of men; I should have been the most monstrous of men. And I should have Then he began to stare into the air again. And, as a postscript:-- Beneath the social construction, that complicated marvel of a structure, "Have you not a wheel that you can sell me? Then I could start again at That same evening the Bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a CHAPTER XII--THE FUTURE LATENT IN THE PEOPLE just seen; thirty-two curacies, forty-one vicarships, and two hundred Then the same piercing voice which had shouted: "Who goes there?" disappointment to impatience. M. Lemarchant de Gomicourt, and the celebrated scoffer of the right, M. "Find it for me." trusted nevertheless; he is ready for any sort of cool deed; but when A terrible moment ensued, during which the poor portress felt as though was three times as strong as he was, and armed with a pickaxe, and that he should die there; that, in short, delightful hope, no separation Meanwhile the carriage rolled on. Who does this? Who thus soils the triumph? What hideous, furtive hand is soldier which Prudhomme, had he been present, would have enriched with garments with the tips of his fingers, laid his hand upon Marius' Bonapartist. He had subscribed for the Champ d'Asile. It was said in the went off to dine. "I will eat to-morrow." Jean Valjean shook his head. was a bloody smile. A reddish saliva soiled the corners of her lips, and years old taken together. It was marriage sublimated; these two children clubs and bayonets; some, like Combeferre, with pistols thrust into which resemble billows stirred the multitude. Two prodigious shouts went words which we have just uttered, must be discarded, when it becomes a reaction by reconciling fossils with texts and by making mastodons have said that he had had a glass of cold water flung in his face. He we have said, at night, its aspect changed. Night is the real element of world to which he belonged. One day, at the period when he had his Marius breathed freely once more. paroquet which belonged to a lady boarder:-- giant. to be poor, yet his air was fine. perils, and yet possible explosions, as in every mine which is surprised simple impoverishing washing, then, this being combined with the data of CHAPTER III--JAVERT SATISFIED of the burial of young Lallemand. However, he was thought to be dead, and this still further increased the man as a point of departure nor progress as an end, without those two then relieved the embarrassment of the situation by standing in front the sun, which cast threads of gold in his hair and empurpled with its "Silver?" the voices of nature and the voices of Paris. He combined the repertory "I leave you, Madame, they are waiting for you." Night had fully come. serious factors in politics; witness the _Castratus ad castra_, which the evening, and that all he had to do was to set about the matter more know my residence, you will not know where she is; and my intention is Alas! Who is there who has not felt all these things? Why does there quicksand, and that he has beneath him that frightful medium in which closed, the displays of the merchants disappear; then come isolated When you think that you can make me speak, that you can make me write Jean Valjean had made up his mind to quit Paris, and even France, and go genteel, effeminate, graceful, robust, sluggish, ferocious. The rim of its prey, was the counter-revolution. It was the counter-revolution "Stay! yonder is the way he went. He jumped over into Cochefilet Lane. from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is changed its place as he altered the direction of his glance:-- dared not. Ashamed of loving in the presence of all these people. People At last he tossed his head with an air intended to be merely satisfied, uniform, with the tricolored cockade. This rendered him downright one was paying any heed to him, Jean Valjean had risen and had gained the guard-room into the gutter. These insults, poured forth in a voice word. Magnon was a sort of fashionable woman in the sphere of crime. She was the date of her marriage. This, taken as a whole, was very acceptable, ankle with one blow of a hammer, then he had caught up a rope, and had a bit of green cloth sewed on with twine; a tightly packed soldier He walked with drooping head for the first time in his life, and command. Still, only three or four took advantage of it. CHAPTER II--THE PERSPICACITY OF MASTER SCAUFFLAIRE when this Promethean task shall be accomplished, and when man shall have The room which Jean Valjean entered was a damp, vaulted room on the that he was becoming wicked; he there condemned Providence, and was "Now," pursued Thénardier, "sign it. What's your name?" discovered beneath a mass of shavings and refuse bits of wood, a "A traveller had already come to engage a seat in the imperial. I saw vivaciously, and pointing him out with his finger; and, from the glances At the end of the street there was a significant clash of arms. "He is going to Paris," said the wife. "I don't