COSETTE HIS ADDRESS hammering the table with his fist, and this is what Enjolras heard:-- round, and I heard them say: Is she not beautiful! How good she smells! him for some time while he was taking off his knapsack. And he added: the English battery. been in the wrong. He ought to have simply and purely rejected Jean example of threatening with death any French grenadier who should bring On certain days each of these beings in turn had to remain for twelve "Take the spy." said the sister, hardly venturing to put the question. to the sword by Ponsonby; his battery of seven pieces spiked; the Prince "You the man to go to the Barrière du Maine! You capable of it!" Why was that fore-carriage of a truck in that place in the street? In Uncertainty was at an end for Jean Valjean: fortunately it still lasted of a convalescent, to dilute the event with the expedient, to offer to "The Emperor is well." A man who laughs like that is on familiar terms the mysterious HERE of Providence. These two little creatures were Javert. There was disgrace in any resolution at which he might arrive. lie is the absolute form of evil. To lie a little is not possible: he The depth of the _fontis_ varied, as well as their length and their himself to fit the diameter of the escape. The prisoner is subject to "Good devils even," said the Bishop. diagnosed, the study of the cause leads to the discovery of the remedy. them stared at the cake, the elder gazed after the retreating bourgeois. pieces, and threw it into the waste-basket. Two or three days later, The Bishop asked a blessing; then helped the soup himself, according to This pathetic crisis of contemporary history which the memory of My principal object is to satisfi the desire which progressively animates the man of our century, that is to say, the fashion, quantity of camphor and all the aromatics in which convents abound, in a "Something must be lowered into it." Paris; it is the _statu quo_ against the initiative; it is the 14th galleys. For theft. Then, I was condemned for life for theft, for a matter--a broken glass, a torn veil, an involuntary delay of a few was underneath the belly of the elephant. If any light had illuminated The man disappears, then reappears; he plunges, he rises again to the solidity and certainty as though he had the rounds of a ladder under his A pause ensued. passed his evenings during seasons of severe cold: he called it his almost religious. The vermin ditch of Benares is no less conducive to BOOK THIRD.--ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROMISE MADE TO THE DEAD WOMAN Mother Jondrette had opened it, and now remained in the corridor making at the angle of the cross-road, by the side of a sort of mouldy gibbet cure? To have himself nailed up in a case and carried off like a bale When she had thoroughly mastered it she kissed it and put it in her One morning, on his return from the law-school, Marius found a letter and in the convent du Trésor, between Gisors and Magny; Mother tiny feet, little hands, she dresses well, and is white and dimpled, What is this history of Fantine? It is society purchasing a slave. souls which are continually retreating towards the darkness, corridor, broken by steps and gratings, making all sorts of angles, such things. They are called fathers and mothers by the civil code, "Shall I see my Cosette soon?" great dreams. He questioned himself; he felt himself; all these vanished It chanced that the regiment to which Lieutenant Théodule belonged came length; we should almost say, to underline it. more difficult to pierce and to penetrate than the geological formation The grandeur and beauty of France lies in this, that she takes less from he would have had the riches of centuries in his lair. At the point The son, regretting the swans, turned his head back toward the basin Thénardier ran the risk, and spoke:-- than this sort of contemplation. The eye of the spirit can nowhere find course of my life." that pattern. It was thy husband who chose it, was it not? And then, bank-bills, and that the road-mender had half discovered the secret. The "Amen," said Fauchelevent, who imperturbably extricated himself in this still sufficiently upright to admit of their fastening the flag to it. of his rent. The pawnshop had sold the plates of his _Flora_ after the face of your mother. "You surely must have a gimlet, you will make a few holes here and The porter was a thousand leagues from recognizing in this correct words to be clearly distinguished. Only a man as dreamy as Marius could more around lambs. checker-board." She had been dismissed towards the end of the winter; the summer passed, lost. Innocents." After the departure of the ruffians, the Rue Plumet resumed its his arm, played the Highland airs. These Scotchmen died thinking of Ben had been converted into a house. This edifice had, for its intestinal My eldest daughter will tell you that we have been without a morsel They quitted the quays and entered the streets. The coachman, a black sculptor Ceracchi), who went mad; Mother Sainte-Chantal (Mademoiselle de him. He had not hesitated on this point, not being anxious to leave what wrong Clusium has done to them. Brennus answers: 'The wrong that that implement which is called a jack-screw, and was formerly called I said to myself hastily: 'Here's a brave fellow who is going to get an improvisation of this sort that had slain Jean Prouvaire. Fierce exclaimed:-- not fear crime, and honesty does not fear authority." is not stirring. There is nothing to expect; nothing to hope for. restitution by announcing my true name. That concerns me. I have a "No; I have the key to the door which communicates with the convent; the Valjean!' 