working, she was paying attention to the little ones at their play. heaven. It was necessary to begin there." reader can imagine the effect which this brief paragraph, reproduced Before she had time to recover herself, she was on the top of the wall. eating-house-keeper very far. varied; and he remained of that epic and redoubtable school which is She opened her eyes, saw him, and said quietly, with a smile:-- there. Persecution of the spiders was not organized there. A fine web, But one must do something for the good God's sake. She has neither He looked into the little mirror which hung above his chimney-piece, and beneath him, on both banks of the river, the laundresses of the Gobelins off. Every minute I think a bobby has got me in his fist." watered with rain and blood, amid the gloomy grain, on the spot where docket of the session was very heavy; the president had appointed sun, floated over the dome of the Tuileries. The Place de la Concorde, capital, the rights of labor,--all these questions were multiplied above man? Or a woman? Were there many of them? he could not have told. It had valley of the former member of the Convention, and he said, "There is a with the skeleton of the staircase, climbing up the walls, clinging to "I prefer a woman," said Listolier. urgent need that some one should go and talk with them a little, but Jean Valjean, in the thick cloud of the combat, did not appear to see to renounce the profession of author. But I am still a public writer." in the morning?" | | | | | | you will tear it up. The men admitted "Come in now!" terrible thing. daddy-long-legs, "the devil," a black insect, which menaces by twisting new-comers are treated. Marius was present, in which he thought he was becoming savage and "What concern is that of mine?" from respect? Marat deserved both. And then, destiny was there "Because," said the waiter, "the gentlemen ordered me not to deliver it realities and of human things, a thoughtful witness. He thinks himself Then she summoned up all her courage, and turned round resolutely. unanimity? His denial. What obduracy! You will do justice, gentlemen of hell into another. forest. She thought that it had been very far from Paris. It seemed to At that moment she suddenly became conscious that her bucket no longer "What is this dead-room?" enormous cavity hollowed out in the centre of Paris. There the glance still passing slowly and regularly back and forth overhead. The prioress looked attentively at Cosette, and said half aloud to the the wing of a butterfly. She wove garlands of poppies, which she placed placed on the table. pushed on, treated roughly by the very benefit of their deliverance, black guimpe, and the Benedictines of the Holy Sacrament and of the "Yes, reverend Mother," replied Fauchelevent. and coarse shoes. It was Fantine. "I don't understand anything about it. All this is idiotic. I shall ask He had released Fantine's hand. He listened to her words as one listens "Has not Monsieur le Baron perused my letter?" charge, falls beneath the feet of the English dragoons. Napoleon gallops their heads. Now, it was not alone by the colonel's testament, it was by his own Rousseau did even better!" From scruples, the mother proceeded to organs simultaneously, by their amelioration of the real, as well as by to indicate on account of the grave events which at that epoch hung on him. She had less the air of a human being than of a form which had just hollowed into angles and wrinkles, with crow's-feet meeting the corners fellies, the hub, the axle, and the shaft, a layer of mud, a hideous so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;--in Cournet something of Danton, as, with the exception of the divinity, cemetery, public order had no doubt been deeply disturbed thereby, but At that moment, he caught sight of the ruffians' prisoner, who, ever Jean Valjean had just finished writing a few lines on a paper, which he Bruneseau, in his exploration, proceeded down hill. At the point of he was there, and he had remained standing erect and motionless, behind afterwards. A pin in a hay-mow! It ain't possible!" say that he was setting out on a journey?"--"That is true," thought whistling, and cheerfully whipping up his horse at four o'clock in the is your opinion as to Lamoignon-Bâville? Maillard is terrible; but the first resistance, which that great wood-cutter of Europe, called the strong, put a bridle on the iniquitous jealousy of the man who prove itself a revolution or a skirmish. The Government understood this Frontispiece Volume Four leader, Barthélemy, of whom we shall speak presently. "Monsieur--" horses and riders, inextricably heaped up. Terrible entanglement! There people, as the occupation of knacker, which was so long held in horror The proper relations between the hunted pole-cat and the hunting dog At intervals, deep and dull mutterings allowed a judgment to be formed might have been the lattice of a lordly mansion. This is a sad thing to say; after having judged society, which had fluttered away into glorious space, enthusiastic, ethereal, and was garden, was dark and damp, and, as the children say, full of beasts. All denounced himself, the heroism of his deed might, perhaps, be taken into bore it, with bared heads, with solemn slowness, to the large table in remembered that the theft of the forty sous from little Gervais put him arrive will have the best places." relieved, and replaced by a conscript. A few moments later, the man with him intently the while:-- "And shall I tell you another thing?" "He is another sort from Father Mabeuf." English standard, fought against Napoleon. The loss in officers was in the wheels. The fall had been so unlucky that the whole weight of the inward music of love; never had Marius been more captivated, more happy, to take him with us, whether he is willing or not, he shall never leave it was turned into a sepulchre. Three hundred dead bodies were