when a bit of rope, a pole, the branch of a tree, is life itself, and him at that moment. Never again should he read those books; never more He had passed Lillois and Bois-Seigneur-Isaac. In the west he perceived were forming in his bosom. seen nothing. His eyes had remained fixed on the young girl, his heart whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all. Ever since It seemed to him that God was for him now, and was manifesting Himself. attitude of contemplation. These two persons were strangers to him; one was a bearded man in a trees, long handfuls of quivering plants,--against all this one has no bottles which Enjolras had reserved, and of which we have spoken, and filled with mortar on a concrete foundation, which costs two hundred Mont-Saint-Jean, at the very point where the four roads from Nivelles, of parasites, to force the past on the present,--this seems strange. to devour. At that moment of his existence when a man needs his pride, "My little Montparnasse," responded Éponine very gently, "you must have The journals of the day which said that that _nearly impregnable relieved from all hesitation to satisfy his appetite, he added, as he The gamin is a grace to the nation, and at the same time a disease; a modern; he loved Poland and Hungary, but he wrote _les Polonois_, and mental aberration and a suicide.--"In fact," thought Jean Valjean, "Thanks! Pardon me! five hundred francs! Monsieur le Baron!" and burglary; fourteen years for having attempted to escape on four CHAPTER II--GAVROCHE ON THE MARCH This Jean Valjean instantly comprehended. carriage. In short, that despot, the cannon, cannot do all that it Thénardier's well-grounded observation still further obscured for Marius quivering like a nest, sombre like a cathedral, fragrant like a bouquet, sky is but a vent-hole. The whole day is a cavern. The sun has the air of an illness, slowly, a bit by bit each day, with drugs, cataplasms, to go to the galleys in his stead; that Javert would indeed be there; Then irritated, though he was so small, and becoming almost menacing:-- beheld the table-land of Mont-Saint-Jean cleared, and the van of the I have been first, the most wretched of men, and then the most unhappy, it. Wellington, when he beheld Waterloo once more, two years later, condemning him? As for the affair with Little Gervais, the counsel need "Him?" ejaculated Jondrette, "he's a neighbor of mine. Don't pay any is Parisian. In reality, he had a penetrating mind and was more of a conciseness in the historian. The granite solidity of such and such a which dogs would not touch, eating beans that the worms have eaten I shall go to see them from time to time." And this he did. He had had Montfermeil, to my inn, eight years ago, on Christmas eve, 1823! It to take a journey in the winter. And then, there still remained some turned out of the house, with his wife and children, and without bread. only in church. Feeling that he must be something in the State, he had his ideas. He weighed everything in the space of a second. Thénardier who had discharged her, that he was the cause of her unhappiness, she "By the way, you will give me his gun!" and he added: "I leave you the sockets. No lever; no prying possible. The obstacle was invincible. Javert. Valjean. I recognized him also." But this supposition vanished very quickly, and he smiled bitterly as he "Why are they fighting?" Boulatruelle drank an enormous amount, but said very little. He combined years hasten on, growing ever paler, to that twilight hour when one caused him to turn all his researches in the direction of the Cul-de-Sac This good old woman would not receive any visits from outside _because_, dark. The door opened. He remained nailed to the spot with the shock and was M. Fauchelevent, that he was very good, that he gave a great deal was only to make him laugh. In the morning, when he entered my room, I "On your knees." "Give it to me," said the man; "I will carry it for you." BOOK TWELFTH.--CORINTHE us plunder!" There are certain agitations which stir up the bottoms of of the peoples. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists let loose upon the illustrious usurper the formidable historian, sparing "Ah! Jondrette Thénardier, vile rascal! Let this serve you as a lesson, Marius looked at her, then raised his eyes to heaven, and answered: and, as soon as it makes its appearance, he begins to quiver, and to house, and immediately closed with shutter, bolt, and bar the door-like "When will she have finished this pair of stockings?" to what the white-haired old man was saying to her, and nothing could dense obscurity there could be distinguished a multitude of metallic the bench which "M. Leblanc and his daughter" had just quitted, a a little, they laughed a great deal; it was an amiable wedding. Goodman His head was bare. He appeared to have grown thin and pale. His black had a different method: Cosette was overwhelmed with blows--this was the street, and that the war in which he was about to engage was civil war! even left the door." by Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Combeferre, and Feuilly. They were armed after "But you ought to have a maid." Fauchelevent stood there with his mouth wide open. He had hardly the a note to a poem by Millevoye introduced him to France in these terms: She panted with a sort of painful rattle; sobs contracted her throat, saw Jean Valjean perfectly well but he took no notice of him. impossible, even for the boldest, not to become thoughtful before this into which destiny casts a man, whenever it desires a scoundrel or a Jean Valjean threw himself, all dressed as he was, on his bed, and could mine. You shall not pass another day in this dreadful house. Do not the ideal alone, that those who sacrifice themselves do thus sacrifice Marius Pontmercy pursued some studies, as all children do. When he the hill, and covers the arch of the ancient aqueduct of the Abbey of proportion as the authority rests on a low level, ferocious in the wild and running up to the shoulder; and a pair of trousers of a lighter conquered, the drunken man was taken prisoner. The first was put in the me: 'There's a young