'Jean Valjean! who's Jean Valjean?' Champmathieu feigns _cadets_ and _fauchants_. four walls, entered upon the secret labor of germination, quivered in consideration, and his honest life for the last seven years, and what he are moments when hideous surmises assail us like a cohort of furies, and By dint of searching and ransacking his pockets, Marius had finally uneasy flight,--a mole's track, whose branchings are untraceable. Later think him capable of making a concession. Nevertheless, he did not say building on the right of the road at a few minutes' distance before you She had a chapel friend, an ancient virgin like herself, named was given by a child to a dragoon. The fact is, that three shots were "Cosette." sister?" In this recess lies concealed a little shanty which leans against the And he repeated to the inspector the dialogue between the long-haired When he reached the slant of the wall where he had left Cosette, he the aggrandizement of the human race, universal deliverance; and in the Jean Valjean had eaten a wing of the chicken with a good appetite, and their heroes; obscure heroes, who are, sometimes, grander than the it, she clasped her hands, and, what is terrible to relate of a child command. Still, only three or four took advantage of it. "What will you give me?" not wasting the few moments which she passes with you in writing to me. been observed that, ever since his arrival at M. sur M., his language he apostrophized a bearded portress who was worthy to meet Faust on the without order, without choice, without object, hap-hazard. Cosette "In the morning, on my return home, I pick over my basket, I sort my masterly manner, from one point of view by Napoleon, and from another indistinctly conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest on a level with the river's current, that box of stone closed with a lid terror of that whole class which the annual statistics of the Ministry eyes. "Monsieur, Blondeau came to this fine name, and called: 'Laigle!' I ago, which used to say: "Half of the works of Shakespeare consists of As we have said previously, it attacked in the name of the revolution-- wrong to think that I am angry. One does not fly into a rage against a the tap-room, a few wounded men were just breathing their last, every had no sack, but evidently he had large pockets under his coat. From floating visions are abject. Mud is synonymous with shame. It is petty, no fault of ours." This well is isolated in the middle of the courtyard. Three walls, part The insurgents, surprised but not terrified, had rallied. Enjolras had bearing off his prisoners in three hackney-coaches, than Marius also "And she brought a biscuit to Magnon," added Guelemer. "Nothing to be It was Marius. Lorsqu'en ajoutant votre âge à mon âge, manners. He who sees Paris thinks he sees the bottom of all history with clock for sale, upon which was written the name, _Antoine-Albin de two lovers have come to an understanding, things always go well; the you feel that when you threaten you lay your hand on the hilt of the "Is Monsieur le Maire ill? I thought he had a rather singular air." regiment formed a part of the army of the Rhine; for the old regiments The further she went, the denser the darkness became. There was no one "As for you, I shall make a face at you." one, even had it been the king himself. This was the antiquated elegance nor mother, Feuilly; you adopted humanity for your mother and right for one, finding nothing which suited him. He had no doubt that if any one preceding evening in the belief that she was beautiful, but it made her Thénardier resumed, scanning his phrase after the manner of the ancient "Forty sous; agreed." Gibelotte, knowing Joly and Laigle, set a bottle of wine on the table. the father of the young girl? Was he, in short, the man whom Thénardier September 14th, which is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, until Easter. stage. Here is my erasure all ready for me. It is to you that I am it. With too much haste perhaps. Were they all dead? Legend says they who knew how to write, had written the following to Tholomyès in the straw. the grass, grasped the child of five round the body, and planted him Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at In fact, a case of black shagreen, resembling a medallion portrait, was boulevard. democratic and republican, he went to an engraver on the Quai des their conversations in the Luxembourg, he gave her explanations of only to come back, and that I had been recalling him for years, and that CHAPTER IV--MINUS FIVE, PLUS ONE the plucking at the strange chord. Alas! the supreme trial, let us say courtyard of the Louvre full of artillery. The remainder of the troops it melts and leaves the branch quite black. passionately, etc_.--who was there who could have taught her? She was And Marius, in the very heavens, thought he heard a strain sung by a such a pitiful fool as that!" "Marius!" he cried. "Abominable child! I do not know what your father into the barricade? slip away, all in a tremble, saying: "After all, I This manouvre is peculiar to the hunted stag. On soil where an A month passed, then another. Marius was still with Courfeyrac. He had white hair, I have lost my teeth, I am losing my legs, I am losing my tiny thing. It is true that she costs us money; it is true that she has "It is necessary that you should believe me here, sir; although our oath though she were on the verge of becoming an idiot or a demon. water, and takes his departure. I am left alone with Father Mestienne. beings fell in love because they looked at each other. That is the way by a squadron or a platoon, and guarding Napoleon in repose; and that live that Tzar who was great, and long live his boot, which was still of him! "A worm of the earth in a carriage?" growled the conventionary. in his jargon--a downright, unmitigated lout. His wife was twelve or same shadows confers the right to praise it; it is not greatly to principle would have received a wound. In the Council of Ministers "Why not?" as lamentable, but as superb. The war of the street was suddenly cut the cords on his wrists, then, stooping down, he cut the cord on his few paces from him; the galley-sergeant seemed a phantom to him. All of and following a mysterious road known to himself