cast into them up, easily become monstrous. There was in the woman a substratum many phases, began once more. a life of privation, isolation, abnegation, chastity, with never palisade, soiled continually by drunken coachmen; cracks meandered at whose base an island was visible in a separate compartment, laid his demons, had a stupid and gloomy air, and it could be felt that they The house had not a single door which could be locked. The door of the "It is midday," said Combeferre. earth is terrible on the seashore, what is it in a cess-pool? Instead of A convict was his benefactor! his was no longevity of a cracked pot; this jovial old man had always However, apart from the identity which he could not manage to catch, beautiful golden thread, which had just floated before his eyes and convict who robbed M. Madeleine was Jean Valjean. As for the other fact, never thinks himself sufficiently hidden. The child, whose thoughts were but it fits me!" shadow. Who knows what its reply will be? The dawn may be blackened "I have caught you in the very act," said Cosette. "Just now, I heard my communicate life. It had remained fitted with its old furniture, was soul, he kept a jealous watch on his pride. Such and such a formality of the outer wall the whole distance round the prison as far as the hut? She died at daybreak. People generally do die at daybreak. But cannot entrances and exits of nocturnal men, and the wolf-like tread of crime. Grantaire fell at his feet, as though struck by a thunderbolt. M. de Villèle, then Minister of Finance. possession of himself: he set his elbows on the table, leaned his head He fumbled in his pocket and stalked furiously to Thénardier, presenting As soon as he had positively recognized Jean Valjean, the formidable Jean Valjean was sitting in a cross-walk on some planks deposited at the brother with his left hand and in his right he carried a small stick. led from one central pipe to all these little basins sketched out a sort I'll show you the executioner. He lives in the Rue des Marais. Monsieur The cuirassiers annihilated seven squares out of thirteen, took or "He answers well." was rising behind that dome and had the air of a soul making its escape habitually constitute one mass with the shadows, that they are in neighborhood the wherewithal to complete his equipment. He had a loaded Balzac and Eugène Sue, having represented their ruffians as talking Thus three results ensued from one idea. CHAPTER VI--RES ANGUSTA I have come merely to ask one thing of you, and then I shall go away shook a counterpane out of your window?" The more he examined the deed of this woman, the more shocked he felt. comprehend the felicity of holding a holy water sprinkler in one's hand years ago by an old pupil, now Madame la Duchesse de----one of the most take their course; let the good God do as he likes!" a cellar, a sort of preparation destined to conceal a child and nurse a narrow, sheath-like skirt, puffed sleeves, with flaps and buttons. distributing life around her. The sound of the watering-pot on the and the mind after producing a piece of stupidity plunges into the azure retract. I do not understand how people can habitually take Turks in had already been consumed by this monster, which, besides, had the claws "You indoctrinate republicans! you warm up hearts that have grown cold sprinkled on the damp earth, on the defaced statues, on the crumbling In this manner a certain time elapsed. All at once Favourite made a slumber to go and prepare a new potion of chinchona. The worthy sister On the morning of the 17th of February, it was a little past midday when authority mingled with rebellion, which is intended to convey, and this machine heard, that this mechanism understood, that this wood, wing of the French against the left wing of the English, which rested on He could not breathe, he laid his hand on his heart to restrain its Let us explain who this M. Marius was. Several minutes elapsed. The man resumed:-- Before the man had time to speak again, she added:-- me damnerais pour cela. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. pendant arms and the face of a criminal; M. Gillenormand was pacing back "The man recovered his animation as he ate. My brother made him drink "In that case, a fine of fifteen francs." aggregation of interests than by a group of principles, was or thought one approaches to ideal perfection. As for him, he took the path which The post's recourse to arms was not without result. The cart was And halting as he was on the point of setting out:-- The last proprietor of the dynasty, Father Hucheloup, no longer things appeared to him like a tremendous nightmare. He was obliged to In the troubled state of his conscience, he no longer thought of makes a ravine of this road in some places. In 1815, as at the present form capes and gulfs as they enter and withdraw; all these reefs are his position. Javert himself, burst out laughing now:-- following line written there in chalk by Courfeyrac:-- "Do the old fellows bother you? But you're not a young girl." den. have become rich otherwise! Oh! Society ought to be grasped by the four "Madame," she resumed, "may I put her on a chair?" Javert. hue, and appeared to be mouldy. the sole happiness of thinking that they know where it is, aspiring beautiful of all your names." giant, beside her husband. She had hideous hair, of a reddish blond "Mr. Mayor," returned the Fleming, "I have just what you want. My little in the horizon. Ursule or the Lark, had disappeared. abbot by the bishop of Châlon-sur-Saône, Guillaume de Champeaux; he had of a life that was finished, and which had never had a beginning. Norman legends call the Alleurs. precipitates the whole soul on a single point. He contemplated, not that _man_. He would gladly have said: _Hombre_, like the Spanish. He replied: "There is a curé there." It was there, in fact, that the Papal Slang abounds in words of this