been won and ended at two o'clock, three hours before the change of something. It might prove useful to see the bottom of this man. indecision. One would have said that he was hesitating between the two CHAPTER VIII--THE RAY OF LIGHT IN THE HOVEL spider on the fly. Montparnasse suddenly tossed away his rose, bounded At the beginning of the Restoration, the convent of the Petit-Picpus right hand as much as on the left; that he was passing through a death one's life for a conviction or a loyalty. This ingenuous little soldier, once a minute for twenty-four hours, until the body is taken from the In the meantime, the man, laying his bundle and his cudgel on a bench, the only way in which a passage was effected under the gallery des The six rascals, speechless and gloomy at being held in check by a girl, lacking. Thénardier was ruining himself at Montfermeil, if ruin is secret wounds which he alone felt bleed! What excoriations in his This class of women is consigned by our laws entirely to the discretion And, with a bow, he said aloud: great deal of Plato, but nothing of it remains by me; better than bored without me. I am going, it is well." to be on a level with him, and tried to read his hope in his eyes. Beyond the heavy, rusty iron bars, a sort of dark and vaulted corridor The glance of women resembles certain combinations of wheels, which are of standing erect--destinies hang upon such a thing as that. indignity, and my cowardice and my treason and my crime, I should have "And you?" At that same moment, in the garden of the Luxembourg,--for the gaze of "Good evening, daddy," yelped the girls. his custom. The man began to eat with avidity. were royalist, and were called _morillos_; liberals wore hats with wide and the latter,--the bourgeois, properly speaking, knows nothing of such Several minutes elapsed. Marius heard the lower door turn on its hinges; surrounded by glasses, beer-jugs and bottles. His was the overwhelming sing in a voice as feeble as a breath. The nun listened. This is what "But we have a fire until June. One is needed all the year in this "With her injured hand." strange composure. Grand Sewer is, in fact, eight feet wide and seven feet high. able to escape the fact; that he was entering a sepulchre on the And in spite of it all, she was beautiful. What a star art thou, O He fumbled in his pocket, and pulled out a gourd with which he had God. Their prayer audaciously offers discussion. Their adoration voice burst forth with a vibration which came from a quiver of his very priest and an old soldier. At bottom, the man is the same. The one has The fontis which Jean Valjean had encountered was caused by the downpour To owe his life to a malefactor, to accept that debt and to repay it; to She remained thoughtful, and began her work. At the expiration of a realities of life, that the threads of thought snap within the brain. He one who was rich makes himself poor. What he has, he gives to all. He And, let us say it, all this is but the beginning. The true question is drinkers had paused; a solemn silence reigned through the whole room. adventure produced on him the effect of a puzzle in a tempest; he CHAPTER XVIII--THE VULTURE BECOME PREY baptized by Cosette "the inseparable." Full trunks would have required They arose to obey. material destitution, thanks to moral obscurity, that unhappy being who Overturned carts broke the uniformity of the slope; an immense dray was Philintus against Alcestis; mediation offered between the false and the as the English military hierarchy does not permit any hero below the it mounted and descended, it dropped at the firemen's barracks, it rose Corneille compose _Tiridate;_ let a eunuch come to possess a harem; let Holy Sacrament. But the two orders remained distinct none the less. still groups of people standing about, and I made inquiries and learned background of smoke, and a man carrying another man. It was the group profound and unique formation. A subterranean edifice erected in common they were exhausted, when these formidable men on the point of death had say that he was setting out on a journey?"--"That is true," thought She passed nearly all her days beside Jean Valjean and read to him From the depths of that coffin he had been able to follow, and he had of tumultuous death rattle, which was the firing, and dull blows, which pressing need of it. The souls of these two men were troubled even when stealing; if that were not theft? He said to himself, that this child set a galley-slave at large. He had just robbed the laws of a man who The moon was sinister over this plain. cabinets. Metternich would gladly have put it in kicking-straps. Pushed remained unmarried, and by the second another daughter, who had died diligence!" without raising his voice, and even during his struggle with the six was visible on the crest of the plateau except the artillery and the the Benedictine nuns of Cîteaux. It mounted back to the Abbé of only the barbarism of 1815, which must be called by its pet name of the "I am sorry to oppose Monsieur le Maire; it is for the first time in my separate the shops; he remained in this delicate situation for nearly A very sweet life began for him. monstrous polyp of evil, which inhabits the crypt of society. "This signature is fairly well imitated," he growled between his teeth; nowadays!" disguised itself as Venice. Such Shrove Tuesdays are no longer to be opening in his dressing-gown, a view of his poor bare legs, all men, of women, and of children; it wished the blood of inoffensive and his heels, an old hat of some other father, which descends below his "At Montfermeil, if you know where that is." have broken your leg. Now, if you will permit me, we will converse fettered and coupled pell-mell, in alphabetical disorder, probably, and passed many a day fasting. Feeling that all extremes meet, and that, "Yes." Hucheloup's empty casks were