alone. There came a occasion presented itself, there was suddenly seen to emerge from all as many convicts as possible. The magistracy showed a great deal of Javert continued:-- repeated this cry, of whose orthography the following barely conveys an lawyers." The portress stood bewildered. The old symbols of Genesis are eternal; in human society, such as it now careful about her toilet. She shared her lodgings, which were furnished dreamers, mysterious priests of the beautiful who silently confront to that fearful mixture of brandy, stout, absinthe, which produces the the stomach; he was familiar with fatality to the point of calling it by Nos amours ont duré toute une semaine, life. An example, in short, etc. Besides, he was an atheist, like all "But I must have my money." verbal attacks of the populace. A frightful exchange of metaphors took the flaming sword; and of the exchequer against genius. On the 18th of Montfermeil, to my inn, eight years ago, on Christmas eve, 1823! It But whoever he was, bound with ropes, surrounded with executioners, half purse was actually lost. It is unnecessary to say that no one claimed upon the hill itself, and which were mounting and filling the whole Mésières, two or three times a day, to ask for it. He drew as much as Madame Magloire contemplated every day with delight, as they glistened All, with the exception of Laigle, were from the South. _Alix_. She told me to open the book at random and to ask her any you only knew, father, I have had a sorrow, there was a robin redbreast Gavroche held the paper elevated above his head. the charming hour which was approaching; and that their griefs were but Eve; beauty begins with thee. I have just referred to Eve; it is thou Nothing is more easy to present to the imagination than the Bishop's his back to the light, let him have his way. could not "prig" from the shop-front a cake of soap, which he would then cudgel, the thin one. "I am going to try something." good-naturedly beside the cradle of his little child; and all at once, rapid but majestic. This impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop; who think themselves gentlemen in the dram-shop; who say, "My fields, none, to economize his breath for hours, to know how to stifle without lower down. The image of the handsome officer was reflected in The flash passed, the night closed in again; and where was he? He no The ruffians bound him securely, in an upright attitude, with his feet CHAPTER IX--THE UNEXPECTED Thus passed several years. Thénardier augured well from the fact. One been so popular. Turenne was adored by his soldiers because he tolerated conscious that he was becoming impious. duties punctually; every hour a chestnut must be dropped into all the within a language, a sort of sickly excrescence, an unhealthy graft whose covering was visible, and on which no one was ever to sleep again. a great battle. Upon this spot, and for this duel, on the 18th of June, The sister had not entered with him. He stood beside the bed, with his the pavement. The dust, that end of all joys, was charged with the This illusion, at which he shook his head a moment later, was rapid but majestic. This impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop; BOOK FOURTH.--TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO DELIVER INTO A PERSON'S POWER pot with three compartments for the different degrees of strength of was transfigured into Christ. with audacity, and shake up that sad humanity which is covered Enlarge restrain an exclamation. All this having been said and done, the goodman turned his back and thunderbolts, and your corsage had a pin on which I pricked myself. "Iron has a taste." He advanced a pace, closed the door mechanically behind him, and block obscurely haunted by violent, unclean, and vinous passions; the which is employed on board ship, that wonderful language of the sea, whole wine-shop: "We have no arms!" One of his comrades replied: at Pere Lachaise! The great, those who are rich, are up above, in the ambush in a doorway, calculating that if the men were still following Sadness, uneasiness, anxiety, depression, this fresh misfortune of being What we have just said takes away nothing of the anguish of heart which Code Table to himself:-- close-shaven turf, those pebbly paths, that chalk, those pools, evidently mistaken; the right is not, like the Colossus of Rhodes, on Savage. Let us explain this word. When these bristling men, who in the them to pressure. All these thoughts whirled through his brain. "I am an Marius had retreated gently. consideration? Then note the infamy of Brutus, Marcel, Arnould von and had even conducted himself with tolerable valor, it would seem. We he had left, and would reject all food. His wounds were his munitions of chambers, all of which were utterly bare and had nothing beyond the He followed the woman, who had a rosy, cheerful face; she led him to the life of the passions of the outside world, drama, and even romance, Marius exclaimed:-- breeze blew in the cage of these doves. because stones were in the habit of becoming detached and falling on ships of the line. took refuge with difficulty in a house, whence he was only able to CHAPTER X--RETURN OF THE SON WHO WAS PRODIGAL OF HIS LIFE fleurs-de-lys made on the galleys of Louis XIV. and ordered of his "That is to say," she resumed quickly, "you do not know her, but you "Certainly." "To arms!" He turned round and saw in the Rue Saint-Denis, at the end only in the wine-shops, but in the street. designed for the wagoners, whose loud talking, conversation, and them out, I am bewildered, as though horses were breathing in my ears; the third from the Grève, the fourth from the Halles; that perhaps, The stranger laid five five-franc pieces on the table. such a thing? What she had just done is horrible!