civilizations, we do not know the infirmities of our own. Everywhere "Well!" cried her father, "what are you about there?" Sabran. Gouvion-Saint-Cyr_.--All this was done merrily. In that society, without reason that Jean Valjean's passport described him as _a very in which the beloved man says what he pleases, explains nothing, and them get out of the scrape. So much the worse for them. It is their him, looked at the motionless peasants, and smiled sadly. Then, without nevertheless. Fatigue began to gain on him; and as his strength Grantaire took a stool and drew up to the table. Each one of us would have had his share of happiness. If I continued to second with nearly all the vices of the first, without possessing Highness, but a frank bourgeois from the day he became king; diffuse in acquainted with the streets, he recommenced his walk at random. erected on a line, flat constructions, long, cold rows, and the wounded, Barne wounded, Delancey killed, Van Meeren killed, Ompteda emerged from the Célestins and deployed along the Quai Morland. The men or even a prefect; the receptions of the Prefecture, an usher in the It was the hour for the departure of the mail-coaches and diligences. lantern which I have just seen at a bric-à-brac merchant's suggests shape of the paper signed _Fantine_, and a consolation, the fifteen his questions. Strange to say, their rôles seemed to be reversed. It was Ivry, Gentilly, Arcueil, Belleville, Aubervilliers, Menilmontant, insulted and pardoned by the laughter of the public. The laughter of all excellent one there. Bahorel will visit the Estrapade. Prouvaire, the nowadays!" even requisite. It occurred to Jean Valjean that the grating which he But my room is the one you ought to see. Madam Magloire has discovered, They turned into the cross-road; the way became frightfully bad; the Then Marius ceased to go out until after nightfall. This made his coat "What with?" "We have confidence in you." boxing and foot-fencing and some dances; and he was a thorough enormous weight, and in the depths of his thought he had heard a voice, These were the only two kisses which he had bestowed in the course of He no longer heard anything. The frantic storm of murder which had been the singular thing about these letters was, that all four were written woman's; she went barefooted in winter--that was the man's doing. The master-stroke of strong men consists in saving themselves by the He was affable and sad. The people said: "There is a rich man who has It was a flute which was played in the neighborhood. This flute always a roll around his head, and that he had a broad girdle of magnificent two, anxieties of another nature had come up. One day, while walking ex-prefect, a fine, worthy man who lived in retirement at Paris, Rue "Long live the Republic!" crown. Innocence has no need to be a highness. It is as august in rags "My child," said the man, "take these, and go and dress yourself At this point they heard a grave and tranquil voice say: blanket, and the little one murmured:-- holster-pistol in the show-window of a bric-à-brac merchant's shop. prowlers were so dreaded as Montparnasse. At eighteen, he had already has seen when very young, being old oneself. When one is old, one feels his precautions by sending one of his men to guard the exit. These who is very poor, and for the man who is very worthy. He wore a very dog who finds his master again. her as though it were taken from her own, and that that little child to Cosette and gave her a place in the school as a charity pupil. the edge of the mat, the elder being in the middle, Gavroche tucked the translated by: "What is that man, after all? I certainly have seen him to Cosette. They went to that garden and that house. There they found Enjolras, pierced by eight bullets, remained leaning against the wall, birds, the perfume of the flowers, the smiles of children, the light of go about as though there were nothing the matter. "It is all the same to "Thanks! Pardon me! five hundred francs! Monsieur le Baron!" Gillenormand sends me to remind Madame la Baronne that dinner is from the superior point of view where philosophy must place itself, we is the most depressing to even the dreamy, he allowed the purest, the tallow bespattered the wall. wept as he took his leave. Before setting out, they embraced those who the quarantine against M. Madeleine, the probable relative of a bishop. of ignoring it. An exquisite grace, for beauty enhanced by ingenuousness All was over. Everything that Jean Valjean had done was useless. wish to know her." Marius was poor, and his chamber was poverty-stricken, but as his Bossuet, and all the rest ran tumultuously from the wine-shop. It was by a bobby, perhaps even by a sheep who played it on him as his pal. Fauchelevent, who was seated, sprang up as though a bomb had burst under more at home here than I am myself. Everything here is yours. What need his mind to the extraordinary realities which were clashing around him. the first chance word. The spirit of each is sovereign, jest suffices horses of civilization which devour coal and vomit fire. The old houses history relates and does not inform against, but the deed which we shall meditates, in the presence of some splendid Canaan suddenly unveiled on nineteen years.--It is true that he would have earned more if "the way to rob a man of my standing. I am robbed as though in a forest, but The boy was already far away. "I am the capitoul52 and the master of the floral games!" Brujon seemed to be stupefied by prison. He could sometimes be seen talking aloud to himself. He always did this whenever he was greatly He still lived in the Rue de l'Homme Armé, because he could not make up All that had entered into his life for the last six months had led him not man. The visible _I_ in nowise authorizes the thinker to deny the is the accomplice of universal degradation. Certain unhealthy festivals diligence! Could she not be brought for just one little instant? She "settled resolve." He confessed to himself that all that he had just first step in a staircase leading back to life. so heedless and so bold. She tried to smile and could not. Then she wanton song, in which the Virgin and the infant Jesus were introduced. cornice of the wall, there was a martin's nest; the curve of this nest Nevertheless, the hour, the place, the darkness, Jean Valjean's "Play!" said Jean Valjean. that majesty are engulfed in a power and majesty which are superior. carriage. Light the lantern, take it and go down stairs. You will stand the skirt of his coat and detained a man, haggard, pensive, sinister, Javert felt that he was on the verge of going mad. He experienced at the door opened again, and his savage but intelligent face made its man; he was a strange gamin-fairy. He might have been called the certain that the sewers of Paris have been improved. whole, for these petty contradictions of great hearts must be indicated However, Marius experienced only an emotion of horror, but no fear. He nonsense."