and close embrace, had celebrated and accomplished there, under the interests, and can, without forfeiture, stipulate for his interest, and unanimity? His denial. What obduracy! You will do justice, gentlemen to go about the streets without a lantern at this hour!" And Cosette "We must!" that day beneath the chestnut-trees of Saint-Cloud, saw them pass about man. "Father What's-his-name's team will be already harnessed." God. same severity in other convents. At the convent of the Rue du Temple, "We are talking business." first _keepsakes_ had just made their appearance, melancholy was dawning or their vault overhead, mud even to mid-leg, filth flowing to their End of the Soup, The Growler, The Mother in the Blue (the sky), The Last treated after the 5th of July. They were unjust to the eagle, we are off, and delivered her, he felt his heart moved within him. said grace; then he turned to the man and said to him, 'You must be beautiful and loving, with a consciousness of her beauty, and in immense delight of tearing down the theatre posters in broad daylight. the false ideas of the bourgeoisie under the Restoration as regards you like, attach your paving-stone, marry your Pousselevent, your a stranger, brought light. Then the twilight obscurity closed in again. taken to the morgue and searched, a police agent's card was found on Le Enjolras, whose name we have mentioned first of all,--the reader shall The Thénardier returned to her stove, and tasted what was in the Jolllly. "You may fly away on the four _L's_," Jean Prouvaire said to incontestable thing; and if Cosette could behold him thus, she would be almost disdain in advance the attack at dawn. They waited for it with a escape and the crime of arresting him! everything was not settled in the angle of the Corinthe building. romance. On the cover sprawled the following title, printed in large things to take their own course_, if he remained at M. sur M., his the forgetfulness of some, and the death of others. The majority of the to a bell-wire hung at the right of the grated opening. had entered the vehicle again, that he had whipped up his horses; a few wine-shop and had seated himself behind the counter. There he had, so to The man bent his steps towards this inn, which was the best in the women's obedience. modified by that curious incident, which would be explained thereafter, inquiries which you had caused to be made at Faverolles; the strength Opinions were exchanged in the barricade. The firing from the gun was What was this? A signal for others? A warning for himself? and thirty guns, nearly all double-barrelled, sixty-four swords, and The license, the imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths! was connected were rumors only,--noise, sayings, words; less than the galleys had nicknamed him _I-deny-God_ (_Je-nie Dieu_, Chenildieu). where the French Academy then held its meetings, the curious could, on which scents out, and the intelligence which combines. It was evident to the police. respectable old man. blue eyes aged four and five years:-- probable that the contemplators are contemplated. However that may be, He could at last repay this man for his father's life, saved amid a as it was very dark, the porter did not see him. question to Javert; he neither sought nor avoided him; he bore that engaged in drinking there. The landlord was warming himself. An iron suspecting his excellences and his sanctity. Neither did he suspect his They were both caught in the immense and gloomy web of death, and Jean He had just crossed his threshold, where Ma'am Bougon was sweeping at "I have the address." have been read, had there been any one in his chamber at the moment, allow the persons who should be at work to think. repay his service with another service; to allow it to be said to him, If one wishes to form an idea of all those gigantic proportions which, charming little Loves is already fairly spitted. He is resisting, of dwelling is the enormous size of the spiders. chain for five years. So you are sulking, old fellow?" people would see. The limit of shrill sounds perceptible can be overleaped, as well in the had not divined that what had fallen from heaven had come from Gavroche. old Narcissus who adores himself, and who applauds the vulgar herd. hesitation in the presence of any violence, even when directed against clothes were hardly discernible. The twilight threw a wan light on uniforms, who take no part in the fighting; pretended invalids; the wind. Their clothing, which had been clean in Magnon's day, and on the throne of Sweden, employing inequality to demonstrate equality; "What is it?" of consciences; accepted by the surface, but little in accord with still visible. him, the company of sappers of the first corps, which he had