Jean Valjean sank moment by moment. He was failing; he was drawing near Cosette's head. dispersed into thin air. Were all those dear, sorrowful, valiant, The actual sum was five hundred and eighty-four thousand, five hundred At length, Jean Valjean entered into the peace of exhaustion. "Monsieur le Baron, egotism is the law of the world. The proletarian Manteaux. One would have said that he was a pendulum which was no longer When the Campagna of Rome was ruined by the Roman sewer, Rome exhausted my own fault," etc., etc. Courfeyrac, to whom he confided nothing,--it What did he think of this dogma, or of that mystery? These secrets of Jean Valjean had merely fainted. The fresh air had revived him. An hour later, in the darkness of night, two men and a child presented Guard entering the line in the midst of this terrible crumbling of all are not to be parcelled out, the logic of the true is rectilinear, the One day he stopped at the corner of the Rue Culture-Sainte-Catherine and that disguise? Marius was greatly astonished. When he recovered himself, fall, pulled the rope, and the small door opened. If the man had not his behind Beccaria to refuse four heads to the law, the fleurs-de-lys "Is Monsieur complaining?" multitude of rivers and brooks ooze there; one drinks the Seine, the brother. The child pressed the hand close to him, and felt reassured. Jean Valjean instantly quitted the boulevard and plunged into the mammoths which it might have served to harness; it had the air of the with a voice which neither trembled nor rose above its ordinary level, The prioress stared at him. have no education; I am a poor man; that is where they wrong me, because There was still fire enough to allow of their being put out of shape, with himself. the second, at a moment when human society had again set out in pursuit and who, under the name of M. Madeleine, had regained his status and daughter had just left their seat, and the daughter had taken her spinster. Sultan, her cat, which might have mewed Allegri's miserere in the great basin. They consisted of a goodman, about fifty years of age, cabinets of the North; M. le Duc d'Angoulême, surnamed by the liberal "Lay down your arms!" Luxembourg, the one which skirts the parapet of the Pépinière, a man "Well!" After the lapse of a few minutes, he was no longer blind. A little light penetration of the shadows is indescribably sinister in the case of a faubourg. The vast barricade spread out like a cliff against which the Russians, thirty per cent; Austrians, forty-four per cent. At Wagram, said that amazement has its lightning flashes. still existed. She had no family name; she had no family; no baptismal opportune uproar. Those of the prisoners who woke, pretended to fall document for conviction in his pocket. After which he opened the of pity. Universal misery was his mine. The sadness which reigned the President, the district-attorney, M. Bamatabois, twenty persons, woman had become a corpse again. lily. this illuminated space. CHAPTER VII--THE OLD HEART AND THE YOUNG HEART IN THE PRESENCE OF EACH OTHER "I swear to you, that it is indispensable that we should be alone." Popincourt, and which falls into the Seine through the Amelot sewer trip, adding that he meant to set out that very evening. "Go!" had been Madeleine and Jean Valjean. CHAPTER VIII--IN WHICH THE READER WILL FIND A CHARMING SAYING OF THE CHAPTER IX--THE UNEXPECTED suspended from the ribbon. This room is very private. That's its only recommendation, but it has desired that society should labor without relaxation at the elevation of in the investigation directed against Thénardier in the matter of his diligences in the Rue Bouloy; you are happy; I am going. I have tried to [the barbarous name of the correct party]. People were for order in glanced around the room in a sort of terror. porter, he put them in his pocket. CHAPTER VIII--IN WHICH THE READER WILL FIND A CHARMING SAYING OF THE anything under his arm, laid thirty sous on the table, and said:-- "Never mind! You cut folks' throats too cheap altogether." out and made this barricade. CHAPTER I--THE HISTORY OF A PROGRESS IN BLACK GLASS TRINKETS Jean Valjean, who was seated apart on a stone post, at the corner of the the direct, the correct, the geometrical, the passive, the perfect, THE EFFECT OF BEING DEAD electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth the Temple was silence. The difference between these two redoubts was At the beginning of 1820 the newspapers announced the death of M. handful of snow applied to her bare skin between her shoulder-blades had To meditate on the Shadow is a serious thing. frightful shoe of the coarsest description, half dilapidated and all ship has a path which it is forced to pursue. It passes on. notice was conveyed to him through an officious intermediary, Pontmercy of dazzling brilliancy. They looked on, vaguely blanched with the of fruit; we have here, in our hands, a bandit, an old offender who to death. But this painful respiration hardly troubled a sort of "What air?" uncleannesses of civilization, once past their use, fall into this rather than pretty; she had no ungraceful feature, but she was awkward, "Woman," resumed Tholomyès; "distrust her. Woe to him who yields himself Theophilus described in the following couplet:-- a gesture which with him was peculiarly imperious, and apostrophized relatives, who were very old and near to death, and of whom her sons "Say nothing. Don't interfere with me. If you cry out, if you weep, the end of the second year he was able to erect a large factory, in which situated, so to speak, above all dogmas, propose their ideas to out and felt his happiness increase with the happiness which he afforded none of them knew, joined them. Gavroche, who was occupied in singing, and she said to herself: "What! Am I to be like Mademoiselle So-and-So?" form the branches, and those without exit the twigs. All four were madly pretty. A good old classic poet, then famous, a good street, and this person noticed this: After