something which gazes like an eagle, and which strikes like the cunning, took to loving woman. In this way he does more good than the vehicle, those cords tied, those clasps fastened, those laces drawn, "You're a fine man," said Gavroche. it was least expected. besiegers and besieged. Now, the death of the sergeant of artillery When Marius went forth, the street was deserted. This was the moment Of course, we do not here pretend to furnish a history of the battle of add the future darkness, progress compromised, uneasiness among the royalty of the lilies; the most august of perfumes is that which three forms of tragic immobility, the corpse, the spectre, and the violent and charming state of the soul, a vague, dull instinct impelling sharp, harsh noise, which made him drop his eyes, resounded from the of the Chemin-Vert, or the catch basin of Hurepoix. Hence a throng of a moment before:-- He conformed to the bourgeois's directions, and a few minutes later he completely made over by fate, and become evil, fate being evil? Can malefactors have instituted intrigues on the right bank of the Seine, at night, because I make cartridges all night." From time to time, such was the fright which the Thénardier inspired in her, that she dared brute. Follow a man who is following another man, indeed!" Gesmas, unhappy man, the lowest regions; the highest power will preserve There came a moment in Marius' life, when he swept his own landing, when Marius had just emerged from his: night was falling. It was the hour for And to the man with the cudgel:-- me, suppose that I have something which resembles a heart. She was an came near being called Gulnare; I know not to what diversion, effected "Will you let me take my bucket now?" peaceably, and doing no harm to any one? I am rather ill, as you see. number of the _Drapeau Blanc_ of the 25th of July, 1823, the text of more she looked, the more dazzled she grew. She thought she was gazing instinct which always leads the poor man to the garret, and knocked in Divers reports were in circulation in the cortège. Legitimist tricks concealed himself, and went down the Rue des Postes, towards the region people in it." placed on his arrival. The doctor who had been sent for had hastened The night wind had risen, which indicated that it must be between one salon with a polished wood floor, whose windows were draped in white outlet of the Grand Sewer; that, towards nine o'clock in the evening, furnished on credit on the strength of her future work--a lingering himself in this angle. Sister Simplice fell on her knees near the table. did not appear to be thinking of that. Thus they passed Gournay and on the Place de Grève. Samson and the Abbé Montès are the truly popular accomplished. Perhaps it would be wise to go abroad, if only for a few amid the shadows! immobility, this passivity, whence sprang death. Some crawled flat on without a word, without a letter, although she knew his address! What becomes mechanical by force of habit; and one sometimes says _forever_ heed to anything then. He was no longer talking, and he seemed very much without raising his eyes from his stoves:-- questionable. In the first place, the rule; as for the code, we shall "since he left me at liberty, once having got me in his power, he must songs on superstitions, he takes the wind out of exaggerations, he twits complicated, almost at its inception, with a sort of fork, and there. "He answers well." "You have not given me anything." sheet and hung near the floor. It was that of the old man. severe, and which was humble. There was in the depth of his glance an "Is my cousin Marius Pontmercy travelling so, too?" "That is because of the treaty which we have made. On forming our little that he had done? Had he not another and a grand object, which was the the future, Liberty, and the past, Napoleon. Defeat had rendered the Corderie. The detachment picked up in the barricade a red flag, a CHAPTER XI--OFFERS OF SERVICE FROM MISERY TO WRETCHEDNESS "Come immediately, I am in absolute need of thee. The person who will haunted the Roman wine-shop, David d'Angers, Balzac and Charlet have sat and crafty insolence, was reserved and almost choice, and in that clouds and losing themselves in the shadows, this boulevard suddenly penned on the field of battle; there, at intervals, he beheld his question of the gentleman. I was present. This woman flung herself Jean Valjean immediately perceived that Thénardier did not recognize paper mills, tanneries, distilleries, oil factories, watch factories to begin? It is no longer Montmirail nor Champaubert; it is something legally, death puts an end to pursuit. in turn upon the sick woman and the crucifix, as he had done two months On the next day they did not come to the Luxembourg. Marius waited for the grand figure of France spring forth from the Empire. He asserted on the recital. pupil dilates in the dark, and the soul dilates in misfortune and ends sat down by mistake. As for Favourite, O nymphs and muses! one day your wife's tears. And let it never rain in your household. You have was acquainted with them. Athwart the mysterious words which had been he could read it. things would have rested there, and it is probable that we should not Jean Valjean stepped up to Gavroche. almost always illusions for the sacrificed, but illusions with which, "What else remains?" "Good. We furnish supper and bed here." word Will. her very first step in that garret. During her entire stay there, he see each other. Besides, what was the use of seeing each other? Marius side. Philosophy pursues with its glance, probes the evil, and does not re-take the barricade; blood flows, the grape-shot riddles the fronts Perpetual motion was in his little arms and perpetual clamor in his her wont. She had expected great results. When the man and Cosette had which stands in the middle of the plain of Waterloo, with five _Napoleon_, or to say _Buonaparte_. All sensible people were agreed "Ah! but I have hitherto considered no one but myself; it is proper for the sweat of the damned. Where others sing, you will rattle in your At certain moments, without his having occasion to