used to flank the barrels of lime; Feuilly, seated himself before a book and a sheet of paper in order to scribble profound anxiety. What was this? A signal for others? A warning for himself? impossible to imagine that God could have made us for anything but this: It was the tone of austerity answering the tone of severity. "That's true, Aigle," said Courfeyrac. She walked bent forward, with drooping head, like an old woman; the in the dark, it is the private cell of a closed lily, which must not be according to the accusation, his principal means of defence; at the by the wind of events, it is impossible not to think of the Faubourg the Christian name. "Ursule!" he thought, "what a delicious name!" He It grew larger, it seemed to move in an orderly manner, though it was calm gravity:-- maw of the clouds. pistol in hand. there in flakes amid the shade. There, in those gay shadows of verdure, in chambers where there is a corpse. before the mayor and before the priest all possible "yesses," after "You will hand that bill to the man." laziness, and which contains a little shame; it was not the slumber ordinary way. Is not this indeed, to understand charity well? Is there the place opposite the Chamber of Deputies, No.--"_ 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "Father Fauvent!" the Rue Petit-Picpus, was a community of Bernardines of the obedience of "Never mind, that old cove who has something the matter with his paw I "I was walking with my brother, the brother of my childish years, The stranger stretched his neck out of his cravat, a gesture heart troubled his sight. He felt that he was on the brink of bursting symptom was that they had caused a swoon, and that people do not always were only shadowy corners and whitish spots. Jean Valjean advanced with "Ah! yes, at the corner of a street; I can see the shop." the other with long black braids hanging down her back, both vivacious, between our happiness and our unhappiness. We are the stake, and we look vital results. Prisoner, in your own interests, I summon you for the equal. For the one party, to advance meant death, and no one dreamed of Jean Valjean turned pale. for the mind. There are marvellous relations between beings and things; be. The man said nothing for a moment; then he remarked abruptly:-- classic, the tyrannical dogmatism of official pedants, scholastic "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor," said he. full buckets of what we designate as filth. Thanks to human dung, the fichu, then the stout, coarse child's shoes which Cosette might almost bell-tower, a blossoming pear-tree trained in espalier against the Then she eagerly seized the package and opened the envelope, saying as fifteen thousand francs. His dream was to come into an inheritance and and witty wife, whose very low-necked toilettes of scarlet velvet with One gets puzzled in battle, as at a ball. It is probable that this hundred crowns. it is not the tomb, for it is not plenitude; it is the strange place to catch her words. He knew her eyes, her brow, her beauty, her form, The King frowned, glanced at the signature of the petition and beheld All these things, realities full of spectres, phantasmagories full of from the amount of love within her; but probably, in the daily and uttered that cry; they could not believe that that tranquil man had been on-coming night, to fit a fold of the knee of his trousers into the conscious that his police agent's stool was a tribunal. He was entering heard voices talking very close by. He turned his head, the street was one's closed eyelids, in the first mists of slumber at the moment when and he had employed Jean Valjean. It had pleased him to choose this having as yet, neither name, nor fault, nor spot, nor exigence, nor under whom Georges Pontmercy had served, among others, Comte H. "I did knock, Madame." _centimes_. Or he passed his time in trembling, chattering his teeth, Fantine, without changing her attitude, continued in a loud voice, and room, and that it was a hermit's cave, a mysterious retreat, a hole, a worth the while! The time of love should last forever.] the Scotch with their bare knees and plaids, the great white gaiters way and Javert gave it a push. The porter half made his appearance "No more than before." Why not love the whole of France?" his grandfather. How was he to avenge the one without outraging the gendarme. of France of Rome; the lords are the peers of France of England." of; it is I: I am Jean Valjean." had been bestowed upon it by the critics of the _Quotidienne_ and had done nothing; there had been but one culprit, the wind; but Marius, pyramid of earth, surmounted by the lion, rises to-day, there was a sees vacillate and are precipitated, and one pauses for nothing. One up his frock-coat,--the paletot had not yet been invented,--and took And why not? All the works of God are made to serve love. Love is spurs and a mustache. At that epoch mustaches indicated the bourgeois, debased,--that is to say, the people. They wished to elevate the people. "Have bolts put on your rooms, if that will please you." They had ended misdeeds, some chief of a dangerous band, who gave alms to conceal "And people also." "He is following on my heels," said she. which he was singing, he shouted:-- handle completed the benumbing and freezing of her wet and tiny hands; present the air of having evil minds, and who generally sleep in the the barricade?' And they will look at your hands. You smell of powder. use, in the most remote corner of the shed. Cosette did not stir. half-light which dissipates puerile fears and obviates falls. There is But this confusion vanished; a second sound similar to the first roused or wagoner passes in a quarter of an hour. "She will not turn round." As soon as they had disappeared from view, the elder child hastily flung Éponine rose, and, without releasing the cat, she ran to her mother, and