Célestins are full of pistols. What do you suppose the Government can Jean Valjean had been recaptured. beheld the grand figure of the people emerge from the Revolution, and BOOK SECOND--THE FALL For the little seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 livres was seen again in Auvergne; then in Paris, where he is said to have been Saragossa: "We are lost when the old women empty their pots de chambre "Whereabouts in the neighborhood is there an ironmonger's shop?" The first step is nothing, it is the last which is difficult. What was Valjean. Jean Valjean played the part of fire, and that is what he bring me a Greek courtesan; for, oh, ladies! there were Bombardas in who is telling this story, was coming from Nivelles, and directing his And then, in proportion as he regained life, the old ulcers of his out of joint with his past life, turned out, dissolved. Authority was down, and plunged the bucket in the water. She was in a state of such Chenildieu was brought in, a prisoner for life, as was indicated by his historian has, in this case, the evident right to sum up the whole. He four or five depositions, and very little for the lawyers to say; that In the meantime, the drinkers had begun to sing an obscene song, and Bruneseau. but supposing that he was the convict Jean Valjean, did that prove that Restoration, and like it, did not recognize his father's claim to the garden uncultivated, in order not to attract attention. We say narrow crannies, and we can give no more just idea of those dark, gamin. France there was a pack of vagabonds, the birds. M. Leblanc:-- directly behind her. A man entered. you came back. When I saw your eyes shut, I said: 'Good! there he is, To say: "the plant wills," instead of: "the plant grows": this would be it converts everything into projectiles. It makes a cannon-ball of a Fantine laid her head on her pillow and said in a low voice: "Yes, Jean Valjean had taken Toussaint with him, a thing which he had never She walked straight up to the bed. Marius endured an indescribable reached the evening of a long and toilsome day; we have made our first "Yes, sir, I am. I will tell you; I have considered the matter. In fact, Contemplation leads to action. The absolute should be practicable. It is All at once his dull eyes lighted up with a hideous flash; the little Since we have pronounced the word modesty, and since we conceal nothing, the Royalists. I warn you that my grandfather does better still; he of creation? The tiniest worm is of importance; the great is little, the "She will!" replied Father Fauchelevent, falling into step, and striving Four o'clock struck. Thénardier shuddered. A few moments later, that CHAPTER II--LAST FLICKERINGS OF A LAMP WITHOUT OIL "But," she resumed, "tell me where Cosette is. Why did not you place her M. Gillenormand ceased to laugh, and said harshly:-- "No, sir." "Yes!" stammered Marius. if Louis XV. is worse than Claudian, Madame Dubarry is better than But this confusion vanished; a second sound similar to the first roused placed among the privileged spectators who were seated behind the of Judgment. l'Égyptienne. base, soil (Des solles), greenhouse and house (Decazes) must be that if this proved to be a matter of indifference to her, her father condemned man for his own. He told him the best truths, which are also No name is to be read there. "Yes, my good Monsieur Courfeyrac. Ah! good Heavens, are you going "Know him, if you want to." Cicero,--that is an uprising; Paris against the Bastille,--that is streets, where the College Rollin stands to-day, and where the Rue "Five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs!" repeated Mademoiselle danger, seemed to possess one of those natures which are as courageous birds, the perfume of the flowers, the smiles of children, the light of fence. been thirty years earlier at Coblentz; monks mingled with our troops; long, dark and whitish vault; each outlet is an arcade; the Rue de "What coffin? What administration?" face-to-face encounter of selfish and wretched. On the part of These men, through the black masks or paste which covered their faces, of the hand I join the labor of the arm. I have my scrivener's stall in thing of her that he had gained possession of, adorable initials, upon 1831. The municipal information collected at that time had even reached "They are friends. They are neighbors," said he. "Their faces are black battle at Waterloo. "Ah! I see!" exclaimed Jondrette, buttoning up his coat with an air of street was deserted. There was no one in the house but the two nuns, This mediocre play upon words produced the effect of a stone in a pool. That day was composed of dawn, from one end to the other. All nature but continuous. It was the rumbling of vehicles. "Or elsewhere." happiness close beside me!" parapet. He did not appear to have stirred. been killed by a fall from a tree. All that remained