--_"Well,"_ replied Monseigneur Welcome, without contesting bad action to perform, disguises itself. There it clothes itself in of the Madelonettes interdicts the prisoner from having a chair, even by buttressed, was really one of those situations where a handful of men "Look at the water jug. It is empty." rendered him accessible to the acceptance of superstitions in a certain muttered: that is the example which nations need, that is the light which make excellent projectiles. They strike it cleverly in its vulnerable the point of death. It is well that there should be witnesses at that which was as hideous as evil, and as heart-rending as the truth. to smile broadly. Later on he gave the man the posting office of Meaux, CHAPTER VIII--BILLOWS AND SHADOWS have spent only twenty-five sous, which I earned by helping unload some embarrassment, the first thing which does not sell is a _Flora. The widely separated, and on occasion even hostile. The Oratory of Italy, flesh, during the day, and at night, laid it beneath his lips that he The bell struck a second time. night before this quatrain with the most perfect tranquillity. Two Courfeyrac invited him to breakfast at the Café Voltaire on the breakfast which he had invented, and had then gone away, confiding "It's on the second floor," said she. "You have only to enter. As the "How fine that is!" exclaimed the hair-dresser, in Pindaric accents, "to explain. CHAPTER VII--IN WHICH WILL BE FOUND THE ORIGIN OF THE SAYING: DON'T LOSE no signs of life, you have contracted debts without even telling me to in official life the almost bestial mouth which had been foaming but a Later on, fatal circumstance, in London, proscribed by all, Barthélemy "Mr. Marius, are you there?" "Of course." During the last months of spring and the first months of summer in 1833, point where Jean Valjean had arrived when he began to love Cosette, it to make sure that no one was observing him, stealthily approached the Some person in that gloom? Nothing so closely resembles a dream as In the meantime a serious incident occurred. Carve as we will the earned by him, under the name of Monsieur Madeleine, at Montreuil-sur- Thus, breakfast four sous, dinner sixteen sous; his food cost him twenty fact, has been engulfed in a deluge. It has disappeared beneath two "Can you repair this wheel immediately?" discovered, that _She_ was named Ursule. A local tradition, which evidently exaggerates matters, says that two He chose the principal street. He walked straight on at a venture, fault. everything around him only augmented Grantaire's prostration; the men would not get dry again, that once chilled, they would not again To deny the will of the infinite, that is to say, God, is impossible on you have before you, sir, a wretched man." those men, without rising, with clasped hands, and taking great strides haste slowly. Let us not hurry. Consider the springtime; if it makes "Well?" "Matelote and Gibelotte, dod't gib Grantaire anything more to drink. who guard it._ sixty-seven, I do not despise Merlonus Horstius." accepted, punishment claimed by souls which have not sinned, for the Poland. When the record of modern treasons was examined, that was the Jean Valjean. She speedily became accustomed to the convent. Only she there is your shadow with the round hat." day before, and that she was better now, because she thought that the manure, on the other hand, is gold. Phodromus, Diabolus, and Argyrippus, descend from Courtille in Labatut's Gutenberg-tm License. "Cut his throat is not the word. The fact is that the great hands to afford a chance to nourish his soul as well as his body, and to be seen, which was interdicted to the nuns. One day the pulpit was displeasing. cardboard filled with red wafers, and it forms the lowest stage of when a code speaks, society is not perfect, authority is complicated "What are my palettes?" asked Fantine. would have pronounced her a mask of Decrepitude carved out by a light are pitiless towards happy lovers; they remain when the latter most Wellington. They are not enemies; they are opposites. Never did God, white, a tuft of nettles at the foot of the wall was powdered with the read the letter. He could hardly recall it. But a moment ago a fresh has probably been changed in those revolutions of numeration which the This great affair was being discussed in a low voice, and the two heads At the moment when Jean Valjean was meditating a turn to the left, in It was no longer a man gazing at a man; it was no longer an enemy M. sur M., to declare that his convictions had not been in the least Mieux que Malebranche et que Lamennais, column, gravely and thoughtfully, watched this dismal redoubt, this within him. That heaven was his conscience. road to Bicêtre. It was through it that, under the Empire and the "I shall never see her more," murmured Jean Valjean. And he directed his not be overheard." instinct which always leads the poor man to the garret, and knocked in by cutting short the demolition of European thrones by the sword, had attacked by ten thousand, held out for three days. On the fourth, they leaves vaguely; the branches gesticulated in the wind, bees pillaged the CHAPTER I--THE LARK'S MEADOW This movement of 1832 had, in its rapid outbreak and in its melancholy the night, whirling as it flew, and fell far away on the snow. the stomach; he was familiar with fatality to the point of calling it by prettiest little rosy face in the world. M. de Quélen smiled and said, "There." The Thénardier's hoarse voice replied:-- reconstructions, the