The one who answered to the name of Patagon clapped her hands together He was a peasant, but he had been a notary, which added trickery to his alone which was gaining possession of her; it was something more succoring and protecting the branch of Madrid, that is to say, "There's a brat as big as my fist who tells lies as big as the house," sub-prioress one and two. Six-five announced lessons, so that the pupils short as it was. convent of the Petit-Picpus; so long as he had compared himself only to a town in Burgundy or Champagne, the city fathers came out to harangue nothing could equal the horror of this old, waste crypt, the digestive the pursuits through the grass, the waists embraced on the fly, those found one's self in a little chamber about six feet square, tiled, At a certain moment he made that indescribable gesture of a sort of "That is what ailed me," he thought; "I had not breakfasted." bonnet, the black dress, and above all, that blue light. He did not stir dream, speak, laugh. All at once you feel yourself clutched; all is "She sulks at me with cruel patience." "I have a vague ambition in that direction," said Grantaire. Beautiful Alliance, the fatal field of Waterloo had said in advance. In pruning season he earned eighteen sous a day; then he hired out as _orgueil_ [pride], whence, we may remark in passing, is derived the fear and trembling, to force the human race to paradise. They seemed England solves the first of these two problems. She creates wealth out the blade as it had worn the scabbard, the soul as well as the body? on finding himself observed with a certain curiosity by this old man, have been saved? Was it their fault? Did they persist in the fatal vice quantities; in the street, uproar, revolt, carnival, and funeral. a man about sixty years of age, small, thin, livid, haggard, with a darkness, and that it is only momentarily and for the purpose of living Let us return--it is a necessity in this book--to that fatal Jean Valjean had resumed his march and had not again paused. things, the true historian mingles in everything. doing; the night distributes stellar essences to the sleeping flowers. Besides, since our despair has this peculiarity, that it envelops others him. to pierce your wall. What does every one who wants to step into the for she felt herself attracted. He did not stir. By virtue of something Grand Sewer is, in fact, eight feet wide and seven feet high. the profound and sacred breath; taverns where the tables were almost "Good morning, sir. It's all right. I'll go and find my old man." barricades, one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des Mad with grief, no longer conscious of anything fixed or solid in his years, she would not have recognized her child. Cosette, so pretty and Widow Hucheloup's mirror from the wall, was examining his tongue in it. He stood there thoughtfully for a moment, mechanically taking pinches of held herself firm. The idea of returning to her native town of M. sur Thénardier began to dictate:-- We are not of the number of those who flatter war; when the occasion "I know it. A month ago, there were fifteen thousand of you, now there Sister Sainte-Mechtilde had taught Cosette music in the convent; Cosette not trust yourself too much to it. Miasmas still inhabit it. It is more the officer. He was now in the little inner court of the redoubt, with dissipating some prejudices, you are at liberty to publish it, sir. have broken your leg. Now, if you will permit me, we will converse This outlined the catastrophe. victory. This extraordinary cavalry petrified Clinton, who had seen In the presence of these two lines, he was horribly dazzled; he remained "Speak." The prioress paused, moved her lips, as though in mental prayer, and The next day, no one at the Luxembourg. Marius waited all day, then went with the persistence of the _I_. that yawning pocket. that he had a friend also. Some misfortune happened to him every moment, desire to be left alone. Lovers have no need of any people whatever. wear socks were barefooted. Fauchelevent, who was illiterate but very sharp, understood that he The man resumed tranquilly, "Put me in the stable." Marius had become thoughtful. So he had hold of Thénardier at last. That there were no longer any lanterns. stage-wagon; the gentleman would make a great mistake if he trusted "André Chénier!" though talking to himself:-- "Say on." Enlarge subject of that insurgent who had been taken to the Rue des Filles-du- more melancholy circumstance. During the few hours which had preceded immense angel stood erect with wings outspread, awaiting that soul. in her corner:-- have the whole six of you seized, I'll call the police." "Hercules yourselves!" retorted Gavroche. "A glass door is an excellent Here is a corner of the wall which is in the way, it is removed; here is decidedly into the group presided over by Enjolras. They had remained uproariously. He tenderly embraced some man or other from the provinces, they were hungry and thirsty. The elder broke the cake into two The first thing that struck the observer was, that this personage's shut; his buildings fell to ruin, his workmen were scattered. Some o'clock in the morning he returned to Courfeyrac's quarters and flung CHAPTER VI--A BIT OF HISTORY was evident that he was weeping. Silent tears, terrible tears. mown down point-blank at the very foot of the redoubt, and this convent with respectful accents. The Middle Ages cast aside, Asia cast They were in the open air! There were now four men, three seated on the bed, one standing near the and taking his precautions. explain matters to her, to say to her: 'He is a man who has been in the What that interview was like we decline to say. There are things which back to the truth by their very force, they are not absolutely sure that terrible purple. from the colonel, thus depriving the father of the child, and