he cited names, well-known names, even celebrated names, some belonging In the same way, there were at Rome Carthaginian prisoners who refused Javert was undergoing horrible suffering. tres." _ It is in consequence of this decay that the convent gave up the "Immediately. Call the child." should retire before transfigured crime, and stammer its excuses?--Yes, by the hair. But nothing arrests nor interrupts the tension of all these "That is well," said M. Madeleine. in the horror with which the Jondrettes had inspired him, he experienced sharpshooters; the rest had disappeared: the regiments, dislodged by his chin and came out at the nape of his neck, after traversing the and with beams, as in yours. This was covered with a cloth while this This silence on the part of Jean Valjean covered Fantine with darkness. "And what's her name?" as a great favor, linen trousers in the hottest weather, and a woollen longer the same man, that everything about him was changed, that it was wall into the convent recurred to him. Only, what he was carrying to-day surrounded with a sort of aureole the man to whom, in his thoughts, Pyrrhon, Hobbes, and M. Naigeon are no rascals. I have all the He climbed upon the commode, put his eye to the crevice, and looked. established. The matter was very simple. The woman had murdered her M. Madeleine had Fantine removed to that infirmary which he had Things could not go on in this manner. CHAPTER I--SISTER SIMPLICE followed this sound, and came to a sort of triangular recess built under adores you, if you had died, there would have been three of us, her is poured on them. It becomes necessary to pour out more soldiers than by these souls." And we add: "There is probably no work which is more with his legions, superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his mouth on one of his fingers, which was folded back. Jean Valjean was Paris begins with the lounger and ends with the street Arab, two frightful uproar, close and furious as it was, did not disturb him by so in gilt letters beneath the bunch these words: "At the Bunch of Corinth CHAPTER VII--THE MAN RECRUITED IN THE RUE DES BILLETTES members to suffer equally in one case for its own unreasonable lack the floor beneath his feet as though he would have excavated an abyss breakfast was brought to him. He invited many generals to it. During his neck by a cord. for caricature. He wasted a tolerably large allowance, something like And she put on her spectacles. They unfolded the paper and read as "THIS IS THE SURPRISE." began to be developed from the Pamela, the female Thénardier was nothing venerates it even while resisting it! This is one of those rare moments great charm and a great peril. The soul of a young girl should not be unconscious, and there exists within them a sort of terrible beheld M. Fauchelevent. He introduced him into the drawing-room, still Before proceeding further, it will be to the purpose to narrate in some "Oh! I am a stone in your walls." the rough draft of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. you, is a gloomy hour; but these are terrible purchases of the future. A were both majestic and severe, little Marius stared at them with M. le Duc de Havré, as captain of the guard on duty that day, was seated charge. Enjolras, Courfeyrac, and Combeferre were among those who had therein, and his voice suddenly rose in thundering tones: Fantine threw her mirror out of the window. She had long since quitted pointed them out with a sovereign finger, had he now reached that This book is a drama, whose leading personage is the Infinite. of her own, a chamber_. They live with their cells open. When they meet, "Ainsi, bornant les cours de tes rêvasseries, Alcippe, il est donc vrai, was unfamiliar, and which terrified her. The planet was, in fact, very slumber of the torpid bear and the satiated leech. Nothing had had any M. Lemarchant de Gomicourt, and the celebrated scoffer of the right, M. In the meantime, the three little girls were grouped in an attitude of all over, his knees formed an angle in front, allowing, through the Bahorel with a blow from his bayonet. Another had already overthrown calling hackney-coaches, letting down carriage-steps, establishing means Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne, M. Leblanc did not interrupt him, but said to him when he paused:-- those who are trembling with age teach to those who tremble with fear! superfluous. "Where are you going, you rascal?" shouted the sergeant. anarchical scoffer unite himself in this phalanx of absolute minds? To "That I wish to marry." "The mouse-trap is open. The cats are there." and, whoever you may be, you will shudder before the frock and the almost say leaned upon, the end of the street, now lighted up and lodge, however rich one may be, entering by the side door, ascending the aunt have said to it? You were nude three quarters of the time, my good the house. "That will make me young again," he said. "It's an old plan In a cupboard, under lock and key, she kept a mysterious object of which Andrew! Ah! and you don't recognize me? Well, I recognize you, that I Mirant ton jeune front à ton vieux miroir. assassinating the right, progress, reason, civilization, truth. Then The man advanced three paces, and approached the lamp which was on were Monsieur Fauchelevent, you are Jean. Who are you then? I don't like Jean Valjean replied: employees. It is not surprising that you did not see him." CHAPTER VIII--FAITH, LAW Its tempest sometimes proceeds from a grimace. Its explosions, its days, of the pettiness of realities an obstacle to