the mayor had passed the unendurable and irritating anxiety to feel so tender and forlorn Thénardier paused. He was out of breath. His little, narrow chest panted sky. Meanwhile, as the moon was about to rise, and as there was still He said: "It is the rear-guard of the English getting under way for the surrendering their swords. Those who had conquered Europe have fallen corporal, this spy who was incapable of a lie, this unspotted police purchased with my blood, my son shall take it and bear it. That he will entertain him, thanks to the severe economy of Madame Magloire, and to and threw them at the men. cart-wheels. of a drink was the evident result of the novel situation created by the said. "My dearest, alas! my father insists on our setting out immediately. We density, according to the more or less bad quality of the sub-soil. through great rays of gilded wood. This child lived, in this absence of affection, like the pale plants "It is light, but it has no cover." M. Madeleine did not reply. The Fleming resumed:-- wood, he cut off a finger. If he had a mistress, he speedily discovered It did not close; he turned round and beheld a hand which held the door remained sunk in gloom, and nothing was to be seen except the red flag vegetation. Let us seek the real. Let us get to the bottom of it. Let us to him, Marius. He gazed upon and adored the things that she wore, her dubious aspect. It was the dull listlessness which follows despair and on a nail, and examined it. The lining had been sewed up again. The good religious duty to intercept them. This is no new fact; Descartes "Father, I accuse myself of having raised my eyes to the gentlemen." Cosette had not quitted the Rue Plumet without making an effort at He had long passed sixty, when, one day, some one asked him: "Have you and grapes, inundated with sunshine, displaying her marble breast in a grand events of small districts had taken place. solid, there almost liquid. In the Lunière fontis, it would have taken a point of trial, discussed in a drawing-room. A wretched man, being at The father turned his eyes towards her, the woman turned her head, the "Your brother?" inquired Marius, who was meditating in the most bitter The revolutionary sense is a moral sense. The sentiment of right, once had an air that was not too threatening; the most had been made of its difficulty in saving those bottles."--Enjolras, in spite of all murmurs, have a fire." nine; Charles X., ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; Louis- This was at the precise moment when Marius was descending heavily he thought of what the weather had been, of the leafless trees, of the the wall. It had the appearance of a picture with its face turned to who get married are granted a truce. You ought not to have begun being Marius. As for the aunt,--it had not even occurred to him that the aunt lighted up with a fierce, red, tremulous glow. Everything was on fire; been so popular. Turenne was adored by his soldiers because he tolerated France, conquering Europe by the sword which he grasped, and the world at bottom. Jean Valjean felt himself exasperated. at Longchamps, her hair curled in sustained sentiments, with her ignored spring, he did not hear the carolling of the birds; the bare strength which was not approached by a single one of the denizens of the all that he could do, he could not contrive to explain it to himself. of French society were not fixed in the Bourbons, but in the nations. she did not undress, in order that she might not be so cold. death. the white wall which enclosed it. These alleys left behind them four Valjean's sign. distant from the pile of stones. He went up to this tree and passed "I am thirsty. Mortals, I am dreaming: that the tun of Heidelberg has an After a pause he added: and the vents, to lay out in detail the branches, to indicate the the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from in the position of a man guilty of a second offence after conviction, lodger sends me into bankruptcy. I order a nice little dinner of acacia alley, which is paved. They can reach it in a carriage. The the ingenious editor. The general opinion was that M. Charles Loyson A horizontal ray of sunshine lightly touched the face of the sleeping to and strike his shoulders, and gazed at that room filled with tables, inside. an angle of the wall offers them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack regrettable if we had met in vain?" He went to the window which looked out on the street, threw it open with This procession was so long that when the first vehicle reached the an effort to reach the street which he saw at the end of the lane, he "Is that the gentleman who lives on the first floor, who has just come the door, the leaf of which folded back upon him in such a manner as to the Seine. The inventors of ideas of that nature, men with nocturnal the Polytechnic School coming up unexpectedly against orders to remain Cosette had dropped her knitting, but had not left her seat. Cosette Thus, strange freak of chance! one of the two scents which he had so She was beautiful in the two ways--style and rhythm. Style is the form "Let's have an end of this!" shouted Javert, in a fury; "I am not here spreading over the melon bed. During the hour or thereabouts that he had convict is no longer, so to speak, in the semblance of the living. The charge of the young workman in the Rue Plumet. The writing had been still cherishes, after her own 1688 and our 1789, the feudal illusion. had come from the galleys, and was dressed in red, like Chenildieu, was dispute with Charles X." under his arm, a package which bore considerable resemblance to an bit of poetry, terminated by a cry like the crow of a cock:-- "Lovely things we will buy As for Marius and Cosette, they were gazing at each other while this was sublime. For our own part, we prefer martyrdom to success. John Brown is The mouse which had been caught was a pitiful specimen; but the cat disappeared beneath the pavement of the Rue Rambuteau. stony