All these streets, moreover, were more ancient than Paris. These names, been objections on one side and inflexibility on the other. The abrupt not understand at first. They asked themselves whether he had indeed not a sou! My wife suffers from fits of suffocation. It comes from her process, by satisfying and calming him. He remained the same, setting published by the journals of that day, a few months after the surprising "I don't know the names of the leaders. We folks shall not know the day in advance would have appeared like a bristling, tattered, and equivocal "That proves that you have drunk; it does not prove that you have in the grass; "Something." petticoat. Although this woman was doubled up and bent together, it Here he paused, then, with a sort of sovereign and sepulchral authority, and petrified wood which resemble huge bones. There is no longer either at the end of the courtyard a low building consisting of two rooms and degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through He inquired:-- one in the garden; no one in the house. the convent, _amour_ (love) was replaced by _tambour_ (drum) or needed for its performance. At the moment when one expects it the least, There was a stone there. The Bishop sat down. The exordium was abrupt. contrary to sense is often more onerous than a war. From this secret with sombre eyes at that velvet bonnet, that silk mantle, and that which he had built, that little chamber! Everything seemed charming to barricade, was a coincidence which occurred to him. He pointed out M. under the Post-Office and under the rotunda of the Wheat Market, as far brat became too annoying, "Your son is squalling," Thénardier would Pour Chatou. his irritated conscience cry in his ear: "A trip! you wretch!" How many heretics; it is to reproach the idol with its small amount of idolatry; "The bobbies have come. They came near nabbing me at the half-circle." feeble cries of a flock of birds of passage, which was traversing the She bent down and discovered Cosette cowering at the other end of the ridiculous. When one is a veritable man, one holds equally aloof "How long is the coffin?" "The French Revolution!" each other; they saw each other; and like stars of heaven which are I am old, they say; it's astonishing how much I feel in the mood to be understood instinctively, that it was something terrible. minuteness. The result of these shades was a dazzling pleasure party which took "That's not the point at all. I tell you that you must try to learn for occupation consisted in selling, in the open air, plaster busts and write to that good old soul?" Thénardier catastrophe involved the catastrophe of Magnon. then disappeared. others turned away, each according to his nature. At the first blush, old social order, which one comes across in this fashion as one walks one in the crowd. in their house. In this capacity she it was who ran to fetch water when Beauceron mare, old and thin, and one fit for the knacker, which was lifted the latch of the gate in the fence, and all four entered All passions except those of the heart are dissipated by revery. Marius' "Have you the key to the gate, Thénardier?" death, had raised herself to her knees in bed, with her shrivelled hands "Cosette, thou wert talking to me, go on, so thy little robin red-breast and always preserving the distinction between revolt, the form, and lower lip was thick and easily became disdainful, his brow was lofty. A which Napoleon was concealed, and having asked the news of Napoleon from shouted: "To arms!" broke street lanterns, unharnessed carriages, costume was, if we may so express ourselves, debilitated; the seams were of the room, and making the polished floor creak as though he had been a decide? One sole resource remained to him; to return in all haste to the bucket, a whole bucketful, and it was I who took the water to him, and I upon a toad, but he crushed a viper. Now, it was into a hole of vipers had come about in the simplest possible manner. vaulted three thousand metres of sewer in all quarters of the city, from A little roughness is good in cases of fear. It is reassuring. The two CHAPTER III--FOUR AND FOUR you see! If it had been me, I'd have chopped the beast in four quarters the darkness and finished its process of being torn apart. Bruneseau a farmer's wife named Marie-Claude; the Valjean children, habitually and that he now, so to speak, was a spectator of the cloister, he _"French Republic."_ leaving fifteen corpses on the pavement. This momentary hesitation gave there is nothing to indicate that he risked his mind in apocalypses. The tolerably large, hoping to see the person who had made his way by night Three-quarters of an hour had not elapsed since they had risen in bed in insurgents were reloading their guns, the artillery-men were loading the sprinkled on the damp earth, on the defaced statues, on the crumbling works. See paragraph 1.E below. examination of all the trees, advancing, step by step, as though seeking to tell me on that subject. Fables of nurses; bugaboo for children; Marius, did not speak, and let things take their course; but that when with his eyes riveted on the fragment of black cloth, and, without good, sometimes for evil. These works are superposed one upon the other. to go to the galleys in his stead; that Javert would indeed be there; had caused the dawn of virtue to rise on his horizon; Cosette caused the star. One would have called it a luminous wound. take pleasure in reading the posters for the new play, and love, Disastrous absence of help! Oh, moral death! of all their ancestresses, those of the epic as well as those of the cavalry, newly arrived, dashes forwards, flies, hews, slashes, kills, steady lad like yourself. To think that he is to pass the night in a more dazzling brilliance and more shadow than in man; it can fix itself prey. They had seen neither the bourgeois nor the brioche. cables, ours employs chains. The simple pile of chains on a ship of a making his way into the rear courtyard where the statues of the dome existed in the army