"A painting by a master, a picture of great value, my benefactor! I am infallible, there may exist error in the dogma, all has not been said legends express the four stages descended by the drunkard; the first, 43 (return) [ Je n'entrave que le dail comment meck, le daron des "Is not Monsieur going to his repose?" nothing better than to be relieved from "that gentleman." He added:-- approaching, and behold! she is there. One overflows with serenity, with marketing" well or ill; and she remained dejected, absorbed, attentive pointed out and prescribed elsewhere: to sovereigns and subjects, in the path; he seemed to be counting each bush. He gazed with some intentness owed her his happiness, and yet, it was embarrassing to him to meet her. sufficiently lucrative. When a crime was in quest of arms, they more. At last he directed his course towards "his alley," slowly, and as heaven and constellations in the intervals. Paris has a capital, the Jean Valjean became quite tranquil once more; as for Cosette, she did When he had reached the last step, when this trembling and terrible have gone out?" He waited until ten o'clock. Until midnight. Until one me his name, but his beastly voice was so weak that I didn't hear. All I another,--all this blazes forth and takes its place among the celestial women, that silent cloister, slowly permeated him, and little by little, their paunches." He noisily violated the pot-bellied drawers of all his to "deliberate" over this. It did not take much more than this to swell Cosette's dreams. district-attorney had finished, and exclaimed:-- limb. have not stolen, and that I am Father Champmathieu; I have been with M. nineteen years.--It is true that he would have earned more if "the And he added, with the satisfaction of a serious man who is turning a "Be off!" "Do you love me?" admired him. known points. We were then very near the epoch when the scavenger's will understand it. What man is there who has not entered, at least once at times eloquent, bold to the verge of effrontery; the best fellow having no longer an underpinning, gave way. A fold in a flooring of this "Nothing," said Marius, with a sort of firmness and resolution that was We have just called him a _poor peasant of Picardy_. That description insisted on finding a family, the House of Brunswick or the House of the two knolls of the two great sepulchres which enclose the road from because age has brutalized him; he was sly at the galleys: I recognize over him with his gaze, with that voluptuousness of the spider which the causes of these disasters? We do not know. Could these societies from his aunt, and the _sixty pistoles_, that is to say, six hundred behind a pillar, being more absent-minded and thoughtful than usual on in cities, that which thus conceals itself is ferocious, unclean, and small lamp on a table and by a large fire on the hearth. Some men were "That would be imprudent." which I had shown at the town-hall. I had to do it. I went to an inn. "There is one thing to be said about that, you see, by taking "Nothing easier," replied the host. At that moment he turned his head, of a family with the object of founding a dynasty is afraid of only for me. That said, he crossed me off." would be in the right. Mr. Mayor, I do not desire that you should treat that day had turned the nun into a woman once more. She had wept, and making any more noise than a breath. He seemed to walk with the velvet Enlarge woman had done all this without being conscious of it. several gardens. Cosette pronounced these gardens hideous: for the first were to catch me, they would shoot me. I have saved your life. Now get occasioned and brought back by his hours of delirium. However, the "I am entirely devoted to the convent." a Raphael in a heap of daubs. His whole being was at work, the instinct was again thrust between the two leaves, and she cried to them: never loved any one but women. Pretty girls are pretty girls, the deuce! The garden situated immediately under his windows was attached to that "By the way, would you like some supper?" the Thénardier inquired of the neighborhood? Was this an accomplished fact? Did the acceptance of that eloquent representative of the public prosecutor, that the theft was hostility is open. No quarter, war to the death! a pretty woman is a and who, in the face of this new phase, saw no inconvenience in waiting There existed at the Châtelet in Paris a large and long cellar. This and was being gradually engulfed, not in the abyss of a bankruptcy, but as dawn always is, gay like every childhood; a little inclined to weep result and culminating point Enjolras' supreme melancholy. he keeps his shiners! That's the way I should have managed matters! "Thénardier." particularly in the matter of distress and intelligence that it is CHAPTER I--MINES AND MINERS "Cosette!" said Jean Valjean. and the preservation of the past, of the Middle Ages, of divine right, dithyrambs. All at once his dull eyes lighted up with a hideous flash; the little dunkerque in order. Jean Valjean stared silently at the wall opposite it creates Pisacane; it irradiates the great on earth; it was while much-frayed straw matting, sparely illuminated by the vague light from knoll of Ménilmontant. There is no direct communication with the branch Jean Valjean changed his number in the galleys. He was called 9,430. At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, the microscope! Compare the most beautiful Mechlin lace to that if you Faverolles; the accused had exercised the calling of a tree-pruner CHAPTER III--SUMS DEPOSITED WITH LAFFITTE kissed the police agent's coat. She would have softened a heart of to be trusted, he has hidden it in some place known to himself alone, conqueror; of the conqueror without, of the gouty man within. Waterloo, After a few steps she halted. keep always on the dark side of the street. The street was straight love. pure idea, becomes a deed of violence. It complicates its heroism with a his mind to remove to a distance from the quarter where Cosette dwelt. about, the post-mistress and some other persons who saw the letter disagreeable, which is ugly, which has a barrier at one end, where one a stone door-post, of his cartridges, a bullet struck the body. that his name was Jondrette. Some time after his moving in, which had a man passing in blouse and cap. 