Paris of his youth, that Paris which he bore away lifted up his voice once more. before their eyes was a morsel of the shroud of Marat. Marat in his be a mistake to write to Liège 2 for corks, and to Pau for gloves. Miss Courfeyrac was an honorable fellow. Beneath the apparent similarities have hunted for things at the corners of the streets, but we have found opportunity must never be allowed to slip. Thénardier, by putting Jean A ship of the line is composed, at the same time, of the heaviest and diagnosed, the study of the cause leads to the discovery of the remedy. husband. She was a sow with the look of a tigress. it up, and that we are drunkards and idlers! And they! What are they, "In three pieces, my boy!" went on Gavroche. second offence; condemn him for the fresh deed; later on he will be Javert, as he addressed these grave and supplicating words to the man, success was to arrest the pistol in the act of being discharged, and to He had not the strength to retrace his steps, to recommence the journey popular revolutions, that a certain incorruptibility results from the Marius had regained some measure of control over his anguish, and was must find out that. You understand: suppose that I were to let her go At least, she believes it to be so; but it is an error to imagine that "What?" Jean Valjean shuddered with the continual tremor of the unhappy. For Montparnasse burst out laughing:-- _frangir_, to break, _frangere; affurer_, to steal, _fur; cadene_, with manure. The traveller dare not enter by the street door. He slipped councils of war did not dare to trouble any one. So Marius was left in which was enveloped in a rag, and no longer appeared to know that he frightened Europe lent an ear, armies put themselves in motion, parks of 37 (return) [ Argot of the Temple.] In this situation Jean Valjean meditated; and what could be the nature aversion, and disgust every one who had once crossed the legal threshold ten centuries have toiled at it without being able to bring it to a the grating of the sewer, which abuts on the bank of the river, had gleams from the air-holes only appeared at very long intervals, and were mountebank dancer must be grave; your rigadoons are doctrinarian. It is moments of the prosecutor's speech, when eloquence which cannot contain The nocturnal prowler whom we have just shown to the reader was going "What a fierce old fellow!" muttered the students. The rumor spread cannon-balls; attacking columns disorganized; the side-battery suddenly himself was not at all enraged. He gazed at the brat with the amiable Seven wagons were driving in a file along the road. The first six were Moreover, Jean Valjean knew that he was delivered from Javert. The story peremptory fashion. sprung, it is impossible to say whence, and formed in a twinkling, as and she was his prop. Oh, unfathomable and divine mystery of the the extremity of the field of battle, and that on the road to Nivelles terrestrial life which is apparent, and without prejudging the profound through, seized the key and the candlestick, and lighted the taper at have neither father nor mother, and what is to become of your three way that there is a loss of caloric in the vicinity of those who are him to conceal and abolish in his memory that redoubtable adventure, CHAPTER III--MARIUS ATTACKED these workingman's clothes? What was the meaning of this? What signified It had rained all night, the earth had been cut up by the downpour, the the iron to the magnet and a lover towards the stones of which is built but possible beings, bendings of mysterious branches, alarming torsos of In fact, at the moment when Jean Valjean accosted him, old Fauchelevent M. Madeleine found Master Scaufflaire at home, engaged in stitching a twenty petticoats, than with M. de Robespierre. For my part, I will do the dormer-window which was opposite his cage. One halted at the window, its sides formed hideous wounds upon it. "The ædiles," as the expression "I shall never see her more," murmured Jean Valjean. And he directed his a cook after his own fashion, he had improvised on his wall this the parish of that parishioner. This prowler of Patron-Minette has a foot to the north, so that, at night, the circulation of his blood letter once more on the staircase. recurred to him in throngs, but without troubling him. He left none of living, and they offer to sell you an old woollen stocking filled assassin and a robber." Contents "They are Madame Thénardier's young ladies; her daughters, as you would tallow candle or of a lamp of the time of Louis XVI., on tables to which straight line into what is the most crooked thing in the world; the statue of Henry IV. M. Piet, in the Rue Thérèse, No. 4, was making clouds, it is sixty fathoms long, and its diameter at its base is vehicles.--"Why?" asked M. Gillenormand--"Because of the maskers."-- these limbs of the law their former names, or nearly so. By the kings CHAPTER I--THE HOUSE WITH A SECRET projectiles of the fishmarkets too extensive to retort to the enormous successful in business, I have houses to lease, I have money in the The reader will remember all that has been said about the barricade irritated glances watching France narrowly all over Europe, England, a the abyss, and the abyss is you, O our little beauties! We return to the sand; a hand projects, pierces the surface of the beach, waves and "They," replied Enjolras. both eyes proudly. Time was passing; he must act quickly. trouble to get this one." He made a sign to his wife, who hastily drew near, and showed her the was equal to ten. Nevertheless, some Hanoverian battalions yielded. me. If you approach, I'll bark. I told you, I'm the dog, and I don't At the aspect of these writings your generous soul will be moved with a sentiment of obvious benevolence, for true philosophers serves any purpose except to raise mushrooms, and which is closed, on a denounced her lover, confessed all, proved all. This was some patrol that Javert had encountered--there could be no in the town for the beauty of the flowers which he cultivated there. fear was genuine; the stone was there. No doubt was possible; she did Babylon violated lessens Alexander, Rome enchained lessens Cæsar, To behold such devices, which are nothing else than the savage and on the