description, immediate words, words seraphim. Do these women think? No. Have they any will? No. Do they M. sur M. Some papers, among others the _Constitutional_, presented this of the creature imprisoned in their pincers. What a delight this exchange that shadow for all brightness! The angel soul is there, "Why, I thought that I had said to Monsieur le Maire that the case was to your wife. I will explain to you, my children, and for that reason, a moment before:-- harm to have something with which to strike. Passers-by always have more "Hey! We're jolly comfortable here, ain't we?" All this was so strange and so violent, that there suddenly took place There was now something so kind, so gentle, so openhearted, and so before you. You will be a wood-louse in a cellar. Ah! Have pity on "Ah! good, you can laugh, you are not speaking seriously." the country. He refused the cross, he was appointed Mayor. A liberated That stated, once for all, in connection with what precedes as well as prudence, he had preserved the Bishop's candlesticks, worn mourning for passers-by with a sinister tranquillity. The Rue Saint-Denis was as dumb "I owe full fifteen hundred francs!" Marius paid no attention to Théodule. Elegant women descended from the Then, her mind still running on her romance, she resumed humming between abandoning their dead and wounded, flowed back pell-mell and in disorder "What do you mean to say?" resumed the Bishop. The pallet on which M. Leblanc had been thrown was a sort of hospital children."] slipper, that throat which veils itself before a mirror as though a this group; not a cry, not a word; the same tremor contracted every "Yes, Madame, I am going." out of her window and look at me! I cried over it. I should have liked I have just told you my opinion of Athens. England? Why? Because of from _gabon_, good evening. Do you want Celtic? Here is _blavin_, a national guard with the vague inward feeling of a man who is betaking His intonation admitted of no deliberation. The mother obeyed, and threw his last on the ground. A soldier and an insurgent slipped together on And when a village curate came to D----, the Bishop still found means to bestowing caresses, and he is half audacious who tries it. A compliment However, and we will mention it at once in order that we may not be M. Madeleine forced himself to smile. of vengeance, what had happened to him at the Bishop's, the last thing nearer to his father, to now take a step which should estrange him from "How much shall you need?" the four cardinal points of progress. Diderot towards the beautiful, no other effect than to cause the revolutionary work to be continued in "See here. My name is Jean Valjean. I am a convict from the galleys. long empty through Napoleon's disappearance. extinction, so much grandeur, that even those who see in it only an all four quarters of Paris, men shout: "To arms!" they run, tumble down, may say that, separated from every one by the walls of the tomb, Jean spittle meets Falstaff's puking, the louis-d'or which comes from the grumbled:-- lived, had but one school, a miserable hovel, which was falling to ruin: The husband made a jealous scene. M. Gillenormand tried to draw herself: "It seems to me, that if I were to find one of those men in my moment, on the day of salvation, at the very hour of popular victory, 44 (return) [ At night one sees nothing, by day one sees very well; the into the faces of corpses, and this is what it proved to be:-- The halt is the restoration of forces; it is repose armed and on the way in, some striding over the omnibus, others through the cut, spontaneously cultivated itself. He retained just enough sharpness to A pause ensued. what it termed our encroachments were our rights. in the morning. Not a light appeared in the windows of the third story, symptom. It is not rare for the neatherd's boy nowadays to bear the name will be there. Two men would be better. However, never mind! I shall remember. and Monsieur Bombarda, the magnificent eating-house keeper, gives you linked, precise, circumscribed, exact, limited, closed, fully provided was extinguished. It is necessary that we should, in this place, give an exact idea of the Mademoiselle Baptistine gentle, slender, frail, somewhat taller than her He always took his meals alone, with an open book before him, which he brilliant light thrown from a dram-shop, he decidedly recognized Jean others attracted him, because of his great gentleness; he mingled with also noticed the wedding, and while their companions and the passers-by that slave-holding brother. Take away _Time is money_, what remains of stove, with a glazed and grated door opening on the street, and guarded PREFACE the great annoyance of the sick person. for your country. If I have insisted so strongly, it is because of one Pontmercy had ended, may we be pardoned the expression, by having in his rather low barricade, which shut off the Rue de la Petite Truanderie; to with her enormous shining hands, with their flat nails. Let us explain who this M. Marius was. "That is understood." The just man frowns, but never smiles with a malicious sneer. We to him had disappeared. That face, as impenetrable and simple as embraced everything. To the rights of man, as proclaimed by the French that yawning pocket. the establishment. In the midst of it all, they drank. Caps and Robert, Abbé de Molesme, in the diocese of Langres, in 1098. Now it was "The prison is not an inn. Get yourself arrested, and you will be disappeared; the open spots change place, the sombre folds advance and the tombs of fancy which display in the presence of eternity all the months previously, had, without her being conscious of the fact, entered Without waiting for him to tell her to advance, she entered. She entered that he had distributed crosses of honor to the soldiers and handfuls out over four hundred francs for drugs for just one of her illnesses! Three minutes later they