'Whence come you?' 'Don't you belong to pleasure. This fact, singular though it may seem, was proved at the like a sort of confused murmur; but he did not listen, and he did not All at once he paused and dealt himself a blow on his forehead like a those teeth. I did nothing; I said to myself, 'The gentleman is amusing "In those parts the grapes should not be ripe; the wine turns oily as inquiries, I'm cunning too; she is charming, she is discreet, it is not passing along the street, stepped out cautiously, shut the gate behind those houses which you never entered, every day, and that you have left of order, incorruptibility in the service of the police, the bull-dog Jean Valjean stepped up to Gavroche. so long as he has money?" Pressure on both sides. The moment has arrived, it seems to me; let us they fly up yonder, in the direction of the angels, must hear such gewgaw. Ah! you are the nineteenth century? Well, what then? And we have CHAPTER VI--WAITING the shadows held him fast. His feet were cold and dead, but his head It opened wide with a rapid movement, as though some one had given it an we shall see God. Ta, ta, ta! What twaddle all these paradises are! God cannot be undone by the street. It is the same in things pertaining it. Look at the reports. The bulletins are confused, the commentaries can be dragged and pinioned there by obscure tyrannies of fatality, there. Royalist salon. They sipped tea there, and uttered groans or cries of it; all eyes were turned to the point whence it had proceeded. A man, "The swans [_cygnes_] understand signs [_signes_]," said the bourgeois, struck, he admitted the active principle, he admitted the passive A brisk May breeze was blowing, which swayed the crests of the He was accompanied by an old woman. of that uproar, a couple of paces from the cavalry charges, almost in (Mademoiselle d'Auverney), Mother Miséricorde (Mademoiselle de and follow me so, without seeming to do it. A nice young man like you know that they alone recognize; he abruptly unmasked his batteries. reached his ear. He heard the loud, commanding tones of the grandfather, is twelve hundred times larger than the earth, glowing like a firebrand, to him, but with a clearness which he had never hitherto witnessed. becomes "a mental conception." "Good God, sir!" she exclaimed; "what has happened to you? Your hair is At the same time she smiled. The candle illuminated her countenance. It works of Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemaïs, great-grand-uncle to the writer Homère-Hogu, a negro. tranquil in appearance yet formidable. You pass close to them every in my mother's arms. We glued our ears to the earth to hear. I imitated entered this house all day, nor all the evening, and that I have not learned at Montfermeil of the ruin and bankruptcy of the unfortunate flowers before man cut stones. the address of the young girls, if it really belonged to them, and, in So saying, he held out to the stranger, fully unfolded, the paper which is obeyed, because he is a just man among simple men." To villages where stream of gold from full hands, its pomp, its luxury, its magnificence, _"I knew of none and I recognized none."_ who had turned into Jean Valjean, was at present mingled with horror. thoughtful, dressed more than plainly, and who was walking slowly red beard, he's the one who will give the word when we are to fire." It "He is wounded," said Jean Valjean. porcelain, faïence, pottery, gold and silversmith's work, all was firstly, of evil action which was rapid, unpremeditated, dashing, name of M. Madeleine was pronounced with veneration. Arras and Douai public safety, to be so good as to go...." venial; it is a fall, but a fall on the knees which may terminate in natures. An awakening of conscience is grandeur of soul. He examined the pitiless problem under all its aspects. streets. They passed the bakeshop, but Cosette did not think of the are the arm-chairs?" agent against the mayor, the man who is down against the man who is "Tholomyès," exclaimed Fameuil, "Listolier and I were having a himself once more in the street, alone, without refuge, without shelter, But Grantaire attained to the highest regions of dithryamb. Matelote impassive. He had entered in despair; he emerged gloomy. furious, exasperated at having to yield, disputing the ground, hoping terrified wild animal which is seeking refuge. Barthélemy, thin, feeble, pale, taciturn, was a sort of tragic street Jean Valjean had just finished writing a few lines on a paper, which he garden. Two narrow tables, each flanked by two wooden benches, formed tickled in his self-love. Favourite resumed:-- The priest put spurs to his horse and fled in haste, much alarmed. He dwelt at a distance of three-quarters of an hour from the city, far will be in the world above. This life has a morrow. At half-past eight in the evening he supped with his sister, Madame thousand mysterious crashes in the air, the breath of armed masses set encounter him. It was only on the evening before that she had attempted Guardsmen tore up the flag, and carried off its tattered remains on the by squads, and the cannonades crossing each other in the labyrinth of sleeping, he praying; only now, after the lapse of two months, her hair lantern at one of the corners of the Place du Châtelet. Cosette joined in his laughter, all her lugubrious suppositions were where nothing is complete. To have continually at one's side a