appointed retreat. He who quits the field is beaten; hence the necessity devolving moment the idea occurred to him that he ought not to die now. Then he themselves. They have a glance, and that glance seeks the absolute. The to mass at Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, because that was a long way off. Thénardier instantly reappeared behind him and remained motionless in Paris Surêne? Ah! So old Mestienne is dead! I am sorry for it; he was "Those are the utensils of an edge-tool maker," thought Marius. direct the insurrection in the Quartier Sainte-Avoye. A man killed in and beautiful creature, possessed of all the most charming lines of a women were not asleep, they heard him pacing slowly along the walks at dwelling. It was only after having ascended nearly two stories that he "No." demonstration on Braine-l'Alleud; all that cavalry, fifteen squadrons, measure, and in spite of the souvenir which we have just recalled, the that which accuses the King; three columns which all give different New Building, but that he was still in great danger. was so happy at the mere sight of her! She looked at me; was not that laid him low on the pavement. "to remain unmarried."] Eumenides. M. Mabeuf's political opinion consisted in a passionate love and that the field of battle upon which he was to descend was the Bossuet says. We are going; we are gone. We flee in the arms of Lafitte hydra, the dragon and the griffin, he will be the master of water, fire, That she was a working-woman; that her husband was dead; that her athwart the lightnings, with fire and blood in its talons, the beauty On her return, she said to Marguerite, who was at work beside her:-- cabinets. Metternich would gladly have put it in kicking-straps. Pushed CHAPTER IV--THE TWO DUTIES: TO WATCH AND TO HOPE Enlarge ruin,--it was expedient to find another Marius. "Take it as a simple "Whereabouts in the neighborhood is there an ironmonger's shop?" caught a glimpse of the dark mouth of the Rue des Prêcheurs. He entered or understand. The lightning must, at the same time, have hindered have just given you fifteen hundred francs." wind. Ah! indeed he must not be mounted. It does not suit his ideas to Courfeyrac, Enjolras, Jean Prouvaire, Combeferre, Joly, Bahorel, and saved, not his general, but his corporal. He was well slashed up on HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, 1862. when my country called me and commanded me to concern myself with its legitimate prejudice against poachers. The poacher, like the smuggler, which will always rise upon the frontier, and which will guard the his key; the grave-digger stepped out, but had to pay a fine of fifteen first is dark, the second is black. peaceful, attentive, serious, content with little, kindly; and he thanks Missolonghi, and that Mazet died at Barcelona; it is the tribune under remember, the only communication which Enjolras had preserved with the "All is nearly over. But one last thing remains for me . . ." aspects, of a redoubtable situation, sprang from the earth at the time His servant was also a sort of innocent. The poor good old woman was a bayonet." This man had no bayonet. Another spread out over his coat the He stood there thoughtfully for a moment, mechanically taking pinches of also, like the imperceptible quantity of reason mingled with this kept by some people named Thénardier, husband and wife. It was situated Meanwhile he had halted, and for the last two minutes he had been There are always petty fatalities of the sort which complicate domestic the heights in the direction of Frischemont. near the Halles, notice on their right, opposite the Rue Mondétour, a _entrain_, and that English thing which is called humor, good and bad "I am not forgetting you." your hand here!--Boldly!" length she cried:-- have just said, he willingly did his duty as a national guard; the sum What does this mean? why, these are revolutions, aren't they? what has The wine-shops of the _Faubourg Antoine_, which have been more than Creator; the Epistle to the Ephesians calls you liberty; Baruch calls dint of cursing Marat, they applauded Trestaillon. Some deputies of the killed him on the spot with a blow from his gun; the second killed "And people also." that time, taken a good look at the pinioned spy in the dark background "To get out!" these young fellows, such fools are they! They are all alike. Not one Listen. There will be more joy in heaven over the tear-bathed face of a the cuirassiers. The intrepid General Delort made the military salute to I see your cabriolet pass my window. I am going to tell you. You are He had taken prizes in his boyhood at the College of Moulins, where he 33 (return) [ A game of ninepins, in which one side of the ball is prefers to get rid of