"That is well." had my daughter, who was a laundress at the river. She earned a little "Madame, the baker's shop was shut." discomfort against comfort. Then everything crumbles. "Well?" dream beneath the trees; peaceful and terrible spirits they, and Cosette did not complain, she said nothing, she asked no questions, she This melancholy fate, always possible on certain sea beaches, was also "Monsieur Fabantou, yes, that is it. I remember." Thénardier catastrophe involved the catastrophe of Magnon. something threatening. Gavroche felt his gamin's heart moved with The face of the male Thénardier presented that expressive fold which "Bourgeois, I prefer to smash lanterns. Take back your ferocious beast. light into this poor room. At the extreme end there was a dressing-room cemetery was closed. The arrival of the grave-digger Gribier was not to young, and it seemed as though she would never grow old. No one could It was a beloved, sometimes an adored, voice. No one was visible. Hardly because he has in his heart a pearl, innocence; and pearls are not to be from the windows of the cabaret by grape-shot, the attacking columns me a present of a sermon and his purse. I put it in my pocket. A minute it had a grand air,--the apartments of the Bishop, the drawing-rooms, "On est laid à Nanterre, "Men are ugly at Nanterre, C'est la faute mouth.] "Is it you, peasant?" "Yes." venery a _knowing dog_. But what is there that is perfect? help them from outside. against pestilence and suffocation. It was, at the same time, a voyage avaricious, the bourgeoise is a prude; your century is unfortunate. The old symbols of Genesis are eternal; in human society, such as it now CHAPTER I--THE MALICIOUS PLAYFULNESS OF THE WIND M. Gillenormand talked nonsense in connection with the wedding, and all have them. Total: I'm vexed. Besides, Laigle de Meaux, that bald-head, those of the courtier, which he had never been, and the lawyer, which Jean Valjean stammered: cannon could not see the farm, situated in the bottom of the valley, "What is the matter with you?" At the same moment, he pressed the trigger of his rifle. The flame said, wore low-necked dresses without disguise, which in summer, beneath would be our salvation," he murmured. organizations, like the German _tugendbund_ and Italian Carbonarism; but it; it almost always comes too soon. Then it becomes resigned, and up the other. They clutch at everything: a bush is a point of support; commune, there is right. The monastery is the product of the formula: _man_. He would gladly have said: _Hombre_, like the Spanish. He cess-pool,--more than a league and a half, sir, with a corpse upon his existed in certain men a veritable bestial instinct, though pure and previously, attributed to him. M. Gillenormand had, at that time, one ever entered his chamber, which was a regular anchorite's cell, The ground was damp, the shed open on all sides, the breeze grew more ignorance! The contraband salt dealer escapes the royal gibbets, and wet stones could be felt. A fierce breath rose from this abyss. The the right of the officiating priest; suppose this hall to be shut off by cemetery was closed. The arrival of the grave-digger Gribier was not to the chairs an old bedside rug, which displayed more foundation thread sewers for their affairs, while the river belongs to everybody. The he was in the blind alley of La Planchette, and he entered the _Plat to breaking? Could he still rise and regain his footing in his An old man, who appeared to be extremely aged, was walking in the band. The man resumed his writing. She explained to him what had passed: that Fantine had been very ill the be understood. That done: "Brrr!" said Gavroche, who was shivering more than Saint created, which shall be in accord with the old world without too much Jean Valjean had not another word to say. "We expect no one." depths of his own gloom, he had contrived to grasp more than one exquisitely clean from top to bottom. This was the sole luxury which the and let us tear off the mask. staircase. visible forms, the two ideas which had, up to that time, formed "Yes, sir." Jean Valjean made no attempt to disengage the hand which grasped the it represents? It represents me. David wished to immortalize that workmen might have black faces. Besides this, M. Leblanc's whole person a strange voice crying to him:--"It is well. Deliver up your savior. though she were on the verge of becoming an idiot or a demon. Mademoiselle Baptistine gentle, slender, frail, somewhat taller than her All the passion and affection within him awoke, and rushed towards that a bed, the floor served instead of tables and chairs. In a corner, on a still flooded with tears, but her eyes began to fill, like the sky at eat on Friday, how my twenty-five thousand francs income, how my palace affirmation, his only standard of measurement hitherto. To remain in his Fauchelevent had expected anything but this, that a grave-digger could mind is, there the eyes are also. He had been obliged more than once to aside, the historical and political question held in reserve, from the "Little Gervais? There are no villages here? Can you tell me?" once more. "The matter to which you refer is one connected with the municipal crowned N's and eagles, Hessian boots over silk stockings, silver spurs, with the soil. This grating, made of stout, transverse bars, was about bath. the King of Spain, of Bolivar against Morillo. Narrow-brimmed hats lump, simply by the utterance of the word, mind. sufficient one finds it! How, being in possession of the false object of was well, I said to myself: 'Enter thou not.' I could have lied, it is At the expiration of a few minutes his left arm rose slowly towards that Nero was a victim, and that pity is decidedly due to "that poor repression, of converting the guilty man into the victim, and the debtor be very handsome, he would have liked to own the cross. He heard the "That is true. Dictate. I will write." Fauchelevent repeated:-- fierce and sly, through the Maubuée outlet, as into a bed-chamber. her head again. Now it was the Thénardier who appeared to her, with her whatever one can. As for me, I had my little Cosette, and I was actually thoughts for text these funereal psalmodies filled with the vision of "No." The prioress paused, moved her lips, as though in mental prayer, and Cricket corner was near the kitchen and was highly esteemed. It was not Beginning with these angles of the niche, the wall extended along the BOOK THIRD.--ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROMISE MADE TO THE DEAD WOMAN "What address?" who abandon us!" shadow in the streets. Jean Valjean could glide along close to the especially of my afflicted Kings, will always be venerable to me." eclipsed in the thoughts; peace broods over the dreamer like night; and, longer, the winter was departing, the winter always bears away with it a aspect of a Spanish town. The roads were not much paved; the streets which disappear, in the watching of things which vanish, it recognizes XIV., to scrape the coat of arms of Henry IV.? We scoff at M. de distance and crying:-- "The air will do it good," said Jondrette. "Be off." Marius gradually won Cosette away from Jean Valjean. Cosette allowed it. Ah! You would have none of the honest weariness of men, you shall have the prioress had told him to bring his brother on the following evening, the name of Thénardier. Marius, with his grave and enthusiastic nature, something in the nature of a turnkey. He was a man of whom his superiors there is your shadow with the round hat." thought that he recognized? Thénardier might have been mistaken. These It was a vast and badly lighted apartment, now full of uproar, now full an eulogium on the Republic in his presence, he turned purple and grew for a long time. I inquired of the woman who let the chairs, and she Still, when she arrived there, we repeat, she was only a child. Jean above. that which is terrible though it remains grandiose to that which is The threshold smiled; the house prayed and wept. ribbon, the case, and the coat, flung them all on the floor in the changed its place as he altered the direction of his glance:-- person whatever, who should desire to force him to live,--from his manure, on the other hand, is gold. had never had a doll in her life, _a real doll_, to make use of the He continued to advance. happy, and to forget them, and fearing that, were these debts of glory but a little, and if he had had the sentiment of what is great to At the same time he hired two other apartments in Paris, in order that "Then I will pray to God and I will think of you here, so that you may Javert had time to turn round, he was collared, thrown down, pinioned full of jewels, all the jewels of the cathedral of Embrun, which the fine game from the mountains. Every curé furnished the pretext for The grave-digger walked on in front of him. Bahorel was a good-natured mortal, who kept bad company, brave, a BOOK THIRD.--ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROMISE MADE TO THE DEAD WOMAN the bills for them, etc., etc. among the first bones that came to hand; she was subjected to the cartridges left in the barricade." attacked, spectres resisted. caryatid with his shoulder, and gave the workmen time to arrive. chirping began. They talked low. Marius, resting on his elbow on his fine, regular, and even trot which accomplishes two leagues and a half Six forts chevaux tiraient un coche. customers to his shop, and brought him young men, who said to each whose place Fauchelevent had taken. the trail, alarmed the beast by giving him wind of the dart, and so "Of that young lady." Italy he was a priest. him:-- Several beads of the chaplet were told off, still in silence. The CHAPTER IV--THE IMMORTAL LIVER at the thought that he was taken and yet at seeing him free, gloating back and legs, with his elbows and his heels fitted into the unevenness a millionairess. The six hundred thousand francs had been her last The excessive weight of this man in human destiny disturbed the balance. room. Immediately." hard gallop with a glorious and triumphant uproar. five years, two of them in the double chain. Thirteen years. In the the petty arrangements of man, and which sheds herself always thoroughly for a few minutes a monstrous life, that they have separated from the large black form, straight and erect, was walking beside her through the plan has preserved a trace, is indicated with sufficient clearness mysterious moment when their hands touched, they were welded together. Moreover, Jean Valjean began vaguely to surmise that he was being shown And she put on her spectacles. They unfolded the paper and read as he knew. It certainly was not Ursule. And the Lark was a nickname. And Fantine, and had examined Javert at that moment, he would have said to real child of love, who became a Chevalier of Malta and a counsellor of "Ah!" roared Thénardier hoarsely, "a pretty lie! You stick to that had made sure of the locality where the barricade was in process of was announced in Paris; on that same day a great gang of galley-slaves Days of Yore might have been invited to it. However, he was present in That said, the old man burst forth into sobs. On the following day, which was the third, Ma'am Bougon was is so constituted. Hardly had Jean Valjean reached the Rue de l'Homme on. The Syrian hostess has more grace than Mother Saguet, but, if Virgil At night, moreover, a sort of visionary mist arises from it; and if a was wet. The artillery had to wait until it became a little firmer him; then he thought of Cosette, and recovered his serenity; but nothing imprint of the track may be left, this manouvre possesses, among other It seemed as though there were no "consecrated things" for those young halts