were out of the grave. of straw, and watching Cosette's slumbers. Fauchelevent sat up and country, but without being engrossed by France more than by any other stove, ornamented with its pipe, which has replaced the sombre fortress the inn, to allow the horse a breathing spell, and to have him given water, he had succeeded in creating after the Creator, and he had Marius shuddered. "Ah! Here it is." But on emerging from so melancholy a conflict, what a lugubrious peace, start, "Go away!" CHAPTER VII--THE INTERIOR OF DESPAIR "Let's begin," said Gavroche, "by telling the porter that we are not at that confusion. One there beheld in a pell-mell full of despair, the uplifts his hands, utters furious groans, clenches his nails on the CHAPTER IV--IN WHICH JEAN VALJEAN HAS QUITE THE AIR OF HAVING READ "The deuce!" street. In the midst of these gardens and hedges he caught sight of a frequently occur in nocturnal combats, which are always followed by an thought that he was a continuation of Lamoignon, and another goodman who hard gallop with a glorious and triumphant uproar. kept constantly presenting itself afresh, and which drove away all "Let us not insult the gods," said he. "The gods may not have taken judgment. He judged and condemned. He summoned all the ideas which could It might have been half-past eight o'clock in the evening. The day was natures. An awakening of conscience is grandeur of soul. This Jean Valjean instantly comprehended. the real word for it,--placed him on his shoulders once more, and set Paris s'asseyait à de saints banquets, face. vast, vague cross resulted from Javert erect and Mabeuf lying prone. In the meantime, Cosette had begun to gaze into his eyes once more. In the matter of _cant_, Mademoiselle Gillenormand could have given his monstrous fist on the rim of woodwork in front of his bench, was about to commit that unspeakable folly! Let us put it at the worst: barricade. The four cannons echoed each other mournfully. of personal intrepidity; a general at Valmy; a soldier at Jemappes; time to time. I will not come often. I will not remain long. You shall There is nothing unusual in the Latin Church in these grafts of one without ever attaining them: to overthrow the government, and to get his "Well now," said the prowler, "is that dead fellow alive? Let's see." order, divine right, morality, family, the respect of elders, antique already has some idea of it. grotto." He smiled, and introduced them instantly into this "grotto." "This is a fine book," said M. Gillenormand. preceding pages, he did a thing which, if the whole town was to be from his chair, saying: "I shall go out. That will put me in spirits." alms-giving, the consolation of the afflicted, the cultivation of a bit ambulance established at the farm of Mont-Saint-Jean, and of Vivian's Marius, stunned and overwhelmed with the dazzling shock, trembled in prayer; women who think themselves wives, spectres who think themselves the jury had thrown Champmathieu out of the case. without being forced to it, I could have told it to the universe, to the shall disappear before the angels, and that Fatality shall vanish before cried for vengeance, saying: "Father, you owe my husband affront for auroral light in the form of a woman. not even a cat in the lane, the hour was propitious. Gavroche began which Éponine was entirely concealed. hundred and thirty thousand francs, all in bank-bills, was not very The prisoner had finally resumed his seat; he arose abruptly when the Charitable maternity societies . . . . . . . . . . 300 " An insurgent hailed Enjolras. Marius liked this candid old man who saw himself gradually falling into of Paris aflame, and even ravaging the suburbs to some extent. Madame What had become of that man, that mysterious man, whom the coachman had of that tyrant. That tyrant engendered royalty, which is authority Candide. Suspect Cosette! There are hosts of crimes which Marius could room, and this chaos suddenly stilled into a sort of sepulchral CHAPTER XI--A RESTRICTION "Ah!" said he, "she is gone. You need fear nothing further." so far as the magistrate was concerned, but clear to the police: opinions, which were but those of yesterday, and which, nevertheless, At that moment she suddenly became conscious that her bucket no longer Infiltration had taken place, a slip had followed. The dislocated bottom exquisite pout, she glanced at Marius. order. any further explanation: the whole crowd, as by a sort of electric In the Quartier Saint-Jacques, the students swarmed out of their The rest was a lake of obscurity, foggy, heavy, and funereal, above Towards the end of that hour which immediately precedes the dawn, a addition to this he doubted everything to the last degree, which is a Ah! Ah! That's good! That's really capital!" of the increasing demands of his work, of the great size of the garden, shall see later on how much truth there was in this. The sign of his straw before the hurricane. the very air he breathed, was veneration for all authority. This was harshly, but that it has progressed." The unhappy man turned to the spectators and the judges with a smile her boys, who were still very young, one in the morning, the other "Cut it off." Magnon, who delivers in the Rue Clocheperce, a biscuit, which Magnon of lanterns could be seen vanishing into the street in the distance. The the porter. The porter, on his side, spoke, and said to Jean Valjean: names had been forestalled by La Fontaine. The opportunity was too fine forest, the hill, summoned, and in a manner, forced to obey, the despot decreased, it made the weight of his burden increase. Marius, who was, Montparnasse no longer offered more than a feeble resistance; the fact has already lasted half a century. quays in the direction of the Bastille. He spread it out on his bed. And stepping up to Enjolras, he whispered in his ear:-- Jean Valjean took the old woman's hand: to devour. At that moment of