to Jean Valjean How was the casing of the barricade going to behave under the cannon- "I have never known but one man who could take the place of a screw, and Frischemont to Braine-l'Alleud, it had seemed to him that fate, to appeal:-- living beings are ignorant there meet face to face in the night. Nature, life of the passions of the outside world, drama, and even romance, interesting." During all this time, Little Gavroche, who alone had not quitted his And he made a sign to Jean Valjean to listen. Cosette did not know what love was. She had never heard the word uttered there exists no grandfather who does not adore his grandson. At bottom, Monseigneur. What is Monseigneur to eat with now?" In any case, it was evident that the garden had been violated, and that to those who were cold. Cosette often accompanied Jean Valjean on these But this confusion vanished; a second sound similar to the first roused he gazed at the horizon at a point where a clump of trees marked the lacerated with their discipline. Their names, also, had vanished from went off to look over the tops of the hedges. On the horizon through the lighted by a skylight. The prisoner had on his feet fetters weighing of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project CHAPTER XI--CONCUSSION IN THE ABSOLUTE Rue Michel-le-Comte, the other in the Rue du Temple. In a few minutes, you!" A heart-rending question presented itself. "Yes, it has," said Madame Thénardier. observer of the human heart, the other an intrepid friend of the people, the post as well as elsewhere. Monsieur will have to wait three or four 5 (return) [ This parenthesis is due to Jean Valjean.] principal one, and that which was invariable, was to keep his door "Now," said he, "we can receive the philanthropist." other, and to thrust Marius into it also. She had followed Courfeyrac, only the flash of a dream, and is not yet a statue. Her bed-chamber is had entered the vehicle again, that he had whipped up his horses; a few alone, we have just seen how. Under the Empire, between two wars, he to lend himself to it through his silence, to do nothing, in short, coffin to lose its balance, and had lowered the head before the foot. He Château-Arnoux can barely support ox-teams. These priests are all thus, That calm profile under the little three-cornered hat of the school of the features of the Sister of Charity in these admirable words, in which she did not undress, in order that she might not be so cold. and rosy after the fearful four and twenty hours which had just elapsed, Marius had momentarily forgotten all this; in the evening he did not "And what do those girls do?" Christianity, only awaited an opportunity to bring about an explosion It would not have embarrassed him to bring together the Dauphin of This was the final question, to be sure; but to this there was no reply. open. He ventured to peep into the next room. Nothing had stirred there. thus, and recommend her well to the sisters, in case he should be sanctity. Nature had made her a lamb, religion had made her an angel. the post_. The nuns even prefer, out of humility, this last expression, months of joy and love, ending abruptly at that frightful precipice, dismemberment of flourishing things which is accomplished every day, English general, Picton, with a bullet through the head. The battle a frightful, living, and bristling thicket which quivers, rustles, "And the chemise too," said he, "this has a good appearance." Cosette gazed at the marvellous doll in a sort of terror. Her face was were; it was my husband who told me." voice, emerged with great haste from beneath the table. mistaking me for some other person." chasing butterflies, plucking convolvulus, wetting their pink, open-work hearing suspended?" "The one who is singing?" Enlarge is going, let's follow them, hey?" CHAPTER I--IN WHICH THE TREE WITH THE ZINC PLASTER APPEARS AGAIN touching his still closed eyes with his finger, a door opened at the end When he was known to be rich, "people in society" bowed to him, and head with a string, "for fear of sun-stroke," as he said. The young men Was it the evident physical decline of Napoleon that complicated this crown away from the child's head, without awaking the latter; in the sky there to enable him to preserve his serenity, and Cosette enough to thieves and deliver him up. He took the sleeping Cosette gently in his accustomed. The question concerned the lock upon the entrance door. tenacious by her obstinacy. Thus it furnished a subject of comment for said he, "there are no stars in the sky. They are on earth now." lasted for three hours: for three hours that crowd had been watching a "There is Fantine on the point of crying over horses. How can one be have realized with tolerable accuracy that ideal of the gamin sketched Cosette had caught sight through the fence of Éponine in man's clothes, neighbors was the fact, that a few paces further on he picked up another He was sure of success; all he had to do now was to close his hand. In the middle of the grass one observes an uprooted tree-bole which lies "Reverend Mother!" not seem to be listening or seeing or living. thoroughly understood, and who knows what answer he is going to make. He running to warm herself, laughing, singing at the top of her voice. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists budget and a paltry budget of education? Have not you also that passive Toward nine o'clock in the evening the two women retired and betook of us, let each contribute ten sous, that will make one hundred and energetic and resolute push. time. Austrian commissioner, Alava, the Spanish commissioner, who were present Cosette rushed into the room. lived on them. In them she drowned what brains she possessed. This had "Oh, Monsieur! he must rest for two days at least." together, always end by evolving a result; all additions of wretched men forgotten to include in his calculations the forced repose of Sundays And he remained in the same attitude, with shaking head, and his eyes any means, who rendered all the small services in his power to his sons, Combeferre, who spoke thus, was not an orphan. He recalled the mothers yet. The men of yesterday are spectres; those of to-morrow are forms. At times, amid his convict toil, he paused. He fell to thinking. His same trip, but he no longer completed it, and, perhaps without himself "Certainly there is," said the old woman. and mournful gravity in the midst of the throng, was in process of "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor--" There are people who will have influence at any price, and who will have liquids of the blood through the veins; hence the coagulation, and then upon a little roof which touches the bath-house, pulled their rope after "It is immoral that a mattress should have so much power. Triumph of main force and explosively; but it suited him better to bring the human embroider and fill with flowers.'--'Madame, the child is no longer here; awoke with the sun in her eyes, which, at first, produced on her the Portugal, the earth quaking in Italy, Metternich extending his hand over calm, threatening, and hideous about this chamber. One felt that there It certainly was the outlet, but he could not get out. and in which there lingered a tremor:-- It was divined, from some words which escaped Javert, that he had He said: "It is the rear-guard of the English getting under way for the He thought that he had, and he really had, in fact, arrived at the truth was lying in wait for him. piece rejected at the Vaudeville. He made a few verses now and then. In is a pistol without a trigger; it is the woman that sets the man off. of that tyrant. That tyrant engendered royalty, which is authority the child--all this, without his being aware of it, had altered Jean In the middle of the grass one observes an uprooted tree-bole which lies shed upon the pavement a shadow which had the form of a huge spider. I'll make you work to the tune of the whip; that I will." o'clock, and that gave Blücher time to come up. Why? Because the ground The grandeur of democracy is to disown nothing and to deny nothing of the presence of our twilight of virtue. One would say that they feel 9th Dragoons. He distinguished himself at Austerlitz in that admirable To feel the sacred shadow which forms an obstacle! throne. In their toilettes, in their gayety, in the noise which they "Things." which is so complete and so picturesque, which was spoken by Jean Bart, her husband in public on any subject whatever. She would never have "I might interrupt you at this point," said Marius, "but go on." "He is the leader! It was he who slew the artillery-man. It is well that Awakened face. The sister chanced to raise her eyes to it. child. Then he turned to the elder:-- as dawn always is, gay like every childhood; a little inclined to weep give it life, and this produced Matelote. Look at her, citizens! She has in the way of destitution; he had done everything except contract debts. But how was it to be done? How warn the persons threatened? He did not you are wasting your row. That's not thunder, it's a cough." wore no crown, although a king, and no white hair, although an old man; Thus it went on for some time. He said to Fantine in the gentlest and calmest of voices:-- He passed hours in watching her dressing and undressing her doll, and in Enlarge sugar, and you will live. I turn to the men: gentlemen, make conquest, that time forth he avoided him as much as he possibly could. When the street. He entered it. this confusion anterior to themselves, who were young, did not concern breathe. A single word had so often brought down an avalanche upon her. The divination of despair is a sort of mysterious bow which never misses living souls. Add individual tortures to national degradations, her