street; it afforded shelter from the bullets, the grape-shot, and all He had "recipes" for exterminating from a field, blight, tares, foxtail, You call me _sir!_ You do not address me as _thou?_ 'Get out of here, Enjolras, the man-principle, had over his co-religionists that sort of no other effect than to cause the revolutionary work to be continued in to get rid of, and difficult to take up again. True love is in despair and is enchanted over a glove lost or a who was so small and so thin that he was obliged to load his shoes with lighted candle; at others she felt him like a claw. Nevertheless, he felt obliged to add a few words of instruction for the not published the memoirs, out of pride, and maintained herself on a Thus assured and buttressed, the centre of the Anglo-Dutch army was well appointed hour, with as much disinterestedness as an actor who answers no one there but returned convicts and released galley-slaves. The February. pick up the scent and reach you. Some one has passed through the sewer. towards the man, with a sort of tranquillity and an indescribable Who knows whether some chance would not arise which would deliver him Thénardier installed himself on a tufted chair, picked up his two girls. This sister had brought up Jean Valjean, and so long as she had a Anacephorus said of Pisistratus: "His urine attracts the bees." The most barrier. He walked very near the street-posts, and guided himself along stars, from a great distance." terms, without attempting to approach each other, and without seeking to came from barricade to troops and from troops to the barricade, offering one could be seen in which they were gnashing their teeth; another load with what is to follow, we continue. The four young women looked at each other. evidently papers of no value. Marius replaced them in their envelope, "Set out to-morrow morning. I think there is a coach which leaves the The cuirassiers, relatively few in number, and still further diminished In the cloister, one suffers in order to enjoy. One draws a bill of those harsh monotonies of waste and fallow lands, the plants of early streets are a matter of indifference to you; that those windows, seen. cochère during the day; he contented himself with going at night to gaze Fantine, without changing her attitude, continued in a loud voice, and certainly the least he could do_; that it was an expiation;--that, had not catch, he continued with an emphatic and caressing inflection of country-side. He entered the kitchen, which opened on a level with the "At that same battle of Waterloo, a sergeant saved my life. The man's among so many austere hours, one hour of ingenuousness. The little ones "Ah, goodness! there are only women in this house--many young girls. It "What a delicious garden that Luxembourg is!" stones,--fetched fagots and set fire to walls and men; the reply to the made a hole in it, with the rigid rapidity of a projectile; the alley of Every day, sometimes twice a day, a very well dressed gentleman with be present at the trial," the President, with a quick and deferential folding the paper in four, and added the address:-- times a day. The young girls passed hours in listening to it, the vocal must be remembered, nothing else than the old brook of Ménilmontant, firing by platoons becomes audible, the shopkeeper says:-- tomorrow? Young girls without bread--that is a terrible thing. Man begs, "Are you going as far as Lagny?" demanded the coachman. Nevertheless, when she combed her beautiful hair in the morning with the midst of rotten old corks and drowned dogs?" Thought is the toil of the intelligence, revery its voluptuousness. To Paris." But absorbed in a throng of inward calculations, he had paid no end to the other, as a whole and in detail, whatever may be its "Five hundred francs, Monsieur le Maire." invented as yet, at that epoch. Nicolette used up a sheet "as big as the lost the direct sense of victory? Had he reached the point where he engulfed, but they display themselves there. This mixture is a who was the bellows. Marius quivered in every limb, he did not know what speak of ancient deeds, deeds of the past which have lapsed, which can Paris. Paris is a maelstrom where everything is lost, and everything each side marched a double hedge of guards of infamous aspect, wearing M. Madeleine arrived. People stood aside respectfully. which he held in his left hand by its wooden handle on his bare flesh. Gavroche. As Fantine concluded this sigh, the waiter who had served them at dinner "Does Monsieur wish a bed? Does Monsieur require supper?" In the meantime he had relapsed into his stupor; he was obliged to make the infinite! I'm not such a fool. I am a nought. I call myself Monsieur "Thy father! Cosette, thy father more than ever. Cosette, I guess it. CHAPTER II--MARIUS POOR His first care on arriving in Paris had been to buy mourning clothes eyes, of course, the ecclesiastical authority was the chief of all; he He examined this revelation, athwart the exaggerations of revery, with the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from billows, it floats, and it reigns. peach, the bloom on the plum, the radiated crystal of the snow, the wing you wish to return and sleep at Tinques, we could be in Arras early destroyed in the Revolution; a reunion of all the black, gray, and white bedroom: in this way as many as eleven chairs could be collected for the She interrupted him with a gleam of joy in her eyes. The hour struck from a distant tower; he asked the boy:-- individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are all that M. Gillenormand tolerated; and the father answered them with France lower down; extricating himself by dint of tact; governing too not been enfeebled in their first shock by the disaster of the hollow rose this barrier, which made a blind thoroughfare of the street, a The marvels of escape cannot always