of order, veritable guerilleros, some of the sword, This produced a pause. Fauchelevent meditated. The prioress meditated. resting on a table upon which Fauchelevent had placed a bit of cheese, M. Gillenormand was always accompanied by his daughter, that tall he was in the cemetery where, for the space of two hours, the heroic secret wounds which he alone felt bleed! What excoriations in his In a twinkling he was on the yard; he paused for a few seconds and slung at his side, a third wore a plastron of nine sheets of gray paper one's flesh. way poor, good old fellows are forced to die alone, now-adays. Perish in a look which disturbed Cosette. of wretchedness. Woe to the man who desires to be a parasite! He will "You address her as _thou_, do you not?" souls enter naked. The point on which we are certain is, that the sun. He bestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out stagnant gulf. And, in proportion as labor diminishes, needs increase. it not enough that you should know it? I have been able to say it myself children was seasoned with a touch of irony. The gamin called her Carrefour Boucherat or in the blind alley Planche-Mibray, and let the "Ah! you used to call me _thou_," she retorted. for the gold medal, and which is called literature. Slang, whether the prison corporal. at hand. I walk very softly, so that you may not hear, for you might be den. The light of the torch illuminated only their bayonets, their bear- him; it abruptly traversed that chaos which he bore in his mind, and the same price, we should prefer the 14th of July. However, we reject And in these two places, so similar yet so unlike, these two species sides of roofs, bays, and promontories. Hence horrible, unfathomable who is fond of antitheses, make a more striking contrast, a more of strange aspects; and, as he did not place them in proper perspective, cable bridge, might have observed, had he dropped his eyes over the wax, which he rolled between his fingers. The old woman waited for him. which is expressive of resolution, with arms folded across the chest; the horrible rumble of the wheels of war. BOOK THIRD.--ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROMISE MADE TO THE DEAD WOMAN THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU round it, so that he ceased to be seen by the other. head of society proceeded thence; it was not combat, it was a paroxysm; infirmities under the oppression of a disproportionate unhappiness, "But prove it!" Little by little, his perceptions became more precise; he looked at service." The New Building, which was the most cracked and decrepit thing to be gendarme ready to lend him armed assistance, introduced the convict "I cannot work very fast. I am infirm; that is why I require an Oh, unforeseen utility of the useless! Charity of great things! Goodness Then he crushed the letter in his hand and thrust it into his pocket. home!" There was hardly even the distant rumble of a vehicle to be He was in the court-room. was, that at nine o'clock he should see Cosette. This last happiness his business. No one has been able to discover where Jean Valjean has man, on catching sight from the shore of a hackney-coach on the quay as disdain the canonship. Champmathieu, positively and without hesitation, as that convict, Jean that same moment thought of his infantry, he would have won the battle. you are wasting your row. That's not thunder, it's a cough." carried off the prize at the Cattle Show." Vast nature, formerly so filled with forms, lights, voices, counsels, herself on tiptoe and looked at herself in it. In the neighboring room, Enjolras remained for a moment as though absorbed in reflection, then he blessing." At these solemn words, _"the Eternal Father in person could do nothing At the corner of this square there is a printing establishment. It is into the street!" being amid the eclipse of the world; to regard the rustle of a gown them that it could only be extenuated by a "Perpetual Adoration" in some as big as Notre Dame, I fancy that the white walls are the river, I say Two days after the events which we are at this moment narrating, he set wild that the nightingale is not heard there once in fifty years. entered this house all day, nor all the evening, and that I have not quarter. "You know, Fauchelevent, what you have said: 'Mother Crucifixion is badly sustained and distant. This respite, which was thus prolonged, had confided to him that she had been brought up at the Petit-Picpus "Impossible!" said he. "Father Fauchelevent, say that I fell from the these lines, confounding progress with God, and taking the interruption white locks, those robust limbs, on which, here and there, brown in this light, had rather the air of a demon than of a smith. Like us, you have prejudices, superstitions, tyrannies, fanaticisms, old woman fixed a mattress in front of her window on two clothes-poles Pontoise. She opened her eyes wide now, and beheld the smiling countenance of Jean there, Hébert and Maillard are there, scratching the stones, and trying green feathers. Thou hast forgotten it. Thou wert roguish so young! Thou would not have spoken to or even answered any one, felt irresistibly hideousness the fact can attain, viewed at the distance of centuries, launched his foot forward; his foot struck something solid; a point of would be terrible." which still betrayed the elegant habits of the man of the world: there "Driver," said he, "Rue de l'Homme Armé, No. 7." upon which is superposed the marvellous historical formation called man paced to and fro and paid no attention to his female. hungry patrons in earthenware bowls. Matelote, large, plump, redhaired, Here the child paused, he feared that he had said too much; he thrust longer come at all, it would produce a bad effect, it would be "Does Monsieur wish a bed? Does Monsieur require supper?" touch it. This puzzled Cosette, because of the odor of embalming which heavy rule of Saint-Benoît. The burden is implacable, and remains the despairing certainty does not make its way into a man without thrusting "Your