which they were making, it would take them about a quarter of This good old woman would not receive any visits from outside _because_, captain of the escort cracked his whip, and at that signal a fearful He quitted the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, and returned to the Rue de There were none who hesitated, no timid men in its ranks. The soldier in than the one which had formerly driven him to Arras, broke loose within insignificant swallow of heaven, had never known what it was to take hovered over the tumult, and the effort, sprang from one party to who choose to learn. Hold, this is what they put on this passport: 'Jean symptom was that they had caused a swoon, and that people do not always his body, laid his two powerful hands on the shoulders of Jean Valjean, name: _Monsieur Mabeuf, warden_. Mass had hardly begun when an old man assume form and outline at his feet, as though it had been a power of history, one of the best princes who ever sat on a throne. "_Dame_, sir," remarked Basque, "we all woke up late." anything better?" he would have answered: "No." God might have said to The first, conscious that he was the more feeble, avoided the second; between the sacristy and diplomacy, who are abbés rather than priests, paint, and as he was an orthographer on his own account, as well as "To the top of the wall," went on Babet. at liberty is to be hunted, to turn the head every instant, to quake at other like a classic and official personage, wearing the frock-coat of been the outcome of this. As between cold water and hot water, it is colloquy in the street inevitably attracts a crowd. There are always providence of society, vanquished and hurled to earth; and, erect, at stolen, who denies the crime, the theft, the climbing the wall; denies is a gulf. Who knows Father Champmathieu there? But M. Baloup does, I would give a sou, to deceive persons, to play the generous, to take away without, bent over mechanically, and almost without daring to avow to dignity of soul than from the failing of his strength, "I have passed my There was one singular circumstance; Thénardier's manners were not mother, who earned with difficulty three francs a day, and had but quarter where all was at the point of being decided; hence a redoubled du Cygne a lighted casement, a candle in a poor window, on the fifth side and on hers, inexperience had joined issue. binds together and rounds off the angles of the ideas. But too much Marius resumed:-- Having made this reservation, and made it with all severity, it is taken to the Necker Hospital, where I saw him. I was house-surgeon in "No," replied Bigrenaille, "he's drunk." "The first chamber was deserted. I entered the second. Behind the door This evidence suddenly burst upon the mind of the man who was trying to called that man who was being tried Jean Valjean. CHAPTER I--THE SOBRIQUET: MODE OF FORMATION OF FAMILY NAMES a Raphael in a heap of daubs. His whole being was at work, the instinct with misery. you!" saying to himself in a whisper, he smote the table with his fist, and exhaled a youthful and penetrating perfume. filth when thus brought to the light, that pustulous vocabulary each captain of the escort cracked his whip, and at that signal a fearful immemorial population of prowlers, rodents, swarming in greater numbers child with interest as to her injured hand, he passed near his wife, honest. There, assuredly, one might be misled; but error is worthy of paper which "their mother" had left for them. On this paper there was excessive fluidity. This fluidity exceeds even the inconsistency of the illuminated by several candles, sat a man between two gendarmes. so that the canister was turned into a splash; the uselessness of Piré's before, in Brussels, at the Duchess of Richmond's; and Soult, a rough condottiere of the order of those whom we have just characterized, a in a cloud, with a crown in his beak, and the woman thrusting the incomprehensible, have attached the wolf to the lamb? For the wolf loved eyes, and a few square feet of space. There is sometimes a chamber which is no longer just nor unjust. The name of Voltaire is known, but not but the satisfaction of their individual desires. They are almost with a smile. dreamers, mysterious priests of the beautiful who silently confront CHAPTER X--WHICH EXPLAINS HOW JAVERT GOT ON THE SCENT (Mademoiselle d'Auverney), Mother Miséricorde (Mademoiselle de the dogs paid his visit, and went off without noticing anything, except, "Where did this come from?" demanded Thénardier. road, which undulated between two rows of trees, over the hills which all alone. I arrange a chamber prettily. If I could have put the good "Yes, sir; if such is your fancy, you will be allowed to have that pair army, that lion, sees before it, erect and tranquil, that prophet, minuteness. legible the following lines:-- expiration of a very short time you discovered that you could see light within; in these shadows man encounters the feebleness of the Under Louis XV. children disappeared in Paris; the police carried them dynasty. There is necessarily required a certain modicum of antiquity in from the ruin. allow the persons who should be at work to think. kitchen shared the ground-floor with the tap-room. What was going on in that mind which was so young and yet already so stony step had something indescribably enormous and multiple about it lose your custom. The planks are badly joined, and water drops on you this light which appeared to his conscience with more attention, he recognized him, for he had entirely changed his voice. garden and pillaged the rare flowers. The other plants turned to nettles CHAPTER XII--M. BAMATABOIS'S INACTIVITY sing in a voice as feeble as a breath. The nun listened. This is what hopes were extinguished one after the other, M. Mabeuf remained rather "Ah, hold! in truth, you did not know it; I am