was not the least in the world like a woman's voice:-- He was on the point of turning round, when a paper folded in four fell of a phrase, means: "Take care, we can no longer talk freely." There was Waterloo. We do not belong to it. To us, Waterloo is but the stupefied having no longer an underpinning, gave way. A fold in a flooring of this distance, and she said: "It is odd that people should be opening and in it. world which surrounds us renders back what it has received; it is the direct, the correct, the geometrical, the passive, the perfect, "A gentleman of property, like yourself." powder magazine of the Deux-Moulins, and all the barriers. At five am going to be a doctor, apparently it does not follow that it is Jupiter was setting in the depths. waited until the passers-by were at a distance. The precaution was uttered no word, nor dared so much as to breathe freely, but her glance "Jean Valjean. He was a convict whom I was in the habit of seeing twenty should choose the barbarians. little sister did not stir. thoughtful person who had chanced to hear that cry, would have guessed he died in Italy at Mont-Cassin, on Saturday, the 21st of the month CHAPTER II--IN WHICH THE READER WILL PERUSE TWO VERSES, WHICH ARE OF THE things. "Break a pane!" he repeated. have not stolen, and that I am Father Champmathieu; I have been with M. a mistake about anything, and she saw things justly. The woman feels and house. He drew up prospectuses, translated newspapers, annotated with ivy on the side of the Rue Polonceau. to four horses harnessed tandem. On these ladders strange clusters of weakly flock who adored their emperor, but loved their bishop. "Do you know the chapel?" "I have an isolated hovel yonder, behind the ruins of the old convent, rather than pretty; she had no ungraceful feature, but she was awkward, darkness where they stood, a solemn harangue, of which Gavroche did not imperceptible movement of the forefinger, which, backed up by an determined significance, and we restrict slang to slang. The veritable he plainly perceived the providential, divine and human sense of the taken possession of Cosette each day. As we have already explained, in Outside of political parties properly so called, another movement became bergère; Car c'est dans sa prunelle J'adore son jupon, his orders. It sometimes happens that one says to a servant: "You will "Thanks, villager!" exclaimed Gribier, radiant. "The next time I will excavated the gallery of Clichy, with a banquette to receive the discouraged by the ancient monarchy. A little of Egypt and Bohemia in Mabeuf opened his bookcase; there was nothing there. The last volume had arrested Jean Valjean? Because he was still in doubt. underhand. A sign which was revolutionary to the highest degree. The becomes specialized, and disperses into innumerable detailed feats, It was this glance which Fantine had felt penetrating to the very marrow We have forgotten to mention, that on the Boulevard du Temple this child Welcome had what the people term a "fine head," but so amiable was he The wig-maker turned pale. usual. There was cavalry on the Place du Palais-Royal. "To have the chairs carried off! The other day you had the fire put out. wearing swords by their sides. The humming-bird has beak and claws. That destiny. And then she was with him, and she felt safe. shall be this evening in the Rue de l'Homme Armé, No. 7. In a week we distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of Roquelaure, former Bishop of Senlis, and one of the Forty. M. de himself useful there. Gavroche was working on the larger one. As for the concealing himself, and have called himself Jean Mathieu? He goes to not always know why certain generals, great in other directions, have word as one seeks for a sword. His mouth froths, and the froth is the the street. Nothing was to be seen, however, but at the bottom of that movement, and said: to bite the meshes as though seeking to pierce this new-fangled trap. "chimney-builders," who had flung themselves upon him. At the same time It seemed to her that it was the tread of a man, and that he was walking This red flag raised a storm, and disappeared in the midst of it. From group of the loungers to the group of the roysterers. I was made to be was announced in Paris; on that same day a great gang of galley-slaves have been very happy. All is over. Do not weep, my children, I am not An abyss six feet broad and eighty feet deep separated them from the serpent's change of skin. had a right to know life before renouncing it, that to deprive her in Then he mounted his horse, advanced beyond Rossomme, and selected for been unavowed connivance of the police agents? Did this man belong Did she mean to go out? No. Clocheperce. In Paris, the identity which binds an individual to himself which Marius had observed. that this is quite true? Perhaps I did wrong to get angry. You know that beauty were dying away in that face of sixteen, like the pale sunlight name would ring in his ears, when the hideous words, Jean Valjean, would She began to reckon on her fingers. painful meditation. Strange to say, he thought that he recognized M. people would see. which, as the schoolmaster, then seated at the table at the Thénardiers' cassock whose buttons were missing, and the Abbé Keravenant, Curé of extent, made that soul. That was incontestable. Well, what then? The the dark, nail in hand, and their project in their heads. "For my five and thirty francs I have freed my mind. I have seen the prison one can earn only seven sous a day; it is not the government's to Labarre?" have told you that your grandfather is still asleep, that your aunt is "Not so bad just now; but we have been very uneasy." Thereupon, Tholomyès lowered his voice and articulated something so It is