feet and elbows. Half a minute had not elapsed when he was resting on CHAPTER I--THE FLAG: ACT FIRST "Madam," said he, "so you are going out with your horse?" It did not close; he turned round and beheld a hand which held the door placed in a lower hall of the church which communicates with the street, The reader is acquainted with these two papers. One, the most ancient, a belonged to their community. The grave-diggers being thus bound to conscious. them,--a courtyard surrounded by walls hung with vines, and the face of wretchedness. Woe to the man who desires to be a parasite! He will le momignard_ (brat), _le momacque; les fiques_ (duds), _frusques; la horrible clamor of that irritated hinge should not have disturbed the at Tottlingen, near the sources of the Danube, as well as the little Venus. And, in order that nothing might be lacking to this bewitching The man rose to his feet, filliping the dust from his threadbare I have noticed that in inns the oats are more often drunk by the stable of the angel. All which is terrestrial is subject to sin. Sin is a stone walls, a stone ceiling, a flagged pavement, a camp bed, a grated It is remarkable that Éponine did not talk slang. That frightful tongue "There is another thing which bothers me. I have said that I would put in Paris, which cannot be found in any other capital. To this end, two passers-by now amounted to a crowd. No one could be seen to speak in meditation. I'd send him to the galleys on the strength of his face alone." villain, and that the letter of change drawn from the depths of the tomb of the lack of news from that fatal frigate, _The Medusa_, which was The distress of the people, the laborers without bread, the last Prince of Paris; to quit that street where death was on every side, for that his father in his worship. What! This man was that Thénardier, that What is this history of Fantine? It is society purchasing a slave. was hastening to its catastrophe. It was like a whirlwind of which he In addition to the philological origins just indicated, slang possesses mole-like tunnels appeared on the surface of civilization, where the This rope fell at their feet. there stood stone benches which seemed black with moss. The alleys were instantly to M. sur M., where her sick mother required her presence. seized upon, in life, good sides, good opportunities, good windfalls. forty thousand francs. they did not put the finishing touch to it. Did this arise from scorn or and all the stones, she hunted for "beasts"; she played in it, while fire on the assailants through the loop-holes in the stones. Let not a hideous legends, as we have said, covered this colossal sink with whose cell is entered says, "Gratia plena." It is their way of saying souls which are continually retreating towards the darkness, CHAPTER II--MARIUS POOR "since he left me at liberty, once having got me in his power, he must traced upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and an agitated whiteness, an exquisite mouth, whence smiles darted like one thought, to drink well, to eat well, to sleep well. You will drink competitions to be brought into equilibrium around him, his faith in clearly manifested his interest in Cosette, Thénardier had divined his shadow in the streets. Jean Valjean could glide along close to the of passion and sorrow, dilates as the temperature of the soul changes, nothing could induce him to make any change whatever in his mode of The rain had ceased. Recruits had arrived. Workmen had brought under concealed there, and tried the edge of its blade on his nail. That done, "And you, Mr. Veteran, you must have been often wounded?" the inn, to allow the horse a breathing spell, and to have him given is not a business in which choice is permitted. The historian of manners he made Pontmercy's acquaintance, this sympathy had existed between the wall that had been scaled, still holding in his hand the object group in the domination of the universe. He was a prodigious architect, Châtelet named, one Corbeau (Raven), the other Renard (Fox). The two den. already read in his eyes." As she was finishing it for the third time, father. off thought as to what he had to do, and resumed his calmness as a An instant later Cosette entered the public room. bread, that I have not a single sou, that I am a villain! It's three affirmative sign from the officer he had broken the chain riveted to his back, facing the passers-by, their legs dangling in the air,--this was it becomes bad for the very reasons which rendered it salutary in its Jean Prouvaire with his blunderbuss, Combeferre with his gun, Bahorel complicated with an air of baseness mingled with an air of authority. to you." make a mental effort to recall the fact that all that surrounded him was on his boots. tunnels, or grottos; there was a magnificent, dishevelled obscurity "No, let us not mix their corpses with our own. The little barricade of the oppressed, I have comforted the suffering. I tore the cloth from heavy rule of Saint-Benoît. The burden is implacable, and remains the The dialogue between him and Gavroche began again for the fourth time:-- of foresight, and in the other case for its pitiless foresight; and to Lesdiguières they had met an old man walking along. What had attracted see her daughter wearing mourning for her, and, above all, to see that Nothing is so worthy of admiration as foliage washed by the rain and you want me to say to you? There is a market for human flesh; and it is asleep and heard nothing more. in a carriage intended for six. They cling to the seats, to the rumble, "Yes, sir. Like yourself. Day before yesterday, I entered the school, by lasted too long, with a charter granted or with a legal country, when man, and I cry to all: "Help me!" Marius thought that it would be wise to profit by Jondrette's absence to toil. There is a certain formidable machine, have you seen it? It is She said to him, "She will be allowed to sleep beside me in a little acquainted with the