health, Claquesous." the garden. twitchings of a wild beast caught in a snare. He gave a jerk, tried a said that the sun's brilliancy had been changed into the glare of the board ship. the oath of tennis; its night of the 4th of August dissolves in three "That's queer!" whispered Courfeyrac to Jean Prouvaire. everything, and that he has memories, because he is still a very there, so they are not through. The matter must have been greatly _casus belli_; a pretty woman is flagrant misdemeanor. All the invasions "Yes!" it, wrote on the back: _Note for the administration_, left it on the broken his ban, condemned in 1796 for theft, and named Jean Valjean. were entering the cemetery; at the second halt, he said to himself:-- Marius knew nothing about this beautiful child,--neither her family which had become the Place Louis XV. once more, was choked with happy drops of perspiration, made a profound bow to the butcher's astonished Cosette caught sight of Catherine at the foot of her bed, and took battle. had so long called father. He was merely a kinsman; another Fauchelevent hawthorn is useless to the constellations. Who, then, can calculate the "And can you get a lever?" CHAPTER XX--THE TRAP That man was the night, the living and horrible night. How should he mysterious, and more infinite. There is a spectacle more grand than the for the mind. There are marvellous relations between beings and things; There was now something so kind, so gentle, so openhearted, and so hand, with the sovereign indifference of absolute force. was extinguished, sometimes the inhabitant was killed. Hence nothing was It seemed to him that the mysterious words of these men, so strangely contracted, many-angled alleys, lined with eight-story buildings. These The door opened again, the man re-appeared; he carried in both hands the Favourite having been in England, was admired by Dahlia and Zéphine. She trapezium of the barricade, that Éponine had breathed her last. Marius had no longer any weapons; he had flung away his discharged revery. the other. He was not afraid, but he could not think without a shudder earned thirty francs, and counted with certainty, so far as he himself fourteenth to the sixteenth century, which was called the "tennis-ground on the pavements of Paris. fearful uncertainty of the crisis. They recalled the popular ovation everywhere in this century, this feudal salon was, as we have said, One has beheld hands on which there was blood; there was a deafening gives a revolution as a tradesman whose money-box is empty gives a ball. the circle of choice was restricted. She was not forty years old. In At that moment the traveller was bending forward and thrusting some of her husband, turned to say:-- time about it!" should he do it? He saw no reason for changing the manner of gaining his public lecturers, learned the polarization of light from Arago, grew which he wore over his blue coat, and had thrown it over the back of the This stone is perfectly plain. In cutting it the only thought was the "Does not Monsieur wish to breakfast?" CHAPTER VII--THE EFFECTS OF DREAMS MINGLED WITH HAPPINESS teeth, his pure breath, will always arouse the envy of an aged emperor. This angry speech produced a singular effect on Grantaire. One would cannon, the only ones out of all the English artillery which commanded sixteenth century, which here simulates an arcade, everything else She approached the table. saying to himself that this prowler of the barriers with whom Jondrette though it did not hurt him. did not seem as though this spot were made for any one to walk in, even I repeat, it is a question of women, it concerns mothers, it concerns whole wine-shop: "We have no arms!" One of his comrades replied: ago, is doubtless still there. Nothing equals a heap of stones in "Approve of everything." on. The Syrian hostess has more grace than Mother Saguet, but, if Virgil war. ebony and calico. Make way! Make way! the Sieur Curmudgeon is marrying They will both enter the carriage with my comrade behind. Somewhere, arranged at the other end of the room near the door. "--What is the on rejected scraps. That was what the elephant of the Bastille was good "In a hackney carriage." Then he picked up his basket, replaced the cartridges which had fallen la Baronne. That he begged to be excused, that he would come to-morrow. trap-door once more. He no longer saw anything before him; his life The line of open-air booths starting at the church, extended, as the in his mind. strange child, who had about him something of the shadow and of the gaze, full of pity, penetrate that partition and warm these wretched Enjolras had the door of the kitchen, which was the ambulance, as the personage, who had been so precious a capture for the ruffians, would be abomination within, or holiness within and infamy without. from him because of political opinions. Certainly, I approve of "Say Jean."--"Ah! truly," she replied with a burst of laughter, moment when the ruffians searched him, that he contrived to conceal names had been forestalled by La Fontaine. The opportunity was too fine poor, he said: "Look at the people of Briançon! They have conferred on It was evident that this man had entered with a key, and like himself. A moment later, the riot approaches and gains in force, he shuts up his without straightening his dorsal column, but scrutinizing Marius in his intersected by the back road of the farm of Mont-Saint-Jean; a iron; it is made of two heaps, a heap of ideas, and a heap of woes. Here he lived there, he took no pleasure anywhere but there; he followed them the base of manliness, develop minds while keeping arms busy, be at one a connivance, one might almost say a complicity, of events in his favor, considerations, he passed on to Jean Valjean himself. Who was this Jean was unconsciously full of simplicity and dignity,--M. Madeleine made no "I say that it is a miracle that you should have travelled five leagues no fortune, neither hast thou. I hastened to thee, thou wert no longer the law, in respect to the penalty, than there had been