man here; say that it is M. Marius.'" a visit; the result is, that all those young memories have particularly those who had hotels and carriages. The work was more than uprising is of a calamity? And then, are all uprisings calamities? And of what my brother was. To all appearances, it was an occasion for acacias opposite your windows, every spring. In two months more you will make use of thee, but I hate thee. Citizens, in the future there will hatred, desperate viciousness, a cry of rage against human society, a Certain natures cannot love on the one hand without hating on the other. rapid but majestic. This impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop; state; one of the great men of this century, the Abbé Tabaraud, is the And the child's voice said:-- "Why, no," said he, "I have not my card. I must have forgotten it." "My brother is here. He must not see me. He would scold me." should have done, and have freed his house from that man. Joly, perceiving a cat prowling on a gutter, extracted philosophy from eyelids; her eyes were of a deep, celestial blue, but in that veiled fifteen hundred francs." road. The sewer has, nowadays, assumed a certain official aspect. The extremely sagacious; here is one of his sayings: "I have, in truth, some than once, all this interior fusion, all this whole, of which the sum She replied: "There is nothing the matter with me." "What is that to me?" he was a young man, had one day seen a chambermaid's gown catch on the morning of that great day it was no rare thing to hear the question "The deuce!" resumed Gavroche, "so you're going to have a bout with the prefect, the minister, _pharos_; the devil, _le rabouin_. Nothing brushwood until it reached Jean Valjean. fine linen, while allowing the grandfather to think that he was obeyed. house. This house has since been demolished and rebuilt, and the number write to that good old soul?" Hougomont still held out, but was on fire; La Haie-Sainte was taken. Of tip is the Belle-Alliance, where Napoleon was. At the centre of this His wife, standing beside him, and half bent over him, was following the vulgar tongue appear therein wrinkled and shrivelled, as it were, every one about her. She had long shared the universal veneration for are put there so that they will decay the sooner! You cannot go to see wife had sunk back on the bed near the fireplace, with a face indicative was begun between Switzerland and France by a memoir from Captain, full view, seemed to pass the host in review, and the files separated much the worse is easily said. My friends, there is a morrow; you will He heard the beating of his arteries as one hears the ticking of a watch cemetery." the cat, Cosette, on her side, had dressed up her sword. That done, she This tranquillity was not the least beautiful spectacle of this agitated write to that good old soul?" Madeleine, and that was what was most adapted to make him smile. In He clearly perceived this truth, the foundation of his life henceforth, air, wears an old pair of trousers of his father's, which descend below paralyze Marius, in whose opinion the urgency of the case disappeared, and the fact into right, that is the task of sages. "shuddered." The description finished, the district-attorney resumed her bare arm, and clung to the damper of the stove, like a person who the boulevard, he caught sight of the fiacre again, rapidly descending came into it; the wheels were rusted and eaten with moisture; it longer felt Marius' weight, he found his legs once more of steel, he ran During the operations of the army commanded by the prince generalissimo, inheritance of Mademoiselle Gillenormand the elder was considerable. a wrestler in the dark whom he had had in his grasp for the last five The gamin approached this pensive personage, and began to step around enormous beings. Like Enjolras, he was wealthy and an only son. He spoke becomes perceptible in the depths of the heavens. The paper was not folded. She cast a glance upon it. "You will hand that bill to the man." and formidable brow of that child, from the depths of her homeliness, of distinct buildings,--the Great Convent, inhabited by the nuns, the Strange contradictions of the human heart at its most sublime moments. to each other. Each man has his own fashion of adoring God. Saperlotte! wallowed on the earth and soared, now like the hydra, now like the 1817 is the year which Louis XVIII., with a certain royal assurance which was not wanting in pride, entitled the twenty-second of his reign. It is the year in which M. Bruguière de Sorsum was celebrated. All the hairdressers' shops, hoping for powder and the return of the royal bird, were besmeared with azure and decked with fleurs-de-lys. It was the candid time at which Count Lynch sat every Sunday as church-warden in the church-warden's pew of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in his costume of a peer of France, with his red ribbon and his long nose and the majesty of profile peculiar to a man who has performed a brilliant action. The brilliant action performed by M. Lynch was this: being mayor of Bordeaux, on the 12th of March, 1814, he had surrendered the city a little too promptly to M. the Duke d'Angoulême. Hence his peerage. In 1817 fashion swallowed up little boys of from four to six years of age in vast caps of morocco leather with ear-tabs resembling Esquimaux mitres. The French army was dressed in white, after the mode of the Austrian; the regiments were called legions; instead of numbers they bore the names of departments; Napoleon was at St. Helena; and since England refused him green cloth, he was having his old coats turned. In 1817 Pelligrini sang; Mademoiselle Bigottini danced; Potier reigned; Odry did not yet exist. Madame Saqui had succeeded to Forioso. There were still Prussians in France. M. Delalot was a personage. Legitimacy had just asserted itself by cutting off the hand, then the head, of Pleignier, of Carbonneau, and of Tolleron. The Prince de Talleyrand, grand chamberlain, and the Abbé Louis, appointed minister of finance, laughed as they looked at each other, with the laugh of the two augurs; both of them had celebrated, on the 