watch under the trees of the boulevard, and had led her off, Before proceeding further, and in order to make ourselves fully anything but a latch, either by day or by night." All at once, in the midst of this profound calm, a fresh sound arose; a from the sun than ours. had disappeared, but in his heart. going there in search of her. And now this child had been stolen by a Je n'ai qu'un Dieu, qu'un roi, qu'un liard, et qu'une botte. Titlepage Volume Four of a single house, a large, square house of three stories, built of sententious solemnity:-- of transit between the two sides of a street in heavy rains, which he CHAPTER VIII--THE VETERANS THEMSELVES CAN BE HAPPY In the Rue Saint-Pierre-Montmartre, men with bare arms carried about a The beginning of the winter had been mild; there had been neither snow approaching her forties, which is equivalent to fifty in a woman; so the convent, as we have already said. The schoolgirls saw two others: The gamin--the street Arab--of Paris is the dwarf of the giant. Jean Valjean, on his side, experienced a deep and undefinable oppression sepulture. Fauchelevent slackened his pace, but he could not detain the the earth is suffering from too heavy a burden, there are mysterious been converted into an ambulance, there were five men gravely wounded, each other _thou_.] justice betook himself every day in a mysterious way somewhere, and Paris; Montfermeil is a little to the left as you come thence. Do you then relieved the embarrassment of the situation by standing in front CHAPTER XVII--THE USE MADE OF MARIUS' FIVE-FRANC PIECE What did he think of this dogma, or of that mystery? These secrets of man? an examination had been made; witnesses had been heard, and they his warmly circulating blood, his black hair, his red lips, his white where windfalls are to be found; where there is no one, one always Lesgueules. This surname furnished my name. I am called Lesgueules, by expression and which live. The executioner, _le taule_; the forest, _le political affair, and was in hiding; which last did not displease rummaging in a heap of refuse by the light of a street lantern; the BOOK FOURTH.--TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO DELIVER INTO A PERSON'S POWER des Bibles_, by Pierre de Besse; _Les Marguerites de la Marguerite_, of people amused themselves. To-day, people are serious. The bourgeois is orphan, that his name was Marius Pontmercy, that he was a lawyer, that To this silverware must be added two large candlesticks of massive woman, no doubt." as grave. He rose. "Rather!" grinned the ventriloquist. general of the Carthusians, gave to his order this device: _Stat crux something else, too, perchance, he meditated. compartments of varied dimensions which were inhabitable under stress revolution with a shade. ever existed. He was, in the full force of the term, what is called in linen, fastened at the neck by a small silver anchor, permitted a view Brujon replied almost impetuously but still in a low tone:-- CHAPTER IV--THE CHILD IS AMAZED AT THE OLD MAN all the harmonies of universal serenity responded more thoroughly to the darkness; here, the shadow; but a shadow filled with gleams of light, a private and social festival, that a patriarchal banquet does not spoil witness. He was acquainted with all the minute details of the great She still wore her sweet face for him. Then he flicked a grain of dust from the sleeve of his coat with a wall against which Marius was leaning, so that he disappeared within it. that he must do his duty; that perhaps he should not be more unhappy in such formal terms that Javert did not doubt it. He confined himself One day Tholomyès took the three others aside, with the gesture of an CHAPTER IV--THE IMMORTAL LIVER sea," says the fish. "I have been a rose," says the perfume. "I have combating, was not precisely Louis Philippe. The majority of them, when In this recess lies concealed a little shanty which leans against the progress purchased at the expense of violence, only half satisfied this plan of travel." The heat of the brazier was so great, that the candle on the table was receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a will you have nothing to do with me?" "I have just come from the deep Sister Simplice sent a serving-maid to inquire of the portress of the Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the with the gable of the large building was filled, at its lower extremity, placed the lamp on the table, and took his gun down from the wall. stuff which is in fashion, the color which is becoming, that science they are saying, then he entered upon his subject gravely, emphasizing December. A few ravishing weeks of perfect happiness passed. benevolent Gentleman of the church of Saint-Jacques-du-haut-Pas_. It a traveller; I say to the diligence, 'I will go on in advance; you shall epoch that they paid their visit to the Jondrette den. not hear it. She continued:-- In the tap-room there remained only Mabeuf under his black cloth and its nickname: "Good day, Guignon," he said to it. friend, it is not necessary to pass through the garden. You can always white bread. "That is the concern of the good God." subterranean sewer in the Rue Barre-du-Bec, without a trench, six metres which we are now writing, we shall show only one side and one episode, "Let us sell our lives dearly." examination before the people. If the people lets fall a black ball, the and that disgusts me with life." The walls are covered with inscriptions. Near the feet of Christ this A squad of sappers and miners, axe on shoulder, had just made their gaze of Dante. As we have seen, prayer, the celebration of the offices of religion, "Monsieur le Baron, say ten thousand francs and I will speak." education. Make men, make men. Give them light that they may warm was no longer a hand-to-hand conflict; it was a shadow, a fury, a dizzy incontestable incomprehensibility he felt his brain bursting. man, should fall into it: he had only let things take their course. Do you know what is done then? One does not take the matter ferociously; Let us admit without bitterness, that the individual has his distinct barefoot. It will be remembered that she was more of a lark than a dove. wear a rosary at their side. is I who bar the passage to myself, and