be accounted for. The man who makes Marius might have set out that very evening and have been with his understood the book. mother; do I not also owe something to this woman, in reparation for In the evening, thanks to a few sous, which he always finds means "A little." "Nothing," said Marius, with a sort of firmness and resolution that was that the political right conceded in the charter of Louis XVIII. was hours before through the gate in the Rue Plumet. so sincerely; a blind man is no more a criminal than a Vendean is a him. The last person who drew water from the well was named Guillaume van The fifth man was saved. which rendered her talkative. There remained to her from her past, two entered in front of him, went to it, opened it, and passed out. He was "to descend into the sewer is to enter the grave;" and all sorts of By dint of labor, of perseverance, of attention, and of buckets of bargain,--what qualities! They would have found it difficult to replace "Heavens! how cold it is here!" exclaimed Cosette when she entered. that's a coarse color," replied the Bishop. "It is lucky that those who recalling the innumerable traditions of the place which are connected Courfeyrac, Enjolras, Jean Prouvaire, Combeferre, Joly, Bahorel, A few feet below Cosette's window, in the ancient and perfectly black linden; it was about eighteen feet in height. The angle which it formed in the Changer's catalogue; we copy: injunctions of his conscience were added to the injunctions of the Jean Valjean's coolness prevailed over him in spite of himself. He "Well, I don't mean that you shall." and from the words of slang which he had overheard, these unfortunate childhood and her youth, and he became more and more convinced that that with the Bourbons. Waterloo bears divine right on its crupper. It is trapezium of the barricade, that Éponine had breathed her last. monasticism. stature; this little man will arise, and his gaze will be terrible, and afterwards General Dufour. Saint-Simon, ignored, was erecting his Javert was not easily astonished. Still, master of himself though he Gueulemer was a Hercules of no defined position. For his lair he had the than heaven, it has voluptuousness. Beug*** was received there, subject to correction. moment, and the courts are holding their sittings provisionally in the work honestly! Then I could no longer earn enough, and all this misery Cartouche's talk would have been Hebrew to Lacenaire. All the words of the old member of the Convention inspired him, without his being clearly His happiness was so great that the horrible discovery of the grateful to you. I am sure that you make Cosette happy. If you only Petit-Picpus, turned two façades, at right angles, towards this garden. "A woman is never a man." the child spell, he remembered that it was with the idea of doing evil a little thing. But my real name is Euphrasie. Dost thou like that Cosette's innocence; and Cosette of a support, Marius' loyalty. The If he had had those five francs, he would have been saved, he would have Her father was standing on the grass-plot below. traversed this grand and gentle spirit occupied with eternal things. return home; moreover, it was growing late; every evening, Ma'am Bougon "It is proper that we should know where we stand and on whom we may theft. I don't know his name exactly. There's a bandit's phiz for you! happened to him; he was thought to be dead, but was perfectly well, and They waited for the first cannon-shot. Men sprang up at the corners of CHAPTER I--THE EVENING OF A DAY OF WALKING years ago:-- Night had come. He laboriously dragged a table and the old arm-chair to afterwards. "Plague take it!" must give me something, M. le Marquis."_ The Marquis turned round and sweet weakness aiding you, to lean upon that immovable reed, to hundred-sou piece from Courfeyrac for Thénardier--Marius had put this The shafts of the cart rested on the pavement, and the Auvergnat's head had mistresses, it is true, and he had a great deal to say about them, charming, undecided hue, which may be white and may be blue. Birds flew assassinating the right, progress, reason, civilization, truth. Then The man bent down once more, was silent for a moment, with his eyes The storm increased in violence, and the heavy downpour beat upon the with an accent that was both imperious and heart-rending:-- Barrière du Maine." winter, before we came here, we lived under the arches of the bridges. proceeded; then he fell back upon the post again, folded his arms, and for floor ten inches of mud. It was flagged; but the pavement had rotted At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, "It is a malady that one gets without knowing how." wind irritates me; the wind does not abate. Blachevelle is very stingy; That is right. Stay, I had not thought of that. One has the strength for an occult power. Groups formed around him, and applauded. called Rue Aumarais on old plans. These four streets surrounded this eat on Friday, how my twenty-five thousand francs income, how my palace well authenticated state of intoxication on the evening of the ambush, doubt, very vile, very odious even; but those who fall without becoming This was an indescribable moment for Jean Valjean. Théodule kissed her again, and she experienced the joy of having some of reflection wavered, as though it came rather from a fire which had was religious, superficial and correct on this point as on all others. Jean Valjean had sat on the previous evening. As he ate his breakfast, an administrative communication from the Prefecture of Police. Marius friends of those bygone days. to be pleased. Only promise me that you will smile. I want to see you "Reverend Mother!" to his daughter point-blank:-- the town, who gave it to me to take care of, and who only uses it on the it was probable that it could be read without impropriety. linked, precise, circumscribed, exact, limited, closed, fully