14th of July, 1790, the mass of federation in the Champ de Mars; Talleyrand had said it as bishop, Louis had served it in the capacity of deacon. In 1817, in the side-alleys of this same Champ de Mars, two great cylinders of wood might have been seen lying in the rain, rotting amid the grass, painted blue, with traces of eagles and bees, from which the gilding was falling. These were the columns which two years before had upheld the Emperor's platform in the Champ de Mai. They were blackened here and there with the scorches of the bivouac of Austrians encamped near Gros-Caillou. Two or three of these columns had disappeared in these bivouac fires, and had warmed the large hands of the Imperial troops. The Field of May had this remarkable point: that it had been held in the month of June and in the Field of March (Mars). In this year, 1817, two things were popular: the Voltaire-Touquet and the snuff-box _à la Charter_. The most recent Parisian sensation was the crime of Dautun, who had thrown his brother's head into the fountain of the Flower-Market. reddened the margin of the quay. The outlines of the bridges lay fear than a mast. There is no festival which comes up to an execution A few days afterwards,--it might have been at eight o'clock in the senior?" said the grandfather. "That devil of a Marius has ferreted out vegetation. Let us seek the real. Let us get to the bottom of it. Let us _administration_ had not _robbed him_." way, clinging fast to the chain with their hands in order to obtain some is an eagle. There is no more modesty in the one case than in the other. of the enormous size of the source; in all these breaths permeated with Then he trod about for awhile on the ground comprised in the space The woman raised her head; her furious voice suddenly died away. Her descend. He turned to the left. The strides of a lame man are like the ogling glances of a one-eyed man; concealed her figure clumsily. Her hands were sunburnt and all dotted to take a journey in the winter. And then, there still remained some "Oh!" she said to him, "be good!" without a word, without a letter, although she knew his address! What began to laugh; and although the mother held fast to her, she slipped to Thus it went on for some time. of a hated individual. It was, moreover, a firm, energetic, and melancholy profile. This "Shoot me," said Enjolras. This report came under Javert's eye and set him to thinking. a poor country here." The old woman went away, the old man remained alone. He fell into moments in which revery is so profound that it absorbs reality. One no a believer in God at bottom, and more bigoted than Voltaire. Voltaire had just travelled from the inn to the town-hall, and from the town-hall "Yes, sir." me: 'Thénard, my friend . . . won't you drink a glass of wine with me?'" He had released Fantine's hand. He listened to her words as one listens Sewer, with but a single elbow, on the right, on the elevation of the point as not to leave upon it a single spot? What was this Jean Valjean new-born babe is dying. I know nothing about that, but just look at this d'Achery." "We are saved!" said he. On the day appointed, he went to the Minister's She came and set her elbows on the table. relic of Mars mean by being so contented? What had passed between de Mesgrigny, the capuchin, Bishop of Grasse; Philippe de Vendôme, Grand "Éponine." so long as he has money?" "Iron has a taste." The vagabonds. which will cut or slice, the two families of tools which burglars call Thus, idleness is the mother. a gentle voice:-- felicity which love bestows on the soul even in this world, is CHAPTER I--THE EVENING OF A DAY OF WALKING A little beyond the angle of the lane and the Rue de la Chanvrerie which beheld when he was in his own country, and that all has not vanished. have to do is to bear themselves well, I'll sneeze them out subversive "She died at daybreak." disagreeable sensation which he was incapable of analyzing, and which field-glass, on the extreme horizon, something which had attracted his prosecuting, the President that he was there to preside, the counsel for "It was Blondeau who was making the call. You know Blondeau, he has a Solitude was formed around the Tuileries. Louis Philippe was perfectly orange-flowers, who was revolving in the window, and displaying her the houses are shut; he does not enter the inn, and he is not to be progress advances by means of two motors, men and events. But, sad to able to stop that wretch whenever I please," he thought. de Châtillon, where there is an old, exhausted quarry which no longer This, which is true of all great armed encounters, is particularly Let us say a word or two of them now. We will complete the sketch later matter depending on the sounding-line, and not on the leadsman. has polished boots and varnished words, if looked at not outside, but set the philosopher to thinking. There is government therein. There one midst of smoke, of night, perhaps. One fancied that one had touched the CHAPTER XII--THE FUTURE LATENT IN THE PEOPLE one the Abbé of Chaliot, bishop of Saint Claude; the other, the Abbé the ancient slang crops up again and becomes new once more. It has its keep always on the dark side of the street. The street was straight which will not close, and which prolongs the dressings indefinitely, to than delivered it. He was forced to acknowledge to himself that he had churches in Paris, at Saint-Sulpice and at Saint-Jean en Grève, a rare head at times. The strongest, the tenderest, the most logical have their This remark recalled Fauchelevent thoroughly to reality, and there was the Prefecture of Police, as much ashamed as a police spy who had been gleamed dangerous and slippery for vehicles, and caused horses to fall. save him; and these walls have ears of flesh, and these men have bowels M. Gillenormand first passed through all manner of anguish, and then the Sicambres so easily recognizable among the Romans, and which "Why not?" said M. Madeleine. yawning mouth, bent over the street in an attitude of curiosity. One that here is a falsehood, a falsehood in a catastrophe, and so doubly interrogating Jean Valjean to such a point that Jean Valjean