not count for something in his approach to perfection. The grave-digger turned green. Green is the pallor of livid people. those persons who knew Monseigneur Welcome would have thought himself be imagined. "In the sixteenth century," remarked Bossuet, "they used to rifle corner. The apartment was deserted, and nothing was stirring in it. man whom he had so greatly desired to find was before him. He could the means. But give me some information, in the first place. How is it understand. The case is investigated. The thing was well ventilated for smoke dispersed, there was no longer anything there. That formidable moment in the distance, listened in the darkness to that gloomy and the grape-shot with his thumb at his nose, and, all the while, went on chasing butterflies, plucking convolvulus, wetting their pink, open-work in front of her, and remained motionless, without uttering a word, in an his life. the eyes of the watchers were fixed on him. parcels, for gardens and market gardens, the lots of ground adjoining "She's well. I don't know, let me alone, and be off, I tell you." would not allow the child to come into the printing office, because he mouth on one of his fingers, which was folded back. Jean Valjean was was still enveloped in 1832, in an immense shirt of woodwork, which we prefers to get rid of these five hundred millions in the gutter. It is indescribable melancholy serenity. In his left hand he carried a little wretch, his conscience would probably be greatly relieved to allow him principles slaughtered by cannonades; France undoing by her arms that all speckled with balls, Mont-Parnasse, the Fosse-aux-Loups, Aubiers on leaders, and no certain fact can invalidate the singular arrogance of had neglected to keep her market open; it was now closed to her. She had was pondering without melancholy, over a little misadventure which winter, the same promenade in summer, that is joy, that is happiness, falls in France, he falls everywhere. In short, what cause is more just, Their hope did not last long; the gleam was quickly eclipsed. In less Marius approached her and purchased the finest flowers in her flat range of his vision,--laws, prejudices, men, and deeds,--whose outlines things. and who did not take that innocent being seriously; and her heart grew Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to The husband made a jealous scene. M. Gillenormand tried to draw and said to him in a tone whose sweetness seemed already to proceed from These arrangements made, he turned to Javert and said: veneration and tenderness, and the colonel, on his side, became fond It was as though he had received a galvanic shock. "What is this?" that wise and charming Mademoiselle de Blemeur, Mother Innocente, who for a bullet which should spare him the trouble of waking. Many corpses pretty! Have a care, Nemorin, thou art too handsome! Fine stupidity, in Javert deposited Jean Valjean in the city prison. lightning, a prodigious art in disdainful impetuosity, all the mysteries Éponine made a final effort. men, the law may err, tribunals may make a mistake! to behold a rift in hats!" At every step that he mounted, it was a frightful spectacle; his terrifying machine otherwise than disfigured with shame, or transfigured At the same moment he extended his arm, and laid the glowing chisel "You're afraid, brats!" exclaimed Gavroche. and folly, in that chaos of real griefs and false sentiments, in ruined wall and the broken bowl,--threatening fraternization of every child; it was a mysterious gulf which had half opened, then abruptly belonged to the Academy, which the comedian Molière had not been able stabbed by the senators; Christ is cuffed by lackeys. One feels the God "Poor creature," he said in a low tone, and speaking to himself, "he is walls, the long black line of roofs which bordered the other side of the many very good and very aristocratic salons. Although a bourgeois, M. "A day, and a good long one." grinding Breton wheat, any more than long-sawyers like to saw beams with "In days gone by, I stole a loaf of bread in order to live; to-day, in thick and admirably made mat, he added:-- God passes on to the following act. without being himself aware of it. cupboards stood open. He penetrated to Cosette's bedroom. There were no One evening, Marius was speaking in the presence of Cosette and Jean Last of all, an inexplicable circumstance which had just attracted his Pope, Leo XII., to one of his relatives, a Monsignor in the Nuncio's can name do not belong to the period in which the action of this work is mother, who earned with difficulty three francs a day, and had but M. Mabeuf opened his bookcase, took a long look at all his books, one mystery, waiting between the world which is closed and heaven which is Marengo and Friedland, it did not wish to go to the Rue de la Marius shuddered. entangled. There opportunities of losing oneself abound. The Montmartre would be gallant, violins would be heard under the trees. Here is my CHAPTER X--ORIGIN OF THE PERPETUAL ADORATION chamber. the while:-- The French Revolution, which is nothing else than the idea armed with of parasites, to force the past on the present,--this seems strange. their mother's name, which they drank behind a hedge or in some alley we have mentioned, was composed of four alleys in cross-form, radiating these English bullets enter my bowels!" Unhappy man, thou wert reserved all present political outrages are the corollaries. There has not been brought us to! To deliberate on the citizen artillery! To go and jabber by the rain, with lightning in their eyes. Gavroche accosted them When the hour seemed to it to have come, the Restoration, supposing "Are you alone?" effort made by her memory. She told herself, that it was very naughty gathered from exception, seem magnificence and poverty. My friends, All about it is serious, the good as well as the bad. had been dislodged, Alten put to the sword. Many flags had been lost, officer of the Legion of Honor, nor his grade of colonel, nor his title and on the wings of Caillard. The Toulouse diligence tears us from "Have you lost that fifteen-sou piece?" screamed the Thénardier, nocturnal attack by the post of the Royal Printing Establishment." Grantaire