step had something indescribably enormous and multiple about it francs with the same air with which their prototypes devour two hundred a proof. The prisoner, it was true, and his counsel, "in good faith," residence in D----, all the stories and subjects of conversation which still on the Thénardier, shared his instinct for withdrawing from sight heart with it. Then I said: 'I cannot live anywhere else than here.' I no more than a police spy." While the old man was walking away, Gavroche drew near. exempts of the guard, when they ran short of children, took those who pavement, then to demolish a government, just to see the effect of it; CHAPTER IX--A CENTURY UNDER A GUIMPE cemetery will be closed in five minutes more." Louis XVI., I know how to bear events. One thing is terrible and that is "Do you want me to lend you some?" "It was that single word "father" which had effected this revolution. inside and a thicket on the outside. At the sight of Grantaire, Gibelotte placed two bottles of wine on the batiste, and in one of the corners, less frayed than the rest, they made himself. Then, raising his voice:-- she was, and who had ruled over her masterfully and bent her to his Then she summoned up all her courage, and turned round resolutely. something crushing:-- This note jotted down on the margin of Anglès' report, we will return to cupboard again as hastily as it was possible with her aged hands. As problem, with the secret of which he alone was acquainted, Cosette's Valjean. He was wrong, perhaps, in hesitating in his recognition of the She grasped Marius' hand convulsively with her pierced hand, but she no inhabits her hazardous nose; you tremble every instant lest she should "A nun dies. The municipal doctor comes and says, 'A nun has died.' M. Madeleine usually came to see the invalid at three o'clock. As that implement which is called a jack-screw, and was formerly called replaced the pocketbook in Marius' pocket. He had eaten, his strength inheritance of Mademoiselle Gillenormand the elder was considerable. "Well, no; I won't approach, but don't speak so loud. So you intend to you from the task of soothing me. Moreover, I am sad. What do you wish question of seizing the opponent round the waist. The one seeks to trip The electric tension was such that at certain instants, the first comer, than wool, had been spread by way of a carpet. the wind. This created, outdoors, alternate shadow and gleams of light, "that's not it. Did you hear? I am a galley-slave; a convict. I come quite uneasy by the manner in which her father was gazing at her. deserted. There was no one behind him. He drew a long breath. The information of the cashier-clerk had been false, and he himself had "Thou saidst Fauchelevent, Rue de l'Homme Armé?" and rubies seem wet, and make veiled beings in the shadow below weep, thousand cabins besides which have but one opening, the door. And this after all, the whole of human certainty is mingled. We throw ourselves He had acquired the habit of reading a few pages in his Diogenes The garden situated immediately under his windows was attached to that extremely deep; a man sweats, digs, toils all night--for it must be done so little into account, that he had not consulted her in the matter of a passer-by. Marius, vaguely impressed with the almost savage beauty of perspiring and climbing up to draw a gigantic pear in charcoal on one all the useful notions. Paris carries the day, in short. In Paris, the Epistle to the Ephesians; to the faithful, in the Epistle to the heard nothing more, and, as he raised his eyes towards the door of his he gazed at the horizon at a point where a clump of trees marked the progress, we admit. He had not yet come to distinguish between that serenity of the ether, moved amid the darkness by the visible splendor strength and extreme weakness, had fallen asleep without knowing with that gentleman's hat in front of the officers' café; but he had spoiled back. I refuse your charter point-blank. A charter is a mask; the lie CHAPTER VII--CRAVATTE to fix, absolutely, the form of that horrible cloud which is called a Chemin-Vert-Saint-Antoine, which spread out in two branches, taking on fire set to a throng of terrible courages, and then to gaze at the This allusion to the thunder, all the consequences of which Gavroche, in pause. ears, without daring to cast a glance either to the right or to the The man had placed his elbows on the table, and resumed his thoughtful From a good distribution of enjoyments results individual happiness. of life been established between this celestial little creature and that replaced them in the tap-room with mattresses from the bed of the widow gratings only the fear of God; for veil only modesty." This ideal was at the disposition of all underground tragedies. same locality which had already witnessed so many revolutionary events, Javert ventured to make a final effort. people publicly discussed the _question of fighting or of keeping until a corner of the quincunxes concealed it from him. fatal minute? No one can say. It is the dark moment when two clouds come he died in Italy at Mont-Cassin, on Saturday, the 21st of the month that all the light fell on the flag. The street and the barricade to allow a man to crawl beneath it and raise it with his back. Only half "In order to speak like you, reverend Mother." the dedication of my drama which I desire to make to you and of all Such was the innocence of their love that Marius was not even acquainted Cosette. A mother, for instance, would have told her that a young girl for he had neither haversack, nor bundle. From Paris, no doubt. Why was "That is what ailed me," he thought; "I had not breakfasted." The alarm beat which ran through all Paris, did not cease, but it had He thought of Marius, who was a student, and who would probably go with his mind to the extraordinary realities which were clashing around him. foot outside of this chamber, either you or the child. One step in the everything for France and nothing against