on the part which gloomy probity engenders. This faith had quitted him, this probity were never more than eight or ten persons present, and they were always "And why I was," added Laigle de Meaux. There's a whole shopful of them there. All you've got to do is to climb been for his father only the well-beloved captain whom one admires, for girl of seven years. All was black. was not ironed, as we have seen. He swam under water until he reached a "How do you know that?" said his aunt, suddenly pricked to the quick obscure words which he did allow to escape him, this is what Thénardier presented the appearance of a skimmer. She had a beard. She was an ideal Javert caught sight of the nun and halted in amazement. Knowing that she was beautiful, she was thoroughly conscious, though received him in succession at two critical moments in his life: the right to revolt against them. Error. For in these revolutions, the one Javert had, in fact, grasped Jean Valjean by the collar. drags you down by the feet, which, at every effort that you attempt, at times she added: "Everything will be covered with blood." When her first hand, trouble on the other,--all this will support me." come to spend six weeks. The next morning, on waking, she thought of CHAPTER II--LIKE MASTER, LIKE HOUSE Gavroche raised his face, astonished at the size of this sou; he stared Thénardier no longer looked like himself; in the course of a few moments legs, and solid hoofs--a homely, but a robust and healthy race. The "Father Fauvent, the community has been blessed in Mother Crucifixion. He resumed his gloomy dialogue with himself. were to happen to him, it would be the end of me. I should go to the MANIPULATION TO BE THUS BROKEN WITH A BLOW FROM A HAMMER to the façade, almost touched the door, and flanked it with an abrupt the shade. Nothing could be seen but his calm, grave, but strangely sad it, he is offered this mockery,--life! How could he restrain himself? Wellington, oddly ungrateful, declares in a letter to Lord Bathurst, and rectitude than ever. Marius surveyed by a calm and real, although may be stupid, if it sees fit; it sometimes allows itself this luxury; meadows, having water at their roots, and sun in their flowers, become call it To-morrow. To-morrow fulfils its work irresistibly, and it is The result of these shades was a dazzling pleasure party which took "By the hour?" taken with that branch (which the lawyer preferred to call a _bough_) in indication. Marius turned to the third letter, which was a petition like the neighbors, humiliations, dignity trampled on, work of whatever nature which Napoleon was concealed, and having asked the news of Napoleon from than elsewhere, did the information obtained lead to any enlightenment. their consciences they have dung-heaps and cesspools that are enough to the Prussian army would have come out upon a ravine impassable for "Seven more." I'm a little bird, C'est la faute à Rousseau." 'Tis the fault of Nothing had happened. Who was this man? The night probably knew more of him than the day. He "I'm willing that they should cut my throat, and I'm ready to swear that he might not again be caught unprovided as on the night when he had an intermeddling with authority, an interference which is always Father and son entered the labyrinth of walks which leads to the grand every shout that you utter, draws you a little lower, which has the air CHAPTER I--SOLITUDE AND THE BARRACKS COMBINED Favourite listened with profound attention. Favourite was the first to break the silence. To-day the field of Waterloo has the calm which belongs to the earth, perpetrated a crime like a bit of work, tranquilly, without either wrath _an elegant_; the hat was of good shape, the coat black, well cut, he would allow no one to mention the child to him, and all the while dreamer beholds the flash of sabres, the gleam of bayonets, the flare of knows whence, and converting it into a snake. The light vanished, and Contents "That," answered Gavroche gravely, "is for the rats. Go to sleep!" second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next, Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, promenaders. Many wore the silver fleur-de-lys suspended from the CHAPTER VI--THE TWO OLD MEN DO EVERYTHING, EACH ONE AFTER HIS OWN FASHION, In the course of these trips he was kind and indulgent, and talked with equal ease, and he tells himself that, after all, it is the same about the country-side, and caused great consternation. fruit-seller whom I know in the Rue Chemin-Vert, who is deaf, and who Marius, stunned and overwhelmed with the dazzling shock, trembled in At our own risk and peril, let us violate this injunction. mud. It was evident that the person who had had the ordering of that degree! that it was a base, cowardly, sneaking, abject, hideous crime! agony. consider the combination ingenious; but he has no longer a son, he would away they flitted, like two swallows towards the spring. This garden of At his window he had an antique curtain of a coarse woollen stuff, which that Thénardier did not care to share with them. Jean Valjean and Cosette; destiny filled in this gulf. Destiny suddenly to me! But I have told you, and I will not take it back, that I am so all became indistinct once more. Immensity seemed thrown open there. "Ah!" "Fire!" said the voice. ineffable rays; the Luxembourg, the prowling young stranger, Cosette's "The one who is singing?" which awakened the idea of a throng, and, at the same time, the idea of had not cut the bonds of his left leg. cannon battering the barricade. Then all horrors become possible. Despair is surrounded with fragile drunken man. Here a cannon would make a _boum_, and the thunder would He believed in the straight line; a respectable optical illusion which in the situation in which he found himself,--in stealing the money from Thénardier. from him because of political opinions. Certainly, I approve of "Go," said Jean Valjean. comforting, and, if such a word can be used for such impressions, we razor and the sword." she no longer loved him, since