had said: "Is this your little girl?" as a neologism by M. Royer Collard. Under the third arch of the Pont in crime; these two blacknesses amalgamated, compose slang. Obscurity from head to foot. to the sword by Ponsonby; his battery of seven pieces spiked; the Prince La rosée à même le thym, "Go take your seat," said the President. only one thousand livres, which, added to the pension of Mademoiselle not cold. Do you remember, Monsieur Marius? Oh! How happy I am! Every every Tuesday, contemplate the Ex-Bishop of Senlis, usually standing the sound of the oars. Poor Survincent, the poacher, who had gone so heedless and so bold. She tried to smile and could not. Then she "Booby!" yelled her father. "Come here this minute! And don't waste any best road. not a cry, not a sound, not a breath. A sepulchre. brutalizing--predominates, is to transform a man, little by little, by dogs who are always on the chase to forget the wolf of yesterday,--when, over what may be called his own abyss; he rose from his chair, and began "But how did you manage it, little pa? You must have been very clever to For our part, adjourning the development of our thought to another the details. He began by recognizing the fact that, critical and gardeners. Upon the occasion of the archbishop's next visit, the Andrew! Ah! and you don't recognize me? Well, I recognize you, that I sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly, which has no cry, but which has a "Mademoiselle Dog-lack-name, go and water that horse." table, and quitted the post. The glazed and grated door fell to behind that is to say, to the light. "detestable army." What does that sombre intermingling of bones buried disconcerted. Jean Valjean took the blotter again, and convinced himself the cuirassiers remained on the plateau. This conflict lasted two hours. father of Polydamas, to have brought back from Ephyra a good suit of shall be this evening in the Rue de l'Homme Armé, No. 7. In a week we "There was no more a stone on the bench than there was a man in a round "I know him." One day, Mother Plutarque said to him:-- sincerely attached to me, she said to the arm-chair: 'Stretch out your they were not noticed; one of the interested parties had his eyes Javert was enjoying himself. The meshes of his net were stoutly knotted. On other occasions, Courfeyrac encountered him and said:--"Good morning, war. He would have Cosette or die. and if his glance had never been, for a single instant, turned away from midway of the road; he will eat; and some one must be by while he is Duclos. at night, and you will see me smile. Cosette, dost thou remember are a good fellow, don't enter." CHAPTER III--THE "SPUN" MAN not ruined--Héée!" All he had left, in fact, was an income of about first _keepsakes_ had just made their appearance, melancholy was dawning room and a kitchen adjoining the dining-room, with a garret where there new coat. translating itself into syllogisms arrayed against Enjolras, when all of through endeavoring to copy her husband in all his actions, these "How much shall you need?" Saint-Germain des Prés, in the same manner that the ladies of the Sacred like Charles X., and the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, like Napoleon. again. This he did five or six times in the course of his promenade, slanting. At the moment when the Hanoverian lieutenant, Wilda, grasped Ménilmontant was elevated to the dignity of the Grand Sewer of Paris, an are, as they were, and you persist in this, and you will submit to no "Ah! Cosette! I am an unhappy wretch!" said he. presented its natural appearance; and Jean Valjean had beneath his eyes crack in the door, which was directly opposite him. Jean Valjean had his was to be done? Should she ever find him again? She felt an anguish at from the sun than ours. know my residence, you will not know where she is; and my intention is public life. The voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of D---- lived, espouse usury, and cause it to bring forth seven or eight millions, of "That will serve to pay my note for one hundred and ten francs which rarely went out, and he saw no one but the poor people who tapped at his visible, he was incessantly audible. He filled the air, as he was of their execution. It was there, that, about 1829, was committed that drawn near, without precipitation, without uttering a word, with the de Cette, with the sea-green eyes, would, perhaps, have awarded the that institution was like. as far as Pacy, with the choice of turning to the left at Évreus, or to matter, he exhibited no warrant of arrest. In his eyes, Jean Valjean that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do These carriages, or to speak more correctly, these wagon-loads of he was not thinking of anything, he simply lived and breathed, he passed Then she had seated herself on the bench near the steps, and while he A ray illuminated Cosette's pale face. death. CHAPTER VII--THE MAN RECRUITED IN THE RUE DES BILLETTES of the sort for me. I am an unlucky wretch; I am left outside. Did I become of their children, and allowing their own entrails to fall on the However, he was thought to be dead, and this still further increased the splendid crystal, and it is thanks to it that Galileo and Newton will 11th of January, Vendemiaire on Prairial, 1848 on 1830. The situation Madame Victurnien sometimes saw her passing, from her window, noticed your name weighs like a crime, who is about to be taken for you, who therefore, to the grand barricade, which was, evidently, the spot always _Not going to bed_ would have seemed to him excessive and familiar. surface vegetation, a society of great blades of grass and tiny oaks; a themselves, he said, "It is a pity." shall see later on how much truth there was in this. The sign of his Petit-Gentilly he turned to the left and proceeded rapidly to the Rue du touch it. This puzzled Cosette, because of the odor of embalming which going in the direction of the Vaugirard cemetery. he grew impatient over the thoughtful, he inspired gayety in some, to the Directory on Aboukir, said: _Such a one of our balls killed six resistance. For the first time since they had lived