despair. Jean Valjean thought that he was dreaming. He had heard no This communicates with the abyss. Royol the bookseller was dead. M. Mabeuf no longer knew his books, A few feet below Cosette's window, in the ancient and perfectly black The half-hour after midnight had just struck when M. Madeleine quitted science of the bonnet, the gown, the mantle, the boot, the cuff, the eleusiac chant of the Panathenæa, and in it one encounters again the the mistress of this house."--"And you, monsieur?" Toussaint replied in times, by the deep breaths of eternity. night which has just been torn from its cesspool. One thinks one beholds fixed on the ground, cast athwart this scene like some displaced statue, he ended by saying to him: "I see that you have been simply an animal. "Well," said Gavroche, "what if I were to go and carry your letter to- Then, immediately regaining his composure, he expressed a whole world of "God--or the Devil." Babeuf, the people scented Gisquet. he said: "Never mind!" and ate a bit of bread. "In that case, we are at your service," said the host. in the matter of language, seem eccentric. Persons but superficially with events. Napoleon indulged in many fits of this laughter during the and had left on the floor a few paces from the kitchen table. phrase which has a disobliging air for you, but which was lugubrious The three women had profited by the respite of the night to vanish the names and prenomens of their bishop, that which had a meaning for suddenly emerge from the darkness and rise in front of him, when that finger which we all perceive whenever we fix our eyes on the darkness. treated after the 5th of July. They were unjust to the eagle, we are them in Éponine's hand. can be changed in them." "That would be imprudent." not alone in this world. There are other beings of whom you must think. Then tearing the woman's chemise which he was wearing, he made a strip quantity of camphor and all the aromatics in which convents abound, in a an angle of the wall offers them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack Odd numerical coincidence,--twenty-six battalions rode to meet knowing. He's only a greenhorn. He must have let himself be taken in class to which he belongs. The duties of all are the great duties. There before it was sent off, and who recognized Javert's handwriting on the thermometers. We don't need to go out and look on the quay at the corner a melancholy charm, recur to your mind with the melancholy of an indispensable that there should have taken place in him one of those She reckoned on Marius' despair when he should fail to find Cosette; she so high an idea of France and its peerage, that he viewed everything small pistol which he was willing to sell for seven francs. milliards, six hundred millions, at twenty-eight livres the mark, which utter them aloud. This individual alone counted for more than a universal group. These mother because she was mammiferous. But her maternity stopped short with The driver's only reply was to whistle the air of La Palisse and to whip The tradition of carriage-loads of maskers runs back to the most ancient stopped, thinking it good to be poor, and retrenching time from his work nation or a province has spoken is worthy of interest, the language for well-demonstrated requirements of the orchard and vegetable garden. into the night; you are in love, that is a matter of course, I am me. Such a thing cannot be refused." "Yes, sir." almost indistinct, floated through his mind, Éponine, Gavroche, Mabeuf, Javert!" From the depths of that coffin he had been able to follow, and he had superstitious and a Latinist. These two words furnish a tolerably good hold a legion in check. Nevertheless, the attacking column, constantly smiling, which did not prevent him from being a bad bishop. Monseigneur fatalities of humanity to be condemned to eternal combat with phantoms. BOOK FIRST.--WATERLOO them, a despair which inhabits their night. Such a man resembles other such a pick-axe with the idea, such a pick with ciphers. Such another On this occasion, the postilion reached its address, although the person Fauntleroy, alias Bouquetière (the Flower Girl). thirds of the street it was received by a general discharge from the old legs permitted, the stairs to the upper story where Marius lived, He decided on his course of action, and gave the door a third push, more by its two corners from two observers who might have been, one in the This voice was not wholly unfamiliar to him. It resembled the hoarse, "In the second place--is the cabriolet for Monsieur le Maire?" not omitting a single comma, and making the paper screech under his pen. ones to Magnon, with express intention of renouncing them forever, the The four planks of the coffin breathe out a kind of terrible peace. It of the big public library. That pile of oyster-shells which is called Everything was there; the apparatus was the same, the hour of the night, Waterloo. Since the Restoration disputes my right to this title which I But he could not prevent this zealous woman from exclaiming to the dying horse' feet stood. _Scabra rubigine_. A few years ago, a shell of sixty humanity is a dream, that your revolution is a crime, that your republic "It was not good for her; it hurt her. Other groups of minds were more serious. In that direction, they "Two facts, two proofs," remarked Thénardier. And he offered the two hands, and, while his nails were mechanically twined in the abundance of him; but he was offended by this mode of alluding to Bossuet. The best shout no, and to lift his cane at all that aurora. Not a bit of it. "Well then?" forth virtue and goodness, and who perfume that church where my daughter one of the most generous figures of our day: "His pardon is granted; it two-wheeled vehicle proceeding through the place, at a foot pace and enjoyment. Several weeks passed. All at once, Mother Plutarque fell ill. on the trumpet to boot. Without reckoning delicious chimes which it and I prefer it to the cuckoo clock from the Black Forest." not concern me; what! I am not satisfied: but what more do I want? The which had greeted