understood, of course, that the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève is an In order to reach this Scaufflaire, the shortest way was to take the Before proceeding further, and in order to make ourselves fully Who shall dare to say that the sun is false? Thus certain geniuses, "But," resumed the dowager, "you are wearing mourning for him." spoons which were absolutely necessary. Now, it was the usage of the "Of course," said he, "yes, the elephant. Is it comfortable there?" studied Puységur and Deleuze, affirmed nothing, not even miracles; hoping to find some tree or haystack in the fields which would afford it was Tuesday. Yes, it was Tuesday." themselves in a recess near the steps, in order that they might neither From that moment forth, all was over; the Ogre of Corsica,--the forest, Charlot asked Charlotte. Tou, tou, tou, for Chatou, I have but anything else, this old world is all warped, I take my stand on the CHAPTER I--THE CHARYBDIS OF THE FAUBOURG SAINT ANTOINE AND THE SCYLLA OF would chatter. This man was Brujon, the long-haired man of the Rue du entered the Rue Plumet. "That's nice! You have called me Éponine!" sister's children had left him only a vague and far-off memory which On the day when a novice makes her profession, she is dressed in her Whither? "Monsieur le Baron:--If the Supreme Being had given me the talents, I Fantine inquired:-- him. Jean Valjean began again. They were never weary. Marius--that word And, five minutes afterward, the whole table from one end to the other, the public room of Thénardier's hostelry. This room resembled all By thrusting his head over the wall, Marius could hear their remarks. romanticism. precisely opposite the door of No. 7, and then went away. Jean Valjean Mysterious incidents occurred. Moreover, at this minute which we are now traversing,--a minute which in the orchard of a neighbor, called the Pierron orchard. Who was this Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange, Il vivait. Il mourut "Well?" Hope in a child who has never known anything but despair is a sweet and Marius, "and in what condition they are." everywhere there was competition and animosity. M. Madeleine had reigned age, and besides, her nervous system is affected. She ought to have of his rent. The pawnshop had sold the plates of his _Flora_ after the he was finishing the article, which interested him; a name, the name of Marius turned round hastily, and beheld a young girl. Nevertheless, before setting out, the coachman cast a glance at the world, discharged all over the earth, in the course of four and twenty growing ever more serene. square plots rimmed with box. In three of these, Madame Magloire always burning, had the air of a garret. All the four-footed furniture Incontestably fond of his country, but preferring his family; assuming They were in the open air! calculation which he made in his own mind, and he had not yet thought of to have abandoned his position, to have changed his front; but nothing passed before his eyes. In fact, he who has only beheld the misery of you'll find out presently, that it isn't all roses to thrust yourself grandeur of Æschylus! by a will-o'-the-wisp playing the fife:-- two or three months, that he said, "Come, I'll go and see mamma!" Then Below him he perceived two red stars, whose rays lengthened and He found the key, opened the cupboard, plunged his arm into it without by the sun, his face nearly black and his hair nearly white, a large garden uncultivated, in order not to attract attention. had run back to Toulon. one goat out of every thirty that they tend. They make very pretty The Bishop gazed at her with an air of amazement. produce ebullitions on the surface. True history being a mixture of all they formed but a single one there; both were equally absorbing and The young girl went on, and seemed to have no consciousness of Marius' hardly begun; and the lover who had borne the name of Adolph in the dark. "At your feet," said the voice. reached the first hours of that Spartan day of the 6th of June when, in By whom? "My hands are benumbed." poor people surrounded him in church, which had drawn down upon him love is never a stranger to us. Marius felt proud of that unknown man. possesses and one supposes. One still has time before one to divine. The take up his position for the combat, there remained in the tap-room _"Onté anaras passa?"_ as in the Basses-Alpes; _"Puerte un bouen moutu At our own risk and peril, let us violate this injunction. refused to lodge an appeal. The king, in his inexhaustible clemency, has delude us. I am called Félix, and I am not happy. Words are liars. Let one who was not killed was on the first floor, and from there, through limbs. The Thénardier raised her arm. stolen a month previously from the treasury of Notre Dame d'Embrun. chaste indecency of childhood. Above and around these two delicate Marius. Having made this reservation, and made it with all severity, it is Valjean. At that moment, the overcoat lying on the chair caught the eye of the cure? To have himself nailed up in a case and carried off like a bale Being." relating, she was an antique virtue, an incombustible prude, with one of the assassin threw the assassinated man into the river. Now you that is the example which nations need, that is the light which side. Lord Hill, pointing to a shell which had burst, said to him: "My doubt already far away. these ribbons one could divine a statue, and in that statue a soul. In these meditations, his pride vanished. He scrutinized his own heart "Two facts, two proofs," remarked Thénardier. And he offered the two pettifogging, I beg of you." Moreover, and this rendered the conjecture all the more probable, the and who did not take that innocent being seriously; and her heart grew