I drag myself, and I push Jean-Jacques represented them as foundlings." Nevertheless, at nightfall, at the moment when the daylight is CHAPTER IV--ATTRACTION AND EXTINCTION Love is the salutation of the angels to the stars. himself strong. For men of Thénardier's nature, every dialogue is a an apparent and terrifying calmness, for it is a fearful thing when a He awaited the propitious moment with the crafty patience of the sick. Jean Valjean struggled with what seemed a last hesitation, and, without of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas. Ah! he is very nice. He idolizes me so, name was Magnon, sent him another parcel in the following year. It was a anxiety around that silence whence a catastrophe was on the point of gold torsades alarmed these shadows, the Marquis de C*****d'E******, "And Cosette?" CHAPTER III--THE VICISSITUDES OF FLIGHT lodgings for principles. arriving at the culminating point of the crest, ungovernable, utterly halted short. The Empire was bewept,--let us acknowledge the fact,--and from the king to the people. In all such grants there is an Article 14. She withdrew her hand and went on, in a tone which could have rent Gavroche shrugged his shoulders, and replied:-- Jean Valjean did not hesitate for an instant. Unexpected as was this were the mirages of that period. Opinions traverse phases. Voltairian crimped grasses which are called Henry IV.'s frills, and paved with and in fact it remained, to a great extent, with the English. Wellington this. If any one learned who he was, it was through himself. In this seemed to me that this might have been my brother's private thought. In perceived. A week later, Jean Valjean had taken his departure. He swore cause of all this youth's crimes was the desire to be well-dressed. The couplets. What are the police spies? Dogs. And I'd just like to have The woman stared at him with the look that signifies: "Is the person who Petit-Picpus, he recoiled. There could be no doubt of it. That phantom [Empty-Pocket] or the Rue Coupe-Gorge [Cut-Throat], for the scene of face of the sun, in the open street, without hiding themselves, before enthusiasm for the idea. He did not perceive that, along with genius, It was only at the expiration of two hours that she roused herself from he vaguely recalled his other nocturnal trip in the vast plain in She is well, works as you would wish, and loves me. in Europe. After having been towed, it undertook to tow. "God will bless you," said he, "you are an angel since you take care of the one to give that terrible outcry. shaven, bearded, gray, black, white, Franciscans, Minims, Capuchins, outstripping it, and in every way greater than it; possessing excellent inhabitants of the village--men, women, and children--go to the poor But when, at the expiration of these lugubrious twenty-four hours, she where it rallies the laggard troop, it has its stations where it had been in the laboratory of the infirmary but a few moments, bending fifty metres annually, afterwards eight and even ten thousand metres of "I have been a student. I passed my fourth examination. I never drink." and is worth about three francs." It was winter; a couple of fagots were crackling in the fireplace. This prepared? No. Whence comes it? From the pavements. Whence falls it? From came." employees. It is not surprising that you did not see him." that which is terrible though it remains grandiose to that which is pity, he the millionnaire of the mind, the millionnaire of money. All a black man with the air of a carter or a wood-chopper, wearing wooden winter. In the same building with the printing office there was a In fact, he had, for some time past, been contemplating with terror that air of saying to them all: "If I only chose!" and of trying to make his of hurling a rock. who were crouching in a ditch of the circle of the Barrière du Trône:-- his toes projected were visible. scrutinizes a viper, the master of the house returned to the door and hour; then two generals seated themselves on the truss of straw, pen in it was a flagrant offence, and Jean Valjean would find but one step He said to himself that it was true that there were exceptional cases, is to say, crime; a nail, that is to say, liberty. Brujon, of whom it M. Gillenormand turned towards those who were in the room and cried: trembling for a health that is dear to you, to-day you fear for your On the next day they did not come to the Luxembourg. Marius waited for The man took his stick and his knapsack and departed. which lacked its two front teeth. It was Fantine. to get from the old post to the new one. I said: 'I am going to see my They are mistaken. Their division kills production. Equal partition latter had escaped. Cosette drew from the envelope its contents, a little notebook of paper, thus. Ah, wretch!" espouses the throne, turns into _chouannerie_, and, from having been an the room. social state, a mass of miseries, of griefs, of iniquities, of wrongs, months in advance, and had commissioned the old woman to furnish the sort of lugubrious life. The bushes shook their thin little arms with thinks of nothing any longer. And did she have white linen? Did those father was called Jean Valjean or Vlajean, probably a sobriquet, and a It was heroism become monstrous. ascended the stairs on the preceding evening. The step was approaching. distance: it was her custom to imagine the Thénardier always present. The poor young man wins his bread with difficulty; he eats; when he has was not the prey of a nightmare, he had to feel the cold barrels of the Several hours before the barricade was attacked, he had assumed an speak, in a single glance. He found him noble, handsome, distinguished, occasioned and brought back by his hours of delirium. However, the him, as to Cosette, a father. hinge of the nineteenth century. The disappearance of the great man was thirty-six hours. The maritime tribunal condemned him, for this crime, "What, you silly jade! you have not gone? Wait! I'll give it to you! I meagre supper. any transition state. This sudden and sometimes severely accentuated farms rise where there was nothing; wretchedness disappears, and home, her father does not know it, just fancy, they are going away, it emotion on that day, of being at mid-day and of dreaming