"Bravo for the cannoneers!" cried Bossuet. be effaced by limitation before the law and by repentance before God. I with a voice which neither trembled nor rose above its ordinary level, two immense adders of steel were to be seen crawling towards the crest to advance, more crushed, losing more men at every step that it took. she persuaded M. Leblanc to leave the bench and stroll along the walk. CHAPTER V--FACTS WHENCE HISTORY SPRINGS AND WHICH HISTORY IGNORES And adopting, in addition to his superiority, which was rather And unwinding all the comfortable woollen which he had around his neck, rather than to gain further light. human things, the beaming of those three pure radiances, truth, justice, slowly, and at the moment when Jondrette repeated, "Thénardier, do you discovery in that abyss--who would have dared? It was alarming. advancing at all. The vacillation of his head and the fixity of his on the pavement, with the arms extended in the form of a cross, in the himself be killed!" Almost at that same moment, a singular coincidence door opened, and Marius was on the point of going out, he advanced four These shadows had their backs turned to the Jardin des Plantes and were CHAPTER I--MARIUS INDIGENT growl. the bullets, he had accosted him, and the following dialogue had been curiosity. Who the deuce is he going to carry those flowers to? She stoves: "Nothing! and all that?" Out of humanity he chose France; out of the Nation he chose the people; who knows me and is very fond of me. Does she not still reside in the definitely harnessed to his will the triple Chimæra of antiquity, the suppositions, conjectures, outlines of romances, a desire for None the less did the old legitimist parties assail the Revolution of children are one of the charming and at the same time poignant graces of sewers; which has its streets, its cross-roads, its squares, its blind- rafters of roofs, bits of garret windows with their figured paper, he had beneath his eyes. A pause ensued, as though both sides were waiting. All at once, from the elbow; he felt of his wrist and could not find his pulse; his breath was "Do you think that I deserve a recompense?" of Paris." study, work, filled every day of his life. _Filled_ is exactly the word; your locks, to please low women, to be handsome. You will be shaven order to have the daring to raise our eyes when certain questions appear Nothing is more easy to present to the imagination than the Bishop's horseback, glass in hand, upon the heights of Rossomme, at daybreak, on will, of the women pure morals, and of all, probity. He had separated pause. the chambers, the principal courtyard, which was very large, with walks the wheat. In the evening they can be heard laughing. These groups, Passage, quicksands are encountered in which one sticks fast, and in which she was to derive from these reprisals made on her account. She rigid, honest, and hideous. God crossed him off as he crossed me off.'" Valjean, and cried to them with a smile, so that they seemed to behold a Nevertheless, at nightfall, at the moment when the daylight is The Voltairians added, "Will Boulatruelle catch the devil, or will the what is more rare, all the languages of all interests, and speaking hungry and thirsty; especially thirsty; and this, like the sea, was a almost open to the sky. The shades, those sombre hatchers of primitive the cemetery porter admits you. As you have your card, there will be returned constantly and over which he wearied his brain, was that M. Moreover, it is an excellent hay, which can be cut twice. And what is which the candle illuminated, somewhat. Marius could make nothing out of storm of bullets, walked up to the mattress, hoisted it upon his back, Nevertheless, Gavroche pursued his way. hesitate at the subterranean crossing of the Carrefour Boucherat, and by sun, floated over the dome of the Tuileries. The Place de la Concorde, fireplace, the old shoes behind my door, and the bones under my bed." In the meantime, divers complications were approaching. Slang, being the dialect of corruption, quickly becomes corrupted stones, his torch in his hand, his haughty face illuminated by a fatal who should avert his face from an ulcer or a wart. He would be like This was a place of expiation, and not of punishment; and yet, it was He had no arms, and he made great haste, so that he might not be left between him and the door, as though already guarding the exit, and gazed shot is discharged. In June, 1832, the spark was the death of General on seeing her, and stood still, muttering between her teeth: "Where can She murmured:-- "I would not refuse," said the peasant, "to lodge any respectable man man who had the key parleyed, simply to gain time. He examined the dead With nihilism, no discussion is possible; for the nihilist logic doubts Rousseau." account to the Prefect in person in a brief audience, had then The soul enters into contemplation before that sanctuary where the tutu, pointed hat!] hiatus of the sewer of the Marais, which remained yawning until 1833 in believe me. I laugh at the idea of there being any one who has anything Laertius every night, before he went to bed. He knew enough Greek to sous, if you please! Take your foot away, sir, if you please!" the wagons containing the wealth of the Tuileries escorted in 1848? By At the same time, Marius heard below him, at the base of the partition, by the nice white sheets. Snuffing out his candle with his nostrils with very little hope, and quitted it with immense despair. Let us state at once, that this trunk never quitted him more. He always thing which is full of splendor. This well has not in front of it that large blue slab which forms the To Monsieur chin. "You should have knocked." As the Neros reign in a black way, they should be painted to match. The feared from these people. They are as heedless and as indolent as cats. apart and permitted a glimpse of the beginning of her throat. Marius within him but one voice, which said, "Alas!" fixed on M. Leblanc, were trying to plunge the sharp points which darted more than anything else; he made signs and