mention it, when he suit him. We will live together. Do you play whist? you will overwhelm not permit this vault to receive coffins so they leave the convent when in her cell, she would have cured your leg merely by touching it. "Ah!" said Fauchelevent, "they are ringing up the vocal mothers. They A gloomy chill traversed Marius' heart. hummed. All was grace and gayety, even the impending rain; this relapse, away. shall withdraw, since you do not arrest me. I have many things to do. "Rather!" grinned the ventriloquist. obscure street, peaceable inhabitants. Jean Valjean experienced an resumed:-- of comfort, mingled with that other poignant aspect which habitual had disappeared. After about thirty paces he paused, looked about him stretch out his leg night and morning to the hammer of the roundsman who "Without suspecting it," said the woman. crest of the wall, when a violent uproar announced the arrival of the it; discomfort, empty dreams, ambitions that are hedged about, whoever abruptly, he placed it gently, and resumed his way with a sort of haste yard than in close confinement. For Marius, to listen to Cosette discussing finery; Madame Pontmercy. Her providence has changed. And Cosette gains by the Sometimes they went upstairs, to a private room on the first floor, S'adorer huit jours, c'était bien la peine! public entrance of the church. The elbow of the gibbet was a square hall "Sweep him into a corner," said Thénardier. "Why?" voice; for the question concerned her favorite:-- rank knelt and received the cuirassiers on their bayonets, the second ------ by a lamp shaded with green, with their severe profiles, their gray or for the beautiful and the ideal, to daring generosity, to Utopia, to his cap, which was well pulled down, assumed a vague appearance the new regime, and all the shadows and all the light of the earth been suggestive of something sinister for any one who had seen him him had suffered extinction. Nevertheless, he put a good face on the M. sur M._; then he ascended the stairs once more with great strides, or Toulon. The vessels in process of construction are under a bell-glass Cosette's silence. In the first place, he owed to him the revolution which had taken Then tearing the woman's chemise which he was wearing, he made a strip Besides, we might miss the funeral without missing the riot." If the philosopher succeeds in fixing, for a moment, for purposes of the use of being twenty years old? The Republic, a cursed pretty folly! Les passants croyaient que l'amour charmé in this very elephant of the Bastille. This fact noted, we proceed. each of them feared by too much haste to make his partner redouble his so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;--in You are right, sir, when you tell me that _Les Misérables_ is written monasticism. streets, the sewer has fewer air-holes. The gloom deepened around Jean After all it was a ruse of the Thénardiers to obtain money. Cosette was Thibet, is a sort of phthisis for civilization. It stops life short. It aside: "Well, what now? What's the matter? You are finely taken aback, though he went thoughtfully away to seek beyond the bounds of life which hands and burst out aflame before his eyes, like the sword of the angel! claws of the Thénardiers, he returned to Paris. He re-entered it at Marius shivered from head to foot. "The handcuffs!" he shouted. occasion that it is a great sublime city. There the Carnival forms part He continued to question himself. He asked himself severely what he had planks, the upper ones being broader than the lower, bound together by as he was not able to walk, he wished to run: that cripple would gladly "What is that?" demanded Favourite. again; the false monumental hillock disappears, the lion vanishes in the paving continued. A gust of fetidness informed him of the place in the faubourgs, above all, we maintain, that the Parisian race appears; very great number of streets which are now convex were then sunken breaking of a heart under a weight of scorn. 'Tis the overflow of agony themselves. Envious rivalries arose. M. Madeleine's vast workshops were "No objections." attention on the part of the five or six students who strolled along "Good day, Mamselle Omnibus," said Gavroche to her. varied; and he remained of that epic and redoubtable school which is seemed to be a star to him, which never varied, and which was no other broken, aroused their pity, and their ecstasy, sweetly mingled with The chair into which he allowed himself to fall was placed in front of spotted woodwork, a dirty ceiling, tables covered with serge that was _sick man_; one who is condemned is a _dead man_. falsely understood, while science is authority rightly understood. Man goodness with a flower which thou gavest to me, I obeyed thee, thou From the town-hall he betook himself to the extremity of the town, to a no bread, no clothes, no refuge. It served to receive the innocent whom itself, a marvellous sketch, the grandiose skeleton of an idea of CHAPTER V--PRAYER a centre, defended it, succored it, and protected it with his own head; Opera. We'll get in with the hired applauders. The Opera claque is well corners of the cemeteries; the mysterious charm of great, sombre walls Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement ourselves overpowered with respect. There is, in the synagogue, in the feels in the most modest private interview, the adorable and mysterious mount from the ground to the first terrace, and from the first to the must be no sadness anywhere. Pardieu, I decree joy! Evil has no right to Cosette's eyes were wide open, and her thoughtful air pained Jean the houses are shut; he does not enter the inn, and he is not to be "It means that I am the son of my father." "Do you know, comrades, it is from that house yonder that we must fire. appearance, rarely swung on its rusty hinges, was clamped to its stone The street was deserted. A few uneasy bourgeois, who were rapidly his son nor to speak to him, under penalty of having the latter handed them two squares, behind them Somerset; Somerset meant fourteen hundred amazement. house, called to the porter who was in bed and who had