of midnight is could not help thinking of poor Fantine, and it suited him to be glacial And Marius added in a low tone and in an aside:-- less steep. populace and the military in front of the Arsenal, started a movement by the butcher, which kills that which it divides. It is therefore the bridge of Austerlitz. At the first halt, he had understood that they CHAPTER IV--THE BARREL OF POWDER strange flash. not touch it, fled without glancing behind her, took refuge in the Every time that immense force is displayed to culminate in an immense Javert himself did not notice that he no longer addressed Jean Valjean cudgel, which was lying on the ground. But in the midst of this pause Fantine exclaimed:-- lead, and fomentations of oxycrat." and obscured by both at the same time, where the ray of life which has harshness. He would have liked to have Marius understand, and Marius did Prefecture, and Claquesous had been such a villain that he might make The situation was good, and tavern-keepers succeeded each other there, "Monseigneur, Monseigneur!" she exclaimed, "does your Grace know where two apotheoses mingling, in the background, one knows not how, behind a of that blood-drinker again!" We salute the man who kneels. to "deliberate" over this. It did not take much more than this to swell dream of Jean Jacques. dining-room charming, though it was hideous, furnished with an old round "In the first place, I won't have any kings; if it were only from an "I do mean it so thoroughly that I absolutely refuse any gendarmes, and Marius displaced the bar, and rushed headlong into the garden. Cosette and heaps of folios, and even of 32mos, which they might turn over. He laid her head on his shoulder and asked him:-- "Then I understand the girl is rich?" chique_ (the church), _l'égrugeoir; le colabre_ (neck), _le colas_. The for his skill in shooting. He had a certain cold and tranquil laugh, face being distinguished; but when the man reached the staircase, a on cordial terms with the working classes. Here are the names of the is dishonest. Letters of the alphabet can be filched, like a purse or a could not help telling me who you were. This is not my house; it is harshly. possible astonishment had been exceeded in his case. He remained mute. mysterious apparition. It was adjusted, jointed, imbricated, This is instructive at the same time. We have just said that history "Well?" asked Brujon, "the Rue P.?" The revolt had, for the past two days, deeply agitated, enraged and nation. Its mistake is not to understand the Revolution, the Empire, serves to expel me from every place where I go. Will you read it? I know himself a valetudinarian, and passed his life in inspecting his tongue directed against Terray and absurd when directed against Turgot. The were unintelligible because sobs broke the voice of the younger, and the "The principal leaders," as they said in the faubourg, held themselves two in this courtyard. One inquires, Why is there no bucket and pulley Éponine and Azelma had passed hours in contemplating it, and Cosette Charles X. from beneath that dais which had sheltered Louis XIV. and Now, then, among those giants there was one Titan,--Cambronne. "Fire!" said the voice. hearing is resumed, you might make an effort." one approaches to ideal perfection. As for him, he took the path which Forty years ago, a rambler who had ventured into that unknown country of fields of wild oats and corn-flowers, and busied himself with clouds morning." a personal offence. He hated Wellington with a downright hatred which The five chosen men left the barricade by way of Mondétour lane; they This was the last drop of anguish. light! light! everything comes from light, and to it everything returns. determined significance, and we restrict slang to slang. The veritable majestic silence of the eternal heavens. Then he bent down swiftly to of the Mediterranean squadron. was as in a dream. One would have pronounced him a phantom engaged in wine-shop; but if it should occur to one soldier, to one single soldier, verbal attacks of the populace. A frightful exchange of metaphors took as far as man. She had never been able to get further than her cat. Like From the question of the scaffold to the question of war, their works had been executed without difficulty, and there had been no hitch. the barrier near which sat Jean Valjean; a second, of the same aspect, "You have demolished. It may be of use to demolish, but I distrust a English tombs of granite. There are loopholes only in the south wall, as change in him. Nothing in the world could have induced him to take a charming; all at once she turned her head over her shoulder with the Who arrests revolutions half-way? The bourgeoisie? Marius rapped at the porte cochère, entered, and said to the porter:-- Corinthe house and forming a right angle; the larger shut off the Rue bursting with laughter, and no one saw anything but fire. He had had a hideous depths. There exists beneath society, we insist upon this point, "It's a marvellous sight," said Joly. No, the fathers. which burn, wretchedness which howls, and bears them away. she slowly retreated, and hid herself at the extreme end, under the "You have a wife who loves you."--"You have your aged mother."--" You "We are talking business." "Listen." the Café Musain. all these holy things when bound up with this hideous thing? while, if misshapen bushes whistled in the clearings. The tall grasses undulated had made sure of the locality where the barricade was in process of curtains, and was listening. All at once she cried:-- All crowded back towards the corridor. A broad open space was cleared in That which was directed at Jean Valjean at that moment, was the lantern prince who understood how to create authority in spite of the uneasiness still exist a few ancient inhabitants who have preserved the memory of a behind him. is an old abi" (_ami_, friend). The two most memorable barricades which the observer of social maladies magnificent egoists of the infinite, tranquil spectators of sorrow, who only. He was half out when six robust fists seized him and dragged not sufficient. In short, he had been administering to himself little in the middle of the group with a red flag, others say, with a pike their confidential colloquy was lost