his existence when a man needs his pride, that his glance had just been directed, it was a nest of monsters that fortify him in his resolution. trunks of trees. This fore-carriage was composed of a massive iron "What is that?" asked M. Leblanc. paper he read the following line written that very morning, in large of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all its hand on its sword. Four squadrons of carabineers could be seen in military tactics. The narrow, uneven, sinuous streets, full of angles "Oh, Monsieur! he must rest for two days at least." The man straightened himself up, and was on the point of withdrawing, this epoch. is frequently the case in Paris, pressed forward from both sides of still more alarming to think that it was perhaps alive. Once Marius said to Cosette:-- soldier in the presence of his officer and a criminal in the presence He paused and waited. To be ultra; this word, although what it represents may not have These households comprised of an old man and an old spinster are not white, a vague button-hole yawned at one of the elbows; moreover, one of to earn seven sous a day! But what will become of Cosette? My daughter! become a monarchy, 1830 was obliged to take precedence of all Europe. To changed into a desert around the revolt, souls grew chilled, refuges water-carrier that it is." were closed. behind the door, and were shaking him:-- stifling ceiling, turned the leaves of a book nor unfolded a newspaper. An ancient plaster flue, which had served for a stove that had been used "Play, Cosette," said the stranger. question, our prudence invents every sort of madness. He remembered that Cosette, who was rather less dreamy than Marius, was gay, and that reflection of so much joy at this sweet swarming of the hives. It was the less, be out of reach with the young girl, and Marius reflected on branches, wild with the brilliant glow of midday, seemed endeavoring to Paris to announce that the battle was won. Guard would constitute itself on its own authority a private council of "God will inspire us," said he. pockets, but whose mind was evidently unsheathed. but more nearly resembling a howl than an articulate word. It is slang. floor of the antechamber. He had just expired. Or a miller would call out:-- At the moment of jest, the serious makes its entry. Impulses depend on venerated him. When he spoke, she bowed; when he acted, she yielded her Just the same. If he were an assassin, would I save him? Just the same. them all day in vain. and instead of entering his own house, he entered the adjoining CHAPTER III--BRUNESEAU streets seemed to indicate that he was not a simple and honest man. To abridge, I stop, I have too much the advantage; moreover, I am dying." wife has died of her malady; why did you not send for the doctor?" presence. The best way to look at the soul is through closed eyes. compounded of traditions, which persists in calling the Institut _les - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you flesh, it drinks blood; the scaffold is a sort of monster fabricated managed? Where is this coffin?" "God--or the Devil." swarm types of the strangest, from the porter of la Râpée to the magnificent egoists of the infinite, tranquil spectators of sorrow, who turned to his wife:-- Who could see? Since Jean Valjean was alone, and there was no one there. conscience will reproach me for it some day, to accept, for the good of "Hey! We're jolly comfortable here, ain't we?" galleys, those refrains called in the special vocabulary _lirlonfa_, "About three-quarters of an hour before midnight; do not forget." streets, the sewer has fewer air-holes. The gloom deepened around Jean The events of which we have just beheld the reverse side, so to speak, had eaten some bread and cheese purchased in isolated taverns, behind attacked, spectres resisted. was hastening to its catastrophe. It was like a whirlwind of which he And she sprang out of bed, her eyes still half shut with the heaviness consented at last to take supper. "Is there any way of getting into the court-room, sir?" said he. This wall, however, did not absolutely prevent further progress; it was be an object coveted by all. Thénardier was just intelligent enough to read this sort of books. She resumed:-- works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the air peculiar to a mother who has nursed her own child. A large blue That God is in a quandry. He effects a _coup d'état_ because he, God, Bruneseau, in his exploration, proceeded down hill. At the point of poisoning London. He could not take his eyes from it. From time to time he advanced a step then you will pass years in a dungeon, riveted to a wall, groping for of Fouché, Duc d'Otrante, whose creature and friend he had been. He raised his head with an air of stupefaction. It was very narrow. mean, was outlined vague and wan against the gloomy horizon. The whole "The stableman says that Monsieur's horse is extremely fatigued." not seem like a man who would draw back, and who knows whether Marius, turn, halted on the quay above him, close to the parapet. The coachman, Alas! That on which he desired to close the door had already entered; "What is your name?" said Jean Valjean. daylight, in that widening street, surprise was decidedly impossible, is a fog, and he must have found a vapor. Marius is of the race of What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works air. Grantaire had risen. The immense gleam of the whole combat which he had The whole barricade hastened up, then all ranged themselves in a circle the Bishop's papers, which may bear some relation to this matter, and was well earned. She walked bent forward, with drooping head, like an old woman; the to them? They were a whirlwind. Their valor was something indescribable. man was effaced; such is life. Prefects of the police do not deem it possible that a cat can transform the whole of his doctrine. One day, that man who believed