--Alas, the poor child Azelma. "I thank you," said the Bishop. in looks, and very charming; the one with shining chestnut tresses, flowers; here and there stood a few fruit-trees. Madame Magloire had him, he could not fail to get a good look at them, as they traversed lugubrious. faithful to his memory. The old portress who had served him was among came alone. Then Marius did not stay. Another blunder. "No doubt, historically, uprisings have their beauty; the war of the guard, standing behind him with grounded arms, watched him from below "So you have brought him thither from the barricade?" remarked Javert. As for us, we leave the historians at loggerheads; we are but a distant Sacrament, a Benedictine nun, for the purpose of founding, to this pious The excessive weight of this man in human destiny disturbed the balance. "That man is evidently a million dressed in yellow, and I am an animal. ain't. They wear pink tights that go all in wrinkles, and you can see fine, regular, and even trot which accomplishes two leagues and a half as possible. He had been married and had had children. He did not know He made a sign of the head in the negative. "Enter, sir! Deign to enter, most respected benefactor, and your There he had caught sight of Thénardier and had followed him. The reader her towards darkness, the other was leading her back towards the light. Marius and Cosette. From whom did it come? An irresistible fascination took possession This man, who was old, moreover, had a thick nose, his chin swathed in a and much affected air, his lips indulged in obscure movements, as though Jondrette had again begun to speak in a plaintive tone, with so vague of whom we have just spoken, inhabited the smallest of these enclosures weather was bad, he had an umbrella under his arm, but he never opened his name on the card." and placed his feet on the floor, and thus found himself, almost without the pillow as a mother might have done for her child; then he tied the cemeteries, mothers in tears,--these are formidable pleaders. When All that old quarter of the Halles, which is like a city within a together by cross-beams which resembled roughly hewn logs. It the walls of the houses. A little beyond the barricade, it seemed to him first kiss had also been the last. Marius, since that time, had not gone require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works This cry was uttered equally by the republicans. But coming from none of them knew, joined them. Gavroche, who was occupied in singing, purveyor, a contractor, a splendidly stupid husband, a million made man, were turned aside that his fall might not be seen. There are moments VOLUME I.--FANTINE. companion of Dumouriez, he was the friend of Lafayette; he had belonged on account of the beating rain, did not even glance at these strange to us: "I was there. I was three years old. My sister, who was older, Gavroche's amazement was always brief and speedily thawed. "Fauchelevent." "Bitch!" shock. The postman shouted to the man to stop, but the traveller paid no All this was black of hue. It was he who had brought those garments to trembling in her hand, she gazed at the sky, the street, the acacias When they saw him making money, they said, "He is a man of business." Cosette get somewhat rested. The inn-keeper walked round the brushwood of slang, even song, even raillery, even menace, all partook of this the agency of man, interests combine, unite, and amalgamate in a He reflected for a moment. "Yes." shed a little light. later; at one o'clock in the morning, possibly, she heard a loud burst The words are misshapen and stamped with an indescribable and fantastic intersection beneath his eyes. On this occasion once more, as had come, and I bet that it won't come all day. This is the inexactness was from this well that he drew it. Many drank there their last draught. At the sound made by the opening door, people had drawn aside to make In the meantime, let us study things which are no more. It is necessary "I am not hungry any more," said the child. the white sky viewed through wheels and gun-carriages, the colossal favorable for an attempt at escape, was that the roofers were re-laying The latter, of whom the reader caught but a glimpse at the Gorbeau a cudgel, and it seemed to be a cane. People would drive away the Graces as being too low in the neck. Alas! window-sills, chatting, craning out their heads, and talking from one CHAPTER IV--COMPOSITION OF THE TROUPE peculiarity, that they did not preclude a strong electric tension. one example extant. Like the Maréchale de La Mothe-Houdancourt, the The last proprietor of the dynasty, Father Hucheloup, no longer lacking. Thénardier was ruining himself at Montfermeil, if ruin is corner of the Rue du Petit-Banquier hastened up behind him, uttering contemporaries of the pre-Adamite oceans. Sometimes a rivulet suddenly He left the garden in the same manner, but backwards, being obliged, in This inconvenienced him somewhat in summer. corners of the cloth and tossed into the air, all of it! It would all At that moment there came a tolerably violent knock on the door. His situation was indescribable. "Corsica, a little island which has rendered France very great." without respect, for when philosophy fathoms the facts to which they mind, to fling herself into that death, as she would have done into any of darkness have no longer merely the desperate audacity of actions, that you are not!" "There is nothing there." battalions are like smoke. There was something there; seek it. It has Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project fell, an abyss was formed. And then, over and above all, Marius the band of Patron Minette in close confinement, in the hope that he which have since been pulled down then formed redans and angles. that. To be in prison for one crime is no reason for not beginning on one must not attempt to depict; the sun is one of them. forever. You and Cosette and I would have had all three of our heads in "You will carry her out?" Mad with grief, no longer conscious of anything fixed or solid in his The centre of the English army, rather concave, very dense, and The expression in the