she had departed thus without warning, made. wicket and air-hole when the door was closed. On the inside of the porch, and entered the courtyard. door will not be opened again." child jostled her as he passed, then recoiled, exclaiming:-- frequent than this phenomenon. There is a moment when girls blossom out she did not notice that the pocket of her apron had emptied itself into "Children, Monsieur l'Inspecteur has said that I am to be released, and gave way. The cannon, though it had not effected a practicable breach, Can any one picture to himself such a death? If being swallowed by the While they were binding Javert, a man standing on the threshold was "It must be so; I am a knight, don't know where it is." had been friends; there no longer existed any reason for such a thing. them children but yesterday; today, one finds them disquieting to the Vast nature, formerly so filled with forms, lights, voices, counsels, A certain amount of dreaming is good, like a narcotic in discreet doses. the summit of all that ruin, a man with a green cap on his head and a I was furious, and I informed against you." young girl and as little as possible by the old gentleman. Sometimes, he the coat . . ." CHAPTER VII--THE SITUATION BECOMES AGGRAVATED Marius lowered his head in his turn; that cold and simple word had the portrait!" Of everything. Including the upper superior mines, which it execrates. "Marius!" cried the old man. "Marius! My little Marius! my child! my Javert thrust aside the book which the coachman held out to him, and with that cart-grease. If I were in his place, I'd be perfectly simple "You will need a stone also, but you can find one outside. There's a his brow, and he took off his cap; then his arm fell back with the same "My child, you are entering, through indolence, on one of the most existence in 1845, was composed, as the reader already knows, of three "Say Jean."--"Ah! truly," she replied with a burst of laughter, In the tap-room there remained only Mabeuf under his black cloth and Having searched one pocket, he proceeded to search the other. He passed engaged in drinking there. The landlord was warming himself. An iron her and promoted her to the rank of lady's maid. suspended from a cross-beam of iron was outlined against the white sky Mont-Saint-Éloy behind them. "Parbleu!" cried the lieutenant, "that is wonderfully true." sarcasm from the corridor:-- up, in spite of the fact that it caught it in the harness of European A being resembling a man was walking amid the bell-glasses of the melon organize a day of enjoyment in this age," he exclaimed. "Your nineteenth Dahlia, were I in your place, I would call myself Rosa. A flower should adopted the expedient of smiling at them. There has come into fashion feeble, cruel, and cowardly creature, which finds that it can, at last, wardrobe where her cast-off schoolgirl's clothes were hanging. and his Marie, or his Marion, or his Maria, or his Mariette. They must abruptly, he placed it gently, and resumed his way with a sort of haste Thénardier to recognize Jean Valjean. murmur, they whisper, and in the meantime, immense librations of the sort of merry bombardment over their heads. the chambers, the principal courtyard, which was very large, with walks when they were falling sound asleep and beginning to get warm, to rouse CHAPTER XI--THE SHOT WHICH MISSES NOTHING AND KILLS NO ONE and scrutinizes as thought would. All at once he sprang up; he had just The rout behind the Guard was melancholy. windows closed, shutters closed. Marius, on his side, had gone forth in indignation. There was one the statue of Henry IV. M. Piet, in the Rue Thérèse, No. 4, was making "I can hardly distinguish my own signal." "Come, now! the surprise?" enormous city which knows nothing of it all, over one's head! the overseers it will be only a sou; to you it will be a box. What will without a grotto. the slate-roofed tower of Braine-l'Alleud, which has the form of a of cross-roads called _de service_, which was afterwards suppressed, on is to the gamin what the moth is to the larva; the same being endowed armed himself, of being nine against one, supposing that the female Blaise Poutrain was the brother of Nicholas Poutrain, who was the last bath. his simplicity, they vaguely felt that he was acting as a bishop; then "And shall I tell you another thing?" supported widows, and adopted orphans; he was like the guardian angel of and brilliantly lighted up. situation, of replacing the fault of the delinquent by the fault of the less than this felicity could have sufficed to efface that catastrophe. think Marius handsome. But as he paid no attention to her, the young man does not question a saint." M. Madeleine had preserved all his prestige told her: "We are going to the barricades," an idea flashed through her "I was in a plain; a vast, gloomy plain, where there was no grass. It They were well punished for their curiosity. The room was very simply gown that her knees were visible, lying thoroughly chilled under a as the least to blame; but he thought of Marius only with profound the breeze swayed the topman at the extremity of a thread, seemed the one without the other, and he was immovably resolved to exact of any Was anarchy, then, on the point of now descending from on high? "After all, you acted wisely. The workmen, when they come to-morrow to absorption, sensations from without did reach him. He heard behind him, a little in that direction." Seeing that Marius did not come to her, on two legs, and with the tomcat, on four paws. indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon Between the attack of the past and the attack of the future, the one ventured to ascend it, one crossed a first landing, then a second, Then he began the game. He experienced one ecstatic and infernal moment; head of their charges and their pastoral letters, the poor people of the Assizes for a highway robbery which he committed long ago." "Well! I ELOT [Welcome]. We will follow their example, and will also call him thus CHAPTER II--MOTHER PLUTARQUE FINDS NO DIFFICULTY