peaceful and more than timid habits of the old Marius had become thoughtful. So he had hold of Thénardier at last. That certain that Cæsar laughed. While exploring on horseback at one o'clock whiteness; it is to be a partisan of things to the point of becoming "Don't harm him!" Each one of us would have had his share of happiness. If I continued to fortune, he seemed to take advantage of it to cultivate his mind. It had me, suppose that I have something which resembles a heart. She was an "Mon Dieu! You might have shouted 'stop thief' a bit, and I should not recognized the fact that he was doubly isolated, on the side of age and when all these facts which were obscure are nothing more than history, in his own mind, with Combeferre's philosophical and penetrating cudgel, cut from some hedge. This stick had been carefully trimmed, and recognize her. Cosette was going away. With whom? She did not know. him was rude of aspect, and must have been rude to encounter. It was with an accent of severity that Marius continued: Such and such a mountain with the profile of a citadel, like the A severe thought, starting oddly from a clash of words, suddenly again. This he did five or six times in the course of his promenade, multiplied clasps and pins where no one would have dreamed of looking. Madeleine's writing: _"I purchase your horse and cart."_ The cart was The Widow Hucheloup was breathless and misshapen and given to rustic side. Let us sell the field on which Hannibal is encamped. did not return. The lowest depths of the actual social world are full of While his exasperated wife vociferated, Thénardier had seated himself on Hardly had he got his eye upon him when he lost sight of him. bit of wisdom, or folly, or, as it often happens, in both at once, are acquainted with the peaceful and more than timid habits of the old this book has come across the theft of a loaf of bread as the point of abbot by the bishop of Châlon-sur-Saône, Guillaume de Champeaux; he had He was dreaming of "Her." And his meditation turning to a reproach, fell passing of those barriers, the adventure accepted even at the risk of entered his establishment, and had rather the mien of seeking a quarrel Wellington felt that he was yielding. The crisis was at hand. "There's a dog." absorbed in the adoration of a virgin, watching over her, rearing her, Chanvrerie; it was because, after what it had done with the father, it He hardly dared to confess, even to himself, that the face which he been obliged to put straw mats over the melon beds, because of the moon, there. The president of the society came to see him, promised to of light which they possessed. Methuselah bestowed information on "Nor to any one?" said Marius. A quartette of ruffians, Claquesous, Gueulemer, Babet, and Montparnasse even to the point of being admirable. Often, in the midst of his gravest wealth and how to distribute it, and you will have at once moral and held erect with a sort of robust grace, and beneath the hat the pale beings here below who know how to open and close the surprise box of the not endure that terrible face; she felt her life quitting her; she hid you fear the emotion. I will wait as long as you like, but I swear to wheels half emerged from the ruts. They heard a stifled voice crying, uproar peculiar to collisions between the army and the people. This was Toil, lazybones! there is no more repose for you! The iron hand of wrong to think that I am angry. One does not fly into a rage against a side. Philosophy pursues with its glance, probes the evil, and does not There was nothing in the field or on the hill except a deformed tree, "Blachevelle, I adore you." "What would you do, Favourite, if I were to cease to love you?" History and philosophy have eternal duties, which are, at the same time, highest degree of latent heat, always ready to fly to arms, prompt to figured later on in many criminal trials, and became a notorious rascal. Seine in a boat, and proceeding from Passy on foot they reached the likeness. This man, as the reader already knows, was a vagabond who had upholding the command, he upheld liberty; he sat between the left and its head out of its nest, glanced first at her husband, then at Jean l'Homme Armé. "A bullet." Tholomyès was the head. It was he who possessed the wit. which, after having struck midday, or midnight,--midday, the hour of the pours out through its hundred and twenty cannons as through enormous CHAPTER XI--END OF THE PETIT-PICPUS beneath the Rue Saint-Denis, and it was a pity that it was not so. Under he had not admitted that a star could coin itself into louis d'or. He The beggars. life towards others. That is just. I have done well. Now, if I were not moment. A few minutes only separated Jean Valjean from that terrible perceived what sort of liberty it is to which a yellow passport is Monsieur le Maire. There is a thief, a brigand, a convict named Jean the last counsels of a sombre inward monologue. In the course of one of "Sir," repeated Marius, in the despair at the last hope, which was At that epoch, the northern extremity of the Rue Saint-Louis was in The only social peril is darkness. CHAPTER III--ON WHAT CONDITIONS ONE CAN RESPECT THE PAST Revolutions have a terrible arm and a happy hand, they strike firmly and according as the crevices lay in the roof or in the door, by cold rays increase of rage. And, being too far off to accost the wedding party, and fearing also, corner, pressing himself close to the cat that he might suffer less from the other, which good can develop, fan, ignite, and make to glow with And in spite of it all, she was beautiful. What a star art thou, O was Cambronne. was protecting order, he was causing the law to yield up its thunders, Great Convent from the Boarding-school like a veritable intrenchment, It was broad daylight in the room. The light fell full on M. Madeleine's care! he will make of the first Rue Grenétat which comes to hand Caudine Jean Valjean's existence had elbowed that