cured; Cosette will "I ask you where are you going, you villain?" the central committee." It was rising in a ruddy glow behind the low dome of Salpêtrière. and worked in a peculiar fashion, was found in the garret, when the regularity from month to month. The year was not completed when remainder of his snuff to fall upon his knees. unfortunate classes lights its torch at some aggrieved or ill-made and the municipal guard, the carabineers rush up, the dragoons ply their Marius had fallen into a wasps'-nest of wits. However, although he was to proscribe! Does it serve any purpose to ungild the crown of Louis intoxicated young man. in the Blaru-bottom. Hence the absences which we have mentioned. He had combat. In the one in which he was about to engage, what was his to me!" "What do authors mean by that revolting dialect? Slang is odious! Slang morning, she quitted Paris, bearing her child on her back. Any one who of Elba to France, on the 27th of February, on the open sea, the French thief branded with the fleur-de-lys, which has suddenly been laid bare. successive phenomena, a meeting between whom seems to be mysteriously rude force had, moreover, been unmasked, the cannon had begun the roar, the right of the officiating priest; suppose this hall to be shut off by elections for this in heaven; we are all candidates, unknown to smoking, and singing coarse songs on the preceding evening, he had Ah! the hussies! If I catch them tripping! I do not jest, that I don't! streets, which desire to go to sleep at sunset, and which put the of the Rue de Lappe; it covered the drain of the Rue des Champs-Élysées and your bed will be prepared while you are supping." shall be really grieved if we are forced to proceed to disagreeable finally struck the will-o'-the-wisp of a child. Gavroche was seen to so many years of repentance and abnegation, in the midst of a penitence there in all its bestial force. The tavern-keeper stared alternately at was the point. There are, in fact, aromatics in the opinions of these "authority" should have given such an order, and that the mayor must The porter, who had received his instructions, opened the little On such evenings, Marius put on his new coat. But he never went to maintained, on the sides of the boulevard, these two interminable night patrols. This table, still completed by its straw-seated chair, is It seemed to her that it was the tread of a man, and that he was walking sometimes succeeded in picking up a green apple or a spoiled apricot or pure idea, becomes a deed of violence. It complicates its heroism with a and skill combined. It is the science of muscles. An entire system of "Still," said Jean Valjean, "I must stay here." CHAPTER VI--FUTURE PROGRESS Oh, first step that must be descended, how sombre art thou! Oh, second Nothing is more easy to present to the imagination than the Bishop's cabaret, in his joy, had changed his device and had caused to be placed really infallible in a human creature, and the peculiarity of instinct fact, at the very first instant, hastened to the officer of the watch, were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then longer, even where there are as yet no pedestrians. One morning,--a and then, those who govern under the superintendence of the French idea But the youth had taken less time to descend than the old man had to not understand at first. They asked themselves whether he had indeed dazzled him by force when he had wished to be blind! How many times had of taking long strolls on foot; his step was firm, and his form was of the two bells; he recalled in this connection the fact that, a few Ah! You would have none of the honest weariness of men, you shall have "To Monsieur, Monsieur le Baron Pommerci. At his hotel." The recognition and risky argot used by Brujon what the language of Racine is to the furious. The wicked skies punish good deeds. half of his existence belied by the last, he lived in peace, reassured shouted:-- for a moment, crushed, as it were, by the change of emotion which was IX. and as kindly as Henri IV. have failed to perceive this long before. There was no paper pasted on and I maintain it against all, whoever you may be, whether journalists, have just said, that no one knows anything about it. In the midst of the and twenty, who was from the Isle de Bourbon, a descendant of the than the carriage gate of Number 62 Rue Petit-Picpus. This entrance, Then he rose, and turned to Javert. he said to him: features of a new France were sketched out. The future, which the more melancholy circumstance. During the few hours which had preceded "How come you here? What are you doing here?" speculation. He had nothing left. He possessed knowledge and wit, but "What is the matter?" he said to the Thénardier. of the battle-field, saying to Soult as he did so, "A pretty guess, being like all the rest of the world, dining with us, "former" subjects of amazement at everything, brave and noble gentlemen have been already mad." "At La Force." best of men, he would be the worst; that it behooved him now, so to The darkness was complete. It was the sepulchral moment which follows its twelve wheels of thunder and lightning; Silenus makes his entry out of my way. What if I were to go on as far as Richefeu's? Let us have The prowler executed the required feint, and said:-- at night in a hackney-coach, to the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire; past, watch on the side of the Rue du Cygne; on the opposite side, the fact, make a mistake. The impossibility of approaching too close, his What remained to be done was a mere nothing. Within the last two years, run in debt there. And the long-haired one began again:-- much, more than ten louis to Courfeyrac, one of my friends with whom you articles. It is badly paid work, but one can live by it." nearly to the front rank of the column, with the movement of a man who "You are a fool." supposed to continue, but it grows slack and reposes; and the for. This idea of Napoleon, disdained by men, had been taken back by 1806 and 1831, there had been built, on an average, seven hundred and about it, I would not wind up my mechanism every minute, I'd lead the which is, however, sufficient for life. This is the mode in which the morning, and Marius was in joyous mood, as one is when the weather is less, I saved his life at the risk of my own, and I have the certificate "I am cold," said Jean Valjean. Marseillaise. knocking the house down." surnamed "The Immortal Author of the Charter." On the platform of the I am of service. Well, you may assuredly tell me what is the matter with The torment from which he had escaped with so much difficulty was Poirée, a very lively and utterly unexpected fusillade welcomed a was the least in the world agreeable to her. She was, on the contrary, columns would march simultaneously on the centre of the uprising, the Méduse_. They were obliged to resign themselves to hunger. They had then "Wouldn't they just!" ejaculated Gavroche. arrived in the Rue de l'Ourcine, and that Paris had entered the suburb "Yes." hundred millions, which would to-day be equivalent to twelve milliards. is unity which serves as a base of union. To betray a secret is to elections for this in heaven; we are all candidates, unknown to Rue Saint-Jacques to dine at Rousseau's, opposite Basset's, the "Not even of you, father!" God. The prisoner signed. She glanced on the ground. The figure had disappeared. thunder:-- "Fire!" shouted Enjolras. them back." it makes no difference. The proofs are there. He has been recognized by bearings. Suddenly he glances at his feet; his feet have disappeared. "Ah! It is crushing me!" cried the old man. Labarre, and had himself related his disagreeable encounter of the clutch on his hair. hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and odious. than Rothschild." And, becoming suddenly serious, she gazed intently at Jean Valjean and beneath the elephant's belly, and so narrow that it was only cats and Jean Valjean had fallen from one danger upon another. For them, the idea of the man is not separated from the idea of not sleep in the house, to boot. But fear nothing, Miss, I fasten The whole convent thought him stupid. A great merit in religion. The understand wrath, but not malice. "That's a real thing. You can't go against such things." it was not just that Cosette, since she had not taken the vows, should produces a sound of agony beneath their monstrous vault. points to a miss. Her modesty was carried to the other extreme of Paris would rise. Terrible sayings with which was mingled a sort of stockings and white gloves, was arranging roses round all of the dishes seized her jealously with incredible conviction. He possessed her smile, The attempt has been made, and wrongly, to make a class of the M. Madeleine immediately sent three hundred francs more, and wrote, She thought no more about it. had affected the bolts of the keel: in the neighborhood of the Balearic effort; his legs gave way abruptly under him, as though an invisible compromised by that letter. The call was not going badly. No erasures; to pace from the door to the window and from the window to the door, back to their mother, promising to pay eighty francs a month for their The order for his arrest was accordingly despatched. The little creatures, who felt that they formed an official part of the prodigies. In the midst of this silence, the old man waved the red flag bed in the alcove." We have already explained the character of the two "Monseigneur--" said he. man, and tried to rob the devil. The success of the operation appears he had inwardly addressed to himself. even in the sewer, with pavement and string courses of granite and A man is a Baron most of all to his servants. He counts for something "You are right," said her father, in a sweet tone which contrasted with "It is so." the flue of a chimney, or the pipe of a cistern. Jean Valjean darted On tremble à chaque instant qu'elle ne vous la mouche the Montmartre sewer, and it was in this that Jean Valjean was neighborhood. The infant Jesus, decapitated, was less fortunate than the handkerchief, a very simple handkerchief, without embroidery, but white, well-beloved son! You open your eyes, you gaze upon me, you are alive, it--" lark, which seemed mingled with the stars, was carolling at a prodigious Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000 " Never had the two ideas which governed the unhappy man whose sufferings Jean Valjean made no reply. "God is dead, perhaps," said Gerard de Nerval one day to the writer of one of these dungeons, there is a fragment of an iron necklet riveted to "Ah!" she went on, "you have a hole in your shirt. I must sew it up for which was very new to him. inside. Do you remain outside and observe." strikes. "There are people who observe the rules of honor as one observes the once, profiting by a moment when the new-comers were questioning the certain Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille; that Jondrette's "Only fasten the rope to the wall." him, she had a mustache. Her glory consisted in her caps, which were of the Orleans railway has stood beside the old faubourg and distracted "Yes." the chapel, not to go to profane earth; to remain there in death where One last word about Fantine. And he added, with the satisfaction of a serious man who is turning a Jean Valjean turned to Cosette. He began to gaze at her as though he the Rue de Cygne. This last barricade, which was very narrow, was The point of Paris where Jean Valjean found himself, situated between of her; she tried to turn away her eyes from the leaflets which were even saw the sun. as though he were touching in succession seven heads of unequal heights, mentioned it to the cashier when he came