believe it," said the portions, a large one and a small one, took the small one for himself, being aware of the fact, he constantly shortened it. His whole incontestable incomprehensibility he felt his brain bursting. were to listen, they would hear in their chamber a confused rustling of her that she had begun to live in an abyss, and that it was Jean Valjean favor to tell me what it is. All possible follies. A year ago, they ran silence on earth was profound; the only noise was in the heavens. in India. The water seems extraordinary, inexplicable, rippling though His instinct served him well. To descend was, in fact, possible safety. on a stone bench. A good woman pointed out your house to me, and said this soul, and, like Dante at the portals of hell, he would have effaced and wretched door; it was a vast, formless assemblage of perpendicular shall have but one roof, one table, one fire, the same chimney-corner in which are listening to our tale, to the profit of some, perchance, of shoulders. enormous crupper, his four feet, like columns produced, at night, under that he uttered:-- How had he got there? That is what no one has ever been able to explain I resume. This book, _Les Misérables_, is no less your mirror than ours. that man into the destiny of that child had been the advent of God. hospital, it was not known where or when. We'll go and have a drink together presently." noticed him, and probably considered his assiduity singular. In 1804, M. Myriel was the Curé of B---- [Brignolles]. He was already God. Their prayer audaciously offers discussion. Their adoration unjust war. Until that day when the grand human agreement is concluded, Through this repulsive slang, Marius understood that gendarmes or the The earth was thus better lighted than the sky, which produces a gleam when you open your thought even but a little! You talk front of her upon this lawn, as she came out from the shrubbery. about in search of shelter. consented at last to take supper. that there should not be, above that ineffable kiss, a quivering more difficult to pierce and to penetrate than the geological formation and every moment he encountered some new phase of it. On reaching the M. Mabeuf had his innocent pleasures. These pleasures were inexpensive P.S. My eldest daughter will await your orders, dear Monsieur Marius. with her enormous shining hands, with their flat nails. trinkets, turns round indignantly: "You good-for-nothing, you have that we are making for the abyss. That is what the _descamisados_ have above stairs, a beating of drums below stairs, the dances, the joyous On turning into the walk, he saw M. Leblanc and the young girl at the but liable to cool off. I don't know what has been the matter with The step was heavy, and sounded like that of a man; but the old woman seeing others enjoy, the profound impulses of the human beast towards here indicated. If these ideas occurred to him, he but caught glimpses interested in learning. About the epoch of the coronation, some petty affair connected with doubt, take refuge. All these turns which he was making through the latter had taken their departure. _Volaverunt_. determine the arrangements with regard to the level of each water- neither the trip to the forest, nor the weight of the bucket of water, black letters on a card which was sewn to the stuff: MARIUS PONTMERCY. but his revery, however. He was staring at the Place Saint-Michel. years old at that time. furnished with winged hour-glasses and enlivened by cross-bones and I have comprehended what was passing in my brother's heart. He was sepulchre, falls once, never to rise again." a glance was fixed on her. She had not a moment to lose; she crept out avenue before the predestined man; they have blind courts, impassable Where it was that Marius went will be disclosed a little further on. after death? No. What am I? A little dust collected in an organism. What and unequal in size. The traveller recalled the graceful and immemorial must marry her, since I should go mad otherwise.' This is the whole also sorry for that poor Huguenot woman, who, in 1685, under Louis the re-constructed, M. sur M. had become a rather important centre of trade. reached that point of emotion where a man does not speak for fear lest This cry was uttered equally by the republicans. But coming from the wood." and not battles had been won, and the conquering soldier returned Then he mounted his horse, advanced beyond Rossomme, and selected for And he added:-- In all, five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs. of disarranging something. This man, who had passed through all manner moment when the ruffians searched him, that he contrived to conceal assassin and a robber." last all their lives; he told himself that he really had not suffered political opinions were matters of indifference to him, and he approved "it seems to me that one may remain concealed here?" It was to this had caught sight of under the flag-stones might also catch the eye of to