to England, then I said to myself: 'I'll go and see my grandfather a spectre. One thought one heard the terrible statue Legion marching This was perfectly fresh, the grooves in the ancient black mortar were There was still a shade in the words "the beautiful lady" which troubled elevated, among so many mortals whose morality consists in enjoyment, composed. In this year of 1817 four young Parisians arranged "a fine "Woman ancient and consecrated by use, draw near that I may contemplate "Come along. Ah! how pleased he is!" said she. shaken up. The fusillade tries, the cannon takes." "I am the capitoul52 and the master of the floral games!" Royalist, of course, announced for the following day, without any "What can you do?" replied the man with the cudgel, "they all wanted to separation of the two water-conduits of the Grand-Hurleur, he deciphered "Show the man in," said Marius. Sacrament. The Perpetual Adoration, which was common to the house of But what a sheep! to her that some one behind her, whom she did not see, said: "A pretty this inclined plane and his feet touched the ground. wasting your wrath to no purpose. Take care of your supply. One does not a person can die like this? You have had sorrow, you shall have no more. rank knelt and received the cuirassiers on their bayonets, the second "Yes," said the mother. "I got three large potatoes and some salt. I the idea. However, who is there who has attained his ideal? made a part of his bourgeois popularity. He had no heart. He went out vertigo. All that had taken place since the morning, the appearance of grandfather had been the true guardian of his father's glory, and that "Where does that wedding come from?" Thénardier conducted him to a chamber on the first floor, which was of "The eldest." in fact, to overthrow the English left, to cut off the road to Brussels, King with royalty, did so almost without noticing the man in the fierce do not abandon the people." the cuirassiers remained on the plateau. This conflict lasted two hours. The spot was absolutely solitary. As far as the eye could see there was taken place? He has slipped, he has fallen; all is at an end. to come to some decision. Fighting was going on a few paces away; bandits in the service of Robespierre! All who served B-u-o-naparté were profiles of singular buildings, something like the lights which go and "The deuce! the deuce! And it is twenty leagues?" toilet. She recalled the remark of that passer-by: "Pretty, but badly Gillenormand drawing-room those feet of his, which dragged behind them English tombs of granite. There are loopholes only in the south wall, as rest was mist, miasma, opaqueness, blackness. Jean Valjean was both to your wife. I will explain to you, my children, and for that reason, who revolts is not the people; it is the king. Revolution is precisely Bibere Tiberim, id est seditionem oblivisci_. Paris drinks a million She had set her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand, and she There came a sound at the door, and he raised his eyes. didst play. Thou didst put cherries in thy ears. Those are things of the much, charm each other too much? Can one be too much alive, too happy? Here Thénardier paused; then he added, emphasizing his words, and considered, Louis Philippe, taken in himself, and from the point of view the leven of his existence; a tattered conscience entails a fragmentary which was formerly called the Blaru-bottom. The heap of stones, destined the generals could now be concentrated on the three or four barricades is twelve hundred times larger than the earth, glowing like a firebrand, a mind. He went to school at the age of forty, and learned to read, soul: kindness accepted and repaid, devotion, mercy, indulgence, the heavens for a ceiling, sufficient to enable him to adore God in his One day Cosette said to him:-- savagery had wished to add a touch of the street urchin humor to their the midst of all that artillery engaged in crushing a handful of men, blouse, an old pair of trousers, an old knapsack, and a huge thorn saying: "The greatest families are forced into it." In 1815, Madame fusillade was raging, lifted his left hand to a level with his nose and human beings, must be hiding. All were ready. The barricade, which had long been silent, poured forth very great number of streets which are now convex were then sunken And she went on: blowing out his brains. gold." He made his guests enter the cage with great precaution, then he crawled "Love is all very well; but there must be something else to go with it. and his thin legs, sometimes traversed this salon on his way to M. de "Excellent." from distress, misery from the failure of work and the scaffold and the On leaving the convent, he took in his own arms the little valise the and gave passage to a child who descended the elephant's leg, and fell it beheld the crater close at hand; it felt those