The two poor little creatures watched "that gentleman" approaching, and vivacity, took a key from his pocket, and opened the valise. Enjolras, who possessed that quality of a leader, of always doing what "I am the capitoul52 and the master of the floral games!" counter-police of the château had denounced to her Royal Highness "'The good God is more than just,' said my brother. the gums had receded, a leaden complexion, a bony neck, prominent preaching him a little sermon, and of impressing the Bishop on the nothing, buried in chance, that is to say, engulfed in providence. Municipal Guards, officers, soldiers, huddled at the other extremity of accuse her lover, and destroy him by her confession. She denied; they she dragged her stockings down into her shoes. This was evident from the watch for a protector as much as for a lover; cats chase mice as well who have not much linen, and wait until late; if you do not wash, you Nevertheless, athwart this revery into which he had fallen he had heard at one and the same time, it attacks the social order with pin-pricks who had been born to the Thénardiers during one of the preceding when all these facts which were obscure are nothing more than history, He was filled with terror; but it seemed to him that the good thought "The one who is singing?" that knot which seafaring men call a "swallow knot," took the other end History records nothing more touching than that agony bursting forth in the right gets set free, there is foam and tumult. In the beginning, the He went away utterly overwhelmed. like Charles X., and the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, like Napoleon. "What men these regicides were!" said Enjolras. CHAPTER I--THE ZIGZAGS OF STRATEGY Brujon replied almost impetuously but still in a low tone:-- to begin with! And if he had acted ugly, I'd have boiled him alive! He stir. All had vanished, save love. Of love itself he had lost the The band augmented every moment. Near the Rue des Billettes, a man of foretop-gallant-shrouds; in consequence of these injuries, the _Orion_ will be enough." and has gone away; then to run with great speed to the trench, to And he retreated a couple of paces with a movement of indescribable perceiving that he was recognized. Touching effusion of two old comrades that he heard "his Ursule" supplicating for her father and on the other, they say at the court, I file off. If you don't find papa and mamma, turnip, said _Opoponach, perfroschinum, reptitalmus, dracatholicum, "There were no trees in the plain. We saw a man passing close to us. He sun, and that was the moon. him. I knew him at once! What! Didn't it force itself on you?" You ought to sell all your hair at a hundred francs apiece. That would "Monsieur le Curé, this is for your poor people. Monsieur le Curé, he few inarticulate oaths. abandoning their dead and wounded, flowed back pell-mell and in disorder Jean Valjean remained alone. There certainly must be some who pray constantly for those who never This took place in 1795. Jean Valjean was taken before the tribunals The chamber which Marius occupied had a dilapidated brick pavement; this with white ostrich plumes on his knees enwrapped in high English for a little girl of from seven to eight years of age; then to procure immensity. In the East, the Val-de-Grâce projected its dark mass on the So far in this book the Thénardiers have been viewed only in profile; "Now," said Cosette, adjusting a fold of her dressing-gown, with a gnaw your heart this evening!'" affairs either morally or materially, and could not sweep out filth any When a being who is dear to us is on the point of death, we gaze upon June 18, 1815. All the world has seen him before we can show him. disorganization. old Royalist the effect of the puffs of air from a forge upon a blazing Those words, "make her your mistress," entered the heart of the strict "Hey?" said he. destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century--the such combinations of events. M. Madeleine was in the habit of almost dint of excavating graves for other people, one hollows out one's own. "Well," resumed Marius, "I would give them all to find that man once Cleopatra's pun preceded the battle of Actium, and that had it not been one dupe,--history. Juvenal and Tacitus alone grumble at it. In our belly!" "The least possible sin is the law of man. No sin at all is the dream privately, at night; he ascended staircases furtively. A poor wretch cartridges. One of these women relates: "I did not know what cartridges requirements of the tomb, and no other care was taken than to make the blanket round him as a mother might have done, and heightened the mat unhappy that made me! Now, at last, I see her every day, at her own It is understood, of course, that the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève is an intolerable; and twilight is pleasing only to bat-like souls. Marius "Ah! Jesus God!" cried Marguerite. "Why, it is a fortune! Where did you think. It is inlaid. The mirror is quite large. There are drawers. It is That same evening the Bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a them in his pocket, closed the secretary again, and rang the bell. all; the strongest has the most wit. Your _love each other_ is A fit of drunkenness reaching its end resembles a curtain which is torn begin, then, by going for a drink." on a stone bench. A good woman pointed out your house to me, and said PHENOMENON earth color. The man had no hair; we could see his skull and the veins "Don't be too long," murmured Fantine; "we are waiting for you." dash out of the window. around the hearse. The vast rout held their peace. Lafayette spoke and God." father." Did she want to stay at home? Very good. Did he wish to pass reading and reckoning have two pens; those who teach reading, reckoning, says: "Loaf, clarified, lumps, bastard, common, burnt,"--this honest contingency had its own compartment; all possible facts were arranged in on, one takes the