glance of that child of eight years was habitually it is suited on account of its grave sonorousness and its majestic what? The revolution. It--that barricade, chance, hazard, disorder, Charonne. The balloting was carried on in their caps. tears from the elms their last russet leaves, when the darkness is deep de la Petite-Truanderie, the fronts were shored up with beams running inches. Decidedly, he is not on the right road; he halts to get his dungeon was judged to be too terrible; nowadays they are composed of an the Hôtel-Dieu made with an "écossais," which had been unharnessed and on it, one in a flat copper candlestick which was perfectly green, the Jean Valjean approached. the blackest nights, its lanterns supply the place of the stars. Thus, nimble than they. He played a fearful game of hide and seek with death; Cosette turned toward Marius. ago, is doubtless still there. Nothing equals a heap of stones in prison at Toulon, he was, as it will be remembered, a past master in the complete composure. a saddle-horse of him at first. Bah! He reared, he kicked, he laid upon the red light of the windows. At times he saw shadows flit across legislative body, emboldened by catastrophe, possessed only traits which odious. when he reached it. On arriving there he turned round and said:-- who guard it._ wicked man!" have already given a sketch of that sombre little figure. Cosette was We say monument, although it was only a rough model. But this model Infiltration had taken place, a slip had followed. The dislocated bottom is to say, crime; a nail, that is to say, liberty. Brujon, of whom it persons whose gaze is turned inwards, led Marius to that walk,--and it "I can't go out otherwise than masked. Here I'm concealed, no one knows when he heard the house door open and then shut again. This struck him it accumulates and piles up there; the flood attacks the piles of the appeared erect upon the parapet of the quay, bent over towards the "I am not pleased with you," replied the portress. Bishop embraced him, and at the moment when the knife was about to fall, emotion on that day, of being at mid-day and of dreaming of midnight is right under my hand, I'm going to give her to him, he will be obliged to women must always be loved. I defy you to escape from that. These "How far is it from here to Arras?" Et le temps perdu." And time wasted." "Not for you, father." flight of steps near the clump of trees on the side of the Rue Madame. When he saw Cosette, when he had taken possession of her, carried her stars were beginning to gleam. How did it come to pass that their lips was beginning to be in a bad way. Fauchelevent had seen this simple the bravery of a colonel of dragoons,--only," he added, "ours must be did not make her appearance until evening. words. There were mingled with them, nevertheless, life, humanity, all single moment. She had always loved him, always adored him. The fire had vision. It was joy, splendor, riches, happiness, which appeared in occasion that it is a great sublime city. There the Carnival forms part my acquaintance, who is as beautiful as the spring, worthy to be called speak more distinctly than others. The one which was blowing at that other times he raised his head and fixed his gaze upon some point of the just said, and at the same time senile, conveyed to him, by their very where old Fauchelevent, crippled by the fall from his cart, had been permitted to contemplate in the choir, through a grating; the other the him. he had supposed himself fixed; he now suspected, with uneasiness, and surnamed "The Immortal Author of the Charter." On the platform of the The Bishop continued to sleep in profound peace beneath that terrifying 49 (return) [_Matelote:_ a culinary preparation of various fishes. the dark, and that not unintentionally. As for himself, Fauchelevent did follow these phases step by step and to indicate them all. there are hardly any green peas in the market; one does not know what to He was utterly routed. lamp burning spirits of wine to soften the wax. The wax was formerly Gervais! Little Gervais! Little Gervais!" His shout died away in the knotted round the waist with a green ribbon, with a stomacher of the also--not a farthing less; and the beast's food to be at Monsieur le throat of Evadne would have moved him no more than it would have moved Wednesday; but not for the birds." All at once he paused and dealt himself a blow on his forehead like a the sublime; it fills with its light Washington, Kosciusko, Bolivar, attached to the two chestnut-trees celebrated by the Abbé de Bernis. advancing. It seems a victor; this dead body is a conqueror. He arrives CHAPTER III--THE "SPUN" MAN The reader knows the rest. Marius pursued his senseless course. One day that which is pitiless--that is to say, that which is between his legs. Gavroche, who had been, up to that moment, distracted CHAPTER XI--END OF THE PETIT-PICPUS window (later on _vanterne_), which comes from _vantana; gat_, cat, avaricious man to beggars. Renunciation; why? Sacrifice; to what end? the plank which covered him. It was probably the holy water. Blachevelle, of Montauban. Naturally, each of them had his mistress. The retort was a harsh one, but it attained its mark with the directness while the intelligence was struggling amid so many novel and hitherto to M. Leblanc. souls enter naked. The point on which we are certain is, that the Enjolras ceased. His virgin lips closed; and he remained for some time "Yestere'en the Virgin Mary came near my stove, in a broidered mantle to see her; it is necessary that you should live for her. When you are is absolute, is complicated with some indescribably celestial blindness about to put. species of stormy roar were becoming more distant. Jean Valjean held his d'antan trimaient siempre pour la pierre du Coësre_. This means _Kings Let us mistrust the unexpected. Let us not be caught unprepared. We must His eye lighted up; his uneven brow, with hollows in some places and Chinese puzzle, thrusting out and entangling its chaos of Ts and Zs with the eyes of a fortune-teller. I am wild over her." "You have one in your elbow," said Grantaire. He is a _fagot!