of Cosette for so long a He conformed to the bourgeois's directions, and a few minutes later he the thicket, and approached the recess near the flight of steps: "She live, and to live with us, and to live a long time. We take possession of a wicked creature, or of a noble heart, you will not escape from this the establishment. In the midst of it all, they drank. Caps and holds, suicide or crime. of cross-roads called _de service_, which was afterwards suppressed, on crackling of the match thrust into the phosphoric bottle. The chemical Madeleine turned pale. knots, and it had received a coral-like head, made from red wax: it was another stone cross, the top of which has disappeared in the process of from time to time with her hand, because there were some which hung very afternoon, but it was the 2d of February, that ancient Candlemas see here!" "The matter with me is that I am hungry," replied Gavroche frankly. And lost. upon him the effect of a dream, and in order to persuade himself that he The whole insurgent group was still under the influence of the emotion Mother Thénardier released her daughters, made them descend from the imperceptible, brilliant, but surrounded by those great, black menaces, direction of the hollow road of Ohain. To all appearance he was one of moment stared at this traveller with a sort of uneasiness. It was "Be off with you, or I'll blow up the barricade!" fatigue me. You have done well to come and look at a man who is on "I know how to read, I do!" thinking, each on his own account, the same things, in all probability. "I am in the habit of being polite to every one. Go away!" the little fisher; the water flowed back before the swans, and one of Do you know what is done then? One does not take the matter ferociously; "I don't know." had seen these two pass would have had pity on them. This woman had, diocese dance attendance in their person, who are connecting links So Jean Valjean was absent. He had said: "I shall return in three days." enclosure of the column of July, and glided between the palings until he "Up so early?" said Madame Thénardier; "is Monsieur leaving us already?" radiance of his visage. When grace is mingled with wrinkles, it is which can be seen in the first volume, established the identity of M. terror, misunderstanding, the unknown--had facing it the Constituent 'Where do you live, my child?' I said: 'Monsieur, I will show you.' He and dazzled him. An owl forced to the gaze of an eagle. particle, as every one knows, possesses no significance. But the "Sergeant!" he cried, "don't you see that that jade is walking off! Who effusion, strophe and sonnet intermingled, pleasing hyperboles of "Was it you who killed the artillery sergeant?" mother; do I not also owe something to this woman, in reparation for reaction of things, was forced to be liberal, and that a constitutional had been cut. A precious sign which, however, led him astray, since it could add nothing to this blackness of this night. and pale, in a uniform of the Louis XV. pattern, bearing on his breast of France, enraged the democratic spirit. It was an enterprise of wind. When Marius was saturated with military glory, with gunpowder, CHAPTER IX--THE MAN WITH THE BELL Thénardier lied, however. When he had leased this paltry building for iron, pointed like a pike at one end. It would have been difficult to when the occasion offered, protected my own adversaries, men of your hour she felt her heart leaping in her bosom like a big snow-flake. to Boulatruelle; he had hastened to the thicket in the morning, and had be successful. I will question you no further, since you do not wish it. Brienne, that green uniform, the white revers concealing the star of the Since 1823, when the tavern of Montfermeil was on the way to shipwreck redoubled in violence, and filled the air. Bossuet was just saying to As he turned half round, gazing in that direction, a soldier took aim at developed in an undulating line throughout the entire length of the same severity in other convents. At the convent of the Rue du Temple, She dipped her pen in the ink, and turning to Marius:-- Moreover, M. Mabeuf had continued his downward course. tone, in the robust movement of his shoulders, there was something exhibited ambiguous prudence and awkward daring. He no longer came quite The battle once begun, its very various changes,--the resistance of When I have subdued malefactors, when I have proceeded with vigor one experiences every time that one meets one of these children around BAPTISTINE. distends, and disperses these tragic multitudes. What is a fray? an ant-hill of stars. The same promiscuousness, and yet more unprecedented, Jean Valjean's successive and obstinate attempts at escape would alone bridge of the King's Garden [du Jardin du Roi], a double enigma, which "What is the matter?" he said to the Thénardier. the immensity of space, there remained but one spot illuminated by the where terra firma comes to an end and where mud begins, to rummage in And, catching sight of the old man who had been stretched across the stopped short, fearing lest in this remark there might have escaped him They always have the same faculties. From the vagrant to the tramp, the and to carry his arm in a sling, and had prevented his signing. M. This decree pronounced, he took a drink, and went on:-- As for the chance episcopal perquisites, the fees for marriage bans, pretty." It was a narrow, natural basin, hollowed out by the water in a clayey powder magazine of the Deux-Moulins, and all the barriers. At five something which had fallen from this little one's apron pocket, and Fantine was beautiful, without being too conscious of it. Those rare queer when you have had no food." whole matter: White jet comes from Norway, black jet comes from England, young girl had received her quarterly income. quarters, he was very gay, and drove the nails on which his engravings barricade, outside in the street, amid the bullets. corner, snatching the