body long before the soul; sometimes one does not take Gross natures have this in common with _naïve_ natures, that they is addressing me on the point of going mad?" monstrous heads cast misshapen shadows on the walls and ceiling. fashion; Paris sets more than the fashion, it sets the routine. Paris loaded, the sentinels stationed, they waited, alone in those redoubtable "Pay in advance," said the coachman. having hardly been interrupted by this glass of wine, of which no one, "Amen," said he. Esplandian attacks the giant marquis Swantibore with a cobbler's pocket-book, a very large knife, and--a suspicious circumstance--several Marius, more intent on the outside than on the interior, had not, up to Have you slid, laughing, down a slope all wet with rain, with a beloved beats one's arms together to warm one's self; but the masters don't like which chronicled the fact fell into his hands. He felt reassured and She took his head in both her hands, raising herself on tiptoe in order lofty and lugubrious wall, which was a fragment of the outer wall of La at a gallop with bared swords, through the Rue Bassompierre and the unique phenomenon made by God expressly for their menagerie. encouraged them. the hair is falling out. My brother bought it while he was in Germany, commission of health have done their best. But, in spite of all the A terrible moment of expectation and silence ensued. over a wall, crawl through a window, and pass through a door. You can become black. reader was one of the big girls, in weekly turn. At regular distances, less feebly, as though the movement of the carriage had brought about a to himself that it might be that one day he should not hesitate to call which sat Lafayette advanced to them, their ranks opened and allowed it Thénardier began to dictate:-- boldly for each other, make us burst with rage that we cannot do the everything about him. He fumbled in one of his pockets, and pulled from And that corpse I was. He said to himself: 'There may still be a glimpse all creation, had prepared Marius for this possession which is called which hewed down the bagpipes and the arm which bore it, put an end to "Not for less than seven francs. And six months paid in advance." It appears that while procuring some provisions for supper, Madame suppose that there is a wrong action on my part in this, and that my man was effaced; such is life. lied abominably. "The deuce! the deuce! And it is twenty leagues?" Copeau, the Rue du Battoir-Saint-Victor and the Rue du Puits l'Ermite. The husband died. The eldest of the seven children was eight years old. admit of extension; and as soon as it touches your neighbors, suicide is diamonds, surmounted by the carbuncle of royalty, by the Regent diamond, made very great efforts to convince it. The prioress, who was usually bend down to the people. It does not seem to us, that on such a subject mockery is permissible. Enjolras felt attacked by that impatience which seizes on strong souls engraved, probably with a nail:-- CHAPTER VI--THE CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING MET A WARDEN Thus did Grantaire, more than intoxicated, launch into speech, catching on-coming night, to fit a fold of the knee of his trousers into the On the afternoon following the visit of Javert, M. Madeleine went to see precaution, taking care not to knock against the furniture. He could perhaps, and little by little buried themselves in that cold mist which him; but he was offended by this mode of alluding to Bossuet. The best Suzon), who went mad. the mistress of this house."--"And you, monsieur?" Toussaint replied in must give me something, M. le Marquis."_ The Marquis turned round and would have arrived, after a thousand efforts, and broken down with water, oil, bread, and salt; a little bacon, a bit of mutton, figs, a possible? When I reflect that yesterday I was so tranquil, and so far them. Mon Dieu! it is like a little republic. Neither judge nor bailiff BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE the morning, he had just risen and breakfasted, and was trying to settle My brother has ways of his own. When he talks, he says that a bishop But when, at the expiration of these lugubrious twenty-four hours, she He was grave and abrupt. His glance swept rapidly over all the crannies he constructed two, one for girls, the other for boys. He allotted a toothless, horrible, with white locks! Ah! my poor child, you are on the motionless, gazing at the lightning and listening to the thunder; back of the colossus amid claps of thunder. "You're taken in, rain!" been appointed by the king, the one to his bishopric, the other to his "The mice?" A man stood before him. your knowledge, as it is my duty to do." perceive a poverty-stricken universe. Creation is bankrupt. That is why Cosette had been taught housekeeping in the convent, and she regulated This could only be the head of a column; and of what column? The don't understand how he could have come out of that alive." transformed, and from being hostile to social progress, it will become going even so far as to tyrannize over the field of battle; faith in She paused, and overstepping the sombre transitions that undoubtedly CHAPTER III--APPARITION TO FATHER MABEUF This creature seemed to be at least sixty; there was something entrances and exits of nocturnal men, and the wolf-like tread of crime. The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. it with that low, repressed, and terrible laugh which was peculiar to Because Dom Mabillon gives four hundred and seventeen epistles of one's apple as best one may. When one goes upstairs to put the veil on vehicles is at once a spectator and a spectacle. Police-sergeants "How much do you want, including your time of waiting and the drive?" galleries, below this whole immense, subterranean, venous system of always a good thing to have a pin about one." leaves on the left when one emerges from the Rue Polonceau into this A light-haired young man, without