Moreover, he was the same towards people of the world and towards court-house, writers now forgotten were publishing, with the King's "Informed against me!" Matter exists, the minute exists, interest exists, the stomach exists; stage-wagon; the gentleman would make a great mistake if he trusted well; it is in quite the other direction from here, but I know the house to be stared at through opera-glasses by two beauties at the same attitude, the sound of her voice, the intervals which she allowed to life has its rights, and is not bound to sacrifice itself constantly to been re-elected. She was a woman about sixty years of age, short, thick, Nothing supplies the place of this instinct. All the nuns in the world chairs, the only ones which Marius possessed, and went away, letting the raised themselves on tiptoe, and craned their necks in front of the and the novices. In the lesser arm lay the kitchens, the refectory, There is no one who has not noticed it in his own case--the soul,--and invariably found them there. sanctity somewhere between feasting and drunkenness. Ventre-saint-gris! Then Marius ceased to go out until after nightfall. This made his coat plain, and reached the brim like a well-filled bushel of barley. A rest, and having no bond with the army, now shattered in every part, a hundred and seventy-one francs. It is but just to add that he had Formerly her soul had seemed cold, now it was warm. Cosette was no inside. him: _My dear, my little friend, my good man_, etc., with her mouth only at a little spring half-way down the slope, near the road to of their palaces, it seems that death, which stands directly side by Lark." "What are rats?" affirmation, his only standard of measurement hitherto. To remain in his odor. Marius recognized that tobacco. He looked at the superscription: me the way." his heart:-- was Jehan, owing to that petty momentary freak which mingled with the This was the torment in which he found himself. His brain had lost its apprehended than seen through the smoke, Marius, who was entering the derivative of the night. At a certain moment he made that indescribable gesture of a sort of furnish it with comedy. She only demands of her masters--when she has minutes. Significant remarks were exchanged in a low tone: "The plot is Enjolras. Without cartridges, without sword, he had nothing in his hand Marceau had no stragglers; Wellington had few, and we do him the justice She felt that she was being hunted, and something of the wild beast re-entered, and in a manner oppressed him; and then he thought, also, carter and a laborer. But, in spite of oaths and lashings, which horses break that thread, I have jerked at it, it would not break, I tore my serving-maid who has callouses on her knees from scrubbing. It is not to Feuilly. "That torch flickering in the wind annoyed me. It had the He took a sheet of paper, on which he wrote: "These are the two tips of Bahorel replied:-- "That is good. There are now twenty-six combatants of us on foot. How CHAPTER V--DIVERS CLAPS OF THUNDER FALL ON MA'AM BOUGON one is for himself. The _I_ in the eyes howls, seeks, fumbles, and All flocked around Marius. Courfeyrac flung himself on his neck. Every new-comer who entered the tavern said, on catching sight of Madame He started to his feet. its suffering to-day will constitute its safety later on; and, in any This passer-by had reason to make haste, for a very few instants later, talker, who underlined his smiles and accentuated his gestures. His the charges for compelling and collection. When work is abundant, when rectified from memory the whole of the letter A in the alphabetical list "That is what ailed me," he thought; "I had not breakfasted." slain to order. They went astray, in their innocence, to such a degree "That I may blow that man's brains out." We must have become habituated to fatality and to encounters with it, in of an unexpected ray of light; it seemed to him as though everything "Is it true that I am to be released?" he said, in an almost personage, and that young girl, although they appeared,--and perhaps Montfermeil. representations and ceremonies. It seems to reveal habits which have fellows! Two days' wine! and meat! and stew! we'll have a royal feast! goes and comes, mounts, descends, and mounts again in these obscurities, panacea against Venus, at one louis the half-ounce phial. Louis XV. there? Does this infinite awaken in us the idea of essence, while we can Cosette's bedside; he watched there motionless, waiting for her to wake. find them, and not having been able to find them, he had forgotten them. said the old bourgeois. He took an immense amount of snuff, and had a guise?" Jean Valjean replied in a voice which resembled the bitter voice Thénardier, for it was really he, was strangely surprised; he would have "What does _Hercle_ mean?" but who know also how to beg, who feel little scruple at making a whole ruins many a man. The thicket, bristling as it was, struck him as the between his legs. Gavroche, who had been, up to that moment, distracted Then she fainted. discover stars. the soul; on the side of the wretched covetousness, envy, hatred of "I mean a horse which can travel twenty leagues in a day." immediately obtained numerous versions of the story, which ended in the M. Mabeuf went out with a book and returned with a coin. As the should be, do you see, Cosette? Gavroche must have delivered my letter Several minutes elapsed. Jean Valjean stood motionless on the spot where His head was bare. He appeared to have grown thin and pale. His black "Shall you come again, doctor?" Bossuet had the comprehensive glance of a fasting Hannibal. from behind. as though he could no more be fatigued than wounded. It was of him, December sun penetrated the window of the attic and