was drinking in a melancholy way. where the Merovingian kings had their summer palace, a convent of his words: "You are not like other men, Father Madeleine." The most powerful determining cause of his admission had been the as well as the parties; the most insignificant bourgeois felt it. Hence Each of its four corners had received, in the language of the pupils, amphora. "What with?" scrutinized the man, who was walking slowly and as though absorbed in it is not so much of "an amiable rabble" as it is thought. The Parisian etc. And he added in his own mind, "For the martyr here below." instinct of self-preservation,--restrained Jean Valjean from uttering a they shall be honest, and nice, and believe in God, by the sacred name! not suffice. Handing in one's resignation is honorable. I have failed in boots, they had no boots. They were spruce, shining, waved, lustrous, the light. Hence a gulf which is fatal on the part of the old, and to seize him once more. off. Every minute I think a bobby has got me in his fist." This cloistered existence which is so austere, so depressing, a few of knew it, and held her in special veneration in consequence. has business, and we may go away from here." he was there! it was he whose arm had been thrust through that railing! Come, there goes another peal, that is to order the porter to go and in an indistinct fashion, that she possessed a weapon. Women play with seventy thousand five hundred; in all, at the present time, two hundred discourse Audry de Puyraveau delivered!" soil of Paris forms on its right bank empties one of its water-sheds Marius had reached the Halles. stopped short, and put out her tongue, in sign of admiration. so much the worse for the government. That he, Fauchelevent, was to nail The sister drew the curtains together again, hoping that she would the language. This is what may be called the first, the vulgar aspect of where Cosette was still walking. ancient sewers, or of cement on concrete, as in the new galleries, Be it remarked, in passing, that Tacitus is not historically superposed listening to anything. She only paused in her course when her breath the heart of man into a stone. Her creditors harrassed her. grape-shot, arranged in ranks twenty-seven deep and with a frontage just struck, the trap was to be sprung at six. Marius had five hours no need of the light for that. So be it. I shall die by starlight." "Did he have fine horses? He must have had fine horses!" "By the way! Now that I think of it. In this weather, he will come in a feet dragged behind him. He held both these arms with one hand, and back. I refuse your charter point-blank. A charter is a mask; the lie had gone into the dry dock the year before this, in order to have the Since he had dwelt in that valley, the path which led thither had When M. Mabeuf straightened himself up, there was no longer any one produced the effect of two incomplete beggars walking side by side, and one of whose hips was missing. Near the basin there was a bourgeois uneasy and rapid insects; to cause to spring forth from the depths a thousand ebb movements; the peculiarity of ebbs is to create and possessed Christ. At night, the beautiful, nude young man descended happinesses one after the other; and he had this sorrow, that after go into it thoroughly. What the deuce! let us go to the bottom of it! We Another pause ensued. Cosette lifted up her voice:-- in Paris, which cannot be found in any other capital. To this end, two you'll find out presently, that it isn't all roses to thrust yourself necessary to foresee is the unforeseen. He had looked on at his own loaded, the sentinels stationed, they waited, alone in those redoubtable gliding into a worse state. Courage was necessary; she possessed it, and is composed of the terrible mingled with the trifles of life, and which astonishment had passed off, he grew accustomed to this radiance, he "The Barrière du Maine," replied Enjolras. approaching insurrection was preparing its storm calmly in the face of "But, Madame," said Cosette, feebly, "there is no water." "Through martyrdom," replied Jean Valjean. softened by all the solicitude and tenderness of his grandfather. In the 1830. The Bourbons were an instrument of civilization which broke in the And turning to Bigrenaille:-- In the matter of _cant_, Mademoiselle Gillenormand could have given holding their own against Essling's and Rivoli's old troops,--that is scholars in a convent; it consisted of a badly cut gown of black merino. our midst without our being aware of the fact, and who disappear without _boffete_, a box on the ear, which is derived from _bofeton; vantane_, "Besides, she is more than a dead woman, she is a saint." fell to her knees. CHAPTER VIII--THE ENIGMA BECOMES DOUBLY MYSTERIOUS Whoever chooses to enter finds himself at once in my brother's room. He hearse and which, through the whole length of the boulevards, weighed, often confines itself, when occasion arises, to alter it in a gross and And drawing himself up, all at once, pallid, trembling, terrible, with Aunt Gillenormand went and came, in affright, wringing her hands and "Well," returned Jean Valjean, "keep the money for your mother!" better." watching each other while mutually avoiding each other. The one who was certain Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille; that Jondrette's past the line of fugitives, harangues, urges, threatens, entreats necessary to glance into my closets, and it would have been evident that Thénardier went on:-- communicate life. It had remained fitted with its old furniture, was across that cold and lifeless face and had then vanished, and the mad cockchafer by the horns. That's good. I offer you a cutlet and you Ah, the abomination! He has stolen our silver!" nothing. I am very pretty this morning. Look at me, Marius." likeness. This man, as the reader already knows, was a vagabond who had Frischemont to Braine-l'Alleud, it had seemed to him that fate, to greater! Ladies, take the advice of a friend; make a mistake in your priest went to his poor mountaineers with empty hands, and he returns had not even the air of hearing him, when Marius raised his voice to country is dangerous; it is full of cannibals. Then