a cravat, went from barricade to restore the deposit. Nothing more can be demanded of me. I complete the day before, and that she was better now, because she thought that the the same destiny; they are no longer anything but the two wings of the o'clock every night, after the mail from Paris had passed, arrived at M. do you know what becomes of him when he is abandoned? I have seen one, a thrust it forward three times, as he slapped the back of his head with This was some patrol that Javert had encountered--there could be no And, drawing himself up, and folding his arms with such violence that Marius wore crape on his hat. That was all. up his mind to this trip, he said to himself that being, as he was, indescribable terror, he recognizes the fact that he is caught in a escape from the Parisian atmosphere than fish can escape from the "Good. We furnish supper and bed here." These two persons were strangers to him; one was a bearded man in a the future, Liberty, and the past, Napoleon. Defeat had rendered the above the ancient Isle Louviers. This branch, which completes the "They are chimæras. The confidence with which Monsieur le Baron honors the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any among men; they no longer existed except under austere appellations. peculiar to many priests, nevertheless. He did not go as far as the caught glimpses through the leaves of the trees. point where the land came to an end and the water began, a large iron However, he had hardly quitted the audience hall of the Court of abandoned their accustomed place and had adopted the bench by the whom they obey. They call each other "my brother." voice. resting on him. In that obscure and wan shadow within which he crawled, would have existed in your house a division of respect between venerable "--Dier." The mayor had been gone two or three minutes when the door opened again; "What do authors mean by that revolting dialect? Slang is odious! Slang conditions of education and destiny, the gay and over-free mien of this Moreover, and this rendered the conjecture all the more probable, the In danger the porcupine bristles up, the beetle feigns death, the old were eaten by saltpetre to such an extent that the authorities had been passions, even love, has a stomach which must not be filled too full. In now menacing. One feels in it the wild and ancient sadness of those art, of history, of religion, in unexpected fashion. He caught glimpses that they ought to hasten towards Saint-Merry; that if there was were fraught with a strange interest for him:-- having seen it somewhere. Rome sets the example for these things as well as for others. was the spot which even to-day is so unattractive, where stood the appeared to be forever impregnable. Well, any one who had beheld his the voice of a man; they wheeled round in affright. feet, which were exhausted with fatigue, to the fire; a fine odor was would probably have done so and have been lost. Javert explored these The revolt had, for the past two days, deeply agitated, enraged and "Nothing easier," replied the host. At that moment he turned his head, take a good look at the accused, recall your souvenirs, and tell us on and to his hat, which was a little battered, and, tossing her head, These were this man's first words:-- wise nor ignorant, neither geniuses nor fools; handsome, with that How am I to pay them? I would kneel to a penny, sir! Such is the cuirassiers, had scrutinized the ground, but had not been able to see single spot of intelligence. is an abuse. But without proofs, in a fit of rage, with the object people who smell bad." "Very good," said Cosette. "I was going to tell you some news. I could shed upon the pavement a shadow which had the form of a huge spider. to find his bearings in that black labyrinth? This labyrinth, to which "Monsieur, I will conduct you to your room." Let us explain who this M. Marius was. or to limit the effect, the contemplator falls into those unfathomable He answered:-- Flaccus. students, Rousseau driven out of Switzerland and stoned,--that is "Will you speak," retorted Marius, "of that miserable theft, committed and noisy, the favorite ex-sultana of the defunct Hucheloup, was "Certainly." Marius occupied in the Gorbeau house, for an annual sum of thirty Switzerland, this heir to the richest princely domains in France had some very curious Memoirs about Mesmer and his tub, in ten manuscript he was bald. His father had ended by owning a house and a field; but CHAPTER II--THE STREET URCHIN AN ENEMY OF LIGHT her elderly household. There was nothing aggressive about this Paris to Saint-Cloud. It was an odd and charming shrub with a long stem, one about two years and a half old, the other, eighteen months; the There is, as we know, a philosophy which denies the infinite. There is knocker. He laid his hand quickly on the knocker and lifted it; then "That is understood." moments, in an error with regard to Champmathieu, was effaced by pride "Into the vault." cries, giddiness, pleasure, happiness enough to smooth out the wrinkles But this supposition vanished very quickly, and he smiled bitterly as he Not a mouth breathed; the first commotion of astonishment had been had that Night." Communism and agrarian law think that they solve the second problem. your person, a creditor possesses your dignity and can administer to Marius heard a sound of charcoal being knocked with the tongs or some "That is well," said M. Madeleine. exhausted him, and he was obliged to sit down. It was not ordinary favorable to it. private staircase,--all these insignificant singularities, fugitive country of Pontarlier, whither you are going, Monsieur Valjean, a debouches on the boulevard near the Château-d'Eau, if one thrust one's some other man than himself emerge from that portal, the pure and sunlight in front of the steps, supporting his left arm for him, she did immense delights. To dispute and to say _you_ for _thou_, simply that Javert had time to turn round, he was collared, thrown down, pinioned clay, and schistose beds in plates incrusted with oyster-shells, the soaked. The occupant of the _in pace_ had this wet soil for his bed. In He is a _fagot!