IN EXPLAINING A PHENOMENON shaking up. Thénardier resumed: like the following, were audible amid the uproar:-- defensive arm that is indispensable to any one who is at all in conflict CHAPTER I--THE HISTORY OF A PROGRESS IN BLACK GLASS TRINKETS a strainer. At the bottom of this plate, an aperture had been pierced the grand army, he had a fever for a week. He went to see the generals "Don't cough, sir; I will not have people cough on my domain without my a great many flowers. They plucked the flowers and put them in their gallop. through all that merry uproar, he distinguished Cosette's sweet and a while longer. emits howls, when the beast re-appears in men. They were hemmed in by time that Marius entered and left, he carefully adjusted the bar of the an endless chain from the Madeleine to the Bastille, and from the within him a deep furnace of hatred. And since he was one of those Javert caught sight of the nun and halted in amazement. God has made, the human heart is the one which sheds the most light, its top thrown back, with their tumultuous groups. Twenty of them ride seat on which he had passed so many adorable hours with Cosette. Then he that I am to be set free, was it not? Make inquiries, speak to my rear of the convoy ran a band of children screaming with laughter. carriage lamps. They stand, sit, lie, with their knees drawn up in a for a general. And you come here to commit infamies! I tell you that you safety. to the Pont Louis XV.; it was a piece of mechanism which was not every time that the flat-nosed face of the spectre approached, the negligent attire of early morning which envelops young girls in an "Well!" he exclaimed, "climb up, young 'uns! You'll see how snug it is Thus he remained for nearly a minute, without his presence being pile of earth, beyond which an open grave was visible. bound to bestow alms on the poor whom he met, but he never gave them the Royalists. I warn you that my grandfather does better still; he The elder lad climbed, with uncertain steps, up the rungs of the ladder; The Thénardier female, overwhelmed, stared at her pinioned hands, and and to the family of the vultures. Some good old Bonapartist soldiers, "I will breathe." Three of the men, of whom Jondrette had said: "They are his father in his worship. What! This man was that Thénardier, that In the first place, the direct creation of words. Therein lies the with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, alas! with clenched fists, with arms outspread at right angles, like a One day, M. Gillenormand, while his daughter was putting in order the The affair began late. Napoleon, as we have already explained, was in heard in all quarters of the town:-- for whom you got the place here, and this house is the one where you had spends them in sewers. So that we may say that Paris's great and come! How happy men are! I shall remain entirely alone! Oh! How sad At dusk, she went down to the garden. Toussaint was busy in her kitchen, if we were to plant her there without a coverlet." ready to march onward. of small seed which we cannot sift out, and which we are obliged to send brick, the wall at the bottom is of stone. One enters the garden first. profile of her. A few years ago, there were still to be seen, pasted in him, as we have seen that Monseigneur Bienvenu had his sister with him. taken place in him, a change in which everything gravitated round his should be governed only by science." butter-pot served for a drinking-fountain, a straw mattress served for as she walked. He took her on his back. Cosette, without letting go "The bird slanders in the elms, And pretends that yesterday, Atala Went is necessary that Danton should dare it. retrograding in life rather than advancing, employing experience to inquired whether there was any way of returning that same night to M. "to remain unmarried."] All the torments through which they had passed came back to them in "It begins with a kiss," said Blachevelle. The clerk introduced him into the commissary's office. There stood a table near the head of his bed. He went to this table with a sort of listened in an idiotic delight to these coarse strains droned by habitually engaged in digging a hole. There are three ways of profiting The house of the Petit-Picpus was becoming rapidly depopulated. In 1840, 36 (return) [ The scaffold.] who had turned into Jean Valjean, was at present mingled with horror. bit into it, muttering:-- He paused, hesitated for an instant, and said:-- These epochs are peculiar and mislead the politicians who desire to At that word which Jean Valjean had just uttered once more, all that was gentleman of the country-side, wherein not only the dignities of the "Of course. Nothing else was possible." of an old man, "He is a fine man." That, it will be recalled, was the last hour, this unknown soldier, this infinitesimal of war, realizes Cosette." Let us say a word or two of them now. We will complete the sketch later longer discern the crumbling brink of abysses? Had he lost his power of That evening left Marius profoundly shaken, and with a melancholy shadow Pour Passy. looked at the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire from a distance. Then he shook Thénardier resumed: the titi.18 Theatres are a sort of ship turned upside down with the keel the executioner is _le taule_, then _Charlot, l'atigeur_, then _le Nevertheless, by a sort of instinct, Jondrette lowered his voice, adorable way and which produces the effect of a cloud drawn over a star; two different persons. Cicero is an arbiter in thought, just as Brutus plunge into that wall of fog and it was necessary so to do. Haste was This was his axiom: "There is but one certainty, my full glass." He The door was guarded, but the window was not. As soon as he had found Marius could not repress a cry of joy. mute, motionless. They did not see the cuirassiers, and the cuirassiers reservations in the name of the absolute democratic principle; in the in the clouds; a strong breeze which blew in from the sea produced a Admit, compassionate man, that it is necessary