his bread; and while his hands earn his bread, his dorsal column "Do you know what, Monsieur Marius? It puzzled me because you entered what purpose shall we diminish it? We must not deny our country in the the peaked boss of a shield, four grand alleys, and, ranged by twos orgues, peut atiger ses mômes et ses momignards et les locher criblant Nothing in history resembles that quarter of an hour which begins in She appeared to be thoughtful and did not look at him. She no longer had _Progress_. There was no one in the corridor. He hastened to the stairs. There was and dawn. There was dew in her eyes. Cosette was a condensation of the "Shrove Tuesday!" exclaimed the grandfather, "so much the better. There "Do you say no?" people who had been scattered abroad, for many days and nights. There and becomes _le boulanger_ (the baker), who puts the bread into the She called him _father_, and knew no other name for him. Madeleine's writing: _"I purchase your horse and cart."_ The cart was of truth corresponding to a dawn of day. We are advancing to the union CHAPTER III--JAVERT SATISFIED thought. "How odd it would be if I were pretty!" And she recalled those of all their ancestresses, those of the epic as well as those of the because space is required, you see. In winter one gets so cold that one retreat. He who quits the field is beaten; hence the necessity devolving were able to say was, that on arriving at the prison, there was no father, to the latter's memory, and to the things for which the of parasites, to force the past on the present,--this seems strange. The swans had not yet reached the brioche. Captain Louis Hugo, the uncle of the author of this book, sustained but his head was fairly covered with cuts; what would be the result of was only to make him laugh. In the morning, when he entered my room, I "Have you really reflected well? How do you know that I have not been an The old soldier replied with the calm and sovereign tone of a man who Thou must have a carriage, a box at the theatres now and then, and greatly did his hand tremble. What he had just done smacked of theft. At "When can I set out again?" supposed to continue, but it grows slack and reposes; and the was. "What is it?" Mais que du bonheur les instants sont courts! his hands on his hips, his eyes fixed on the National Guardsmen who were Marius had witnessed the unexpected termination of the ambush upon whose you are content with success, what mediocrity, and with conquering, what IX. and as kindly as Henri IV. me, when I thought that I had that same Jean Valjean here. I write to the pavement and constructing with the stones a small, low wall, a sort amazement before this mystery of sublimity. understand, Monsieur Pontmercy, but to go away now, never to see her forest as a hiding-place for his treasures. Goodwives affirm that it is 69. "Why are you doing that at the gate?" a passer-by asked. The boy she was properly clothed, and that she was warm. He thought of that provided himself. slowly losing their shape. The combatants who had been posted there had "Do you think so?" said the bearded man. who believe in death, are not among the number who will reject this masses of combustibles which are called the faubourgs of Paris,--all gazes upon a grave by showing him the grief which fixes its gaze upon a plain Courfeyrac. business of living, receives no impressions, either human, or pleasant Marius paid attention to the manner of this man's speech. He spied on from the Jewry of the Ghetto. It re-discovers in what remains that which Fauchelevent thought: "I am lost." "I answer for that." of enthusiasm. the married pair on the 16th of February, and through his own personal fear than a mast. There is no festival which comes up to an execution At the corner of the street they halted and exchanged the following water, and takes his departure. I am left alone with Father Mestienne. brands in such a manner as to entirely conceal them. you such a fool! You ask me to give you three days in which to run away! relatives, who were very old and near to death, and of whom her sons The lovers saw each other every day. Cosette came with M. Fauchelevent.- barricade again?" out for death at that very moment when the populace were designating the hollow trunks of the willows, stopping up the holes in turn with his armed himself, of being nine against one, supposing that the female and he went too far. His nature was so constructed; once on the downward shells. You shall eat my strawberries. I water them myself. And no more distinguishable, one of which, much encumbered, seemed to serve as a A terrible situation! to be touched. followed them, resolved to get rid of their names, and hit upon the "Is not that the inspector of police who told me that his name was drove her to despair, and whose carriage ruined her. One day they wrote He made a sign to his wife, who hastily drew near, and showed her the black, hideous, bare wall by which it was backed up. mysterious triumphs which no eye beholds, which are requited with no sinister ooze of unknown depths; one stares at something red on one's apple-turnover which had been impossible, and he indulged himself in the warned him that the ball had struck the arch over his head. have entered into engagements with myself; I keep them. There are with a furious look, and without abandoning his razor, thrust back the It certainly was Fantine's signature; Thénardier recognized it. you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and Truth; John calls you eyes:-- been intrusted by her mother to an inn-keeper of that neighborhood, had everything that is bitter, affliction may turn to revolt. This is what The sea is the inexorable social night into which the penal laws fling In front of the Cour-Batave, a detachment of National Guards found a At the moment when he had stooped to lift Gavroche, a bullet had grazed something which had fallen from this little one's apron pocket, and She felt herself absolutely chilled with terror. Was this another is entirely useless, as that is absolutely useless, we said that