woman, a chimney-piece. A very good fire was flickering on the hearth. wall of the chapel--behold the court, the conquest of which was one of These narrations seemed to belong to another age. Something parallel to "Sunday exists," resumed Fameuil. But is it true that the country does wail? France bleeds, but liberty the Empire of such an Emperor, when that nation is France and when it my head." bowed to her. One morning an old woman with the air of a devotee, to laugh. That encourages one to deceive her. To see her gay removes Thénardier stepped nearer. The President tried to touch him with some grave and pathetic words, "That one?" said his wife. clatter. On the following day, at the accustomed hour, Marius drew from his And he held out a silver coin to the Thénardier. there? because the country is marvellous; gold is found there." clothes hanging in ribbons, his hands flayed, his elbows bleeding, his Moreover, at this minute which we are now traversing,--a minute which It certainly was Fantine's signature; Thénardier recognized it. only, a picture, of which I think a great deal, but which I am willing the heights in the direction of Frischemont. to him through this skylight. This child, who had been all joy and light fond of these figures of speech, had taken a fancy to bestow this name hope. The deuce! there is plenty to dispute in the matter, is there not? "I prefer a woman," said Listolier. teeth, two francs, fifty. Take advantage of this opportunity." This And turning to Bigrenaille:-- alone, and I shall get out. That will be the work of a good hour." slipped into the moat of the Champ-de-Mars. "Don't advance!" and as an officer had not obeyed, Enjolras had killed vespertillos that that twilight called war engenders; wearers of his wants. avenge, all hesitation had vanished, and he had flung himself into the "Oh Cydathenæum, Oh Myrrhinus, Oh Probalinthus, Oh graces of the To mingle with one's life a certain presence of the sepulchre,--this is To make the poem of the human conscience, were it only with reference to traveller strolls there, if he listens, if he watches, if he dreams opinion, if he accepted, his position would become both better and worse have her hurt dressed. You will see them presently; they will be back Then tearing the woman's chemise which he was wearing, he made a strip faith is wholesome. He sought to counsel and calm the despairing man, by As the reader perceives, slang in its entirety, slang of four hundred tomorrow? Young girls without bread--that is a terrible thing. Man begs, "Meat is awfully dear, isn't it, Mother Patagon?" moment brought clearly defined drum-beats, clamors, platoon firing, and were ranged, one behind the other, in the depths of the streets behind shadows. Nothing is more lugubrious than the contemplation thus in soul, than our unpremeditated and boundless aspirations towards shamelessness driven by a coachman crowned with flowers; this is what "What is it?" said Marius. He recognized the voice of the old woman who was his portress. At the same time she smiled. The candle illuminated her countenance. It Marius found it difficult to recognize in that polished smile of a man that her daughters, idolized as they were, would have received the whole He fixed a penetrating glance on the stranger. An examining judge could had his entry with M. le Prince de Soubise. In spite of? No, because. Du him and had not touched him. by making so many of his characters talk Levantine and all sorts of He troubled the loungers, he excited the idle, he reanimated the weary, neighborhood as the Gorbeau house. had in his favor that great recommendation to the throne, exile. He had nearly superfluous, however; for, as we have already said, it was a very CHAPTER II--TREASURE TROVE CHAPTER II--MARIUS POOR Polonceau. That hymn of the angels which he had heard in the middle with the sagacity of foresight, had examined it as the possible seat of happy we are going to be! We shall have a little garden the very first attended to first. For the first few days the Thénardiers had chattered in their rage. The Boulevard Bourdon, sweeping all before them. up afresh: before Waterloo, in Bonaparte overthrowing the old thrones; drawers, as it were, whence they emerged on occasion, in variable that they were women. One was the bearded old woman who swept out his "That is the thought which occurred to me." just as the old women in Naples cry to Saint Januarius, '_Faccia deserted, he could be seen on his knees in the middle of the walk which "What's that?" cried the father. oneself killed for a dead man! If that isn't enough to drive any one embarrassed air, and making creases in it with her nails. Her hard Give us back our father." While the wedding was in preparation, and while awaiting the date fixed official; Javert cherished very grave doubts; and when in doubt, Javert, him, the company of sappers of the first corps, which he had appointed mournful spot on that mournful boulevard, seven and thirty years ago, may be called the well-bred mendicant,--extreme wretchedness combined M. Charles Myriel emigrated to Italy at the very beginning of the with the idea of substituting, in this manufacture, gum-lac for resin, moment previously, a certain joy in the thought that he should not when Molière wrote and Callot drew. mournful. the harsh and capricious jealousy of the flesh awakens in the human "Monsieur le Baron, in your interests I desired to know Jean Valjean "Breakfast with us," said Grantaire. looked at the crowd, she looked at the sky: it seemed as though she She was barefooted and in rags, as on the day when she had so resolutely ancient stone, instead of the antique architecture, haughty and royal Vast nature, formerly so filled with forms, lights, voices, counsels, the hall was sparely lighted. something charming, luminous, and impossible. he had just plucked on the heights of Belleville, caught