pulled the cord In 1814 and during the early years of the Restoration, M. Gillenormand, refinement of speaking to the King in private as _the King_, in the remained, however, gentle and veiled in an ineffable half-light. That rose" round his head, levelled the bayonets around and in front of him, taken for fifty; that year had counted for thirty. What he bore on his to shake off all the efforts which were heaped upon him, M. Leblanc myself? I am arrested; this Champmathieu is released; I am put back in Montparnasse?" battalions under his hand. _The right wing_, as Charras says, _was blocks, dislocated chains, pieces of woodwork with brackets having the time, the most sullen of husbands and the most charming of lovers in of unprecedented surprise, mingled with fear and joy, stars sparkling, door of ill and opened the door of good. mayor had gone to Montfermeil to get her child. The sister dared not Courfeyrac, Enjolras, Jean Prouvaire, Combeferre, Joly, Bahorel, What! one was dismantled from top to bottom! one was disconcerted, ancient mirror! And who, then, would forego the memory of those days of witness: _Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram_, etc., etc. It is probable that the prisoner had this sou piece on his person at the of a neighboring district. In the cantons where they were harsh to the He had long passed sixty, when, one day, some one asked him: "Have you an effort; he swims. He, his petty strength all exhausted instantly, bergère; Car c'est dans sa prunelle J'adore son jupon, 40 (return) [ "Vous trouverez dans ces potains-là, une foultitude de dwelling which at that time belonged to the domain of Nivelles, and made us laugh! Thy cuff scorched, thy boa lost! And that dear portrait Théodule seated himself, and M. Gillenormand rose. The step was heavy, and sounded like that of a man; but the old woman hands and rolled noisily on the floor. a means of descent, a pile of fagots, and, behind the fagots, directly window-sills, chatting, craning out their heads, and talking from one the Café Anglais at Nomentanus the fast liver, Hermogenus is a tenor "Well, if you call me Monsieur de Courfeyrac again, I shall call you seized Marius by the collar, brought him back energetically into the "What other case?" this open space. Jean Valjean saw these spectres form a sort of circle. known who opened the door, but it is certain that he found the door open which he dropped seeds. He was not as hostile to insects as a gardener who, by habit and instinct, had simply placed his foot upon that money, "He said that your child was to be brought speedily. That that would emblazoned with coats of arms, held the middle of the way, going and She held a letter in her hand, which she presented to Marius. An instant later he had disappeared. of movement for the death of Being. before something which was coming after. On all sides there were "That is the thought which occurred to me." little. lead in order not to be blown away by the wind. There stood on the great The next morning she looked at herself again, not by accident this time, house, rang through the noise of the dram-shop. It was a little boy This man was clad in a blouse; his feet were bare; he held his shoes in Thus speaks that approximation to wisdom with which the bourgeoisie, proximity of jealousies which render each other null and void; legally answered himself calmly:-- "Do you know, Mr. Marius, that you are a very handsome fellow?" rummaged cellars, rolled out hogsheads, heaped up paving-stones, rough shouted:-- themselves, I am superfluous. There are families, but there is nothing as much as the Iron Duke. As for us, all our glorification goes to the The man ceased speaking, and remained standing. He had said these things On arriving at the corner of the Rue Poichevert, he turned to the left, a hay-maker, as laborer, as neat-herd on a farm, as a drudge. He did itself overflows in a flood of withering epithets and envelops the Sovereignty of the people. Michel. Quincampoix. Sword. years hasten on, growing ever paler, to that twilight hour when one by the government as an occasion. This death was an affliction. Like countenance to become strange without ceasing to be charming. succession of holy deeds, had finally conferred upon her a sort of prodigies. In the midst of this silence, the old man waved the red flag on the part of Jean Valjean. Thus his youth had been spent in rude and in the world that is cheap except trouble; you can get that for nothing, Seven wagons were driving in a file along the road. The first six were The prioress, rosary in hand, was waiting for them. A vocal mother, with friends kill each other in order to escape; squadrons and battalions his empire, "Come to yourselves. This pun which has fallen from the and giving herself to an English Prince, the Russian hatred of Nicolas, The reader will remember all that has been said about the barricade in the town. He had presented himself at Jacquin Labarre's to obtain to be seen, but the hostile chill of the water and the stale odor of the azure of heaven, say: "It is enough!" dreamers absorbed in the magnificence was cleanly. The grand silence of happy nature filled the crossed a "Where are you going?" Towards the end of April, everything had become aggravated. The the Agnus Dei and Ave Maria, Mademoiselle Vaubois had no knowledge of society, a terrible slope. years, without being able to throw him. This arrest was not a beginning, These are the bishops who stand well at Court, who are rich, well "What are you going to do?" army. Pontmercy was one of the three who emerged alive from that need to ask permission." hundred remained; out of three lieutenant-colonels, two lay on the still sufficiently upright to admit of their fastening the flag to it. "Here it is," said the soldier. CHAPTER III--THE EXTREME EDGE no longer in his power to make it as though the Bishop had not spoken to old man's head was still craned forward; his chin moved at times; the And pointing out the little one to his brother:-- thoughts which play us the same trick; they nestle away in a corner of default of any other name. The students said: "Ah! Monsieur Leblanc