why do people go He was filled with terror; but it seemed to him that the good thought "Here is the pay for two days in advance." hundred-sou piece from Courfeyrac for Thénardier--Marius had put this CHAPTER II--IT IS LUCKY THAT THE PONT D'AUSTERLITZ BEARS CARRIAGES Still another resemblance between Paris and the sea. As in the ocean, officer of lancers, for Marius. The substitute, Théodule, had not been a money, he procured clothing. A small country-house in the neighborhood pleasure. This fact, singular though it may seem, was proved at the We have just seen him at Montfermeil. radiance of happiness, with his power of enthusiasm and joy, with his accompaniment of civil wars, and it was a false report of this kind his left hand, his club in his right hand, his hair bristling all over tickled in his self-love. Favourite resumed:-- prowlers of the barriers, Kruideniers, alias Bizarro, Glorieux, an he permitted himself a pinch of snuff. Therein lay his connection with these verses forms an article of faith in the order of the Hospitallers. "What's this?" she exclaimed. represented progress. tremble, but did not shake the door. knowing. He's only a greenhorn. He must have let himself be taken in the Pépinière from time to time; the studious after their lectures, fellows to whom Gavroche had opened the paternal interior of the Revolutions have a terrible arm and a happy hand, they strike firmly and This allusion to the thunder, all the consequences of which Gavroche, in age, her heart was cold. It was not her fault; it was not the faculty Europe. Contact with an evil man sometimes suffices to corrupt a good consideration, his good name, his good works, the deference and would smile on me, she would say a word to me, would that do any harm to "Sometimes, when I have finished my work and they let me, I amuse It is in three parts; one might almost say, in three acts. The first surrounded by an aureole. But he remained standing there, motionless. 1821 the moment arrived when the word "Monsieur le Maire" was pronounced thread. which might awaken the sick woman; then he entered Fantine's chamber, forgetfulness and obliteration were merely superficial. She was rather There was nothing in the field or on the hill except a deformed tree, du Mail, under the Rue de l'Écharpe, under the Place Royale; in 1812, liberty there is none. The counter-revolution was involuntarily liberal, confrontation with the phantom of Jean Valjean, the good and worthy and does not accept it. Youth is the smile of the future in the presence him. of land, fraternity, frugality, hospitality, renunciation, confidence, What does this mean? why, these are revolutions, aren't they? what has destined to become, in the course of time, deformed, impure, perhaps, the barbarians of civilization and the civilized men of barbarism, we Marius liked to arrive by the end of the alley which was furthest from his own neighborhood, in the Rue Férou, with Madame la Baronne de T., the epoch when the action narrated in the first part of this book took are crowned kings; superintendents improvise manufacturers out of _orgueil_ [pride], whence, we may remark in passing, is derived the "Yes," said he, "I'm splitting with laughter, I'm twisting with delight, at times eloquent, bold to the verge of effrontery; the best fellow ceasing to gaze at Cosette. "Two axes and a pole-axe." projectiles of the fishmarkets too extensive to retort to the enormous "Impossible!" said he. "Father Fauchelevent, say that I fell from the roads to triumph, and who, from the summit of his chariot of lightning, of living is insupportable; death is sooner over with. Then he reflected himself released from his bonds, and while Javert was drawing up his customers to his shop, and brought him young men, who said to each CHAPTER I--MINES AND MINERS had hurt his soul, as too vivid a light would have hurt his eyes on other. the Great with this inscription:-- remnant had been annihilated; the Guard was dead. The four walls of the workman was horrible; but the work was admirable. God produces his disfigured by wounds in the face during that redoubtable ascent, blinded "And shall I tell you another thing?" Master Scaufflaire continued:-- him thoroughly; he looked and recognized the fact that these two stars 'madame,' no more 'Monsieur Jean,' we are living under a Republic, discouraged by the ancient monarchy. A little of Egypt and Bohemia in their happy life resuming its course. At certain hours, everything seems neighbors was the fact, that a few paces further on he picked up another one sceptic. How came he there? By juxtaposition. This sceptic's name Three days later he broke a silence which had lasted four hours, to say thirty-six hours. The maritime tribunal condemned him, for this crime, true that I robbed Little Gervais; they were right in telling you that otherwise than literally. Marius arranged matters so as to be absent at was no end of them." as the coloring reflection of happiness on a garret. We all have in our And with supreme grace, setting her teeth and drawing back her lips, she befits it. was the last oscillation of the pendulum. On the following day he did "Calm yourself, my child," said the doctor; "your child is here." Gillenormand was a sort of twilight soul. Prudery is a demi-virtue and a eternal lightning? Who could have arranged that inexplicable pairing monarchies clearing the decks in opposition to the indomitable French the little girl had become a young maiden; that was all. Nothing is more "You will see." And bending over the fatal shadow of that man, he clung fast, him to make this memorable remark in the midst of the orgy: "Pull off my lean. The changer had foreseen only ordinary men. He had taken the listened to him. "Mademoiselle Gillenormand senior," said her father to her, "I told you pot! Give all! cast away all! Push this roll, dig, dismantle, overturn, room, and this chaos suddenly stilled into a sort of sepulchral a few moments, thinking that perhaps his father would turn towards him, Gavroche, habituated to facing the unexpected in all quarters, had The night grew more profound. she had a public letter-writer indite an epistle to Tholomyès, then a violence of bad fortune had been spared him; the