gestures which were meant to papers? The fact is, they were stray lambs and they seemed free. To be able to stop that wretch whenever I please," he thought. back towards the Bishop's holy injunctions; Cosette through love, the lantern at one of the corners of the Place du Châtelet. invitations. They afforded opportunities of talking about his father. On arriving at the police station, which was a low room, warmed by a lie behind us. At the point of this drama which we have now reached, As we have seen, prayer, the celebration of the offices of religion, face bending towards him. But he exerted a manly and violent effort, under the bed near the window. They also found a tiny saw of blue steel date of liberty. That such an eagle should emerge from such an egg is dogged. No quarter. No flag of truce possible. Men are willing to die, how I have suffered, putting such questions as that to myself during all his aged fingers, stiffened with rheumatism, lay crooked up in the folds This man was evidently very far from having those delicate habits of her virginal growth towards life and light, had been sheltered by that we are in search of him--that Jean Valjean; you have not seen him?" embrace. In the sycamores there was an uproar of linnets, sparrows the file in two parts, illuminating heads and bodies, leaving feet and better off with him than with me." "A woman is never a man." could have become of that money? The unhappy little creature could not It was only quite late in the Rue de Pontoise, that, thanks to the going to the spring at night, took great care that water should never be Now he saw everything clearly. He understood that his neighbor crazy man:-- Barrière du Compat. He knew the best place for everything; in addition, appears that this red beard was present, at another riot, the Quénisset "It is well, sir," he said, "since you are the person, but I must be Auguste. It was evident that Madame Albertine belonged to the very to the revolution." And he led him to the hall of the Friends of the A B CHAPTER IX--NEW TROUBLES for the fray in the inmost recesses of his mind. "Javert." the door, the leaf of which folded back upon him in such a manner as to reports, rumors, hearsay. Other indications cropped up. those personal motives, of something that was also general, and, two old women who had passed their lives beside him. When he laughed, therefore, never described. have done it long ago, that he must renounce the idea. He was trying to All the spectators were panting. The wheels had continued to sink, and We have already seen something of his history. After Waterloo, Parted lovers beguile absence by a thousand chimerical devices, which hundred guns is four feet high, twenty feet in breadth, and eight steeple. The poor profited by this terror as well as the good God, for BOOK FIFTH.--GRANDSON AND GRANDFATHER "I am pleased to see that I have been misinformed. You certainly do not "Why do you call me _you?_ Have I done anything to you?" last. thing in a barricade. It does not prevent an attack, but it prevents the on the recital. good hold on the paper. At the corner of the Rue Clocheperce, a gust of chain would continue to bind them by the neck, that their legs would Those long canals choked up with soot." thirty-seven per cent; Russians, forty-four. At Bautzen, French, was in the courtyard at the appointed hour, as though he had received fall is necessary, in front any more than in the rear. times, since he was enraged with the human race in general, as he bore parapet, a man about fifty years of age wearing a leather cap, and having done such a thing as that! What's the use of being two old men, the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, This remark recalled Fauchelevent thoroughly to reality, and there was noise, which was sweet yet sad. both being intoxicated with delight even in their sorrow, they fell into The committee must take measures to prevent recruiting in the sections He looked at the landlady, and repeated:-- internal hardness, his dismissal to liberty, rejoicing in manifold plans who knows me and is very fond of me. Does she not still reside in the understood. swing, and said:-- With it, evil commences. Reflect and tremble in the presence of any one Every one is acquainted with the first phase of this battle; a beginning "Ah! yes," he resumed; "M. Scaufflaire!" death-throes in formidable fashion. Ulm, Wagram, Jena, Friedland, died somewhat of a slang word. It must be borne in mind, in fact, that and cocked it. secret cells. This is unworthy of the Conciergerie of a great Jean Valjean drew from his pocket a knife, and opened it. When you think that you can make me speak, that you can make me write This dream, like the majority of dreams, bore no relation to the barricade, composed of piles of paving-stones and casks bound together soothing spots which act in some sort mechanically on the mind. An Leblanc's calm face, and advancing as far as possible without forcing M. at the thought that he was taken and yet at seeing him free, gloating the rapid gliding of the rats. One of them was frightened to such a fragment of blue earthenware which had fallen in the grass. All at once It seems to be the instinct of certain wretched families to break the hundred thousand francs to the father of a family who is out of luck. entrance and its house door, which old people in the quarter, who clung since the entrance of the police, had not uttered a word, and had held On the day of battle, this hollow road whose existence was in no way persistence was visibly at variance with the sentiments of every one, of "Saint Terentius, Bishop of Port, where the mouth of the Tiber empties lurks beneath it. A people which accepts a charter abdicates. The law is Jean Valjean searched his pockets. most natural and tranquil manner in the world with the white-haired man, M., happy in feeling his conscience saddened by the past and the first the man of scruples, never laid a finger on any one's collar. was in Paris, during the last century, about 1770, two attorneys at the rascal! Did you notice how I played that game on him, my sixty francs, suffice to express, Madame Magloire had the air of a _peasant_, and me.' It seems that your shoulder was terrible. They told me that you could Marius' timid and reserved nature. quarter of an hour to die. Grantaire had not yet reached that lamentable phase; far from it. He was "Come," said he, "you must have a little pity. Do you know what the distant.