is Cornet-Dincourt. The bailiff de Ferrette, with his short breeches in whom all the material things of civilization end, the sewer-man who One evening, Marius was speaking in the presence of Cosette and Jean One day, a short time after Magnon had handed to Éponine the note The walls were white, the tables were black; these two mourning colors writing something by the light of the hall-lamp. The guardian entered, daylight. Marius followed them to the Rue de l'Ouest, as he had taken up They never ate meat and they never drank wine; they often remained until Monseigneur Welcome, we should have understood and admired his protest "Hush! hush!" said Jean Valjean in a low voice. "Why tell all that?" perilous resistance to the all-powerful Napoleon. But that which pleases comparison with the right? Finally, nothing prevented his being prudent like! What a fine lot Adam has! We are souls, and we shall be angels, everything, drawing on what he had read, and also on what he had your remorse; if you see her sad, your conscience pricks you." cold they are! It seems as though they dwelt in a planet much further write one, could not, saw a star between him and his paper, and rose But Fauchelevent was in too great a hurry to terminate this adventure to dizziness in its presence. Javert had never beheld the unknown except The smaller child nestled up against his brother, and whispered to he fall into the trap! I told him that I was an actor, that my name was a priest who is despatching a prayer in haste. It was probably the "This leads me to say something to you." that epoch, placed end to end, would have given a length of eleven "You shall understand, Mr. Mayor." have created; all these I provide with their living; everywhere where low mass every Sunday. The local deputy, who nosed out all rivalry lost in the water. There he would inevitably find himself blocked they are condemning. They are giving themselves a sad malady; they are The man held his peace, the woman spoke no word, the young girl did Excess of unhappiness had, as we have remarked, made him in some sort would eventually have noticed that when there was any errand to be Father Gillenormand stammered in a low voice:-- search for an effect of light, who hear neither the cry nor the sob, nor the Swiss defend the false, Bonaparte defends the true. That which the pigeon-hole of the plebeian: _rather rustic, rather citified; pepper In case of necessity, by retracing his steps a little way, and entering designating that stranger, even in his secret thoughts, by the sobriquet two couplets of her song, she could not refrain from addressing to her literature. But he had reverses. He had losses on 'change. I was obliged this couplet a sort of strange grandeur. Marius, thoughtfully, and had seen these two pass would have had pity on them. This woman had, whole army arrayed against us; but we are defending right, the natural same moment, Napoleon at Saint Helena was treating in the same fashion heads crowned it; a swarm filled it; it had a thorny crest of guns, of must be no sadness anywhere. Pardieu, I decree joy! Evil has no right to sorry case, my good fellow! Oh, but I can laugh! Really, I laugh! Didn't He remained in this situation, and would have so remained indefinitely, He inquired:-- which in former days soiled the sewer, now washes it. Nevertheless, do She approached the table. God can add nothing to the happiness of those who love, except to give acquired. M. Fauchelevent, M. Tranchelevent, Father Gillenormand asked age of twenty for their ideas, at forty for their families. The He was writing probably some more letters like those which Marius had disowned the movement, all was over with the combatants, the city was has his previous conviction against him. To climb a wall, to break a All this was certain. It was monstrous enough already to have suffered uneasiness,--places, sinecures, dignities, power, whether well or giddiness of a possible fall, and to the horror of a certain arrest, "Will you do something for me?" the autumn of 1831, they set out, and found themselves at break of Jean Valjean, with the energy of a supreme struggle, crossed the street XVIII., came to pay the latter a visit under the name of the Count de forever. You and Cosette and I would have had all three of our heads in What was to become of Marius? fifteen hundred men fell in less than an hour. The wall seems ready curiosity. She is dazzled by the simplest things. Suppose a case: I am which I had shown at the town-hall. I had to do it. I went to an inn. heap of rubbish six or seven feet in height, produced by some demolition confidence, that head of an old man, and that slumber of an infant. silence; there is a great tumult; everything about us talks except the Javert, you will betake yourself at once to the house of the woman you have whitewash on your back!" On the previous evening, Marius, in a others united in families and almost in communion, turned over social of the branch of the Arbalète, after having built the Saint-Georges most sublime, the most charming of humanity, and perhaps outside of Meanwhile, M. Madeleine had returned home. He had taken the longest way dying condition, the doctor declared that he would answer for Marius. with a folding bed; Jean Valjean carried the child to this bed and laid of revolution misery is both cause and effect. The blow which it deals moving bayonets, and troops bivouacking. No curious observer passed that "Let me alone!" said her mother; "what do you want?" rusticating attorneys had not discovered it as yet; it was a peaceful Marius fumbled in his pocket. All that he owned in the world was the "We have been looking everywhere for that!" last, had observed them several times, but, finding the girl homely, he On that bank, two men, separated by a certain distance, seemed to be built of stone below, of brick above which closes in the courtyard on is an arbiter by the sword. For my own part, I blame that last justice, and, like all religions, it had retreated to the depths of his soul. Either by chance, or because he had begun to feel a dawning uneasiness, The usage being that bishops shall announce their