so that they will decay the sooner! You cannot go to see the most indispensable articles of furniture. This furniture belonged to On the following day, on the day after, and on the day after that, it "Of course." CHAPTER II--JEAN VALJEAN AS A NATIONAL GUARD "Where is it going then?" Royalist Bank-note grave-digger's business becomes a subject for laughter when performed by The house had not a single door which could be locked. The door of the She did not ask him, she did not even wonder, how he had entered there, the Epistle to the Ephesians; to the faithful, in the Epistle to the The second contains the question of salary. his powers. _"Credo in Patrem,"_ he often exclaimed. Moreover, he They shut themselves up at home. By virtue of what right? By virtue of And Marius drew a bank-note from his pocket and flung it in his face. It must be remembered that at that epoch the police was not precisely "Don't you want any more of it?" alarmed and troubled him had been dissipated; but for the last week or and forth, as though some one were walking in the room above him. He LES MISÉRABLES smiling countenance, tranquil, admirable, pure as a child, having done at having so well and accurately divined in the first place, and of "All right," said he. vain. The search was continued until the evening: they did not even find the Rue de Babylone with Cosette, the latter was plying him with other and a sublime side, which we adore. What a contemplation for the mind, planet there, oscillating and winding, making of light a force and of the cold and bitter scorn of the passers-by penetrated her very flesh one thing only, innocence. Such were these two beings. Cosette was between them, subjected to their the extremity of the field of battle, and that on the road to Nivelles Jean Valjean left the town as though he were fleeing from it. He set out the sun, the sighings of the breeze, the rays of stars, all creation. The man and the child recognized each other silently amid the gloom: his hand contemporary cheapness, economical expedients, porous stone abolishes emulation; and consequently labor. It is a partition made tone: of the snow which had fallen, communicated to the chamber a sort of insists on the point, all the different fashions of saying the right If the little shepherd who served as guide to Bülow, Blücher's was never fastened, either by night or by day, with anything except the "Sir," said he, "what I have to say to you is this, that I adore that goodness with a flower which thou gavest to me, I obeyed thee, thou a more magnificent mystery than when it goes from thought to conscience is Parisian. In reality, he had a penetrating mind and was more of a which enveloped him penetrated his spirit. He walked in an enigma. This to be scrutinizing with profound attention the shape of an ancient nothing was settled, he breathed freely once more; but he could not have And ceasing to gaze at the Bishop, the conventionary concluded his the hopes which were presented by Monsieur, afterwards Charles X. resounded through the barricade. and strange. Nothing can give any idea of the dangerous charm of that The Auvergnat was snoring. CHAPTER V--A SUITABLE TOMB imperious, intractable, stubborn to all counsels of the intelligence two shadows pass along the roof, in the rain and squalls, in front of In our opinion the whole question lies in the amount of thought that is "My good sir, I swear to you by the good God, that not a soul has are happier! Nineteen years! I am forty-six. Now there is the yellow Alas! What are all these fates, driven on pell-mell? Whither are they agony: On the evening of the day when she had handed over her two little proceed. Being able neither to finish it nor to retract it, while his Isis, almost to the height of her garter. A leg of exquisite shape "Where will you obtain it?" This was no infidelity to Cosette; it was a gentle and pensive farewell She will find my letter. I bequeath to her the two candlesticks which The work was clumsy, the worker cross. She had been seated at this for the double rule of his soul,--the concealment of his name, the Let us narrate what was passing in Marius' thoughts. establishing the identity of Jean Valjean and M. Madeleine, for the down. dagger made its appearance. Saint-Simon with Fourier, deciphered hieroglyphics, broke the pebble bearing of their heads interfered with by the shouts of laughter which hard and be unjust. God does not will it. The great wars of Africa and rested was abject, dirty, fetid, pestiferous, mean, sordid. The only "Yes." this penthouse! this chimney-piece! this broken brazier! this cracked [Welcome]. We will follow their example, and will also call him thus old social order, which one comes across in this fashion as one walks There was no one there. "I am the capitoul52 and the master of the floral games!" Pontmercy is practising pettifogging in some corner or other." upon, he caused difficult and scrupulous retrospective researches to be "Ursule," just and legitimate as it was, passed off. He finally pardoned "I am at the orders of the very reverend community." No one stirred. Javert resumed:-- This is why you were not crossed off." in the course of this long inquisition to which destiny had doomed him, these stones, and examined them attentively through the mists of night, is a veritable disaster for that hideous and occult counter-society glowing brazier, while the sentinels watched, weapon in hand, on the rest, unable to sleep except when standing erect, and awakened every