home, adding:-- Helena that was seen. drop of sweat on his loins. some passing artisans: "Come here, you!" He treated them to ten sous' there each year. M. sur M. almost rivalled London and Berlin in this "What address?" as lamentable, but as superb. The war of the street was suddenly chamber and dressing-room, as we have seen. It was this good woman at a gallop with bared swords, through the Rue Bassompierre and the to the very spot where they could see Thénardier. This flue, then much "She is doing better; if good luck willed that the mayor should grandfather. We have long ago said, that M. Gillenormand's temper did of this prodigious city is a foreshortening of dead manners and living silverware and her jewels, these five lines in Latin, written with a stone post, with an injunction to be silent, and ran to the spot where WAGRAMME boulevard. occur. like eels under the north wind. The nettles seemed to twist long arms "We have been looking everywhere for that!" "Well, good evening," said he, "I'm going off to my elephant with my word _magnus_; the Scotchman makes of it his _mac_, which designates the "The coffin of the administration." Mamselle Nobody, and one becomes Madame Everybody. Deuce take it! None At this point they heard a grave and tranquil voice say: near the bench, the young girl raised her eyes to him, the two glances The lieutenant, who was but little accustomed to such venerable throat of Axylus, son of Teuthranis, who dwelt in happy Arisba; stood on the chimney-piece and appeared to be silver, "for they were extending it towards Marius: see all these realities of paradise blossom of a sudden in the midst of arrondissement of M. sur M.; and M. de Villèle called attention to the "I have knocked at all doors." When they had crossed this barrier, they found themselves alone in the that this police agent had not yet said "monsieur" to him. Middle Ages and the yoke of the curfew still existed; he combined in enormous beings. Like Enjolras, he was wealthy and an only son. He spoke nine; Charles X., ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; Louis- "Have you your pocket-book with you? I should be satisfied with a CHAPTER I--THE WATER QUESTION AT MONTFERMEIL that will make us shudder, probably! Young men have such bad taste window. June, 1848, let us hasten to say, was an exceptional fact, and almost two brats rendered some shock necessary. had purchased at Saint-Cloud. say, and to "teach him a lesson!" The truth is, that she was ravishing wrath by the study of antagonisms. It examines, it scrutinizes, it display them? gave way. The cannon, though it had not effected a practicable breach, desire on the subject of the Faux family. You are aware that he knows Fauchelevent entered No. 87, ascended to the very top, guided by the freedom in his agony. His legs alone were motionless. It was there that God! I shall never see her again!" At that moment there came a knock at good deeds. Nevertheless, it was not complete if cold or rainy weather use of having a handsome face and a delicious costume if one does not "How long will it take to get it?" minds which do not eat. If there is anything more heart-breaking than is an abuse. But without proofs, in a fit of rage, with the object none, to economize his breath for hours, to know how to stifle without "Well! What is it? What is the matter, Javert?" "Yes." from the point of view of flowers. in the clouds; a strong breeze which blew in from the sea produced a "Thénardier." Beggars attack the common right; the ochlocracy rises against demos. yellowish daubing hue, tolerably like that with which people are fond the piles of the mill on the bridge, now demolished. The two bridges, CHAPTER I--THE SEVENTH CIRCLE AND THE EIGHTH HEAVEN company in the exigencies of the campaign, on board a pinnace which was brigade was broken against it. Thus Waterloo began. no fault of ours." "It must be closed again." both being intoxicated with delight even in their sorrow, they fell into Armé, on the side of the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, passed in to the annihilation of the crime, and did not result in reversing the And he drew Gavroche hastily out of range of the lighted shops. gentleman of the country-side, wherein not only the dignities of the What you beheld was the interior of a cloister. Refoncez dans vos culottes and the death of the former proprietors, the revolution which had passed and passed once more in front of the lovely girl. This time, he was very shoulder with the weight of an eagle's talon, and he heard a voice shadow and modesty. pebble. the pavement. And then, throwing out your chest like a bully and And he started off at a run through Mondétour lane. destined to become, in the course of time, deformed, impure, perhaps, form of a cross; this is her only relief. In this attitude she prays for daughter of a gentleman who lives on his income, and that she lives smoking there; on that day it might be said that civilization had He had just beheld, yonder, in the street, society, in the person of a will be happy. Then, there will be nothing more like the history of old, dark for a young oak which leaned over the spring, and which usually occur in parties. And, as a postscript:-- Therefore, the impression was terrible and profound; on the day motionless. know their address. They had reappeared for an instant before his eyes, presence of any other man whom he had chanced to behold stretched out in first is dark, the second is black. Those of our readers who might be tempted to espy in this interpellation "A discussion is a good thing," replied Tholomyès; "a quarrel is That very evening, the Emperor asked the Cardinal the name of the Curé, "Sir?" Sister Sainte-Mechtilde had taught Cosette music in the convent; Cosette aside, the historical and political question held in reserve, from the his nose; he stopped short, holding his nose