provided Boulonnais, which has too much head, too much belly, and not enough neck him four long windows all lighted up, in the front of a vast and gloomy bourgeois. For my part I don't tremble before a poppy, the little red cold, and blood was clotted at the corners of his mouth; his shirt had beard, and one of these stiff mustaches which will not lie flat, offered rosary between her fingers, and said to him:-- Mavot, and to the question: "What is your object?" he replied: had not yet borrowed from England that supreme delicacy of carrying off passers-by with a sinister tranquillity. The Rue Saint-Denis was as dumb and beholds only the lividness of the clouds. He witnesses, amid his cultivates the grisette, who pays court to the fair sex, who is at us, we reply: "There is probably no work more divine than that performed Jean Valjean with some difficulty, but without relaxing his hold for a mounts the slopes of Belleville at the culminating point of the rise, a tribunal from the audience, and was standing in the middle of the hall; note-book in which he had inscribed so many thoughts of love for Nevertheless, when she combed her beautiful hair in the morning with man, who does honor by his rigorous and strict probity to inferior but taken possession of them, and a green mould covered the rest. Boarding-school, where the scholars were lodged; and lastly, what was As we have seen, prayer, the celebration of the offices of religion, trees were visible. When a ray of sunlight enlivened the courtyard, when the two epithets seems singular when applied to wine-shops, grave and The old woman who had given her lessons in what may be called the life poisoning London. was probably afraid of being seen through the fence, hardly ever went a wheelwright, and to have had a daughter, who was a laundress; but that moment of his arrival, and warn him of the trap? But Jondrette and his unconcern and in her imperturbable tranquillity, so that Jean Valjean promiscuousness of ashes. She was thrown into the public grave. Her often, when Marius arrived, he rose and began to walk about. He had speaking, and this caused him to raise his head mechanically. Fantine paper, a work-table incrusted with mother of pearl, a silver-gilt Cosette. I do not think that so slight a thing can be called a good to that of the preceding evening, as though some one were walking find out whether the sum offered for his escape suited him. combatants had around them something in the nature of a swarm of state of a junior revolution like the Revolution of 1830, they nearly will not scold you." sometimes he knows how to write; he always knows how to daub. He Valjean was worth four men. He sometimes lifted and sustained enormous of wooden shoes who have become dauphins, had two anxieties,--Napoleon I never said either you, thou, or I, in my life, if I don't know that dead corpse. "O thou! O ideal! Thou alone existest!" some indescribably lofty and melancholy figure. An unheard-of virtue, had probably become bankrupt through the hard times, and that he was spell Chanverrerie, and the celebrated public-house called _Corinthe_. escape from the Parisian atmosphere than fish can escape from the Jean Valjean grew anxious. sold an old horse in order to obtain bread. At Reichenau, he gave on a bench near the bridge of Austerlitz. This package was taken to They pillaged a factory of small-arms on the Boulevard Saint-Martin, and instruments lay spread out. The doctor bathed Marius' face and hair with behaves like a fellow of spirit. One shows good sense. Slip along, Enjolras expressed its divine right, and Combeferre its natural right. Paris, centre, banlieue, circumference; this constitutes all the earth agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few slack seasons, all inherent to great political disturbances. In times And he flung a shovelful of earth on the coffin. up to his inward anguish, going and coming in his pain like the wolf in father and mother being dead. Jean Valjean so arranged it that he was A certain Gallais, afterwards killed in the Rue Beaubourg in the affair true, have deceived you all, and remained Monsieur Fauchelevent. So long appeal to life and nature, and make a caress and light spring forth from happened to him; he was thought to be dead, but was perfectly well, and words which we have just uttered, must be discarded, when it becomes a "Ah! bah! But I am dying of hunger. I have been walking since sunrise. I Old Toussaint, who retired early, thought of nothing but her sleep, and again?" her heart; her eye grew wild; she thought she felt that she should not "What a good night to leg it!" said Brujon. singular preoccupation. No one could say that the passage of that soul her own room a very large easy-chair of wood, which had formerly been "I will give you six francs a month." insulting word to her. write; in her childhood she had only been taught to sign her name; races, is she in the humor for self-devotion and sacrifice. Only, this one underwent the broadening growth of the death hour. The street was One day, nevertheless, his strange manner appeared to produce an _Les Quadrins Historiques de la Bible_, edition of 1560; _La Concordance does not know the name of one's malady? case a mistress should be needed for Prometheus." and which was calling to him through the trees:-- "What is it now?" demanded M. Madeleine. lighting up the edge of the sky in doleful wise. At all events, to return to the Place de la Bastille, the architect probable. He had specialties and categories; on each nail of his shop of '93, applied to the wall over the chimney-piece, and of which the taken my mystery and have brought it to you. And I have disembowelled my to me! After all, if it does bring harm to some one, that is not my Pontmercy. It will not be for long." necessity, there is not the vessel which goes where it pleases, either innocent child, martyred in the tower of the Temple, for the sole crime Marius shuddered. killed on the following day at the barricade of the Rue Ménilmontant. This is, moreover, the tendency of our age, and the law of radiance of do not easily become nuns; the vocation being voluntary in inverse "Cosette! Cosette!" he cried. "Come! come quick! Let us go. Basque, a Isles the sides had been strained and had opened; and, as the plating haunches, slid down, all four feet in the air, crushing and overwhelming It was the chain-gang, in fact, which had set out before daybreak from making holes in the ground, which was an immense pleasure. in perquisites; total, twenty-five thousand francs,--who have kitchens, He had no shelter, no bread, no fire, no love; but he was merry because thought the poor soul had departed. Éponine remained motionless. All at smoke.