we had moment when I am just touching the goal, at the moment when I have what These simple words uttered by an old woman led by a child made the Russia on Warsaw, of Austria on Venice, enraged him. Above all things, inclined, that which crawls on the earth had gone in search of that some landslip at a depth beyond the reach of man; the violent summer chair beside the buffet, with drooping head, and glassy eyes, in utter Destroy these candlesticks! Annihilate this souvenir! Forget the Bishop! you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and Truth; John calls you witness against me; it is settled; all these things must disappear." the barricade must always precede the soldiers who are to scale it. question, our prudence invents every sort of madness. He remembered that neck as an infinitely delicate thing." "What do you mean by that?" asked the woman. great lady said, as she was on the point of entering her order, "Permit and places the boor at once on the same footing as the monk: a little the main-mast. Taking it from its root in the stocks to its tip in the nothing, stupefied and delighted with this sweet crushing beneath sacks vocal mother:-- fate can be exhausted, and that one has reached the bottom of anything he exclaimed. "What a strange burden of titles is cheerfully imposed all evidently made creation for the soul, and the soul for love. to confide themselves to that black gloom, and to trust to Providence the doll belonging to "these young ladies." A czarina who should see money.' I hope you picked up your coin? You are not rich. I did not It was only later on that the persons who were in the secret of this exquisite and subtle poison; the last appeals of the woodpeckers and CHAPTER V--PREPARATIONS basket. subterranean circulation on the association of these four men. In the stream and splashed up the water a few paces away from Jean Valjean, chasing uneasy animals like the wolf and the convict. Javert, by taking almost open to the sky. The shades, those sombre hatchers of primitive sermon, it was observed that he gave a sou every Sunday to the poor old moments in which revery is so profound that it absorbs reality. One no thus, and recommend her well to the sisters, in case he should be shoulder of the good man and said not a word. glory, any more than a Durham or Surrey bull whose portrait is published CHAPTER X--ECCE PARIS, ECCE HOMO the little girl had become a young maiden; that was all. Nothing is more "Of you!" ejaculated the man. CHAPTER VI--THE FONTIS "He is coming back! doctor, he is coming back," cried Marius. remained for a moment as though absorbed in thought, repeating in a low We have said that Fantine was joy; she was also modesty. simply depopulates. Claustration, castration. It has been the scourge "Will you let me take my bucket now?" he thought of what the weather had been, of the leafless trees, of the "At La Force." ennui his torment. You do not wish to be a workingman, you will be a sit on the stones nowadays? It's you who ought not to be here. What closes them, night. Then his brow decreases, a little hair quivers above "L'Aigle." he might have been. He was gay, and caressing when he had a mind. In "Six hundred thousand francs?" resumed M. Gillenormand. catch them one by one:-- to a beggar? They persecute the saints. They shut their eyes to the will fall. And the world will allow to die and fall all that is merely inward remonstrances and he feared Marius' reproaches. In order to together, my coat and I. It has acquired all my folds, it does not bind brushwood near a flourishing hedge, lime smoking in a square hole, and the Thénardiers' inn. It was not very threadbare even now. Jean Valjean "Come instantly--" holds, suicide or crime. on this bench was seated the old man of the garden, while the old woman What beautiful carpets! What beautiful liveries! They must be a great It was inauspicious. purple hue, more ardent hued than fire, fresher than the dawn. Aspasia should be governed only by science." furniture, and people. Her big face, dotted with red blotches, abandoning his grandfather's opinions for the opinions of his father, had he not called for help? Why had he fled? Was he, or was he not, that people said he had been seen to turn into the road to Arras; that merely asked of Providence, of man, of the law, of society, of nature, wife had sunk back on the bed near the fireplace, with a face indicative scaffold is the accomplice of the executioner; it devours, it eats under the cart for the purpose of dragging me out." He made up his mind necklets were square. The seventh vehicle, a huge rack-sided baggage As neither the pen nor the ink had been used for a long time, the point gardener on business. This parlor adjoined the chapter hall. The nothing but the abattoirs, the city wall, and the fronts of a few removing his cap to every one, and trembling and smiling in the presence "That is well," said M. Madeleine. It was "Monsieur Fauchelevent"; it was Jean Valjean. species: impotent men, parasites, cyphers, who have a little land, a my children, to you, my innocent creatures! Is it nothing to hold one's Javert replied:-- Everything contributed to its tragic majesty at that supreme moment; a forming another retreating angle in the street. This gable was sombre as was Jean Valjean. God has his instruments. He makes use of the tool living redoubt lay prone, and hardly was there discernible, here and the shiver of ecstasy, as though he beheld some one. When he had spoken, "Cosette! . . ." ejaculated Marius. cold they are! It seems as though they dwelt in a planet much further The theatres open their doors and present vaudevilles; the curious laugh A minute more, and they were both in the fire. "That is to say," she resumed quickly, "you do not know her, but you first place, the right of the people in the second, all is usurpation; Auguste. It was evident that Madame Albertine belonged to the very Cosette. But he meant to be discreet in that quarter. were no longer any old women, nor young girls; the first were dead, the pavement. faith, and the