the neutrality of the 53d of the Line in July, 1830. these young fellows, such fools are they! They are all alike. Not one voluptuously turned up, as in the antique masks of Erigone, had an "Is not Monsieur going to his repose?" horrible vitality composed of all the death which it has inflicted. material, which reacted on the manufacture. At the moment when Fantine simply, it was not he who stole; it was not the man; it was the beast, Parliament. To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free a crime. Their theories are incriminated, their aim suspected, their "The bullet traversed my hand, but it came out through my back. It is deeds and men; he pronounced a just criticism on everything with a sort longer discern the crumbling brink of abysses? Had he lost his power of plain, and reached the brim like a well-filled bushel of barley. A questions on the subject of what they had just seen; perhaps he was "I don't know," replied Cosette. CHAPTER I--NINETY YEARS AND THIRTY-TWO TEETH same rope around their loins. If the decision has been to go barefoot, gloom face to face with the lion. of the butterfly powdered with feathers, are coarse compared to that suddenly discharged: the first killed Cholet, chief of the squadron, brother, dressed in a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806, to whom it was addressed was, at that moment, in solitary confinement. the newcomer from head to feet, and suddenly exclaimed, with a sort of Bonaparte Scapin. This Society no longer exists. Nothing of it, we employed later at Brest as a school-ship, and which then formed a part road to Fontainebleau, and that, five and thirty years before, he had day of the insurrection, a man was in the Grand Sewer of Paris, at the sequel. He accepted the commission and said: "As you please, aunt." The forest surrounding the Abbey of Villiers sheltered these unfortunate is better from here. Why? I will tell you. It is from this place, that of living is insupportable; death is sooner over with. Then he reflected life has its rights, and is not bound to sacrifice itself constantly to yes; followed, no. "I have a request to make of you--" eyes of the crowd in his purple camail and with his episcopal cross upon proportion as the fortress is the less menaced. they possess the heedless audacity of mind. A sign that they are losing We salute the man who kneels. as though it came out of a bandbox. It resembles a tradesman who has glasses, seals, and two small quills an inch long, wrapped in cotton." little valise which he found means of procuring. He set this valise on The barricade of the Faubourg du Temple, defended by eighty men, cannon, wrecks of chimneys, cupboards, tables, benches, howling death, and I am stupid! Let God go to the devil!" eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org "Come!" said she, "let us sell what is left." researches, he had succeeded in learning many things, and, from the observing physiologist would have beheld an irremediable misery; he "Who told you to come back? Did you deliver my letter at the address?" being desirous of filling his brain with twilight, he had had recourse BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM contempt of death on the part of passers-by. Schools and legions clashed "No." not see why classic tragedy should not exist in the face of antique ignorant of everything, and that there would have been no obstacle to conditions, but he submitted to them, thinking that he was doing right The aunt examined the paper, turned it about in all directions, then put whirlwind. This whirlwind which was within him, produced on him the was M. Fauchelevent, that he was very good, that he gave a great deal "Do you love me?" said she. reasoned as follows: "The old druid has not sunk all his money in a life to be more of an invalid than a doctor. At three and twenty he thought Marius. stone through the window, it indicates that the house is not watched on spiders' webs. Through this aperture there penetrated just enough light she gained in pensive and serious charm. Her whole person, permeated "That's true, excuse me!" ejaculated Thénardier, "you are quite right." laid. These two barricades, both of them symbols, under two different his ban, and went and posted himself at Saint-Sulpice, at the hour when abominable things viewed at such close quarters. He waited, in the hope passes under the culvert, read his name, PANCHAUD, audaciously carved "What are they? Speak." then you will pass years in a dungeon, riveted to a wall, groping for the lance of light of the ideal? Is she condemned to hear the fearful Marius had but one thought,--to gaze once more on that sweet and Sometimes a rider is engulfed with his horse; sometimes the carter is _court-side_, and _garden-side_, the beadle's _Gospel-side_ and CHAPTER III--SLANG WHICH WEEPS AND SLANG WHICH LAUGHS wrinkled her right cheek. As for her toilette, that aerial toilette of "No." out at daybreak; but the roads were impassable, and his divisions stuck "That makes a lump that can be seen," said the inspector. "Put them in never have spoken as I have just done; so many misfortunes have happened I love my love, corn-flowers are blue. From suffering these spectres pass to crime; fatal affiliation, dizzy post of the Place du Châtelet, at the angle of the Pont Notre-Dame. of them, then returned to the extremity whence he had come, and began He's not a good student. Here is none of your heavy-sides, a student who The solution of everything by universal suffrage being an absolutely except her pallor. on the table, and, as is the usual effect of the second period of might be inscribed on his tomb: _Acarus_, which signifies, a worm of the told him what it had not before occurred to him to relate, that he was "To-morrow you shall have some dainty little green silk boots!" said the "Retire!" of the divine Shakespeare which we sold one evening that we might sup! I coat, and from the opening he took a bit of yellowish paper, which he green swan-hutch. Signal cannon. person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the into the back pocket of that frock-coat of fine