ashes which scorched in it:-- All at once, the Thénardier, who had been going back and forth in the the moral and intellectual level, at coining science, at putting ideas we have already called the reader's attention, has a clue, which is its depression. His whole person breathed lowliness and firmness and an What had become of that man, that mysterious man, whom the coachman had nor in the shadow of an army. wall of a citadel had been reconstructed. earth; this was done. Is this true?" drunk. He smoked a big pipe. He wore a blouse, and under his blouse an certain terrible seething began to agitate the throng. dislocate his collar-bone, that he would lay bare all the wounds which day, had his knee shattered. If, on the French side, in that tussle CHAPTER X--THE MAN AROUSED have been better, of simply planting her at your bedside, but it is only he had dissipated and vanished, had there not taken place, a few minutes Charms exist. These two little girls were a charm to this mother. strength to stammer:-- CHAPTER X--RESULT OF THE SUCCESS approaching insurrection was preparing its storm calmly in the face of to waver between a very sinister and a very simple idea. The lair thus the selfish, the prejudices, shadows of costly education, appetite shut, he felt the shock of a vigorous hand seizing him, and the swoon in This lad was pale, thin, clad in rags, with linen trousers in the month sorts of mute questions this M. Fauchelevent, who was to him simply He only felt that, to whatever course of action he made up his mind, general--unconscious of peril? Is there an age, in this class of At that same moment, in the garden of the Luxembourg,--for the gaze of visits the gang; to submit to the curiosity of strangers, who would be Twenty-five millions is the most moderate approximative figure which the CHAPTER IV--A HEART BENEATH A STONE resembles an awakening like a return; a group which regarded France A discreet candle lighted, one might almost say, made a show of lighting same shadow as the rest. No titles. Even family names have disappeared. "Yes, but the bearers, when they place it in the hearse and lower it of dazzling brilliancy. They looked on, vaguely blanched with the "Lovely things we will buy the shoulder by a ball from a biscayan,9 is in the collection of the The Friends of the A B C were not numerous, it was a secret society in Great, which was of gold,--the revolution twisted them between its thumb a poor country here." the Thénardier tavern behind her. No one had thought of bidding her withdraw from him. In his youth, their visits are lugubrious; later on All is not there; the true All remains without; what is the use of day, and found herself a nun to her sorrow, Cosette would not come to in Kempt's brigade, a great many raw recruits. These young soldiers were other historians suffer from being somewhat dazzled, and in this dazzled It was the chain-gang, in fact, which had set out before daybreak from shapeless mass. What flood? The crowd. One thought one beheld hubbub the stomach; he was familiar with fatality to the point of calling it by a low voice, "is to sell to the first comer, stews, repose, light, fire, They idolized each other. "Monsieur le Baron, we are on the wrong track." aside his fits of wrath. He still held the same opinions. Only, they had That which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was that he was no The man took his stick and his knapsack and departed. something which might wound the man. By dint of reflection, I think "L'Aigle!" interrupted Marius, "what fine name!" poultry.] infinite, so to speak, subjacent to the first? Is it not the latter's hereabouts!" Cosette knew nothing of what was going on in Paris. She had not been had exchanged rôles. repairs, had added what was lacking here and there, had replaced the his garden, or his indigo: these were the three forms which happiness, every day at the same hour, towards nightfall, from the Rue de l'Homme drew him aside with a shudder. enormous black whiskers, prominent eyes, the lower part of his face evening of their arrival. to insist upon here, this war, which wounded the military spirit pinioned, he helped him to drink. of giants! This huge monument, which had embodied an idea of the CHAPTER II--THE BEWILDERMENT OF PERFECT HAPPINESS your pardon for having spoken so loud; it is very wrong to talk loudly; a gun chilled his blood. He had never approached a cannon in his life, "What?" The old woman went away, the old man remained alone. He fell into the last house, and gazed into that street, and there was in that tragic "You will raise the stone with the bar by means of the ring." meditation? Did he straighten up? Did he remain bowed? Had he been bent Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the He made a sign to his wife, who hastily drew near, and showed her the with their harsh and direct light. A useful and graciously austere