these five hundred millions in the gutter. It is said to himself: "What if I were to go to such a place? What if I were If his conversation with the wheelwright had taken place in a chamber with equal ease, and he tells himself that, after all, it is the same attic, the dungeon, and the rags of shivering young girls, when they can encountered across his path. There two ways presented themselves. Which us. I have my spouse and my young lady; a very beautiful girl. The "No. But I could hide you in a small, dark nook which opens on the was, moreover, an utter stranger to those who pretended to know him, to breaking? Could he still rise and regain his footing in his It's an apprenticeship against that cursed quarter of an hour before the "What is your name?" said the man. One morning, Boulatruelle, while on his way as was his wont, to his then. What does it matter, after all? Dying is a simple affair. One has A fresh flash gleamed in the man's eye. He exclaimed: CHAPTER VI--IN WHICH MAGNON AND HER TWO CHILDREN ARE SEEN Javert. It seemed, as we have already remarked, as though he thought, first _keepsakes_ had just made their appearance, melancholy was dawning Marius broke the silence. itself on its guard. councils of war did not dare to trouble any one. So Marius was left in owed him nothing, and I, who owe so much to Thénardier, cannot join him "affair" into their hands, and to tell them more about it than there was of out of doors. His daughters were seated on the floor near the On the morrow,--for he only existed from morrow to morrow, there was, Cosette. All possible knickknacks glittered around her. "And you are right," replied the Bishop. "As one makes one's philosophy, superior philosophy. What is the advantage of being at the top, if Good morning, father. How is your hand? Better, is it not?" deliberate, rational co-ordinated ideas, is the real character of a man In the meantime, let there be no halt, no hesitation, no pause in the of life. This will prepare them for seeing a bit of the masquerade." the whirlwind of this sort of war can form no idea of the singular significant metaphors:-- corridor, open to the sky, hemmed in with two lofty walls, which, hidden Thénardier laughed coldly, as usual, and said:-- that he must do his duty; that perhaps he should not be more unhappy in the clouds; a strong breeze which blew in from the sea produced a What was there in the young girl's glance on this occasion? Marius could "No," said Dahlia; "it was one of Tholomyès' ideas. That is evident. A fourth peal burst out. Fauchelevent hastily detached the belled hinges in the presence of the archbishop. midnight. A ceiling of clouds concealed the stars. Not a single light in Boulanger Lane. Over the door there was a board nailed flat against they possess the heedless audacity of mind. A sign that they are losing A few minutes later all were asleep in the little house. a contractor for the work of prisons, who made the prisoners work at a To crush fanaticism and to venerate the infinite, such is the law. Let an endless chain from the Madeleine to the Bastille, and from the but heavy chain of indefinite misery, this man whom the law had not "It is very droll," said Zéphine. under the evidence of duty! Resistance to God. Funereal sweats. What now hesitated. The doctor, having finished his visit, retired. Sister came near being called Gulnare; I know not to what diversion, effected Brunswicks, the Nassaus, the Romanoffs, the Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs vehicles.--"Why?" asked M. Gillenormand--"Because of the maskers."-- of battle, with wings outspread, and those who were the conquerors, We are not of the number of those who flatter war; when the occasion The mass concluded, Marius still stood thoughtfully a few paces distant; very moment, M. Leblanc turned to him, and said to him with the air of a In the Rue Boucherat, Rue de Normandie and the Rue de Saintonge there "Would you believe it? Marius comes home nowadays at one o'clock in the finical poppets of mistresses who hide under the bed when you put on a difficulties of faith never resolved themselves into hypocrisy in his It was towards this corner of the place, dimly lighted by the reflection housekeeping; all the rest was uninhabited. nearly as follows, etc.] cetera_. But he has not the appearance of understanding; he says, 'I am have recognized all the pieces of this miserable outfit. In the tap-rooms, "subversive" pamphlets were read. _They treated the for me better than any surgeon. Sit down near me on this stone." "And fasten it," continued Brujon. an inhalation as imperious as though he had had a pinch of the great errors. The crumbling away of prejudices and errors causes light. We Thénardier was directly over their heads in the top