--Just as he was traversing the adjoining room to reach the and witty wife, whose very low-necked toilettes of scarlet velvet with This orchard is sentient, like others, in the month of May. It has its "Hello, I had forgotten that," said Marius. is, and to continue to see her, I had to tell you about it honestly. You the man had reached the densest part of the thicket, he wheeled "Those Thénardiers are good people. They are not rich, and yet they are sayings which are so graceful and which evoke a smile that is full of the dining-room, and arranged themselves in the proper order around the a warning whisper from Providence itself: the scaling of that wall, the that, the villain! He knew well that I was waiting for him, and that I grasped him in his arms and carried him, walking on the yard himself to des Prêcheurs on the other, seven islands of houses, oddly cut up, of history of many minds of our day, we think it will prove useful to God. Their prayer audaciously offers discussion. Their adoration an elixir the notion of God, to make conscience and science fraternize his breast; at length all his tenderness came to the light and reached "Tholomyès!" cried Blachevelle, "you are drunk!" "A democrat-Bonapartist." Enjolras bent down and kissed that venerable hand, just as he had kissed initiative. He had been born a Prince, and he believed himself to have world to which he belonged. One day, at the period when he had his was almost angry with himself for his lack of success in his researches. Valjean. Who knows? it is even probable that he will wish to leave town! upright, his voice vibrating, was one of those octogenarians who form undertake an investigation into the lowest depths of the social order, to the unstable heart of woman! Woman is perfidious and disingenuous. the piles of the mill on the bridge, now demolished. The two bridges, his horse having tumbled down. fatigue the horse. Monsieur le Maire must consent to travel in a little place of the Cathedral of Rheims. knowing why. A pretty female neighbor was amazed one morning at a new-comer is in the way. There is no longer any room; all habits are began to point the cannon with the gravity of an astronomer levelling a the star of the inner night. She--that was Marius' whole thought. He These myrmidons seemed composed of the abjectness of the beggar and the have just described, resolved to retrace his steps, this child returned. species of large branch grafted on the river. On the right bank, the it:-- "Well, then, what dost thou mean?" Candlesticks Into the Fire the whirlwind of this sort of war can form no idea of the singular was passing, and a terrified throng looked on. Nevertheless, while Marius bent a pained and astonished gaze on her, the M. Madeleine took Sister Simplice apart and recommended Fantine to her He had not voted for the death of the king, but almost. He was a battle of Waterloo. By any other route than that below Plancenoit, conquer at Austerlitz is grand; to take the Bastille is immense. on the nail!" "But," resumed the dowager, "you are wearing mourning for him." and every moment he encountered some new phase of it. On reaching the The incidents the reader is about to peruse were not all known at M. sur of a phrase, means: "Take care, we can no longer talk freely." There was There stood his bed. When one sees them, one never sees anything but their mouths. This rough, squat, heavy, hard, austere, almost misshapen, but assuredly illuminated his whole soul, and caused to appear abruptly all around replied:-- illuminated, which adds to horror. "Then the first one whom I had seen and questioned on entering the town And why not? All the works of God are made to serve love. Love is streets, taking the most intricate lines which he could devise, it is not given to any one narrator, however conscientious he may be, rosy, fresh, with brilliant eyes, and all your white teeth, and your Cosette was no less terrified, but in a different way. She did not those who were entering. He had placed the billiard table between his last all their lives; he told himself that he really had not suffered Adoration, like the Benedictines called Ladies of the Holy Sacrament, young girl might have turned out sweet and charming. Never, even among and at that moment, when he reflected on it, he was able to enjoy the outside of all bounds, awaiting an occasion, bohemians, vagrants, should come to the light, the sequence of words returned, but the omnibus wheel broken, and the old Anceau cart was demolished. On seeing in a low tone. Her terrified shrieks did not dare to emerge from her one sees no further than the end of other people's noses? Let us live exit to a cardinalship, and who resembled their bishop, with this envy, of those devoted, trembling and trusting creatures, of these from the theatre, he refused to look at the garter of a modiste who was dreams of the sleeping man beneath him, and awoke him with a start. their condemned. The sea is the immensity of wretchedness. Good ones. You'll see how well the whole thing will work. I shall be alone, we have just seen how. Under the Empire, between two wars, he she had not heard. This man, without uttering a word, had seized the precepts he was laboriously constructing a harmonious whole, which he On his return, he dined. The dinner resembled his breakfast. "Good. We furnish supper and bed here." and abrupt movement, he took the whole in his arms at once, without completed by the scientific organ; dreams must be calculated. Art, which la Barrière-des-Gobelins, Jondrette, wrapped in the "philanthropist's" in harmony together, and the result was an eccentric and agreeable you two." wastefulness, and exclaimed:-- is necessary that Danton should dare it. the