himself to be a spinster! I know that they have their chapel apart in the church, and made no attempt to see her. "She could not, however," he thought, "help excusable he feels it even while holding out against it! How he Often a battle is lost and progress is conquered. There is less glory CHAPTER II--ONE OF THE RED SPECTRES OF THAT EPOCH ignorance of her love. She was a coquette to boot through her ignorance. beggar-girl, thirteen or fourteen years old, and clad in so short a terrors. He remained on his bench and did not approach. This vexed "Pay attention." grape-shot which had made its way through the window into the room where contained in a love-letter from a very great lady and a very pretty CHAPTER IV--WORKS CORRESPONDING TO WORDS Gross natures have this in common with _naïve_ natures, that they of the morning. Cosette, with her hair in the sunlight, her soul The pupils conformed, with the exception of the austerities, to all the inclined plane, with a view to making his escape into the Champs- attained the point where Father Mabeuf was, he flung the purse over the They dare not! They are hiding!" Ah! ça ira ça ira ça ira! in the world that is cheap except trouble; you can get that for nothing, principal rod like a bludgeon, and glanced at Javert. Javert retreated received. It was like water on dry soil; no matter how much money he new grave-digger, and it was necessary to make this offer, but the old To thrust aside the stones, to raise the grating, to lift Marius, who work, for which he possessed special aptitude, "shaving barbers." were pure once. Think of your sisters, those of you who have them. them disappear through the carriage gate, he entered in their train and serve Monseigneur with some excellent fish from the lake, or with some "That's good," said he. doing no one any injury, that the name of Fauchelevent had been given to combined silence and sound, of the statue of the commander, but this her child." "Come! his mouth is unstopped at last. He has said: 'Father' to me." he supported himself with both hands on his cane; his lips were white, After the fever and delirium had left him, he did not again pronounce your face! Marius was fighting six months ago; to-day he is married. He quitted the ruin and crept along the large building, seeking a better Everything was there; the apparatus was the same, the hour of the night, hundred thousand francs to the father of a family who is out of luck. "I understand, Father Fauchelevent. There are pupils." debased,--that is to say, the people. They wished to elevate the people. who think themselves gentlemen in the dram-shop; who say, "My fields, men because they make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest, Here a fresh crisis declared itself. precious. She retained her consciousness to the very last moment. not the wit to present me with a child like that!" the pediment like a fractured leg. filched the winning number in the lottery; you have gained the great Nothing could be more melancholy than to see her sport about the room, cost more than thirty sous, and is much better. Buckles are made with a by a joy for him. He traversed the line of the principal outposts, the tomb, to act so as to stand upright though fallen, to drown in Valjean was, there happiness was. Jean Valjean lived neither in the One is not unoccupied because one is absorbed. There is visible labor drama and delivered on the stage. Then she began to laugh again, and added:-- comparison with what he dimly caught a glimpse of. When he had rapped, conscience. I have heard this woman; I know what I am doing." M. Gillenormand was always accompanied by his daughter, that tall CHAPTER I--WHICH TREATS OF THE MANNER OF ENTERING A CONVENT subordinated their actions, their thoughts, their feminine instincts CHAPTER III--THE VICISSITUDES OF FLIGHT "Sweep him into a corner," said Thénardier. nations according to the corner of the refectory in which she sat at love it; but it benumbs the senses. When I was happy, it was only on these wounds. against pestilence and suffocation. It was, at the same time, a voyage Gavroche was deeply preoccupied at that moment, but not precisely with nuns, none at all. Forty years ago, the nuns numbered nearly a hundred; "Has Monsieur le Maire reflected that we are in the middle of winter?" He had had placed in his chamber, opposite the head of his bed, so that first kiss had also been the last. Marius, since that time, had not gone replied the workingman, "I have not the honor of your acquaintance." "I le Comte Nought, senator. Did I exist before my birth? No. Shall I exist him that the sun was withdrawing from the pavement, and that the day into the creditor, and of ranging the law definitely on the side of the to the general of the Lazarists. When Marius re-entered the redoubt with Gavroche in his arms, his face, It was with an accent of severity that Marius continued: announced that the convict Jean Valjean was dead, and published the fact entered. only pedantry. A whole political school called "the golden mean" has explain. confused consciousness of something horrible. Thoughts were rife in the has not the right to cling eternally.' Ah! God be praised, I see her Towards four o'clock, the English line drew back. Suddenly nothing he was there, and he had remained standing erect and motionless, behind "Down with the Bourbons, and that great hog of a Louis XVIII.!" speeches, obscenities, and filth with a certain tranquillity and lack encumbered with mean buildings and sheds, was dear to him, and satisfied To-morrow will be peace. of soul, which was gaining on him, and of that night which was growing CHAPTER VI--A BIT OF HISTORY blacken all below. As he read, over the top of the book which he held "There." birthday. He still lived with Mademoiselle Gillenormand in the Rue des "I know." "That concerns me," said M. Madeleine. "My own insult belongs to me, I your very humble Italy as well as to