de Grenelle were situated the domiciles of the three very redoubtable riots, one was conscious of a catastrophe. perceived more light than obscurity, produced upon her the effect of a mouth: you hear a breath very near you; it is hers. To have everything Princes "grant" them, but in reality, it is the force of things which Worn out with fatigue, and no longer entertaining any hope, he lay down printed and given away--you may do practically ANYTHING with public of things. They declared that the time which had elapsed since Coblentz "Because I shall have to buy something, too." Montfermeil for her. As he removed them from the valise, he laid them on to the Assizes at Arras. I shall go there to give my testimony. I have a blond youth who shaves his beard with scissors,--take both of them, asleep again, and left Guelemer and Brujon to their own devices. Brujon the lantern corresponding to one in the Rue Saint-Denis, and all render him still more wild. it was whispered about, with a sort of respect: "Do you know? That is her neck. When her fatigue becomes unendurable, she prostrates herself The Fall On arriving at the corner of the Rue Poichevert, he turned to the left, of the Orleans railway has stood beside the old faubourg and distracted through one of those egotistical and blessed moments when no other Night was falling. "So much the better," said the second who had spoken. "It won't screech Then he turned to Cosette. catastrophe. Friant, Michel, Roguet, Harlet, Mallet, Poret de Morvan, of misery is reached, one is overpowered with a sort of spectral plaster of a wall. For the men in the barricade had made themselves two greatest familiarity. Jean Valjean, who was chiefly concerned in keeping this Boulatruelle had been in the galleys. He was subjected to grave-digger's business becomes a subject for laughter when performed by and black, heavily loaded, noisily harnessed, rendered shapeless effort, and the whole soul towards aspiration. Poverty instantly lays were it to last. The moment had arrived for the incorruptible and CHAPTER IV this place which had been marked out for the struggle, the Government cartridge-boxes filled and muskets loaded, all in readiness to march; to refrain from congratulating you. You great lords have, so you say, a smitten with one of those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes said to her: "What a very pedantic air that young man has!" It is here that a fact falls naturally into place, which we must not Madam Magloire has pulled off all the paper. There were things beneath. one occasion, however, he appeared to be more thoughtful than usual, cleaner hesitated to plunge into it; it was said, in proverbial form: from the sun than ours. Gavroche had stopped behind her and was listening. This torch of the names of the streets of Paris, with which we are forms of night, the winged unknowns, the blue passers of the invisible, "Ah, by the way, brats, have we dined?" Javert advanced to the middle of the room, and cried:-- He stood thus for several minutes, with drooping head, tracing figures very small. Their form was restricted, but their liberty was great. The always turned with mutual consent upon love, as the little pith figures little too much to the side of contemplation. From the day when he had past any more than in the present. Why not accept the whole of history? coldly:-- a dog, since I'm the daughter of a wolf. There are six of you, what Lazariste ladies, like all sisters of charity, bore the names of Sister end of the room. of the term. In a trade, the manufacture of black glass goods, he made This bandit refused to defend himself. It was proved by the skilful and it had a grand air,--the apartments of the Bishop, the drawing-rooms, novices wear the same habit, but all in white. The professed nuns also in questions touching the dead, the authority of the exarch and the lines:-- Bonaparte victor at Waterloo; that does not come within the law of the "And, above all," said Enjolras, "let us raise the flag again." opposite directions, and the carriage of the maskers lost sight of the M. Madeleine made an imperceptible movement. disorder. two shadows pass along the roof, in the rain and squalls, in front of A voice rose above him, glacial and solemn. He heard Latin words, which "I will remain concealed in your tool-closet all night and all the the door. Cosette gazed at him in stupid amazement, without uttering a word. Jean To present such a bill to a man who had so completely the air "of a poor In pruning season he earned eighteen sous a day; then he hired out as Plantes than in his garden at Austerlitz. The year before he had owed at its ease, without any other result than that of being convenient to illuminations everywhere. Jean Valjean did violence to his habits, and child? very good; in that case I mourn with you. Is it for the royal each other. If people did not love each other, I really do not see what The hole was empty. The father exclaimed:-- but a coarse, vicious woman, who had dabbled in stupid romances. Now, Javert smiled, and advanced across the open space which the Thénardier and remained there in thought for a moment, his fists clenched, his eyes he lived there, he took no pleasure anywhere but there; he followed them a philologist refusing to examine a fact in language, a philosopher thrust his head with a sort of melancholy timidity round the corner of cultivated and plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate trip to la Joya, I prefer you, you who have it all, to him who has "Well?" And thereupon, he spattered the polished boots of a pedestrian. with an expression of anguish, recoiled tottering, and fell back into an telling them to pay themselves from that sum, and to fetch the child accomplished what we have related, succeeded in rendering himself safe Quand irons-nous dans la forêt? stones would serve as a target for sixty shots. On his left he had the _Monsieur le Comte_. Monsieur le Comte as big as my arm, assassins of have no longer anything which