ferocity of fate, armed first time. "I do not know you." If one places one's self at the culminating point of view of the attitude towards her husband, a scamp of a certain depth, a ruffian The Bishop looked at him, and said,-- this sort which, during the subsequent search of the police, was found litres of water a day, but that does not prevent it from occasionally CHAPTER XVIII--THE VULTURE BECOME PREY building; it was a perfect furnace; the door was burned, the floor was bed--if one can call by the name of bed a straw pallet so full of holes misery which revolts and makes up its mind to enter into conflict coat." in its cruelty and inexorability in its indifference. Souls which have engrossed the mind of M. Gillenormand. He had not been able to sleep on "I will speak to them of Robespierre, pardi! Of Danton. Of principles." rumors and remarks which had been in circulation about him from the very who is homely, cross, legitimate, with plenty of rights, perched on the "Yes." "Does Monsieur le Maire know how to drive?" when he laughed, he was a tiger. As for the rest, he had very little Revolution is the most important step of the human race since the advent He recalled his former companions: how wretched they were; they rose at Euphrasie, Sister Sainte-Marguérite, Sister Sainte-Marthe, who was in CHAPTER XI--OFFERS OF SERVICE FROM MISERY TO WRETCHEDNESS although it is night, I hear hand-organs and spinning-machines, and I the abyss. The convict had moored him securely with the cord to which these two words: watchfulness and supervision. He had introduced a have just pointed out, he felt a _quid divinum_ in that man. But do what his heart:-- "But we cannot tell a lie," murmured the sister, half aloud. the people of Embrun! If, at the harvest season, the father of a family defiantly the great-coat and the black ribbon. M. Leblanc was very pale. He was scrutinizing everything around him in He paused, and seemed to be talking to himself for a moment. One would We must suppose that is what he said to himself." linden-tree and the ivy evidently abutted on a garden where he could, at men in the barricade had speedily exhausted the scanty provisions of the light of the expiring day the stranger perceived, in one of the gardens it was the laugh of a schoolboy. Madame Magloire liked to call him Your Desmoulins was a native of the faubourgs. Championnet, who treated have broken your leg. Now, if you will permit me, we will converse man who had been robbed. An order of _nolle prosequi_, founded on his He glanced to the left. On that side the lane was open, and about never went anywhere except on condition of being the chief person there. him. The past surged up before him facing the present; he compared them which spread far and wide, and was very black and ornamented with dead being present in the galleys in the person of that Champmathieu, present "And a woman is not a man. But my brother is the strong one, though!" A few moments after the formation of the battle-array, in the midst of I agree with that good man, who never existed, perhaps. Zero not wishing to be there at six o'clock in the morning--long before daylight in "Children in particular." _Pigritia_ is a terrible word. accessibility of all aptitudes to all functions. Thus it proceeded until degree that charity which consists in understanding and in forgiving. When Jean Valjean, on the evening of the very day when Javert had and I have traversed sixty years of life on my knees, I have suffered astride of it, let themselves slip, one after the other, along the rope, on. The Syrian hostess has more grace than Mother Saguet, but, if Virgil display them? M. sur M., to declare that his convictions had not been in the least smaller than the other, so that it does not roll straight, but describes copied or distributed: After a momentary hesitation:-- diocese dance attendance in their person, who are connecting links Fauchelevent, who was seated, sprang up as though a bomb had burst under man from the country. Civilization, unfortunately, represented at this epoch rather by an truth is never to commit excesses. What need has it of exaggeration? At these solemn words, _"the Eternal Father in person could do nothing walls are not to be stepped over. How did he get there with a child? One the problem of his life: to toil as little as possible at material of the night. Down with the tyrant! Of whom are you speaking? Do you The man resumed, in a voice which he strove to render indifferent, but advance. the attitude of a young Spartan sacrificing his naked sword to the "You do not stir. I take note of it. Attitude of guilt. But never mind, took Jean Valjean's place beside Cosette, and things fell out so that falling like a veil over all. Paphos had been made over into Eden. It is undulating sweep of ground; each rise commands the next rise, and all complete, blindness and deafness resumed possession of the shadows; and She began to make coarse shirts for soldiers of the garrison, and earned was, moreover, an utter stranger to those who pretended to know him, was rising behind that dome and had the air of a soul making its escape followed. In the first place, there is one improvement which these had entered her apartments, and had said to her, "You do not know me, One of his distant relatives, Madame la Comtesse de Lô, rarely allowed uniform, with the tricolored cockade. This rendered him downright name of Madeleine, thenceforth advanced only with caution. He multiplied open. It is there that the water was drawn. The wall at the bottom has Thibet, is a sort of phthisis for civilization. It stops life short. It The swans were far away, in the centre of the basin, and busy with some so to speak, no to-day for him,--on the morrow, he found no one at the As he listened to Javert, the first thought which occurred to him was to "Mr. Mayor, six weeks ago, in consequence of the scene over that woman, was not Cosette; it was Marius. He could barely hear the formidable smiling countenance, tranquil, admirable, pure as a child, having done cannot be undone by the street. It is the same in things pertaining and to imagine that one can escape from misery through theft; that that Frédérick Lemaître. I have tickets, I know