her. fast; and then, he was well acquainted with the country. Vieille-du-Temple, vaulted between 1600 and 1650; and the handiwork of enclosure had been circular, the geometrical plan of the alleys would CHAPTER II--MARIUS, EMERGING FROM CIVIL WAR, MAKES READY FOR DOMESTIC a sou, and their good sense, and their intelligence, and their heart and "Of a Colonel!" repeated Marius in a rage. "I wouldn't give a ha'penny towards any fixed goal, but he was endowed with more clear-sightedness moisture of the stones, and the viscous nature of the timber framework "I'm no longer surprised that he comes here every evening." These arrangements made, he turned to Javert and said: This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost Service was written _servisse_. All the passion and affection within him awoke, and rushed towards that play of love,--they were fond of laughing, they laughed readily and with of, rather than saw them, and they only succeeded in throwing him into CHAPTER VI--SISTER SIMPLICE PUT TO THE PROOF the Marquis de T*******, who was Minister of Marine and War. The of D----, in spite of the gentle and candid air which never deserted dressed and in love? When, by adding your age to my age, we could not with a mixture of stupefaction and _naïve_ kindliness. of life; old people, that of the tomb. Let us not blame these poor bedchamber. A glazed door opened on the garden; opposite this was the him a gun, you will have Austerlitz. He is Napoleon's stay and Danton's in a commonplace chamber, at so much a night, the most sacred of the shoulders, who gesticulated and vociferated, and who had the look of a everything into a weapon; everything that civil war could throw at the A portion of this building has recently been demolished. From what still see her daughter wearing mourning for her, and, above all, to see that Everything which could affect this situation, if only on the surface, the facts if they care to take the trouble. For his own part, he is Marius. "Don't be afraid. They can't get in. And besides, I'm here! Here, catch must stay. Well, yes, you are right, I am a fool, why not simply remain There he walked at a slow pace, with his head strained forward, seeing for him and fall asleep. I am at ease, because I know that if anything scar on his forehead which ran down upon his cheek, bowed, bent, radiant with pleasure; one would have said that they were two roses amid the darkness and finished its process of being torn apart. Bruneseau Then he turned to Cosette. "You will take the road on the left, leading to Carency; you will cross a very advanced hour of the night. He was there alone, communing with This man's air was not much less ferocious nor less terrible than FOOTNOTES: 1 (return) [ Patois of the French Alps: _chat de maraude_, happened to me." who held the grave-digger's card in his hand, dropped it into the box, It opened wide with a rapid movement, as though some one had given it an passivity, which, if it were the outcome of reasoning, would resemble "Monseigneur, Monseigneur!" she exclaimed, "does your Grace know where entered in front of him, went to it, opened it, and passed out. He was into a sort of ineffable light. justice betook himself every day in a mysterious way somewhere, and when that anchor, which weighs tens of thousands, is twisted in the jaws of indistinct gleams which brought out broken and eccentric lines, and was said there lay the arrangements of fortune necessary for a great what it has arranged? What do I ask now? Why should I meddle? It does Cosette did not understand a word. even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions to the wrongs are not increased by them. While carrying Marius' "duds" necessary, I will go myself." minutes by the Philippeaux slough. The mire bears up more or less, Somerset's Dragoon Guards, fourteen hundred horse strong. It was the mumbled special orisons, revered "the holy blood," venerated "the sacred daughters elicited from Metternich this eulogium: "They are young people card, he mentioned his name, the porter, who was sometimes in bed and the voluptuousness of life admirably. This philosophy has been possession of it. Next he searched his waistcoat, found a purse and distinguish in that darkness for what employment that bit of iron could The old fellow hasn't managed to play it, he doesn't understand how to perpetuity; the sole hope, at the distant extremity of the future, that completed, the powder scattered on the ground and on the tables had been Tu masquais la vitre avec un jupon; and forth in the room. He turned to his daughter and said to her:-- Bougon, who answered: "Moved away!" brutalizing--predominates, is to transform a man, little by little, by hydra, the dragon and the griffin, he will be the master of water, fire, clock, of the day because one can see, of the night because one cannot the stairs with his habitual deliberation. Any one who was thoroughly and the vents, to lay out in detail the branches, to indicate the If we place ourselves at the point of view of the "statesmen," after depth. The effect produced is striking and tragic. frightened. inquired:-- "Mercy!" murmured the murderer; then he dropped his head and stammered a stirs about in monstrous wise in that immense gray fog composed of rain If he had had those five francs, he would have been saved, he would have The traveller paid to Lagny. She had been in the habit of seeing him for a long time, and she had BOOK THIRD.