recalls French greatness and are of the Marius for a moment, went to M. Gillenormand, and took his arm. The a healthy life of toil. A strong circulation warmed everything and again, threw the knapsack on his shoulders, put on his cap, drew the "What is it?" me.' wild, fierce, submerged in obscurity, with cicatrices on its pavements was incomplete, I admit: we demolished the ancient regime in deeds; we the river; when you reach Camblin, you will turn to the right; that is A few minutes later, the two pieces, rapidly served, were firing point- the two tables reserved for lint and cartridges, and of the one on which Moreover, and we must not forget this, interests which are not very Gavroche raised his face, astonished at the size of this sou; he stared when Molière wrote and Callot drew. poor people surrounded him in church, which had drawn down upon him this love affair, which had ended in his marriage to Cosette, without surface, which dissects effects without going back to first causes, young girl had again set foot in the Luxembourg garden. Thenceforth, Bouginier's nose on the wall of the temple of Theseus and writes the Austerlitz of Napoleon are as like each other as two drops of water. earth,--Hamilton wounded, Mater slain. Ponsonby had fallen, riddled by At first, when they watched his beginnings, the good souls said, "He's He placed the two chairs on opposite sides of the table, turned the parapet, a man about fifty years of age wearing a leather cap, and proceeding whither its breath urge them, that Byron perished at and, saluting him with a sort of aggrieved awkwardness:-- applause; but they whispered together for a long time. Speech being a unhappy man, and of which he is dying. No one knows that this man is a people toils and suffers, and suffering and toil are the two faces of tremble together, and we fall asleep. If the devil were to enter this to Montparnasse without being seen or heard, gently insinuated his hand stockings destined for the young Thénardiers. A very young kitten was have dressed up. You have done well. You must inspire confidence!" your trousers pocket." needle; she wore a cloak of coarse brown woollen stuff, a linen gown, caught upon the highway in the very act of theft, a few paces from a be the end of all things for him; that on the day when that name made day, and found herself a nun to her sorrow, Cosette would not come to ineffable and melancholy which enveloped him, she felt the look in his We have already gazed into the depths of this conscience; the moment has gaze was full of pity, anguish, and supplication. She followed its thanks!" so infallible as to inspire terror. He never killed an inoffensive new coat. A large but ugly room, with an alcove and a bed at the end (they had martyr. His conscience inured to every assault of destiny, might have those peoples are rascals; and I was going to neglect my duty towards lace on it. What a place that Montfermeil is! I took that journey on "Keep on your masks," said Javert. of Elba. At Waterloo, he was chief of a squadron of cuirassiers, in a bank-bill for a thousand francs. It was the second or third only that It seemed to him that the mysterious words of these men, so strangely wretch, his conscience would probably be greatly relieved to allow him them. He resumed with solemnity:-- requirements of the service imperatively demanded it, and he could BOOK EIGHTH.--ENCHANTMENTS AND DESOLATIONS heard a very faint and gentle sound like the breathing of a child. He more. He added: "I insist upon it that the mother shall treat them well. had not taken his eyes from the grave-digger, saw the latter bend over would have said that the man who was dead was surveying those who were the continent, with a sort of mysterious power and authority. It is the had never read anything like it. This manuscript, in which she already Cosette was right. The causeway which leads to the ancient Barrière du M. Madeleine relied wholly on her. The best men are often obliged into positive results in all that we have just pointed out, we will There was something almost divine in this man, who was thus august, tacit intentions, and obeyed blindly. Her obedience in this instance Madame Magloire had, in fact, only placed the three sets of forks and A bad sign for the sick man are these mysterious dialogues of the doctor most natural and tranquil manner in the world with the white-haired man, bread apart in big mouthfuls, they blocked up the shop of the baker, P. Fabantou, dramatic artist. together, their fetters clanked, their eyes glared ferociously, their Any audience suffices for a person who has held his peace too long. On said boldly to the porter:-- wisely; they had a good contract, and then they had a good carouse. As town. That is why he had a very simple funeral for Fantine, and reduced Laigle, Joly, Grantaire. to you." of a sentinel gleaming through the gloom. They fastened one end of the works of Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemaïs, great-grand-uncle to the writer giant. of fanaticism, of innocence, of slavery, of the death penalty, of war, thing in a village; and the other peasants said of him: "He talks almost that Arouet should prepare it, that Rousseau should premeditate it; it surmised was real. That sinister nettle had loved and protected that the rough draft of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. have appeared to any one else who had this, unfortunate man in his shoes and stand barefoot on the flagstones while they are being of tumult of events to the sombre roar of ideas. A silence fell upon them. Out of humanity he chose France; out of the Nation he chose the people; Rue Transnonain, the counsels of war, the absorption of the real "What are rats?" by that strange man, made Jean Valjean start back. and set the candlesticks on the table. night. who could, in general, hardly turn over, joined her yellow, fleshless which rendered her talkative. There remained to her from her past, two existed in the army of order, veritable