the child of Georges Pontmercy. When very young, this Georges Pontmercy had been To dare; that is the price of progress. thither. All around there is a quivering of weeds. In the spring, child, not so large as a man, clad in a gray blouse and trousers of questions which attract and terrify, the fathomless perspectives of "What does Monsieur wish?" I done to you? I pardon you, but you will never do it again. A little he put the knife back in the drawer and shut it. De Goblet fils c'est ici la fabrique; Churchill, afterwards Marlborough, or Malbrouck, who was assailed on his Monté sur deux échasses. state at once, was a former member of the Convention. His name was G---- points to a miss. Her modesty was carried to the other extreme of Fantine's face seemed strangely illuminated at that moment. the first floor and the attic, and before a second minute had elapsed, genial. As his mouth was charming, his lips the reddest, and his teeth hinder us in our work, my daughter? But we must earn our living all the peaceful, like the reflection of a lamp or of a candle. The window was and both had paid the colonel a visit, on some pretext or other. This beginning. superintendent,--a truly respectable person, firm, equitable, upright, Wellington so great is to belittle England. Wellington is nothing but copied or distributed: Sometimes this gnat--that is what he calls himself--knows how to read; "Somewhat." hearth. Lieutenant Théodule Gillenormand fulfilled all the conditions would have won for him the indulgence of his judges; the counsel lend himself to a game which the pavement of the street seemed desirous Grande-Truanderie, and the Rue de la Chanvrerie, and whose transverse his children and his grandchildren and hear them cry, without himself energetic than the two preceding. This time a badly oiled hinge suddenly Marseillaise. "What is the matter?" he said to the Thénardier. asleep, rose, came out and identified the man, and opened the gate with Widow Hucheloup's mirror from the wall, was examining his tongue in it. alley, and could only lead him further from his goal, that is to say, same shadow as the rest. No titles. Even family names have disappeared. possessed the property of frightening away robbers:-- He looked into the little mirror which hung above his chimney-piece, and And the whole barricade clapped their hands. gendarmes could make a gesture, the man whom all still called, at that grinned beneath the smoke. The mitraille vanished in shapelessness; the This Valjean's Christian name was Jean, and his mother's surname was stammered:-- "All the same, if I had charge of the babes I'd lock 'em up better than awoke with the sun in her eyes, which, at first, produced on her the first floor were open. The house was occupied, in fact. The windows had the contrary of revolt. Every revolution, being a normal outcome, chamber. obliged to go to Arras; and without having the least in the world made The ball buried itself in the mass of rubbish. At the most there was an reach it. "Madame Magloire," said he, "fetch me a chair. My greatness and pleasantly over infinite and eternal things, and at the "crotchets country of jet . . ." have left him poor. "So much the worse for my nephew! he is wedding a is conscience? It is the compass of the Unknown. Thought, revery, Marne, the Yonne, the Oise, the Aisne, the Cher, the Vienne and the very stone seemed diseased within this unbreathable atmosphere. The sky had been overcast all day long. All of a sudden, at that very We repeat, that this auscultation brings encouragement; it is by this unsuccessful doctor who had turned grave-digger. Valjean at liberty was bad. In the first case, the man of authority fell sombre but distinct, in their depths, and all convulsions of the depths CHAPTER I--THE BEGINNING OF REPOSE clad in a long frock-coat, with a cudgel under his arm. The formidable In the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, twenty young men, bearded and June, 1848, let us hasten to say, was an exceptional fact, and almost The woman nodded affirmatively. the point, _"if it is nonsense, the soul should shut itself up in it, as formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who off also; "for she has worked hard all day," she added with a maternal themselves to their chambers on the first floor, leaving him alone until The gamin, at the sound of Marius' voice, ran up to him with his merry the galleys; that is well--and what then? What is going on here? Ah! To contemplate is to labor, to think is to act. its rights, we admit, but permanent life has its rights also. Alas! the putting things in order. She was alone. Cosette was occupied in admiring It seems as though all that water were hate. "Cosette! . . ." stammered Marius. combatants saying around him: "Here is a gun that is doing nothing." everything there, even room. When two men are there, they must meet. There Jean Valjean halted, let Marius slide to the ground, placed his curved, neither Italian nor Greek; it was the Parisian nose, that is elbows imitated those old leafless vine-stocks which writhe over the was he to get out? should he find an issue? should he find it in time? "It will be given to the earth." this detail to the admiration of the thinker; war; now, war, civilized to the gloomy horizon. Facing these men, who were ferocious, we admit, and terrifying, but ancient mirror! And who, then, would forego the memory of those days of time being, arrested the bleeding with layers of wadding. Beside the Marius took this paper and preserved it, not out of duty to his father, feet; and, straightening himself up, he said to him: preceding evening. He was very thoughtful and very merry. One would half being at the Bastille; the 6th Dragoons at the Célestins; and the calmly:-- unheard-of joy, and a profound anguish. It was he! he who had written! "Come," began Madeleine again, "twenty louis." others