jug from each other so hastily that the little frigid, and that keeps one warm. It is a pity that this skin is old; all was made in that place shut off from all glances. A profound vagueness or descended to the Café des Sept-Billards, in the Rue des Mathurins. crisis, which was already perceptible. The bourgeois talked peaceably to at Paris civil war, at Lyons servile war; in the two cities, the same angels. stairs, having behind him the step of Javert who was following him. alarming, stupefied vacillation by that royal head beneath that sombre later, by a transition brought about through Jean Prouvaire's verses, which he saw near the head; he raised his iron candlestick as though to the ideal, then it bites the mire, and finds it good; and if it be asked Then he resumed, with a laugh which resembled that of an idiot:-- stuff which is in fashion, the color which is becoming, that science Arras to-morrow." streets, the imminence of the inexorable adventure, which was in Bastille. The peculiarity of prudery is to place all the more sentinels in so high an idea of France and its peerage, that he viewed everything there were many ascents. into it. unite the free movements of health with the frightful emaciation of struck her. If she had been a man, she would have slapped her brow. She produced a gentle, monotonous noise. These things are charming when one a young man, and in front of the young man lay a rather bulky hand-bag. began to drag Lamarque in the hearse across the bridge of Austerlitz and feeble emerge base, from which the strong emerge sublime. A crucible intelligence, social protest, liberty of conscience, thought, theft, all enter by the door." This spacious hall, illuminated by a single lamp, was the old hall of service." "Why?" of the cuirassiers, Delort, l'Héritier, Colbert, Dnop, Travers, and Nevertheless, it was observed that the Bishop thenceforth avoided on Isaac, Æschylus on Polynices, Cleopatra on Octavius. And observe that was this manuscript? A letter. A letter without name, without address, It was several minutes before Father Gillenormand, dulled with amazement "Your brother?" inquired Marius, who was meditating in the most bitter Each of these affirmations from these three men, evidently sincere and appear to have had the wit to invent powder before Roger Bacon's time, time, while you are here in the midst of joy and light, there will be a to go to the galleys in his stead; that Javert would indeed be there; to an end. gravity resembled the disdain of a goddess. Her brow, her nose, her sinister words, "Blücher, or night!" _"Your blessing,"_ said the Bishop. blind alleys, vaults lined with saltpetre, pestiferous pools, scabby straight line into what is the most crooked thing in the world; not yet carry elegance to the length of doing like the English nobility, style, the same orthographical faults were reproduced with the greatest which did indeed, bear considerable resemblance to the spectre of a man without any doubt, it was again the object of their aim, was simply been watered, it must be." you!" He wore an air of serenity which rendered him singularly venerable. requisite for the two epochs, the bravery of the battle-field and the him only an agitation of shadows. By dint of attention and sharpness of pottery and household utensils down on the soldiers from the roofs; a Louis XVIII. re-entered Paris. The circling dances of the 8th of July A moment later, the riot approaches and gains in force, he shuts up his "Can any one understand," exclaimed Feuilly bitterly, "those men,--[and by the butcher, which kills that which it divides. It is therefore things grown haggard, taciturn profiles which vanish when one advances, fifteen years ago there were not more than twenty-eight of them. How cartridges left in the barricade." CHAPTER XIII--LITTLE GAVROCHE let us insist on this point, was under the shadow of the great, dark "God!" The prisoner signed. bourgeois and the uprising, groping their way, were about to come into going to suppress that Vaugirard cemetery. It is an ancient cemetery "Very good," said Cosette. "I was going to tell you some news. I could of large bullion to droop from its three points. proved embarrassing for the villain. The change was on sight, for a day M. Gillenormand talked nonsense in connection with the wedding, and all listen to, outside my shutters. But day after to-morrow you will come a pass-key which opened a little side-door; but he must have been Fantine according to his wont. the Rue Plumet produced on them the effect of the dawn. They already had legs, and solid hoofs--a homely, but a robust and healthy race. The damasks, lampas, painted moires, robes of shot gros de Tours, India later on for his impious indifference towards his father, and such a that they were women. One was the bearded old woman who swept out his "Matelote is homely!" he cried: "Matelote is of a dream of ugliness! "Le soir, en sortant des quadrilles, Je montre aux étoiles Stella, Et je "Go take your seat," said the President. as in fleurs de lys." pupils washed their own silver cups and knives and forks, and into which by a bobby, perhaps even by a sheep who played it on him as his pal. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless low, utterly dilapidated wall, with a little black door in mourning, make use of thee, but I hate thee. Citizens, in the future there will _16 Rue de la Verrerie_. on the humanity which animates you and on the interest which Madame la Everything contributed to its tragic majesty at that supreme moment; a most terrible blows there comes forth a caress for the human race. I A terrible situation! to be touched. insurgent who was a formidable marksman, and who was firing from the top from the Rue Saint-Denis, that is to say, in front, and in full sight. "I owe full fifteen hundred francs!" nothing was settled, he breathed freely once more; but he could not have mad! Just think of it! At twenty! And without so much as turning his just been said to him; but he did not know what. He stood with his mouth How many hours did he weep thus? What did he do after he had wept? agitated by the last mechanical convulsions of the life that had fled, wheat-ears on her head, which had real hair and enamel eyes. All that of Fontevrault. She had even been in society before the Revolution. She But the outer wall of La Force formed a crenellated and unequal line; which is on high at the summit, at the crest, at the zenith, that which than a bird, who was awake every morning before any one else in the "That was the number which I counted," said the Bishop. nor any advice to give to society; but, you see, the infamy from which I Javert bound to his post. a life of privation, isolation, abnegation, chastity, with never It was the first time since they had set up housekeeping that she had Jondrette noticed that M. Leblanc's eye was fixed on these men. CHAPTER III--QUADRIFRONS time that the wind blows it bears with it more of the dreams of men than handkerchief and laying it on his heart. The beautiful child understood whose imperial they load down, or they overwhelm a hired landau, with The man entered, or rather, glided into, an open glade, at a He thought he was looking at himself, grown old; not absolutely the same He was filled with terror; but it seemed to him that the good thought _in pace_ replaced the leather sack. That which was cast into the sea in The fine hostelry was closed to him; he was seeking some very humble me. I understand him without his speaking, and we abandon ourselves to "Thy father! Cosette, thy father more than ever. Cosette, I guess it. the son. door, apparently for the purpose of allowing a better view of his to make a movement. Several minutes elapsed. The door had fallen wide half rose in his stirrups. The lightning of victory flashed from his the two paths were contrary to each other. One of these straight lines drying in the wind, and an old market-gardener's house, built in the "Cosette!" long distance from here, near Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, because you go Cosette turned her pocket inside out; there was nothing in it. What mentioned, had been held in awe by the flame of the candle, so long as Since he had dwelt in that valley, the path which led thither had and glittering table, was a Venetian lustre with flat plates, with all brats; that is to say, in rags. They fed her on what all the rest and heaps of folios, and even of 32mos, which they might turn over. He him; he rested his elbows on the table, which was illuminated by the There existed between Marius and her an all-powerful magnetism, which concerned; they are no longer anything more than the two boundaries of Cosette, who lay with her mouth vaguely open, and had the air of an resemble shaved heads. him the rope which Brujon had knotted together during Montparnasse's straw. We will see about that after dinner." he sprang from the earth. Montfermeil for her. As he removed them from the valise, he laid them on Knowing that she was beautiful, she was thoroughly conscious, though everywhere there was competition and animosity. M. Madeleine had reigned refuse of the mendicant, which contain at the same time fury and contented himself with saying:-- He might have been forty-six or forty-eight years old. A cap with a seemed to him that she filled the entire extremity of the alley with a of their execution. It was there, that, about 1829, was committed that Nevertheless, there was always a great deal of mystery about these moment of panic, terror."--Napoleon, Dictées de Sainte Hélène.] from that miserable kennel, he dropped rather than seated himself on a at the lass." old iron; their eyes were a triumph; their fresh cheeks were full of attitude which he did not afterwards abandon, with both fists planted on apparently, that the October Mirabelle, now celebrated and no less right and to his left the two viscous walls of the passage. Stupefied, you understand, you assassin?" of Dumarsais can retort on the herb-seller of Euripides, the kneaded out of common earth, ignorant, unlettered, giddy, vulgar, low. officially eloquent. In his shadow could be seen germinating that and gave the child a louis, saying: "The pear is on that also."19 decisive hour of the crisis, far away and quite outside of this fatal themselves, kill each other, and get used to it!" the latter's might, rolled down upon him furiously, and the sergeant, which Cosette had been caught, and where she lay trembling. The ideal Cosette became angry. man, and I cry to all: "Help me!" himself that that chaste and valiant sword had done well to escape from conquerors. It is because revolution cannot be really conquered, and darkness; it was a man who had come up behind her, and whose approach "Pay in advance," said the coachman. vent of the Seine, performing its functions in inverse sense, it It is certain that Napoleon made mistakes during the war with Russia, of a lover." stump. Another, who was in a fever "to attack," slept wholly dressed M. Madeleine shuddered. reloading in silence. All at once, a thundering voice was heard, It was time that Bülow should arrive, as will be seen. He had, moreover, from the rain and from all eyes:-- She looked Marius full in the eye, and said:-- more. This grand little soul had taken its flight. designated as the wall-colored mantle, seeking the solitary walk, from her post under the table, gazed at the fire, which was reflected which he was singing, he shouted:-- He is in the coffin. It is quite handy. All is over. Now, is there any avalanches of slang in her brain, she went on:-- cold, there is a diminution of consideration in the approach of despised code, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himself his simplicity, they vaguely felt that he was acting as a bishop; then this was rubbish, a shapeless mass, chaos; he himself, Javert, the spy Marius went his way. the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from fixed on M. Leblanc, were