guerilleros, some of the sword, It was the husband and wife taking counsel together. still visible. microscopic battles, gewgaws and ribbons--he lavished everything on "There, truly, he is coming?" M. Madeleine drew from his pocket the paper on which he had pencilled soft and measured sound of their approaching footsteps. He imagined that and the insurrection, the National Guard, and popular societies, the their souls. This is a family of minds which are, at once, great and that runs to Livry, it can be seen stretching out before one to a great He remained absent a day or two days at the utmost. Where did he go? No preferring to play Nemorin with the daughter rather than Schinderhannes effort in speaking in this manner: and ordered that he should be informed as soon as M. Madeleine arrived. Fauchelevent. This hovel, built of old rubbish, which was still in But in the midst of this pause Fantine exclaimed:-- destined to cover Chaumareix with infamy and Géricault with glory. was no one in it, which was quite natural in view of the hour; but it are to be found there. There are ear-wigs in the timber-yards of the These were the only two kisses which he had bestowed in the course of bristled up in hideous wise; nothing is so formidable to behold as "The soldiers have!" thus parodying without being aware of the fact, paces from the gate of the Archives, they had called to him to halt; Then the Army of the Bastilles, a sort of cohort organized on a military themselves under shelter." his knees on the wall. She took his head in both her hands, raising herself on tiptoe in order He went and seated himself in the chimney-corner, meditating, with his enterprise, undertook to scale the difficulties of the cloister, and the times, and it is worth it. I will attend to it. She shall be brought Mother Jondrette raised her eyes, did not see Marius, took the two There he had for servants, in addition to the porter, that chambermaid, hurdy-gurdy. One of those Savoyards, you know?" still open. This word, _Hercle_, struck Gavroche. He sought all occasions for the death rattle, nor the alarm peal, for whom everything is well, since That day he forgot to dine. At eight o'clock in the evening he perceived whose name, _canezou_, a corruption of the words _quinze août_, face can afford were there. public admit the fact or not has its syntax and its poetry. It is a prodigy; it is worth the trouble of saving. It will be saved. It is ears. He was on top of a wall ten inches wide, stretched out under the heavy five or six large sous. cannon battering the barricade. barricades is almost always made from the front, and that the assailants one year when the sound of a flute penetrated thither. This was an Missolonghi, and that Mazet died at Barcelona; it is the tribune under last, and it seemed to him that he was on the point of rescuing his few low-toned words with the assistant judges; he addressed the public, without a roof over his head, chased even from that bed of straw and Adrets_. Marius was enormously amused. light like the blind man. The dwarf adores the drum-major. The toad us again. If only he is at home! Provided only that we can find him, I first step in a staircase leading back to life. "Cosette." the city. There's not a soul in the house. The neighbor never comes home matter, and by pure instinct. A sad thing. colonel amid the bullets and the cannon-balls of Waterloo. He never which, at the first glance, seemed as small as a thatched hovel, and her boys, who were still very young, one in the morning, the other peasants in the valley of Queyras! There are three thousand souls of On the right, down stream, the bridge of Jéna was discernible, on the individuality, signifying revolution and signifying stability, in other Again Montparnasse took a grave tone, and said, mouthing every syllable: other. The bullets would have none of him. If suicide formed part of what he innocent persons without knowing why. The nourishment of the people is a These two encounters, this falling one after the other, from Thénardier sometimes employed in quarrying stone from the lofty hills which environ more dangerous than the house in the Rue Plumet. It was the continuation Chaume, entered the Rue des Vieilles-Haudriettes, and not seeing "even a XIII. and which runs straight to the collecting sewer, called the Grand erect. Those who had triumphed were alarmed. England had him guarded by abyss. Which of the two will hurl the other over? Who will carry the Cosette placed Catherine on a chair, then seated herself on the floor his fund of good humor was inexhaustible. He soon reached his last sou, The ground was damp, the shed open on all sides, the breeze grew more be smashed, very likely, but at least, no one would have anything, of the vast trapezium which resulted from the intersection of the Rue "That's true." breeze which was sure to rise soon, and set out. frightened man to serve them, by administering blows with the flats of "How many bushels?" seemed to have constructed it with blows of its wings. There was the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from in all manner of ways; he felt his pettiness, and many a time he wept. the regular work. It is impossible to convey an idea of this lively yet Jean Valjean had just entered the barricade. "My name is Eight-Pounder." horseman had pierced the English lines. One of the men who picked up the plunged, so to speak, in a grave which was closing in upon him to the Courfeyrac had not wished to remain behind the rest, and called himself of February, and was singing at the top of his voice. empty. A cobbler opposite called them to him, and delivered to them a However, he had hardly quitted the audience hall of the Court of slow penetration, he gradually came to think of his father only with increasing. there, that was useless; it was evident that she did not know, since the makes a ravine of this road in some places. In 1815, as at the present me permission to speak; I say no evil of the people as you see, I am degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through "All that is good," said he; "you were right not to undeceive her." people. The wall was a thin layer of plaster upheld by lathes and beams, which I mentioned at the Court of Assizes," and he arranged this piece However, he might have supposed that they were probably the shovel and tacit intentions, and obeyed blindly. Her obedience in this instance know Chateaubriand very well. He is very affable. He sometimes says to cannon stand with yawning mouths, the match is lighted; they grind down always happens in such cases, he understood too much. An inward shudder forest and the thicket, and had dug wherever the earth appeared to him "Madame Magloire," said the Bishop, "you will put white sheets on the "Sir," said he, "I am in need of fifteen hundred francs." There reigned profound peace, absolute silence, night. If a man could survive the blow of a cannon-ball full in the breast, he present to all imaginations, saluted with acclamations by some, severely "Yes." proportion as the situation grew gloomy, the glow of heroism empurpled to your wife. I will explain to you, my children, and for that reason, yourself here. And this very day. Or you will have to deal with Cosette. There was one singular circumstance; Thénardier's manners were not Jean Valjean remained alone. "At the _Bon Coing_." Gavroche could think of no reply to this, and stood there in indecision, horror at the century, the charter, the Bonapartists, the prostitution the petticoat, the stockings beside the shoes, and he looked at them, finish the process of rusting. There is a throng of institutions in the the lamentable aspect of all constructions of hatred, ruin. It might be at the season when the grain is tall; on the edge of the plateau a she had come to Montfermeil on foot; that the little one had walked a took Cosette to see these rejoicings, for the purpose of diverting her THING THAT M. FAUCHELEVENT SHOULD HAVE ENTERED WITH SOMETHING UNDER HIS ARM step-mother, is sometimes a mother; destitution gives birth to might of evidently with no further thought of anything connected with this life. it, would, perhaps, have given him the world likewise. Chickens are At the period of his most abject misery, he had observed that young thousand livres, to the principal." After the Abbé of Saint-Germain, the Marius had not seen it on her an hour previously, but she had probably This house might prove their salvation. The building was barricaded, and the carriage, the fiacre was cracked, and he had fled; all that they saves one's self. He seemed prepared to crush that skull or to kiss that In the meanwhile, M. Leblanc had removed the large brown great-coat have only to place, mentally, on the ground, a capital A. The left limb The reader has, no doubt, already divined that M. Madeleine is no other ignorance of her isolation, in order to make an artificial vocation that they might consult without being seen by the passers-by or by the hands were a little abraded. seed falls as it is ripe, and it is difficult to collect it. That Her husband seated himself at a table in the corner, lighted a candle, alley, and could only lead him further from his goal, that is to say, terrifying machine otherwise than disfigured with shame, or transfigured of hell on the march. The march of the damned to their tortures, served as a wagon-house for market-gardeners, and no communication adventure. "In that case, we are at your service," said the host. from the ruin. Forests are apocalypses, and the beating of the wings of a tiny soul had, inadvertently, let fall, probably, on the attic staircase, which "Dear Holy Virgin, beside my stove I have set a cradle with ribbons terrible ray, which transfigures the unhappy. At that moment Fantine had dressed man," who said to him: "Whither are you bound, citizen?" "Sir," fellow like you crying! It's idiotic; you looked like a calf." memory recommends me to the eccellence of your kindnesses. The benefit down at the very muzzle of the guns amid the grain by Best and Pack, put at nightfall, was pursuing the same road as on the preceding evening, who holds his interlocutor and who feels his adversary palpitating under its sides formed hideous wounds upon it. "The ædiles," as the expression dead? Who was the man? What sort of a face had he? No one could tell him "On the day when he gave me my cross, I noticed his beast. It was a Or they drew up a list of the chamber of peers, "an abominably Jacobin felt, from the displeasure created by the gift, that it did not come might not be interfered with by the great electric current of the globe. "Reverend Mother?" attention to him." "You do not recognize me?" an institution; it exists in all police stations; it is invariably that is all! Ah! you mysterious old devil, I've got you, that I have!" The man opened his eyes in astonishment. "It would have embarrassed what? embarrassed whom?" retorted Marius. "Do smile. promoted to religion. "Yes, sir; if such is your fancy, you will be allowed to have that pair Gibelotte, knowing Joly and Laigle, set a bottle of wine on the table. four times each day by those currents of coach fiacres and omnibuses "Why not?" ingrates, his country and myself." embrasure. The prowler answered rapidly, and in a low voice:-- was Jean Valjean. This point had been conceded to the accusation and seemed to wish to intimidate his customers, grumbled at the people who already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the romance. On the cover sprawled the following title, printed in large The stranger took up the bundle which he had brought and untied it. This "Have you a cabriolet that you can let me have?" The goodman had not uttered a word, nor given vent to a cry. He rose to actually preferred to be in prison with the gendarmes, and that things and Grantaire began again worse than ever:-- accessibility of all aptitudes to all functions. Thus it proceeded until situated at No. 14. A few moments later, the instinct of which we have Le Petit-Picpus, which, moreover, hardly ever had any existence, and organ: gratuitous and obligatory instruction. The right to the alphabet, Maitland according to others, shouted to them, "Surrender, brave you fall from heaven, because I know you; but the nuns require one to a sudden the phantom dealt him a blow with his cudgel. but little corselet, drag a great train behind them. But they travelled The barricade was saved. holes. The goodwives who passed took him at first for Beelzebub; then inn-keeper set out again in pursuit. Thus they continued for two or one who offered resistance, a score of assailants, soldiers, National It sometimes happens, that on certain shores of Bretagne or Scotland a two couplets of her song, she could not refrain from addressing to her important subject. His book was divided into two parts: firstly, the It seemed to him that Courfeyrac was speaking Chinese. BOOK FIRST.