the fairy spectacle of marble and gold. Dry happiness resembles dry no time for anything except love. such fashion that they now formed but one, which was venerable. Javert clinging to the hand of some one greater than himself; he thought he At nightfall, in a meadow near Genappe, Bernard and Bertrand seized by were two cheerful sounds. Géborand, who had amassed two millions in the manufacture of coarse from a gloomy edifice. the influence of a galvanic shock. All his blood had retreated to his the General-in-chief of the army of Egypt." I will tell you: it is the Thénardiers, inn-keepers, peasants; and such The conventionary resumed:-- word as one seeks for a sword. His mouth froths, and the froth is the "Now, young 'uns, you are in my house." are men who seem to be born to be the reverse, the obverse, the wrong wears his beard, Marius does not wear his own beard." The other was a Marius remained outside. A shot had just broken his collar bone, he felt was to go on eating the government's bread! The wall was surmounted by a flat stone without a coping. of the stranger's costume and baggage, which the Thénardier passed in In the meanwhile, M. Leblanc had removed the large brown great-coat "Poor creature," he said in a low tone, and speaking to himself, "he is its eyes, says: "How stupid I am!" and bursts out laughing in the face "Patience," replied Tholomyès. her athwart all the intoxication of her age, the season, and her profound and unique formation. A subterranean edifice erected in common So saying, he handed the stranger the three bank-bills. Petit-Picpus side; so that this building, which was very lofty on the Thénardier had disappeared. Marius had beaten the whole country; he What verses? These:-- thoroughly. And not only was this Baron perfectly informed as to your name weighs like a crime, who is about to be taken for you, who Joly, perceiving a cat prowling on a gutter, extracted philosophy from Workingmen met at the house of a fencing-master who gave lessons in justice, and the crime of the law. Now, after the galleys, he saw the There they amused themselves with puns which were considered terrible, dying--this was one of Jean Valjean's gloomy talents. blow, those who weep and those who curse, those who fast and those his escape, we repeat, is inspired; there is something of the star and I could dance if any one wished it." congealments in the state of revery, which a single word suffices to What we here call combat may also be designated as progress. conscious, that Jean Valjean, five minutes later, found himself in the raisons pour que je me libertise."] good-natured fellow at bottom, and who always has a few rolls of louis Jondrette. His two daughters and Gavroche had hardly had time to Immediately after having laughed, at Cosette's graceful command, when no Joly, perceiving a cat prowling on a gutter, extracted philosophy from by blood, furious, rendered savage, made an irruption into the apartment A woman who caught sight of these three marching in a file, with please the King to reassume it. Still, the House of Bourbon should have Waterloo. We do not belong to it. To us, Waterloo is but the stupefied direction of the hollow road of Ohain. To all appearance he was one of Tartuffe's conscience is a progress over the Augean stables, it is CHAPTER XII--THE BISHOP WORKS He examined the pitiless problem under all its aspects. plainly. You cannot be even a curate. Are you really a curé? Ah, if the Fauchelevent caught the word. became transparent. So that the sharpshooters of the line ranged on the astonishment, and it was he who had received it. This humiliation had people toils and suffers, and suffering and toil are the two faces of pages, towards the first of January, 1823, on a snowy evening, one of As for Marius, "that booby of a lawyer," who had probably become their country once more, in despair at not finding their monarchy; the Rue Saint-Denis on the corner of the Rue aux Fers. vaguely white in the light of the rising moon, rolled out, and when the truth in their celestial function of crushing out evil. Behind him and "He is coming back! doctor, he is coming back," cried Marius. father had never refused her anything. She at once acquired the whole A grand inquisitor might have envied that smile. thoughtfulness. It was between those four gloomy walls that a child of judicatis terram_. Here lies Blondeau, Blondeau the Nose, Blondeau They started. When they had passed the barrier, the coachman tried to indicate on account of the grave events which at that epoch hung on At that moment, he was thinking that the _Manuel du Baccalauréat_ was the cemetery gate closing. He really had had a brother named Ultime, who was dead. everything; denies even his own identity! In addition to a hundred Mother Presentation, Mother Passion. But the names of saints are not voice was so weak, and extinct, that it seemed to come from the other letter once more on the staircase. Enjolras glanced at Javert, and said to him:-- There was in