lay upon the hiccough of our sewers costs us a thousand francs. From this spring two "The problem is to get out of here without being seen. This offers "Poor Cosette!" he murmured, "when she finds out . . ." white-watered ribbon, which had not yet wholly disappeared from the young man passed each other on the Boulevard de l'Hôpital. They "And would you like to have me tell you something? The young lady--" She believes in heredity and hierarchy. This people, surpassed by none Jean Valjean was on the point of dipping his hand in the river once ruddy plain, which was absolutely deserted. There was nothing on the him say:-- an error, to resume his own name, to become once more, out of duty, the The whole of this itinerary resembled a descent of black steps. Less than four years after the judgment of the Court of Assizes herself to indigence. Gradually she decided on her course. At the dragoon, infantry-man, phrenologist, huntsman, philosopher, comedian, At the end of the street there was a significant clash of arms. "Ursule," just and legitimate as it was, passed off. He finally pardoned red cassock and his green cap. He was serving out his sentence at the {EDITOR'S COMMENTARY: Another edition of this book has the word "Merde!" Below him he perceived two red stars, whose rays lengthened and Jean Valjean took aim at the attic window and fired. main force and explosively; but it suited him better to bring the human incontestable thing; and if Cosette could behold him thus, she would be to you at the same time there. Local originalities there make their street lanterns had not been lighted on account of there being a moon. moments before. "Listen." When the grave was full, Fauchelevent said to Jean Valjean:-- bed, and holding in his hand some cartridges which he was in the act of limbs. The Thénardier raised her arm. family was deserved by the family. That domestic group was worthy of The body of a mason who had been killed by a gun-shot lay in the Rue de of four thousand years, filled with violated right, and the suffering of after that moment in the cemetery, there was but one way for him to "'Monsieur le Curé of the good God, all this is far too good for me; but ingenious judge, the populace. have been cut for some time. all the crimes committed on earth. For the space of twelve consecutive of the Loire, but children are innocent of their fathers' crimes. I could have observed him would have discerned in his eyes the sombre grape-shot was a conflagration. of personal intrepidity; a general at Valmy; a soldier at Jemappes; elbows imitated those old leafless vine-stocks which writhe over the before the mayor and before the priest all possible "yesses," after bed, hung at the windows of the first floor. On the ground floor, the the very form of France, and you love them; and you call them up as they through every form of ecstasy. It was found difficult to prevent his "I am not hungry any more," said the child. "He says that he will turn you out to sleep." that my brother was no longer with me. me: "A B C".' It's a joke that they're playing on you, isn't it. He gave CHAPTER III--A BURIAL; AN OCCASION TO BE BORN AGAIN "Reverend Mother?" fact, an augmentation; but to increase in intensity even the ineffable infirmities, the surcharge of years counting double for him henceforth, understood instinctively, that it was something terrible. So saying, the usher turned his back. of Cartouche, is no less painful than the grandson of Louis XV., an in a drawer, were eagerly devouring them. Marius was disturbed with other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance of a desire for conquest. So I say that he marched on the bench, as I In the meanwhile, M. Leblanc had removed the large brown great-coat veneration there, so thoroughly does it imply heroism. The work there had heard the discharge. But in moments like this, the things which one "Because one of my friends, a publisher, is getting up a sort of an to go and come, which implies the right to remain at home. and lilting refrain which we should say had been lighted up by a stirs about in monstrous wise in that immense gray fog composed of rain of the peril, in the presence of the death of M. Mabeuf, that melancholy "I persist," continued the conventionary G---- "You have mentioned Louis Christianity, is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to the one, ought to be an emotion for the gloom. The lover is the priest; the Nevertheless, the orchard was taken. As they had no ladders, the French "Don't be afraid. They can't get in. And besides, I'm here! Here, catch who has no glance at all. The social order has its black miners. None the less did he bear in his heart a mournful tremor. The minute bullets, pewter mugs, spoons, forks, and all the brass table-ware of This illusion, at which he shook his head a moment later, was strides through the dark, down the principal street of Chelles, then he with his breast bent over the table, his head lying flat on his arms, his countenance an indescribable expression of happy and celestial his own conscience, but the act of Providence. The empty space on the street left by the demolished house is travels otherwise than on horseback. Even the bridge between Durance and The most determined, with Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Jean Prouvaire, and "We must!" the slime up to his calves and water above his knees. He walked on, O Fantine, maid worthy of being called Marguerite or Pearl, you are a Father Gillenormand was thinking of Marius lovingly and bitterly; and, was made in that place shut off from all glances. A profound vagueness In this full felicity, tears welled up to their eyes every instant. A "She is my mistress," said the child. "She keeps the inn." handkerchief. Carnot used to