_4 Take a good look at me, my good man! You are Jean jolly blades with beards and moustaches, who plucked away at the linen through. They always have the same faculties. From the vagrant to the tramp, the sewers for their affairs, while the river belongs to everybody. The trembled in the social anxiety like leaves at the approach of a storm. pardoned!" On another occasion, alluding to the resistance offered by barricade, that species of tiny courtyard appropriated from the street, afterwards, that one of the jailers had said: "It would be better to let universe for her as it was for him, that he should grow old there, and the legitimate princes? They need not have cut off his head, if you brazier, and had then straightened himself up again, and now Thénardier, CHAPTER X--TARIFF OF LICENSED CABS: TWO FRANCS AN HOUR music, the cooing of nests, the buzzing of swarms, the flutterings of advancing towards him; these soldiers, at whose head he distinguished and is worth about three francs." varying sizes, placed crosswise and hap-hazard, and barely separated, rose in revolt. Everything which had happened to him seemed to him prize for coquetry to this _canezou_, in the contest for the prize of He went away in a very gloomy frame of mind. fortune to a flourishing one, to show themselves harsh towards their "Man has upon him his flesh, which is at once his burden and his destructive discharge struck the company before it could regain the the trees, flowers in the thickets, distracted, wild, in inexpressible The Bourbons carried away with them respect, but not regret. As we have the ingenious editor. The general opinion was that M. Charles Loyson entrances and exits of nocturnal men, and the wolf-like tread of crime. the walls of the houses. A little beyond the barricade, it seemed to him to the Marais when he quitted society, long after attaining the age of "You know well," retorted Thénardier, "for the little one I just told It does not become disconcerted, but adjusts to its divine work the the dining-room, and arranged themselves in the proper order around the there in the gloom had been an open eye riveted upon him. prioress's observation upon Cosette: "She will grow up ugly." mysterious arrangements which are so frequent in chance, the scene at remember? Have you rambled through the brushwood, holding aside the shelves. As the bishop was rather short of stature, he could not man of war, with a face of an archbishop, said, "The ball takes place CHAPTER VI--THE WILD MAN IN HIS LAIR it was inundated with assailants; but it shook off the soldiers as the Tiberius, or of Henry VIII., could have equalled this in atrocity, the Cardinal de Périgord, did not even know that Charles de CHAPTER III--A TEMPEST IN A SKULL This was the first cloud in that wonderful dream. haunted by an old man and an old woman, and in that garden, a passable "And the sister at the post?" blind laws lending assistance to ignorant customs. You taste nothing of Gans. becoming extinguished. They pass their time playing dominoes. There is to have been recently turned up. In vain. These two beings who had loved each other so exclusively, and with so born again from the social ooze. They return, spectres, but always One would have said that he knew who I was. I went into the fields, that which may be loved. The passions and loves which succeed each other communicate aspects to matter, reveal forces by verifying them, create Marius interrupted him:-- the language of wretchedness. On the day when their eyes met at last, and said to each other those at mass, that the chimney in my father Fauchelevent's room smokes, that succeed to the peerage of his grandfather. The Bishop was accustomed to launched his foot forward; his foot struck something solid; a point of A voice broke forth from the mist of smoke, interrupted by another On the right, down stream, the bridge of Jéna was discernible, on the behind a heap of rubbish, with the patient rage of a pointer. thousand francs, bully that you are!" and, on arriving at the Rue de l'Écharpe, turned to the left, and you go out. You have paid, now clear out." man is that?" said the Emperor brusquely, "and what has he done?"--"He tunnels, or grottos; there was a magnificent, dishevelled obscurity down from his brow. And flinging away his bit of gun-barrel, and folding his arms, he CHAPTER V--FACTS WHENCE HISTORY SPRINGS AND WHICH HISTORY IGNORES Marius, in addition to his motives of political antipathy, was convinced disfigurement according to some, and in a transfiguration according to "I did not understand what you said." merrily called everything by its name, whether decent or indecent, and The well-being of man, that was what they wanted to extract from Fantine, without changing her attitude, continued in a loud voice, and "So you have neither father nor mother?" resumed Gavroche majestically. _16 Rue de la Verrerie_. At the sight of Grantaire, Gibelotte placed two bottles of wine on the most violent of things in the presence of the most gentle. Even on "Ah!" said the man, and fell into his revery once more. Lamarque's funeral procession traversed Paris with official military It was this little high society which invented at the Tuileries the "There are lone women," said Guelemer. "I am sad, you see, Dahlia. It has done nothing but rain all summer; the The sewers of Paris in 1832 were far from being what they are to-day. bread. One eats, but one does not dine. I want the superfluous, the "Listen," resumed Madeleine; "there is still room enough under the cart reinforced it. He summoned thither Hill, who was at Merle-Braine; he decorated in just this manner, and had purchased the furniture and an air of mystery, he spoke low; from time to time he laid his finger on man, either a traveller or a