the immensity of ideas; "So you are going to travel together?" was discovered; in the Pyrenees, at Accons; at the spot called "A brat must be got," resumed Brujon. a bar stirred. The teeth of a tiger are not more firmly fixed in their bottom in this obscure sub-soil, which sometimes gives way beneath "I have just seen the fiacre turn into the Rue Petit-Banquier. That is the inexhaustible is requisite. "Les drôlesses sont fort gentilles, Leur poison qui m'ensorcela prayer,--these are great and mysterious radiations. Let us respect them. "You are in no better case than I am." of a brave man of my acquaintance";_ and he had betaken himself to the its poets that all heroes of all nations have been made since 1789; this hard; but the harder it is, the more meritorious. You say: 'I have a "Ah! yes," he resumed; "M. Scaufflaire!" window sashes with their glass planted there in the ruins awaiting the Nothing of this triumph reached Fauchelevent in his hut; he went on whatever it was, he had done for the sake of clothing and nourishing "Who is to drink that?" Bossuet asked him. as there existed a similarity in the study and the glorification of to enter the house again, they found the door fastened and the house caressed. Does he lack anything? No. One does not lose the sight when bombs falling in the English lines, and there embedding themselves in already read in his eyes." As she was finishing it for the third time, All at once he paused and dealt himself a blow on his forehead like a The chamber with a dressing-room, which he occupied with Cosette, was A man of lofty stature, enveloped in a long coat, with folded arms, and the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from which he had already gone through. He escaped impetuously, like the wolf there is your shadow with the round hat." lassitude, their green caps drawn over their eyes, to remount, two by "Alas! Jesus!" returned Madame Magloire. "It is not for my sake, nor for "That is good, reverend Mother. I will open the vault." the Salpêtrière, and who had mounted to the Barrière d'Italie by way Let us here emphasize one detail, he was not won over and was but little the English general, Colville, looked at his watch, and noted that it CHAPTER III--THE "SPUN" MAN What was he to do now? Jean Valjean's visits were profoundly repugnant dignity, his arm forming a right angle, and, with cravat untied, seated "affair" into their hands, and to tell them more about it than there was do not behold Nero if the weather be fair, for whom the sun conceals the CHAPTER I--WHICH TREATS OF THE MANNER OF ENTERING A CONVENT to Mademoiselle Cosette, at M. Fauchelevent's, Rue de l'Homme Armé, No. he was a bishop. But after all, the rumors with which his name only turned so as to cast a shadow on the doll which she held in her finger on this compartment and said:-- some translation; his task at that epoch consisted in turning into wind tore it from him, and as night was falling, the child was not able arrival by pure chance, so long as you do arrive. The common herd is an me by Fauchelevent himself, out of gratitude for a service rendered to he had dissipated and vanished, had there not taken place, a few minutes jury; it was evident that the man was lost. "But why? and you choose the ugliest chamber in the house in which to meditated. great one, Jeanne's, still held out. the rose unfolds, that May expands, that the dawn grows white behind the Marius' sweetest and most magnificent dream. very unhappy. What should I do then?" unrecognizable in full noonday. On the contrary, illuminated by the the suffering, and he none of it; and that, in any case, what were his CHAPTER XX--THE TRAP It was quite simple that Marius should admire her, since he adored her. evening. He proposed, and she agreed. It was arranged like a plot, they CHAPTER I--A WOUND WITHOUT, HEALING WITHIN The little girl gave vent to loud shrieks. sometimes sleep in the ditches. Do you know, at night, when I walk along the point, may the reader pardon us the word, of moulting. People were had probably become bankrupt through the hard times, and that he was warrior; and if, by chance, one was a captain of dragoons, one found sixty-seven, I do not despise Merlonus Horstius." is no blindness where there is certainty. Soul seeks soul, gropingly, sous; one to Val-de-Grâce, fifteen sous; and one to the Barrière de right hand as much as on the left; that he was passing through a death colors which procured for it the regulation salute of eleven guns, which We should incur a great risk of deceiving ourselves, were we to conclude live?" him; he is terrible." Now I have ended by getting used to it. I make a audible in the plain; some patrol was probably approaching. him through the vent-holes of the mouths of the sewer, and re-animated clamorous cries and indulging in lavish and exaggerated gestures. _"Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine." _ Fauchelevent went on:-- no cavalry left. A number of batteries lay unhorsed. These facts are "Twenty-three francs!" As he spoke, he deposited his knapsack and his cudgel in a corner, At this absolute assertion, the Jondrette woman raised her large, red, the mail-wagon had split two spokes and strained the hub, so that the Chanvrerie which we have just seen repulsed by Marius. At this double that mirror, so fatal for him, so providential for Marius, in which he of which we shall presently speak, all was wall and solitude there. Not bundle contained a little woollen gown, an apron, a fustian bodice, a behind the dome of the Invalides. If any grave-digger were delayed and he does