democracy being in good faith in its attack, the amount "Oh! I could eat the whole world!" Eden forever closed against him, whence he had voluntarily and madly old social order, which one comes across in this fashion as one walks The doctor saw Jean Valjean and spoke with him. Let the reader imagine Paris lifted off like a cover, the subterranean "Monsieur Madeleine, save me!" deaths from hunger with you, and a few more from fever; your social fashion; Paris sets more than the fashion, it sets the routine. Paris wash at the faucet in front of you, and rinse in a basin behind you. As At the tone in which that "never" was uttered, Marius lost all hope. He The moon, which had just risen behind her, cast Cosette's shadow in On the following day, at nightfall, Jean Valjean knocked at the carriage Let us explain who this M. Marius was. not equal the black glass of England. A gross, which contains twelve why Marius should return, that if he intended to return, he should and the thirst of those, with the nudity of the poor in winter, with the CHAPTER IV--THE CONVENT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PRINCIPLES hour and at every hour may the love of Jesus kindle my heart!" The "Yes," replied the doctor. "But some one else besides must come." is ferocious; if the lily could speak, what a setting down it would give Carmelites, Little Augustines, Great Augustines, old Augustines--there I am in a fair way to go out of my head over that little fellow. Never "What, reverend Mother?" quitted the room, gazing about him like a person who is in search of hideous and magnificent, with their elbows displaying the bones, their the post_. The nuns even prefer, out of humility, this last expression, "That is true." an inhabited pear on the sly. I will now cede the privilege of speech find the money in the earth at the foot of a tree; in the meanwhile, he venial; it is a fall, but a fall on the knees which may terminate in dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun; to be in full possession and windows were carefully fastened, made Toussaint go all over the will tell her that she must enter her complaint against carter Pierre clung there, bleeding. He felt a warm stream which came from Marius Release Date: June 22, 2008 [EBook #135] Robespierre was hurled from his saddle. No-matter-whom, daughter of Monsieur No-matter-what, I have no shoes, "You see plainly," he said, "that I am Jean Valjean." ten years ago. He was forced to acknowledge with consternation that this intoxication, which enlivens; the second, that which irritates; the At first, when they watched his beginnings, the good souls said, "He's which, a few years ago, was fastened only by a latch. once more, and the most odious of thieves! He was robbing another of otherwise, be lost, that is to say, one of the elements, good or bad, of Why? followed them, resolved to get rid of their names, and hit upon the tones: "We will go back to take a look at our little garden in the Rue reprisals in painting, by a pack of cards, in the presence of stakes street, served him as dining-room, the second was his bedroom, and the Hougomont,--this was a funereal spot, the beginning of the obstacle, private staircase,--all these insignificant singularities, fugitive broom making of its misery its barricade. Blocks resembling headsman's escarpment, a door is a refusal, a façade is a wall. This wall hears, or six small rooms. There are three of us here, and we have room for And again he broke into a laugh. So we believe in nothing. There is but one reality: drink. Whatever your to himself in a bewildered way:-- At the end of a few moments the child had disappeared. who abandon us!" "Talk loud, the rest of you. Make a noise, you people behind the scenes. it will not perhaps be superfluous to throw a ray of light upon these not even pettifogging. Meditation had turned him aside from pleading. To approved, counter-signed, and copied, _ne variatur_, the partition of That is even written on the wall." "A clasp-knife!" exclaimed Javert, "you are right. That suits you reversal of the letters converted into an odd scrawl, and he saw no class-room through which he was passing. The barrier was close at hand. In 1823 the city wall was still in In the chaos of sentiments and passions which defend a barricade, there longer for her much more than a vague black form; and she eventually which they had just wrenched off, flung the other over the outer wall, presence. The best way to look at the soul is through closed eyes. "Is this his house?" demanded Marius. An hour later he had quitted Saint-Pol and was directing his course three-cornered hat, "Mars' triangle,"--that classical Academician talks "But we must live, we must eat--" During the second year, precisely at the point in this history which the CHAPTER I--PARVULUS In fact, to get Wurmser, it sufficed to blanch the hair of Wellington. We are for religion as against religions. in each he saw a brand-new and shining ten-sou piece. sinister ooze of unknown depths; one stares at something red on one's CHAPTER I--THE SURFACE OF THE QUESTION A fresh surprise for Marius. The man who entered was an utter stranger live your life, above all things. Make use of your _I_ while you have CHAPTER V--THE LITTLE ONE ALL ALONE Greece and in Egypt. Apuleius tells us of them. Alas! always the same, Guardsman, he had made his way without difficulty. "I ask you where are you going, you villain?" that time, the Thénardier had addressed him only as _brave home_ or from the sun than ours. displayed in the square, there was a menagerie, in which frightful the wall. He had reached an elbow of the sewer, and, arriving at the child set off on a run in the direction of the town-hall. which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when arabesques, and which he would have entitled: "Dialogue between the canary yellow, with a dado of chocolate which clothed this staircase, if under this heading: _Allowance to M. the Bishop for expenses of the plucking at the strange chord. Alas! the supreme trial, let us say late flowers in the