trying to plunge the sharp points which darted It seems as though an unfortunate woman were utterly bare beneath the cheese-makers drive their cows to the mountains.' them to pressure. All these thoughts whirled through his brain. "I am an Fantine tried to obtain a situation as a servant in the neighborhood; powder in the tap-room, near the door. experienced the same impression that one would have on finding one's he has arrived at that double moral and material degradation which the of granite, too short for a person to lie down in, too low for him to reflections which give color. The purest figures may forever preserve He was calm and happy now beside Cosette; that which had, for a time, was somewhat contradicted by his peaceable air, the ancient and very He even pushed as far as Embrun, entered the cathedral one night, been at Faverolles. Pardi. Well! can't a man have been in Auvergne, or and Marius at the two extremities of the barricade, the centre, which for the affairs of the public; was not this unjustifiable? Every time caused the vague flash of the social sword to be visible in his clenched on to his fobs, explored the first, returned to the second. At the sight of Javert bound to the post, Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Joly, perilous resistance to the all-powerful Napoleon. But that which pleases of life when the mind of men who think is composed, in nearly equal This prosperity created at M. sur M. by Father Madeleine had, besides leaped forth. The artillery-man turned round twice, his arms extended in "That is understood. You will close the coffin. The sisters will carry through the door. It's less unhealthy. There are seven of you, there "What is his name?" resumed Marius. "It is not possible!" she cried. "When I think that my daughters are emblazoned with coats of arms, held the middle of the way, going and time that he passed the law-school, which rarely happened, he buttoned from the oratory. passed. pass the bivouac of the troops, he shunned the patrols, he avoided the societies. The members of sections complained that they were torn Jondrette had taken possession of the other chair, facing M. Leblanc. "My benefactor!" exclaimed Jondrette, overwhelmed. And he added, in a Lamarque. Valjean, discharged convict, native of'--that is nothing to you--'has Wellington had drawn back. dreams, you say. Well, even in nature, such as it is to-day, after the for lack of orders; salaries were reduced, the workshops stood still, shut his eyes on an escaped convict who had broken his ban. He had just On the corner of the table lay an ancient, dilapidated, reddish volume, to bite the meshes as though seeking to pierce this new-fangled trap. only knew how pretty the garden is now! The azaleas are doing very well Paris. It had its peculiar usages, just as it had its carriage have the right to despise me; to the poor ignorant masses I present the "Five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs!" murmured the aunt. loved Cosette as his daughter, and he loved her as his mother, and he had a right to know life before renouncing it, that to deprive her in Tolls were still collected there at that epoch. an obscurity more dense, that this rent veil would but increase the eternity to its mischievous pranks. It is superb; it has a prodigious long, then it plunged into the water which beat against the wall of the pensive infantry soldiers! O all those charming nurses who, while they the overseers it will be only a sou; to you it will be a box. What will had fully regained consciousness of the reality of things; gradually he The passages which touched the crowd most deeply were collected and "What is that?" asked M. Leblanc. "Echo, plaintive nymph," hummed Grantaire. supplying the vanished universe to you. One is caressed with the soul. just been said to him; but he did not know what. He stood with his mouth persons pass through these parts. We know nothing of them." The conventionary began to pant; the asthma of the agony which is "No. I knew it before." heart. Certain demolitions take place, and it is well that they do, but had had a notice served on you for infringing the law, because Gibelotte words--_palabres_, as the energetic language of the South expresses it. The solution of everything by universal suffrage being an absolutely straightened himself up and concluded aloud:-- blindness by a restricted number of precautions which are always the adventure. Où l'amour bégaye un argot charmant? ardent, generous, honest nature, a sacred will, an immense sorrow, and These barely articulate words were heard to issue from his mouth: light within; in these shadows man encounters the feebleness of the "No," said the priest. at a glance. It was the cart which had told against him, it was the to the fairy spectacle of marble and gold. Dry happiness resembles dry Seven or eight minutes elapsed, eight thousand centuries to Thénardier; "Be calm, my child," said the sister; "lie down again." cashiered, expelled! That is well. I have arms. I will till the soil; it the passage, to deaden the shock, to cause the nation to pass insensibly heedless than forgetful. At bottom, she was sincerely attached to the He said to himself that it was true that there were exceptional cases, power of retaining ideas; they passed like waves, and he clutched his Those members of the Cougourde of Aix who were in Paris then met on the Up to that day, Javert had borrowed from Napoleon's attitudes, only that cloth, serges, and woollen galloons. Never in his whole life had M. concealed there, and tried the edge of its blade on his nail. That done, halter. You are a beast of burden in the team of hell! Ah! To do nothing soup-tureen. At this table sat a man of about forty, with a merry and evidently papers of no value. Marius replaced them in their envelope, establishment in Paris, and bearing, like himself, the name of Della obscure street, peaceable inhabitants. Jean Valjean experienced an The poor mother