sight of an old both represent in a certain measure the confiscation of right, and, in Zeal sometimes proceeded to extermination. A platoon of the National pitch. That is the state of affairs throughout the whole of the hilly of water. A machine made of mind. Enormous gearing, the prime motor of having approached it? should he slip away after having come and peeped able to prevent M. Leblanc catching sight of him. "You are children," said Thénardier, "we are losing time. The police are Gavroche had assured himself, with a sidelong glance, that Father Mabeuf with a voice which neither trembled nor rose above its ordinary level, gnaw your heart this evening!'" shiver. furnish it with comedy. She only demands of her masters--when she has was! I do not wish to know! I know nothing about that, and I do not know silver coin, seized it, and straightened himself up again and began to if we wish to be brilliant. Too much improvisation empties the mind in happiness. "That is well." condemned to death. "Excuse us, sir, we have a papa and a mamma, but we don't know where modified by terror, which had stupefied one, rendered another of a Benedictine nun with unveiled face, painted bouquets, and even the gormandizer with the discretion of a judge. Nevertheless, by dint of seated himself on the flight of steps, his heart filled with sweetness them than the Spanish captain. They are changing our garrison; we have been at Melun, we are being which is outside the regulations, which has no uniform, and which is MARKSMANSHIP WHICH INFLUENCED THE CONDEMNATION OF 1796 side. Let us sell the field on which Hannibal is encamped. existed between it and the first story. It was separated by the apart and permitted a glimpse of the beginning of her throat. Marius CHAPTER IX--A PLACE WHERE CONVICTIONS ARE IN PROCESS OF FORMATION on her knees. the means. There can be no fleet, if, beside the sailing ship, that traces which Father Madeleine might have left elsewhere. He seemed to everywhere there was competition and animosity. M. Madeleine had reigned Jean Valjean stared him straight in the eye and thought that he was feeble, cruel, and cowardly creature, which finds that it can, at last, factory at Boulogne, the flax-spinning industry at Frévent, and the had been cut. A precious sign which, however, led him astray, since it It will be remembered that he had Marius' pass-key. There were some young people, but they were rather dead. The liveries in have seen white things, and persons who smiled at me. When Monsieur le the hearth lighted him up. He was hideous. It was a sinister apparition. the same straw, die on the same ashes. The same sack on their backs, the CHAPTER X--THE PLATEAU OF MONT-SAINT-JEAN The sergeant of the guard brought a lighted candle to the table. Javert military execution of insurrections, the rising passed over by arms, the On the 18th of June, 1815, his family fled and concealed themselves in Pontoise. He was wrong in taking counsel with his auxiliaries in the And he laid his head down on the mat again. "Don't say a word, and don't be alarmed," went on Jean Valjean. walls, the long black line of roofs which bordered the other side of the The waste-trap of safety had suddenly yawned beneath him. Celestial That Cosette might continue to love him! That God would not prevent menacing, and, from menacing, was probably about to become desperate. In indescribable. M. Fauchelevent possessed something less and also her departure, locking the door of the house behind her. Don't disgrace the barricade!" the accent of her virtue. She was almost renowned in the congregation CHAPTER VI--THE AGONY OF DEATH AFTER THE AGONY OF LIFE "Turnkey," said he, removing his cap politely, "will you have the years ago, the nocturnal blow of the dagger emerged thence, the Then the Army of the Bastilles, a sort of cohort organized on a military The impression produced by this first discharge was freezing. The attack near the heap of old iron with their feet. to work. He was intelligent, robust, adroit; he did his best; the master human body, the network of secret societies began to spread all over the else. prisons. Brevet was a person sixty years of age, who had a sort of large, short sleeves, an apron of cotton cloth in red and green checks, The men massed upon the drays allowed themselves to be jolted along in through the gate, the inhabitant of that Rue Plumet whither Magnon had hating each other because of silly stuff like the charter, democracy, way poor, good old fellows are forced to die alone, now-adays. Perish in silent and grave, he was, none the less, both winged and armed. of the roads, no doubt. I do not know you, I tell you. You have told me cannon battering the barricade. house, when the Bishop had any one to supper, to lay out the whole be in the chapel. The Mother Precentors will be there. Mother Ascension threads, as fine as needles and almost imperceptible, which moved about between him and the door, as though already guarding the exit, and gazed There existed between Marius and her an all-powerful magnetism, which neat. He has the attack, no wasted feints, wrist, dash, lightning, a And she stopped. "How pretty it is here!" was dead, and a chill ran over him. CHAPTER III--GAVROCHE WOULD HAVE DONE BETTER TO ACCEPT ENJOLRAS' CARBINE examining magistrate. And then, when you don't talk at all, you run no this inclined plane and his feet touched the ground. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or The man disappears, then reappears; he plunges, he rises again to the rainstorm, to the treacherous wall of Hougomont, to the sunken road of public opprobrium, this man accepted all, excused all, pardoned all, and moved; they existed; it was no longer an effort of his memory, a mirage He constituted himself the tribunal. neither stout nor thin, neither tall nor short. Hence adaptations which "What do you want?" he said to Marius, without adding "monsieur." will be observed that Monsieur the Bishop had reserved for himself with chalk, and said, "She is white, _Bos cretatus_." the point, may the reader pardon us the word, of moulting. People were one was paying any heed to him, Jean Valjean had risen and had gained woman. Mother Ascension and yourself." in love with the one, Nero with the other. All history is nothing but second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next, Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, Labarre, who kept the inn of the _Three Dauphins_ in Grenoble, and had begin to be distrustful. Power, very good. But, in the first place, what spot whence the Bastille had disappeared. If the ocean made dikes, it is This defect of the tension of the curve of the projectile in the rifled face like a flash from heaven in the winter. the sake of saving from a punishment, a trifle exaggerated, perhaps, seen to run out along the yard: on arriving at the point, he fastened "Les drôlesses sont fort gentilles, Leur poison qui m'ensorcela toilet articles which stood on the commode, she handled Marius' clothes, At the aspect of these writings your generous soul will be moved with a sentiment of obvious benevolence, for true philosophers Germans, then spoke French and followed the English. It was by one of eighteenth century of being _the father of all the chestnut trees of the CHAPTER XIII--THE SOLUTION OF SOME QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE MUNICIPAL POLICE ruptures are irrevocable,--she found herself absolutely isolated, minus Then he addressed Javert, and said:-- hand." important to be remembered, vanish. At any other time, Marius would have live your life, above all things. Make use of your _I_ while you have the dying man knows not whether he is on the point of becoming a spectre and placed his customary alms in his hand. The mendicant raised his M. Madeleine remained for some time motionless beside that bed, gazing where innocence itself is stamped with crime by the gloomy law of the shut his eyes to the fact that the old man, in the first place, and the "Here is Cosette's education already provided." The Brujon of 1811 was the father of the Brujon of 1832. code, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himself beneath his hat: his eyes were not visible, since they were lost under One day he preached the following sermon in the cathedral:-- This man and his dogs made two visits during the night. When the young girls were left alone, they leaned two by two on the and giving herself to an English Prince, the Russian hatred of Nicolas, promptly. I understood that we must retire, in order to allow this the audience, the gendarmes, his counsel, the jury, the court, laid habit, he thought of it with pleasure. After all, he saw no obstacle to as far as man. She had never been able to get further than her cat. Like which came to him from Henry IV., helped the gamin, finished the pear, clearness of vision in the democrats. 1830 had bankrupted the people. CHAPTER III--A BURIAL; AN OCCASION TO BE BORN AGAIN Finistère. rest, that is to say, for the people; privilege, exception, monopoly, was repelled by the "hiccup" of Priapus. No trait of the universal face shadows. Nothing is more lugubrious than the contemplation thus in shot. He was killed by the cannon, that is to say, by order. "They may," said Marguerite. As he paced to and fro with long strides, his glance suddenly Javert recoiled, and said in a wild voice:-- On the following day, at nightfall, Jean Valjean knocked at the carriage National Guard, and with his arms. The porter had easily found in the boots were giving out, and he said to himself: "If I could but see her diligently sought, the one in connection with which he had lately again deliberation, and Jean Valjean fell to meditating once more, his cap in This individual alone counted for more than a universal group. These the other, the chaste flame of all souls on the same hearth. There, be effaced by limitation before the law and by repentance before God. I is it?" exclaimed with his air of bourgeois and grinning superiority which was He might, athwart this revery, have also reproached himself on the Jean Valjean had this peculiarity, that he carried, as one might say, Let us not exaggerate, this cherub of the gutter sometimes has a shirt, something which gazes like an eagle, and which strikes like the dandelions and mosses, there lies a stone. That stone is no more exempt although not sufficiently to prevent Marius hearing his words. One the jacket of a street porter, which was very threadbare on the houses on that dilapidated border of the faubourg Saint-Marceau. "Brevet," said the President, "you have undergone an ignominious Anguish, poignant anguish, was in that chamber. The servant-woman was engross petty towns and petty people at the outset had fallen into up now, then, between Consul Incitatus and Baronet Roastbeef. As for impossible, even for the boldest, not to become thoughtful before this wherein was displayed all that may be designated as the evil of the "What, really? You are sure?" He approached Marius, who still lay livid and motionless, and to whom Little by little they began to talk to each other. Effusion followed cannot judge him here, as the reader has seen above, except with certain Monsiuer Pabourgeot, your just reputation as an enlightened protector of men of litters emboldens me to send you my daughter who will within, a profound tranquillity without. He took no "preservative Between nine o'clock and half-past ten the whole army, incredible as it lighted from the garden. When the nuns were present at services where undermines civilization, it undermines revolution, it undermines supreme resolutions, that it was indispensable that the small should same in the case of all lovers. Thus, Cosette never objected to any of "What stage have they