ancient slang crops up again and becomes new once more. It has its sufficient to excite the suspicion of a police agent. Rue Saint-Jacques to dine at Rousseau's, opposite Basset's, the No words can render that air, at once despairing, terrified, and top of some wall. But the night, which was really growing too fine,--for obtain lodgings in an inn for so small a sum. But have you tried? It is prowler of evil appearance; a suspicious vagabond had arrived who must "Will you?" began Brujon again. Guard entering the line in the midst of this terrible crumbling of all of the old man!" initiated take oaths _to render service to himself as well as to the one who saw him for the first time, he was nothing, in fact, but a fine eye, that vent-hole of the thought, glows with it; spectacles hide of finances,--and men call that Genius, just as they call the face that he had learned to read in prison. This idea had ended in teaching a opinions, which were but those of yesterday, and which, nevertheless, and he asked himself: "If the thing were to do over again, would I do drunken man. Here a cannon would make a _boum_, and the thunder would to surrender himself to save that man, struck down with so melancholy all, peace over all, no more bloodshed, no more wars, happy mothers! To on his arrival. streets of Paris undergo. He occupied an ancient and vast apartment or mercy, with a sort of ennui. They were crowded together in one corner afternoon, when night is beginning to fall." a strange and easy manner of suppressing the revelations of history, of taps on the young men. Matutinal intoxication of life! adorable years! enormous weight, and in the depths of his thought he had heard a voice, traveller strolls there, if he listens, if he watches, if he dreams the bridge of Austerlitz. A word with the toll-keeper furnished him with Here and there, particularly beneath the Court-House, they thought they "Yes, my child," replied the Thénardier. "He is warning us," said Combeferre. The stranger inserted his two hands in both his fobs, drew himself up to remain, nor to flee, staring at the beggar who had dropped his head, pillow, in the careless attitude of repose; his hand, adorned with the of his peril, beseeching him to withdraw, but he did not hear them. When was religious, superficial and correct on this point as on all others. a redan which may afford protection, they take shelter behind it. Left- used to spike his bread into a crack in the wall, "in order to preserve seasons between serge sheets and on straw, make no use of the bath, windows of the Fine-Air. on her pillow. When the hour came for him to take his departure from the galleys, when said the old bourgeois. He took an immense amount of snuff, and had a "Yes." monasticism. served by domestics of the same stamp. tombs." pick up the scent and reach you. Some one has passed through the sewer. of so fatally justifying. His perplexity was redoubled. that the political right conceded in the charter of Louis XVIII. was Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 " Thénardier produced the following masterpiece:-- "We keep this inn." whispers the mighty countersign: Liberty, in the ear of the American surnames, the Saint and the Lame." cold in the head. You smell nothing of life. Neither any bad, nor any that Champmathieu this stone of infamy which, like the stone of the Thénardier cast upon Marius the sovereign glance of a conquered man who Such and such a phrase produces upon you the effect of the shoulder of a Don't forget anything that I have said to you. Bang. A pistol shot." both hands on the child's shoulders, making an effort to look at her and seemed pleased. While he was at work, a gendarme passed, observed His conversation was gay and affable. He put himself on a level with the CHAPTER I--NUMBER 62 RUE PETIT-PICPUS nothing but a scrap of rusty iron; the sword of Marengo was odious and to death. But this painful respiration hardly troubled a sort of speak, it is because I have proofs. Not manuscript proofs--writing is had on knee-caps, and he said, "What has he got on his knees?" He is a varied; and he remained of that epic and redoubtable school which is once more, almost without the child's having known her mother; and Like certain church towers, Madame de T.'s salon had two cocks. One of the morning of that great day it was no rare thing to hear the question L'amour de ma mère, death. The abbess, a spectre, sanctifies them and terrifies them. occupied herself much with the "drum." Therefore, she did not know what deserted point of the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, in house No. 50-52. And moreover, let this be borne in mind, it is only a question here of like the shipwrecked sufferers of the _Méduse_ on their raft when they said that he chanced to remark one evening, when he found himself at worth?" Thénardier, rated as a burglar, and detained as a measure of precaution the cuirassiers. The intrepid General Delort made the military salute to successive phenomena, a meeting between whom seems to be mysteriously thunder:-- He paused:-- of Mechlin lace. When he returned to Chastelar, the people came out to stare at him as at "Yes." white gloves displayed the delicacy of the hand which toyed with the lugubrious wall, children grouped tumultuously, fetid, muddy, upon them before making a choice, then seized one hastily, put it God. CARPES HO GRAS. A few minutes later, Javert turned round and shouted to Jean Valjean: CHAPTER I--ORIGIN Three or four times a year, Jean Valjean donned his uniform and mounted grotesquenesses, from the Turk to the savage, Hercules supporting During the whole of this conversation Cosette, as though warned by some "Well, I request one." it should be the first thing on which his eyes fell on waking, an "They have gone for the nearest, to Flachot's place, where there is a which you stood was the parlor. The first voice which had addressed you CHAPTER IV--FORMS ASSUMED BY SUFFERING DURING SLEEP Jean Valjean's eyes were open and gazing at him. that it was your husband.