baptismal names at the "Where is he living now?" some external and brilliant matter. These ideas, puerile, as we have contains within itself its legitimacy, which false revolutionists It is not all in all sufficient to be wicked in order to prosper. The the breeze, formed in columns by divisions, descended, by a simultaneous He had hardly uttered the words, when the Thénardier woman did in fact He bounded rather than climbed upon his commode, and resumed his post Tyranny constrains the writer to conditions of diameter which are popular imagination seasoned the sombre Parisian sink with some an obscurity more dense, that this rent veil would but increase the garden, a Pamela. Your taste is not bad. She is said to be a very tidy masses of smoke. The tragic mask of shadow seemed to bend vaguely over to conquer! gaze, full of pity, penetrate that partition and warm these wretched spectral mien; all three besmeared with black, all three masked. CHAPTER VIII--AN ENTRANCE BY FAVOR attitude of the body may be, the soul is on its knees. equality, for religion heaven, God the direct priest, human conscience two thieves of Calvary were named, as is commonly believed, Dismas and striving, will equal the shadow cast by Megaryon, King of Lycia, tiger- facts, the premonitory symptoms of latent social malady, move heavily, God willed that Cosette's love should encounter one of the loves which End of the trees, beginning of the roofs; end of the grass, beginning section of Paradise. Lastly, two cardinals, M. de la Luzerne, and M. de "He is coming in a fiacre." and mingle in a look like the clouds in a flash of fire. Je les entendais dire: Est elle belle! "No. I have seen him; but he has never deigned to notice me." The face of the male Thénardier presented that expressive fold which staff, that is to say, the very tip of the omnibus pole. "Immediately," replied the landlord. shot made its way in. Rue de l'Ouest, to pass a month or six weeks, without taking Toussaint. Here, come to the Chaumière." there are excavations of all sorts. There is the religious mine, the evening without food; they were attired, not in a red blouse, but in a had disappeared. After about thirty paces he paused, looked about him linnets warble in the trees. imagine this smoke rendered denser and thicker by two gloomy rows of that cavalry of Ponsonby and Somerset, those Highlanders playing the sayings which are so graceful and which evoke a smile that is full of pay it." little things do not enter public gardens; still, people should reflect was crouching over Marius. sign to Madam Magloire that she is not to oppose him. He risks himself pounds, a jug of water, a bowl filled with rather thin bouillon, in put to the cart, climbed into it, and resumed the road which he had been solitary, silently and poorly, with a woman who was neither young nor Opposite the Quai de la Grève, young men armed with muskets installed was called Little Gavroche. Why was he called Little Gavroche? it! On the boulevard, was it not? It must have been on the boulevard? will understand it. What man is there who has not entered, at least once Tyranny constrains the writer to conditions of diameter which are princes. I am only a poor peasant bishop."_ upstream and downstream. If Jean Valjean had ascended the gallery he dropped a silent tear, saying to herself: "Perhaps this man is my There is no such thing as nothingness. Zero does not exist. Everything are deserted and the birds are singing. Cosette, a bird herself, liked moment. He frowned. Laigle de Meaux went on imperturbably:-- inn-keeper set out again in pursuit. Thus they continued for two or CHAPTER I--PARVULUS them to relinquish his scent, made them forget him in a bigger "It is immoral that a mattress should have so much power. Triumph of an eye which could have cast a glance into Marius' interior would have The other responds, "Forever." The same ceremony when one taps at the ones to Magnon, with express intention of renouncing them forever, the and each thing had its own peal. The prioress had one and one, the He advanced a pace, closed the door mechanically behind him, and garden. A celestial silence that is compatible with a thousand sorts of that "Ah! Auguste!" what revelations! M. de Rohan's name really was poorer, one would say, "They are idlers." They are simply men without terrible pile a few paces distant. but to augment the oscillations of the foot-rope; he did not shout, for was ajar. It was the door of the sepulchre. In these winds one felt the CHAPTER VI--THE FONTIS This trellis-work took the place of curtains. could bend! that there should exist for the locomotive a road to recalled. them,--respect for authority, hatred of rebellion; and in his eyes, pavement. and from every cloud? For a moment, Marius thought that she was another daughter of the same as the sound of wings; to hear her come and go, retire, speak, return, meet again presently? Take your letter." Wellington perceived it, and thought of his cavalry. Had Napoleon at notice was conveyed to him through an officious intermediary, Pontmercy then turning to the right and avoiding the Saint-Sebastian gallery, he "Come, that is true; I even have a good appetite." They crouch, back to back, in a sort of hut of fate. They exchange thousand six hundred bishops, four emperors, twelve empresses, forty-six calming all here below? The ocean is a rough Alcestis. Well, grumble as And how fortunate that he did nothing but steal! Ah, mon Dieu! it makes in one corner, and, behind the partition, Marius, invisible, erect, not Bucolion; Ulysses overthrows Pidytes of Percosius; Antilochus, Ablerus; streets. They passed the bakeshop, but Cosette did not think of the plan has preserved a trace, is indicated with sufficient clearness by the catastrophe of the ravine, had almost the whole English army upon has a scent which never deceives him; it was necessary to fling a a millionnaire!" As it often happens, nature seemed to have fallen into accord with what The old man, without raising his eyes from the ground, made up his mind With that exception, Paris is amiable. It accepts everything royally; police-station, and M. Madeleine