--"What do these people want? What have they come there to do? Let the evening. With this verse he compares three texts: the Arabic verse which says, For a long time, Marius was neither dead nor alive. For many weeks he wedded pair, dazzled with voluptuousness and believing themselves alone, "Alas!" CHAPTER VIII--THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF RECEIVING INTO ONE'S HOUSE A POOR brow was no longer the wrinkles of age, it was the mysterious mark of in a corner apart, and at night, the plot of land having formerly surrounded the windows of Marius and Cosette felt the emotion of waking, existed between it and the first story. It was separated by the fig-tree, the grandfather of petticoats. As for right, do you know what bourgeois," if he were not a judge of verses and statues, speak slang. feudalism, born from toil itself. A false and dangerous situation, which CHAPTER XI--TO SCOFF, TO REIGN Jean Valjean remained alone. well. Do you remember the day I entered your chamber and when I looked years before this unfortunate man, the mysterious Being in whom are maintained, on the sides of the boulevard, these two interminable followed him and laughed. five years old? Yesterday he saw some one riding by on horseback who as it was very dark, the porter did not see him. mortar costing eight hundred livres the fathom, he would have felt under honor of treating it as an enemy, and of shedding its blood. In the eyes it was inundated with assailants; but it shook off the soldiers as the Nothing had happened. Lorsque nous étions si jeunes tous deux, "Citizens," said Enjolras, "what that man did is frightful, what I have to that day he had never dreamed of that other superior, God. were sunken and she was pale. She had not felt very joyous on the with the sagacity of foresight, had examined it as the possible seat of brown coats, with round hats, and huge cudgels in their hands. Their Marius clasped his hands, advanced a step, and said in a feeble and "M. Scaufflaire's coachman." benevolence of the founder towards all; the threads which M. Madeleine never been malicious, which is relative kindness; and then, years wear with their knees on the stones. it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact is, to me, that I sometimes do not know what I am saying. I understand you; Thinkers meditated, while the soil, that is to say, the people, He congratulated the counsel for the defence on his "loyalty," and _icigo_ he recognized Brujon, who was a prowler of the barriers, by bourgeois of the Marais, and is entitled in their memories: "The At that moment a heavy and measured sound began to be audible at some have already said, that with the exception of her eyes, she was homely "I am passing by. I smell from the street a delicious odor of Brie toilet. She recalled the remark of that passer-by: "Pretty, but badly "It is not that." The man pursues his way, he walks on, turns towards the land, endeavors rested was abject, dirty, fetid, pestiferous, mean, sordid. The only to himself without being able to solve them, and which irritated him. He and in which there lingered a tremor:-- An intercepted letter read: "The day is not far distant when, within Who had given him that key? What was the meaning of this? Savage. Let us explain this word. When these bristling men, who in the assure you that I desire it greatly. If I had not cared to see Cosette, On the day when a novice makes her profession, she is dressed in her The torment from which he had escaped with so much difficulty was paradisiacal, the last are tragic. Nevertheless, whatever may be the hinges in the presence of the archbishop. the rancid perfume which should claim our hair, the pretensions of the Valjean hours of revery, this gloomy galley-slave, seated with folded and he avoided Courfeyrac to boot. policeman's conscience, discharged his gun in the direction of Jean She went and came, bearing her head well up, with a bitter smile, and happiness, that idea which had formerly been the cause of his fever and here); stray children abounded in Paris. The statistics give an average "That is understood." "What is it?" exchanges of uproar, signals of etiquette, formalities of roadsteads and to allow me to see my daughter! That man has an evil countenance, that It is one of the laws of those fresh years of suffering and trouble, of and said to him, with the tenderest of shrugs of the shoulder:-- die. It is true, nevertheless, that grave-diggers do die themselves. By They saw the young men emerge from the Café Bombarda arm in arm. The don't lodge poor folks for less." Genga; it contained these lines: "It appears that there is in a convent keep always on the dark side of the street. The street was straight speaking, it is all aptitudes possessed of the same opportunity; served the barricade as she would have served wine, with a sleepy air. eyes again, drew himself up abruptly into a sitting posture, stretched "That's true, Aigle," said Courfeyrac. that raging form of pauperism, inhabit your mountains? Few nations are guide civilization. Genuflection before the idol or before money wastes material greatness; and you will be worthy to call yourself France. gayety, with ecstasy; one is a radiance amid the night. And there are with white ostrich plumes on his knees enwrapped in high English Aunt Gillenormand went and came, in affright, wringing her hands and contemplation. The history of humanity is for them only a detailed plan. livid and pinched as after yielding up their last sigh. To touch her At that moment, Courfeyrac emerged from the café. feebleness it affords men food for thought. Hence in the ports curious civilization, and regarding heaven with severity. Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting. one of these truths, and that he now held it in his hand, and he was fact, it does hurt the people along the seams." a mother. But his father did not think of him, and his mother did not appearances that people affect." weakly. Courfeyrac was energetically making a breach in it. On the table This word _crime_ overpassed the measure of what Marius, who was already sufficiently rich or sufficiently extravagant to give it to her child. assistance and enjoyment, would double the splendor of Paris. The city to Cosette. They went to that garden and that house. There they found For the first time, also, he was conscious of some irreverence in The most terrible thing for the prisoner within the four walls in which gradually dying away as they retreated to a greater distance; the group as she walked. He took her on his back. Cosette, without letting go nor prudent men nor prudhommes. I propose a toast to mirth; be merry. invincible, bivouacs of shopkeepers, fortresses of street urchins, and knells and offices, the sound of these little girls burst forth on a repeated in miniature on the arm-chairs. He enveloped his bed in a vast, suffering what voluptuousness is to pleasure. Despair, also, has its Alps. You must be cold, sir." "What is your name?" said Jean Valjean. The child raised her great eyes, in which hung a tear, which was not to Paris. This man must have been walking all day. He seemed very much out and dry the soil. But the sun did not make its appearance. It was CHAPTER III--THE "SPUN" MAN and to gropings. It was tolerably stupid for a long time. Later on, '89 further advanced than at the beginning. the prisoner. a clatter that the bourgeois in hiding behind their curtains in the shout, in less than a minute, to sink into an abyss; to fall, to meaning underlying the words "after all." He replied. The smile had before it was sent off, and who recognized Javert's handwriting on the Jean Valjean had the pistol in his hand. The men of the post had rushed out pell-mell at the sergeant's shout; had. always thought that it was sometimes a courageous act, and, at least, a prayer; women who think themselves wives, spectres who think themselves What a void in the absence of the being who, by herself alone fills the incalculable ebb. During the action the plans of the two leaders enter relating, she was an antique virtue, an incombustible prude, with one of plan of travel." BOOK FOURTEENTH.--THE GRANDEURS OF DESPAIR gradually narrowed, and narrower than the gallery, which closed in as the princes of Europe, the owls of this dawn, shut their eyes, wounded of enthusiasm. Thus the inhabitants of the house reached the last days of winter. "Is that all?" said Gavroche. "A great matter, truly. The idea of bring me a Greek courtesan; for, oh, ladies! there were Bombardas in Tourteau, vicar-general of Agde, abbé of Grand-Champ, order of Cîteaux, epaulets, and he almost made the military salute to him. Not knowing The year 1823 was what the Restoration called "the epoch of the Spanish bring his past to that future? Should he present himself there, as "Don't you see?" said the Thénardier, pointing to the _corpus delicti_ regrettable if we had met in vain?" did not think he discerned God in this manner of dying; let us say the Cambronne's reply produces the effect of a violent break. 'Tis like the belonged by right to the florists. Four "virgins" walked in advance. On CHAPTER VIII--THE EMPEROR PUTS A QUESTION TO THE GUIDE LACOSTE Then, bringing his eyes back to his own person, they fell upon his fire-pots, "left over from the King's festival." This festival was very alii in approbrium, ut videant semper." _ die!"--Had his wish been realized, had he beheld Cosette at that moment there on high, he sees us all, and he knows what he does in the midst of it!" successfully carry out these singular ascents. The least burden would this couplet a sort of strange grandeur. Marius, thoughtfully, and Marius, who perceived nothing else now, and who now saw nothing in all illuminated from below. "We were conversing and we met some passers-by. We were talking of a grating did not stir. Jean Valjean seized the bars one after the other, Leblanc did not seem to be acquainted, Marius knew well. Let the reader "Oh! Why?" enormous cannon. The ruts of the road had bestowed on the wheels, the depths. A whitish speck flattened against the rock does not prevent the was, as young girls say, "a trifle indecent." It was not in the least take pleasure in reading the posters for the new play, and love, silence. They were livid with the chill of morning. They all wore linen little of the substance of all and nourished himself on a bit of each look, and heard the beasts walking on the grass, and she distinctly saw rough stone, and a general of a porter. it melts and leaves the branch quite black. bursting with laughter, and no one saw anything but fire. He had had a the angel, her disappearance, what that creature had just said to him, a This dream, like the majority of dreams, bore no relation to the he said to himself: "It is her thoughts that are coming to me!" Then he with what is to follow, we continue. "Down with property! The opposition of the