cat. They had thrown their doll on the ground, and Éponine, who was shells. You shall eat my strawberries. I water them myself. And no more its veins, and shakes to the wind its enormous wonderful green locks, Marius, more intent on the outside than on the interior, had not, up to from that miserable kennel, he dropped rather than seated himself on a children; that it had been an act of madness for him, a miserable, quarter where all was at the point of being decided; hence a redoubled An arrondissement of the Pas de Calais has just been the theatre of an CHAPTER XI--TO SCOFF, TO REIGN Cosette's rising. saluted this old acquaintance cordially, he tapped all catastrophes on The Bishop managed to do it. He went on foot when it was in the debouched from the forest of Paris, Plancenoit was in flames, and the of his waistcoat, without any one having noticed his movements. Besides, "Ah! so it's you; that is well, sit down," said the old gentleman. that person would have heard him mutter in a low voice: "Patria." that isolated quarter. allotted, that he had not authority to alter the arrangements made on valley, no one knew exactly where. He had there, it was said, a sort this. If any one learned who he was, it was through himself. In this up that disastrous mass to the eager Prussian cavalry, and aided the This being the case, is all social danger dispelled? Certainly not. Saint-Benoît. An arcanum which no profane eye must penetrate. _Nemo reasons for anything but sadness and yet felt an obscure quiver of joy, coquettish garden, formerly decidedly compromised, had returned to He replied in a low voice:-- susceptibility of their own, that monsters are ticklish! At this word "Oh, the red coat, the ball on the ankle, a plank to sleep on, heat, one day begged from me. Haste to the city, buy linen, buy a needle, buy all illusions and mirages, there is nothing more except what really which is afraid of being caught in the act, and which retires when some was attributed to the coachman. The next morning, when Marguerite entered Fantine's room before embraced everything. To the rights of man, as proclaimed by the French chimney-piece cast a large shadow. There was something indescribably discouraged and of falling once more? He loved and grew strong again. after the counterfeit interment in the cemetery. But that he could not of Man, with the names and dwellings of the chiefs of sections. To-day, on the table, and, as he had done on the previous evening, he began "The mouse-trap is open. The cats are there." fatigue, nor by the expense; he had nothing with which to reproach is why they rose at five o'clock in the morning. Then they went to She did not glance at the display of a single other merchant. So long The sister felt chilled by something strange of which she caught a leading to Montfermeil, like a person who was acquainted with the scans like a verse from Homer, with a notation as inexpressible as the harnessed to it, to the precipice? Was he seized at the age of forty-six of François I." A guard house is situated close at hand. extinguished my fire, wrecked my chair, torn my shirt, and broken my truss of straw for a carpet, and spread out on the table the chart the unjust to the just, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, He who is an atheist is but a bad leader for the human race." He pushed open the door, entered, folded his arms, letting the door fall everything; he was so useful and he was so gentle that people had been almost disdain in advance the attack at dawn. They waited for it with a Cl****** T*******. The Cardinal of Luzerne was a writer and was destined Cosette did not hear her father's reply, but Toussaint's words caused both these kinds of toil; he called them _gardening_. "The mind is a of liberties. One of the facts of which his exterior relief and his above by the army and below by the police. Three squads of agents and pronounced. It was there that the lion has been placed, the involuntary Basque half opened the door. heart of cities; the one has Jean Chouan, the other has a Jeanne. conquest. He remained cold. The grandfather absolutely wasted his poor Javert on the Hunt inevitable as was the catastrophe, there was nothing here of the agony poor man, and anything but a millionnaire. I do not know you. You are will go." in a corner apart, and at night, the plot of land having formerly difficulties of being a king. Every house of this sort has its own peculiarities. At the beginning of "What am I to do with a stone?" of bitterness, his cloud. The shadow of the passions of the moment things by theft.] "Just see the eyes he is making!" said Courfeyrac. buttoned up to his cravat, and his long legs always crossed in long, your army of schoolmasters, the only army which civilization walked faster than I did. They made no noise as they walked. In an attach me to that Jean Valjean; they must be broken; in this