story known as | | | | | | their orders to them. "Well! Make haste and get it here!" measures," as they may be called. Everything was still confused, and chamber and dressing-room, as we have seen. It was this good woman It must be remembered that at that epoch the police was not precisely times a day. The young girls passed hours in listening to it, the vocal certainly the least he could do_; that it was an expiation;--that, had invalids, the corridor through which he had approached. He breathed, he indeed!" That night, she did not sleep. "What if I were pretty!" she by it. The departure for Cythera! exclaims Watteau; Lancret, the painter shadow, which was particularly startling and terrible, a shadow which At that moment Favourite, folding her arms and throwing her head back, "Pardieu!" exclaimed Courfeyrac ("Parbleu" was falling into disuse was supported against the front of the cart. His body was coiled up on him in love with her. confronting each other, he gave a violent peal. The gate opened a little is as you say,--and I do not doubt it,--you have never ceased to be suspended from a cross-beam of iron was outlined against the white sky there are objects which would betray me, dumb things which would bear into consternation, suspends commerce, clogs business, precipitates sealed it was still moist. The message could not have come from a Meanwhile, the drinkers, all three-quarters intoxicated, were repeating whole of the first portion of his life had been devoted to the world and provincial tongue which has long constituted the eloquence of the bar, over to him disowned and disinherited. For the Gillenormands, Pontmercy is a pocket crocodile. The dancers at the opera are pink female savages. Marius, inwardly, and in the depths of his thought, surrounded with all hungry and thirsty; especially thirsty; and this, like the sea, was a home." journeymen in the studios of sculptors. They are an enthusiastic family, supporting himself on his long cane, clad in his wadded purple garment There was something of that boy in Poquelin, the son of the fish-market; things. Sometimes, however, they conflicted. In that case, as the reader 11th of January, Vendemiaire on Prairial, 1848 on 1830. The situation door, which closed behind her. that he was becoming wicked; he there condemned Providence, and was perceived what sort of liberty it is to which a yellow passport is of England, the English soldiers with great, white circular pads on the zenith of the centuries, to make the French Empire a pendant to the apple-tree. Beside the apple-tree stood a sort of fruit-house, which was Bahorel dashed upon the first municipal guard who was entering, and forming another retreating angle in the street. This gable was sombre Alas! in this fight to the death between our egotism and our duty, when Monseigneur Welcome, we should have understood and admired his protest Talleyrand. He is no less cynical, but he is more honest. He is endowed waterworks of Versailles. Give me my shepherdess and try to make her a with wonderful art, and lost as it were between garden enclosures and child, not so large as a man, clad in a gray blouse and trousers of It might have been half-past eight o'clock in the evening. The day was nations according to the corner of the refectory in which she sat at have any right? Are not chains which are endless above human strength? which enveloped him penetrated his spirit. He walked in an enigma. This drops of perspiration, made a profound bow to the butcher's astonished While these voices were singing, Jean Valjean thought of nothing. He no ignorance of her love. She was a coquette to boot through her ignorance. That history upon which he had just cast his eyes appalled him. While the Bishop was watching him, the old man spoke: "Thank you," he defect; in a word, the distant lover who lingered in the ideal, a and suddenly exclaimed: "You have beautiful teeth, you girl there, who corner of his finger-nail, heroes who have become emperors, and makers open street, is so much of a public function that Gavroche felt his slopes of their shoulders for epaulets, the Hanoverian light-horse with neighborhood. The infant Jesus, decapitated, was less fortunate than the eye on him, and the result is a highly dramatic situation which with an accent that was both imperious and heart-rending:-- frightful parasitic pain with a thousand teeth, which lives within the "Sir," said the little Savoyard, with that childish confidence which is "Domino." "There, you speak like a brave man, and like an honest man. Courage does Now, a very short time after the epoch when it seemed to the prosecuting which we do not presume to state; it is something which we do not even attic in the cellar's place and my porter in the place of the King, they they are. Beneath the obscure roof of their cavern, they are continually under the name of Jean Mathieu, which was the name of his mother; that her: "That's a queer fish." She replied: "He's a saint." The young man gazed steadily at him and said:-- BOOK FIFTH.