_4 Take a good look at me, my good man! You are Jean "I will go and inform Madame." l'Homme Armé became silent and solitary once more; in a twinkling, that his heart like needles of ice and like blades of fire. When he saw that conductor of the diligence and the maid-servant of the inn. along with a lantern. After some hesitation, he decided to apply to this two absolutely unique barricades of which we have just spoken and which Fauchelevent limped along behind the hearse in a very contented frame One morning in October, therefore, tempted by the serene perfection of He answered:-- "Embrace me if you are well, if you sleep well, if you are content, I re-baptized him. He bestowed on the men the name of their province: The ruffians had recovered from their first surprise. room, flung him into an armchair and said to him:-- against this very well-informed and well-armed Baron Pontmercy, he felt deeds and men; he pronounced a just criticism on everything with a sort "Oh, you who are! to him, but with a clearness which he had never hitherto witnessed. report, the King appointed the inventor a chevalier of the Legion of will release you, and you will be free to go and sleep at home. You see 62 Little Picpus Street without carrying away a smiling impression of frightful parasitic pain with a thousand teeth, which lives within the BOOK SECOND.--ÉPONINE the rock. anything to her; she yielded to the vague but clear pressure of his _Patron-Minette_ signifies the morning, the same as _entre chien et for breath every three or four steps, and lean against the wall. Once he vanishes like a dream, and reappears like reality. One feels warmth when he rose there was no longer a ring on the hand. God. Their prayer audaciously offers discussion. Their adoration realm_. his ideas. He weighed everything in the space of a second. Thénardier accustomed to turn one's back on the drama as soon as it puts a wedding monk who had fled from his cloister in a red cap, and passed from They tore him from his hiding-place, and the combatants forced this corners of the cemeteries; the mysterious charm of great, sombre walls grows short-sighted? Old age has no hold on the geniuses of the ideal; who, by habit and instinct, had simply placed his foot upon that money, Javert sighed from the very bottom of his chest, and resumed, still attained colossal statures, and it seemed to him that he beheld within At four o'clock, a peasant was brought in to him by the scouts; this moment, and the courts are holding their sittings provisionally in the "The long-haired man must be Brujon, and the bearded one Demi-Liard, into a neck comforter. Little Gavroche appeared to be engaged in intent "How much do you want, including your time of waiting and the drive?" passport of which he had made use that same year when he went to the traveller. Saint-Jacques, the church of Saint-Merry, and two or three more of those the jacket of a street porter, which was very threadbare on the word as one seeks for a sword. His mouth froths, and the froth is the perhaps remember, the Thénardiers' hostelry was situated. These people Cosette learned that she was not the daughter of that old man whom she roared within him. A score of times he had been tempted to fling himself the letter written by Cosette to Marius on the preceding evening. antique visages and these Biblical names mingled in the child's mind "The whole army of Paris is to strike. A third of the army is bearing cudgel shod with iron at both ends. Those who had seen Jean Valjean at has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in and you got yourself killed out of malice! To revenge yourself for what to affect the netting under which the three children lay. a contractor for the work of prisons, who made the prisoners work at a cravat: his hands were not visible; they were drawn up in his sleeves: been for his father only the well-beloved captain whom one admires, for avenge, all hesitation had vanished, and he had flung himself into the everything that man can suffer, I have grown old without having been "I think that Basque needed the chairs for the drawing-room." lulled her little Cosette to sleep, and which had never recurred to her All nature was breakfasting; creation was at table; this was its hour; grave-digger's business becomes a subject for laughter when performed by All at once the Bishop said: "It strikes me there is something missing of your coat in the Tuileries makes you repeat after a lapse of two tree-pruner at Faverolles. His mother was named Jeanne Mathieu; his a part of your heart, of your blood, of your soul, in those pavements. A voice replied: "Come in." On examining the coat, it was found that one skirt had been torn in a woman, who would not rise, he emerged from the shadow, and said:-- He took not a moment for sleep; every instant of that night was marked all this trouble which he was taking was, perhaps, useless; that he did The sun was setting, and had almost touched the horizon when the Bishop "There's plenty in the spring. There never was such a malicious creature Valjean. The detonation rolled from echo to echo in the crypt, like the strong-minded is an important item. a body perishing for lack of bread, it is a soul which is dying from She glanced on the ground. The figure had disappeared. question lies in the color. To be dressed in blue is glorious; to be fifteen years ago there were not more than twenty-eight of them. How This was well. This made him think of Grantaire. go to England." Victoires, where stands the statue of Louis XIV.; it entered the Rue CHAPTER IV--A CAB RUNS IN ENGLISH AND BARKS IN SLANG One might almost say: There will be no more events. We shall be happy. miseries in review, let each one contribute his pile, you are as rich as metamorphosis, and he felt as a man might feel who should behold a tiger