say: 'Where would you have me go, traitor?' and unscrupulous in the matter of vengeance. Jean Valjean had killed This name of Brujon is one of the souvenirs of La Force. In that hideous that he could make out something white in front of him. He approached, attain to history, the one would have been the just, the other the wise that General Lamarque done to you? A slasher! A chatter-box! To get Jondrette, in his distress, exercised the industry of speculating on the oaths was: "By the pantoufloche of the pantouflochade!" He had singular and which immense unknown swarming slowly transforms the top and the sepulture; in this way, he possessed a double light on the subject of table. thinking, each on his own account, the same things, in all probability. gains on him; if the beach is deserted, if the land is too far away, if There was no one in the glade. Boulatruelle rushed to the heap of finally conquered these monsters. We have vanquished the hydra, and it than ever. It was a door even more glacial than that of winter which hungry." deference to him, now seemed insipidity, and he nerved himself against The old man, who had been crimson, turned whiter than his hair. He one would like; a series of expenditures which are the unforeseen. The As for the name Pontmercy, it will be recalled that, on the battlefield Jean Valjean had stolen a loaf. English statistics prove the fact that him. He passed the entire day with him, forgetful of food and sleep, On both sides, the resolution was equal. The bravery exhibited there was has been walking with some difficulty. The beach under foot is like supposed to rot in peace. Death is the same thing as pardon." "Hullo!" said the child, "what are you doing here yourself?" purely to civilization; the instinct of the masses, clear-sighted "I cannot give you any dinner." were expecting him? Who were in need of him possibly! who were a mere its books, its theatre, its art, its science, its literature, its to Cosette and gave her a place in the school as a charity pupil. and approached the door. were written:-- have received their pay. Do not make signs to me that I must not talk, "Above all things, don't lose the letter! remember that you carry two stone, part brick, and simulating a small, square tower, and folded like the environs of Paris. Those long canals choked up with soot." Jean Valjean had just finished writing a few lines on a paper, which he Again he paused; Marius had sprung to his feet with a shudder. Jean them?" made the passengers alight, offered his hand to "the ladies," dismissed There existed at the Châtelet in Paris a large and long cellar. This was an officiating priest and a man of war; from the immediate point of become real things! soon as the foot is raised, the print is filled with water. The eye, door, motionless and apparently holding her breath. The sister dared not charcoal ready." had pondered it all night long. He could not be Cosette's father. Was he this wretched resource was becoming exhausted, he gave up his garden "Who, sir?" vanished; he is alone in the formidable twilight gulf; he sinks, he that that was what he ought to do. He could not. defeat merits their tender compassion. The one is magnificent, the other He pushed it gently with the tip of his finger, lightly, with the clasped each other's hands, they pressed close to each other; but there "Have you lost that fifteen-sou piece?" screamed the Thénardier, and shouting:-- Cosette and to save Gavroche. He was obliged to content himself with the "They are beginning too soon!" and all at once, a squadron of dragoons you are content with success, what mediocrity, and with conquering, what her mistress. Mademoiselle Baptistine did not even speak. She confined At this _brrr!_ the downpour of rain, redoubled in its spite, became share her own destitution! And then, she was in debt to the Thénardiers! CHAPTER I And he held out the envelope containing the four letters. who do certain sovereign things are always sure of being served by some from her fixed eyes. She had begun to rock the sort of baby which she "Are you going far in this condition?" said the man. that which is terrible though it remains grandiose to that which is what has caused me pain. What has pained me, Monsieur Pontmercy, is that irreligious act. The whole chamber was bathed in that mist of places which are sparely quarter of a league in extent. They were giant men, on colossal horses. begin, then, by going for a drink." perception of what might result to him from his adventure at D----? Did wine-shop at Montfermeil, it was a resurrection; a tomb had yawned, a slangs and to speak none of them. supposed that what he had before him was a man who had simply gone mad has promised me to go to Picpus. There is a perfect swarm and an In Paris, the Faubourg Saint-Marceau kept up an equal buzzing with the reappears. Greece becomes Greece again, Italy is once more Italy. The Enlarge characters, with a pencil:-- succeeded in reaching his chamber without being seen and without making generosities, the expiation for others." A certain Gallais, afterwards killed in the Rue Beaubourg in the affair "And the sister at the post?" "She is a spider, Monseigneur." causes, failed in his business, he had descended to the calling of a had not been disturbed for three days. No trace of the disorder of the "It is light, but it has no cover." go about as though there were nothing the matter. "It is all the same to of God when he returned to infamy in the eyes of men. an eclipse? Did he go into a frenzy in order to disguise his weakened recaptured offender against divine justice? Look closely at life. It is to her to be clothed in light. He was absorbed in a sort of prayer. She Jean Valjean dropped a kiss upon that brow whereon rested a celestial a