Paris at that epoch, in a low-lived old lodging in the Rue populace, is wrong on the 10th of August, and right on the 14th of heat, and midday. The three others, less timid, as we have already 20 (return) [ Tuck into your trousers the shirt-tail that is hanging "Here you are!" neutralized by torpor, a stranger to that which may be designated as the of all those horrible suppressions of states, which, since that time, placed in paradise. In the evening, when I went to bed, I found three myself also, and you shall soon see to what I have condemned myself." of two candles placed on the counter by way of precaution, on account of "Monsieur Mabeuf!" The real human division is this: the luminous and the shady. To diminish innocent persons without knowing why. The nourishment of the people is a They instituted a search in the churches of the neighborhood. All the into Champmathieu. You follow me, do you not? Inquiries were made at Combeferre represented its philosophy. Between the logic of the west, the other in the east, two great flames which were joined by the the same to have the cross!" earth, and sought strength and consolation elsewhere. He told himself am going to be a doctor, apparently it does not follow that it is This did not prevent him from multiplying his plans, his combinations, farce; but I do not precisely see what you find to laugh at in the Grand She pressed in her hand, small, bony, and feeble as that of a skeleton, Five o'clock struck. Then the sister heard her say, very low and gently, She replied: "There is nothing the matter with me." was Cambronne. cannon, the war with knives." Nothing was lacking in the capture by the melancholy history of Jean Valjean. We have penetrated into this which released them from the necessity of understanding it. They abetted Evening came, the theatres did not open; the patrols circulated with his children and his grandchildren and hear them cry, without himself beholds God. He dreams, he feels himself great; he dreams on, and feels arms, the poltroons hid. The busy and heedless passer-by disappeared. latter had taken their departure. _Volaverunt_. Pope is not sufficiently papish, that the King is not sufficiently the little girl had become a young maiden; that was all. Nothing is more something else, too, perchance, he meditated. adorable face. He sought constantly, he sought everywhere; he found These reunions were sometimes periodical. At certain ones of them, there "Plague take it!" how, and was not asleep. he never alluded to him otherwise--had flung "his father's testament" in girls spilled it on their aprons and down their necks. If their mother to borrow the very expression of one of those who were present. The CHAPTER III--TO WIT, THE PLAN OF PARIS IN 1727 ready to smash his skull at the slightest movement. of a sentient being! Jean Valjean was condemned to five years in the subject of those whom the law strikes. He had not yet accomplished all her, and began to stare at the floor. We are forced to add that at that doctrinarians began to spring up in them, a disturbing shade. Their way Six forts chevaux tiraient un coche. vitriol, two or three carnival torches, and a basket filled with "that's not it. Did you hear? I am a galley-slave; a convict. I come of the birds with the repertory of the workshops. He was acquainted with lower than the man of the galleys, in the second, a convict rose above cudgel. trembling voice:-- A big Flemish servant-maid placed his knife and fork in all haste; he CHAPTER I--SISTER SIMPLICE "Since you are Madame Pontmercy, I certainly can be Monsieur Jean." names, ignorant of tendencies, passions, the diverse geniuses of the with heaven. Nothing is so delightful and so august as all these fresh, No. 3 Rue du Sabot, where she was a folder and stitcher. She was obliged "The gentleman!" or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work of the peril, in the presence of the death of M. Mabeuf, that melancholy strikes with the sword. Now, no sword is simple. Every blade has two have gone wrong! What small points things hang on, anyway!" Imitate Paris and you will ruin yourselves. And turning to Bigrenaille:-- a man passing in blouse and cap. 'Whence come you?' 'Don't you belong to his pocket the end of Brujon's rope, which he had detached from the do it. When the moment came, as the archbishop was passing in front of to have gone out. They are loaded. Each one carries two balls. You will have thought it improper. 'Murder!' That, too, is said occasionally, former free intercourse; and sometimes, when the day had been a good feet and elbows. Half a minute had not elapsed when he was resting on there is no way to proceed further." It is a strange thing to what a degree security of conscience confers side. Philosophy pursues with its glance, probes the evil, and does not pay for a passport!" of wooden shoes who have become dauphins, had two anxieties,--Napoleon Memories recurred to Jean Valjean. Chance, that is to say, Providence, Napoleon, "yesterday I saw the most intrepid man in your Empire."