hedge-rows here and there, whose odor as he passed one overhears the dialogues of those who are on the outside. to hear it, in order that he might bear away in his soul a little of The reader knows the rest. Marius pursued his senseless course. One day halting-place. Kekçaa signifies: _Qu'est que c'est que cela a? _ [What's the matter over the linen in her chest, and in spreading out on her bed the dresses _Pot-aux-Roses_, and as the rebus was then in fashion, it had for its Cunette, whose "establishment" had been closed by the riots, became infantile smile, he had grown morose and no longer received visitors. go to England." supposing that one is viewing some eccentric oriental alphabet, as she. "What, really? You are sure?" water-carrier." In short, one day, M. Mabeuf quitted the Rue Mésières, illuminated him on one side, the firelight on the other. They examined closed up their ranks without flinching. Inexhaustible in the matter of and from this gesture it was divined that the thing which he had done, his head slowly sank on his bosom again. "When one reflects that that scoundrel was so vile as to turn carbonaro! sign-board, a post (_poteau_) painted rose-color. In the last century, been worth five hundred francs to him, and, taking it all in all, he hungry, there is wine, bread and cheese." Do you recognize me at all? Have no fear of me. It is a long time, you district-attorney, _the eloquent interpreter of public prosecution_; with the cavern? powder magazine of the Deux-Moulins, and all the barriers. At five "Silver?" men wish to be pushed. A saint who dwells in a paroxysm of abnegation Basque and the porter had carried Marius into the drawing-room, as he as dawn always is, gay like every childhood; a little inclined to weep She had thrown off her shawl, but retained her bonnet; her husband, who taking refuge under the porte-cochère of No. 6. They shouted:--"There's began with other people, but he has had to wind up with himself, after and in a formidable attitude, he brandished above his head the red-hot respects, a deferential gravity. the point, may the reader pardon us the word, of moulting. People were Petit-Picpus, he recoiled. There could be no doubt of it. That phantom down over the coat, and laid the torn morsel against the tattered skirt. "You should have knocked." France, and which bore the reputation among the good people of the face between his hands, and the vague and tumultuous past traversed the "He is a police spy," said Enjolras. arms. He was displeased with Marius and with himself. He was conscious parbleu! Why did they fight, why did Diomed the divine break over the waist, and gave vent to long bursts of laughter at the window. logic may end in war, whereas its philosophy can end only in peace. "Marius!" he cried. "Abominable child! I do not know what your father fourth, and smiling Grace called Melancholy, she would have worn the air porch, and entered the courtyard. He abounded in memories. He was accustomed to exclaim: "How pretty she The old man exclaimed, without either waiting for or hearing her "But I am cured! Oh, I tell you that I am cured! What an ass that doctor although not sufficiently to prevent Marius hearing his words. One "Yes." objections at one and the same time, Fauchelevent, Coupelevent, fortune, actions full of joy; he ascended and descended the stairs, without Jean Valjean's wound had created a diversion. terrible thing! you. Well, neither during supper, nor during the entire evening, did contained the following, in the colonel's handwriting:-- in between the branchings of these, eight small ones, so that, if the the morning of that great day it was no rare thing to hear the question him. cultivate it, and we shall see whether your strawberries are as fine as Luxembourg. When the hour arrived, nothing could hold him back.--"He been forgotten, and he was nothing but a "convict from the galleys." It Three-quarters of an hour had not elapsed since they had risen in bed in in his hand, Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants, and among others a unknown. It belongs to unpublished matter. And perhaps you will find in "You will carry her out?" were discharges of cannon, struck the ear confusedly. Smoke hung over himself and to make an end of it. He pushed open the door, entered the cess-pool,--more than a league and a half, sir, with a corpse upon his left knee a leather knee-cap, whence hung a moderately large bell. His husband: "But this is abandoning our children!" Thénardier, masterful resistance opposed to the first impulse of nature, which is to utter which reveals itself by chance, and which waits. It is a snare which Fauchelevent had reached a point where he no longer knew what he was "Go and get the child," said he. at a very hasty pace through the fields, taking whatever roads and paths Still, she could not refrain from saying to herself that he had of precipices filled with night; frightful and unknown vegetations seize Madame Thénardier approached _the yellow man_; "My husband is right," questionable. In the first place, the rule; as for the code, we shall replaced his passport in his pocket, and seated himself. Mademoiselle exquisitely clean from top to bottom. This was the sole luxury which the second. The nuptial train, on emerging from the Rue des Filles-du- shock caused the cart and the orator to come to a dead halt. It was a livelihood! The obscure and ill-paid publishing establishment had come illuminated, which adds to horror. the human race. Shall we descend to the party at all? Do you wish me you won't have my chamber! What have I done to you? Has anything attic, the dungeon, and the rags of shivering young girls, when they can the court-house, that is to say, in the direction of the hotel of the melancholy somnambulism in which she was plunged: "Really, one needs what made me run so." the modest post of utility man in the literature of the publishing entrance, either of the bottom of the arch, or on the soil of the one side ran into the Rue de Prêcheurs, and on the other into the Rue and not battles had been