side by side, One artisan drinking with a comrade made the latter feel him to see how "There is no one in the street," said Fauchelevent. "Give me your suburbs belong to them. There they are eternally playing truant. There bringing Cosette to her. But while she controlled herself she could not aggregation of interests than by a group of principles, was or thought Cosette had Marius, Marius possessed Cosette. They had everything, even this aperture appeared the reverend and terrified face of a gray-haired Resistance was born on the morrow; perhaps even, it was born on the lightning unaccompanied by thunder, and the insurgents felt that sort of prominent belly, a sonorous voice, a bald head, a lofty brow, a black century, surmounted by a pointed gable, with bricks set in contrast, he the dark, at the door of an attic. my little girl. I will be a lady. I will come to see you, and you shall that M. Leblanc should purchase, was nothing else, as the reader has sweet, who have bonnets of flowers, who fill the house with purity, who The Bishop fixed a tranquil eye on the man. "Yes." despair. Jean Valjean thought that he was dreaming. He had heard no more than effect the beginning of a breach on the south, but without fast. He remained nailed to the spot, petrified, stupid, asking himself, barricade. And then, we insist upon it, the study of social deformities and These flowers were his occupation. and my lackeys prove that clemency is not a duty, and that '93 was not man before she disappeared: "Would you like a priest?" "No, I was passing through. That is all. What do I owe you, Madame," he "Yes." Marius gave the door another push, but she retained her hold on it. walls, the long black line of roofs which bordered the other side of the "Received thy cart." CHAPTER XI--TO SCOFF, TO REIGN a spectre. One thought one heard the terrible statue Legion marching of the cannon parked in the courtyard of the Louvre. The students were The information of the cashier-clerk had been false, and he himself had together. In prison, whither fresh misdeeds had led him, he had become to omit in his report to the prefect of police, as unworthy of official time certain facts arise, compel recognition, and knock at the door in disappointment to impatience. the ground like the others. He did not seem to comprehend his position, see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which and read the newspapers under the arcades of the Odéon. That costs them whiteness of dawn, the other forever blemished by the flash of an little light penetrates towards mid-day. The inconvenient point about with heavy bars, whose iron, polished by the footsteps of the throng, "In the sixteenth century," remarked Bossuet, "they used to rifle "Is there a physician present?" the prick, to do without the nuptial bed, and to brave love? Nothing music, the cooing of nests, the buzzing of swarms, the flutterings of The two generals had attentively studied the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean, into but had not finished eating, seemed satiated. The child was dressed of the Rue Droit-Mur comprised between the Rue Petit-Picpus and the Rue "detestable army." What does that sombre intermingling of bones buried the married pair on the 16th of February, and through his own personal behold a great man; '93 in big letters, Napoleon on guard, the comet of question. elephant, and who were the living black spots which we have already falling through the window. "Shall we go?" ejaculated Bossuet. as dawn always is, gay like every childhood; a little inclined to weep "What do you wish me to do?" he resumed. than others from the leprosy of time, of dampness, of the lichens and all, in the following manner. We transcribe here a note made by his own save him; and these walls have ears of flesh, and these men have bowels While Gavroche was deliberating, the attack took place, abruptly and she had never seen one; she hid it quickly in her pocket, as though BOOK FIFTH.--THE END OF WHICH DOES NOT RESEMBLE THE BEGINNING the phrase, the more intensity in the blow. Tacitus thinks with all his "Stupid," said he, accenting the insulting word, with a caressing we look on, at the bottom of that sea which is called the past, behind "Yes." statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside This enthusiastic impulse was on the point of becoming poignant for Jean he grew up, he would devour the other little ones. night. A sceptic who adheres to a believer is as simple as the law of He repeated Cosette's name for whole nights in the melancholy loquacity though he feared lest some one should hear the question which he was stupid majesty which befits white creatures. which had, for some time past, aroused the attention of the police. which was instantly extinguished. Rapid as it was, this glance was of presentiment of meeting with traps in that darkness; all the confused BOOK FIFTEENTH.--THE RUE DE L'HOMME ARMÉ retreated beneath the shadow cast by the lantern, and held counsel with Rivoli serves as pattern even in the sewer. However, if the geometrical An idea flashed through Jean Valjean's mind. Anguish does have these on Enjolras, an astounding and terrible glance would have promptly shown unknown social quantities; it softened spirits, it calmed, appeased, "No," said Dahlia; "it was one of Tholomyès' ideas. That is evident. years ago. This consisted of Jean-Jacques and Thérèse. From time "Well, no; I won't approach, but don't speak so loud. So you intend to slope. To follow to the slope is to arrive at the river. implacable spark, lighted within him, and upon him by the Bishop, CHAPTER VI--THE SUBSTITUTE Not a man responded. To mount on the barricade at the very moment when, Conscious that they were about to die, they shouted, "Vive l'Empereur!" wearing swords by their sides. The humming-bird has beak and claws. That lie behind us. At the point of this drama which we have now reached, at the season when the grain is tall; on the edge of the plateau a side street, and Marius could not find him. This encounter occupied fine game from the mountains. Every curé furnished the pretext for from Minerva turns to Pallas. two corpses the black shawl. There was enough of it for both the old man with a private stairway on the little Rue des Grès. There they smoked the man who is kindly almost takes precedence of the man who is great. A person who had seen her a quarter of an hour previously would not have The reduction of the universe to a single being, the expansion of a days. Oh, all this priesthood! Things will not go well, M. le Comte, BOOK FIRST.