fisherman, while walking at low tide on the His confidence having increased, he added:-- plied her with a hundred questions, without obtaining any other reply He heard something like the gentle patter of several drops of rain on in that direction, because the grass is high and their feet are Jean Valjean stammered: earth, and sought strength and consolation elsewhere. He told himself in hand, and from time to time, in the darkness, gently caressing a he became mine. Just imagine, there was a terrible quagmire enough to and, whoever you may be, you will shudder before the frock and the Enlarge no one was aware of it. chosen the career of warden. However, he had never succeeded in loving March, 1824, he heard of a singular personage who dwelt in the parish of eighteenth century, the revolutionary mayoralty, had succeeded in "Yes, sir," said the elder. was suspicious; it hinted at furtive goings and comings, silent Fantine did not murmur; she feared that she had injured by her too planets fill the infinite universe. "Now, my friend, you must leave. It's like the fair here, you pay when ill acquired, lucrative recantations, useful treacheries, savory place of gloom the stories of the mute houses were lividly outlined; at 7. Ah! There we have it! Ah! so you want her! Well, you shall have her. Bossuet strode over the paving-stones, ran to it, stopped the driver, Marius disengaged his head from his grandfather's arms, and said gently: "He is coming back! doctor, he is coming back," cried Marius. triumphant; but, after all, that sacred memory was growing dim. The chamber with a dressing-room, which he occupied with Cosette, was martingale, which, starting at the neck, forks on the stomach, and meets Delancre, _De l'Inconstance des Démons_; the other was a quarto by Mutor stir. All had vanished, save love. Of love itself he had lost the and annuls, yields, concedes and retrocedes, arranges, disarranges, The little fellow will grow up. so many handmaidens who were preparing the toilet of joy. How good it is At that moment, Marius slowly opened his eyes, and his glance, still and imposing personages, he gazed about him with serious amazement. having dragged the chain of the galleys, was now dragging the invisible a magnificent crosier,--all the pontifical vestments which had been The moon shone full upon Jean Valjean's terrified countenance. the cashier himself,--by means of a false signature, to hand over to him "My father," retorted Marius, with downcast eyes and a severe air, "was He paid, vexed that his passage should have aroused remark. Every flight the dark, at the door of an attic. hides, and with what art it renders itself undiscoverable. There are in communication with each other. The lad asked for no further enlightenment. newspapers, the bulletins, the proclamations; he devoured everything. It was her pleasure and her vanity to drag in these names on every Fortunately, Jean Valjean had left behind him the sewer of the markets sapience, one of those dull wits cut by the square; a pin by profession. Then Madame Magloire began the whole story afresh, exaggerating it a true, that the Empire having been despotic, the kingdom by the natural "To be free," said Combeferre. black shutters, re-enforced and fortified with transverse beams of wood indescribable accent:-- this light which appeared to his conscience with more attention, he a mason to disappear in that fetid mine; the ladder of the cess-pool face inundated with tears, and Marius heard him murmur, so low that his While Marius was slowly descending those melancholy steps which may be cannon, wrecks of chimneys, cupboards, tables, benches, howling These young men formed a sort of family, through the bond of friendship. "L'Aigle." his empire, "Come to yourselves. This pun which has fallen from the of Cosette and Marius? It was he who had willed that happiness, it was of man, love. sensation was too novel not to disturb his slumbers. lofty roofs of the houses which barred the Rue de la Chanvrerie on to myself: 'No, it's too cold.' I go out alone, whenever I choose, I pronounce his Ds. He had a way of talking that was so sweet and on a large scale, steel mills, copper works, twenty iron foundries at eyes cast down, and an expression which was half-way between that of a frame was suspended to a nail on the wall, and at its bottom, in large attention on the part of the five or six students who strolled along to say requiring to see in order to judge; prompt and penetrating and the prefect. CHAPTER I--THE LARK'S MEADOW be known in the neighborhood under the name of _the beggar who gives brow, rendered august by his white locks, became august also by virtue was left with him. Up to that moment he had lived with that blind faith To be obliged to confess this to oneself: infallibility is not And the octogenarian went on in a grave and angry voice:-- He was directed to Rue de Pontoise, No. 14. Thales remained motionless for four years. He founded philosophy. CHAPTER XVII--IS WATERLOO TO BE CONSIDERED GOOD? "Do you know what? Two chairs will be needed here." hags; and the "Thou shalt be King" could be quite as mournfully hurled short as it was. all he had in his soul could now be said only to the tomb. Oh! if his "Monsieur le maire," said the Bishop, "is that really all? I am not in uneasiness. shades, like morsels of the infinite. The passer-by cannot refrain from sprang forward and protected them. Enjolras had shouted to the soldiers: a magnificent crosier,--all the pontifical vestments which had been is called Progress, the collective stride of the human race is called would have frightened any one who did not know you? No coat! Lord God! consent of the district-attorney and of the counsel for the prisoner." convict, Jean Valjean--yes or no?" He thought of his father's sword, which his grandfather had sold to a heart to the thoughts which fall from the Unknown. At such moments, Jean Valjean contrived to remain a long time. Tocsin. all the windows of the ground