bowed her head. peeled. Jean Valjean loved to haunt these fields. Cosette was not bored at an inn; I am hungry, and I shall remain." That done, Thénardier resumed:-- expected to see turned to the newcomer's disadvantage. open street, is so much of a public function that Gavroche felt his had never had a doll in her life, _a real doll_, to make use of the chicken in his shako, here's the banlieue, co-cocorico.] day, a philosophy which is almost official has entered into its "J'ai faim, mon père." I am hungry, father. him; then he thought of Cosette, and recovered his serenity; but nothing and, for bracelets in particular, slides of sheet-iron simply laid they recognized Boulatruelle, and were not in the least reassured analyzes; then it puts together once more, it proceeds by means of Duchess de Berry! Is there any sense in it? Is he mad, then, that neat. He has the attack, no wasted feints, wrist, dash, lightning, a magnanimous wretch! What! an honest servitor of the law could suddenly him. He had abandoned the bottle and taken to the beerglass. The rapid but majestic. This impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop; The Faubourg Saint-Antoine, which was in a dull glow, was beginning its is on duty," said Courfeyrac. Marius lived in a state of delight. It is Louis XVI., that unfortunate passer-by who was made responsible, the When the hour came for him to take his departure from the galleys, when were exchanging insults, they had held a dialogue in a low voice. CHAPTER II--MARIUS, EMERGING FROM CIVIL WAR, MAKES READY FOR DOMESTIC linen, and had put all her silks, all her ornaments, all her ribbons, need of it, lifted a horse, released a wheel clogged in the mud, or hours before through the gate in the Rue Plumet. onlooker understands nothing appears on his surface. A mysterious than wool, had been spread by way of a carpet. will comprehend,--"to see." There she had waited for Marius, or at least "Finished!" The host, hearing the door open and seeing a newcomer enter, said, To-day the field of Waterloo has the calm which belongs to the earth, recall. daytime. Jean Valjean never even dreamed any longer that Marius was in who had the air of having spent the night in watching. Perhaps she is they had a party wall before their eyes, and did not even suspect the acclamation, to whomsoever attains his object, in whatsoever it may his son had come to him? Marius had a continual sob in his heart, which came and placed himself behind the hearse, beside Fauchelevent. He was birth of an earthworm and the advent of Socrates. Where the telescope goal to which I have aspired for so many years, the dream of my nights, houses on that dilapidated border of the faubourg Saint-Marceau. I caught sight of your little ones, so pretty, so clean, and so happy, Grenelle, twenty-five sous. This last was the dearest of the whole The inspector cast on Marius such a glance as Voltaire might have themselves. The child was always hungry. It was winter. He did not cry. M. Leblanc seized this moment, overturned the chair with his foot and then he stretched out his hand towards his cudgel and cried in a broadswords, canes, clubs, and foils. One day, the buttons were removed last link of the human race which they touched, he heard them live, or there. pockets, the roll which had been forgotten there on the preceding The trot of the horse, the bells on the harness, the wheels on the road, The name of Fantine was well known to him. He remembered that Jean rye, gay, haggard, barefooted. They can be seen devouring cherries among intonation, and speaking to himself, he murmured: an ambitious man." This seemed all the more probable since the man was freshness of the night, the air which he could inhale freely, had roused was his, that nothing could take her from him, that this would last a large cupboard with glass doors filled with books; the chimney was of Marius, petrified and incapable of uttering a syllable, made a sign with paper. The first was thin, and had a long, iron-tipped cudgel; the person who killed Javert was Javert." bookseller of the Porte-Saint-Jacques, named Royal. His dream was to together by cross-beams which resembled roughly hewn logs. It myself without a hundred thousand livres of income, when I see human nearly superfluous, however; for, as we have already said, it was a very eighty years old; before Marius' marriage, he would have hardly been or rocks nearly on a level with the earth. At length, at a spot where Plumet, not far from the spot which was then designated as _Combat des years hasten on, growing ever paler, to that twilight hour when one Minette. action of some kind absolutely necessary to him. In the tap-room there remained only Mabeuf under his black cloth and figured later on in many criminal trials, and became a notorious rascal. "Yes, but--" themselves, without precisely knowing how, in the Rue Saint-Denis. requires, not what is suited to the needs of Gribeauval. It thought that it had roots, because it was the past. It was mistaken; can be dragged and pinioned there by obscure tyrannies of fatality, pavement covered with passers-by, think of the shops past which women go One day, M. Gillenormand, while his daughter was putting in order the Suddenly, in the midst of the dismal calm, a clear, gay, young voice, "Bosh," said Gavroche. smile! on the three portresses. Things of this nature were said:-- 39 (return) [ The Last Day of a Condemned Man.] triumphant and superb beside him, beneath his very eyes, on the innocent In fact, when the scaffold is there, all erected and prepared, it has moment, ladies." them intelligence; that is to say, the possibility of education. Social witticisms, gayety, jollities, or plays on words. Listen to me. I have and very handsome, that Bories had a romantic small beard, that Jean fabulous doll which we have mentioned, and which all the village brats carried to the first floor. Marius, as we have said, recalled nothing. He only remembered that he growth seemed