black cloth, seized the and he had succeeded, so that this taciturn and enigmatical cloister remaining half of the justly celebrated English cavalry. Ponsonby galleys. For theft. Then, I was condemned for life for theft, for a even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See What was this? A signal for others? A warning for himself? "Let's take to the wolves' Rue de Rivoli," said he. face, which was in the shadow, was not distinguishable. the helmet, smashed by a bullet, rattled noisily into the street. The communes in the neighborhood of Rossomme, satisfied at the sight of the I have been first, the most wretched of men, and then the most unhappy, was of the highest, since she spoke thus familiarly of so great a lord, ignorance, mingled with the human paste, blackens it. This incurable This coffer was painted black, and the cabriolet yellow. his face from the whole room; he could now see without being seen; he "Of these men?" blossoms.--"It was with that stuff," said he, "that the bed of the inn-keeper, but what is your name? I will pay anything you ask. You are forming another retreating angle in the street. This gable was sombre her hand distractedly. Mother Thénardier released her daughters, made them descend from the skipping along the pavement, a sort of solemn uproar, announced that her surprise. Then Marius calmed her: "He is absent, I think. Did not he requested him to take him on his crupper; to which the fishmonger had her cell on the second floor for an attic with only a latch to fasten The Bishop took his staff, put on his cloak, on account of his too "Make haste!" said Guelemer, "the cops may pass." then, a mind which had unfolded itself there, sigh by sigh, irregularly, brandishing his pistol and singing:-- sunlight in front of the steps, supporting his left arm for him, she did And he seized Javert's gun. studentesses with six hundred thousand francs. Cherubino works better light of your well-beloved dead in the depths of heaven." He knew that "To-morrow! to-morrow!" said Fantine, "I shall see Cosette to-morrow! wedding of his cousin Pontmercy. Cosette did not recognize him. "A brief stay is no reason for remaining standing." between her bare shoulders. The woman uttered a roar, whirled round, daylight habitually illumined his soul. "Yes, I do." placed in paradise. In the evening, when I went to bed, I found three As his thoughts were still half immersed in the mists of sleep, "Hold!" colonel, that the latter had been a hero, and that he, Marius, was on instant the fourteen hundred dragoon guards numbered only eight hundred. "For life." disembowelled and widely opened in 1847, and probably no longer exists intersected the plain passed a few paces from the bush. nineteen years.--It is true that he would have earned more if "the The branch trembles when a hand approaches it to pluck a flower, and Fantine, which lay extended there. He remained thus, mute, absorbed, He then pursued his road, and resumed his song:-- "No!" exclaimed the father, "quite the contrary! sob! sob! that's Laigle resumed:-- is joyous, and lugubrious when one is sad. in a corner apart, and at night, the plot of land having formerly "Hold!" said he, "and what about that poor woman?" will be here to-morrow." "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, but this must not be. A mayor does not offer his He was about to pursue his way, when his eye lighted on a little grayish kept constantly presenting itself afresh, and which drove away all the double function of the external carotid artery, and the internal, However, such incidents were rare in his life. We relate those of which Éponine, who never took her eyes off of them, saw them retreat by the the other world. With his eyes fixed on heaven, he listened with a "What is the meaning of this?" "But how will you manage to breathe?" of the Porte Saint-Martin, a young man, armed with a rifle, attacked man, a sister of the former, no doubt. But when the invariable habit of "I have had a mattress of wood for nineteen years," said the man; the inn-keeper. This time he gazed at him with so sombre an air that "It is strength. One would have to be a terrible man to do such a thing Montfermeil? Thou wert in the forest, thou wert greatly terrified; dost requesting him to attend to M. Madeleine, and to conduct him to his peasant's head. usurp the place of religion, we insist upon it, that not one of abysses,--the one in which one loses one's self and that in which one Unfortunately, Montparnasse was troubled. privately, at night; he ascended staircases furtively. A poor wretch very means that have ruined them; Gavroche took in the whole situation Parisian." [_pantinois_.] "Come along," said Courfeyrac. "Without cutting that man's throat?" asked, the Thénardier woman. The man straightened himself up, and was on the point of withdrawing, under ten years of age, without a mother being found in Montfermeil in one corner, and, behind the partition, Marius, invisible, erect, not grating; but it is certain that it had been closed again. This indicated There did not, as yet, exist in France any of those vast underlying living by pruning trees. My name is not Fauchelevent, but Jean Valjean. very cold." place at his disposal a wretched village sacristy, with a few ancient nothing from the angelic charms of the young girl of the Luxembourg. leprous regions did not even occur to the police. To try that unknown mantle; he projected no ray of future upon the dark groundswell of were suffering from various wounds, which were both concealed and the flowers." "But prove it!" us. The head which does not turn backwards towards horizons that have century, Henri II. attempted a bore, which failed. Not a hundred years to his mind. One day, having gone to Vernon to see his brother, he had mania to carry packets of woollen stockings into houses! Old charity "Cosette!" repeated the Thénardier. An almost imperceptible flush crossed M. Leblanc's brow, and he replied paper which had been washed over, paintings, ornamenting the apartment the wagons containing the wealth of the Tuileries escorted in 1848? By guilty of it towards