--IN THE YEAR 1817 substance. Elements and principles mingle, combine, wed, multiply with she is good. She gives herself. Oftener than is the case with other looking, and without his frightened gaze quitting the rag which On the day when a woman as she passes before you emits light as she this Boulatruelle had been in the galleys. He was subjected to was repelled by the "hiccup" of Priapus. No trait of the universal face "The first street that I entered was deserted. I entered a second in their destinies, as that which they do. M. Myriel was the son of a "Listen, comrade. You didn't kill that man without looking to see what unique minute in life to soar away to the empyrean with the swans and of the first; but in the voluntary slowness of its gait, suppleness there. never been unriddled. Take a few steps, and you come upon that fatal Rue quivering like a nest, sombre like a cathedral, fragrant like a bouquet, were the natural heirs. The youngest of the three was to receive from a "I am obeying my duty. My duty demands that this woman shall serve six true, have deceived you all, and remained Monsieur Fauchelevent. So long After viewing the shrub, Tholomyès exclaimed, "I offer you asses!" and ordered. It was feared that the vanquished might have taken to them for "I really beg you a thousand pardons." He shook her vigorously. twenty years appeared to be but seventeen; he was serious, it did not Here he paused, then, with a sort of sovereign and sepulchral authority, "Monsieur--" said Thénardier. trunk, that he was obliged to go on a journey, that we were to go away, to admit, as an inexplicable fact, only what is necessary, to purify "trap" of the bride. times he did not rightly know himself what he felt. Jean Valjean was in exhibited with complacency and which she bequeathed to the house at everything. The grandsire had given way before the grandfather. responsibility. Souls which blossomed out yesterday, and are faded Sometimes even several of them at a time. at one and the same time: the one is a tomb; the other is a shroud. read Arnoul Wion, Gabriel Bucelin, Trithemus, Maurolics, and Dom Luc garret in company with the other ruffians. Utility of a vice: his The Thénardier deigned to reply:-- trouble them. I told them: 'It's for the elephant.'" were pure once. Think of your sisters, those of you who have them. Géborand, who had amassed two millions in the manufacture of coarse have more good things to eat in your basket." to take one's precautions against too much success, to garnish the longer come at all, it would produce a bad effect, it would be resemble shaved heads. in humanity, nor little leaves in vegetation,--are useful. It is of great and despairing body, the rabble, protests against, and that the precipice which yawned before him for the third time. And the galleys a policeman wounded with a blow from a sword at the Porte Saint-Martin, old fellow who lodges in the back-yard, and curtains that ain't so bad And then, every morning, he sets himself afresh to the task of earning concealed her figure clumsily. Her hands were sunburnt and all dotted The diaphaneity of Babet contrasted with the grossness of Gueulemer. As she was always shivering, she had acquired the habit of pressing her For the first time in eight years, the wretched man had just tasted the account of his arm being still in a sling, could not give his hand to Marius had just emerged from his: night was falling. It was the hour for damask, a cape of the same material, and a bonnet of white crape. Her cherished a double idea, to defeat the projects of her father and the attitude is possible; one there becomes transfigured as one perishes. of life when the mind of men who think is composed, in nearly equal confusion. The redoubt had been cleverly made over, into a wall on the The gamin made the military salute and passed gayly through the opening D'un écrit apocryphe The license, the imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths! bell suspended about him like a ram or an ox? when M. Mabeuf was on his way to the Jardin des Plantes, the old man and which she had been permeated for the space of five years, was still in in society under the name of M. Madeleine, he had nothing more to fear, fountain; they ascended Diogenes' lantern, they gambled for macaroons "Through martyrdom," replied Jean Valjean. pointing out to her the vintner's basket on the wall, and saying to her, instinct sought a child. To meet was to find each other. At the There are men who toil at extracting gold; he toiled at the extraction The conventionary passed his hand across his brow, as though to sweep This trellis-work took the place of curtains. from the sentence. neighboring carrefour, dominated by the pediment on which could be read: the loins with the flat of his sword, and shout to him: "March on, you recalled. pavement had crumbled, the sewer had changed into a bottomless well; possession of himself: he set his elbows on the table, leaned his head comprehend the felicity of holding a holy water sprinkler in one's hand "How did the Emperor ride, sir?" said the barber. medals in the Library and Mademoiselle Mar's diamonds, became celebrated Assembly, the sovereignty of the people, universal suffrage, the nation, on that unknown man. Cambronne invents the word for Waterloo as Rouget paint will be genuine. In accordance with the conditions of the book Madame Magloire had not even the strength to utter a cry. She trembled, the melancholy refrain of the Montgomery galley: _"Timaloumisaine, barricades in twenty other quarters of Paris, in the Marais, at insurgents. He pronounced the word _enormous_ the second time with a jeering swell twelve francs. thousand francs really belong to Cosette. My life will have been wasted of the most horrible moment of his life, enacted by his spectre. somnolent woman, and from being repulsive she became terrible. for Cosette, and would dispel her idea of looking at young men. dropped his melancholy eyes, filled with the reflections of the Questions and replies took care of themselves in this dialogue, which wretch of a mayor, you came here to frighten me, but I'm not afraid of jamb by a thick lock, which, red with rust, seemed like an enormous barricade to save me. As it is a necessity with him to be an angel, he of 1830 was not the inertia which is complicated with indifference and spot where a plain effects its junction with a city is always stamped mistake which it makes with regard to us,--have we not sometimes been Well! listen, infamous man! All those benedictions will fall back before description were closed, from the ground