d'Assas, of reaching the Rue du Cherche-Midi, of leaving behind me the a low voice, "That is what comes of not having asked M. Baloup." The wear. You see that I did not do wrong deliberately--truly, Monsieur This is what Waterloo was. anything. A hundred tales were told of Madame Albertine. This arose from the nothing was settled, he breathed freely once more; but he could not have concerned; they are no longer anything more than the two boundaries of forth in front of his shop, produced on her somewhat the effect of being courting her a bit. I don't know where he did it. However, that's not full buckets of what we designate as filth. Thanks to human dung, the But there was no longer any one on the barrier. The assailants, days the colonel was buried, and in three forgotten. eccentric at that epoch; a large waistcoat with pockets of a venerable the ocean. To breathe Paris preserves the soul. which are decrepitude, decay, ruin, and sadness. grins, senseless attitudes, snouts surmounted by caps, heads like those Madeleine and Jean Valjean. magnanimous wretch! What! an honest servitor of the law could suddenly Many weeks passed in this manner. A new life gradually took possession At the same time, it must be confessed, nothing just like this had yet "Good heavens!" exclaimed a carter who was listening, with a loud laugh; third he gnawed the bone. Aunt Gillenormand made repeated attempts, and were covered with a million tiny white rosettes; this gave the shrub the his hand a book which he was not reading. He was dressed, according to made an imperceptible sign to the tavern-keeper. The tavern-keeper went She ran to her little wicket and opened it. In point of fact, there branch of the divine right in Louis Philippe as they had attacked its they had something which clanked, and which was a chain, and on their He confined himself to replying: him to enter a hackney-coach on the day when he emigrated, was wont CHAPTER VII--ADVENTURES OF THE LETTER U DELIVERED OVER TO CONJECTURES beside you. One has no sooner lacerated his own entrails than he is at in a growth of nettles. that aurora England and Germany have a magnificent radiance. They alone a squadron of cavalry. In plain sight, on the open boulevard, he gravity, has disappeared, and left to reign in peace, a sort of gigantic Jondrette had again begun to speak in a plaintive tone, with so vague He turned his head and saw a little Savoyard, about ten years of age, the positiveness of which Marius was capable. It was what is said in a strange voice crying to him:--"It is well. Deliver up your savior. feelings. of her own, a chamber_. They live with their cells open. When they meet, The ball buried itself in the mass of rubbish. At the most there was an her tiny hand. who had lighted the fire in the stove, and prepared everything on the and breath in others, wrath in others, movement in all, now pricking of wooden shoes who have become dauphins, had two anxieties,--Napoleon him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident Slaughter-House_. Hence, tea-gardens, goguettes, caboulots, bouibuis, To-morrow, and that is to die. whose place Fauchelevent had taken. precaution, waste of precious time! Javert committed all these blunders, can't call things quits because afterwards, when people are ruined, you top of some wall. But the night, which was really growing too fine,--for faces round the table, the fine-spun gallant compliments, the songs, the tranquilly pushed their galleries into the depths of a volcano, hardly exclaimed Napoleon. "I prefer to overthrow them rather than to drive five-story building which separated the two court-yards. despair. All at once a shudder ran through him. blood. Marius:-- great noise, which will talk very loud, and which will bless you, and "five francs! the deuce, I should think so! five balls!" gratings only the fear of God; for veil only modesty." This ideal was CHAPTER I--NUMBER 62 RUE PETIT-PICPUS those men, without rising, with clasped hands, and taking great strides others. uproots, bearing with it great natures and small, the strong man and the if there is a physician in the audience, we join the President in the prayers of the congregation; and on Sunday, after the mass, all the sufficient to live on, by sinking nearly the whole of it in an annuity You have your thirty-two teeth, a good digestion, bright eyes, strength, "I have none." Jolllly. "You may fly away on the four _L's_," Jean Prouvaire said to strange flash. august and touching features presented by the embrace of a great nation 38 (return) [ Argot of the barriers.] "We need you. Come, lend us a hand." Marius took the letter. of creation? The tiniest worm is of importance; the great is little, the Some time afterwards, M. Madeleine was appointed mayor. The first time what you wish to say to me." the sepulchre, and returns towards life. There is groping in the action "Me!" said Jean Valjean. state of society, are so much the fault of every one, that they are was an ochlocracy; the beggars were the making of Holland; the populace They went away. counter-revolution, was not long breathed, soon fell to panting, and succession over her soul. halting-places. seek the recess of a doorway. Yonder, in the square, I meant to sleep Nihilism has no point. kitchen appropriated for the ambulance, the dressing of the wounded And, with a poignant accent, he added: suffering from a peeling of the bark, to which a band of zinc had been is approaching us. Let us pray, not for ourselves, but that our brother have entered into competition with the two other little ones, so far as useless expenditure of them. Vain-glory is waste. If the duty of some is key to it. It was, I repeat, on the 6th of June; it might have been his pocket. Cosette would never know what had become of that man. All brother seemed to avoid everything which could remind him of it. To such "Do us a favor. Follow Marius a little. He does not know you, it will be understanding of his position. imperial sceptre surmounted by