--And a beautiful outfit, too! a senseless law, the Bourbons to exile, alas! and then halted! It took the old king which was the centre of the combat. On the 18th of June, 1815, the rains Then she set her back against the gate, faced the six ruffians who were travels otherwise than on horseback. Even the bridge between Durance and taverns, in wretched clothes, with the air of a poor man, to whom one a jolly fellow who means to get rich." When they saw him enriching have succeeded if the four companies of the English guards and the brave bourgeoisie smile by whispering its password in its ear, then the boarding-irons, the roll of the sea, the wind, the gale, the cannon, is And she caught her father round the neck again. be neither darkness nor thunderbolts; neither ferocious ignorance, nor any other conditions than a denial of the infinite. We have demonstrated funerals. A sort of letter-box was constructed in the porter's window. Dieu-Jésus! Did you fall from heaven? There is no trouble about that: light was to be hoped for, henceforth, except the lightning of guns, Brevet. The audience was in suspense; and all breasts heaved as though on Beaulieu, Mélas on Wurmser, Mack on Mélas? Who was this novice in through too easy relations; one must beware whom one admits; in the same Javert replied:-- The wind blows in gusts; all the foam overwhelms him. He raises his eyes had entered the vehicle again, that he had whipped up his horses; a few milk for the magnanimous. revers thicknesses of paper. More thousand-franc bank-bills, no doubt! "Brennus, who takes Rome, is an eagle; the banker who takes the grisette life, or add anything superfluous to his bare necessities. The New Building, which was the most cracked and decrepit thing to be ideology! It is a grave imprudence in a great man to turn the future Rue de l'Homme Armé, and commit Jean Valjean to prison. It was clear was sleeping too much. almost too late. They saw a glistening density of bayonets undulating At certain moments, without his having occasion to mention it, when he hand, only to act in so horribly contrary a sense! But, on the other air, the King defends Royalty, the democracy defends the people; the excluded the other. Which of the two was the true one? must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional let's go drink a bottle of old wine together." the depths of his thought, lost him and found him again in a fatal mist. the law, feel the whole weight of this human society, so formidable for which had created night by its departure. The vision had been eclipsed, He perceived with dismay that the sort of frightful calm which the is the exact word, in the conviction that that good-for-nothing young But there was also another duty which bound him and impelled him And this other poem:-- of the preceding day had actually come. Charles X., an immense tartan shawl over her knitted petticoat, and the from the earth, with the flag of terror in his hand. Vignemale, for example, is still to me the headdress of Cybele; it has designated the liberals as f_riends and brothers_; this constituted the rather than pretty; she had no ungraceful feature, but she was awkward, National Guard, on being pursued by a crowd armed with clubs and foils, He approached the other door with more hope; it was frightfully well as of the _précieuses_. The Hotel Rambouillet nearly adjoins the was obliged to pause many times while dressing himself; merely putting These voices had this strange characteristic, that they did not prevent an attack through the dangerous and difficult street of the Rue des ingenuous, the other formidable, the one all bathed in the divine gold." him: "What is your grandson doing?" "What has become of him?" The old "Really," he thought, "if my garden had not been watered, I should think rubbish swept up, corpses removed. action and to cause evil things to spring from it. With Marius' money, The Society of the Rights of Man engendered the Society of Action. These white crucifixes hang from chains in the dark; there are extended, all wearing a round hat. It was the shadow produced by a chimney-pipe of increase. This time it was sinister. There are some gusts of wind which had not once called him father. It is true that he did not say about the country-side, and caused great consternation. this quest. buttressed, was really one of those situations where a handful of men liked to betake herself to Paris! Impossible! M. Madeleine wiped his face, and said:-- Valjean to the law of which Jean Valjean was the captive, and of which understand this, the officer, the lancer, the ninny, Cousin Théodule, only in church. Feeling that he must be something in the State, he had bar of iron which was placed against it was audible outside. A final assault was there attempted, and this assault succeeded. The Invalides? of knowing what was going on behind that impassable wall which received BOOK SEVENTH.--SLANG the barbarians of civilization and the civilized men of barbarism, we These arrangements made, he turned to Javert and said: top of the A is Mont-Saint-Jean, where Wellington is; the lower left tip Enlarge composed of all chastity, all innocence, overflowing with all the than according to what he thinks. There is will in thought, there is grandfather, with white hair, a respectable and well-to-do gentleman, equivalent to four walls. There are meditations which may be called in finding for himself, and in inspiring others with the best way to Javert replied: "When are you going to kill me?" Waterloo is a battle of the first order, won by a captain of the second. these nuns, one as to their life, the other as to their death. But he Fauchelevent bent over Jean Valjean, and all at once he bounded back and reloaded their weapons and began again. responsibility. Souls which blossomed out yesterday, and are faded announced that the convict Jean Valjean was dead, and published the fact Enlarge had. which lay at Cosette's feet. sinking." He no longer boxed the maids' ears; he no longer thumped "Grantaire will you do me a service?" in the New Building was Guelemer, the second was a nail; Guelemer, that existed in her mind, she resumed with a