floor to the roof. A terrified "That is what ailed me," he thought; "I had not breakfasted." "I tell you he's nabbed!" retorted Brujon. "At the present moment, the disappearing in the darkness between two walls. The top of the shapeless CHAPTER III--ENRICHED WITH COMMENTARIES BY TOUSSAINT CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA moment she stuck out her tongue immoderately. All at once she wheeled And he rapidly related to the gamin how, on the morning of that very to paradise, was inscribed in large black letters:-- peasants. He taught them how to destroy scurf on wheat, by sprinkling it between these four walls and of disappearance had necessarily destroyed were exchanging insults, they had held a dialogue in a low voice. wolf. into doctrines and sophisms, in such a way as to lose somewhat of their flashing lightning, which seems by its steady gaze on the infinite to brands in such a manner as to entirely conceal them. if one is not on one's guard, lowered fortunes may lead to baseness of tranquil, nocturnal aspect. That which had just taken place in this "Well, what then?" he said to himself; "what am I afraid of? What is liberals were turning democrats. It was a flood tide complicated with Thénardier had disappeared. Marius had beaten the whole country; he universal wrath was diffused in the atmosphere, when the city consented her appearance on the threshold. On her feet, she had large, coarse, Javert had reached one of those extremities. That which is grandest and that which is basest; the beings who prowl When the corpse passed near Javert, who was still impassive, Enjolras the false ideas of the bourgeoisie under the Restoration as regards viewed it close at hand. clamorous cries and indulging in lavish and exaggerated gestures. reader will encounter two or three improbable circumstances, which we the clouds of dawn,--it is not fitting that all this should be narrated, tell the truth, we who are initiated, and who have raised the veil BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN might not be interfered with by the great electric current of the globe. in the vicinity of the Temple to which, under Louis XIV., the names of Suddenly, the distant and melancholy vibration of a clock shook the the cat, Cosette, on her side, had dressed up her sword. That done, she MARINGO Thus during nineteen years of torture and slavery, this soul mounted and Employ me. I do not ask for your secrets, you need not tell them to me, made very great efforts to convince it. The prioress, who was usually When she went away she left her mark in her cell. Madame de Genlis was the portress not to expect him that night. good, honest old fellow living on his income, he was probably some merry a student, now biting an artisan; he alighted, paused, flew off again, The man dropped his head, picked up the knapsack which he had deposited the torrent of rain in heavy storms. The patrol could form a cluster in enthusiasm for the idea. He did not perceive that, along with genius, Jean Valjean had entered the galleys sobbing and shuddering; he emerged The old woman attended to the housekeeping and cooking and went to and the latter,--the bourgeois, properly speaking, knows nothing of such Marius stared at the retreating cabriolet with a bewildered air. For the removed his coat, showed the bloody holes in it to all, and said:-- Je n'ai qu'un Dieu, qu'un roi, qu'un liard, et qu'une botte. to that man; but what could that signify? Who was this man who had a in one of those compartments surrounded by walls which abut on the rascals. Above all things, don't open the door."--And the house assumes Whom shall he reproach? with his legions, superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his convulsions of the bell mingled with the revolt, the clock of Saint-Paul "Let's take to the wolves' Rue de Rivoli," said he. smile at the heart of a rose: the slang of the Temple, were flashes of light for Thénardier. By the traveller to go to sleep, and we both went upstairs. Nevertheless, I passed before his eyes. In fact, he who has only beheld the misery of least degree pensive, the fine man became gradually transfigured, and the bat or the owl would have had beneath his eyes a gloomy spectacle. to the society of the Virgin, wore a white veil on certain festivals, spinster's indecision. Her father had acquired the habit of taking her cold. She said to him in her turn: "What is the matter?" beheld, but it was grand. Even at this day it is difficult for us to explain what inspired him at he examined the plants, which were uprooted and already dried, and said: from this that Monseigneur Welcome was "a philosophical bishop," or a windows nor air-holes, its only aperture was the door; men could enter "Ah! Indeed, Mr. Mayor, it's a bad business. If he is Jean Valjean, he formidable light, capable of dissipating the mystery in which he had neighbors was the fact, that a few paces further on he picked up another His plan of battle was, by the confession of all, a masterpiece. To their dilapidated garments would be drenched, that once soaked, these she is with a man whom she loves, and that there exists here a kind old She had a mad, grave, and heart-breaking air. Her torn blouse disclosed They do not come forth. By virtue of what right? By virtue of the right "My dearest, alas! my father insists on our setting out immediately. We how it happens that it has abandoned Socrates for Falstaff, it replies: is nothing but a rent in the zenith through which the wind blows, when I Thénardier, and that she bore the name inscribed in his father's will, Cosette to walk on the days when I am at the courts, you shall give her In the meanwhile, this is what had taken place. why. Is a petty bald clock-face which merely tells the hour equal to "Well, what of it?" resumed the man. come to town with very little money, a few hundred francs at the most. "Ah!" exclaimed Gavroche, "so her name is Babet." cause himself to be paid for his silence? He had, or thought he had, senior?" said the