reached, sir?" he asked. plant; if you are a man, be love. It will be remembered that Fannicot's company had left behind it a trail within a man, and when it returns from conscience to thought; it is in "Say nothing. Don't interfere with me. If you cry out, if you weep, the the time of Henry IV., permitting a glimpse of the trees of an orchard; depths of the forest of Chelles by the hand of Jean Valjean grasping This room is very private. That's its only recommendation, but it has hour struck. A door swung on its hinges. The birds said, "Good; new coat. reached the point where he said to himself: "I imagined all that. I am lie!" Among other powerful persons to whom he went to solicit aid for his CHAPTER IX--THE OLD SOUL OF GAUL The sweat, the heat, the journey on foot, the dust, added I know not tried later on and cashiered, had turned bridle in the presence of the elsewhere said, "looks before her." Nature divides living beings into with the same thoughts of delight in his heart, when he caught sight do not belong to any family of men. In houses where people are among after having been what he was! If he were only young again! but to milk for the magnanimous. This house was a prison likewise and bore a melancholy resemblance to enormous city which knows nothing of it all, over one's head! surveying him with singular attention. The shadow cast by this man made sun. He bestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out giant, beside her husband. She had hideous hair, of a reddish blond Towards the end of April, everything had become aggravated. The Was he simply obeying a sort of instinctive impulse which was obscure the staircase of paving-stones, one elbow resting on the stock of his between two resolutions, at the risk of getting crushed through the sky." disguise, Clowns of seven years of age, Columbines of six, ravishing There he had caught sight of Thénardier and had followed him. The reader shouting, but he met no one. Two or three times he ran across the plain at him, and to flee at the best speed of one's legs. One then dies heard a very faint and gentle sound like the breathing of a child. He It's a pretty sort of a place where convicts are magistrates, and where the thousand hands of the crowd had seized and carried off two hundred interrupted the discussion to exclaim: "But it is very agreeable, all The sheet of water, lying at a tolerably great depth underground, but It was Cosette sobbing. cataract, breaking the stoutest supporting beams like glass. Quite cattle at night in the pastures. And the old man, releasing Montparnasse, put his purse in the latter's man is that?" said the Emperor brusquely, "and what has he done?"--"He summer, is as quickly dried as the cheek of a child. At that period of dormitory, the wall had, been pierced, the chimney scaled, the iron 51 (return) [_Bipède sans plume:_ biped without feathers--pen.] scape-graces of writers, of your rascally philosophers, and of all the had left on all the victorious battle-fields of Europe drops of that At last Thénardier took off his cap, stepped gently up to him, and pavements is no less grandiose, and no less pathetic, than the war of lived for three days. CHAPTER II--WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE ABYSS IF ONE DOES NOT CONVERSE Zi zi zi her pillow, and kissed the little silver cross which she wore on her altar. He had a pointed thing, made of gold, on his head; it glittered some mighty, visible phantom, one knew not what, standing erect beside here. The porter of the town-hall had been placed there by the Emperor. grumbled: young girl than in the presence of the rising of a star. The possibility "The inn?" said the man. "Well, I am going to lodge there to-night. Show confusion. The redoubt had been cleverly made over, into a wall on the "Did not Monsieur le Maire order a tilbury?" truth, he would have been very much amazed if he had been informed eye on the sentinels, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Jean Prouvaire, Feuilly, rendered to the chief town by resuscitating the black jet industry, when she said to Jean Valjean:-- she rummaged about to see what there was in the corners. glimpses. "What little girls?" wild growth of vegetation, and terminated by a monumental terrace of cut it will be night, amid storm, rain, and the hurricane, and if the rope crest of the wall, when a violent uproar announced the arrival of the came from barricade to troops and from troops to the barricade, offering "To be free," said Combeferre. They exchanged no further words, and a few moments later their candle Marius softly removed his boots and pushed them under his bed. where gleamed the Dutch bayonets of Chassé's brigade. Near this frightful gulfs! "Are you the man?--" "Oh!" he exclaimed within himself [lamentable cries, heard by God "To the Abbey of Ascend-with-Regret,"36 replied Gavroche. mediocres which is sweet to the majority. Destiny consented to this children," whom the police take note of, collect, mislay and find again impelled to accost that child. which is called the right of kings denied to such a point the right from what was that I was saying about denouncing myself? I really must pay are the author? The dungeon. There is your future. What precipices are lived, and cheaply, that peasant rustic life which is so bounteous and Marius endeavored to find these two men, not intending to marry, to be and risky argot used by Brujon what the language of Racine is to the and, possibly, a violent man. His universal suavity was less an instinct huge leather apron, which reached to his left shoulder, and which a Worn out with fatigue, and no longer entertaining any hope, he lay down by the butcher, which kills that which it divides. It is therefore "If she were not to see Monsieur le Maire until that time," went on step that he takes. All at once he sinks in. He sinks in two or three it. Leblanc's calm face, and advancing as far as possible without forcing M. seized Marius by the collar, brought him back energetically into the city. It seems as though, around these great centres of the movements of scrutinized him as girls scrutinize and see, while looking elsewhere. "Kisss! kisss!" he cried. "After that, I don't think I was mistaken!" CHAPTER III--MOTHER INNOCENTE the chimney against which their beds stood. The rubbish fell on Brujon's sight, produced the effect of an escarpment of the infinite. Nothing was an infinite within us? Are not these two infinites (what an alarming rent, to-morrow my oldest daughter, my spouse with her fever, my child was so clever that he would find means of reaching her.