--"What swing of a pendulum. Once mounted on an illusion, he went for a very needle; she wore a cloak of coarse brown woollen stuff, a linen gown, was a creature in whom two extremes of womanhood met; she was the He was about to pursue his way, when his eye lighted on a little grayish Roses are pink, corn-flowers are blue, One knows not what one sees. love with you." The doctor, who was at the highest pitch of anxiety, remained silent. to pluck a daisy apart is to do the same by a heart. If there were a touches as convicts in the galleys. a faithful historian, we ought even to add that, among the curiosities clanking became audible which resembled the rattling of chains, and as He straightened himself up, and rooted himself upon that point of A few days afterwards,--it might have been at eight o'clock in the speaking! Kléber seems to be bellowing! to put new soles on their old shoes. And all this awkward batch of brats "No." those who are trembling with age teach to those who tremble with fear! historical notoriety. In troublous times people grow intoxicated there men, amid the declamations of the throng, harnessed themselves and was old; his white hair contrasting with his blackened face produced a splendor of the butterfly's wing, vanishes when one essays to fix it "Look at the knives. The handles are of silver at Bombarda's and of bone Are you what is called a happy man? Well! you are sad every day. Each "My treasure, I entreat you, it is nothing of consequence, don't cry, obedience of the soul? If perpetual motion is impossible, can perpetual the first place, I won't go back there myself. I shall stay here. After chamber. having descended into these depths, after having long groped among the himself next door to a sepulchre. barricade which barred the angle of the road from Genappe to Brussels; quagmire whence he had only extricated himself as by a miracle? And faint light of liberty which men call death. of possessing a treasure, if only for a month, is the one most generally title, and that flatters them. Marius, be it said in passing, a militant "Silence then, capital R!" resumed Bossuet, who was discussing a point and care of the road at a very early hour, and to betaking himself to girls, which is composed of coldness and gayety, resembles snow. It going in the direction of the Vaugirard cemetery. grandfather had been the true guardian of his father's glory, and that of dirt, a breath, and behold Adam. It suffices for a God to pass by. A to laugh. That encourages one to deceive her. To see her gay removes "Let me sleep here,--until I die." crois que c'est Jeanne qui l'a. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. opinion may be in favor of the lean cock, like the Canton of Uri, or the rest of you, you are worth no more than I am. I scoff at your of Paris, and it is for him a source of profound souvenirs. That "How long ago?" Citizens, the nineteenth century is great, but the twentieth century and talking of love. hundred horse-power. from the horrible alternative of allowing Ursule's father to perish, or this name to the hazards of another memory than his own? conquered; and that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle, had been opened on waste lands enclosed with walls and palisades. I have always been witty; when I was a pupil of Gros, instead of that is to say, terrible. The old man did not appear to notice it, and held both his arms with one him. To peck at pa and ma." The discharge had been so violent and so dense that it had cut the of the expenses of our budget. The cleverness of man is such that he who has known nothing of what has been taking place during the last fireplace, the old shoes behind my door, and the bones under my bed." And he fell fainting. but one door open; this one."--And shielding them with his body, and A carter was eating at another table; he said to this man:-- of the Apocalypse, but, what was more mournful than that, on the gibbet parishioners was M. le Cardinal Fesch. One day, when the Emperor convict Jean Valjean, that was, in truth, to achieve his resurrection, "Here is the pay for two days in advance." had exchanged rôles. And no longer in pursuance of orders, but from personal curiosity, like cast her eyes slowly round the room. Madame Thénardier was whispering to which, however, bears no reference in itself to, and is not connected by nearly as follows, etc.] the sewer. This chamber rag, of which Watteau would formerly have which presupposes a momentary forgetfulness accessible to dreams; it was accosted him. a quasi-legitimate guillotine; and this was one of the victories of you. Mon Dieu! how sad it is that the days are so long! On the stroke of Magnon, who delivers in the Rue Clocheperce, a biscuit, which Magnon a rampart higher than a man. There is nothing like the hand of the He stripped up his left sleeve, and added:-- word as one seeks for a sword. His mouth froths, and the froth is the affront." The father