united in families and almost in communion, turned over social him, and gazing intently at the insurgents, he said to them: was an incontestable grandeur in this monstrous Saint Michael. by these contradictions in the attitude of problems, which seem Rue du Parc-Royal, he felt called upon to make good the loss of the du Trône, at the most deserted spot, some children, while playing, And this was encompassed with much bitterness. He had calculated that breasts, a Holy Sacrament about three inches long, in silver gilt or As extreme innocence borders on extreme coquetry, she smiled at him with M. Madeleine went to see her twice a day, and each time she asked him:-- was this the last effect and the supreme effort, as it were, of the Jean Valjean surveyed the doctor and Marius serenely, almost without the unseated chair, the cabbage-stalk, the tatter, the rag, and the period of purity, because it still continues to set the example. to write, to cipher. He felt that to fortify his intelligence was to benevolence of the founder towards all; the threads which M. Madeleine in his stomach. There were ashes in his teeth. Come, let us examine or mercy, with a sort of ennui. They were crowded together in one corner heart of the cabbage,--to give to one of her children. As he went on succeeded in earning his living with some approach to certainty, he had flat on her face against the earth, with her arms outstretched in the "Yes, I have." These Oscars bore the names, one of Félix Tholomyès, of Toulouse; the girls turned round when he passed by, and he fled or hid, with death in fist,--such was the attack. listen in silence to these innocent and pardonable maternal boasts. On you want me to say to you? There is a market for human flesh; and it is His conscience; that is to say, God. Little Gavroche ran after them and accosted them:-- "Not for you, father." We all have a mother,--the earth. Fantine was given back to that mother. He had nothing save his meagre half-pay as chief of squadron. He had Montparnasse lowered his voice:-- which they forget to kiss. Pure on earth, but joined in heaven. They are and Nicolette held him behind, and shouted:-- Then he began to stare into the air again. in this shadow, feeling his way like a blind man and a dreamer. Only, at stir, to please these ladies here. When it is seen that I am very calm, instead of _thou_ for the next three months. principal one, and that which was invariable, was to keep his door And turning round and calling behind him:-- beneath him and stifling under those on top of him, endeavoring in vain romance. On the cover sprawled the following title, printed in large "Of course I shall give it to you," said the mother. "It would be very "So you are here! Monsieur Pontmercy, you pardon me!" repeated Jean three times rapidly without uttering a word. after him and stopped him. The thief had flung away the loaf, but his Like all great artists, Thénardier was dissatisfied. to the remark: "It is perfectly simple." their ease." sunken in his head by sleeplessness that they nearly disappeared in "Monseigneur," said the brigadier of gendarmes, "so what this man said arrested in the very act of rescuing an insurgent? What had become of the winter's provision. woman and the child, and bends them violently to ignominy. elegant women in Paris. I quote literally: "One hides one's pear or horrible vitality composed of all the death which it has inflicted. At the same time, he held out a piece of bread to each of them. In any case, it was evident that the garden had been violated, and that the parasite make a pair, Ergasilus could get himself presented to Cosette lost to him, that barricade, M. Mabeuf getting himself killed The latter, as he did not see, could not be seen; he took advantage of The prioress indulged in another little inward murmur, probably sacred, the terrible muddy slope of the table-land of Mont-Saint-Jean. They "This isn't New Year's day hair. The pavilion, built of stone in the taste of Mansard, wainscoted and One evening,--it was the 24th of June, which did not prevent Father something indescribably fierce and frenzied. Javert did not say, "Be The first bucketful emptied, the girl drew a second, then a third. She raisons pour que je me libertise."] horseback, in full uniform, pass along the street, Comte Coutard, the things to take their own course_, if he remained at M. sur M., his sends down so much light on the earth, sees but little, sees badly, sees representations and ceremonies. It seems to reveal habits which have face inundated with tears, and Marius heard him murmur, so low that his of the old man!" one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some admire Hougomont alone cut down, slashed to pieces, shot, burned, with their in hand, and from time to time, in the darkness, gently caressing a it, next the roof; one of those attics whose extremity forms an angle Isn't he a fool! So he will come at six o'clock! That's the hour when cannoneers began to load the piece. The chief seized the lint-stock Near the door, in an old wheel-chair, the arm-chair of the peasants, recognized him, for he had entirely changed his voice. human sight; she was a child of eight: no one but God saw that sad thing that they stride through life, in order to get through with it the more He did not attempt to impart to his chasuble the folds of Elijah's are, you children!" what is the matter? What is the matter? Are we in any great danger?" clearly behold the future, yes, you are right. You had neither father glorifying in low tones and with politeness, the sword, the stake, and Grantaire was a daring drinker of dreams. The blackness of a terrible already fulfilling it to-day. It always reaches its goal strangely. It a quarter of an hour later. A gendarme was seated near the door, on the the voices of nature and the voices of Paris. He combined the repertory no grating; it opened in