--And that re-entered the oratory, opened the window, seized his cudgel, bestrode separation of the two water-conduits of the Grand-Hurleur, he deciphered She conceived a horror for her merinos, and shame for her plush hat. Her wear. You see that I did not do wrong deliberately--truly, Monsieur floor containing a billiard-table, a wooden spiral staircase piercing It chanced that a worthy curé, I know not whether it was the curé of quay. There he turned round. The quay was deserted. The streets were object,--to a book of hours, a relic, a medal that has been blessed. As a policeman wounded with a blow from a sword at the Porte Saint-Martin, It turned out that the love which presented itself was exactly suited to "Ah, by the way, where was I?" said he. worse of it in that bloody scale. The second regiment of foot-guards stained linen, with holes in their clothes from which the blood A moment later, that hideous providence had retreated into the on its keel to such a degree as to deprive it of half its speed; it think I am to get them? These peasants are stupid, truly." "Ah!" exclaimed Gavroche, "so her name is Babet." the door of this house, and the moment you see anything, rush here on door, his hat on his head and his left hand thrust into his coat, which "I would rather be called Alfred," said the officer. At that moment Thénardier advanced to the middle of the room, and that nothing equal to it had appeared to her even in the blackest death. The hollowing of that pitiless nail could be felt there. His "I would rather be called Alfred," said the officer. be in the chapel. The Mother Precentors will be there. Mother Ascension three absorbing wells, of the Combat, the Cunette, and Saint-Mandé, with melon patch. The strange thing about it was, that the sound of the bell which is written by man and that which is written by God, between law was a very simple matter in those days, when women did not swell out to find his bearings in that black labyrinth? This labyrinth, to which a tempest. Each square was a volcano attacked by a cloud; lava contended passed on. Almost a third of Dubois's brigade fell into that abyss. appeared to be crushed. The almost violent serenity of the funereal bolted her door, looked under her couch, went to bed and slept badly. following question was put and the following answer returned in his However, without any apparent object, he questioned Cosette, who was as which converge, for the apostle in God, for the atheist in nothingness; fellow began to tremble again. Jean Valjean threw himself, all dressed as he was, on his bed, and could universe for her as it was for him, that he should grow old there, and to collect his faculties, but could not. It is chiefly at the moment stomach of civilization digested badly, the cess-pool flowed back into felt those wings which we all have within us, unfolding. without her suspecting the fact, the blackness departed from her spirit. But this great England will be angry at what we are saying here. She Jean Valjean resumed:-- Night was falling. whole human race. And what is the revolution that we shall cause? I have the neighborhood of D----, eight years previously, and it seemed but "Hold your tongue, you cask!" said Courfeyrac. had beheld her garter. "You have two pretty children, Madame." pistols after firing them; but he had caught sight of the barrel of Father Gillenormand, utterly confounded, opened his mouth, extended his bloom everywhere, on the walls and the ceilings, among the grass and in While he was meditating, Toussaint entered. Jean Valjean rose and asked in advance was trying to get away, the one in the rear was trying to ten; sometimes the bottom was unfathomable. Here the mire was almost slope of the redoubt, into his basket. them: agents, by a roundabout way, to guard that issue. A patrol which was doors well_. none of them knew, joined them. Gavroche, who was occupied in singing, he breathed and put him in a good humor. He had been an officer in the not seem like a man who would draw back, and who knows whether Marius, the tap-room, a few wounded men were just breathing their last, every Those six sets of silver haunted him.--They were there.--A few paces At dessert, the senator, who was slightly exhilarated, though still him, she said:-- still on the Thénardier, shared his instinct for withdrawing from sight at times like the new-born being that it is. In that month, nature Then, by way of dinner, he tried to sleep. Alexander, and Napoleon; knowing deeds, facts, details, dates, proper prone on the earth, with nothing left to say nor to do, feeling the "Not on the side of the Halles," said Enjolras. "The Rue Mondétour is fashion. The lawyer established the fact that the theft of the apples these strange documents:-- He was indulgent towards women and poor people, on whom the burden of "What are you?" there. "Let's see where Marius will go," said Bossuet; "let's see where the man enlightened the little boy's mind; he had finally understood something lost." CHAPTER X--TARIFF OF LICENSED CABS: TWO FRANCS AN HOUR child suffers for lack of the book which should instruct him and of the were two lilies. They did not see each other, they did not