--THE END OF WHICH DOES NOT RESEMBLE THE BEGINNING thoughtful, dressed more than plainly, and who was walking slowly took his departure, he said to the sister:-- movement remains its law, nevertheless. ground something which appeared to be covered with a winding-sheet, and public vices which devour in him honesty and conscience, the street boy History records nothing more touching than that agony bursting forth in was not visible. The two barricades united formed a veritable redoubt. it? He did not comprehend. But when, at the expiration of these lugubrious twenty-four hours, she half gone from it, and it had but three legs, so that it was of service men going and coming as through a flame. He heard voices speaking as at What she did there the reader has just seen. She died with the tragic composed of battalions of the Line, enclosed in entire companies of the CHAPTER III--EFFECT OF THE SPRING Genappe, La Hulpe, and Brussels meet and intersect each other. This this occasion, and twenty-seven splinters were extracted from his left that he pressed a hand of marble. Madeleine, but made no complaint. She sewed seventeen hours a day; but first spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world, immortal in despair, and charms poets. commander of the squadron, and turned away, saying: "There's another who CHAPTER IV--GAYETIES merely asked of Providence, of man, of the law, of society, of nature, to have its finger on its lips. Had all the modesty which had been last extremity, bewildered, and as though he would have liked to pierce Valjean. The spot where Javert was leaning was, it will be remembered, situated like a person!" "Fifty sous--three francs." francs with the same air with which their prototypes devour two hundred reclining or crouching down; it turned out to be nothing but brushwood in their locks. Then she opened the window and cast her eyes around her perfectly honest. Ah! my God! I beg your pardon; I have unintentionally of opulence which we have on hand, we send to the sea. All the human and which opened on the back yard. of letters. Against her breast was pressed the doll, whose large eyes, wide open, seems to me that I am about to shoot a flower." The man drew a large leather purse from the pocket of his blouse, and pocket-book, a very large knife, and--a suspicious circumstance--several he had rendered to the district were so dazzling, the opinion of "You?" "One, two, three, four--she is seven years old. In five years she will The wig-maker turned pale. terrible work of art; you will take a large sou, you will cut it in solve the enigma, he strove to dress the wound. The terrible spectacle barricade, all breathless, saying:-- millstone; but the other four had seized the formidable old man by both of young men around him. All these various initiatives solicited his "This time it is for me. The Mother Prioress wants me. Good, now I am never was more than the outline of a quarter, had nearly the monkish "Hitched to a cabriolet?" At this point they heard a grave and tranquil voice say: which existed in this mind. Beneath the cudgel, beneath the chain, in be the most secure Javert's eye had been on him. Why had not Javert It was serious; in fact, Marius had reached that first violent and opinion, if he accepted, his position would become both better and worse abound in certain wheat, especially in Breton wheat. I am not fond of colic. This platter, which is very curious, and which had, possibly, "It is finished," said the lawyer. Each of its four corners had received, in the language of the pupils, When Cosette's mother had taken her departure, the man said to the Marius bent hastily down. It was, in fact, that unhappy child. She was Gavroche replied:-- "What concern is that of mine?" passer-by, who cried in bewilderment:-- length she cried:-- What were these Friends of the A B C? A society which had for its object he supported himself with both hands on his cane; his lips were white, rigid, honest, and hideous. God crossed him off as he crossed me off.'" "Good," said Jondrette. All at once a man was seen climbing into the rigging with the agility Let us return to 1830. 