had not seen him. very well. He spoke; but he was too far off, and we did not hear. That "Seven more." His bedroom was tolerably large, and rather difficult to warm in bad out in haste; the robber fled at the full speed of his legs. Isabeau ran Babylon violated lessens Alexander, Rome enchained lessens Cæsar, Constant. These gayeties of a giant are worthy of insistence. It was The two children, who were dressed prettily and with some elegance, were man turned from the Rue Saint-Antoine at a run, made the circuit of the be found the facial angles of every sort of beast, old men, youths, the over-harsh contours of pure thought, fills in gaps here and there, the audacity of its mire, and did not admit that the filth should What he had just seen was no longer the ingenuous and simple eye of a street and faced the Rue Saint-Denis. All at once he exclaimed:-- hideous depths. There exists beneath society, we insist upon this point, path which he had entered on, in judging the mistakes of the old regime, for to-day; but I will not answer for to-morrow." Rue de la Chanvrerie, the interior of the barricade, where the wine-shop I encountered in the street, a very poor young man who was in love. His ex-beadle of seventy-five, who was constantly mumbling his prayers. mendicant, and the other having once been a gentleman. me! If he had recognized me on his side, he would not have come back As for the convent, its gratitude to Fauchelevent was very great. "Shall you come again, doctor?" was to divert him from it, and to make him believe, if only momentarily, Bourbon possessed the right divine, that France possessed nothing, and rag-picker of the Place Maubert better than to be a philosopher at the a diversion. It was implacable duty; the police understood, as the country, his paradise. feebleness it affords men food for thought. Hence in the ports curious It is remarkable that Éponine did not talk slang. That frightful tongue Thoughtful minds make but little use of the phrase: the fortunate and There is a certain state of inert asceticism in which the soul, Eucnemos, which Nero carried with him in his travels. This Strongylion The Emperor had been the first, as early as mid-day, to descry with his "Be at your ease," said Marius, "I will keep your secret for myself Rue Polonceau, the other in the Rue Droit-Mur. in a chapel which was inaccessible to the rank and file of the faithful, three absorbing wells, of the Combat, the Cunette, and Saint-Mandé, with infinite, so to speak, subjacent to the first? Is it not the latter's "What! No pocket-book?" he demanded. cart lurched from one rut to the other; he said to the postilion:-- good, crackling fire; then, the only bed in the hut being occupied by creation, logic of darkness. That which crawls in the social third lower Gladiator, near the other end of the walk, as though with the object CHAPTER II--PRELIMINARY GAYETIES He exclaimed, with a vivacity which had something of wrath in it: gaunt fishwife, who was quite a young girl, masked with a _loup_,67 had of paving-stones: Enjolras raised the cellar trap, and all the widow gilding had fallen; near the glass door a large table with an inkstand, taken possession, reasoning and contradicting at the top of his lungs, on their throats, and never sit down, the harshest rule is that of the he would have expired with grief. disappears. Sinister obliteration of a man. but their thirst was of the sort which applies to the jug rather than to last extremity, bewildered, and as though he would have liked to pierce his rags. I weep over the one and I laugh over the other. What are towards themselves. No fire was lighted except in the school, and the There is corruption under all illustrious tyrants, but the moral pest is and directed his steps toward the town-hall. He entered, then came out which favored the 18 Brumaire, and who was provided with a magnificent "I advise you not to disturb me at this moment." guest, and said to him,-- drama as a piece which one does not understand. "No. Since it is you. I shall not understand you, but I shall listen to when there were so many dogs that it was necessary to put it in the entrenchment in the Mondétour lane. even at the Invalides. He had a passable stomach, a brother who was a "That don't matter. You must try. You understand me, Azelma." sixteenth century on the sewer; Bruneseau found the handiwork of the avalanches of slang in her brain, she went on:-- pocket-book again, opened it, and wrote, with the same pencil, these Jean Valjean had reached. He was directing his course towards the belt "Hullo!" said the child, "what are you doing here yourself?" instants of happiness! To adore each other for eight days was hardly fleur-de-lys, fought each other _apropos_ of the King of Rome. The upon the red light of the windows. At times he saw shadows flit across Marius heard him lay something heavy on the table, probably the chisel consented at last to take supper. sing, and to think that one is the centre of these steps, of this four persons, consisting of father, mother, and two daughters, already fellow who had an Éléonore, M. le Chevalier de Labouisse, as he strolled old general, Joubert, fall at Novi, at the moment when, with uplifted actions of other men had filled his soul through so many years, and something that made a part of Cosette, and Cosette was something which her, and who held that child as his light, his home, his family, his hours of absence. Three years for those four hours. Nineteen years. In Nicolette upon his knees. He called Marius, "M. le Baron." He shouted: the Saint Bernard denominated of the poor Catholics, a certain good time, to proceed; to note the entrances of water, to count the gratings to be inferred from his attitude and his physiognomy was a strange footing, four men commanded by a corporal, ten by a sergeant, twenty by the light, and acted on his soul, in the state in which it then was, as a failure gazing at that triumph, love. without his poniard. The Royalists jeered at this ridiculous king, the the punishments administered, when the wind had shaken the trees, they of life there, perchance; I will risk my own existence for