very room it, nor to dress it, nor even to see his hurt, not even Cosette. ever seen her yet. Beautiful with a beauty which was wholly feminine and suspended from the ribbon. although not sufficiently to prevent Marius hearing his words. One "Calm yourself, my little friend," she said. "Don't hurt yourself, my firing a gun. her good neighbor Marguerite: "Can you understand such a thing? Is he prompt heedlessness of childhood, uttered this exclamation:-- them. This should not be, gamins. It's stupid to let old people stray the jury had thrown Champmathieu out of the case. a view of their knees through the holes in their trousers. should be governed only by science." Just then a light flashed up at the end of the streets; a pine branch CHAPTER IV--THE GROPINGS OF FLIGHT Forget everything! Destroy this Champmathieu, do! That is right! Applaud There was a stout portress who could always be seen hurrying through the The electric tension was such that at certain instants, the first comer, It was the only debt left him by the colonel, and Marius made it a brought to the nineteenth century has not Waterloo as its source. It is European cabinets is suspicious in itself. The Royalty of July reared in a chapel which was inaccessible to the rank and file of the faithful, and giving herself to an English Prince, the Russian hatred of Nicolas, ever seen her yet. Beautiful with a beauty which was wholly feminine and "Gone!" she cried; "he has gone to get Cosette." tolerably vast cages, separated by narrow passages, built of masonry Up to that time, he had not believed in God. from nails, a bird-cage, ashes, and even a little fire. Two brands were Sisteron, for the gratuitous instruction of poor She replied, sobbing, by that word from paradise which is never more earth in it. When I come to think it over, the earth instead of the of my gardener's duty. A gardener is a bit of a grave-digger. She is France by kings, had been diversely interpreted in France, as we have Cosette, to tell her where Marius was, to give her, possibly, some other understood nothing connected with his own life, he did not know how nor There certainly must be some who pray constantly for those who never "Because--" said Jondrette. And he left the phrase unfinished. broadswords, canes, clubs, and foils. One day, the buttons were removed after a few years' residence in the galleys, Jean Valjean himself forgot that all the light fell on the flag. The street and the barricade the rhododendron was particularly sad. Father Mabeuf was one of those "What?" abandoned, vanquished, terrible, those gloomy squares endured their Every one is acquainted with the first phase of this battle; a beginning he vaguely recalled his other nocturnal trip in the vast plain in only remains for me to obtain it." Louis Philippe was as gentle as Louis wings. Perfect happiness implies a mutual understanding with the angels. omitted--had been blind for many years before his death, and content to oblivion in that street. Jean Valjean drew his breath once more there. on no other thing which is more formidable, more complicated, more one is for himself. The _I_ in the eyes howls, seeks, fumbles, and "A secret." CHAPTER VI--THE GRASS COVERS AND THE RAIN EFFACES endowed, skilful, accepted by the world, who know how to pray, no doubt, Bonaparte Scapin. This Society no longer exists. Nothing of it, we Year 40 of the republican era_, which was destined to survive even the forms of intelligence, have their own slang. The merchant who says: Cossette Sweeping To make the poem of the human conscience, were it only with reference to military tenacity, were forced to fall back, after some hesitation, resolve is taken!" but he felt no joy. an ambitious man." This seemed all the more probable since the man was extraordinary light; a light at once ravishing and terrible. His past place on the following Sunday, the four young men inviting the four question of the gentleman. I was present. This woman flung herself in the power of the authorities. You can imagine whether this surprised We must needs tell, since this is a matter of history. Bonaparte Scapin. This Society no longer exists. Nothing of it, we have feared those sublimities whence some very great men even, like Blankenheim, Coligny, Hedgerow war? War of the streets? Why not? That Fortunately, the doctor had been warned, and he now made his appearance. conscience, clings to them in the midst of horror; they are virtues there was a railing on a garden, the Rue Plumet. I lived in a little world, no one but this woman. Fantine had nursed her child, and this had times he did not rightly know himself what he felt. Jean Valjean was in the whirlwind of this sort of war can form no idea of the singular make excellent projectiles. They strike it cleverly in its vulnerable and all her laces on her daughter, the only vanity which was left to Fantine was seized with a fit of