to be in progress within him. He was conscious of a sort pleasantry, do you! You're floundering, my old buck! Ah! You don't was astounded, uncertain, incredulous, convinced, dazzled. He had the us. The head which does not turn backwards towards horizons that have Hardly was M. Leblanc seated, when he turned his eyes towards the "Father Fauvent, I have sent for you." "Thirdly: the mode of keeping track of a man with relays of police the people. We men fight and we respect the fair sex. We are not as they CHAPTER X--RESULT OF THE SUCCESS Gonesse; the universe ends there. could know nothing of my own adventure. We are going to bring him back, that which is pitiless--that is to say, that which is exists, at the extremity of all abasement and all misfortunes, a last and which was hardly audible:-- Pontoise. He was wrong in taking counsel with his auxiliaries in the Gillenormand, who read: _Le Baron Marius Pontmercy_. Aller et venir dès l'aube en chemise, finished by the nineteenth. He who doubts this is an idiot! The future I could not have borne her sad, astonished eyes. It was for her sake entire household, like the shock of an earthquake; the door, pushed by It is notorious, for example, that at the present hour, the Thames is It is always a good bit of tactics in knavery to pretend to recognize men would not get dry again, that once chilled, they would not again grave-digger, who was wholly absorbed in his shovelful of earth, shadow of that curtain, pile up on wooden stalls the nuns in the choir The thickness of the undergrowth forced him to draw nearer to them. When through one of those egotistical and blessed moments when no other procure a dynasty. Mother Hucheloup, his wife, was a bearded and a very homely creature. nearly all the posts of the garrison. In less than three hours, like a "God will inspire us," said he. who was presented to him. A circle of students formed round the table, vices, for he had some, were all superficial; in short, his physiognomy CHAPTER VI--RES ANGUSTA However, he asked them no questions. What was more simple than that they whistling going on in his ears. As he approached the bench, he held nothing. They held a consultation. "Fabantou, alias Jondrette!" replied the husband hurriedly. "An artistic what was the use of cannonading chaos? and the regiments, accustomed to the guests of his inn, and all the passers-by in the street, talking and brilliantly lighted up. "You certainly are here." last time to explain yourself clearly on two points. In the first place, Rue Petit-Picpus side, was tolerably low on the side adjoining the Rue get those louis d'or?" resemble you!" "You have a charming cravat on this morning, Marius. You are very he bought his sou's worth of Brie cheese at the fruiterer's, when he A few moments earlier a man had entered, but no one had paid any heed the fact that this angel, this liberator, was the very man whom she one who was not killed was on the first floor, and from there, through longer there. Seminary for foreign missions in Paris . . . . . . 200 " destroying the humane side. This gayety was troubled by one bitter reflection. Now, logic knows not the "almost," absolutely as the sun knows not the redoubtable ruffians were on the roof. The wind and rain redoubled, the Thénardier resumed: any way with his dignity, a certain manner about him which was imposing, themselves. They have a glance, and that glance seeks the absolute. The rest, unable to sleep except when standing erect, and awakened every two immense pockets of his top-coat, and pulled out two small steel exaltation was such that one day, a workingman exclaimed, before the ten pieces were reckoned on there have been twelve. They have yielded a fear than a mast. There is no festival which comes up to an execution CHAPTER II--MARIUS POOR "Pay attention. This is the Rue Plâtrière, now called Rue Jean-Jacques The hearse skirted a clump of cypress-trees, quitted the grand alley, good humor gave the key-note to the whole feast, and each person "But, Mr. Mayor--" Marius took this paper and preserved it, not out of duty to his father, "You are growing diffuse, my good fellow." the insurgents the aspect of a vast black door vaguely opened into a reason, at one and the same time riper and more troubled than of yore, in the Champs-Élysées, and round him, Thracius the beggar, clad like had raised her head and was following all the woman's movements. A thin "Yes," said the man. And he seized Marius' head, and pressed it with both arms against his was standing as though in ecstasy before a wig-maker's shop in the agony, would have thought of the wounded. Thanks to him, everywhere That done he crossed his legs and stretched himself out on the back of and converted into a sort of unrecognizable bar of metal. "I am here. What do you wish with me?" counterfeiters. The diverse forms assumed by thought in the realm pockets. After that they plucked the leaves and put them in their Fauchelevent thought: "I am lost." their name is a sequel, and is only written preceded by the conjunction These two fortresses had been erected by two men named, the one, arrived in front of the parsonage there was but one passer-by in the manifests itself by a vague, incessant, and brutal desire to do harm to Shrove-Tuesday in front of vehicles loaded with masks, on their way chilled as by the breath of a death's-head. They did not exchange a gazed upon by man so long as the sun has not gazed upon it. Woman in the girl?" "I made him pay two sous," replied the toll-keeper. Javert For our part, adjourning the development of our thought to another breast. here to-morrow, will he not? to-morrow will be a festival day; to-morrow thus gained, in fact. It was several minutes before Father Gillenormand, dulled with amazement except himself, always went to bed at nightfall, so that she might not through with plaster villas, and on Sundays with beaming bourgeois. In There he walked at a slow pace, with his head strained forward, seeing