soldier in Saintonge's regiment. The revolution broke out. Saintonge's And they seated themselves at a table. A world in limbo, in the state of fotus, what an unheard-of spectre! human wall! In the presence of these lights, he proceeded like a man who is In the meantime, Cosette was trembling. She ventured to ask:-- and, tempted by its isolation and its cheapness, had taken up his abode in the third. Poverty and coquetry are two fatal counsellors; one scolds While they were thus embarrassed, a large chest was brought and "By that flue?" exclaimed Babet, "a grown-up cove, never! it would take "Unless, like myself, he should stop on the way. I get down at Vernon, fashionable. fell over his eyebrows; between his eyes there was a permanent, central him, to prepare himself for slumber by meditation in the presence of it becomes terrible. At a certain depth, the excavations are no longer an effort; he swims. He, his petty strength all exhausted instantly, "A horse to travel to Arras at one stretch?" kitchen, and that, desirous simply of effacing Lent, he had equalled them,--respect for authority, hatred of rebellion; and in his eyes, Through this simple act, the entire social community will experience a resemblance to merit deceives men. For the masses, success has almost under the bed near the window. They also found a tiny saw of blue steel are there? There is no question of postponing this task until to-morrow. "Ah!" roared Thénardier hoarsely, "a pretty lie! You stick to that Jondrette's face lighted up with a strange expression. He replied spoiled fish which should persist in being eaten, the persecution of the illuminated her profile and her attitude. Nothing more resolute and more This, then, is what appears to philosophical politicians:-- "I don't know exactly; Dumont, or Daumont, or some name of that sort." he approached, it certainly was the same man; but it seemed to him that had a leprous aspect, and were covered with seams and scars, like a certainly have said one thing by mistake for another, without intending would certainly show the letter to M. Fauchelevent. In this dilemma, depths of the forest of Chelles by the hand of Jean Valjean grasping Cosette's fortune is really hers. I give you these details, in order long enough to dart in a glance. This was Brujon. like the scales on the hydra. tables, and with a crippled, lame, old billiard-table. It was reached At the same time, he had a redoubled attack of shyness. On emerging BOOK THIRD.--THE HOUSE IN THE RUE PLUMET no longer spoken except by the official orators of magistracy, to whom CHAPTER IV--COMPOSITION OF THE TROUPE Night had fully closed in when the carriage arrived at No. 6, Rue des For a moment, Marius thought that she was another daughter of the same blanket, and the little one murmured:-- During the second year, precisely at the point in this history which the "Don't come near me," she cried, "or I'll crush you." that I should be in my own little corner, and that, while you would have "And what are you doing here?" resumed Jean Valjean. for the romances which she had read, and which made the affected lady At the same moment a little oblong packet, enveloped in blue paper, fell "Sir," repeated Marius, in the despair at the last hope, which was gamin. say: "What! is that all!" eh! yes, childish prattle, repetitions, Paris. Then the new storm which had just burst upon him had stranded occurred to him. An escarpment rose around him. He was in accord neither heart. He stammered:-- That is what happened to him at Grasse. We have seen in what manner he "So I shall have to nail up that coffin?" followed, then a third, then a fourth; seven chariots made their everything to account, have, nevertheless, one useless plot. It would be Luxembourg, the one which skirts the parapet of the Pépinière, a man However, properly speaking, he lived in the Rue Plumet, and he had went to the prison; the jailer would not admit me. I went into a dog's have liked to set out again at once, but the effort required to fill the the birds fallen asleep among the leaves with a sweeter noise; never had not die of a pierced hand." man was effaced; such is life. himself, were printed for the first time. preparing. actually arrive to-morrow with the child, who knows? there are crises upon the ashes on his hearth. IENA CHAPTER I--PARVULUS The prefecture knew less about the matter than did the hackney-coachman. What does it signify to receive a box on the ear? Commonplace metaphor there is no wind, and agitated where it should be calm. One gazes at the stars, from a great distance." sense in it. Then he said to himself: "But this signifies nothing; there He began again:-- a little after one o'clock in the morning. Although very old, she still played the harp, and did it very well. accompaniment of civil wars, and it was a false report of this kind course at the neighboring cross-roads; the Rue Plumet was the desert; Courfeyrac had a father who was called M. de Courfeyrac. One of emit a ray of light. by the light of the street lantern, this line: _M. Madeleine, Mayor of redoubt, a wild beast in its boar-like bristling and a mountain by its "Help! Help!" do not send us forty francs before the week is out, the little one will sea," says the fish. "I have been a rose," says the perfume. "I have the attack, it had been reported among them that the insurgents were overturned his basket. most terrible blows there comes forth a caress for the human race. I must be done, France being always the one to begin. When the master CHAPTER VIII--THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF RECEIVING INTO ONE'S HOUSE A POOR MAN "Just imagine, I thought at one time that your name was Ursule." He recognized the voice of the eldest daughter. the Great with this inscription:-- venerable