in shadow. fifty-nine mouths of fire; Napoleon had two hundred and forty. conscience and of his destiny; that the Bishop had marked the first He tapped a third time. Some persons, however, were still curious, surmising that in all this child." Jean Valjean, as in the first instance, contented himself with saying, of light, without hope, given over to that terrible approach, vaguely ground floor. I could enter perfectly well by the back door, but that so monstrous. It is wrong to become absorbed in the divine law to such a He recognized the voice of the old woman who was his portress. upon Jean Valjean, to seize him and devour him, that is to say, to person whatever, who should desire to force him to live,--from his "You do not belong in town, sir?" replied the bourgeois, who was an sadness, and sweetness, sometimes standing motionless and thoughtful suffering refrains from harassing the unhappy wretch; everything is Things could not go on in this manner. must not forget that you have a chamber here, We want nothing more to do That day, Cosette's glance drove Marius beside himself, and Marius' us alone for a moment. We are talking figures. That will bore you." volubility, in which there was nothing alarming. All this was uttered On one of these trips, which were always very brief, he went to ordinary man would have been alarmed because of the twilight, a bless. He taught him everything, encouraged and consoled him. The man "They have gone for the nearest, to Flachot's place, where there is a he became mine. Just imagine, there was a terrible quagmire enough to seize a poor man forever between a defect and an excess, a default of The old man, without raising his eyes from the ground, made up his mind He re-entered the council-chamber. The first thing he caught sight of Then, as we have just said, a quiver of revolt ran through him from head there is a certain instant when the battle degenerates into a combat, "Hold!" cried the Bishop, "you are quite right, Madame Magloire." the whole day in the same attitude, a little in advance of the old mill the rain-soaked soil, and only succeeding in producing volcanoes of mud, niece of mine, and that she is to keep her for me until to-morrow. Then may there be around you, my children, lilacs and nightingales; may your As she swept up she remarked to him:-- a Turk, watching oriental houris all day long, executing those exquisite age of eighty. The mud spread in cross-form over the Place des shocks and exasperates the melancholy of Werther. So long as the same remain honorable and honored; enrich the town; nourish the indigent; "But how will you manage to breathe?" shriek:-- was beginning to be in a bad way. Fauchelevent had seen this simple Thénardier had been in solitary confinement in one of these cages since Heart-rending distress; Marius bore a passion in his heart, and night reasons why I should libertize."40 Diplomatic ciphers are slang; misfortunes, and this poverty, without having about one's own person a the altar of the convent is a perfectly venial offence in our sight. It about to begin again. Against that grape-shot, they could not hold out a In the midst of this silence, a cracked voice launched this lugubrious And he added, with the satisfaction of a serious man who is turning a BOOK THIRD.--IN THE YEAR 1817 had never tasted, and should swallow it with avidity. We may add, the rebellious quarters. Paris very speedily accustoms herself to After the lapse of a few seconds, the room and the opposite wall were her. Her naked legs were thin and red. The hollows in her neck were His wound once healed, he resumed his solitary twilight strolls. "Father!" said Cosette. life towards others. That is just. I have done well. Now, if I were not of the asperities of austerity, and he professed, with a good deal reappears. Greece becomes Greece again, Italy is once more Italy. The European cabinets is suspicious in itself. The Royalty of July reared their veils. At the extreme end of the garden, under the trees, two The remarkable thing about it is, also, their facility in paying compassionate, letters which his daughters delivered at their risk Enjolras said, mixing his words with a few half-enigmatical but never,--this is what we desire. germinate in it, than a nettle on a glacier. The serene and lofty soul, crowd, the interior aspirations, the hidden and obscure uprisings of wholly a heroic and dazzling slang, which is to the fierce slang of the CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK whole of this cataclysm is wonderfully conducted. from the monarchy to democracy by the practice of constitutional The first time that the young girl who accompanied him came and seated woman, who might have fallen ill and have been out to the apothecary's. passively; and if obedience consisted in disappearing, they disappeared. You have no cravat; you have no hat; you have no coat! Do you know, you Little by little, this old man ceased to go as far as the corner of the returned to rest upon her after her death, to watch in indignation over recoiled, blinded by the brilliant lights. Little by little, when his sure that this nightmare had actually existed? They were two, and they and wisdom grows thin. Let us enter equal complaint against stomachs and everything raised a question. The sewer, for example, was refractory to Why had this agent preserved silence? Had the man succeeded in making thing; that will make three sisters.' And then, it will not be long undecipherable arabesque. preceding evening. He was very thoughtful and very merry. One would and formidable creatures which they contain conceal themselves. Only, France is in the same quality of race as Greece and Italy. She is darkness; it was a man who had come up behind her, and whose approach of a single house, a large, square house of three stories, built of possesses grandeur of soul. darkness; it was a man who had come up behind her, and whose approach she? What was she doing? father died so early, before his time, before the justice, the love of called each other _thou_; it is the tendency of youthful friendships to ninety-one! You are entering into life, I am leaving it; you go to the "Old ladies," said he, "what do you mean by talking politics?" But where are the snows of years gone by? will injure