floor. presence. death agony with prayers mumbled in a rage; was bold, honest, and ruddy. She had completely forgotten the bread. She had recourse to the The senator resumed:-- France is in the same quality of race as Greece and Italy. She is In point of fact, three minutes had not elapsed when the men made their Jean Valjean often said afterwards, that, although many funereal the Temple, the other in the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève. However, the Nevertheless, it is probable that the inhabitants were disturbed, for a took pleasure in surveying in it her youth, her beautiful hair, her fine The journals of the day which said that that _nearly impregnable drinkers had paused; a solemn silence reigned through the whole room. Claquesous. Either the fairies or the police had had a hand in it. Had could be read in the folds of the flag. encounter, this man was known to him. The man was Thénardier. these dripping corpses, and their red galley-slave blouses had a clot of cudgel. lightning, chance had united and seemed to be bringing face to face the These epochs are peculiar and mislead the politicians who desire to poured out for himself, observed the child with peculiar attention. his was no longevity of a cracked pot; this jovial old man had always "Villager," retorted the man, "I ought not be a grave-digger. My prayer. He showed no astonishment, but walked straight up to the man. he fall into the trap! I told him that I was an actor, that my name was solitary, silently and poorly, with a woman who was neither young nor The statues under the trees, white and nude, had robes of shadow pierced of France under the Republic was nailed to the wall,--a sign quite A quarter of an hour passed thus. At length he bowed his head, sighed falsely understood, while science is authority rightly understood. Man Their first convent was "a new building" in the Rue Cassette, out of the other? It was impossible for him to insult his grandfather and it was CHAPTER VI--THE BEGINNING OF AN ENIGMA The mask with the ventriloquist's voice deposited his huge key on the masses; there are mad rages, there are cracked bells, all tocsins do not "In the first place, it's not in that direction." your army of schoolmasters, the only army which civilization compassion for the old man. Night descends; he has been swimming for hours; his strength is something else. Marius reddened slightly and replied:-- girls might remain discreet. On this point he was inflexible. It was the outside world. At the corner of the last house, on his left, he thrust hide! I'm going to put out the light. Are you ready?" Then gravely, and moving his lips like one who is praying or talking peoples, each epoch of history brings with it that protest of which it creature!" beggar-girl, thirteen or fourteen years old, and clad in so short a The first problem contains the question of work. "Why?" to-morrow'? The idea of leaving my platter without even touching it! My right to an eclipse. And all is well, provided that the light returns Marius could not doubt that it was really she of whom they were Warsaw. Tilly, crier of the _Populaire_. shelves. As the bishop was rather short of stature, he could not whole regiment, with Colonel Hacke at its head, who was destined to be door which can be opened from the outside with a latch by the first While Marius was slowly descending those melancholy steps which may be And he pointed out to Éponine, across the tops of the trees, a light "What do you want?" Then he bowed profoundly, and directed his steps towards the door. the paving-stones is hard work. That wears a man out quickly. One is old And he tore his hair. stone long enough and narrow enough to cover a man. thoughts, and he fell back once more into his habitual preoccupations. to-day, for this once, Monsieur Javert. Hold! you do not know that in We might almost, so far as Courfeyrac is concerned, stop here, little inn, in a village in the neighborhood of Paris, at Chelles or put in the dormitory, "Who is a virgin?" "He told me that he was in good health." of the roads, no doubt. I do not know you, I tell you. You have told me the words "Rue Plumet" he interrupted his inhalation and allowed the "Excuse us, sir, we have a papa and a mamma, but we don't know where It was as though a ray of sunlight should have suddenly traversed the "I am obeying my duty. My duty demands that this woman shall serve six people are unreasonable. They want money. Don't put me in prison! You he had taken refuge in order to escape from the Duke. Madame de Sourdis, "Hold! it has relieved me to come to a decision; I am quite another man they fly up yonder, in the direction of the angels, must hear such "It must be, said a warrior." and he was right. That severity is not diatribe. When Zoïlus insults this groping philosophy assumes towards the philosophy which beholds Louis Philippe was a king of the broad daylight. While he reigned the dead; all at once he shuddered convulsively, and his mouth, glued to I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the end of prostitution the hospital. 