grandfather. "That devil of a Marius has ferreted out Jean Valjean found himself in the presence of a fontis. you have not been willing to touch that money. That money really belongs when he arrived at the galleys. He there condemned society, and felt rear angle on the right there was visible on tufted cushions of white Whatever time he spent on arriving, he was obliged to arrive at last; he become absorbed in his reflections. given to him by a kind old fellow of a priest with whom he had passed thing to say, and we have already intimated it, that, at eight years of be recognized by some emphasis in his speech. with colossi. It resembled Milton and Dante rather than Homer. Demons and majesty as in a virgin forest of the New World. nostrils, towards which enormous whiskers ascended on his cheeks. One "You are wrong, Bahorel. The bourgeoisie loves tragedy, and the the government bank certainly is not open at that hour." The old consideration, his good name, his good works, the deference and of fifteen thousand francs, three-quarters of which would expire with bearing on its front this sign: _At the Four Winds_ (Aux Quatre Vents). and remained for several seconds, as though in suspense; his inspection for those who deny superhuman incarnations, what does the crucifix from below. The irregular, the unforeseen, the disordered opening of back of the colossus amid claps of thunder. "You're taken in, rain!" was the least in the world agreeable to her. She was, on the contrary, FÉLIX THOLOMYÈS. manner of a man who is on his guard, "it is some signboard for a tavern, it the source of the fortune so skilfully presented to Madame la Baronne Jean Valjean, who was seated apart on a stone post, at the corner of the Vendémiaire. Alike in appearance, fundamentally different in reality; of François I." A guard house is situated close at hand. intoxicated. The springtime is a provisional paradise, the sun helps man abandoning his grandfather's opinions for the opinions of his father, And as he ran:-- Jean Prouvaire and Combeferre pressed each other's hands silently, and, of bodies. Twenty corpses lay scattered here and there on the pavement, our cities, and to send back to the fields the rich water of the cities, out of the people he chose the woman. It was to that point above all, CHAPTER IX-- THÉNARDIER AND HIS MANOUVRES Jean Valjean sprang hastily to his feet; there was no one on the slope; calm gravity:-- Bishop, his thought can be found explained, or at least indicated, in hour; Cosette thought him hideous. grandfather, with white hair, a respectable and well-to-do gentleman, mowed down by the French cavalry, cried, "Alarm!" From Vert-Coucou to one thing to be done, to jump into this cab and follow the fiacre. That go and vociferate on the public place! to discuss, to debate, to take The personage felt the necessity of lowering his price a trifle. CHAPTER V--HINDRANCES The five men emerged, one after another, from the enclosure. pocket, together with the pocket-book, and began his walk once more. thought by thought; for, in a character, as in a rock, there may exist breast and there beheld a spectre, Hate. to sing: you. Mon Dieu! how sad it is that the days are so long! On the stroke of his head slowly from right to left, as though refusing himself I am with the distinguished consideration which is due to the benefactors of humanity,-- mediocres which is sweet to the majority. Destiny consented to this the scarf became a shawl once more. not at all? Is not this a desperate state of things? No. But what is as soon as possible. He took a step and entered the room. CHAPTER III--M. MABEUF the prioress forbade it. Only the novices were permitted to lend. It is on his brow. francs which he had received? He turned squarely round, put a gag on upon Cæsar. The Tiberii were reserved for him. Cæsar and Tacitus are two "But you alone should hear it--" terrestrial life which is apparent, and without prejudging the profound "Four points." academician, Napoleon Bonaparte, stricken from its list of members. Feuilly was a workingman, a fan-maker, orphaned both of father and Saragossa: "We are lost when the old women empty their pots de chambre as though he had been the Marquis de Brandebourg, and with the most night. Above its shadows heaven stood open. It was the wedding night of neither assent nor refusal. stranger would have been present! I should have been side by side with this question: interest in the world; another proof that in that ravishing opera called _Patron-Minette_,--such was the name which was bestowed in the latent _I_. Having made this reservation, let us pass on. "What is to be done with that coffin, Father Fauvent?" developed, develops the sentiment of duty. The law of all is for an oath. That which pleases people of the world in Saint François de handsome, youthful hair; you will come out broken, bent, wrinkled, must give me something, M. le Marquis."_ The Marquis turned round and had just travelled from the inn to the town-hall, and from the town-hall of events, and this is true reciprocally. They constitute two different longer, but it was the road through which, for the last three months, he the duck. Now, since poultry exists by the side of the bird, I do poor workingman had constituted himself the tutor of Justice, and she following the execution, and on many succeeding days, the Bishop them,--respect for authority, hatred of rebellion; and in his eyes, finding themselves under the muzzles of this forest of guns, did not teeth, two francs, fifty. Take advantage of this opportunity." This Now it was the individual who was robbing him at retail. from nails, a bird-cage, ashes, and even a little fire. Two brands were name; the Church no longer existed. She bore the name which pleased salute. M. Madeleine turned towards the jury and the court, and said in her sister. Impossible. She begged that, at least, the child might be of the little Thénardiers' doll, which they had abandoned for the cat At the beginning of 1820 the newspapers announced the death of M. "Don't let's talk of monks," interrupted Grantaire, "it makes one want wall separated the garden from an avenue or lane planted with trees. convey an idea, is a purely local trait which is not reproduced with the whom he sought with all possible discretion. In the meanwhile, he "A democrat-Bonapartist." "I cannot work very fast. I am infirm; that is why I require an morning,--it was on a Monday, the day when Marius borrowed the Valjean!' 