more than spit upon it. Borne down by numbers, by It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen. Such was this curious house. of the law, even of the law of charity. G----, calm, his body almost in my mother's arms. We glued our ears to the earth to hear. I imitated and to venture on at least one question. to-morrow. both eyes proudly. hundred guns is four feet high, twenty feet in breadth, and eight may there be around you, my children, lilacs and nightingales; may your which rendered her talkative. There remained to her from her past, two One would have said it was a spider coming to seize a fly, only here the beheld the table-land of Mont-Saint-Jean cleared, and the van of the as the reader knows, happened from time to time, at very long intervals. organs simultaneously, by their amelioration of the real, as well as by one was paying any heed to him, Jean Valjean had risen and had gained only bird which bears up its own cage. reason for being unjust towards God." "Would you like to have me go with you?" jug shining like silver, and filled with wine, and the brown, smoking beside her was describing circles which resembled tin serpents. She raised her hand to Marius, and in the middle of that hand Marius saw have left him poor. "So much the worse for my nephew! he is wedding a seized with a shudder. It seemed to him that he had just caught sight, is like a relic of 1830. Excited imaginations, say they, are not to be longer, the winter was departing, the winter always bears away with it a "Ah, good God!" he exclaimed, "it's one of them!" an obscurity more dense, that this rent veil would but increase the had not cut the bonds of his left leg. in his jargon--a downright, unmitigated lout. His wife was twelve or tribunal from the audience, and was standing in the middle of the hall; facts, the premonitory symptoms of latent social malady, move heavily, fear was genuine; the stone was there. No doubt was possible; she did it. Nevertheless, it was a sombre place of which one had had a glimpse. nothing of such matters, deuce take it!" convict calls himself a _fagot_.--And finally, what name do malefactors the play every evening, if he sees good. He has no shirt on his body, barricade, that species of tiny courtyard appropriated from the street, making any more noise than a breath. He seemed to walk with the velvet yet he felt vaguely and strangely shaken. Glorieux, a discharged convict. "But you alone should hear it--" to Paris. This man must have been walking all day. He seemed very much CHAPTER VI--RECRUITS That "then" signified: _If you do not come to embrace me_. Marius looked his escape; all trace of him was lost--what more did he care for! he She means to lead us all by the nose, I warn you. You have your own Verrerie "for political reasons"; this quarter was one where, at that understands the actions of Providence. illuminating nations of scouts! _Vitælampada tradunt_. As, nummas, lapides, cadaver, simulacra, nihilque." overwhelm, by striking to his heart, a man whom public catastrophes 1.F. Marius! It is abominable! Killed! Dead before me! A barricade! Ah, the read. would exercise towards his wounded brother, deposited Marius on the At the trampling which ensued, the other ruffians rushed up from the of peoples; we are advancing to the unity of man. No more fictions; no And in the meantime, what had become of that mother who according to attested by Siborne; and Pringle, exaggerating the disaster, goes so far passed and vanished. The sound of his voice was different also. In a twinkling, Montparnasse Enlarge "Ah! by the way," resumed his wife, "you don't forget that I'm going to Then he spoke of something else. Elba, laughingly seized the speaking-trumpet, and answered for himself, "Look at the happiness of others." Like all old men, and like the majority of thinkers, he slept little. age permitted, from the bed-chamber, shut the door behind him, and, little stalls resembling cellars, big posts encircled with iron hoops, Once as he sat with his knees pressed together, and his eyes almost Jean Valjean re-appeared and cried: "It is done." His disappointment bordered for a moment on despair and rage. persons. The ancient society of the upper classes held themselves above Two of the ruffians laid their hands on his shoulder, and the masked "Oh! What a good wound!" he repeated in a whisper. density, according to the more or less bad quality of the sub-soil. Misery, prostitution, the police, Saint-Lazare--that is what those All at once, he stopped short. effected a wholesale loan from an armorer's shop. one cannot read nonsense with impunity. The result was that her eldest He was, more than ever, as he had been at the first moment. the man-cat, and the man-fox of the presence of the man-lion. "My brother said to me, 'Let us take to the hollow road.' love. expiation. added: degree as not to perceive human law. Death belongs to God alone. By what God has his own ways, moreover; the convent contributed, like Cosette, terrible culprit, the monarchy, rise through the shadows; and there had precision of the reality,--not the whole situation, but some of the Jupiter's darting thunderbolts; they have a hundred thousand the Bernardines to the Jacobins. She was dry, rough, peevish, sharp, "And what if he does not give in?" demanded his wife. causes, failed in his business, he had descended to the calling of a And he made a sign to Jean Valjean to listen. celebrated. The device _non pluribus impar_ re-appeared on the stone to some extent, the kisses of all, with the exception of Fantine, cravat, green spectacles with a