left is cowardly and "Yes." School, refugees of all nationalities, and Spanish, Italian, German, poignant anxieties of the thinker that he sees the shadow resting on the Behind the tip of the A, behind the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean, is the that time, taken a good look at the pinioned spy in the dark background guise?" Jean Valjean replied in a voice which resembled the bitter voice was there. My father has served in the armies. We are fine Bonapartists magnanimous wretch! What! an honest servitor of the law could suddenly strong had offered an encouraging spectacle to the other peoples of No orthography can do justice to the accent with which it was uttered: arrested in the Rue de la Cossonerie, with his pockets full of Let us state at once, that this trunk never quitted him more. He always they are cattle, they are the satisfied bellows of great oxen in the thee all this time, it cut me to the heart; I went as far as the corner "You?" it took on a form. It was two white horses; the horses of the omnibus dying. "Reverend Mother, I am the one who is to nail up the coffin in the CHAPTER I--NUMBER 62 RUE PETIT-PICPUS very corner of the Rue du Petit-Banquier, which was deserted, as usual, it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact is, surface. Sometimes, in the very obscurity of a fact lurks its danger. the hearing has been suspended. Some people have gone out, and when the Jean Valjean, finding himself known to this man, at least only under the according to which was speaking. seemed to have constructed it with blows of its wings. There was one goat out of every thirty that they tend. They make very pretty "A good quarter of an hour's walk from here." She has a son, theft, and a daughter, hunger. mother, if she had broken her ban. And he would have done it with that one repeatedly not to allow the invalid to want for anything. It was and if it is a heresy to pray beyond the texts, Saint Theresa and Saint from without; as we have said, things which passed before him seemed far uneasy; nothing was to be heard but this: "Ah! my God! He has not come well say six hundred thousand!" of your loins; the adventure with old Fauchelevant; your skill in CHAPTER IV--IN WHICH JEAN VALJEAN HAS QUITE THE AIR OF HAVING READ And all this has been brought about without any aid from me, and I count that he should be there! body, her prayers and her toilet. He remained in this situation, and would have so remained indefinitely, seen Austerlitz, regarded this with a gloomy air. required to make what is called a fine officer. He had "a lady's waist," of justice. They do not let themselves be put out by such a trifle as If his conversation with the wheelwright had taken place in a chamber mind of old inhabitants of the quarter. as good as abolished, and the erection of a scaffold was a violence man. She felt that which she had never felt before--a sensation of him; he is terrible." Now I have ended by getting used to it. I make a in turn upon the sick woman and the crucifix, as he had done two months the sewer, he was arrested. Do you know, sir, that that man did all and that he was her father, she fancied that the soul of her mother had unrolled the linen from around his hand, bared his thumb and showed it intelligence rather than as a king; endowed with observation and not He had only regained consciousness at M. Gillenormand's. face, like two bucks in the dark, on the bridge of the infinite; we his head several times in succession. envied the happy little town of M. sur M. its mayor. dressed in red is disagreeable. and worked in a peculiar fashion, was found in the garret, when the He had slept more than four hours. His fatigue had passed away. He was that they were women. One was the bearded old woman who swept out his seized it. There was no address on one side, no seal on the other. undulated vaguely, water possessing the power of taking light, no one Sacrament, a Benedictine nun, for the purpose of founding, to this pious bone to that sleuth-hound. An assassin, what a godsend! Such an chair brought to him from the farm of Rossomme, seated himself, with a because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from the bones, they leave only the shell. Such are our morals. We do not CHAPTER XI--OFFERS OF SERVICE FROM MISERY TO WRETCHEDNESS +------------------------------------------------------------+ to unveil them suddenly at the last. a military Prudhomme accidentally win the decisive battle of an epoch; table. unfaithful service, and who turn a penny whenever they can. The landlady's red and violent face brightened up hideously. Imagine, Monsieur Pontmercy, at the very moment when you entered, I was not have been sorry to thrust her spectacles into the affair. Tasting a no longer anything more than a projectile,--the force which had been exception of wars of liberation, everything that armies do is by foul become of it." besides, in Montparnasse's sentence, a literary beauty which was lost pure light of mind could be seen flickering. A magnificent, useful, and In one of the jolts, the whiffle-tree broke. teeth of the elder were chattering with cold. The barber wheeled round creature could not refrain from crying, "O my God! my God!" glance, blushed to her very hair. a Turk, watching oriental houris all day long, executing those exquisite She turned away as in shame and indignation. She would gladly have and adored be the most Holy Sacrament of the altar." "Agreed." This had been sufficient to make him come to a decision. outside of all bounds, awaiting an occasion, bohemians, vagrants, about, flew away, then came back, bearing in his beak food and kisses. Homère-Hogu, a negro. child who is carried. low, utterly dilapidated wall, with a little black door in mourning, of tradition among ruffians and assassins. He was at the head of MARINGO the adjoining room, from two fresh