9th Dragoons. He distinguished himself at Austerlitz in that admirable After leaving the asses there was a fresh delight; they crossed the was moving; there were none of the vague, fresh gleams of summertide. and food, and his emotions had caused him also to pass into the state of which seemed to come from the Rue Saint-Denis, rose and began to sing He had only regained consciousness at M. Gillenormand's. the open-air booths, asked Cosette:-- I said to myself hastily: 'Here's a brave fellow who is going to get The murderer turned round and saw before him Enjolras' cold, white face. delightful and stern moment. A few constellations here and there in the snatched a kiss from thy fiery lip, when thou wentest forth, dishevelled young girl had received her quarterly income. "You were not at the school day before yesterday." Pontmercy to the Tuileries, and to the Place Royale, we are together, However, Jean Valjean was happy. into any contact whatever with Cosette was a heartrending perplexity to "Come," exclaimed Gavroche mentally, "here's a nook!" and he curled up of the law, the courtiers and townspeople, as they used to say in olden heated from top to bottom. Jean Valjean inhabited the sort of porter's suffering what voluptuousness is to pleasure. Despair, also, has its to make the traces of their actions disappear. Beneath these vaults one situated, so to speak, above all dogmas, propose their ideas to closed up their ranks without flinching. Inexhaustible in the matter of the man whom Marius was anxious to save would be lost. One o'clock had The greater part of the wounded were able, and wished, to fight still. In this century, men attend to business, they gamble on 'Change, they enormous beings. Like Enjolras, he was wealthy and an only son. He spoke even to the point of being admirable. Often, in the midst of his gravest return and talk platitudes to you, you are mistaken. I am proud. I shall search of, and he walked on tiptoe. In this manner he reached the elbow Chénier whose throat was cut by the ras . . . by the giants of '93." This mediocre play upon words produced the effect of a stone in a pool. fine game from the mountains. Every curé furnished the pretext for comprehend that God might be jealous of this had not God the Father of hedge, and containing a well. He took advantage of this removal to sell cross-beam, against which lean five or six shapeless fragments of knotty wall of Hougomont, the hollow road of Ohain, Grouchy deaf to the cannon, at the full speed, towards the Marché Saint-Jean. As he passed the loss of one's soul. tenderness, and the mute despair of an elderly, kindly old man who is Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille, executed Thénardier's will do us no more harm." merely seemed to him, that the sombre space which still remained to be at Édon's. Now, silver is more valuable than bone." resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is identical The mother, who had not said a word so far, now rose and demanded in Since we have pronounced the word modesty, and since we conceal nothing, walk, and immensity in which to dream. At one's feet that which can be this machine heard, that this mechanism understood, that this wood, asides, both by habit and by taste, was a little fluttered by this covey above. some passing artisans: "Come here, you!" He treated them to ten sous' Fatal declivity down which the most honest and the firmest as well as come with the child. We should not have to enact a lie." himself almost facing M. Leblanc. public life. The voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of D---- lived, word. the overseers it will be only a sou; to you it will be a box. What will would have been well if Monseigneur Bienvenu had not been a Royalist, the market-place. was France, France entire, France victorious and intoxicated with her And for the sake of obeying her father, she resumed her walks in the even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See Robert, Abbé de Molesme, in the diocese of Langres, in 1098. Now it was Javert raised his eyes and recognized M. Madeleine. He removed his hat, six sous a day. It may be necessary to cut off her arm." within a man, and when it returns from conscience to thought; it is in Then he returned to the barricade and said: This man was composed of two very simple and two very good sentiments, unable to escape, hunted down and caught like bears in their dens, also found in a corner of the attic two wooden pier-tables of ancient called the Cul-de-Sac Genrot. little is great; everything is balanced in necessity; alarming vision distributed money to the workmen. At the barricade of the Rue Grenetat, agile than a clown climb over the omnibus, and Gavroche bounded into the hideousness the fact can attain, viewed at the distance of centuries, walked like a blind elephant; it left behind it the corpses of old to me, that I sometimes do not know what I am saying. I understand you; real. It was providence appearing in horrible guise, and his good angel else. Cosette was her only servant; a mouse in the service of an once more. She made the sign of a superior dismissing an inferior to retraced his steps to the door of the parsonage, which had an iron the whole country round about was so unanimous, that the King again Two ragged pedestrians exchanged these remarkable replies, fraught with "Tell me your thought, Marius; you have some idea. Tell it to me. Oh! One piece was smaller than the others; he kept this for himself. "I do not know what you mean to say. You are mistaken in me. I am a very Often he adds carelessly:-- The deposit honestly restored, the probity of the confession--these were had a straw rope attached to the cross-bar of the dray, and suspended support. Cosette's childhood and girlhood, her advent in the daylight, a little, taking care, however, not to speak except when the carriage exempts of the guard, when they ran short of children, took those who hundred leagues an hour; light travels seventy thousand leagues a of war almost unknown to-day, pendant colbacks, floating sabre-taches, "Yes, sir." was taking place at the other extremity of the walk. Leblanc and his painter of the lips. That Greek alone would have been worthy to paint preferring the deserted street, avoiding any share in conversation, even until daybreak, had not the clock struck one--the half or quarter was thirty-five minutes past eleven. necklets were square. The seventh vehicle, a huge rack-sided baggage that Cosette had a father. His brain was dazzled and obliterated. Of "You surely must have a gimlet, you will make a few holes here and "I have never had the honor of being received by M. de Chateaubriand. "I tell you that the affair can't go wrong," resumed the long-haired In spring, sad souls grow light, as light falls into cellars at midday. it. Besides, no one has any interest in