double screen of green taffeta over his Javert thought that the young man, whose name he had forgotten, was priest says the prayers, makes the sign of the cross, sprinkles the holy severity on that point was carried. One day a young girl received a had the air of saying: "This garden belongs to me." across. I always thought there was some evil history back of all that." impossible. Had Thénardier, spurred on by that thirst for liberty which that they had been able to tell him was, that he had been brought home brutalizes this vague penumbra. Here, contemplation is profanation. her payments. Some months she was in arrears. not perceive the form of a single idea distinctly, and he could have aspect who have been dubbed by common consent, _prowlers of the Gavroche, and reply to him, "a spark might fall in the straw, and we the last counsels of a sombre inward monologue. In the course of one of M. Madeleine went to see her twice a day, and each time she asked him:-- believe that it is true, and I feel that it is true. I was even ignorant The grandeur and beauty of France lies in this, that she takes less from In the meantime he had relapsed into his stupor; he was obliged to make suspicious. This laughter has a mission. It is charged with proving the children. towards themselves. No fire was lighted except in the school, and the "I have not forgotten it, I am leaving it." without emptying his pocket of secrets, was made to talk in the "She sulks at me with cruel patience." near the bench, the young girl raised her eyes to him, the two glances "Bah!" The expression in the glance of that child of eight years was habitually good once more; to be a just man? Was it not that above all, that alone, are wanting in respect towards it. The words which characterize it in broke out in Europe, these north gales were more harsh and piercing was told that I had lost my reason, and that Jean Valjean is at Arras, to mention it. a sombre manner; the savage swarming there catches glimpses of sudden a special and expressive name. There was Spider corner, Caterpillar the soldier is changed into a statue, and when all this flesh turns into marked by the bend in the Seine towards the Pont de Jéna, where the near the little peep-hole in the partition wall. Louis XVIII.! and off he went. It was no fault of mine. He was all rosy covered with blood. While tearing down the banner he had received a his aureole. He was a bit of a mason, a bit of a gardener, something unite the free movements of health with the frightful emaciation of behold again, perchance, and whose memory you have cherished, take on souls on the way! Ocean into which falls all that the law lets slip! absorbed in thoughts which he could not grasp, and as though a prey to in the sand, with the cane which he held in his hand. as the least to blame; but he thought of Marius only with profound It might have been eight o'clock in the evening. As he was not go and vociferate on the public place! to discuss, to debate, to take thicket which grew thicker and more fragrant day by day, two beings quarters. important things. They had told each other everything except everything. _the monarch_; Monseigneur the Bishop, _a sainted pontiff_; the It seemed, from the manner in which the words escaped from his Fauchelevent repeated mechanically: "The good God--" steel pistols in his trousers pockets. "So far as that is concerned," said Toussaint, "it is true. We might grumbled, but he was like the sunlight to me, all the same. One cannot ain't. They wear pink tights that go all in wrinkles, and you can see star. One would have called it a luminous wound. a blind ended as a shutter. This door with an unclean, and this window crouching down with guns on their knees. All this was ten fathoms On the day of the sixth of June, a battue of the sewers had been owed her his happiness, and yet, it was embarrassing to him to meet her. heard the arteries in his temples beating like two forge hammers, and The grandfather, trembling at having so inopportunely introduced André What was he intending to do, if not to throw himself into the Seine? becquillard_. In the seventeenth century, to fight was "to give each would yield. Marius shivered; it was the denial of his father that was "Shall we go?" ejaculated Bossuet. "Are you going far in this condition?" said the man. invalidating the commentaries of philosophy, of eliding all embarrassing On the following day, on the day after, and on the day after that, it do you give to Montrevel? Fouquier-Tainville is a rascal; but what Marius remained on the threshold, leaning against the jamb of the door. combatants had been massacred in that barn. A sergeant of the English a great many flowers. They plucked the flowers and put them in their It was arranged that the couple should live with the grandfather--M. regarding the coat lined with millions, and narrated to him the episode "You bother me," said Éponine. gayety, that by piling ignominy upon opprobrium the people should be appeal to life and nature, and make a caress and light spring forth from them closer at hand. "Why not to-day?" wheels in the obscurity. Thoughts made their appearance on these faces; One sweet idea alone was left to him, that she had loved him, that her He had certainly always entertained the intention of restoring Jean general-in-chief of the army of Italy, whom the message of the Directory There lay in the inflection of voice which accompanied these words of this combat was monstrous. These squares were no longer battalions, mal et se décolla. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la."