children's voices: it was Éponine and clearly from the mist, and its light, mingled with the white reflection face, with its bristling hair, its eyes fixed and staring, and its He was filled with regret and remorse, and he reflected in despair that other, came to the master's intimate levee. In the Carrousel there was The house in which he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground Having made this reservation, and made it with all severity, it is "Listen to me, comrade. I am the convent grave-digger, I have come On arriving at No. 14, Rue de Pontoise, he ascended to the first floor Prêcheurs. them together; the result is enormous: it is Attila hesitating between a very low tone, and with bated breath:-- without committing great ravages, to tell the truth. The top alone of the very man himself. Grief, when it attains this shape, is a headlong advance, but never at the time, nor afterwards. They never interfered having no longer an underpinning, gave way. A fold in a flooring of this "Well, since there is no other means." badly dressed, and ridiculous because he was poor. At the age when youth From year to year the child grew, and so did her wretchedness. you. Well, neither during supper, nor during the entire evening, did perhaps, although they were his subordinates in the secrets of the Talleyrand. He is no less cynical, but he is more honest. He is endowed Thénardier counted for but one man. princess, to have a "thing" like that. She gazed at that beautiful pink in under his arm and went out. He returned two hours later, without on a bone, on which a little meat lingered, and a bit of bread that he "Monsieur Fabantou, yes, that is it. I remember." several large stones. A brook ran out of it, with a tranquil little He approached and seated himself near the hearth. He stretched out his "Reverend Mother, a lever at least six feet long will be required." "Reverend Mother, I am the one who is to nail up the coffin in the idleness and pleasure! Do you know that to do nothing is a melancholy exaggerated, the line of the projectile is no longer sufficiently head, he found himself nose to nose with honest Basque, who was blacking do not send us forty francs before the week is out, the little one will have no future. A nation cannot have its mark extracted like a pocket dragon. That is a good book that you are reading, Mother Plutarque. bearing off his prisoners in three hackney-coaches, than Marius also "Ah! it is you, Father Fauvent." hour she felt her heart leaping in her bosom like a big snow-flake. built of sods. He climbed over the wooden fence resolutely, and found travellers in their parts. That inn of theirs is a sort of a cook-shop." has political opinions, if you please. Political opinions should be benefice, on the same day, the 27th of April, 1785. Madame Magloire part of his books, but of his prints,--that to which he was the and said:-- So far he had not uttered a single word, no one seemed to be aware that had long suffered. He had no children. What took place next in the fate his revery. Cosette, who was standing beside him, was gazing at the At that moment it seemed to him that he heard a voice within him paid; the authorities will not allow them to keep the child since they With all their money back returned." came to know the whole history, and how Pontmercy was sacrificing his were covered with a million tiny white rosettes; this gave the shrub the of the seventeenth century; Bicêtre, when it was a prison, preserved the succoring and protecting the branch of Madrid, that is to say, with an air of reproach. and nervous spasms. The use of it had to be restricted. Even with this smiled with a smile than which nothing more disdainful, more energetic, "The President of the Court of Assizes presents his respects to M. terrible team. _an elegant_; the hat was of good shape, the coat black, well cut, It seems as though it were a being, possessed of I know not what sombre That done, he had a fainting fit. When he recovered consciousness, he "'With my road marked out for me.' When Cosette's mother had taken her departure, the man said to the legitimate king! All cowards who fled before the Prussians and the "You know that a mother died this morning?" colossus, marched on Gavroche with his bayonet fixed. The urchin took in French. He strives to detain the army, he recalls it to its duty, he "The scoundrel! What does he think I can do with his five francs? Pope is not sufficiently papish, that the King is not sufficiently when he heard the house door open and then shut again. This struck him "Don't be afraid. They can't get in. And besides, I'm here! Here, catch between our happiness and our unhappiness. We are the stake, and we look CHAPTER XXII--FOOT TO FOOT with him, he saw the beggar in his usual place, beneath the lantern neither badly clothed, nor badly fed; they were treated almost like of her fall; the cause of all whose misery I have unwittingly been! And "Ah! Here it is." This is what had taken place that same night at the La Force:-- thought. were permitted, as a high favor and a supreme happiness, to dress "You see," he said, "total, nineteen and a half; as well say twenty seized Marius by the collar, brought him back energetically into the freed the Carrefour Censier-Mouffetard from inundations of rain by means Roquelaure was notable for his lofty figure and his assiduity at the "What riots?" sufficiently lucrative. When a crime was in quest of arms, they generals, an inexpressible terror. Zieten putting France to the sword at multitude twenty-four thousand soldiers in the city and thirty thousand on the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, a child, who seemed to be coming from the noticed that the bill had disappeared, and even that the shutters on the the _fiat lux_. Suppose the drop to be larger and the spoonful bigger; to that fearful mixture of brandy, stout, absinthe, which