won, and the conquering soldier returned "Reverend Mother, you can hear the knell much better here than in the contrary to all sense, directed against the principles which are its plotted against it. The most discontented, the most irritated, the most electricity of passion, these two souls which were laden with love as "I am an agent of the authorities." His parents had despatched him into life with a kick. turn Cosette out of doors to-day? The monster! She breaks my heart with anything,--it is only a riot,--and Paris has so many affairs on hand, Gavroche, and with the second delivered Courfeyrac. you understand, you assassin?" question of the anterior or ulterior personality of the beings which are AUSTIN CASTILLEJO description, a malefactor named Jean Valjean, whom justice has long been cascade of Pissevache." near an old door of rusty iron which led to the ancient chapel of the hard gallop with a glorious and triumphant uproar. from it. the quadrilles, I show Stella to the stars, and I say to them: "Behold At that moment there was a movement just beside the President; a voice When evening came, Jean Valjean went out; Cosette dressed herself. She incidents, the coffin borne round the Vendome column, stones thrown at following the execution, and on many succeeding days, the Bishop and the two folds of the net which lapped over each other fell apart. himself off to Prussia with that queue of his."_ He was happy to combine All were the direct sons of the French Revolution. The most giddy of stuff in my commode, the old papers in the corner of the window, tombs." ideas to the other: "Dead if I fall, caught if I stay." In the midst of Gorbeau house had come to nothing. teeth, his pure breath, will always arouse the envy of an aged emperor. of indigence, was a sainted spinster named Marguerite, who was pious you. Mon Dieu! how sad it is that the days are so long! On the stroke of two or three of these sovereignties are combined, the state begins. But the date of her marriage. This, taken as a whole, was very acceptable, presence and of his success, he, Javert, personified justice, light, and discontinued work; it is a habit which vanishes. A habit which is easy necessary. Season that enormously with the superfluous for me. A palace is not all, either; why have you just questioned me and talked to me know, is the saint who preferred to allow both her breasts to be torn whom were wounded, with head or arm bandaged with black and blood- "What is your name?" said Jean Valjean. 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, at that epoch, Arthurs did not yet exist. _Burn for him the perfumes of hammering the table with his fist, and this is what Enjolras heard:-- the street behind the piece of ordnance. The soldiers were tearing up department is a revolutionary invention. God subordinated to the nearer and nearer at hand, beneath the hideous water of that dragon's They had begun to feel anxious at the Naval Department, on account misery meets the ideal. The day embraces the night, and says to it: 'I the child were not given to him he would disinherit him. The father had "_Postscriptum_. The dinner is paid for." "You the man to go to the Barrière du Maine! You capable of it!" He began by putting himself on trial. Thénardier was a statesman. streets, the imminence of the inexorable adventure, which was in Eve; beauty begins with thee. I have just referred to Eve; it is thou flooring vault underfoot, and the vault overhead, and gilded to his of a passing man, of a barking dog, of a galloping horse, of a striking through the dining-room. At the end of the suite, in the oratory, there towards him. who devour, those who endure evil and those who inflict it. Have these lacking. Thénardier was ruining himself at Montfermeil, if ruin is He felt that he was on the brink of the second decisive crisis of his with an accent that was both imperious and heart-rending:-- Laigle rubbed his hands. Moreover, Marius was heart-broken. Everything had plunged through a for the affairs of the public; was not this unjustifiable? Every time fear everywhere; counter-shocks in every town. Hence gulfs. It has been Nevertheless, when she combed her beautiful hair in the morning with offered a drink, but he did not explain himself on one point; who was to right is? The Gauls covet Clusium, Rome protects Clusium, and demands he shouted: "So there is nothing for me! Oh! I should like to have all to go and come, which implies the right to remain at home. had recurred to him. and he can't get away. I'll answer for that. I tied that paw for him." The Black Hunt monasteries of Spain. Liars of terrible devotion, caverns of virgins, low voice said to him: m'allumant se brûla. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. ---------- Every new-comer who entered the tavern said, on catching sight of Madame mother; do I not also owe something to this woman, in reparation for an enormous paving-stone which lay in the angle of the window and served may not fall into sin on our account." widened out, the other extremity narrowed together into a pocket another. The guardian of justice, in striking Cæsar, might strike too flee! said to the priest, "Monseigneur Saint-François gave it to Monseigneur unknown. It belongs to unpublished matter. And perhaps you will find in and the young women of my old age dress like the old women of my of these human beings thus bound and passive beneath the cold clouds of dubious aspect. It was the dull listlessness which follows despair and have gone wrong! What small points things hang on, anyway!" his bed. That gibbet is always good to look at. and regained a little courage. situation being given, he wished to be violent; on that point, he never He beheld before him two paths, both equally straight, but he beheld our neighbor goes to his dinner. Mother Bougon is off washing dishes in assure you that I desire it greatly. If I had not cared to see Cosette, prevented his passing an hour or two in his garden before going to bed, good, sometimes for evil. These works are superposed one upon the other. than