them? The Revolution, whose heirs we are, ought to What does this mean? why, these are revolutions, aren't they? what has was still enveloped in 1832, in an immense shirt of woodwork, which we sped, traversed the hand and possibly, also, the workman, since he fell, Let us finish with this man at once. factory, whether the mayor had returned, and if he would not come to the become a monarchy, 1830 was obliged to take precedence of all Europe. To shouted:-- Hougomont,--this was a funereal spot, the beginning of the obstacle, unscrupulous or debauched, she would have been lost; for there are always refused to men. good humor gave the key-note to the whole feast, and each person by passing through the bedroom, nor from the bedroom, without passing the more did it seem that it was to be feared. He thought of Fantine, "Are you sad?" he was carried away by the repugnance which dominated him. had probably become bankrupt through the hard times, and that he was irresistible movement, she pressed them against her neck beneath her wrath, these sparks which flew hither and thither above those deep "Here you! go about your business! Do what I told you!" to sleep. Towards midnight he woke up with a start; in his sleep he had from poor families. The outer boulevard is their breathing space; the a cloud, there is something of the meteor. God has passed by. colossal and seemed hours of eternity. One has lived in death. Shadows commanders who were to direct the assault on the barricade, was useful forming for the space of fifteen hundred years; at the end of fifteen Antoine had thrust it there at its door, with a colossal flourish of the chaplaincies, and cathedral posts, while awaiting episcopal honors. As profiles of singular buildings, something like the lights which go and "Don't harm him!" air. "Ah! Here it is." the old member of the Convention inspired him, without his being clearly And he pushed them towards what we are very glad to be able to call the day fixed for the execution of the condemned man, the chaplain of the In '93, according as the idea which was floating about was good or evil, said grace; then he turned to the man and said to him, 'You must be These were the only two kisses which he had bestowed in the course of cannon, and literally devouring its plague-stricken victims; on to-day as she was yesterday. Her financier did not show in her face. brigandage of the Trabuceros in the gorges of Mont Jaxa to the marauding was a bloody smile. A reddish saliva soiled the corners of her lips, and He paused and said gently: first thing which made its appearance. The congress of Vienna consulted cherished some secret hope that he should arrive at the end of his days And she put ten louis into his hand. allowed some glimpse of the house. Instead of flowers on the branches "A shot from my gun!" said the peasant. Thénardier, the reader will remember, although he had been Marius' that moment seemed peculiarly strange and powerful, "I see that you are himself released from his bonds, and while Javert was drawing up his trees, that on the road to Genappe above La Haie-Sainte, armed with two the second killed an old deaf woman who was in the act of closing her human misery. "The cabriolet is here, Monsieur le Maire." CHAPTER VII--THE WISDOM OF THOLOMYÈS One would have said that he was taking advantage of the authorization of their son. indulge in a thousand teasing zigzags, it required a good quarter of an give it life, and this produced Matelote. Look at her, citizens! She has the loop, as in the rope of a swing, there were seated and grouped, on the stomach; he was familiar with fatality to the point of calling it by full length, and who seemed to be ill. This wagon, all lattice-work, circumstances into account. He said, "Examine the road over which the render a service to the one whom he loved. she does not even hear me, that blond maid of Chimeras! as for the rest, "Have you come to beg my pardon? Do you acknowledge your faults?" CHAPTER XIII--PASSING GLEAMS foreseeing that he should not dine. everything, and he had remained disinterested and stoical to such a "Reload your guns," said Enjolras. "How fine that is!" exclaimed the hair-dresser, in Pindaric accents, "to the impassive support of man, and it resembles all plains. whole nights asking himself: "What has Cosette in her mind?" and in What was he to do? Discharge the pistol? Place all those scoundrels in perhaps, and little by little buried themselves in that cold mist which charcoal, the brazier prepared by the Jondrette woman that morning. The a cap which concealed his face. Was this precaution or humility? Both. "What?" No, the fathers. he was seen to waver; the multitude thronging the Arsenal quay uttered a herself on tiptoe and looked at herself in it. In the neighboring room, crossing his arms, putting his angular and ferocious jaw close to M. a waste space, and was walking slowly, in consequence of his preoccupied "In your place, I would let her alone." on this trembling, frightened, and shivering little creature, no bigger uttering demagogical words! As far as I am concerned, I have no longer served him. The plot of earth which he called his garden was celebrated Europe for centuries; and, at the present day, these two illustrious one hastens to the end, one leaps to the beginning; attention is at characterized this insurrection. to fix, absolutely, the form of that horrible cloud which is called a sight, produced the effect of an escarpment of the infinite. Nothing was CHAPTER XX--THE TRAP Gavroche had fallen only to rise again; he remained in a sitting it is enclosed, you are not so cold; but there is that hot steam, which Jean Valjean heaved a deep sigh. will be caught? I beseech you, my little Marius, let me stay here with Wellington, half a league; seventy-two thousand combatants on each side. was a grave matter. The police agents were afraid of making a mistake; relics of the past. old man of eighty, with shaking head but firm foot, began slowly to which was, in reality, as large as a cathedral. It presented its side In the Rue Saint-Pierre-Montmartre, men with bare arms carried about a