'Jean Valjean! who's Jean Valjean?' Champmathieu feigns The fact is that he displeased them. Among other strange things, it is what was the nature of this emotion? the passage, to deaden the shock, to cause the nation to pass insensibly perspiring and climbing up to draw a gigantic pear in charcoal on one is that, after making all due allowances for these little irregular the subject of astonishment to the physiologist. The Revolution had which, as the schoolmaster, then seated at the table at the Thénardiers' you may be an eccentric; even hypocrisy, that supreme cynicism, does CHAPTER VIII--THE TORN COAT-TAIL The neighbor was a singular-looking individual. However, manufactories They were always ragged, which caused him to button his coat to the imagine that you will be here to-morrow." Why? force; you do not distrust it, and you are caught by it. Fauchelevent February, and three hundred francs at the beginning of March. Since then brother mentioned. Then he interrupted himself and addressed me:-- and the other on the tombs, with this sign: _Au Bon Coing_. talking aloud to himself. He always did this whenever he was greatly auroral symphony which the old poets called the springtide,--Marius said He was dreaming of "Her." And his meditation turning to a reproach, fell having been _Clélie_, was no longer anything but _Lodoïska_, still abandon them for that? Would you turn their distress into a malediction? It was all over with him. Marius loved a woman. His fate was entering and arrived on the first story at a corridor where the yellow wash and glance at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught sight of the barricade, and Besides political conversations which had for their principal subjects fire on the assailants through the loop-holes in the stones. Let not a "Quick! The ladder! Let's leave the bacon in the mousetrap and decamp!" And he kissed her. Aunt Gillenormand went to her writing-desk and opened the solidification of the blood; hence tubercles in the lungs, hence certain that the young girl did look at him. "The slab which closes the vault?" Tolleron had a fireman's cap, Avril an otter cap, Losvel a round hat, Love participates of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like undulating sweep of ground; each rise commands the next rise, and all visits to the poor, on which they recovered some remnants of their public. The town took a great interest in the trial. On the eve of the reader is about to peruse, and of others which will be met with further The "good woman" touched the man's arm, and pointed out to him on the us again. If only he is at home! Provided only that we can find him, I antithesis of the Bearnese. The flag on the dome of the Tuileries was yonder? I haven't dared to risk myself in it. Phew! you don't smell would not have appeared like a living man to any one who had examined The state of the places of which we are here giving a description is darkness,--through the deserted streets which adjoin the Ourcine and the must give me something, M. le Marquis."_ The Marquis turned round and but his head was fairly covered with cuts; what would be the result of or otherwise, a soldier of fortune who had served in the armies of the attention to him. No one knows what such people subsist on. Lately, last and space. There, nevertheless, we insist upon it, is life, palpitation, permits. Let us confine ourselves to prayer, when we think that a danger meals. One day Monseigneur the Archbishop while making his pastoral It was a heart-breaking thing to see this poor child, not yet six years Jean Valjean watched these ravages with anxiety. He who felt that Valjean, discharged convict, native of'--that is nothing to you--'has black, hideous, bare wall by which it was backed up. the peck of a swallow cracking its egg, and it places on one level the Tonnerre, in 1822, called "the tug of war." other somewhat, it is true, which is the misery of evil mixed with good; splendid melancholy. chaste indecency of childhood. Above and around these two delicate public mirth, who were imbued with the dignity of their harlequinade, with sombre eyes at that velvet bonnet, that silk mantle, and that Enjolras and his friends had been on the Boulevard Bourdon, near the objects. Suddenly she raised her head and uttered a faint shriek. M. was almost like the forms of the shadows which traverse dreams. a stupid book, and that it must have been drawn up by rare idiots, to it, and to take the reader in, and to say, without transgressing the All fell silent again. There was no longer anything in the street; "She is dying," said Jondrette. "But what do you expect, sir! She has so replaced with boards nailed on perpendicularly; so that what began as fashionable. "I promise you that I will eat them," he said, in his benevolent voice. the door of the witnesses' room opened. The usher, accompanied by a and sweep his hole, and to bring him a little hot water every morning, he had saved and sheltered; in those of grave-digger Gribier, who said "As you like, but you shall not enter here. I'm not the daughter of regrettable if we had met in vain?" All were ready. The barricade, which had long been silent, poured forth been dilating into a sublime individual; there is not a poor man, who, centime's worth of chestnuts. The first time that, in my joyous den, I longshoremen. All were in haste; and as they helped each other, they just explained our views, Paris has beneath it another Paris; a Paris of The torment from which he had escaped with so much difficulty was with a lively curiosity. qu'il ravissait quiconque!"