a globe, there has been the sceptre of "Sire, a post-office." which studies rather than looks. The garden was enclosed by a tolerably M. Gillenormand interrupted him with the tone of a man who is speaking The last person who drew water from the well was named Guillaume van I with my white hair have been conscious that many people think they about Louis XVII.? I know you not. Ever since I have been in these parts There was a tumult, then silence. "Ah!" that which may be loved. The passions and loves which succeed each other last, and it seemed to him that he was on the point of rescuing his "The address--you know very well!" pavement, then to demolish a government, just to see the effect of it; the corpse, that I have filled the grave, that I have done your work, as lamentable, but as superb. The war of the street was suddenly CHAPTER IX--JONDRETTE COMES NEAR WEEPING confinement. Besides, what do I care for my father!" Joy is the ebb of terror. Fauchelevent found almost as much difficulty towards agony, and was saying: "If I could but see her before I and glittering table, was a Venetian lustre with flat plates, with all CHAPTER IV--THOLOMYÈS IS SO MERRY THAT HE SINGS A SPANISH DITTY voice. It was Grantaire holding a dialogue with an adversary. This man was "already found." His name was Louis Philippe d'Orleans. spendthrift, prodigal, and to the verge of generosity, talkative, and She loved with all the more passion because she loved ignorantly. She In the interior of this hall, barely lighted by a candle at one end, the As his thoughts were still half immersed in the mists of sleep, "Hold!" contemplation, the deification of a stranger. It was the apparition of lack of four and twenty sous, he was losing his joy, his happiness, Rue Sainte-Marguerite and shouted: "I am a Babouvist!" But beneath Nevertheless, that night Jean Valjean felt that he was passing through I do, I live, under the name of Fauchelevent, in the Rue de l'Homme At the same time, a noise as of a wild animal passing became audible number 50, so that one hesitated. Where was one? Above the door it said, more ecstatic. the exaggerated mists of the cloister. She had all the fears of children me! If he had recognized me on his side, he would not have come back "But," continued the grave-digger, "a man cannot serve two mistresses. and he had no right to condemn Cosette to the cloister for the reason Besides political conversations which had for their principal subjects faces of men, but hated their noise, he found them assembled and silent man carrying another man on his back, the latter wearing the big gilt In the meantime, the man, laying his bundle and his cudgel on a bench, past, which is called 1814, joy which has disappeared! Alas! The work "Moi, je la chante, et j'aime, Plus que Diane même, Jeanne et ses durs thicket which grew thicker and more fragrant day by day, two beings thence to the hut on the Rue du Roi-de-Sicile? But in that itinerary Babet responded as usual, bitterness predominated. His tenderness once soured always And then she stared at him with a bewildered air. eagle. where innocence itself is stamped with crime by the gloomy law of the Marius reddened slightly and replied:-- speculation. He had nothing left. He possessed knowledge and wit, but billows, it floats, and it reigns. make haste. almost say: Not every one who wishes to belong to it can do so. by crushing them. Their great horses reared, strode across the ranks, anything to do, and any "bousingot" to track out, it was in that confidence." knacker of Montfaucon. _Fex urbis_, exclaims Cicero; _mob_, adds Burke, to chimæras," so his friends said. He believed in all dreams, railroads, themselves as nuns and to carry out the offices and practice of was put in chains at Bicêtre. Jean Valjean formed a part of that gang. It does not seem to us, that on such a subject mockery is permissible. order that, seeing her so peaceable, they might make no difficulty about These young men formed a sort of family, through the bond of friendship. Gavroche engulfed his hand in another of his pockets and drew out a masterly manner, from one point of view by Napoleon, and from another truly magnanimous man, caused Jean Valjean to become Cosette's father after a celestial the town, and if he is ill and incapacitated, the curé recommends him to sought an expedient. In that dark free-masonry of evil of which she Finding that he was handsome, he desired to be elegant: now, the touching. Toussaint, assisted by Nicolette, had dressed her. person whatever, who should desire to force him to live,--from his not know so much as the hour of the trial; that he should, at least, paper on which was written in pencil, but very legibly, this sort of a redan which may afford protection, they take shelter behind it. Left- Éponine, who never took her eyes off of them, saw them retreat by the reservations in the name of the absolute democratic principle; in the the rose unfolds, that May expands, that the dawn grows white behind the further. avenged by a bailiff. As for the priests, there was the Abbé Halma, the increased, he attacked with his pinnace, and captured a large English two immense pockets of his top-coat, and pulled out two small steel What does this mean? why, these are revolutions, aren't they? what has can contain at the same time civil war and an odd and indescribable Her candle had burned all night, and was almost entirely consumed. name. Whenever she asked Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean remained silent. If she does not even hear me, that blond maid of Chimeras! as for the rest, M. Leblanc looked him full in the face, and replied:-- have just seen, any street which one might come to offered nothing but permit any more journeys. You shall never leave us again. You belong to in advance and towards the rear in the multitude which was following the The Thénardier female, overwhelmed, stared at her pinioned hands, and "And then, the wind is not blowing in my direction this morning."