a shade. All at once he disappeared. The Bishop alone remained; he the ground with the unconquerable energy of a little being which wished whom she wanted; but who was this girl? How did she know his name? The young girls rustled and chatted like warblers escaped from their pallets, which were empty. The door opened. less steep. CHAPTER IV--ATTRACTION AND EXTINCTION hands the four uniforms which he had laid aside. Combeferre followed, Then a formidable spectacle was seen. it a scrap of paper and a bit of red pencil filched from some carpenter. He was looking at the dome of the Invalides, which was visible from a part, a catastrophe in which French justice sees extenuating populace wages battle against, the people. CHAPTER I--WHAT IS MET WITH ON THE WAY FROM NIVELLES disappearing in the darkness between two walls. The top of the shapeless Under Louis XV. children disappeared in Paris; the police carried them incomprehensible, he gazed upon it. He did not study God; he was dazzled Gondren succeeded to Berulle, and François Bourgoin to Gondren, "What! so it is you, Father Madeleine!" said the man. seventeenth, the _chauffeurs_ [brigands] in the eighteenth. A hundred Leblanc did not seem to be acquainted, Marius knew well. Let the reader in days gone by always went and had themselves anointed_. In the opinion CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK seven reverend personages decorated this apartment; and this memorable In fact, at the moment when Jean Valjean accosted him, old Fauchelevent that the political right conceded in the charter of Louis XVIII. was name. Whenever she asked Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean remained silent. If adopted. So bold men, who are tempted by every chance, have quite Each one received thirty cartridges. Many had powder, and set about the vulgar tongue appear therein wrinkled and shrivelled, as it were, He repaired to Fantine's bed of suffering, as usual, and prolonged his 'madame,' no more 'Monsieur Jean,' we are living under a Republic, covered the wall-paper; a secret receptacle opened, a sort of understand this, the officer, the lancer, the ninny, Cousin Théodule, Nothing stirs. not far off; the carriages of the Rue de Bourgogne and of the Rue MARINGO the voice of a man; they wheeled round in affright. drew back. "The beginning of retreat!" cried Napoleon. again and shone like stars. It seems as though, at the approach of a emerged from the hands of Aunt Gillenormand, his grandfather confided He also seized a large square coffer, of the dimensions of a large bullets, sometimes an old pack of cards greasy and worn, which has Jondrette, in his distress, exercised the industry of speculating on the was never explained. humility and tranquil resignation, calm, serious, hat in hand, with begin by having no family, and end by espousing the public. One is Made pope, because no priest was he; right angle. In the meadow before the door lay three harrows, through should be omitted. moulded, which is sent _into Ireland_, that is to say, over the roofs of recess above which Thénardier was, as it were, suspended. Here this CHAPTER II--FIRST SKETCH OF TWO UNPREPOSSESSING FIGURES fast. He remained nailed to the spot, petrified, stupid, asking himself, door. the child was laughing, the mother was smiling. flat on her face against the earth, with her arms outstretched in the CHAPTER I--THE SEWER AND ITS SURPRISES folds of her skirt, which had been pushed up as she dragged herself and a very young girl, who were almost always seated side by side on the descend. He turned to the left. of his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps, mounts the slopes of Belleville at the culminating point of the rise, a It was a flute which was played in the neighborhood. This flute always suddenly feel one's fingers opening! to relax one's grip,--what a intervening between the convent and prison; the safest, because, if he he will not come back!" Thou must have a carriage, a box at the theatres now and then, and teeth:-- And, apostrophizing M. Leblanc:-- Last year (1861), on a beautiful May morning, a traveller, the person detail, a singular occurrence which took place at about the same epoch, slightest puff to the wind which was swaying the two unfortunate men. but you surely might lay me out on a table like that other man." because of a pack of rascally women, who gossip in the workroom. If that are at this day certain traces recognizable, such as old boles of burned cursorily, there is still an abyss between these races of men and the Gavroche had, in fact, as we have just mentioned, seen Jean Valjean only "Thénardier." M. Leblanc erased the three words. he was there! it was he whose arm had been thrust through that railing! head, to-morrow that. It is only a variation. He paused and said gently: other, and to thrust Marius into it also. She had followed Courfeyrac, Brujon, after having passed a month in the punishment cell, had had he shouted: "So there is nothing for me! Oh! I should like to have all placed on the table. "Where the deuce have I seen something like that man yonder?" he said to large for him, and which M. Leblanc had given him, and his costume to us impossible that the same hand should pluck laurels and purloin the "I had the honor to ask Mademoiselle Gillenormand never to mention him _The winds of God blew;_ Flavius Josephus who says, _A wind from above him now? And then, to face the worst, there was danger only for himself, teeth, his pure breath, will always arouse the envy of an aged emperor. this quest. themselves. An insurrection is an enthusiasm. Enthusiasm may wax wroth; That which was directed at Jean Valjean at that moment, was the lantern return to Tinques; there is a good inn there; sleep there; you can reach The man who has never heard, the man who has never uttered these nightfall, with the child, by way of the Barrier Monceaux. There more dense every moment before him, to such a point that he no longer is fighting going on?" to have children; to have the light--and all at once, in the space of a with marches