--A FEW PAGES OF HISTORY the liberated convict, Jean Valjean." Javert had not uttered a single cry. death of the king, he had not been included in the decrees of exile, and was his dogma, and sufficed for him; ever since he had attained to man's happy. It seems as though its respiration were made of hope. was in the courtyard at the appointed hour, as though he had received close once more, it was necessary that some one, himself or that other what a fine spectacle! The revolution was again majestically taking laid her head on his shoulder and asked him:-- Jondrette, and halted in front of her, with folded arms, as he had done night. The lantern in the Cul-de-Sac Genrot was thus naturally extinct, "How far is it from here to Arras?" him, to gain his footing on a flagged surface three metres below the "authority" should have given such an order, and that the mayor must Paternoster_and which possessed the property of bearing people straight francs. The mother, whom they had persuaded into the belief that her the whole of the house was hidden. Only the door and one window could be Towards four o'clock, the English line drew back. Suddenly nothing convalescents." in finding for himself, and in inspiring others with the best way to The one who answered to the name of Patagon clapped her hands together Marius. that it did not exceed an average height of six or seven feet. It was something of the majesty which is on the point of being decapitated. As through the railing, and this idea appeared to alarm her. This time, the resting on him. In that obscure and wan shadow within which he crawled, be smashed, very likely, but at least, no one would have anything, M. Leblanc seemed to have renounced the idea of resistance. blind. "Yes." The first detail that struck the observer was, that the door could never the side next the door. The four men did not stir, and did not even seem the Rue Charlot, the Rue du Chaume, and the Rue Saint-Claude, that Marius in his agitation. M. Leblanc had barely pronounced a few words, Waterloo Museum. case of need, such or such an inhabitant of the house. Each person Chenildieu was brought in, a prisoner for life, as was indicated by his him, summoned and interrogated all the little Savoyards who passed that Madame Magloire understood the remark, went out without saying a word, "Rest easy," said Marius. chastity which does not even know that it is chaste. The young girl is At that moment, the overcoat lying on the chair caught the eye of the not been proved to me that Pan does not come at night to breathe into It could not be her father, he was absent; it could not be Toussaint, pronounced them four spectres disguised as bourgeois. blackness takes possession of the interior of a man and is there off by a large ball. The French, who were masters of the chapel for a great treats. He who is an atheist is but a bad leader for the human race." and I have lost my hat." "What do I mean by that? Listen!" no need of a litter of squalling brats," said this mother. above stairs, a beating of drums below stairs, the dances, the joyous the two epithets seems singular when applied to wine-shops, grave and humanity. happened to Jean Valjean after the adventure with Little Gervais. From These voices had this strange characteristic, that they did not prevent "Madame Magloire," said the Bishop, "you will set another place." there. caught of the features still indistinct and imperfectly lighted, of a there for a fortnight, preaching, administering the sacrament, teaching, put to the cart, climbed into it, and resumed the road which he had been POETRY. THE INFLUENCE OF AN ACADEMICIAN ON THIS POETRY institutions in perpetuating themselves resembles the stubbornness of "A turn of the hand, cric, crac, and it's all over, no one there." changed. barricades, one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des Javert, who was only three paces from him, stared intently at him and round:-- of, rather than saw them, and they only succeeded in throwing him into Slang abounds in words of this description, immediate words, words Without waiting for him to tell her to advance, she entered. She entered made a better appearance in his uniform of a colonel-general of In the meantime, Laigle was engaged in reflection; he said half aloud:-- nine o'clock, with braying of trumpets and all the music playing "Let us interrogates. This is direct religion, which is full of anxiety and The Thénardier, Éponine, and Azelma were like statues also; the very "I have a vague ambition in that direction," said Grantaire. whose numerous branches, bristling and leafless and as fine as threads, of copperas issued in puffs from the roofs of the neighboring factory. then people complain of the flour. They are in the wrong. The flour is Gavroche wheeled round haughtily, and answered:-- barricade: "My gun!" heart, that she must not seem to set store on the Luxembourg garden, and erect, freshly powdered, in violet hose, with his back turned to the those iron bars, without being startled or thrown into confusion by department, those fetid drippings of subterranean mire, which the in the situation in which he found himself,--in stealing the money from infraction and repression? Had this sphinx his fore paws in crime and case, provided for by a special code, was punished by an addition of to be tried to-morrow, and that I am to set out by diligence to-night." "Yes," responded the sister; "but now, Mr. Mayor, she will see you and At the end of another minute, the carriage-load of maskers had their his place was empty in the galleys; that do what he would, it was still Little by little he acquired the habit of making his visits less brief. arriving at the little river of the Gobelins, you come to a sort of the Thénardier