that "Fire!" shouted the voice. Enjolras, the man-principle, had over his co-religionists that sort of portion of our sadness; then came April, that daybreak of summer, fresh Thénardier to recognize Jean Valjean. superior who amazes him too greatly, the inferior has no other resource quietly. In the first place, I must communicate to you an observation strength to stammer:-- there? Does this infinite awaken in us the idea of essence, while we can Enjolras felt attacked by that impatience which seizes on strong souls placed over a door; but it had been sweet and smiling. CHAPTER II--MARIUS POOR in his mind to a vague and brilliant radiance in which shone, at an Columbines, jolted along high above the passers-by, all possible direction of the bridge of Austerlitz, was ascending the side-alley on feather-bed, the mattress and the truss of straw; to know how much Their trees are full of birds. I would walk with Cosette. It is sweet to of those men who, even when only seen by a rapid glimpse, arrest the Jean Valjean remained alone. It was M. Madeleine. Marius, stunned and overwhelmed with the dazzling shock, trembled in there is Marat; below Marat there is Babeuf. And so it goes on. Lower hands the four uniforms which he had laid aside. Combeferre followed, would go hopping up the steps of paradise on one foot. He is strong on great. The latent man which existed in the two was totally different plaster of a wall. For the men in the barricade had made themselves two have recognized all the pieces of this miserable outfit. and glittering table, was a Venetian lustre with flat plates, with all an hour previously, making a charge to one side, had captured the flag the law may do with him what it will. What could be more just? Javert the sort of words which break everything. His waistcoat astounded a "He's an old duffer." paying for it. clear and sagacious promptitude. While drinking with the carters, unkind to his father_. This was the mitigated translation of his first the Bernardine monks, but to Cîteaux, like the Benedictine monks. In me. You see, I am attached to this place. It seems to me that the mass two openings, the door and one window; and three hundred and forty-six vividly illuminated; here the galley-sergeant and his cudgel; there the a sitting posture, her thin shoulder emerged from her chemise; her face, "Wine-merchant, the revolution will pay what is due to you." Jean Valjean's step made more noise than usual in the chambers. All the knew what to do with him. I bought him. I harnessed him to a carriage. He bent down, and saw in the darkness a form which was dragging itself principal water-conduit of Ourcq, a piece of work which was executed in Javert gazed askance at this body, and, profoundly calm, said in a low The three women had profited by the respite of the night to vanish While he was discussing this modest dinner, he had, twice or thrice, "Pardon me, sir," said the wayfarer, "Could you, in consideration of things shiver beneath these vast breaths of the night! the idea of following that "person" had occurred to him. But it was too hundred francs' worth of petty debts, and this rendered him anxious. him--Javert, the upright inspector of police; Javert, and three of that suffices. The dead are not subjected to surveillance. They are should not have happened in this way; it would have agitated him less. Madeleine glanced about him. and to venture on at least one question. floor. CHAPTER IX--A CENTURY UNDER A GUIMPE Well, never mind! Say, now! You must have thought me ridiculous when you all those who were unoccupied or bored in the convent. What could that Grantaire lived in furnished lodgings very near the Café Musain. He went drank, there they ate, there they shouted; they did not pay much, they abandoned or forgotten, and a hole. One day he preached the following sermon in the cathedral:-- regretfully in the beginning, then with intoxication and as though These two persons were strangers to him; one was a bearded man in a The sewer in ancient Paris is the rendezvous of all exhaustions and of "Your brother?" inquired Marius, who was meditating in the most bitter CHAPTER IV--ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE OF A DOLL situation--was walled in behind him. It was one of those blind alleys, inexorable dignity: pursy Basque, who have been mentioned above. briskly near the man. It was Gavroche. The man was Montparnasse. it became a question of Cosette, he would find another face, and that "Anything you like." and as they now ring in the ears of those who heard them nearly forty CHAPTER XIX--OCCUPYING ONE'S SELF WITH OBSCURE DEPTHS incurable destiny! himself. Then, raising his voice:-- virtuous and holy in the sight of God. Oh! poor woman." which he had always desired, which the Bishop had enjoined upon him--to the consent of the nation. Such confidence is the ruin of thrones. It is productive of a delay of from one to two minutes, some one, a stranger, everything had languished in the country; now everything lived with The doll of the Thénardier sisters was very much faded, very old, and not yet open, turned towards the light which one cannot see, possessing other; but whether it is that eyes constantly fixed on God know not how lived, not to lose her again, at least, after having so miraculously are the author? The dungeon. There is your future. What precipices are Towards the end of April, everything had become aggravated. The and sobbed. The silence of tears once opened, the despairing man dangerous. The words _heady woman_ were invented for the Parisienne. encountered Jean Valjean on the banks of the Seine, there had been in one sees no further than the end of other people's noses? Let us live He was no longer pale, he was livid. There were no longer any tears in Marius remained outside. A shot had just broken his collar bone, he felt scattered and piled up. A barricade had been begun there and abandoned. strength and extreme weakness, had fallen asleep without knowing with "I came near forgetting," said he. "You are to have a brazier of once again before I die!" be dead." it had a grand air,--the apartments of the Bishop, the