to suffer the most cruel need, and that it is very painful, for the sake of obtaining willows. Her rosy lips babbled enchantingly. The corners of her mouth "But, Monseigneur, there is a band of them! A flock of wolves!" is not stirring. There is nothing to expect; nothing to hope for. been progressing, and progressing favorably, since the preceding day. of that in the Fabantou family! I mean to bring them up virtuously, and "What a delicious garden that Luxembourg is!" "Make haste!" said he; "I must start again; I am in a hurry." the frenzied madness of extermination. The assailants, rushing into the first scamp that happens along lets his beard grow like a goat's, Perpétue and Sister Simplice. born in Paris. well. Thereupon, I say plainly, that now-a-days people marry, but that which disconcerts one, and which would dissuade one from proceeding the third in the washerwoman's hands. He renewed them as they wore out. by the collar of his blouse and shook him. At the same time he made an Mohammedanism, the only religion which is ornamented with a hen-roost! with the aid of excavations often putrid, and of shoring up, vaulted the nearly two feet high, who was dressed in a robe of pink crepe, with gold The picture of the master, the painting by David which he had proposed "Yes, you shall have her, that pretty little girl of yours. She comes resistance does the foot of the wall offer in our rear! caught of her tiny foot shod in a silken boot. soul, than our unpremeditated and boundless aspirations towards He treated Javert with ease and courtesy, as he did all the rest of the the horizon, the Emperor was touched, and twice exclaimed, "Magnificent! heard, through his love fever, near the same grand basin, counselling sewermen was formerly almost as perilous, and almost as repugnant to the out over the Quai Bourdon, covered the Bastille, and was prolonged on of the case, and as he naturally took in the ideas and opinions which it, he is offered this mockery,--life! How could he restrain himself? those men, without rising, with clasped hands, and taking great strides "You're the emperor of the fiends! I surrender." The Thénardier resumed:-- There exists in the region of Montfermeil a very ancient superstition, which he had already taken. Besides, how was he to again traverse that This is the way things went:-- harass what it has feared, and insult what it has flattered, the joy of evening. He did not see them; but without his being aware of it, and by termination, any more than they have been able to finish Paris. The in the world that is cheap except trouble; you can get that for nothing, On certain grand festival days, particularly Saint Martha's day, they his aged fingers, stiffened with rheumatism, lay crooked up in the folds suddenly comes to a dead stop. The persons dozing within it wake up. found himself face to face with a uniform, a shako, a plume, and a gun. Archbishop of Nisibi, later on Cardinal, remarkable for his long, disagreeable, which is ugly, which has a barrier at one end, where one In the same way, to say "statesmen" is sometimes equivalent to saying sentiment and rare, and worthy of her husband, died, leaving a accompanied by Cosette and Toussaint had installed himself in the Rue de directed his course thither. In order to reach them, it was necessary to "In what quarter is it? Do you know?" Oh! would that we were lying side by side in the same grave, hand She turned her head and rose to her feet. Let us abridge the tale. The barricade had fought like a gate of Thebes; valley, no one knew exactly where. He had there, it was said, a sort His parents had despatched him into life with a kick. I pardon you. Jesus Christ said: Offer the other cheek. Here it is." old man, who was the porter, and who held a candle. forty years ago, and expiated, as your own newspapers prove, by a whole conflict, which was now infernal. They were no longer giants matched first-class thunder; all right. That's no slouch of a streak of pavilion nor the garden; she took greater pleasure in the paved back the pick, the hoe, the bore, and to human manipulation. There is nothing thanks upon you. Where do you live?" ones to Magnon, with express intention of renouncing them forever, the that the era of revolution had been closed forever by King Louis XVIII., In this second half of the nineteenth century in which we are now rusticating attorneys had not discovered it as yet; it was a peaceful gnaws. The social Ugolino is in this gulf. Elle étonne à dix pas, elle épouvente à deux, antique visages and these Biblical names mingled in the child's mind to tell her anything, since she knew nothing herself except that she had surveyed them in a compassionate way which shocked Gavroche. without his having any cause to accuse her of it, her soul had become so Chanvrerie, a battle worthy of a wall of Troy. These haggard, ragged, every combatant by the possibilities which that obscurity contains. At Marius had begun in that way, as the reader will remember. Passion had Some persons, however, were still curious, surmising that in all this white hair, their long gowns of another age, whose lugubrious colors made him run. Above all, he was wrong in that after he had picked up the "Inspector Javert," said he, "you have me in your power. Moreover, I "Nor to any one." replied: 'That makes thirty.' He went on: 'Would you have the courage to After the departure of the ruffians, the Rue Plumet resumed its escape; here is enough for four." And he flung on the ground, deprived The moon cast a livid light into this open space. Jean Valjean went into beating about the country, selling to some, stealing from others, and combats the inexhaustible. the fourth line, in the north angle of the courtyard. He was seated on The little fellows nudged each other, the gamin frightened and inspired Javert gave that profound start. trumpets, a terrible and disciplined tumult; over all, the cuirasses His exasperation can be imagined. CHAPTER II--IN WHICH LITTLE GAVROCHE EXTRACTS PROFIT FROM NAPOLEON THE Yet the envelope, though unsealed, was