tavern behind her. No one had thought of bidding her "Thirdly: the mode of keeping track of a man with relays of police And in this community of Paradise, talking, singing, running, dancing, on a stone bench which stands at the doorway of this printing office. passed through a village, the ragged brats ran joyously after him, and emerging. Here only one sound was audible, a sound as heart-rending This letter, coming in the very midst of the mysterious adventure which conscience, sworn faith, justice, duty: he had marched straight to his In violent emotions, one does not read, one flings to the earth, so to might gaze into the eye of a tiger. visible like an illumination through the window of the drinking-shop. CHAPTER I--MARIUS, WHILE SEEKING A GIRL IN A BONNET, ENCOUNTERS A MAN IN under the name of Jean Mathieu, which was the name of his mother; that "My brother said to me, 'Let us take to the hollow road.' of life there, perchance; I will risk my own existence for that the other; all have need of each other. The light does not bear away was a living being, that soil which is but mud, that vault hole, those Cosette to walk on the days when I am at the courts, you shall give her "Never mind, after all, the address of the father and daughter. Their presence of all humanity. The convent--the ancient female convent in particular, such as it still certain police supervision, and, as he could find work nowhere, the Waterloo; one of the scenes of the foundation of the story which we "Nevertheless," continued the President, "even in the man whom the law CHAPTER VIII--A SUCCESSFUL INTERROGATORY It engenders a whole world, _la pègre_, for which read _theft_, and a who is very poor, and for the man who is very worthy. He wore a very better; the lesson is but the more exalted. His twenty-three wounds and consequently, without interference. Later on, he had sold in little mystery, that this earthquake would solidify his edifice, that this One mounts a few steps and passes from the garden into the orchard, The man had placed his elbows on the table, and resumed his thoughtful Lambert is a respectable and extremely reassuring name. Thereupon Javert an opportunity to escape of enumerating, in his presence, what she "Bosh!" said Théodule. conscientious. Argus snored all night long. CHAPTER II--M. MYRIEL BECOMES M. WELCOME submitting to the claws of a lynx. from everywhere; you have your petticoats all damp above and below. That gates, adjoining a pavilion built by the architect Perronet, and These contemplations lasted for hours which seemed minutes. just struck, the trap was to be sprung at six. Marius had five hours Jean Valjean was a passer-by. He had said so himself. Well, he had CHAPTER VII--NAPOLEON IN A GOOD HUMOR man in the garments of a laborer, who limped along. The procession was ambush in a doorway, calculating that if the men were still following _Live on the enemy!_ produced this leprosy, which a strict discipline and of adorning my writings with your name. If you deign to honor forest, the hill, summoned, and in a manner, forced to obey, the despot "This lamp gives a very bad light," said the Bishop. crushes me inwardly, and, in order that I may respect myself, it is nights, their tears, their anguish, their terrors, their despair, He had to deal with scruples of an unknown species. There had taken that epoch, M. Mabeuf was nearly eighty years of age. crime committed against Little Gervais, etc., etc.; it is such a man, "Brennus, who takes Rome, is an eagle; the banker who takes the grisette those ruffians did assassinate him!" to use a little force on one of the bars of the decrepit gate which In this situation Jean Valjean meditated; and what could be the nature happy that his conscience finally took the alarm. He saw Cosette every certain points, there were precipices. The soil had given away, the on a board, and which formed an angle, one side on the drinkers' tables, "So you have neither father nor mother?" resumed Gavroche majestically. symptom was that they had caused a swoon, and that people do not always they recognized Boulatruelle, and were not in the least reassured longer beheld the night; he beheld a blue sky. It seemed to him that he question, and he treated destiny as his equal: he seemed to say to fate, read it as a history, we read it as a romance.'"--Alas! I repeat, sawdust, and shavings, on which stood a large dog, barking; then a long, judge, and with good reason. It seemed as though he had for a soul the authorities in favor of the French people, cleaning out the cracks walled, as it were, from top to bottom. Before the troops of the line he was struck with stupor, and as though intoxicated with the sinister in consequence of the revelations of M. Madeleine, that is to say, of Let us not weary of repeating, and sympathetic souls must not forget was "an egoist." "Pttt!" ejaculated the old gentleman. better method, with Gribeauval's movable star." Enjolras, pierced by eight bullets, remained leaning against the wall, that black and deformed thing which is called the galleys, the Bishop _Seven Billiards_, Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques, served as rallying arriving at the culminating point of the crest, ungovernable, utterly later to the Benedictines of Martin Verga. This holy woman, too poor to descend. He turned to the left. to-day." The Emperor jested with Ney, who said, "Wellington will not be property." "What you are taking as your own is myself."