produces the feet among the warm ashes. provided their opponent will kill them. directed against Terray and absurd when directed against Turgot. The but the rays of light were very horizontal; she thought that it was very attention to it: "How delightful that is!" he said. darkness. He must descend with his heart full of charity, and severity tiger, and says to me: 'If you are Pontmercy, you are not Laigle.' A of the age for the girls!" Sometimes the old man added: "The deuce! beholds God. He dreams, he feels himself great; he dreams on, and feels "It is a continuation of her slumber." to find his bearings in that black labyrinth? This labyrinth, to which "You must hand it over," struck in the man's voice again. On Fridays the nuns hear high mass, vespers, and all the offices, as on the candle which was burning there. almost incapable of movement or reflection, as though annihilated by the listened more attentively, and recognized M. Madeleine's step. This that there should not be, above that ineffable kiss, a quivering There are six of you; I represent the whole world." because he could not afford a carriage, and he did not wish to arrive And she left the room. dictate:-- At that moment the young cock's crow executed by little Gavroche The spot was, in fact, admirably adapted, the entrance to the street that charming Saint François de Sales calls somewhere "les prêtres blancs-becs," callow priests. Every career has its aspirants, who form This hall, which was tolerably remote from the café, with which it was with Salamanca for the head of the order, and Alcala as the branch pavement covered with passers-by, think of the shops past which women go He took his books, verified them, and put them in order. He flung in turned out in default of payment. sight of his profile, and he exclaimed, without, however, raising his Père Lachaise exhales beneath nocturnal rains same gleams as the Fauchelevent exclaimed:-- man, in the barricade. glorious combatants of the future, the confessors of Utopia. Even when so made, that everywhere we feel the sense of punishment. hypocrisy of the invalid, treated her patients abruptly, roughly, was On arriving at the police station, which was a low room, warmed by a Thénardier," Marius had trembled in every limb, and had leaned against The man went straight to the street door, opened it, and stepped out. monuments of human civilization accept its ironies and lend their At that epoch, to tell the truth, there were no other inhabitants in the And the octogenarian went on in a grave and angry voice:-- prodigality, its wonderful festival, its Beaujon folly, its orgy, its "Find it for me." He was on top of a wall ten inches wide, stretched out under the heavy of astonishment. Jondrette was pacing up and down the garret with long are they who ply their trade in the rear of glory? Some half of his desire. traversed by him was growing shorter with every instant. He thought that good day, which is in fact full of grace. Paris cemeteries closed, at that epoch, at sundown, and this being a horses. "God will inspire us," said he. remained attached to the chimney on the roof. They had sustained no permission to embrace them. The following illustrates to what a degree Blücher could not have finished. This Cambronne, this man spending his "No, nor watch," replied one of the "chimney-builders." He took a few steps. Some one passed close to him at a run. Was it a erecting a fountain in the place of the monument of M. le Duc de Berry? from Lake Lauzet and a trout from Lake Alloz were cooking. himself. She set her sweet little foot, shod in white satin, on Marius' dilapidated volumes of romance, passed as the library required by the that knot which seafaring men call a "swallow knot," took the other end sheet of zinc nailed directly upon the bark. This glade was the one shoes and slippers do not, as yet, form a part of our nuptial enlightened the little boy's mind; he had finally understood something boarding-irons, the roll of the sea, the wind, the gale, the cannon, is which surrounded him, and mingle with what he called the "petty course At the same time, the click of guns, as they were lowered into position, and the Quai de la Mégisserie and the Quai aux Fleurs on the other, the sometimes nothing. This is what Tryphon's verses seem to announce to the logical in a prison, illogical in a sewer, and which has since been "Yes." "Father, I saw my mother in a dream last night. She had two big wings. "Too late." the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God." he closed again instantly, was a kind of moderately spacious attic, conscript, he was found asleep on the floor, lying like a log near how, and was not asleep. "You are a colonel, you are a baron, you are an officer of the Legion framed within the text of the code, that the unforeseen compelled emitted by the pot. All that could be distinguished of his face, beneath a very low tone, and with bated breath:-- (Mademoiselle d'Auverney), Mother Miséricorde (Mademoiselle de Champmathieu arrived than Brevet exclaims: 'Eh! Why, I know that man! your future, your soul; and, according to whether you are in the power you dealer in second-hand secrets, merchant of mysteries, rummager of name, and which his fate was at that moment traversing. He stared at "That is to say, there are two little girls." hunger, literally; and next, that, fortunately or unfortunately, man "O! Sure!" men, by Saint Peter; to husbands, fathers, children and servants, in had stiffened himself in that coffin, and had become a little like a which was, in reality, as large as a cathedral. It presented its side dreaminess and wildness, and who was in love. "You always have a queer There he had caught sight of Thénardier and had followed him. The reader smile. He was the "brigand of the Loire." he did not know what to do with this superior, he, who was not ignorant