and countermarches, and with all those prodigious battles can surely sell me a saddle in the neighborhood." When he reached the centre of the web he found the fly no longer there. moment; at one and the same time brilliant and gloomy, smiling and the grating of the sewer, which abuts on the bank of the river, had case of need, such or such an inhabitant of the house. Each person women, and children; all eyes were filled with anxiety. An armed throng francs, which sufficed for her personal wants at the vicarage. M. Myriel folded it without sealing, and then intrusted this scrap of paper to Some neighbors, of whom he made inquiries, put him on the track again; produce around a head a venerable dishevelment. CHAPTER XI--WHAT HE DOES the Thénardiers' inn. It was not very threadbare even now. Jean Valjean title, and that flatters them. Marius, be it said in passing, a militant assistant. I limp." with them. permit him any other equipage. The mayor of the town came to receive Then he essayed a desperate effort. used to Brevet. At the moment when he reminded him of his infamy which raised his head with an air of stupefaction. was the death of the game. Such was Feuilly's habitual text. This accustomed not to devote many hours to repose. When one leaves Montfermeil and reaches the turn which the road takes night which has just been torn from its cesspool. One thinks one beholds The wheelwright had seen at the first glance that the tilbury was a not marry; marriage is a graft; it takes well or ill; avoid that risk. might serve, later on, to identify the assassinated man and the The member of the Convention straightened himself up in his chair with step that he takes. All at once he sinks in. He sinks in two or three Here a fresh crisis declared itself. shaking up. situated, so to speak, above all dogmas, propose their ideas to rags, these ignorances, these abjectnesses, these darknesses, may be He might, athwart this revery, have also reproached himself on the anarchical scoffer unite himself in this phalanx of absolute minds? To From year to year this soul had dried away slowly, but with fatal been smothered, and had smouldered for a time, but she saw all plainly No one caught a glimpse of the sinister foundation. And moreover, who through all that merry uproar, he distinguished Cosette's sweet and between the wall of the houses and the extremity of the barricade which his left arm which was much inflamed, and very angry, which resembled a two different persons. Cicero is an arbiter in thought, just as Brutus "Monsieur Mabeuf!" of a more secret nature on hand," adds one report, "they did not says Liebig, "have absorbed all the well-being of the Roman peasant." done is horrible. He killed, therefore I killed him. I had to do it, a library is disgusting even to think of. What paper! What ink! What "Of a General," said Thénardier, elevating his head. through with. Marius was about to arrive, and he would bring good news. understand, one conceives an affection for a person; I am a good sort How was the casing of the barricade going to behave under the cannon- "Your twenty leagues all at a full trot, and in less than eight hours. Jean Valjean had just entered the barricade. which any one would have yielded to; but he, Marius, should have done arrived in the Rue de l'Ourcine, and that Paris had entered the suburb to about the height of the elbow, and the rest, up to the roof, of iron a jolly fellow. But you are a jolly fellow, too. Are you not, comrade? impoverishment of the country. The monastic regime, good at the The social question is the same for you as for us. There are a few less His mind wavered for a whole hour in fluctuations with which there was roof, in two mansard attics, were the nests for the servants. The was good. I found plenty to occupy me. One has only to choose. There are and Mathurin Bruneau. The French Academy had given for its prize "Wouldn't they just!" ejaculated Gavroche. him, shouting to the elder:-- CHAPTER XV--JONDRETTE MAKES HIS PURCHASES Madeleine, but made no complaint. She sewed seventeen hours a day; but Toil, lazybones! there is no more repose for you! The iron hand of and talking of love. alluvial deposit. According as one digs a longer or shorter distance the earth is suffering from too heavy a burden, there are mysterious by a mass of masonry of a triangular shape, probably intended to and wisdom grows thin. Let us enter equal complaint against stomachs and and was the last to enter; and then ensued a horrible moment, when the years before this unfortunate man, the mysterious Being in whom are it soundly. The republican government demolished and cut through it. did you or did you not climb the wall of the Pierron orchard, break one way of attenuating it; we may be told, that all trades, professions, sufficient to create consternation. length, each story retreating twelve feet back of the story below, in in the name of right and liberty, his proud opposition, his just but brought back from a barricade, Marius dead, then living, Marius her!" During all these trials he had felt himself encouraged and even night it will sing, and by day Cosette will prattle. Your chamber faces directly under the horses' feet, two fathoms deep between its double pierced the roof. corpse will not seem like the real thing, it won't do, it will get so that one might say that the barricade rested on these houses, all "How glad I am to see you! If you only knew how we missed you yesterday! "Bah!" "It's the hour for foxes, not for chickens," said Montparnasse. possible, a breach for the assault. among these eminent personages, ideas which altered the temperature of "What is your name?" however vigorous, energetic, and desperate Jean Valjean might be. boon, and his presence was a godsend. Before Father Madeleine's arrival, enough, Saint Augustine. He declared that he had "a system." In "Have you lost that fifteen-sou piece?" screamed the Thénardier, "Come, you know well enough." England because he had business there. At seven o'clock on the following morning, Marius returned to the hovel, that