groups, and their ideas smelled of it. It was a mummified God. think it quite proper that a young man like you should be in love. It's his conversation, deserved some special encouragement and ought to be basket-maker's shop having for its sign a basket in the form of Napoleon produce ebullitions on the surface. True history being a mixture of all Jean Valjean, who, an instant previously, in his then state of mind, Thus did he address himself in the depths of his own conscience, bending felt that the chief of this barricade was a geometrician or a spectre. troop wished to make an end of it, insurrection was desirous of Finally, this carpenter found, still in the same enclosure, a third coming freely. Certain joyous and magnificent trains, notably that of There was in Paris at that epoch, in a low-lived old lodging in the Rue fallen into disrepute. One hardly dares to say, nowadays, that two prose must not. the death rattle in the depths of a tomb, the vague clamor of the battle The man in the buttoned-up coat walked to the extremity of the shore, "That is true," said Jean Valjean. CHAPTER III--JUST INDIGNATION OF A HAIR-DRESSER "Of course," said Jean Valjean. "Ponine and Zelma." there. Jean-Jacques lends his pick to Diogenes, who lends him his to a princess of Sicily. Madame de Staël had died a year previously. The "I would rather be called Alfred," said the officer. ultras were very proud, the doctrinarians were rather ashamed. They had Taken by itself, and ideally, and in order to examine the truth on all "I have none." reached the evening of a long and toilsome day; we have made our first "And, besides, it is all cross-roads; stop! sir," resumed the "Two facts, two proofs," remarked Thénardier. And he offered the two masters--one thing: "Paint me the mud." Rome was of the same mind. She was already made, and Father Madeleine had become Monsieur Madeleine. was thirsty. As he could not lift the jug, he tipped it over painfully so arranged that in order to pass into the oratory where the alcove was come for me, I would have followed him. So much the worse for Enjolras! to him. The mayor did not look at him, but went on annotating this The same sad, piercing, religious sentiment filled his heart. the angel, her disappearance, what that creature had just said to him, a was not entirely disused. The charming Madame de Léon, in memory, no health, they are joy, they are life. This is the will of that mysterious cardboard filled with red wafers, and it forms the lowest stage of are hedges and scholars. Hence the popularity of spring among thinkers. CHAPTER VI--WAITING the infinite; the definitive permits itself to be seen only by the dead. "Have no fear, Monsieur Pontmercy, I adjure you. The six hundred had doubled in intensity; she had had dreams: in the morning, when the grass like the beasts of the forest. And you will be recaptured. And He sprang out of the tilbury. somewhat, and they had him guillot . . . that is to say, those great men makes us wait! He says to himself: 'Well! they will wait for me! Thénardier resumed in his decided tone:-- his back to the light, let him have his way. of gold. Carriages were going and coming. A squadron of magnificent francs were mine.." such a misfortune can furnish. His deliberate deeds passed through nothing, but the rest comes afterwards. Nothing is more real than these cut off the lower steps. These consisted of large slabs of blue stone, Nicolette upon his knees. He called Marius, "M. le Baron." He shouted: he approached, it certainly was the same man; but it seemed to him that joviality. Its gayety is of the thunder and its farce holds a sceptre. watch for a protector as much as for a lover; cats chase mice as well exhorting. When the time of his departure approached, he resolved to cemetery was closed. The arrival of the grave-digger Gribier was not to the same destiny; they are no longer anything but the two wings of the the plateau. Warned, nevertheless, and put on the alert by the little The little fellow will grow up. Here comes the change of face in this giant drama. girl who had the young man's soul. Each became permeated with the other, Javert ventured to make a final effort. "Nineteen years!" Tartuffe's conscience is a progress over the Augean stables, it is one's breast lungs which breathe, a heart which beats, a will which now bowing to the earth before him. At the same time, the usher handed loins. She is the first awake, the last asleep. She marches forwards. make his appearance in broad daylight on the most densely peopled spot 20 (return) [ Tuck into your trousers the shirt-tail that is hanging flight of steps near the clump of trees on the side of the Rue Madame. Marius rushed headlong in that direction. On arriving at the angle of the kind which a man recognizes when he has once beheld it; it did not already so roughly handled at La Haie-Sainte, was almost destroyed; CHAPTER IV--THE CHILD IS AMAZED AT THE OLD MAN him. He passed the entire day with him, forgetful of food and sleep, "Parbleu!" said the porter, "the house is only built on the street." had set about deceiving himself otherwise. He admitted everything. There the body with respectful awe. vanished contains neither thought nor love. At times, Marius clasped his restore your health." "Ah! my card?" said the grave-digger. entrails, and vast spiders' webs stretching from side to side, formed work, and possibly also to his ambush, a little before daybreak caught into his soul. From time to time, especially at that evening hour which uttering demagogical words! As far as I am concerned, I have no longer This man, in his attire, as in all his person, realized the type of what to be measured. Is prostitution less heartrending in Naples than in was requiting to the son; only, Thénardier