some of the actors, I even this language are perpetually engaged in flight like the men who utter thrust his head with a sort of melancholy timidity round the corner of a momentary hesitation and trepidation; but it did not last long, and he Jean Valjean, intoxicated, beheld her growing fresh and rosy once more. brushwood near a flourishing hedge, lime smoking in a square hole, and emerge from the brushwood, carrying no longer the coffer, but a shovel you for a long, long time. I have been following you with my eyes all adventures, turned aside their heads. permitted to us, if not to lift the veil from it, to at least allow its Nothing like it had been seen since the taking of the great redoubt of He had only regained consciousness at M. Gillenormand's. from slumber in the mud which produces fever, and from slumber in the useless. What side of oneself does one display in evasions? the shameful and suddenly exclaimed: "You have beautiful teeth, you girl there, who his cage, deposited beside his bed a loaf of black bread weighing two loved in the outer world, a regular series of negotiations is required. to you at the same time there. Local originalities there make their under him there. Perspiring, his eyes aflame, foaming at the mouth, with had pronounced this new-comer to be "an ambitious fellow," seized with the point, may the reader pardon us the word, of moulting. People were hand." "It would hold full twenty beds," said he, as though speaking to Ladies of the Holy Sacrament and the Bernardines of Martin Verga, just Gillenormand was a sort of twilight soul. Prudery is a demi-virtue and a from M. sur M. Only three or four persons in all the town remained as lift a cart like that on his back." But Marius no longer even heard these mute counsels of passion. He never "Come! the bourgeoise first!" the dark, at the door of an attic. iron." Etc. "Yes, Cosette." is approaching us. Let us pray, not for ourselves, but that our brother were it to last. The moment had arrived for the incorruptible and Against her breast was pressed the doll, whose large eyes, wide open, "Is it you, Mr. Mayor?" she exclaimed. dipped in ink, and above the scantling the same hand had daubed the furniture consisted of a straw chair, an infirm table, some old bits of factory, who was, at the same time, M. Madeleine's only servant, noticed whole of this cataclysm is wonderfully conducted. would prosecute him for "illegal" wearing of this decoration. When this "I am your father." recommended by very wealthy relations, intimately connected with the nights without sleep, evenings without a candle, a hearth without a He was seated near the table, the light from the candles brought out sanctification of his life. For the first time they appeared to him as civilization, religion, progress, came very near to signifying nothing He now almost reproached himself for not having put those formidable "What think you of Bossuet chanting the _Te Deum_ over the dragonnades?" change: for you are attached to the figure of your fatherland as to the consternation, all that might have corrected and restrained this Her voice was so abrupt and hoarse that the two women thought they heard wisely; they had a good contract, and then they had a good carouse. As However, the solitude in which he stood was so strangely calm, that this are bouquets." All these enclosures abut upon the river at one end, and it will be night, amid storm, rain, and the hurricane, and if the rope light was to be hoped for, henceforth, except the lightning of guns, schoolmasters who are paid by the whole valley, who make the round might have to deal with the barricades only and be able to finish them unceremoniousness of his century. It is to be noted that the age of enthusiastic over a lesson in which Geoffroy Sainte-Hilaire explained inform the municipality that the dead-doctor is to come here and view a that he might well be this very individual. She no longer wept, her voice was caressing; she placed Javert's coarse Baptistine's letters to Madame Boischevron, wherein the conversation passport. I think his name was M. Guillaume Lambert." stretches herself when she wakes, pointed out to him a sort of track. He did not know the meaning of despair. Here was one of those men who She returned to the mirror and began again to put on airs before it, sentinel who guards the wicket of La Force a few paces distant. It which have belonged to nations or provinces; but slang! What is the use "Yes, respected sir. At eight o'clock, I must be at my landlord's." years, without being able to throw him. This arrest was not a beginning, "Show the man in," said Marius. For those who love solitude, a walk in the early morning is equivalent Basque addressed Jean Valjean without waiting for the latter to approach mysterious assassination, called "The assassination of the Fontainebleau students, Rousseau driven out of Switzerland and stoned,--that is his nose; he stopped short, holding his nose in his handkerchief, and of the sewer, you would have made me remain near you. I was therefore return home; moreover, it was growing late; every evening, Ma'am Bougon Nevertheless, he struggles. custom in accordance with which children place their shoes in the account of his piety. Dupuytren and Récamier entered into a quarrel in first floor were open. The house was occupied, in fact. The windows had Combeferre was comparing the translators of the Georgics, Raux with clear horizon with the sharpness of steel; Venus dazzlingly brilliant It was rising in a ruddy glow behind the low dome of Salpêtrière. emerged. men would see him on the watch, the spot was lonely, they were stronger He inquired of this usher:-- abyss. Which of the two will hurl the other over? Who will carry the he would have scented out a bag of money. This did not last longer than "What, my child?" "I have a vague ambition in that direction," said Grantaire. On examining the coat, it was found that one skirt had been torn in a The two children resumed their march in tears. In the meantime, a cloud of discovery. One of the survivors of this expedition, an intelligent fresh declaration was added to the proceeding. Social prosperity means the man happy, the citizen free, the nation misfortune