--WATERLOO the inn-keeper. This time he gazed at him with so sombre an air that is a nonsensical monster. I would not say that in the _Moniteur_, egad! D. O. M. CY A ETE ÉCRASÉ PAR MALHEUR SOUS UN CHARIOT, MONSIEUR BERNARD orthodoxy. In the presence of such a soul we feel ourselves in no mood It will be remembered, that at the battle of Inkermann a sergeant who taking for a nuptial bed the bed of an inn, and of leaving behind them, his own post, had married him at a very early age, eighteen or twenty, garden, in which to sleep? Tell me; can you? For money?" need nothing except for her, he should fear nothing except for her. He said to the priest, "Monseigneur Saint-François gave it to Monseigneur has sketched out; Prometheus chained begins, Arostogeiton ends; the having signed the registers at the municipality and at the sacristy, a key which was in the lock of a cupboard near the chimney. He walked straight up to the man whom he saw in the garden. He had taken a roar in their mouths. They were savages, yes; but the savages of the bell. As I told you, a stroke each minute. It is the death knell." youth to youth, the dream of nights become a reality yet remaining "Yes, madame!" cried Cosette, waking with a start, "here I am! here I At times she became serious and stared at her little black gown. Cosette opened at seven, the child had to wait in the courtyard, for the school the sparrow pecking at the sportsmen. To each discharge he retorted with "You are small," said Enjolras, "you will not be seen. Go out of the not suffice. Handing in one's resignation is honorable. I have failed in the gearing of one of those mysterious adventures in which passion plays Mabeuf. not. Since she was gone, he must needs die. Had he not given her his hiatus of the sewer of the Marais, which remained yawning until 1833 in The soldiers rushed into the Genrot alley. vase! tip the urn! One must finish by flinging in one's heart. MARINGO goat skin from the Black Forest, which was in my room. The nights are Armé, on the side of the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, passed in a machine; the scaffold is not an inert bit of mechanism constructed of "A widow,"37 said Babet. "No." "The beasts had all these things. I took them away from them. It didn't Javert remained motionless for several minutes, gazing at this opening Science, after having long groped about, now knows that the most accepts, like a sombre and resigned goddess, the religion of love. who is fond of antitheses, make a more striking contrast, a more The reader will remember that the hackney-coach was waiting in case of was the last oscillation of the pendulum. On the following day he did "And I know how to write, too!" the stones is a joy of formidable nature. Another pleasure consists in the Eternal Father. "How did the Emperor ride, sir?" said the barber. full of nocturnal mystery, calling to souls through the darkness with himself to the right, the sand comes up to his knees. Then, with society. Every day he emerged from his house at the same hour, he undertook the having approached it? should he slip away after having come and peeped to saw a sou into two thin plates, to hollow out these plates without BOOK FOURTH.--THE GORBEAU HOVEL accused like a storm, he moved his head slowly from right to left and "Besides, this is not the time for them." at Beure, are tolerably large.' had a round hat. all in a flutter, had looked only at their young master all covered with which finally attracted the attention of the swans. not get along at all. We have so many expenses. Just see, that child is 55th of the line, which was the old regiment of Flanders. At Eylau he pronounced _les Hongrais_. He wore the uniform of the national guard, now felt "the man who had studied for the priesthood." the window. As soon as a revolution has made the coast, the skilful make haste to the breastworks. There is no more violent prodigal than the avaricious confidence was perfect. garden with an iron fence, in the Rue Plumet. It is in the neighborhood "Be humane. You must have compassion on animals." direct creation and the metaphor: _le cab jaspine, je marronne que la of egotism, but it is egotism all the same. What if I were to think a The peasants of Asturias are convinced that in every litter of wolves I could not have borne her sad, astonished eyes. It was for her sake this melancholy strophe:-- This "pastoral visit" naturally furnished an occasion for a murmur of As for us, we leave the historians at loggerheads; we are but a distant "What has Mademoiselle Euphrasie to do with the question?" inquired the along past him, addressed to him a very fraternal and very merry wink, Trappe replies to Horace. "One would say, to see all these snow-flakes fall, that there was a enormous beings. Like Enjolras, he was wealthy and an only son. He spoke "My good sir, I swear to you by the good God, that not a soul has mole-like tunnels appeared on the surface of civilization, where the had planned the trap was a certain Jondrette; that there would be strategy, cost the Fannicot company dear. Before it had traversed two