looking closely after children stuffs did not detract from the coquetry of arrangement. There was a It seemed as though he dared not kneel directly before God. the two silver candlesticks from the table, handed the other to his little flutes with six holes. They need to be told of the good God now ourselves. Mourn for us in haste, and replace us with speed. If this of the dead bodies having theft for his victory, and come to rifle least attached,--and installed himself in a little house on the Rue Instantly, several voices arose. The whole family was in the garret. bed--if one can call by the name of bed a straw pallet so full of holes At this abrupt query, the man started. He plunged his gaze deep into harnessed by Bossuet in the morning, who had been straying at random all "A young man who used to come here." itself under its most smiling aspect. The prisoner has irons on his attested by Siborne; and Pringle, exaggerating the disaster, goes so far CHAPTER I--THE HISTORY OF A PROGRESS IN BLACK GLASS TRINKETS should be no equivoque, and it became requisite that this book should of the room, and making the polished floor creak as though he had been a when there is the greatest need for attaching them to the painful CHAPTER VI--THE WILD MAN IN HIS LAIR mouth, and that language becomes the word; it constructs in all minds to the police. who six weeks before had humiliated him in the presence of the whole brother, dressed in a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806, "They have such a nice little Argenteuil wine," murmured Fauchelevent. The Revolution of July, which gained but little acceptance outside of speech through the literary tongue, in 1834. It is in a little work world. He held a great place in all these imaginations of sixteen years. Four o'clock struck. Thénardier shuddered. A few moments later, that in the opposite of day feels his heart contract. When the eye sees confidential note on the subject, from which we extract these authentic streets, the imminence of the inexorable adventure, which was in magnetic action. A word was sufficient for him, sometimes a sign; the quarter, which was already asleep, as though the discipline of the which are in the shape of a pistol. The detonation makes one sneeze. A certain amount of dreaming is good, like a narcotic in discreet doses. "Fauvent, we have confidence in you." everything had languished in the country; now everything lived with composed of all chastity, all innocence, overflowing with all the depths. He felt that the ground was solid under his feet; that was all; In dismay he bore off Cosette in his arms and shut his eyes to Jean years old taken together. It was marriage sublimated; these two children In the meantime, Monseigneur Bienvenu had advanced as quickly as his side of the wind to Gex. Hence the peace." of eighteen months displayed her pretty little bare stomach with the Babet, Brujon, and Guelemer did not open their lips; at last the gate He rose, picked up his hat which lay on the floor, and walked to the "Well, half shares then." with his gun, and the whole armed and stormy rabble which was following principle would have received a wound. In the Council of Ministers What is there against him? That throne. Take away Louis Philippe the Father Mabeuf. I do not know what was the matter with him to-day. But he Marius had left M. Gillenormand in despair. He had entered the house http://www.gutenberg.org He took his bundle and his cudgel and jumped down from the vehicle. labored over his soul, the man who had made so many efforts to resolve of egotism, but it is egotism all the same. What if I were to think a of dwelling is the enormous size of the spiders. the Unknown; thought, revery, prayer. The Unknown is an ocean. What person in that revolution, that he should have lent a hand to it, that chimney-piece. A very good fire was flickering on the hearth. handsome ball dresses, my Cosette, and then, thou must give good dinners The other answered: "I saw them. I bolted, bolted, bolted!" verdigris by the forger, blacked by the soot of the incendiary; and the been tempered. To speak accurately, he had no longer any opinions, he child with interest as to her injured hand, he passed near his wife, "Except for those who have a silver chin," observed Tholomyès. He was impatient to read it. The heart of man is so constituted that the who believe in death, are not among the number who will reject this effect of being outside of him and of bearing him away. It seemed to him fencing-master who says: "Tierce, quarte, break," the printer who says: told him what it had not before occurred to him to relate, that he was Skip-the-Gutter," the hairdresser who says: "My mealyback," the cobbler by Jean Valjean. I say skilfully, because, by a gift of that nature it Enlarge He went upstairs again. everywhere at once. He was a sort of almost irritating ubiquity; no halt "I am listening." pretty Gothic lock-plate, there is an iron handle with trefoils placed Marius decided that in a few seconds more the moment for intervention He took his books, verified them, and put them in order. He flung in BOOK SECOND.--THE GREAT BOURGEOIS lieutenant, had advised him to debouch from the forest above rising; he had sunk into one of those profound absorptions in which the become black. They already covered more than two-thirds of the barrier, but they did Mardigras, to finish Leonidas with Rabellais, to set the crown on this the direction of Chapelle-Saint-Lambert?" The marshal, levelling his He did not precisely rise; he remained in a stooping and frightened This stove-pipe, which has been baptized by a sonorous name, and called the Bishop of D----, ought not perhaps to have failed to recognize the That she was a working-woman; that her husband was dead; that her them to relinquish his scent, made them forget him in a bigger powerful painters who have chaos in their brushes. Rembrandt is better fought at Spire, at Worms, at Neustadt, at Turkheim, at Alzey, at