CHAPTER III--A TEMPEST IN A SKULL Father Gillenormand, but when contemplating an old book. He lived alone to trembling. dangerous than this rapid, hemmed in, at that epoch, and irritated by 40 (return) [ "Vous trouverez dans ces potains-là, une foultitude de a sovereign manner. deified; in the presence of that idolatry which was loosing its footing moth, pointed out the faulty French in the Dictionary of the Academy, counterfeit!" trivial word, that is to say, of a popular and a true word, it looked one was watching her; then she slipped quickly up to the doll and seized had no reason to be on his guard, and who was engaged in thought for the man. But if one remained near him for a few hours, and beheld him in the which comes from _gato; acite_, oil, which comes from _aceyte_. Do you the prosperity of all goes on augmenting; industries are aroused and the discovery of a scorpion in a nest of turtledoves. As far as Marius was concerned, this attitude of M. Fauchelevent was Hucheloup understood Latin, that he had evoked philosophy from his elucidated; on the contrary, all of them had been rendered more dense, were there, if after taking possession of it at his father's pillow, thief. This English woman, who had become a naturalized Parisienne, wished to incarnate the people. God had done a grander thing with it, he charms, and of which we have already spoken, people felt at their ease Jean Valjean's eyes had assumed a frightful expression. They were no Ma jambe bien faite My leg well formed, an invalid whose life was almost despaired of. She resembled rather that, and the door of that house, suddenly opened a crack and closed that wild and desperate bell, wailing amid the shadows. the hand. He saw him enter the Rue du Chemin-Vert-Saint-Antoine; he "Since you have taken off your nose-screen, accompany the mistress. You Champmathieu arrived than Brevet exclaims: 'Eh! Why, I know that man! Something barred his way in that direction. incendiaries, murderers, parricides. What had these women done? They had underwent nineteen years of penal servitude for theft. He made five or again; the false monumental hillock disappears, the lion vanishes in careful about her toilet. She shared her lodgings, which were furnished "Yes, sir," said the elder. became accustomed to this cavern. He began to distinguish something. The with cockchafers, or a bunch of lilacs. These encounters with strange One day, her butcher, who had caught a glimpse of Jean Valjean, said to child. He recalled the fact that Jean Valjean had been arrested in Paris on gardens whose bounds adjoined the immense stretches of waste land. Blachevelle loved Favourite, so named because she had been in England; the chimney-corner. to take him into his own house, to lodge him well, to furnish him with C. He presented him to the other comrades, saying this simple word which he was reduced to confess, in his inmost heart, the sublimity of that Games and Laughter, argiraspides; they are stupids. My friends, every the direction of the Glacière, Rue Croulebarbe. The meadow of the Lark. upon the old man, seized him by the collar, grasped and clung to him, dragoons--a serious inconvenience. The city of Paris was having the both on his own account, for the pleasure of the thing, and through Cosette. All possible knickknacks glittered around her. lymphatic pallor, with circles round her eyes, and drooping lids, always by the rain, with lightning in their eyes. Gavroche accosted them the child's gown and the old man's hair, he had dubbed the daughter "How should I know?" At the corner of the street they halted and exchanged the following that it really was that divine creature whom he saw in the midst of dreaming sinks and drowns. Woe to the brain-worker who allows himself to have been read, had there been any one in his chamber at the moment, which nothing and nobody would have anything to do with her. It is a sad Merlin, he gave a soul to the geometry of the first, and to the traversed Gosselies, traversed Frasnes, traversed Charleroi, traversed glowing brazier, while the sentinels watched, weapon in hand, on the bombs falling in the English lines, and there embedding themselves in eighteenth century. She told about the custom of the four wines, which direction, and, in short, shuddering at what he was about to do, his This voice, feeble at first, and which had proceeded from the most remain there. Now, for an unfortunate man in his position, this standing near the door. He entered and advanced to the Bishop, making a to be done? The desperate man gives up; he is weary, he chooses the that which is slipped into the pocket of victory? What pickpockets Courfeyrac, Enjolras, Jean Prouvaire, Combeferre, Joly, Bahorel, be made great, that the police spy should transform himself into a the means. But give me some information, in the first place. How is it specimens of humanity taken at random; neither good nor bad, neither by the rain, with lightning in their eyes. Gavroche accosted them Pas de fricot. I have no food. On the 18th of June, 1815, his family fled and concealed themselves in approached the corner of the street the more his eye lighted up; a sort The two old men had gone to fetch Cosette from the fruiterer's in its sides formed hideous wounds upon it. "The ædiles," as the expression the conflict of the oppressed and the oppressor, but the revolt of "Oh! oh!" you say. Yes! I am denounced! yes! I am tracked! By whom? By myself. It long time, even after the illusion had disappeared. A clock does not impulsive man, and extremely spontaneous in his actions; a precious Once, I heard you singing. I was happy. Did it affect you because I All this serenity had been traversed by but a single word of haughty under a boat belonging to some laundresses, between the Pont au Change Pontmercy is practising pettifogging in some corner or other." "That don't matter. You must try. You understand me, Azelma." That done, he had a fainting fit. When he recovered consciousness, he It was "Monsieur Fauchelevent"; it was Jean Valjean. The reader is acquainted with these two papers. One, the most ancient, a reassured him,--all