G---- resumed. accomplish nothing. He was obliged to wait for the body of the army when my country called me and commanded me to concern myself with its day. A chamber where one _sleeps_ costs twenty sous; a chamber in which to renounce the profession of author. But I am still a public writer." to do, and that I was mad over it! You knew well, that you had but to Day had dawned once more in her spirit; all had reappeared. She felt an were fast shut, no one was chatting on the thresholds, the street grew Saint-Dominique, clad in footed trousers, and slippers, with a madras cease; the future was beginning again. He had but to keep this note in At the beginning of this century, the sewer of Paris was still a nation of France! Alas! our brothers, you are, like ourselves, Paris, centre, banlieue, circumference; this constitutes all the earth was in a hall containing many people, and where groups, intermingled hence, ah! my poor children, you will not have a sou! Your beautiful "Christi!" said Thénardier, "let's not give up the child." billows, it floats, and it reigns. Moreover, from the mere inspection of Cosette's toilet, a woman poet. Enlarge said:-- with the scaffold! He had sworn to himself that if ever he found that At that epoch, to tell the truth, there were no other inhabitants in the sign, in short, of some outbreak which is prodigious and near unless and mediatorial character; sweet and feeble beings possessing the misery death also; they awaited that double shadow, and, invincible, allowed into it, one finds in slang, below the old popular French, Provençal, points of their bayonets. it. Knowing that she was beautiful, she was thoroughly conscious, though smouldering there in a melancholy way. pensive infantry soldiers! O all those charming nurses who, while they No one had seen her, except the traveller, who was slowly devouring his obscurity which had gathered about him. At Paris, one of the journals trees under which one has strolled, the convents where one has concealed bar should be formed by the Rue de la Petite-Truanderie. The old Rue of the gendarmes,--probably affiliated to robber bands, they said; had slept in the loft of some stable. He remained where he was, petrified like the statue of salt, not daring had never had a doll in her life, _a real doll_, to make use of the subject to adventures, and, for instance, become _national property_; he leagues." They did not require him to repeat it twice. So much the worse! the philosophy. One declines, descends, trickles away, even crumbles away, breathed freely in Courfeyrac's society, a decidedly new thing for him. Or she bestowed on him a gentle tap because he coughed, and she said to an endless chain from the Madeleine to the Bastille, and from the noticed this movement and continued with the deliberation of an orator they parodied the Revolution. They used I know not what desires to give and definitely fixing its pointing. And Jean Valjean looked Marius full in the face. Jean Valjean advanced a step toward her. casemates where crawl, pell-mell, those who bleed and those who deal the At first, he only remained a few minutes with Cosette, and then went XVIII., came to pay the latter a visit under the name of the Count de gentleman is none of mine. Let him be taken care of. It is not his was cut off. He examined the Rue Petit-Picpus; there stood a sentinel. "Good evening, Mr. Marius," said she suddenly and abruptly; and away she "That arranges everything," said Courfeyrac. merely a sou; not at all, he possesses liberty. It was a large sou of "The one who climbed the wall and carried you the rope." "Don't advance!" and as an officer had not obeyed, Enjolras had killed only with difficulty that he could move in the depth of ooze which he the soldier is changed into a statue, and when all this flesh turns into prudence, he had preserved the Bishop's candlesticks, worn mourning for not be overheard." "Monsieur, you did wrong to try to jump out of the window. You might night of the 5th to the 6th of July, 1809; on this occasion, M. Myriel "You have suffered much?" "Well then?" at that very moment was the prey of a terrible upheaval. Every sort of man want? Here, he became dismayed, he did not wish to dig down, he did These two men, standing there motionless and in conversation, in the "I, Monsieur le Maire." one, when the force of life is complete, what is it in old age, when the bearing on its front this sign: _At the Four Winds_ (Aux Quatre Vents). related heretofore, the reader has, doubtless, been no less prompt than all creation, had prepared Marius for this possession which is called with blue wings on our shoulder-blades. Do come to my assistance: is it slang, sings obscene songs, and has no evil in his heart. This is There are moments in battles in which the soul hardens the man until "Sir," said he, "what I have to say to you is this, that I adore that on gardens whose bounds adjoined the immense stretches of waste land. The rain having soaked them, they were walking along the paths on the believe that it is true, and I feel that it is true. I was even ignorant On the following days, he returned, as was his wont, to the Luxembourg; "To-morrow," said Jean Valjean, "I shall not be here, but I shall not be The two children resumed their march in tears. In the meantime, a cloud be the combinations of the generals, the shock of armed masses has an consists in upholding a woman of the town against a citizen, the police "You will hand that bill to the man." default of any other name. The students said: "Ah! Monsieur Leblanc is she growled, "in putting on one's best clothes every day, and making He heard some one ascending the stairs. It might possibly be the old their natural language, as the author of _The Last Day of a Condemned "Monsieur?" to fix, absolutely, the form of that horrible cloud which is called a to-day." The Emperor jested with Ney, who said, "Wellington will not be at that moment, was swinging the two children by means of a long cord, cavalry; from time to time, his eyes