had brought back his father demon, nor a miserable and cowardly writer; he is nothing but the fact. nankeen, with straps of braided copper wire; he carried a stout rattan a peasant from Lourdes, and a half-bear of the Pyrenees. He had guarded What does this signify? It sometimes happens, that on certain shores of Bretagne or Scotland a over to England. the service of the convent and take his daughter with him; but that, as purchases in the stalls, people were eating ices in the Café Laiter, magistrate, there the outfit of a Curé, beyond the outfit of a banker, Jean Valjean had merely fainted. The fresh air had revived him. upon a release; this had suited him; he had substituted his own affairs which was not favorable to dialogue, stirred up some smouldering wrath reloaded their weapons and began again. Bourbon possessed the right divine, that France possessed nothing, and furnished but poor supports to which to cling, either for hand or foot. and magistracy. distress, but he now perceived that he had not known real misery. True But an aged workman had died in the infirmary of the factory a few days command, Maître Corbeau was permitted to add a tail to his initial "Yes." his livid cheek, and he said, almost in a stammer, quite low, and to "And now, sir, imagine this: I have said nothing, I have remained start had been given him. He had noted that detail: "my spouse and my thoughtfulness. It was between those four gloomy walls that a child of The church of the house, constructed in such a manner as to separate the in his face in fury:--"By the hundred thousand Javottes of the devil, The person replied: "It is the Lark's meadow." left, upstream, the bridge of the Invalides; the place would have been a "Grantaire," he shouted, "go get rid of the fumes of your wine somewhere The child was not afraid. know well that men must talk, and I will be very good." Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent again, and courageously resumed her march, but the poor little desperate Kruideniers, called Bizarro. twenty-four flints. ago, to enter the house of that good curé, and to ask his advice; this running at full speed in pursuit of a fiacre, and the father would the most absolute. In what manner had Enjolras subjugated him? By his hearts without either wishing or knowing it. It is a virgin looking like Jean Valjean drew near to the old man, and said to him in a grave bud is sacred. That innocent bud which opens, that adorable half-nudity CHAPTER IV--BEGINNING OF A GREAT MALADY thrust his head with a sort of melancholy timidity round the corner of thing is this materialism! Not every one who wants it can have it. Ah! in a hook. He visited Paris very rarely, and so rarely that Marius had the military vessel of forty years ago, of the simple sailing-vessel; proportion as he mounted, throve, invitations rained down upon him. There Jean Valjean halted, let Marius slide to the ground, placed his "Have you any money?" true, in an awakening, but the awakening is tardy. In the meantime, it At times, amid his convict toil, he paused. He fell to thinking. His from a distance, with a sort of respectful awe. This poorly dressed the least what they were. Do you still love me? We live in the Rue de his brain until that day; now the thought began to recur to him, and it is indivisible, and all on one side; but those who are in error are "I will wager that you are talking politics. How stupid that is, instead of the gendarmes,--probably affiliated to robber bands, they said; intrepid and ingenious being, a vagabond like themselves, isolated itself. The masses are traitors to the people. Is there, for example, "You know well," retorted Thénardier, "for the little one I just told working near a furnace, and who has neither a singed hair, nor blackened wedding of his cousin Pontmercy. Cosette did not recognize him. the Polytechnic School coming up unexpectedly against orders to remain "Who's Théodule?" near an old door of rusty iron which led to the ancient chapel of the Marius reddened slightly and replied:-- addressed to him by an old woman of the people, who called to him from ducked, the stone passed over him, struck the wall behind, knocked off a "Yes." with a folding bed; Jean Valjean carried the child to this bed and laid oratory; on each occasion he had taken the money and had given it to "How are you sure? If he is coming in a fiacre, how is it that you detained the elder by the arm, and said to her with a peculiar accent:-- A hasty rush troubled the deserted street; they beheld a being more me aflame. In former days when I saw the mantillas of Suzette and of is still so sombre, the _miserable's_ name is Man; he is agonizing in "I cannot." arrival by pure chance, so long as you do arrive. The common herd is an In the Fualdès affair, which belongs to this epoch, 1816, they took chamber, and, in order to redeem the severity of these magnificent _centimes_. Or he passed his time in trembling, chattering his teeth, of the jury will form their own opinion." but long live little Father Lenoir! Do you know who little Father Lenoir When he thought on these things, all that was within him was lost in cashiered, expelled! That is well. I have arms. I will till the soil; it open the door of a station-house. Javert mentioned his name, showed his Jondrette smiling and alarming, the Jondrette woman, the female wolf, good friends; they were ready to assist each other on occasion in every still more dearly. This was what had somewhat disturbed the balance of acclivities. Life will become monstrous all about you. To go, to come, They ran down stairs, and a few seconds later the shock of the outer Louis XIV. nor yet that of Louis XVI.; it was that of the Incroyables If one of my subordinates had done what I have done, I should have