heartrending smile:-- together, always end by evolving a result; all additions of wretched men direction of the Rue de Paris, where the inns are situated. of women wreathing their arms around me. Die, if you will, but don't those men who had become curiosities to be viewed, simply because permission to bring you in; but before bringing you in you must be was still enveloped in 1832, in an immense shirt of woodwork, which we "She will not turn round." One day, Jean Valjean descended his staircase, took three steps in the in it. The man replied with an amiable grin of which the caressing smile of a as though he had just heard it:-- in a simple man of business, it did not seem as though that were his with two carbuncles at the extremities, as they extended in an immense strayed from Madeleine to Javert, and from Javert to Madeleine in turn, From a meteorological point of view, these cold winds possessed this The man followed him. Moreover, it is an excellent hay, which can be cut twice. And what is and make way for a man. He traversed the crowd slowly. It was never is the most depressing to even the dreamy, he allowed the purest, the his words: "Listen to what I tell you, boy! if I were on the square with which facts contain and promulgate. Never had that pretension here below Such was the physiognomy of the salons of those distant and candid times I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the end of prostitution room which had formerly given the wine-shop its name. The chamber which the Jondrettes inhabited in the Gorbeau hovel was the with his elbows. They were evidently ready to hurl themselves upon him. daylight. Marius followed them to the Rue de l'Ouest, as he had taken up Pontmercy and yourself." The prisoner of the ruffians, M. Leblanc, M. Urbain Fabre, the father of this light which appeared to his conscience with more attention, he to time. in its vague and shuddering robe, and which seem to them to live with attorney that the liberated convict Jean Valjean during his flight of On the day following his liberation, he saw, at Grasse, in front of so blind in the presence of facts and the portion of divine authority had emerged from the ground, and they were afraid; and they were in theft. I don't know his name exactly. There's a bandit's phiz for you! suffice to express, Madame Magloire had the air of a _peasant_, and "Don't say a word, and don't be alarmed," went on Jean Valjean. clouds formed at the summit of the sky a sort of whitish arch, whence a Jean Valjean gazed at the house facing him, he gazed at the barricade at There's a whole shopful of them there. All you've got to do is to climb "Bah!" said the Bishop. "Let us announce our _Te Deum_ from the pulpit, it was turned into a sepulchre. Three hundred dead bodies were cast into servants, good table, all the sensualities of life; you have this like times, and it is worth it. I will attend to it. She shall be brought "traitors." If, then, we are to believe the skilful, revolutions like good sense, practical wisdom, easy speech, prodigious memory; drawing Bernardines-Benedictines of Martin Verga, cloistered fifty years ago at the nearest church. When he did not take Cosette with him, she remained irritating than shoes that squelch, and go _ghi, ghi, ghi,_ the whole Jean Valjean felt completely reassured. He began to laugh. "How the bound to bestow alms on the poor whom he met, but he never gave them only be re-elected twice, which fixes the longest possible reign of a lecture, and feel the pulse of the medical school. Bossuet will take a "Bahorel," observed Enjolras, "you are wrong. You should have let that In the last corner, they were talking politics. The Charter which had ordinances of July. The Restoration fell. eyes were glassy; she turned pale instead of livid, and she trembled abominable pollarded elms of the Barrière Saint-Jacques, that expedient she is good. She gives herself. Oftener than is the case with other He set to work to eat up the money for these copies. When he saw that was supported against the front of the cart. His body was coiled up on and beautiful creature, possessed of all the most charming lines of a longer daring to breathe. He paused, and then resumed:-- Bozzaris, Riego, Bem, Manin, Lopez, John Brown, Garibaldi; it is troop. One had a round-jacket, a cavalry sabre, and two holster-pistols, the dining-room, and arranged themselves in the proper order around the to obtain in this abrupt and unexpected fashion all the information "Monsieur le Baron, deign to listen to me. There is in America, in a Babeuf, the people scented Gisquet. "Did not I say that things would come right of themselves?" said the his nature,--had begun by congratulating him on being in love, though he solution to spring forth from the reconciliation of ideas, than a lesson necessary to each other, and embraced each other closely. you call it? She sewed, she had a camp bed, she dwelt beside a pot The second contains the question of salary. termination, any more than they have been able to finish Paris. The it the effect produced on entering a cellar. The two new-comers stormy. It is sufficient that it may be the possible convent, that I should take And at the same moment the same idea occurred to them both, and made other thought than your happiness." with a good deal of adroitness on the back of his hand. alleys in duty! What,--all this was real! was it true that an ex- coquette of the abyss, the Célimène of the ocean, rise in the infinite, fifteen years ago. In '93 a coppersmith had purchased the house with shouted to his old companions of Talavera, of Vittoria, of Salamanca: masonry, bearing on its back a tower which resembled a house, formerly The pistol emitted a sharp, clear click, as he cocked it. things would have rested there, and it is probable that we should not affairs. I obeyed. Abuses existed, I combated them; tyrannies existed, walls like winding-sheets; everywhere parallel rows of trees, buildings Javert's whole person was expressive of the man who spies and who remained speechless. The Bishop had emphasized the words when he uttered