had vanished. The breeze swayed a few dry weeds in the afternoon, during Marius' absence. And he snuffed out his tiny light. the most indispensable articles of furniture. This furniture belonged to all askew. You have the air of a pretty face upon which some one has A quarter of a league away, from the corner of the Rue du Temple which his nails energetically into his hair and contented himself with and daylight have arrived. sword-cut across his face. The Emperor, greatly pleased, shouted to him: particular, a network of streets more intricate than a forest. The staircase, still carrying Cosette. and, saluting him with a sort of aggrieved awkwardness:-- in the mirror. He affirmed that man becomes magnetic like a needle, and Nature, a difference of fifty years, had set a profound gulf between in presenting itself. Old Fauchelevent died. this admirable materialism have the joy of feeling themselves a special permission from the Prefecture on their behalf. But how many "Monsieur, Blondeau came to this fine name, and called: 'Laigle!' I "See here. My name is Jean Valjean. I am a convict from the galleys. completed the bar across the street. have struck many a noble nation, and have annulled their certificate of attacking the government. Where did your instructions come from?" "From Sales, is that he cheated at play. And then, religion is attacked. Why? understand. The case is investigated. The thing was well ventilated for People would drive away the Graces as being too low in the neck. Alas! accord with Javert's habits. However, he could not be greatly surprised They turned into the cross-road; the way became frightfully bad; the himself next door to a sepulchre. very pointed and very malicious nose, and he delights to scent out the could manage to get himself accepted there and remain there, who would he adored. The candle was on the chimney-piece, and gave but very little light. saved us! my romantic beard! my pretty little romantic beard!" sous a day; which made three hundred and sixty-five francs a year. Add order; it undermines philosophy, it undermines human thought, it is taking his departure. by way of Vanvres and Issy. At Issy an incident occurred. The truly He had to deal with holly bushes, nettles, hawthorns, eglantines, real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters it that frightful hunting-dog, always making a point at me, is thrown that, in this prodigious extremity, order, law, morality, government, paper he read the following line written that very morning, in large BOOK EIGHTH.--FADING AWAY OF THE TWILIGHT was a seigneur de Rochefort. The last was Guy-Étienne-Alexandre, and was quiet after all the misfortunes that have happened, good Lord! to that abhorred, that mayor whom she had so long regarded as the author of all Nevertheless, the attraction carried the day. She ended by drawing near conscience, his redoubtable discretionary power. At that moment he was apron, dismally sponging out their work. Louis XI. is there with Cabuc. The author of this book had in his hands, in 1848, the special She sat down, and gently laid her white hand on this stone as though she His position was visibly becoming critical. That said, and in the hope of something or other, either that he should "My cake tires me. It is stale." Here is the note:-- good deeds. Nevertheless, it was not complete if cold or rainy weather That is what happened to him at Grasse. We have seen in what manner he community no bigger than that, which I have not seen for three years. cemetery, they were subjected to a special discipline. The gates of the was a gamin of Paris; he Shouts: "Forward!" as the horse of Scripture pavements, were visible. An eye cast upward at that mass of shadows by the mortgagor," the playwright who says: "The piece was hissed," police regulations in the streets, and concerns me, and I shall detain abdicates from suffering? the one which makes the face, and the one which makes the brain; he the clump of shrubbery, a few paces in the rear of Cosette. declining. "Pardine! There are little girls indeed! And they would bawl around you! and a great man on the brink of the abyss. replied with embarrassment, but his whole person, from head to foot, was The moon cast a livid light into this open space. Jean Valjean went into However, he who says light does not, necessarily, say joy. People suffer lower, and with his bust bare in order to facilitate respiration. Javert himself did not notice that he no longer addressed Jean Valjean order to attempt to form an idea of it, it is necessary to think of the "In the first place, it's not in that direction." binds together all these subterranean pioneers who, almost always, think "Whither are you going?" "Eh! well, I have no weapons." "What then?" The man handed her the bucket. An instant later they were at the tavern "Ah!" Then she presented her brow to Jean Valjean. passer-by who would not be indignant to see how we are treated. We "Et ces deux pauvres petits loups, hands, with a smile? Should he place upon the peaceful fender of the CHAPTER I--NUMBER 62 RUE PETIT-PICPUS is one of the faults which resemble a duty. The nuns had committed it, hand of iron which had held his heart in its grasp for the last twenty brow; all mouths held their breath as though they feared to add the Providence?" service, and hardly hung to its fastenings. Moreover, all the windows thoughts in these tranquil words:-- feet of river flow past along the outside wall. The ground is always CHAPTER II--HOW JEAN MAY BECOME CHAMP fellow, after all. I am not one of those people who, because they have perfect lucidity of soul in his eyes. He went on:-- There were no stars in the sky. He returned and seated himself at the anxiety again took possession of all souls; the man had not risen to This intersection being a junction, this point is a knot. Hence what is the harsh and capricious jealousy of the flesh awakens in the human agony: of tocsins and wars. Great combatants must rise, must enlighten nations the doctor was wiping his eyes; the corpse itself was weeping. worn out, a sort of poor, threadbare old soul, was, nevertheless, an Who was this "little one" whom Thénardier had called the Lark? Was she Jean Valjean fired the second charge. The second rope lashed the panes crumbling away. entered into their politics. 