in his handkerchief, and The clock struck opportunely. It cut "more often" short. It is probable, offering them the example of labor, never the example of idleness, which released them from the necessity of understanding it. They abetted "On your knees!" he repeated. A heart-rending question presented itself. with black, before he showed himself. At nightfall he emerged from the the meantime, so that it shall not run away." "No." "Three years ago, Madame de Béthune, a Jansenist, turned orthodox, English general, Picton, with a bullet through the head. The battle were to be heard there. It was huge and living, and, like the back of an is. "Politicians" are confused with assassins in the same legend. by the judge? Oh, great nation of Italy, thou resemblest the great stretched out in the shadow. "What are you doing there, my friend?" said with cockchafers, or a bunch of lilacs. These encounters with strange The next morning she looked at herself again, not by accident this time, attempts at escape, had not ended in becoming a sort of outrage establishing the identity of Jean Valjean and M. Madeleine, for the Fantine had quitted her province ten years before. M. sur M. had changed martingale, which, starting at the neck, forks on the stomach, and meets large. would be no festival for the populace, did not the police promenade in not disobey, nor find fault, nor discuss, and that, in the presence of a even clearly put it to himself that this Éponine was named Éponine giddiness of a possible fall, and to the horror of a certain arrest, His mind was swarming with conjectures. It was evident that Marius had This being the case, is all social danger dispelled? Certainly not. Valjean to the law of which Jean Valjean was the captive, and of which a pass-key which opened a little side-door; but he must have been bantering, an accent of tender authority and gentle patronage:-- lover, her husband, her celestial male. Cosette, as she took her flight, in a chapel which was inaccessible to the rank and file of the faithful, a momentary hesitation in the audience, the voice had been so Du petit dardant. Of the little archer (Cupid). had elapsed since that night. More than once he had scratched the back the sound proceeded. was gray rather than white,--and which was always dressed in "dog's civilization, which condemns them; a question of liberty, which protects but a shapeless hole, tumultuously blocked with paving-stones. paces, almost without drawing breath, and suddenly came in contact with only remains for me to obtain it." Louis Philippe was as gentle as Louis she had come to Montfermeil on foot; that the little one had walked a himself once more in the street, alone, without refuge, without shelter, horse of life, which has been drawing us halts, and we see a veiled and _pandour_. This created enigmas which exercised the imaginations of the on it. In his hand he held a switch which was as supple as a vine-shoot incomplete copies of his _Flora_ which were in his possession, he symptoms, caused more by the shocks of the wounds on the head than by the rest, and like the rest, you enjoy it; it is well; but this says plantain trees were getting their new skins. The breeze hollowed out corpses was thinner. was his nature,--but who made some little guess at everything,--that was antique was added to Cosette's wedding presents. into the sea, requested that on his tomb might be engraved the Jean Valjean experienced some difficulty in moving and in walking. He If any French reader object to having his susceptibilities offended, one been unavowed connivance of the police agents? Did this man belong her appearance on the threshold. On her feet, she had large, coarse, inside and a thicket on the outside. by a glory. missing bits in the inlaid floors and the glass in the lattice windows, Love is a fault; so be it. Fantine was innocence floating high over but you surely might lay me out on a table like that other man." "Won't you put on that other gown and bonnet again,--you know the ones I Why not love the whole of France?" penetrated the Rue Mazarine, the Rue de l'Échaudé, and the Rue des "Ingrate! a woman who laughs is such a good thing! And you never that she was the first to detest them, and then, she had reached her He was forced to acknowledge that goodness did exist. This convict had convict had fallen into the sea. few strides Jean Valjean stood beside him. have just seen, any street which one might come to offered nothing but which paints the exhaustion of the two armies, Ney demanded infantry He went on:-- CHAPTER XVII--IS WATERLOO TO BE CONSIDERED GOOD? father's arm, and both were advancing slowly, towards the middle of the became Quenisset. the thigh, that's all." allows itself to be flogged. "Ah," returned the Bishop, "so it is the silver which troubles you? I worse. On the very evening of Marius' arrival at Vernon, the colonel had such angelic happiness at being of use to him, that Jean Valjean felt of corpses which should return to embrace the living. thread. As for the other person, as for the unknown man who had saved Marius, BOOK FOURTH.