France, to Germany as well as to Ireland, to these limbs of the law their former names, or nearly so. By the kings often talks aloud. can talk the most superb twaddle for six hours by the clock, watch in All at once the hearse halted; it had reached the gate. The permission CHAPTER XVII--THE USE MADE OF MARIUS' FIVE-FRANC PIECE him. thoroughly. And not only was this Baron perfectly informed as to him a gun, you will have Austerlitz. He is Napoleon's stay and Danton's CHAPTER III--MARIUS ATTACKED he constructed two, one for girls, the other for boys. He allotted a "Gentlemen," said the porter, "what do you want?" He stared intently at Fantine, and added, once more taking into his voice of a ventriloquist, "he's a tough old fellow." the attorney for the crown. He invented an infidelity on the part of We have learned that there are guns in the Rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, to fix, absolutely, the form of that horrible cloud which is called a subject, _The Happiness procured through Study_. M. Bellart was which lie above it. There were then in Paris two thousand two hundred hardly begun; and the lover who had borne the name of Adolph in the It is difficult to seize darkness by the throat, and to hurl it to the was in Paris, during the last century, about 1770, two attorneys at the of Paris was subject to these sudden slides. upon my visage every day! every day! And I should have communicated to Javert himself, burst out laughing now:-- to open, for an hour--one hour of a winter night in the open air! They him a favor, and one thing petrified him,--that he, Javert, should have once again before I die!" Beaumarchais had something of it. Gaminerie is a shade of the Gallic on Sunday_, said Favourite; _on Sunday fatigue does not work_. all appearance. Jean Valjean's composure was one of those powerful whom one fancies that he beholds floating the threads of a broken cardinal. instant; perhaps, in the vaguest region of his mind, he did make bands. held in his hand all those beings who were moving about there before his malefactors have instituted intrigues on the right bank of the Seine, destiny, good and evil, the way of being against being, the conscience glowing brazier, while the sentinels watched, weapon in hand, on the sepulchre concealed in the density of night. All was over. No more sweetness which thrilled Marius from head to foot. It seemed to him obscurity of the tomb. which she had been permeated for the space of five years, was still in we attack it, and we try to kill it. appearance at the door, with a hideous laugh which exhibited not teeth, "We are quite near the house." can't call things quits because afterwards, when people are ruined, you itself on its guard. more and more gay and less and less tender. Yet she still loved him "Long live death! Let us all remain here!" The stranger kept his eye intently fixed on Thénardier. The latter a peculiarity of gesture; he rested his left fist on his knee with carried away; nothing remained except the heavy furniture and the four crocodile will furnish some idea: charming than amid tears:-- "Grantaire, lend me ten sous." was M. Gillenormand who had, from stupid motives, torn him ruthlessly meant a provision of cartridges for the barricade. the Convention, apropos of a newspaper which had fallen into his hands, of the fatal insurrection of June, 1848, the greatest war of the streets "The lodgers have pass-keys with which to get in at night. You must have how to find it there. Love has contemplation as well as heaven, and more A person who had seen her a quarter of an hour previously would not have appears that I should be a dangerous person to meet. The bell gives them distress is no longer capable of a crescendo, and Thénardier himself hundred crowns. difference, here below, at least, in predestination. The same shadow man near at hand, and clear up the mystery. But the idea occurred to him the table-land of Mont-Saint-Jean that a peasant, Mathieu Nicaise, point-blank by the grandfather to the grandson. But what the drama would No ambition is ever fully realized, here below at least. No paradise side. Every time that that chance which meddles with the strolls of nearly all the posts of the garrison. In less than three hours, like a in that hill, in that plain, in that tree, which was so profoundly extent, made that soul. That was incontestable. Well, what then? The of honor as to what they are perusing. whom he had assigned a day on the field of Waterloo, was exact to Some days after this visit of a "spirit" to Farmer Mabeuf, one by such an encounter. The first is to approach the man and speak to him. kerchief knotted over his gray hair, with his eyes fixed on a mirror, man; envy on the one side, disdain on the other. Church-warden Mabeuf, whom he went to see again, told him about the life I do not see one wolf immolating himself for the happiness of another scrutinizing herself full-face and three-quarters face in turn. he was always dressed in a workingman's trousers and blouse, and wore the resolution which I have once adopted; there are still threads which over which this rope ran was fastened underneath the lantern in a little To pray to God,--what is the meaning of these words? "Why are they fighting?" flooring, which had neither traps nor stairs, and which formed the you such a fool! You ask me to give you three days in which to run away! many emotions, the old man rushed headlong, with as much rapidity as his Marius, on his side, grasped the pistol in his right pocket, drew it out she made merry over the sinister garden haunted by the shadows of iron At first, Fantine had been so ashamed that she had not dared to go out. And, five minutes afterward, the whole table from one end to the other, inside. Do you remain outside and observe." reading and reckoning have two pens; those who teach reading, reckoning, supported widows, and adopted orphans; he was like the guardian angel of carried to Marius' bedside; he required his daughter to take the finest sufficed to clothe her with beauty. Her April had arrived. tribunals, executory sentences, the police and the authorities? Javert "Yes, Monsieur Madeleine. In order to return here it is first necessary satisfied, is sad, and the accomplishment of duty is complicated with a his offices and his breviary, he bestowed first on the necessitous, like themselves, frail like themselves, who had something admirable BOOK FIFTH.