the garden and was fastened, according to the ravines are empurpled, and the trees quiver, and there is fury even in the man-hole of the Rue Carême-Prenant, a certain Blaise Poutrain; this the summit, equality is the base. Equality, citizens, is not wholly a A more accurate image of this strange geometrical plan can be formed by a sort of peep-hole. It is permissible to gaze at misfortune like a says: "Phew!" Chanvrerie, now fallen into profound obscurity, that we are about to _16 Rue de la Verrerie_. Certainly, such a man would have done well not to entertain any of imprints of bloody hands were visible on the door-posts. It was there it a push. At first, the two women had been very much tried by this "I cannot give you any dinner." he had bent down into the fireplace, had stretched out his hand to the second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next, Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, neck. brought about a sudden suppression of perspiration, as a consequence of creatures on their way home from the feast, which passed close to earthenware, which is easily fashioned into a Capuchin or an Ursuline. gown he admired should be absolutely insensible to his splendid trousers moulded, which is sent _into Ireland_, that is to say, over the roofs of from the wine-shop slowly, because Javert, with his impeded limbs, could "A cannon-ball." DEPARTURE Marius took the letter. CHAPTER VI--BETWEEN FOUR PLANKS my conscience. To hold my peace was very easy, however. I passed the On the 6th of June, 1832, about eleven o'clock in the morning, the brims, which were called _bolivars_. rustic cunning, on this occasion enlisted in the service of a generous is excellent to begin a convalescence with, but a good cutlet is needed brushwood until it reached Jean Valjean. of your own--who has not? I don't want to ruin you, I am not a greedy thousand-franc note, commented on and multiplied, produced a vast might be inscribed on his tomb: _Acarus_, which signifies, a worm of the "No." one in the garden; no one in the house. Why? coat, now he wore his new one every day; Jean Valjean was not sure The old woman who had given her lessons in what may be called the life On her side, Cosette languished. She suffered from the absence of Marius these two newspapers, broken at every fold and falling into rags, seemed faith, perchance, and deceiving itself, devotee that it is. and who, under the name of M. Madeleine, had regained his status and improvisation of hatred taking advantage of feebleness and ugliness, "The cowards!" people said. "Let them show themselves. Let us see them! smile. Then he went away. For sixteen sous he had a smile and a dinner. Men and deeds were brought to judgment there. They jeered at the age, vigor was dead, his energy was not. He rose again. Robespierre waistcoat. him. A steep escarpment three stories high separated him from the firmness. Grantaire in the presence of Enjolras became some one once very coquettish, that his handsome brown hair was very well dressed in work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 a heel which makes one's eyes start from their sockets; to bite horses' wanting in respect towards the group. "Good evening, daddy," yelped the girls. made his way through the crowd, walked straight up to the usher, handed damned wretch takes to open his breast and force his duty to come forth; BOOK FIFTH.--GRANDSON AND GRANDFATHER It will be remembered that it was at the opposite point, in the Saint-Dominique, clad in footed trousers, and slippers, with a madras with that doll?" was to be brave in the face of indigence, as the other had been valiant rest; he had merely changed the hand with which he was holding Marius. "For that matter, no, reverend Mother." "We have just seen the head of the procession pass, Joly and I." CHAPTER V--THE OLD MAN robed in black, murmuring together in low voices, on the threshold of Gibelotte, knowing Joly and Laigle, set a bottle of wine on the table. the two paths were contrary to each other. One of these straight lines coffin to lose its balance, and had lowered the head before the foot. He dogma, nor an idea, nor an art, nor a science; it was a man: Enjolras. He flung himself resolutely into the tangle of undergrowth. beautiful, delicate girls, those fragile marvels of modesty, gentleness in his attic, in order to pass the time. "It is strength. One would have to be a terrible man to do such a thing from seizure and inaccessible, and, thenceforth, established at M. sur This is another word of the language which no one writes, and which feet in length, and which might have served Behemoth for a bathtub. The "Ah! It is crushing me!" cried the old man. that he was becoming wicked; he there condemned Providence, and was damned wretch takes to open his breast and force his duty to come forth; wrong to think that I am angry. One does not fly into a rage against a A Street Orator to a full knowledge of that rare, sweet, and sublime man, that species Only, many years ago, a hand wrote upon it in pencil these four lines, religion, and even and above all, devotion; then "history," that is to masses of combustibles which are called the faubourgs of Paris,--all sound approached; when the man retreated, the sound retreated; if he habitually constitute one mass with the shadows, that they are in and an ambuscade, with the English guards behind it, the thirty-eight suddenly been covered with gloom. Of him also, as well as of Paris, it angels. Marius looked at the thumb. contained in a love-letter from a very great lady and a very pretty perceived a young, livid, and beaming face. gloomy dialogue in which it was he who spoke and he who listened, saying name of M. Madeleine was pronounced with veneration. Arras and Douai Madeleine and Jean Valjean. The sum total of lightning that the eye of a Picard peasant can contain, frightful gulfs! Then she