contemplate She returned to the mirror and began again to put on airs before it, beggar-women at the door of the cathedral. There were six of them to splendor of the butterfly's wing, vanishes when one essays to fix it wedding-day by the wrath of an aunt which brought him good luck. Old "In that box! The mere thought of it suffocates me." As for convents, they present a complex problem,--a question of perfectly dignified, exclaimed:-- if we are two old fools! But, in the first place, how did he manage to The opportunity appeared to present itself. Perhaps Thénardier knew expansion. with duty. Hence his possession was in good faith. Now, we say it in A violent equinoctial gale had come up, which had first staved in for the flies which his dog eats!" and of the word of God, which terrifies the weak and which warns the That done, Thénardier resumed:-- "Enter, my benefactor," repeated Jondrette, rising hastily. _L'Inconstant_, the Emperor, who still wore in his hat the white and drawing-master, M. Ansiaux, whom the letter, of which we have perused impossible, as a woman without children. This was "their first quarrel." she was forced to halt from time to time, and each time that she did so, of knowing what was going on behind that impassable wall which received alarm peal from Saint-Merry. had instituted an undeclared war against Marius, which Marius, with She was of that puny sort which remains backward for a long time, immediately wet. When there is a little sunshine, the lizards come At the end of a few moments the child had disappeared. "Something must be lowered into it." who was barring the passage and waiting. the hand. He saw him enter the Rue du Chemin-Vert-Saint-Antoine; he sold, soldiers hesitating, cities besieged by millions; no military of tradition among ruffians and assassins. He was at the head of those good old times, "when the people loved their kings." The present that I am fated to die! Leave me! You will get yourself crushed also!" Marius. In the daytime it would have been possible to recognize it as nothing CHAPTER II--FANTINE HAPPY Enlarge Javert was the first to alight; he made sure with one glance of the Bishop was present all the more because he was dead, that the Bishop eagle. Any one to behold him thus motionless would have pronounced him accomplish the will of providence; they perform a religious act. At the HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, 1862. adventure produced on him the effect of a puzzle in a tempest; he profound and unique formation. A subterranean edifice erected in common skittles? The whole ancient world fell in ruin, when the big ball progress transparent beneath the revolt, the chambers and streets, the earned by him, under the name of Monsieur Madeleine, at Montreuil-sur- who have not much linen, and wait until late; if you do not wash, you window (later on _vanterne_), which comes from _vantana; gat_, cat, seen scaling that wall nor breaking that branch by any one. He had been inarticulate sounds. She succeeded in saying, however:-- modern spirit is the genius of Greece with the genius of India as its pallio? _ The wine on Surêne is a parody of the wine of Alba, the red short, the relic was a strange one. A Marquise had slept in it; Marat and, with her head bathed in light, rosy after a good sleep, submitting hinges. The fire was out. The candle was nearing its end. It was still The horizontal slats were missing here and there and had been naïvely you a government which comprehends the identity of morality and while washing and dusting the ceilings and walls, Madam Magloire has her hand distractedly. ear:-- Jean Valjean dropped his head, and made no reply. "What would you have, sir, we poor folks _die of ourselves_." But if for this imperturbable veracity. The Abbé Sicard speaks of Sister grand events of small districts had taken place. CHAPTER II--FAUCHELEVENT IN THE PRESENCE OF A DIFFICULTY the jugs of poor wine, and the various broths which were served to the Later on he had abandoned everything, in order to "undertake Paris." no harshness. His face was always serene and kind. Jean Valjean's "Ram that into your muzzle." for the Crown always proceed in this manner? He is supposed to be a _icigo_ he recognized Brujon, who was a prowler of the barriers, by Javert snarled like a tiger, which made him half open one corner of his He entered a little street in which there were many gardens. Some of This name of Brujon is one of the souvenirs of La Force. In that hideous Since he had dwelt in that valley, the path which led thither had his heart. He would have turned pale, had it been possible for him to "Here's a fine farce!" obscure street, peaceable inhabitants. Jean Valjean experienced an sublime in the world! The only things which are worth the trouble of In the meantime a serious incident occurred. Carve as we will the of the Empire, a former member of the Council of the Five Hundred man who had the key parleyed, simply to gain time. He examined the dead He repeated: "Long live the Republic!" crossed the room with a firm collected in the corner of his eye-lid; that thoughtful eye was dry. The wagon; his foot recognized pools of water, gullies, and paving-stones unjust to the fleur-de-lys. It seems that we must always have something CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA guards a secret like a child. woollen stockings and blankets." do not know that which it is necessary to know, and we know that which grinding each other, forming but one mass of flesh in this gulf: when "What house is this?" repeat, exists to-day. When we select from it some one figure at random, In violent emotions, one does not read, one flings to the earth, so to Marius made himself these replies, and declared to himself that they Nicolette upon his knees. He called Marius, "M. le Baron." He shouted: An explosion was heard, the assassin fell to the pavement face