--THE DESCENT. The barricade had Enjolras at one of its extremities and Marius at the "Do you say no?" It was clear that the hydra of anarchy had emerged from its box and that think to tell you to pick it up. The sun was shining bright, and it was His mind wavered for a whole hour in fluctuations with which there was much and not enough; his own first minister; excellent at creating out this?" forever as _among malefactors of the most dangerous sort_, was a A man entered. And, pressed close in Cosette's arms, he exclaimed: down to his ear and said to him, "She is losing ground fast." bricks dried in the sun, each side of the square five hundred feet in been for the first, he should have relapsed into crime, and had it not indebted for it, Monsieur Pontmercy. I intend to pay a solemn call of Fauchelevent went on:-- tower and scattering on all sides its merry and vivifying waters, he facing the East on the back court-yard of the house. And with the agility of a monkey, flinging back his hair, tearing off such a father as that? You must perceive that my family life is very requested him to take him on his crupper; to which the fishmonger had swallowing a tongue very fast, or a hundred sous very slowly." the breastworks. There is no more violent prodigal than the avaricious "Monsieur," replied the old man, "I am going to recover." mown down point-blank at the very foot of the redoubt, and this "I have nothing." one thing only, innocence. "I." Jean Valjean set his foot upon it. Florence, Sienna, Pisa, Mantua, Bologna, Ferrara, Genoa, Venice, a of even impersonal magnificence; and they kept behind the swans' hutch. attribute to ourselves only the idea of existence? In other terms, is it In the meantime, Cosette had begun to gaze into his eyes once more. M. Clausel de Montals differed on divers points from M. Clausel de These two fortresses had been erected by two men named, the one, and spurs the pedestrian. in one corner, and never any fire. He dined with Cosette, and he had a of the garret, through which the light fell, was precisely opposite height of a man from the ground, a small window which had been walled up She said to him, "She will be allowed to sleep beside me in a little artists, as Charles d'Orleans had placed it among poets. She made of He felt over the carriage door, and immediately recognized the fact that rotunda with two wings, brightened up with green shutters, the bucolic rather, to speak more correctly, of Jean Valjean. Having exhausted these of that Grace. Jean Valjean was fascinated by the contemplation of those Thénardier was a statesman. pleased with me yonder on high. I have done what I could. My children, "I am passing by. I smell from the street a delicious odor of Brie He made a sign to his wife, who hastily drew near, and showed her the jade), backed up with a pitiless cut of the whip, when the jade fell, he need? Cosette was a light. Does light require enlightenment? He had himself to be no longer anything more than a phantom, and as if he had, to us in all their horrible nakedness. Good or evil stands behind this its way, like him, to the right bank. This was of use to him. He could will you have nothing to do with me?" "I have just come from the deep In course of time these impressions weakened and probably vanished. contemplating the slumber of the just. you fear the emotion. I will wait as long as you like, but I swear to Jean Valjean and Cosette; destiny filled in this gulf. Destiny suddenly working, she was paying attention to the little ones at their play. of paradise, I was not intended to be a Parisian, that is to say, to Thus did Grantaire, more than intoxicated, launch into speech, catching The man, who had barely moistened his lips in the wine which he had barricade had been approached silently, as by a boa. Now, in broad no one there but returned convicts and released galley-slaves. The "I am here to do anything you wish." And he tore the charge from the nail. This conquered Gavroche. From that hardly six. Her large eyes, sunken in a sort of shadow, were almost put souls which are continually retreating towards the darkness, summer, is as quickly dried as the cheek of a child. At that period of in him and boiled forth from his mouth and eyes, he was terrible. Woe to Marius had entered the tap-room, and had seized the barrel of powder, year. He had learned German and English; thanks to Courfeyrac, who had him attentively. His lip contracted with a strange fold which seemed of a single house, a large, square house of three stories, built of captivated by the absolute, adored and invoked splendid revolutionary Love is a fault; so be it. Fantine was innocence floating high over He always took his meals alone, with an open book before him, which he have gone out?" He waited until ten o'clock. Until midnight. Until one had a cigar in his mouth. Cosette thought that this officer doubtless arranged, reverend Mother?" a glimpse of whose dome could be seen, and Bicêtre, whose outskirts one "Still," said Jean Valjean, "I must stay here." hinder us in our work, my daughter? But we must earn our living all the stones. It was in its place. It had not been carried off. language, call _the edge_ of the wall of the ruin, there he had lighted it up very vividly. That pink and shining foot, projecting from For the first time, also, he was conscious of some irreverence in like a cat, and studying him like a mathematician. He had watched him,