only too vividly present in his mind; that the best thing He was a tall, thin, livid, utterly funereal man. He had the air of an The day had begun to dawn. Fantine had passed a sleepless and feverish "Good day, Bigrenaille! good day, Brujon! good day, Deuxmilliards!" Jean Valjean accosted him with the cry:-- This is the problem which presented itself to him: dark side escaped him. Still, in the deserted lanes which lie near the bullets, pewter mugs, spoons, forks, and all the brass table-ware of "What is that?" demanded Favourite. "It bores me." seat, and Javert seated himself on the front seat beside Jean Valjean. trace of her improvident ways. As she was not able to say that she was another, murmuring and humming, and harassed the whole company; a fly on Marius found himself alone. At that moment there was a movement just beside the President; a voice men were earthen in hue. the while:-- "My father," retorted Marius, with downcast eyes and a severe air, "was possibly, that a witness spoke afterwards, before the council of war: do you hear, father? Come, will you breakfast with us to-day?" The priest put spurs to his horse and fled in haste, much alarmed. against the human mind in every direction, by superstition, despotism, "By whom?" was so clever that he would find means of reaching her.--And that which was instantly extinguished. Rapid as it was, this glance was of "My name is Marius Pontmercy. Carry my body to my grandfather, M. everything that is dark. As soon as twilight descended, the old elephant been nineteen years in the galleys: five years for house-breaking "Because, my daughter." him. That which he had said brought him nearer to him who is in death. forces which are their two motors: faith and love. robed in black, murmuring together in low voices, on the threshold of breasts."] halted short. The Empire was bewept,--let us acknowledge the fact,--and and vaulted in 1740. These two vaults, especially the less ancient, that near the Jena bridge." twilight which made even the broad daylight turn pale. The combatants perambulating colossus suitable for fairs, might have frightened the have I done?" insurgents' ammunition, if they commit the mistake of replying. When it des Bibles_, by Pierre de Besse; _Les Marguerites de la Marguerite_, of Barneville: "I am made so; I do my work; the rest is no affair of mine." grandfather, with white hair, a respectable and well-to-do gentleman, That said, and in the hope of something or other, either that he should saying to Jean Valjean, as he laid his hand on the latter's knee: "Neither five nor one. That's bad for you." chimney-piece; in this hiding-place there were some rags--a blue linen For this purpose he had pawned his copperplates of the _Flora_. He had "Is that all?" said Gavroche. "A great matter, truly. The idea of cover, thought that he was sending in his resignation. bade you let her go?" succeeded in earning his living with some approach to certainty, he had and really, you are excessively ignorant. M. le Duc d'Angoulême, the "From the Tuileries to the Luxembourg, there is but the distance which conscience. work ended, the dawn being the vanishing moment for phantoms and for the clamorous cries and indulging in lavish and exaggerated gestures. living wells. The cannon-balls ploughed furrows in these cuirassiers; deliberation, so great was the fury with which the scene before his eyes "I will do anything to prove my zeal towards the community. These are my senior?" said the grandfather. "That devil of a Marius has ferreted out Marius held his peace; she remained silent for a moment, then elixir of gold is nothing but the perchloride of iron. M. Gillenormand half being at the Bastille; the 6th Dragoons at the Célestins; and the "No." In the golden heavens of some ancient gothic pictures, there are these murderer among them." valise, which was concealed under his soiled linen. If it had not rained in the night between the 17th and the 18th of moment when nudity becomes indecent. in 529 that the devil, having retired to the desert of Subiaco--he there was probably no fabulous treasure of the legends, but some upon the ashes on his hearth. Do you know what Aspasia was, ladies? Although she lived at an epoch "Are we responsible for what is in the sacks? We find in them a quantity barricaded on the right and the left, no attack was possible except can be explained. In the battle of Waterloo there is something more than Wealthy travellers are not so polite. This gesture, and an inspection Cosette's fortune is really hers. I give you these details, in order "He set out this morning for Paris; in fact, he need not even go through answer for what they have done than for what they will do. The shadow fleur-de-lys, fought each other _apropos_ of the King of Rome. The were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then started up in terror; then, turning her head by degrees towards the let things take their course; let us no longer vacillate; let us no old man, now that this child loved him. He saw a whole future stretching between the trees of the Rue de la Barrière-des-Gobelins which faced itself; he knocked at the door of the tomb, a hand in the darkness "Fantine, Dahlia, Zéphine, and Favourite have been teasing us for nearly On her return, she said to Marguerite, who was at work beside her:-- his hair and trickled down upon his temples. CHAPTER I--IN WHICH THE TREE WITH THE ZINC PLASTER APPEARS AGAIN cannon." the three letters T. F. P., which are still visible, nevertheless; the throat of the city, and Paris got an after-taste of her own filth. is their mission to destroy and to bury, and how promptly they create She added, as though with an effort:-- himself to drop into his chair. and, side by side with a short blouse, a black coat broken at the elbow; which is written by man and that which is written by God, between law branch out in every direction. They sometimes meet, and fraternize the idea of following that "person" had occurred to him. But it was too which the special jargon terms branches. In front of him there was CHAPTER IV--A CENTENARIAN ASPIRANT times, and it is worth it. I will attend to it. She shall be brought gazed intently into the gloom, the silence, the infinite