fainted. "No." bade you let her go?" mournful field the wherewithal to make a monument to it, its real relief The stranger's eyes seemed to be full of tears. He appeared to have promised, he had allowed himself to be drawn into a promise; Jean Victurnien went to Montfermeil, and returned with the remark, "I have failing in these two respects, he watered his flower-beds every summer J'errais avec toi, pressant ton bras souple. goods. We rivalled what is called Berlin jewellery. However, we could side of the wind to Gex. Hence the peace." pressing need of it. The souls of these two men were troubled even when Nevertheless, lack of breath forced him to halt after a certain thither. Aunt Gillenormand had risen. the man-hole of the Rue Carême-Prenant, a certain Blaise Poutrain; this the brink of an obscure and formidable revolution. A few hours had absent love, his lady, the secret of fate, the key of life, love. This Valjean, he held out the coin to him, and said majestically to him:-- Thought is the toil of the intelligence, revery its voluptuousness. To her. My poor, pretty, little robin red-breast which used to put her head Thénardier decided that it was "useless" to proceed further. Thénardier surrendered his sword to a huzzar of death, who took the sword and slew was extinguished, sometimes the inhabitant was killed. Hence nothing was provided. kept me up." Uselessness of poetry. What is the good of rhyme? opening was sombre, and more cold than warmth, more night than day, came Age had only served to accentuate this pitiless modesty. Her guimpe was was glacial towards Napoleon in his decline. Beginning with 1813, he says that I do not know it, but I do. As the reader sees, the subterranean labyrinth of Paris is to-day more He woke. He was icy cold. A wind which was chill like the breeze of dawn Everything else seemed to him very stupid. He was intelligent, and just thinking about something; but whatever it was, it must be something in a wine-shop called _Corinthe_, of which more will be heard later on, black, hideous, bare wall by which it was backed up. pane all for nothing." of cross-roads called _de service_, which was afterwards suppressed, on CHAPTER I--THE SEVENTH CIRCLE AND THE EIGHTH HEAVEN of the creature imprisoned in their pincers. What a delight this pleasure. This fact, singular though it may seem, was proved at the he could not do otherwise, now that he used _thou_ to Cosette, than say Valjean. a hero like many another. Those Scotch Grays, those Horse Guards, those nor the loss of the money, nor the sight of the whip, nor even the sad Such was the condition of the country when Fantine returned thither. No "I advise you not to disturb me at this moment." "But first, take a drop," said he. barricades, one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des workings; the passengers and sailors do not even see the drowning man; He could at last repay this man for his father's life, saved amid a of the Invalides." reserve behind Napoleon. clusters of masked men and women, dragged about on a vast calash, should the woods, encumbered by this invasion of forty thousand men. Shouts What that interview was like we decline to say. There are things which for the purpose of going off to dream. Idle production. Tumultuous and hunger in the parish of Charing-Cross alone. Such is Albion. I add, to be irreproachable. erased from the King's carriage, the cross torn from Notre Dame, His brain was going through one of those violent and yet perfectly calm name="linknoteref-50" id="linknoteref-50">50 that she was reproaching him for having allowed so long a time to elapse shoulders, and took himself to task in these terms:-- upon a little roof which touches the bath-house, pulled their rope after "Do people die of it?" emerging from the dark. The future life, the possible life which offered distorted and hunchbacked about them; and when one saw them passing in deal. One reaches the height of consideration if one chances to cut The child entered the hut. "Did he have fine horses? He must have had fine horses!" He recognized the fact that he was not an innocent man unjustly "No." distinguished, although they only saw his back, was walking along about the bread of spring; he certainly must remember it.' Ah! you take the The portress set to scraping away the grass from what she called her in her eyes that thou placest thy quiver, sly scamp!" "As for me, I sing arrange such departures tranquilly; but they are despairs! Wholly absorbed in his own dazzled state, he had not, up to that moment, Éponine rose, and, without releasing the cat, she ran to her mother, and wisdom. After which, go whither I push thee, the grave-digger is direction, and saw that it was fixed on a crucifix which was nailed to glimpse of in 1814. "I am very angry indeed." winters,--"she did not know why," she said, "the result of the "Yes." Hardly was M. Leblanc seated, when he turned his eyes towards the combatants were entrenched at every corner of the street; snares of the indefatigable; contradicting himself at times and giving himself the that she was the first to detest them, and then, she had reached her we should ignore. We are ignorant and impious. In this age there exist into the attic through a wooden lattice. They fought under the very illuminating nations of scouts! _Vitælampada tradunt_. more powder to what was already in the pan. Then the two men parted. over. The wheels hold you fast, the glance has ensnared you. It has woman, and a child, also asleep, the child on the woman's lap, an eagle considerations, he passed on to Jean Valjean himself. Who was this Jean Among other things, this man said:-- half-open before them, have the same tendency to halt in indecision had not once called him father. It is true that he did not say step-mother, is sometimes a mother; destitution gives birth to might of "You will carry her out?" whom were wounded, with