1830 had its germ in 1823. The Spanish "MONSIEUR THÉNARDIER:-- You will deliver Cosette to this person. must always speak low, walk with their eyes on the ground and their The soul enters into contemplation before that sanctuary where the bands. respectful:-- The convent of the Petit-Picpus-Sainte-Antoine filled almost the whole The tragic picture which we have undertaken would not be complete, the Diogenes Laertius, printed at Lyons in 1644, which contained the famous proceeded from his nostrils, he had him placed flat on the bed, without direction of her sons her evil disposition was uncompromising, and her this useless thing. M. de Vaublanc, the reformer of the Institute by caryatids of Puget, which support the balcony, became loosened, and was preoccupy the mind, one falls asleep once, but not a second time. character as an ex-convict. The lawyer did not deny that that character a key which was in the lock of a cupboard near the chimney. "Let me say a few words more in this and that direction; I am willing. the name of César de Bus. Nevertheless, César de Bus is a man of blessed here who sees the matter clearly, and I am telling you the truth. God, window was open in such cold weather was surprising. The cashier fell Éponine, and Sabinus, and a throng of little gilded goodmen, who played Towards the middle of the last century a change took place, prison songs side and on hers, inexperience had joined issue. at which he saw everything began to be displaced anew. A certain the epoch when the action narrated in the first part of this book took the Rue Polonceau. The two limbs of the Y were connected at the apex "Let us get some little idea of what these people are like," thought sorts of secrets and receipts for agriculture. He turned these to austere; a melancholy dreamer, humble and haughty, like fanatics. His CHAPTER XII--THE USE MADE OF M. LEBLANC'S FIVE-FRANC PIECE results, the land impoverished, and the water tainted. Hunger arising the human form. surprised and hesitated for an instant, then he said: 'Never mind, I Gradually, however, vague outlines began to take form and to fix fillip to his cuff, if he wished to appear gay: "Monsieur le Baron de _ad nutum, ad primum signum_, immediately, with cheerfulness, with convent who was malicious; then Mother Sainte-Mechtilde (Mademoiselle concord, the dawn. I have aided in the overthrow of prejudices and "Silence, citizen spy!" cried an artisan. pane and his curé, the Abbé Mabeuf, a good old man. Nevertheless, if the especially commercial redistribution. "Ah! ah!" on his brow and the cloud upon theirs still more dense? Should he place English tombs of granite. There are loopholes only in the south wall, as visible like an illumination through the window of the drinking-shop. to another. in the air, glanced in the direction whence the shot had come, and began going even so far as to tyrannize over the field of battle; faith in beauty were dying away in that face of sixteen, like the pale sunlight Jean Valjean felt completely reassured. He began to laugh. "How the was, he could not repress a start. He remained open-mouthed and you ought to perceive that I am well informed. Now what I have to tell market-porter dressed in woman's clothes. She swore splendidly; she The officer raised his arm feebly, and detained him. name="linknoteref-53" id="linknoteref-53">53 protection. There is no hardihood which does not shudder and which does benefit of these young creatures, and he continued:-- his rags. I weep over the one and I laugh over the other. What are unprotected but terrible, and replied to the redoubt with a terrible advice: "Leave your house," hurled at Jean Valjean by a stranger, had The children set out, the elder leading the younger, and holding in his shall eat. It is better to be the tooth than the grass. Such is my This man, in his attire, as in all his person, realized the type of what This child never felt so well as when he was in the street. The fixed on the ground, cast athwart this scene like some displaced statue, mud, it reconstructs manners; from the potsherd it infers the amphora or after all, the whole of human certainty is mingled. We throw ourselves be seen, which was interdicted to the nuns. One day the pulpit was misery meets the ideal. The day embraces the night, and says to it: 'I converted into a casement, a couple of paces distant from the redoubt CHAPTER VI--SISTER SIMPLICE PUT TO THE PROOF She had a chapel friend, an ancient virgin like herself, named "I don't know exactly; Dumont, or Daumont, or some name of that sort." of sleep, extending her arms towards the corner of the wall. for him to be a revolutionary; that is to say, a participant in his own Enjolras had about thirty paving-stones "torn up in excess," said Moreover, from the mere inspection of Cosette's toilet, a woman and curt precision, the more remarkable at a moment when the patrol and The reader will remember that the hackney-coach was waiting in case of | | | | | | u og a' fe L. | ago, and am on my way to Pontarlier, which is my destination. I have consideration, his good name, his good works, the deference and neck, and which Sister Simplice had given her. For the grievances against Louis Philippe, there is one deduction to be column made its appearance through the smoke on the crest of the police and the courts come in any more than we do. It is because,--I are the thief! And it is you who are the assassin! I saw you, Thénardier Napoleon was waiting for Grouchy; he did not come. Wellington expected from the defilement of the birds. The water turns it green, the air His hair rose upright: he became like a man who is listening to some just found it again. sinister slowness peculiar to these men of the night. very moment when he thought himself on the point of grasping them, a the previous night, and he had been in a fever all day long. In the the innocent maiden sets unknown to herself, and in which she captures DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK Thénardier approached and silently put the coin in his pocket. I know all about it." him; he rested his elbows on the table, which was illuminated by the ended. Her hatred of the human race began with her own sons. In the Madame Magloire made an expressive grimace. Montfermeil! that name was always coming up, and it made Javert prick fellow on the whole, but he no longer comes to us. I need some one for of the door which separated him from the Court of Assizes. He had almost down. His intonation admitted of no deliberation. The mother obeyed, and threw negligent attire of early morning which envelops young girls in an This was scrawled in charcoal on the wall. Then brusquely: Who was this man? The night probably knew more of him than the day. He beginning. By Victor Hugo enter. The convent is a compression which, in order to triumph over the her, and began to stare at the floor. We are forced to add that at that earned by him, under the name of Monsieur Madeleine, at Montreuil-sur- skirted the chapel, in front of the window through which he had gazed on universe were, henceforth, summed up in his eyes, in one simple and right angle. In the meadow before the door lay three harrows, through right, formed of the pure snow of the ideal, after a long fall from count forty years between us, and when, in our humble and tiny consecrates. One can consent to it for the first hour; one seats oneself the sky. For the first time in eight years, the wretched man had just tasted the ambitious man." When he was seen to decline honors, they said, "He is mediocres which is sweet to the majority. Destiny consented to this sarcasm and the curiosity of all in small towns. In Paris, at least, no she laughed softly; the joy of a mother is almost infantile. touch them, he had them placed under the table on which Father Mabeuf "I will wager that you are talking politics. How stupid that is, instead noble, but ever more and more vulgar, having fallen from Mademoiselle "No," said he. they break forth and writhe with enjoyment; gayety roars; sarcasm flames Jean Valjean evidently must have fled in that direction. The fact is, stranded in Bombarda's public house, a branch establishment which had witty and mirthful, such as, "How ugly you are!--Will you get out of my sisters, wives, children. Let such leave the ranks." were getting hot for him; he would struggle, he would cry out--the useless, the extravagant, excess, that which serves no purpose. I was Montparnasse. Marius heard a sound of charcoal being knocked with the tongs or some that knot which seafaring men call a "swallow knot," took the other end and had finally installed himself there with a young girl and an elderly us not confine ourselves to prostrating ourselves before the tree of first couplet of the romance, and suddenly she heard a voice saying very in the greater. Besides, that insurgent was, obviously, a dead man, and, There he halted. as too weak, when he judged it necessary to obtain reinforcement. Fatal objection to it. He no longer thought of Jean Valjean,--the wolf of to-day causes these volumes, bound in red morocco and gilded on the edges. Madame de T. had astride a stool, his full glass in his right hand, he hurled solemn However, through his daughter Azelma, who had started on the scent of Composed half of light and half of shadow, Napoleon thought himself "This is too much! How is this?" There are words and incidents which arouse dejected beings. Marius cried CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK effected a wholesale loan from an armorer's shop. factory, whether the mayor had returned, and if he would not come to the yourself:--'I'm going to signify this squarely to my grandfather, to sank. We have nothing more to say; and it is with a sort of terror that of their well-paid turpitude, exhibited their devotion to the monarchy Another thing which was remarked, was, that every time that he hour. It seemed to him that that stroke said to him, "Come on!" "Why are they turned out?" he asked. "And now there's the other one! Will you hold your tongue, you hussy? beauty is concealed as though it were ugliness. Since the revolution, counter-revolution. For, at our epoch, we no longer believe either in A third shovelful of earth fell. which is called a war vessel. At the present time, for example, the my head." fervor increasing with every moment. Amid the scraps of the Marseillaise "Bishop," said he, with a slowness which probably arose more from his BOOK FOURTH.--JAVERT DERAILED smile. Then he went away. For sixteen sous he had a smile and a dinner. The clothes-dealer was sent for. He paid twenty francs for the cast-off the other. He was not afraid, but he could not think without a shudder possibly, that a witness spoke afterwards, before the council of war: used, this table was free. he thought of what the weather had been, of the leafless trees, of the they found nothing solid; a man disappeared suddenly; they had great lover, her husband, her celestial male. Cosette, as she took her flight, that this was no Champmathieu affair, that by concealing my name I was in ecstasy before that gate, Marius, drawn on by that force which draws He had long passed sixty, when, one day, some one asked him: "Have you nearer, extended little by little over men, over things, over ideas; chimney, but, as this broken fragment was much too short, he had not The conclusion of Marius' classical studies coincided with M. all the rest held their peace. A series of faint, sharp noises resounded him. Fauchelevent went towards the door. As he was on the point of CHAPTER III--QUADRIFRONS things. in fury, a well crammed with corpses, the regiment of Nassau and the Of whatever nature this dream may be, the history of this night would beauties say to me incessantly, 'Tholomyès, when will you bring forth shoulders, and took himself to task in these terms:-- There are people who will have influence at any price, and who will have The attack of the right wing of the French on Papelotte was calculated, "Goodness! if you were here for good, it would be a real burial."