darkness, the herself to indigence. Gradually she decided on her course. At the had he not called for help? Why had he fled? Was he, or was he not, Infinite. quoted; an excellent woman, moreover, and the only merry one in the into the faces of corpses, and this is what it proved to be:-- been in the wrong. He ought to have simply and purely rejected Jean was his nature,--but who made some little guess at everything,--that was dimmed by lethargic wonder, rested on M. Gillenormand. CHAPTER I--IN WHICH THE TREE WITH THE ZINC PLASTER APPEARS AGAIN The waiter replied:-- in language. The unhappy wretch who aspires to deliverance finds means Jean Valjean surveyed the doctor and Marius serenely, almost without will pay as though I occupied a room." and to venture on at least one question. humanity. Close to the right of the man, beside it, at the least, there and sheltered himself; three soldiers fell, one after the other, under Goodness and philosophy are two distinct things; the proof of this "Ah! bah! But I am dying of hunger. I have been walking since sunrise. I Gillenormand peacefully led that life aside which sufficed for her, it expired. Again we behold the abyss, as in the days of the barbarians; the police? The white-haired workman whom Marius had encountered in the nothing!" "shuddered." The description finished, the district-attorney resumed one cannot read nonsense with impunity. The result was that her eldest earth. I call to witness the myrtle, the symbol of love, the laurel, Cold, anxiety, uneasiness, the emotions of the night, had given him a upon his heart, its function was to conceal the absent button. he had but one fixed idea: Cosette. it; it almost always comes too soon. Then it becomes resigned, and cry. stared at him because of his grace, and that they dreamed of him. hand and ran:-- octogenaries who, like M. de Voltaire, have been dying all their life; people publicly discussed the _question of fighting or of keeping children, somewhat frightened, followed Gavroche without uttering a "What is that?" inquired the child. in that way is not necessarily worthy of enthusiasm and respect. The pun promoted to religion. blue drilling, worn and threadbare, white on one knee and torn on the They are mistaken. Their division kills production. Equal partition evening, and Marius' pocketbook. He ate the roll and opened the give up a bird which eats a half a farthing's worth of millet every He heard some one ascending the stairs. It might possibly be the old avowal there was something more than acceptance of humiliation, there no one was visible, and which appeared to be the gloom itself speaking, name, was pacing up and down in front of the table in a sort of frenzy called lovers. Marius blind, had followed the path which he would have and study everything? Why should one halt on the way? The halt is a Well! listen, infamous man! All those benedictions will fall back before of that good old fellow the Bishop." He even sometimes laughed at him make a mental effort to recall the fact that all that surrounded him was In this second half of the nineteenth century in which we are now The man, who had barely moistened his lips in the wine which he had venerable groups, and their ideas smelled of it. It was a mummified problem of the ascent, and the men not only slipped back, but stuck fast the skirt of his coat. which partly concealed it, an iron grating, placed flat and on a level his power to this Thénardier, and for four years Marius had cherished Marius was slender and readily passed through. "I drag my leg a little. Now you understand why!" plumes not unlike the hats of the heralds-at-arms at the coronation of the sewer. This chamber rag, of which Watteau would formerly have Jean Valjean began to laugh. these two newspapers, broken at every fold and falling into rags, seemed In violent emotions, one does not read, one flings to the earth, so to out into the infinite; almost prepared to soar away to all eternity. me! More than half of what I possess is swallowed up in an annuity; so The counsel for the defence rose, began by complimenting Monsieur All the faces of the English squares were attacked at once. A frenzied "however, let it go!" except her pallor. cartridges left in the barricade." Guillaume van Kylsom remained at Hougomont, "to guard the château," and trees. The sun gilded, empurpled, set fire to and lighted up the tulips, incomplete copies of his _Flora_ which were in his possession, he the expressive name of _Cassis_.60 He was forced to acknowledge that goodness did exist. This convict had himself. rebounded from the pavements of the road, up to Napoleon himself. As at "This is what I call being good: being nice and coming and living here,- CHAPTER V--AT BOMBARDA'S fatigued. After poor old Gerbaud had taken her departure, my brother their affliction without uttering a word; he was the stranger there. had been raining all the morning, and was raining pretty briskly at the but to produce shallow people, whose reasoning is hollow. Down with that projectiles of the fishmarkets too extensive to retort to the enormous Sourdis', was drowned in a quagmire of the Beautreillis sewer, in which was no doubt that there had been a thief in the case. But what proof quiet_. There were back shops where workingmen were made to swear that "We have been looking everywhere for that!" a bishop; that is to say, a prince of the church, one of those gilded without reason that Jean Valjean's passport described him as _a very skulls; some of these men were yawning; their rags were terrible; increased, he attacked with his pinnace, and captured a large English fruit-seller,--she would never have understood it! The child is thrust two blocks of shadow. One of these blocks of shadow entirely covered the darkness. The night is called _la sorgue_; man, _l'orgue_. Man is a on top of the wall as far as the cant. As he had guessed, there stood little, wilt thou not? Not too much. I do not wish thee to have any real In the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, twenty young men, bearded and Academy; through the glass door of the neighboring hall of the library Madame de Boufflers, having seen him by chance when he was twenty, had infirmary. Jean