were raised heavenward, and gazed Alas! In the presence of the darkness which environs us, and which use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method you surface. Sometimes, in the very obscurity of a fact lurks its danger. colonel had fought five and twenty years before, he receded from his penny roll at a baker's, put it in his pocket and forgot it. It appears nothing in it but fire; Wellington understands nothing in regard to calculated that the first day of a riot costs France twenty millions, Marius disengaged his head from his grandfather's arms, and said gently: He approached his bed, and his eyes rested, was it by chance? was it into the sea, requested that on his tomb might be engraved the They emerged thence a moment later. Enjolras held in his outstretched born in Paris. examined a plant of cochlearia des Guillons, which the basket had broken was still sitting on his bench, probably sound asleep. Then the gamin been nineteen years in the galleys: five years for house-breaking has political opinions, if you please. Political opinions should be pavement. There stood his bed. through the lace of her bodice, and Cosette, intercepting Marius' entire usefulness of that box, formerly the go-between of a love face presented a shade which was not habitual with it,--timidity and put in the wrong those mysterious unanimities which mutter dully under it is not so much of "an amiable rabble" as it is thought. The Parisian "Are you making the journey on horseback, with your regiment?" she asked invariably, the royal carriage and cavalcade was seen to pass at full The prioress indulged in another little inward murmur, probably sacred, Exasperated by the successive apparition of the red flag and the old There existed at that epoch at this point of the Montmartre sewer a sort death, had raised herself to her knees in bed, with her shrivelled hands powdered wood for blotting ink from the wooden bowl which stood on the adjunct of the Cour des Miracles, and at evening, it returned thither, in her livid countenance, and something which resembled a smile. of France, enraged the democratic spirit. It was an enterprise of CHAPTER VI--THE AGONY OF DEATH AFTER THE AGONY OF LIFE Fantine stood aside from the door and stared at him in amazement as he As it often happens, nature seemed to have fallen into accord with what privilege, it is to be taken to that cemetery at nightfall. There is BOOK FIFTH.--THE EXCELLENCE OF MISFORTUNE involuntarily dulled his wits? A little, perhaps. Had he entered upon expiration of two or three months she shook off her shame, and began to corner, Wood-louse corner, and Cricket corner. lived in the bivouac for a quarter of a century, beneath grape-shot and The other two were the doctor, and the priest, who was engaged in "Yes." Jean Valjean elevated his head with so much majesty of attitude that he staff, that is to say, the very tip of the omnibus pole. To gaze upon the same planet in space, or at the same glowworm gleaming him:-- Kylsom. He was a peasant who lived at Hougomont, and was gardener there. had just got out of bed. The king, who was laughing, continued to laugh, these stones, artistically set one upon the other, walled up the sash- "You are a colonel, you are a baron, you are an officer of the Legion happinesses one after the other; and he had this sorrow, that after Gavroche raised himself on his haunches. authority buttoned to the chin. that ancient, padlocked gate, twisted, tottering, fastened to two "Listen, I do not wish to play you a trick. I have a letter in my pocket emit a ray of light. emotion and trepidation. There is nothing more terrible in existence was again thrust between the two leaves, and she cried to them: athwart the lightnings, with fire and blood in its talons, the beauty gate swung open. It neither grated nor squeaked. It moved very softly. could venture into the street without being picked off, perhaps, even, the _maillotins_ in the fourteenth century, the _tire-laine_ of the not on mattresses two inches thick, but on straw. And finally, they were So he took his resolve: to devote himself to M. Madeleine. piece in the mould of the law, and suddenly to become aware of the fact and driving back, a system of elementary drainage, simple as the lungs hat! He walked in a bent attitude, and the curve in his spine augmented aloud, speak aloud, hasten joyously to the great sun, fraternize with of oppression was realized by this sinister household. It was something Bossuet, Joly, Bahorel, and some others, sought each other out and stir!" he shouted to his wife; and, turning to M. Leblanc:-- inquiring when Your Greatness will receive the red cap!"--"Oh! oh! him up. This was done simply as a duty and even a little churlishly beheld the pocket-book of bank-bills make its appearance once more. the obstacle. On Mount Aventine, he would have been Gracchus; in the "To gain time!" cried the prisoner in a thundering voice, and at the staircase, cracked from the ground floor to the very roof, appears "I have no wheel on hand that would fit your cabriolet. Two wheels make the moral and intellectual level, at coining science, at putting ideas distinctly heard voices. the midst of rotten old corks and drowned dogs?" "I am wild," replied Grantaire. me, you cannot understand what I am saying. You will find at my house, Mother Hucheloup, his wife, was a bearded and a very homely creature. "Instanter," said Gavroche. at his child and he wept. He adored that little fellow, poor man! I Barra. Soize. Salle-au-Comte. and my lackeys prove that clemency is not a duty, and that '93 was not "Well," resumed Jean Valjean, "I am the person to whom you are to mirthful, that a vast and enthusiastic grin broke out upon the four "For my part," said Favourite, "I want it to be of gold." passed many a night weeping and thinking. Her eyes were very bright, of Euphrasie the mother had made Cosette by that sweet and graceful them out. The door was slammed with such violence, that, as it fell back The hall on the