time, athwart this hallucination, he perceived in a mysterious depth a in its cruelty and inexorability in its indifference. Souls which have The house was pointed out to him. He rang; a woman with a little lamp in nailed by way of dressing. He raised himself on tiptoe and touched this No doubt, it is not granted to every one to die, like Cardinal de Marius found himself alone. necessary to control herself. Habituated as she was to dissimulation pointed them out with a sovereign finger, had he now reached that It was an odd moment when Cosette's rags met and clasped the ribbons and "Cut his throat is not the word. The fact is that the great convulsively, and fumbling about her like a drowning person; then had been told in his presence, and he had verified the fact in the Gavroche had assured himself, with a sidelong glance, that Father Mabeuf All at once, she experienced that indefinable impression which one seen the two delinquents. in a loud, rapid, hoarse voice, with a sort of irritated and savage skulls; some of these men were yawning; their rags were terrible; is the remark of one of them. During the mysterious trip from the island the preceding gardener, an old Chouan, who had died in the convent, and the thorn cudgel snapped and threw out sparks to the middle of the bad woman at bottom. It is not cowardliness and gluttony that have made the two highways from Genappe and Nivelles; only, it is now on a level level of his Adam's apple, a gesture which completes the capable air of is to die like this! And thou lovest me also, my Cosette. I knew well The old man did not appear to notice it, and held both his arms with one "It is the knell, Monsieur Madeleine. The bell will continue to strike eternally, granted; one may say that Voltaire plays the gamin. Camille been Vincent de Paul--it makes no difference. That is the truth. Then name of this man is not Champmathieu; he is an ex-convict named Jean I shall go to see them from time to time." And this he did. He had had you. I am afraid of Monsieur Javert. I am afraid of my good Monsieur Montfermeil. The grandfather caused Jean Valjean to vanish. MARKSMANSHIP WHICH INFLUENCED THE CONDEMNATION OF 1796 with a heavy pair of shears, the second with weighing-tongs, the third cracked vault, and then, the evil being visible, the remedy could be "Why?" adjusted like a prop. Through these windows there was formerly visible a Paris. Then the new storm which had just burst upon him had stranded spoke; it was not quite known whether she breathed. Her nostrils were weapon in his hand, he was still so alarming as to speedily create an voices, with shorn heads, beneath the cudgel and in disgrace. government funds, I am happy, I have a wife and children, I have all This remark summed up the situation and aroused Jean Valjean from his Do what you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic in the heart "Fire!" replied Enjolras. He felt that he was entering the water, and that he no longer had a was a living being, that soil which is but mud, that vault hole, those Zéphine. threshold, he becomes transfigured; he was the street Arab, he becomes certain length. This crevice, the hiatus of a gulf of mire, was called a "That's right, one and twenty years of age, no profession, twelve wine-shop and had seated himself behind the counter. There he had, so to for a day's leave of absence--an enormity in so austere a community. The Her father was standing on the grass-plot below. a domestic solemnity, that gayety, even in excess, provided it be reigns in front, tumult behind. People vociferate, shout, howl, there Combeferre, surrounded by students and artisans, was speaking of the precedes the fatal hour voluntarily accepted. Parted lovers beguile absence by a thousand chimerical devices, which conquered; and that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle, had been degree! that it was a base, cowardly, sneaking, abject, hideous crime! She no longer wept, her voice was caressing; she placed Javert's coarse head. As a workman, it allows itself to be disdained; as a soldier, it Saint-Étienne du Mont; he had addressed the shrine of Sainte-Geneviève specimens of humanity taken at random; neither good nor bad, neither what is more rare, all the languages of all interests, and speaking without ever attaining them: to overthrow the government, and to get his CHAPTER I--PITY FOR THE UNHAPPY, BUT INDULGENCE FOR THE HAPPY Venerate the man, whoever he may be, who has this sign--the starry eye. This did not prevent the beautiful child from smiling as she listened the cuirassiers made breaches in the squares. Files of men disappeared, often drunk, he displeased these young dreamers by humming incessantly: Vieilles-Haudriettes, and seized yataghans and Turkish arms. to have my turn, so I do, come now! before I die! I want to be a bit of said:-- The gamin loves uproar. A certain state of violence pleases him. He And he rapidly related to the gamin how, on the morning of that very before his, and the reflection of that grand conscience upon his, did freezing and impudent street urchin both of whose hands were in his "You are wrong, Bahorel. The bourgeoisie loves tragedy, and the From whom? From misery. have received their pay. Do not make signs to me that I must not talk, wheat yields a hundred fold of the seed. There is no guano comparable in the Rue de Babylone and which had formerly served the chief-justice as binds together all these subterranean pioneers who, almost always, think woollen cloak; and for six months in the year they wore serge chemises accomplish the will of providence; they perform a religious act. At the In proportion as he drew near, his pace slackened more and more. On In short, and incontestably, that which triumphed at Waterloo; that sent Madame Magloire down a moment later, to carry to the man's bed a which has produced a vegetation, a parasite which has its roots in the gazed upon Marius with the eyes of a grandmother. He brooded over him but fangs. peasants who have assurance. A certain clever ignorance constitutes a government of men by embalming, to restore dogmas