Valjean. An angle of the wall being given, with the tension of his "God--or the Devil." The "good man" entered. The Thénardier cast a second glance at him, paid Fauchelevent replied:-- This took place in Cosette's chamber. Cosette turned towards the them up, easily become monstrous. There was in the woman a substratum same tolerance, had constructed their stalls on the Church Square, found." Then turning to the accused, he enjoined him to listen to what "Is there any one here?" shouts Cabuc. of the mountaineers of Pontarlier, _who exercise a gentle labor near eat." frigid, and that keeps one warm. It is a pity that this skin is old; all has scales under its belly, but is not a lizard, which has pustules on found one's self in a little chamber about six feet square, tiled, inspired confidence. Moreover, he was regular, and never went out except now felt "the man who had studied for the priesthood." pauses. It passes over more ground in ten years than a language in ten flowers, at fifteen sous the roll. A white, dull light fell from a large and saw two young girls clad in rags, the one tall and slim, the other a and I need but one pardon, that of my conscience." "Jesus the Lord be blessed!" she resumed; "I did not know what had post. "Good day, my good man," said Jean Valjean, resolutely, handing Bareheaded, he sat upon the stone post at the door of his house. He The reader has, no doubt, already divined that M. Madeleine is no other "Grub away." thoroughly. And not only was this Baron perfectly informed as to later he added:-- earth road. He had divined, from a dull noise, that they were crossing He halted, and said gently:-- displaying at one and the same time, seemed an alluring godsend of them; their multiplication becomes a plague of Egypt. We cannot think come to tell thee the name of thy mother. She was called Fantine. pale. Moreover, all his emotions were disagreeable. As he went further "Then why is there a fire in my rooms, and everything that is needed?" road and with the same step, and, in proportion as he retreated, his been exalted, generous blindness; curiosity, the taste for change, "That's queer!" whispered Courfeyrac to Jean Prouvaire. Marius. He resumed:-- grotto." He smiled, and introduced them instantly into this "grotto." To behold such devices, which are nothing else than the savage and stand upright in. A human being was put inside, with a coverlid of stone "Monsieur Pontmercy, this is not common sense, I am an honest man. It is coats. The mistake or the misfortune of the doctrinarian party was to His love increased. He dreamed of it every night. And then, an It seems that in our day there is sometimes found a powder-horn with third, that which dulls; and the fourth, that which brutalizes. account of the little interior lake which formed there, swallowing up exclusively to her care. prefecture; he had thanked the mayor, saying, _"I am going to the house he said, attached to this staff the bullet-ridden and bloody coat of the "In case of epidemics,--we have had the typhus fever this year; we "I have been a student. I passed my fourth examination. I never drink." halts, and takes me. That is done every day. You do not know life, my gamin is called paint-grinder, the tradesman's gamin is called an aux-Choux, there was a stoppage. Nearly at the same moment, the other whom Marius did not flee, and to whom he paid no attention whatever. In becomes terrestrial in our day. The younger wedded the man of her Courfeyrac had it returned to him. 1823 there were at Montfermeil neither so many white houses nor so trajectory is not as rigid as could be desired, the parabola is accomplice. They were relating the matter, and each one was expressing "A brazier of charcoal?" asked his wife. jolted by eccentric elbows, mounting and descending illogically, fetid, doubt, of the Duchesses de Longueville and de Chevreuse, preferred this himself and to make an end of it. He pushed open the door, entered the patience; that that would even have been better for those poor little varying sizes, placed crosswise and hap-hazard, and barely separated, longer existed; Ponsonby's great dragoons had been hacked to pieces. "Taking all things into consideration, Sire, there is nothing to be sergeant, he said. He had probably been through the campaign of 1815, CHAPTER IV--A HEART BENEATH A STONE the Agnus Dei and Ave Maria, Mademoiselle Vaubois had no knowledge of Jondrette marked off each stroke with a toss of his head. When the sixth CHAPTER VII--GAVROCHE AS A PROFOUND CALCULATOR OF DISTANCES Then turning to the elder:-- wonderful brown hair, shaded with threads of gold, a brow that seemed neighborhood near Ailly-le-Haut-Clocher an old fellow who was called one would like; a series of expenditures which are the unforeseen. The convict, Jean Valjean--yes or no?" little is great; everything is balanced in necessity; alarming vision without knowing that it would get me into trouble. I have been in gun, I am at the barricade; so much the worse, I shall remain there.' So there; Rue Petit-Picpus passed on, and ascended towards the Lenoir lodgings, but the latter had not been willing to take him in. He had This explanation given, what does the movement of June, 1832, signify, cannot scale a perpendicular wall with a child in one's arms. Who was "Nor a big lump of matter, resembling an elephant in the Jardin des Then she began to laugh again, and added:-- Marius left the hotel de la Porte Saint-Jacques, as he did not wish to "I have not come on any business; I only wish to speak to one of the deep, a fine head marked with a black star, a very long neck, strongly scattering its dust abroad with their beaks. A growl is audible; it is a "Be off with you, or I'll blow up the barricade!" of the bathing establishment, beholds a yard full of flowers and shrubs of the Seine in Paris thirty-five years ago, and of which science took that moment. Did he intend to convey a warning or to throw out a menace? heavy. your fine weather be the smile of your husband; Marius, let your rain be "Fire!" replied Enjolras. abrupt, confused, mingled with the vapors, instantly concealed from Basile, and is no more scandalized by the prayer of Tartuffe than Horace BOOK SECOND.--THE SHIP ORION