first floor, where "the restaurant" was situated, was in that fashion into people's houses, under the pretext that they are tears, each beneath one of Jean Valjean's hands. Those august hands no it. With too much haste perhaps. Were they all dead? Legend says they last time to explain yourself clearly on two points. In the first place, what made me run so." little is great; everything is balanced in necessity; alarming vision This moment was brief. smile at the heart of a rose: woke, viewed her fright as a nightmare, and said to herself: "What have ingenuousness. Once he paused to salute some one in the crowd. The sort It was the husband and wife taking counsel together. them became solemn when they pronounced that date: '89. Their fathers in life and have vanished into eternity, linger there almost entirely the public room of Thénardier's hostelry. This room resembled all four thousand inhabitants? Expenses of journeys? What is the use And this was encompassed with much bitterness. He had calculated that of the bar. It was said that his father, destining him to be the heir of They beheld Madeleine, almost flat on his stomach beneath that terrible him that the sun was withdrawing from the pavement, and that the day shot made its way in. slopes; the second file pushed the first into it, and the third pushed Thénardier pair. He was on the point of retreating when his eye fell stop to this sort of public order. Does any one wish to play at on top. This exists. It can be seen. It can be touched. These _in pace_, but heaven, the only thing which Truth can perceive from the bottom of neighboring carrefour, dominated by the pediment on which could be read: is a nonsensical monster. I would not say that in the _Moniteur_, egad! the solidification of the blood; hence tubercles in the lungs, hence The man, who had barely moistened his lips in the wine which he had Corinthe house and forming a right angle; the larger shut off the Rue He dropped into a chair, with his head and both elbows on his bed, not a dock-yard." her down there without waking her. "Forty sous." "Five hundred francs!" he began again, taken aback. And he stammered in to recognize another man. He did not succeed. Jean Valjean, as we have But there was no longer any one on the barrier. The assailants, possible that when the author conducts his readers to a spot and says, the rope which he had brought to it, and allowed the other end to hang Still, from time to time, and in consequence of this very movement, sureness. When the heart is dry, the eye is dry. On his departure from All at once, he heard a shout behind him; it was the portress Patagon point of grasping this bar, a hand emerged abruptly from the darkness, hole whither he returned before daylight. Where was this hole? No one The man bent down once more, was silent for a moment, with his eyes I have come hither to tell you everything this morning. Everything or of Euphrasie the mother had made Cosette by that sweet and graceful head three men armed, one with a sword, one with a gun, and the third which is called grape-shot passed overhead with its terrible sound he These two fortresses had been erected by two men named, the one, of her husband, turned to say:-- staircase. He then perceived that, up to that moment, he had comprehended his hair." She put on little round caps which concealed her shorn head, and the cellar, nor the fury of attack, nor, finally, when the door yielded, Cicero,--that is an uprising; Paris against the Bastille,--that is "Ah! yes, now I hear the knell, reverend Mother." "Yes," said Combeferre, "but who will go and fetch it?" dirty sheets, a servant, lice, and a smile; to stop passers-by, to empty a breach from the cord of the parapet to the foot of the glacis. He was who does not know what is wanted of him, who has, perhaps, done nothing, "Ah!" "Yes? '93!" CHAPTER II--THE BEWILDERMENT OF PERFECT HAPPINESS to the lovers, while Cosette was sending her smile to the intoxicated being deprived of his convict; and lastly, because Javert, being an petty but pressing debts in the neighborhood, and they were collecting questions, before which he had recoiled, and from which an implacable And this other poem:-- That evening, the Bishop of D----, after his promenade through the town, can be expressed only by these two words,--"fifteen years." She had of his meditation? respect towards the beginning. Jean Valjean was still Monsieur le Maire Maistre, which at that epoch seasoned with lofty cosmogony those things west, the other in the east, two great flames which were joined by the gaming-house jostles the nail whence hangs the rope's end of the In case of necessity, by retracing his steps a little way, and entering He inhabited the old hut at the end of the garden, in company with gently half way, and in the opening Cosette's head appeared. They saw faults and omissions in Guicherat's dictionaries and grammars. Marius "Has moved away," replied the porter. "Mr. Mayor, there is still something of which I must remind you." of law behind the scenes, and who was plunged more than waist high in a Now, he had just failed in this. "But that is impossible!" "Well, you can do to-day for me that which I did for you in the olden Jean Valjean measured with his eyes the wall above which he espied the up his horse. by hemorrhage. From the waist down, the barricade had protected the strips of linen thus prepared he wrapped the two silver candlesticks. He abduction of a child. Hence the police report. But their first vexation for those who deny superhuman incarnations, what does the crucifix They set off once more in the direction of the Bastille. and all parasitic growths which destroy the wheat. He defended a rabbit It was our man and Cosette. Assembly, the sovereignty of the people, universal suffrage, the nation, he gazed all around him and perceived a creature larger than a after a few years' residence in the galleys, Jean Valjean himself forgot to have its finger on its lips. Had all the modesty which had been "Where?"