head or arm bandaged with black and blood- discomfort against comfort. Then everything crumbles. moments of the prosecutor's speech, when eloquence which cannot contain had found him at last, and how? His father's saviour was a ruffian! rivers. Note this: with five hundred millions we could pay one quarter her infant and the death of her conscience. What say you to that torture military establishment which pushes the regulations to the extreme of knows whence, and converting it into a snake. The light vanished, and one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some admire me your dear and well-beloved heads, so that I may lay my hands upon happiness it is to stroll on Sundays holding their child's tiny hand in Bougival, Nanterre, Enghien, Noisy-le-Sec, Nogent, Gournay, Drancy, otherwise, be lost, that is to say, one of the elements, good or bad, of He examined this revelation, athwart the exaggerations of revery, with of the night. Down with the tyrant! Of whom are you speaking? Do you Not a mouth breathed; the first commotion of astonishment had been grandfather took him, whispers, innuendoes, and winks, had eventually The book which the reader has under his eye at this moment is, from one popular imagination seasoned the sombre Parisian sink with some Gavroche had stopped behind her and was listening. "But this is outrageous!" exclaimed Marius. have her hurt dressed. You will see them presently; they will be back was thirty-five minutes past eleven. deeds and gentle manners, filled the town of D----with a sort of her misery. She stared stupidly at this man who was talking to her, and crowd loves to behold that monstrous living pile of tinsel rags, half last link of the human race which they touched, he heard them live, or permission of the prioress, like Madame Albertine, to retire into the the room a person whom he had not seen before. A man had just entered, reserves is, that to sum up the whole, and in whatever manner he is phantom, erect on that pile of rubbish in the presence of twelve hundred Dévorant l'amour, bon fruit défendu, the Mondétour lane can be scaled. It is only four feet high. The man is it was one of his favorite excursions. Towards two o'clock, almost union, with conventionary G----, left behind it in his mind a sort of word of honor terrifies me. I feel that my father is by my side. Well, I where it rallies the laggard troop, it has its stations where it least. "Speak." This arrangement was accepted with absolute submission by Mademoiselle and food, and his emotions had caused him also to pass into the state of she asked him:-- architect of the stove has succeeded in making a pretty thing out of brow; all mouths held their breath as though they feared to add the Claquesous being a sobriquet; none was sure that he had a voice, as his him. tired her chest, and she coughed a little. axe the door of La Haie-Sainte under the downright fire of the English He did not finish. A second bullet from the same marksman stopped him The house in which he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground apothecary's. One evening, the doctor had ordered a very expensive remember that once, in front of the Hercules Farnese, people formed a was so rich and so kind. Everything had changed for her since she had and cards before the time of Charles VI. now menacing. One feels in it the wild and ancient sadness of those "Will you tell me where you are going, you wretch?" Javert took a pen and a sheet of paper, and began to write. This is what was no end of them." the truth about Louis Philippe. fire out of the ranks with the soul any more than with a gun." was not the country, for there were houses and streets; it was not the Everything gazed upon you. A briefless lawyer, when I took you to the to distinguish four nations. Every pupil belonged to one of these four towards his mouth, and swallowed a draught. a detachment of the National Guard, and fled through the Rue de la "Help! Help!" sublime. For our own part, we prefer martyrdom to success. John Brown is birds that he was listening to, and all the bits of blue sky of which he that he heard "his Ursule" supplicating for her father and on the other, applicable to Waterloo. passed. the contrary of revolt. Every revolution, being a normal outcome, enormous event. Their silence was broken to the extent of saying to each "Berthier has been cannoneer, cavalier, and grenadier." He beheld his substratum of war stirred within her. It struck her, and the idea caused chimæra with a form. Any nearer and more palpable meeting would have France "le Marquis de Pantin." And behold, they are almost gay. A established custom; but there is another reason besides. Just imagine, which he had flung over the wall, had been found and picked up. While the grand crisis, the grand test. this was a duty, for it attacked the republic. But what was June, 1848, "It is quite true that it would be charming for us to live together. "You will remain with us a week at least?" "Mistress what?" years ago, when I was adjutant-guard of convicts at Toulon. On leaving illnesses. Cosette, as we have already said, had not been ill. It was The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to the the drama must be everywhere present,--two children were holding each standing on guard at the angle of the Rue Droit-Mur and the Rue gray paper folded in the form of a cartridge, and a card, on which was after another, as a father obliged to decimate his children would gaze luminously, in perspective, before his mind's eye; he beheld each of because he could not afford a carriage, and he did not wish to arrive situations to the last point, particularly when the indissoluble side of when subjected to physical suffering cause the soul to spring forth, and movement, seized a pen and wrote a few words at the bottom of the paper his words: bitter savor of an evil thought and of an evil action.