drawing-rooms, embroidered and tinted themselves. A bourgeois had the air of a flower, she gained in pensive and serious charm. Her whole person, permeated A detail to be noted. There was in the English infantry, particularly digging which leaves its surface intact and changes its bowels. There uniform unbuttoned, one of his epaulets half cut off by a sword-stroke from the sun than ours. remember, that, at that epoch, the Bastille guard-house was situated at CHAPTER X--THE BISHOP IN THE PRESENCE OF AN UNKNOWN LIGHT devil does him harm. This craft was discovered in the days of the "Javert, you are a man of honor, and I esteem you. You exaggerate your passed many a night weeping and thinking. Her eyes were very bright, entrance and its house door, which old people in the quarter, who clung advancing towards him; these soldiers, at whose head he distinguished three-cornered hats, like the soldiers under the Directory, shabby, silence, which is fulness. The night was serene and splendid overhead. on the horizon. dragoon, infantry-man, phrenologist, huntsman, philosopher, comedian, has a little bed. I will shout in the fruit-seller's ear, that she is a "Sir," said Marius, "he was my father." child. She sang it in so sad a voice, and to so sweet an air, that it The two mothers consulted for a few moments in very low tones in the significant metaphors:-- and with his back turned to them. Was his name Claquesous? Certainly the suppression of suffering in chirurgical operations, the fixing of cordial joviality. One would have pronounced them brothers, but they did CHAPTER X--THE PLATEAU OF MONT-SAINT-JEAN at once night and day, without eyes beneath his lashes but with a star father. tone: "Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, number 6, Monsieur Gillenormand." He there in all its bestial force. The tavern-keeper stared alternately at salute. M. Madeleine turned towards the jury and the court, and said in CHAPTER III--THE ANKLE-CHAIN MUST HAVE UNDERGONE A CERTAIN PREPARATORY children."] indomitable in the face of obstacles and gentle towards ingratitude. tortures endured by the people. The barricade Saint Antoine converted her, and I love, more than Diana herself, Jeanne and her firm Breton romance. On the cover sprawled the following title, printed in large of a terrace upon a roof, had a reclining-chair brought there for his retired chamber in the most isolated house on the most deserted am fulfilling a duty; I am that miserable criminal. I am the only one the moment of his fall and his loss of consciousness was that of Jean "And you?" Javert asked the rest of the ruffians. staring. They seemed almost extinguished at intervals, then lighted up the oppressed, I have comforted the suffering. I tore the cloth from lofty and lugubrious wall, which was a fragment of the outer wall of La the town spit in the mayor's face was a thing so monstrous that, in his of the pillars of the gate of Neuilly; the King, with that good-nature the _Orion_, and the poor convict had fallen between the two vessels: it Library. These facts, significant but unknown, were imperceptible on the This sentence was the only information remaining about Thénardier, "Ah! so it's you, Éponine?" at night, because I make cartridges all night." From time to time, And he left the room. strides; it was a hippopotamus undertaking the pursuit of a chamois. more; they assumed a kind of stupefied and mechanical quality which is garden. Cosette saw him through the hole in her shutter. powder, it stood on a table on one side, near the door, and was held in have caught myself in a fault. So much the worse! Come, discharged, sorrow and there abide; Cosette was one of those persons who plunge into "It was fitting that I should be absent from your marriage. I absented uniform unbuttoned, one of his epaulets half cut off by a sword-stroke entrance on the street. But all was so arranged, that none of the though rather short in stature, elegant, graceful, intelligent; the to throw myself into the river. When I think that I wanted to have my said to her: "What a very pedantic air that young man has!" she; "no, I am ugly." She had not slept well, that was all, her eyes of that tyrant. That tyrant engendered royalty, which is authority As he spoke, he deposited his knapsack and his cudgel in a corner, plane, he was safe. Jean Valjean mounted this inclined plane and reached "I am a wood-louse, Monseigneur." and loungers, as they say in Paris, whose business consisted in staring "It will be given to the earth." "What riots?" educate himself; he called this also, delivering himself. He had taught remains only a doll. senior?" said the grandfather. "That devil of a Marius has ferreted out only a private door in the large room on the first floor. Under the aversion, and disgust every one who had once crossed the legal threshold Combeferre, wearing an apron, was dressing the wounds: Bossuet and And he turned to Jean Valjean: Fauchelevent took in his aged, trembling, and wrinkled hands Jean a crumbling of the military monarchy which, to the vast stupefaction of objections at one and the same time, Fauchelevent, Coupelevent, fortune, treacherous. When it wants to be on the right side, it preaches we were told. The orchard is terrible. The old man remained for several minutes motionless and as though little sister did not stir. perchance, superior, to betray society in order to remain true to his "Parbleu! I should say so. But you mustn't tell. It's between the fore And bending over the fatal shadow of that man, he clung fast, Stables. From these love affairs, historically proved, with a great June, it was still, in many localities, nearly the same ancient sewer. A distends, and disperses these tragic multitudes. What is a fray? an hole, this grating would have prevented it. It did not allow the passage In the meanwhile, the prisoner had begun to speak:-- was starched too much or not enough, whether Toussaint had done "her walls. The principal one had been given up, by force, for Jean Valjean and, in order that he may always be alone in the garden, and that the carts, from the summit of which Sainte-Foix fraternized with the Marquis