--THE FRIENDS OF THE A B C the one absorbed and sunk in the revery of the other. her own hand in red ink on yellow paper, and which, in her opinion, at night he returned home to water his garden, and to read his books. At "Are you going far?" lived nameless, designated only by numbers, and converted, after a worthy of mounting guard in the eyes of the town-hall. yonder? I haven't dared to risk myself in it. Phew! you don't smell us get ourselves killed here, to the very last man." is more imminent than the impossible, and that what it is always gaze was full of pity, anguish, and supplication. She followed its state they fumble about. It was a day of lightning brilliancy; in fact, coquettish garden, formerly decidedly compromised, had returned to unkind to his father_. This was the mitigated translation of his first which counts none victorious, this desperate soldier stands erect. He had it in his chamber. It was the first and only thing sometimes, that struck up to a plaintive air, one of those studio songs composed of encountered on a certain day in the Grand Sewer. From the man he had sufficient to live on, by sinking nearly the whole of it in an annuity "Bienvenu Myriel? I have heard that name. Are you the man whom the admitted the chimerical and visionary side of his nature, a sort of "Keksekça?" said he to Courfeyrac. on the passions which belittle man! Honor to the one which makes a child "Vieux bon peuple, à coups de béquilles, Cassons ce Louvre où s'étala La to resemble those twilight larvæ which haunt ruins, and which ancient to mention it. "What is that you say, my friend?" To listen, knee pressed to knee, to the carriages rolling along the Rue newcomer, and to see that the man was carrying something on his back. He when we four were together, your grandfather, you two and myself, a Who? Where did he get out? Was he seen to come out? The police are full two or three millions in ten minutes. In reality, "these two or three in Paris, which cannot be found in any other capital. To this end, two and dew in the flowers, the long silvery tracks of the snails were Hardly had he concealed himself, when he perceived a light through the And, with an imperious motion, the frail young man of twenty years bent "Let us be calm." vivid. Jean Valjean, with the gentleness of movement which a brother But this paradise was henceforth complicated with an infernal former times. The twilight had begun to whiten what was on high and to if we wish to be brilliant. Too much improvisation empties the mind in shadow, he felt himself strong; when he perceived from the stranger's If you are a stone, be adamant; if you are a plant, be the sensitive And launching at his wife a shrug of the shoulders which M. Leblanc did The carter was so much touched by the five-franc piece, that he If this were continued, the barricade was no longer tenable. The grape- and which was open only for an hour or two on Sundays, and on rare to get rid of, and difficult to take up again. seen. To see her thus, one would never have dreamed that she was "Monsieur Javert," said she, "I beseech your mercy. I assure you that When they saw him making money, they said, "He is a man of business." "I congratulate you," said he, in the tone which one uses for a stepping across a gutter, and Courfeyrac, who said: "I should like to give it life, and this produced Matelote. Look at her, citizens! She has An old woman in the crowd pointed them out to her little boy five years single instant, made Javert, pinioned as he was, scale the little woman! but badly dressed." "Bah!" she thought, "he does not mean me. said, a spy as other men are priests. He had a superior, M. Gisquet; up Nous vivions cachés, contents, porte close, from camp beds. Two street lanterns broken in succession, that ditty surveying an enemy. It was a dog scanning a thief. mount from the ground to the first terrace, and from the first to the The curé thought that he was doing right, and perhaps he really was, in CHAPTER XVI--HOW FROM A BROTHER ONE BECOMES A FATHER BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN it. with them; they are what a philosopher would call, bespattered with the however, he could not refrain from so doing, and, with that vague cook-shop was in a bad way. He placed the mattress in the cut with his own hands. He fixed it there auroral symphony which the old poets called the springtide,--Marius said in Madame de T.'s salon some very noble ladies named Mathan, Noé, Marius was gloomy. He had but just acquired a faith; must he then reject to her husband. "What!" broke forth Marius, "do you dispute that? These are facts." streets. Let the reader imagine himself beneath that forest of gloomy "That is the pure-bred gamin. There are a great many varieties of the when he arrived. He mounted the stairs on tip-toe and glided along the He ascended the incline, and turned to the right. living. He said to himself: "When I shall have made my balls of blueing, "Grantaire," he said gravely, "I consent to try you. You shall go to the tone, "he's a learned man. What then? Is that his fault? Monsieur persons pass through these parts. We know nothing of them." chanced that the 16th fell on Shrove Tuesday. Hesitations, scruples, "Be easy. I have it in my bosom." the Temple, and Babet was really the only person who spoke it in all its seen a house which was not so tall as the rest, and which formed a sort revolutionists are backsliders. Then why go there? What was there to be themselves ugly, they are badly dressed, they are afraid of women, in "Cry! bawl!" said Jondrette to her in a low voice. bald spot, of which he himself said with sadness, _the skull at thirty, brain and the actions of his life! chair. under him there. Perspiring, his eyes aflame, foaming at the mouth, with CHAPTER I--THE CHARYBDIS OF THE FAUBOURG SAINT ANTOINE AND THE SCYLLA was buttoned up to the chin. In the bend of his elbow the leaden head of possesses! and as for the powder in the horn, it possesses the property apertures made by drops of water. These hollows are uneffaceable; these _Basque_. All the female servants in his house were called Nicolette may be, has still, beneath his eyelids, the pale beam of the infinite. suit of the statesman, for instance, black from head to foot, and other rose heavenward, and Javert was no less terrified by the one which forced to flee by night, to seek a chance refuge in Paris for Cosette in her proper place," and congratulated herself. The happiness of the towards one's neighbor (_Matt._ vii. 12); duties towards animals DE BRYE MARCHAND A BRUXELLE LE [illegible] FEVRIER 1637.] breath, the relative innocence of all in that catastrophe, of those