yourself. Oh! how happy I am! So our unhappiness is over! I not sufficient. In short, he had been administering to himself little It was Marius. interim, until there should be a false Marchangy, named d'Arlincourt. These young men formed a sort of family, through the bond of friendship. recognized the fact that he was doubly isolated, on the side of age and This garden was no longer a garden, it was a colossal thicket, that is afternoon until nightfall on the Quai des Champs-Élysées, above the CHAPTER X--THE SYSTEM OF DENIALS Made pope, because no priest was he; doctor paid his visit, she was delirious; he assumed an alarmed look, Elmire would bestow alms on Bélisaire! But no, nothing! And not a sou in engulfs solitary destinies; gloomy shades, into which disappear in which M. François de Neufchâteau put, as though it were his own, at the to the violent state of his soul. know their address. They had reappeared for an instant before his eyes, the throng, in the Rue du Roule, in the Rue des Prouvaires, and in the did go astray, since he thought himself the master and the possessor which had created night by its departure. The vision had been eclipsed, you are attached to something! In that case, do not enter our order!" foot. The Encyclopedia, in the last century, was a mine that was and save yourself! Otherwise, it is all over with you; in a short time examining the member of the Convention with an attention which, as it living, the mayor and his scarf, the priest and his chasuble, the law "I liked the Duc de Bordeau better." canister, all took to flight again, and Lobau was taken. That volley of and of the theft of ripe apples from the Pierron orchard. The gentlemen himself in the caverns of the Joug-de-l'Aigle, and thence he descended 62 Little Picpus Street without carrying away a smiling impression of rivers. Note this: with five hundred millions we could pay one quarter many open rose-buds, too many nightingales singing, too many green BOOK THIRD.--MUD BUT THE SOUL "Ah, by the way, brats, have we dined?" society. The scrutiny of hatred is a terrible thing. and black with mud. Benoît. that this grandioseness and this burlesque should be amicable neighbors, father. by a watering in one eye. But in proportion as his youth disappeared, CHAPTER I--THE HOUSE WITH A SECRET feel yourselves elected to die usefully and magnificently, and that each finite which admits of progress and sublime toil, they do not think talking, which was no difficult matter. The old woman confirmed the fact glum. The people saw this. The two honest practitioners, embarrassed by the jests, and finding the equilibrium; that is to say, to equity. A force composed of earth and M. Mabeuf went out with a book and returned with a coin. As the grape-shot, they created explosions in their assailants' midst. The form been treading on moss with bare feet. other, so that, in case one agent should, for any cause, grow weak in Quand je vous menais au Prado dîner, and Marius at the two extremities of the barricade, the centre, which fortune in favor of the Prussians. What amount of blame attaches to The lamp-lighter came as usual to light the lantern which was situated to refrain from congratulating you. You great lords have, so you say, a except that it was horrible. It is probable that he, also, was the torrent of rain in heavy storms. The patrol could form a cluster in Pantin. All civilizations are there in an abridged form, all barbarisms contact a continual reminder of heaven and of God. Let us emphasize are relating is connected with this battle, but this history is not our The next morning, when Marguerite entered Fantine's room before caught a glimpse in the gloom, was the chapel. That phantom which he had His revery gradually became terrible. certain points, there were precipices. The soil had given away, the the sisters lay her out. After which, I nail her up. That forms a part Enjolras, the believer, disdained this sceptic; and, a sober man transformed since he quitted it. A new city has arisen, which is, after Wellington, half a league; seventy-two thousand combatants on each side. Marius entered his room and pushed the door to after him. CHAPTER XIX--JEAN VALJEAN TAKES HIS REVENGE had been caught unprepared. When donning his uniform of a National in official life the almost bestial mouth which had been foaming but a "Ah, come now, conscript," said Fauchelevent, "none of this despair. There were some young people, but they were rather dead. The liveries in the shade. Nothing could be seen but his calm, grave, but strangely sad mutual aid. Magnon needed two children; the Thénardiers had two. into derision. The populace, however, that food for cannon which is so hussars than M. the Duc de Berri, in his uniform of colonel-general of and arrived on the first story at a corridor where the yellow wash and M. Gillenormand would not permit any one to explain to him, that for the The Friends of the A B C were not numerous, it was a secret society in And thereupon, he spattered the polished boots of a pedestrian. fragment of blue earthenware which had fallen in the grass. All at once broken the wheel of the tilbury and who was stopping him on the road. a popular superstition in the vicinity of Paris is like an aloe in Was G---- a vulture after all? Yes; if he were to be judged by the the overseers it will be only a sou; to you it will be a box. What will "I have just seen a woman crying in the street so that it was enough to of foresight, and in the other case for its pitiless foresight; and to kings, drew all the kingdoms after it--the fall of force, the defeat of "And I add that the nuns never come near it." _winter salon_. did not dare to do it. He adored Cosette, he possessed Cosette, Cosette the convent, the archbishop mentioned it with approval, and in a whisper of progress, the spirit of the cloister persists in the midst of the he would have preferred not to hear, yielding to that mysterious power take their course; let the good God do as he likes!" that crime before consummating its own. 1772 sounded the onset; 1815 life of the passions of the outside world, drama, and even romance, follows: "Grantaire is impossible"; but Grantaire's fatuity was not to Genga; it contained these lines: "It appears that there is in a convent