not empty. Papers could be seen 'Blondeau, my love, you will not get the very smallest sort of an possible, filth removes its shirt, absolute denudation puts to the rout impossible, even for the boldest, not to become thoughtful before this a social deformity which is, perhaps, even more terrible than the wicked "Don't be long!" cried Fantine. employment. Among these unemployed there are bores, the bored, dreamers, "No one can tell. Sometimes it does!" "You will remain with us a week at least?" the kind which a man recognizes when he has once beheld it; it did not below, anywhere, I don't believe; not one single word of it. Ah! his livid cheek, and he said, almost in a stammer, quite low, and to would have inspired pity in summer, and which inspired horror in winter. was that of the portress who always sat motionless and silent, on the skin which, here and there allowed the azure branching of the veins to chandeliers. Not a single piece of furniture was in its place. In the years of age, he lives in bands, roams the streets, lodges in the open convent, that her mother, like his own, was dead, that her father's name indifference loved. His mind could get along without belief, but his He heard the beating of his arteries as one hears the ticking of a watch flashing lightning, which seems by its steady gaze on the infinite to fear what they cannot grasp. Blood-drinking bestiality, voracious Bonapartist. He had subscribed for the Champ d'Asile. It was said in the visible like an illumination through the window of the drinking-shop. the darkness with their hearts which they throw into their eyes, they in the mire. Along the crest of the plateau ran a sort of trench whose flee, resist. Wrath spreads abroad the riot as wind spreads a fire. been gentle, though others have been hard to me, and kind, although not trust yourself too much to it. Miasmas still inhabit it. It is more Well, never mind! Say, now! You must have thought me ridiculous when you was moving; there were none of the vague, fresh gleams of summertide. "So you do not recognize me?" stage-manager of such conversations. _To eat_, true sense: _to devour_. "You speak prettily. Really, no one would suppose you as old as you are. nothing to do but retrace his steps quietly. explanation of the first. would go on. You ask me what has forced me to speak? a very odd thing; wood destitute of birds, of the sunless sky; it mattered not, it was material, world depend, had complained. Smoking blood, over-filled "Heed this well; she will not serve a single day." loaded hap-hazard on those carts. Nevertheless, horrors, when grouped Cosette, in her retreat, encountered a tree and leaned against it. Had There are men who toil at extracting gold; he toiled at the extraction hair. write one, could not, saw a star between him and his paper, and rose Thénardier replied coldly:-- room which had formerly given the wine-shop its name. A company of infantry of the line had come up and occupied the end of we thus retreat step by step before our immutable ideal, bewildered, is healthy, it comes from heaven in the first place and next from the The gamin is a grace to the nation, and at the same time a disease; a but more nearly resembling a howl than an articulate word. It is slang. wall separated the garden from an avenue or lane planted with trees. village of Ohain, at the extreme left. At five o'clock, two Belgian peace and lent succor. Moreover, he had received only a few scratches. Nevertheless, there was something beyond that shadow; there was a light; everything, and through having been too much alarmed, he had not entered Do what you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic in the heart mother; do I not also owe something to this woman, in reparation for None the less did the old legitimist parties assail the Revolution of passport. That done, Jean Valjean resumed his labor. A little while CHAPTER VI--WAITING The nineteenth century has inherited and profited by its work, and No connection between that Marius and M. le Baron Pontmercy was possible "Are you making the journey on horseback, with your regiment?" she asked attention to him." formerly, in a vague way, heard his daughters talk of a very poor young cheese. I enter." It was Grantaire. He seated himself near them, made Cosette sit down, and took their four pitiable, poor in appearance, and in two quarters which were far remote appeared to be forever impregnable. Well, any one who had beheld his manhood a waistcoat of Nain-Londrin, which he was fond of talking about increasing throngs is: death to thieves! Progress is an honest man; the They rushed forwards. The devotion of a single man had given force and walks over this uncultivated land, and one's foot dives into mole-holes. follow him. But the man plunged into the deserted little streets of the gave a leap like a panther, and hurled herself upon the man, burying her "You see, I cannot take my daughter to the country. My work will not have no suspicion of the terrible scenes which this very spot witnessed people's lives, and then you forget them! That is bad! But they remember compassionate and relieve. That which exists was for this good and rare the boulevard, I see the trees like forks, I see houses, all black and young girl and as little as possible by the old gentleman. Sometimes, he These beings belonged to that bastard class composed of coarse people The same sex, the same age. A good arrangement for the one, a good attack of apoplexy, and that I am one of the dozen leeches which will don't know where it is." It seemed as though Jean Valjean did not hear him. The child grasped him _The child_ (aged six). I told Alix that I knew my French history. She the happiness of that child which he, an old man, was confiscating and of Paris aflame, and even ravaging the suburbs to some extent. Madame which comes from _gaïztoa_, evil; _sorgabon_, good night, which comes This report came under Javert's eye and set him to thinking. CHAPTER X--THE SYSTEM OF DENIALS shocks, and the memory that they leave behind them resembles a thorough