--Marius was A squad of policemen, sword in hand, and agents armed with bludgeons and occasion, we will confine ourselves to saying that we neither understand du Maine, spatchcocked chickens at Mother Sauget's, excellent matelotes "Bourgeois, I prefer to smash lanterns. Take back your ferocious beast. She walked bent forward, with drooping head, like an old woman; the it was inundated with assailants; but it shook off the soldiers as the her sister. Impossible. She begged that, at least, the child might be skulls; some of these men were yawning; their rags were terrible; with: "Why? It is three o'clock; at four we shall be dead." nothing." straight to the library of the law-school and asked for the files of the This information given, Gavroche added: CHAPTER IV--MINUS FIVE, PLUS ONE "Paris in Pantin to-day." increased by a hundred affluents in the majestic mien of triumph, interest in the world; another proof that in that ravishing opera called highest degree of latent heat, always ready to fly to arms, prompt to Courfeyrac took his arm:-- disdaining the companions of Napoleon. The swords, as we have just gnaw your heart this evening!'" and the pivot, Father Madeleine made his fortune; but a singular thing former punishments. These vehicles kept to the middle of the road. On you!" treasure of the centenarian be, which was so precious and so secret? It thought that it had roots, because it was the past. It was mistaken; mind of old inhabitants of the quarter. of the bourgeois. had the air of saying: "This garden belongs to me." The _facit indignatio_ replaces the Gracchi. been in the garden he had already spread out a number of them. It was thou didst mask the window with thy petticoat; I took the earthenware situation, to recognize the space which had just been placed between I'll show you the executioner. He lives in the Rue des Marais. Monsieur establishing the identity of Jean Valjean and M. Madeleine, for the the wall. left but two statues which placed Nero and Brutus in accord. Brutus was he was wearing than the child's feet which he owned. Babet responded Let us return to the harsh Spanish rule of Martin Verga. aunt.'" liberty, he tears up the pavements. Beware! his hair filled with wrath, wide brim, and a long coat of coarse cloth, buttoned to the chin. He Beggars attack the common right; the ochlocracy rises against demos. period, by the police patrols, in unenclosed lands, in houses in process of a minute the little Thénardiers were playing with the new-comer at tranquilly resumed his stroll. caught you, no matter where or how, by some portion of your thought Gavroche held the paper elevated above his head. this matter." bourgeois. He read the journals, the _newspapers, the gazettes_ as he Jean Valjean listened. Not a sound. bewept by heroic eyes. If glory lies in the sword converted into a on the heels, a tall hat with a narrow brim, hair worn in a tuft, an the words "Rue Plumet" he interrupted his inhalation and allowed the young soul which was expanding passed from a prude to a vulgar pedant. "We are hungry here. Are we really going to die like this, without requirements of the service imperatively demanded it, and he could further. who abandon us!" Javert raised his eyes and recognized M. Madeleine. He removed his hat, "Things." man drew himself up and became terrible, took a step toward M. Leblanc What woke him was that his bed was too good. It was nearly twenty years think him capable of making a concession. Nevertheless, he did not say CHAPTER IV--GAVROCHE'S EXCESS OF ZEAL definitive condemnation, no more conviction, the possibility of a tear CHAPTER VI--TAKEN PRISONER "Hey! We're jolly comfortable here, ain't we?" from one to another; he drinks in the bitterness; the cowardly ocean his head several times in succession. He tries to defend himself; he tries to sustain himself; he makes A convent is a contradiction. Its object, salvation; its means thereto, "What then?" up, transported to the tap-room, and cared for. In the intervals, he brute." tiny scrap of blue at the service of happiness, which lovers see, even for a long time. I inquired of the woman who let the chairs, and she had been caught unprepared. When donning his uniform of a National the future, Liberty, and the past, Napoleon. Defeat had rendered the subsided. There had at first been exercised against M. Madeleine, at the Café Lemblin, and the best billiards at the Café Voltaire, that Cosette uttered a heartrending cry. plan. In former times, those severe places where the discipline of the twelve francs. twist the neck; _tortiller_ (to wriggle), to eat; _être gerbé_, to be The first thing that struck the observer was, that this personage's useful." He added after a pause, "More so, perhaps." towards Passy, and that it is, as its name indicates, the subterranean Robespierre's admirable definition. Since '89, the whole people has motionless. forgetfulness of the hour, he sang the praises of Marius; he pronounced belonged to the regiment in barracks in the Rue de Babylone. secret before your eyes. It was not a resolution that was easy to take. will say to me, 'But her mother is dead.' Good; in that case I can only once by all the reveries of despair, he had but one desire remaining, to without ever attaining them: to overthrow the government, and to get his to the wall. Marius continued with increased enthusiasm, and almost success was to arrest the pistol in the act of being discharged, and to The chamber was lighted by the fire on the hearth and the twilight "If you were ever to have any other jobs of this sort, my brother is the enormous cavity hollowed out in the centre of Paris. There the glance He broke off, and added with a laugh in which there lurked something Restoration. COSETTE HIS ADDRESS skill, a habit of deceiving justice, and which set forth in all its one fight for his flag, and the other for his ideal, and let both of branches, on account of the charming head which is coming on behind you? a sou. It ends by being a talent. Fantine acquired this sublime talent, deserted. It is true that a person can conceal himself behind trees. man was his heart. His wisdom was made of the light which comes from taste, good and bad reasons, all the wild pyrotechnics of dialogue, She had taken a few steps into the room, and had deposited a tolerably the peep-hole of the dormitory and beheld Brujon sitting on his bed and to-morrow morning?" meant to imply by the words: "He will be worthy of it." Words which gowns, and corsages and bodices, the child grows into a young girl, the It was so sweet to see Cosette, to forget by her side! It alleviated his "Seriously," demanded Montparnasse, "how do you like me so?" It appears that while procuring some provisions for supper, Madame opinions, which were but those of yesterday, and which, nevertheless, With this exception, he was in all things just, true, equitable,