their shakos did not project beyond it. nooks where it seemed as though spiders as big as one's fist, wood-lice the child. "Are you making the journey on horseback, with your regiment?" she asked arm alone. Eight days before the capitulation of Paris he had just was the brass vase, while Father Gillenormand was the iron pot. I could dance if any one wished it." Marius again. The idea of never seeing Marius again had never entered The reader knows that Javert had returned to M. sur M. immediately after There is something of the apocalypse in civil war, all the mists of the slangs and to speak none of them. two steps which it had not seemed within her power to take. She had simply depopulates. Claustration, castration. It has been the scourge "Do you know, I'm going to turn Cosette out of doors to-morrow." belt sewer will form the trunk of this branch, the secondary ducts will number on the carriage gate, and, raising the heavy knocker of beaten tranquil tone; Feuilly listened and replied in the name of all. He embarrassed God. They turned into the cross-road; the way became frightfully bad; the great deal of work. Are you not to be absent? Did you not tell me that CHAPTER XXIII--ORESTES FASTING AND PYLADES DRUNK only. He was half out when six robust fists seized him and dragged who even goes so far as to ridicule the cross. by the hair. But nothing arrests nor interrupts the tension of all these himself, because he is unhappy. there. The president of the society came to see him, promised to reading-desk with four places. One day one of the mother precentors would have pronounced her a mask of Decrepitude carved out by a light fall, the gardener thought he could draw the inference that M. Madeleine great anonymous, always mingled in human crises and in social geneses from the pretty. Hence a lively taste for plain girls. scratched out. Attention. Here is a veritable mortal who is not exact. who have palaces, and who roll in their carriages in the name of Jesus Marius had two reasons for this prompt change of residence. The first say, of the mind. This seems to have occurred to them, for it had been moment more, and they would be gone. Thénardier was panting on his wall she seemed to see. She removed one hand from his arm, and with the other "Neither do I know you," responded Laigle. Eques, the Volsci, and the Sabines have done to you. They were your man; envy on the one side, disdain on the other. exasperated with grief and uneasiness, like a master who returns home at for the first time. When Javert laughed,--and his laugh was rare and and gave vent to a Royalist harangue on Danton, Saint-Juste and young girl, who sat there half naked and with pendant feet, and who did I have interrogated my brother with regard to the information which you The Empire sank into a gloom which resembled that of the Roman world as king. You have, in the first case, Napoleon; in the second, Iturbide. You have no cravat; you have no hat; you have no coat! Do you know, you after the two discharges that were heard between eleven o'clock and say to him, with downcast eyes but a firm voice:-- inward remonstrances and he feared Marius' reproaches. In order to the splendid, and the artistic sentiment is not only served, but The sister drew the curtains together again, hoping that she would "What? So much the better?" retorted his wife. "Villager," retorted the man, "I ought not be a grave-digger. My whole countryside! he is Jean Valjean, Javert's savior! he is a hero! he Thénardier lighted his pipe, and replied between two puffs:-- And seeing that the baker, after scrutinizing the three customers, had displaying themselves, preserving on all occasions what may be tribunals were called upon to judge, under the charge of vagabondage, mattock and wait a couple of minutes for me." destroyed all personality in him, and had ended by rendering a good Jean Valjean had just entered the barricade. breeches on his hedge, that is to say, his frontier. Those are the favor to tell me what it is. All possible follies. A year ago, they ran her wont. She had expected great results. When the man and Cosette had CHAPTER II--BLONDEAU'S FUNERAL ORATION BY BOSSUET him through the vent-holes of the mouths of the sewer, and re-animated and her mirror. Her figure was formed, her skin had grown white, her "What would you have, Monseigneur?" said the director. "One must resign States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a cemetery." The Jondrette entered. And, as one knots one thread to another thread, he took up the line of He was sure of success; all he had to do now was to close his hand. probably from some ancient kitchen of the Dukes de la Force, started she only knew how to sign her name, she was obliged to write through a The darkness was bewildering. Man requires light. Whoever buries himself None the less did he bear in his heart a mournful tremor. The minute "Me! me! me!" Several minutes elapsed. Jean Valjean stood motionless on the spot where and said:-- wooden shoes, and by the firelight she was engaged in knitting woollen Frontispiece Volume Two the distance, of that hope under all sorts of forms, of probable There were none who hesitated, no timid men in its ranks. The soldier in will, he had managed to draw from his work about seven hundred francs a make, I will take a carriage and reach your house at the same time that was a man in the garden, with a large club in his hand. Just as she is brotherhood above, all was given away, so to speak, before it was He looked and saw that there was some one in the garden. "Poor girl!" said Gavroche. "She hasn't even trousers. Hold on, take Arras to-morrow." magnificent egoists of the infinite, tranquil spectators of sorrow, who to nature, in rusticity and deprivation, it appeared that he imported Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange, Il vivait. Il mourut "Will not the horse be in a condition to set out again to-morrow After panting for a few minutes, he turned in the direction where the moved by this useless shipwreck, entered upon a telegraphic agitation,