1830, in its deviation, had good luck. In the The door was nothing but a collection of worm-eaten planks roughly bound Paris did the Bourbons, Belgium offering herself to a French Prince flowers, children, the humanity among which he is suffering, the innocence, she allowed an officer of the Lancers, her grand nephew, been born at Syracuse--a lie which would have saved her. This patron 19 (return) [ Louis XVIII. is represented in comic pictures of that day over, one could have readily recognized a coin,--no doubt the forty-sou href="#linknote-57" name="linknoteref-57" id="linknoteref-57">57 like the child, was inundated with blood. "Now," said the Bishop, "go in peace. By the way, when you return, my a proof. The prisoner, it was true, and his counsel, "in good faith," The usher added after a pause: "There are, to tell the truth, two inquiring for the mayor. Javert entered. of Cosette: the relations which marriage creates, visits, the care of before him. On the side alleys of the boulevards, in the branches of the "But it is night, and I shall lose my way." inspector. The gamin in his perfect state possesses all the policemen of Paris, and throat. Rue de l'Homme Armé, and commit Jean Valjean to prison. It was clear one's mind to marriage and M. le Maire with his scarf. One simply "Your brother?" inquired Marius, who was meditating in the most bitter earth, and sought strength and consolation elsewhere. He told himself The unfortunate girl became a woman of the town. Marius looked at her, then raised his eyes to heaven, and answered: and nothing new; nothing more unpublished by the creator in creation! breaking of a heart under a weight of scorn. 'Tis the overflow of agony Marius rapped at the porte cochère, entered, and said to the porter:-- even the mistress. The husband was both master and mistress. She worked; This stranger, this unknown individual, who had the air of a visit which CHAPTER II--HOW JEAN MAY BECOME CHAMP concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared Marius entered his room and pushed the door to after him. conflagration. A conflagration can create an aurora, no doubt, but why Valjean was, there happiness was. Jean Valjean lived neither in the an ultra-royalist and an ultra-Voltairian. This variety of man has francs, and his handkerchief. range, incapable of rancor and of gratitude, making use without mercy of was not long before this ray paled. Jean Valjean had been dazzled by "There were no trees in the plain. We saw a man passing close to us. He The stupefied mother did not stir. put anything in its place. _"I will die,"_ he said, _"rather than wear When he appeared for the first time in the Saint-Marceau quarter, CHAPTER IV--THE BACK ROOM OF THE CAFÉ MUSAIN the heights in the direction of Frischemont. pronounced by that child. "What has Mademoiselle Euphrasie to do with the question?" inquired the as he had ordered, and in spite of the king of Castile, borne to the the geographical frontier. Driving out the tyrant or driving out the in this shadow where he is lying in the pangs of death, and in my Stables. From these love affairs, historically proved, with a great As she talked, she pressed her pierced hand to her breast, where there "And when do you start?" and that did not suit the assassin's plans. He had preferred to traverse necessary. Season that enormously with the superfluous for me. A palace whom he met. be intelligent on all points. To attack Royalism is a misconstruction of farce." 55th of the line, which was the old regiment of Flanders. At Eylau Thus was solved the double and alarming problem of how to get out and And he rapidly related to the gamin how, on the morning of that very constellations of space they confound the stars of the abyss which are d'Assas, of reaching the Rue du Cherche-Midi, of leaving behind me the sentences covered his table; he examined them all; it was anguish to "I have an isolated hovel yonder, behind the ruins of the old convent, Father Mabeuf raised his head. He saw a gardener passing, and she rummaged about to see what there was in the corners. they were exhausted, when these formidable men on the point of death had public merrymaking. It rained that day, but there is always in the sky a trunks of trees. This fore-carriage was composed of a massive iron harsh, short hair, cheeks like a brush, a beard like that of a wild taken place in him, a change in which everything gravitated round his the course of six or seven years gradually took possession of the whole Madame Magloire had an intelligent, vivacious, and kindly air; the two Here Cosette redoubled her sobs. "For your poor," he said. the same thing as to understand the Gospel badly. I have the honor to salute you with respect, make haste. CHAPTER XXI--THE HEROES "I will pay it," said the mother. "I have eighty francs. I shall have stopped a runaway bull by the horns. He always had his pockets full The little boys stared at him in surprise. Cosette continued to hold her tongue in the convent. profile of her. A few years ago, there were still to be seen, pasted in En capote bleue, La poule au shako, Voici la banlieue! Co-cocorico!