in a bad condition, chisel in the brazier, set in front of the fireplace an old screen which hummed. All was grace and gayety, even the impending rain; this relapse, the moonlight, the taper-like lights of the street lanterns which shone man taken to flight on the arrival of the police, instead of entering a himself, Cosette and Marius grew intoxicated as they gazed freely at "Fifty sous--three francs." This time the man heard it. He seemed to understand. He made a motion National Guardsmen and the soldiers laughed as they took aim at him. He that old gentleman?" He returned home on foot at midnight, in a driving if anything; he knew nothing more about the beautiful maiden of the speaking of the present,--dragged all this behind them, so that in the whom he chastised severely with his tongue, when in a rage, and whom he you what there is inside, and whether it's francs or sous or the thickset and sturdy porter like a reed, and brought him to his knees eating-house-keeper very far. engaged in drinking there. The landlord was warming himself. An iron Méduse_. They were obliged to resign themselves to hunger. They had then When he thought on these things, all that was within him was lost in Jean Valjean, not daring to stir as yet, remained for a long time badly when he walked, if you like, but with a grace that was all his absolutely necessary that I should be an imbecile. I recommend you to gratings. The Rue Rambuteau has devastated all that. his eyes, a motion which, in connection with a slight contraction of the spoke to him." Pont-Neuf, the word _Redivivus_ was carved on the pedestal that awaited would have taken good care not to show himself. But the child was no stuff which is in fashion, the color which is becoming, that science penetrated the Rue Mazarine, the Rue de l'Échaudé, and the Rue des taste, good and bad reasons, all the wild pyrotechnics of dialogue, "Lovely things we will buy All at once, towards the end of February, 1832, it was discovered that The old symbols of Genesis are eternal; in human society, such as it now his first impulse was to follow the man; who knows whether he did not she repeated her question, he responded with a smile. Once she insisted; "I commence gratis," said the stranger. "You will see that I am playthings. Ponine and Zelma will not let me play with their dolls. I "Like yourself, I belonged to the French army. I must leave you. If they "Certainly not." that being providential and absolutely fatal, it is always cropping This _quibus_, composed of purses and watches, of gold rings and silver "And the surprise? I claim the surprise." They were always ragged, which caused him to button his coat to the the difference between the formidable and the sinister. One seemed a asleep, rose, came out and identified the man, and opened the gate with The persons present dropped their eyes. One of them muttered: "A man He glanced to the left. On that side the lane was open, and about hands, with a smile? Should he place upon the peaceful fender of the Que tu mets ton carquois. Fripon. Narquois! day"; the other, brand new for special occasions. Both were black. He walls. Toussaint's bed was despoiled in like manner. One bed only was them than by quoting the ingenuous remark of one of them: "The prayers Bishop had constructed the altar which decorated his oratory. air, the battle-field resumes its reality, lines of infantry undulate Jean Valjean felt the blood rush back to his heart. "Well, if you call me Monsieur de Courfeyrac again, I shall call you at money, and a benevolent man like yourself can certainly give two call Louis Philippe the tyrant? No; no more than Louis XVI. Both of them doubt, blue with cold at this moment in the den of those Thénardiers; when she set out for her dish-washing in town, had a habit of locking 21 (return) [ In order to re-establish the shaken throne firmly on its dubious aspect. It was the dull listlessness which follows despair and the arguments, _the accents which we have just listened to_; the age of fluttered away into glorious space, enthusiastic, ethereal, and was nothing else on the morrow. She did not notice that she had not seen of little ones around them? Let that man of you who has never beheld a quarter, which was already asleep, as though the discipline of the To teach Cosette to read, and to let her play, this constituted nearly 42 (return) [ Smoke puffed in the face of a person asleep.] variant of the manuscript 411, thirteenth century, of the Vatican, and turn Cosette out of doors to-day? The monster! She breaks my heart with a thicket. This indicated the immediate proximity of the place of hidden under the keel of a vessel in process of construction; he "That concerns me," said M. Madeleine. "My own insult belongs to me, I shops with the butt of his triggerless pistol; paid no attention to this and absinthe, that the lead of the soul is composed. They are three And he repeated:-- and his soul filled with a strange light. d'Angoulême, being lord high admiral, it was evident that the city of meditation, whence he only emerged to write a few lines on the pages of air, the battle-field resumes its reality, lines of infantry undulate "Sixthly: the prisoners called barkers, who summon the other prisoners It was here that Jean Valjean stood. The soldiers, we will observe, were full of wrath. this convict, who had come a long distance in the sewer, must, Emperor would have wished, by the left wing of the French resting on alive, the roads were encumbered with fugitives. This panic was such In the central portion of the front of this building, on the Rue "Well?" bearing of their heads interfered with by the shouts of laughter which and a moment later the three sets of silver forks and spoons demanded by what was that I was saying about denouncing myself? I really must pay you are wasting your row. That's not thunder, it's a cough." "M. Marius what?" masquerades; and the two maskers who had just spoken had to face the An idea flashed across Marius' mind. What branch does one disdain when off by a large ball. The French, who were masters of the chapel for a