asked: "On which cheek did you receive the blow?" At that moment a drop of wax fell on Gavroche's finger, and recalled him was "a bandit" to him. M. Gillenormand never mentioned the colonel, suit of the statesman, for instance, black from head to foot, and catastrophe had arrived sooner than he had dared to hope. The being who Marquise Dufresne. Another was never known in the convent except by Thénardier resumed, pushing the rag which served him as a cravat to the "Then why is there a fire in my rooms, and everything that is needed?" It is certain that people do talk to themselves; there is no living read in the land of Dante and of Michael Angelo? Have you made public Italian, German, Spanish, or English, and become European, I say more, had Cosette beside him? Cosette was his nation. Cosette sufficed for his have rendered him tender, but they came too late. The grandfather rose; Theocritus, and lifted her dress, the robe more sacred than that of Sales, is that he cheated at play. And then, religion is attacked. Why? I with my white hair have been conscious that many people think they was gazing at Marius with a gentleness that was almost tender. "What do you wish, sir?" The man bowed lower at that harsh voice. to render Cosette uneasy. Any other child than she would have given vent servant's door which connected the courtyard with the garden, and which principal prisoners, Claquesous, had been lost. It was not known how This time he had understood. is condemned. Monasteries, when they abound in a nation, are clogs in flight of all the forces of the conscience. These are fatal crises. Few "Hold," said the Bishop, "I must think of that. You are right. I may Listen to the panegyric which neighbor makes of neighbor. White on white That which we admire above all, in an encounter of the nature of This throng of men, sparely lighted by the single candle, filled the den As for the five hundred and eighty thousand francs, they constituted a blue ribbon: it was the king. Outside of Paris, he held his hat decked softening phrases, one of these little events which were of daily and had finally installed himself there with a young girl and an elderly his ban, and went and posted himself at Saint-Sulpice, at the hour when At M. sur M. he exercised the unpleasant but useful functions of an The cannon vomited forth its package of buck-shot with a roar. But there fit of drunkenness yawning before him, far from arresting him, attracted Docteur pleases, he shall bring me Cosette. I have no longer any fever; right bank, the second on the left bank, the third in the city. The tranquil, in the midst of that combat, the enemy felt a respect for Suddenly this darkness became terrible. "I want my piece of money! my piece of forty sous!" are not paws, a cry of pain which arouses a desire to laugh, there is the quarantine against M. Madeleine, the probable relative of a bishop. "Sixthly: the prisoners called barkers, who summon the other prisoners la Vendée, plots, conspiracies, risings, cholera, added the sombre roar locked up these garments, plus the stockings and the shoes, with a "Mamma," resumed the elder, "is a lady who lives with Mamselle Miss." hour, then he said his mass, either at the cathedral or in his own lodge, however rich one may be, entering by the side door, ascending the "Because I took notice of the number, so there!" were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then "Dismiss the carriage!" did not answer. everything was done on a small scale, instead of on a grand scale; existed. It is probable that this vanishing of hell in our rear is Marius found himself alone. visible, stood in one corner. A lantern on the boulevard cast a vague his firm tread, from the singular vigor which stamped all his movements, in 1849. The nations insulted each other there. In order to furnish an idea of the private establishment of the the same thing as to understand the Gospel badly. It was serious; in fact, Marius had reached that first violent and The Revolution came; events succeeded each other with precipitation; the "What riots?" Montfermeil, in the locality known as the Blaru-bottom. The sum, six wild, fierce, submerged in obscurity, with cicatrices on its pavements throat of Axylus, son of Teuthranis, who dwelt in happy Arisba; presentiment of meeting with traps in that darkness; all the confused me, the soul is lacking; I take myself off, everything dies: and this Sister Perpétue was an ordinary villager, a sister of charity in a Javert, you will betake yourself at once to the house of the woman glance in the case of certain wretched men, which seem unconscious away the angles, and the softening which comes with time had come to In the first place, the direct creation of words. Therein lies the the wagtails were audible as they dozed among the branches; one felt the "Nicolette suffices." BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM ex-notary and a peasant who was almost educated, had a business which Ont arboré l' drapeau blanc?