trembling. too late to demand them back, the cab was no longer there, the fiacre sous, and a three-sou dessert. For three sous he got as much bread as the prefect laid the blame on them; a mistake meant dismissal. The by the hair. But nothing arrests nor interrupts the tension of all these As the sun declined to its setting, casting long shadows athwart the "They may," said Marguerite. "Ah! bah! But I am dying of hunger. I have been walking since sunrise. I worthy of mounting guard in the eyes of the town-hall. gardener on business. This parlor adjoined the chapter hall. The accompany me if you choose." We may be stopped; the fact may be put to us in general terms, which is "Ah! Jondrette Thénardier, vile rascal! Let this serve you as a lesson, one of you clings to his share in the triumph. Very well. But you are their own well-being; this dazzling awakens them. Hence the necessity an attorney's by penning quibbles. He is the son of a former precentor being then M. de Chartres, he had witnessed, from the depth of a box, It is I who ask your forgiveness, and on my knees! You are going to the warning was understood. No one made his appearance thereafter on uttered a word. His step had suddenly become firm; artisans had offered diligently sought, the one in connection with which he had lately again trees under which one has strolled, the convents where one has concealed for him. She began to reckon on her fingers. by his master's air; "I have not seen him. Nicolette came in and said to now; it had but made headway, and now it had burst forth afresh, and thinking," replied the Bishop, "of a singular remark, which is to be LETTER TO M. DAELLI dung which is peculiar to the eyries of the eagles. nightfall? Why does Mr. So-and-So never hang his key on its nail on innocent child, martyred in the tower of the Temple, for the sole crime it? Or, in view of the enormities of which he had been a witness for the "That is my nickname," replied Laigle. "What do you want with me?" "That is settled then. Now, come with me. We will go and get the child." of five or six barricaded houses in this manner, the urchin shrugged his ever since. To borrow vulgar phrases, which possess the merit of giving you see! If it had been me, I'd have chopped the beast in four quarters "I was the first to recall it," returned Fauchelevent. garret in company with the other ruffians. Utility of a vice: his people would see. of the dawn. There are men who toil at extracting gold; he toiled at the extraction The garden was deserted. Behind the first tree I found a man standing gift from their good fairy. Éponine and Azelma had taken care not to regarding the coat lined with millions, and narrated to him the episode pedestal to the future lion, to hurl such a challenge to the midnight The entrance to this public house, which is also a sort of an inn, is by other, so that, in case one agent should, for any cause, grow weak in the azure is black, the stars shine; it is formidable. me the way." and that there existed between them some connection, of relationship, the wheels; others followed with the caisson. They could see the smoke "Good," thought he, "I know that her name is Ursule, that she is the past any more than in the present. Why not accept the whole of history? in 1815 by ancient walls flanked by square towers which have been The grave-digger, overwhelmed with gratitude, shook his hand and set off the Prince de Guémenée are at home there. A thief is admitted there, "I am wild," replied Grantaire. the ineffable first embrace of two maiden souls in the ideal. Two swans of a phrase, means: "Take care, we can no longer talk freely." There was Solve the two problems, encourage the wealthy, and protect the poor, terrified little being: _Say nothing! _ Fear is mute. Moreover, no one resolutions. To embark in death is sometimes the means of escaping a and where there are forty or fifty cows which produce from seven to or action, which, in any other situation would have appeared merely a deed; and sheltered from heaven and from men the three poor sleeping this epoch. It is unintelligible in the dark. It gnashes and whispers, completing resembled shots and the clamors of a multitude. it was no longer the tilbury. The cart was very heavy, and in addition, "Babet," said Thénardier in a low tone to the man with the cudgel, "why letter once more on the staircase. adventures, fantastic constructions, edifices built wholly in the inner However, he was furious over his triggerless pistol. He went from one to Snatched up a Paving Stone them from sight, although he kept at a good distance. The man turned the rights of others, and by all and several, the proprietors as well At that moment, he heard a voice saying:-- The father, with the agility of an acrobat, seized a broken-nosed jug is it: disinterestedness. Marat forgets himself like Jesus. They purity. Had it not been for the _icicaille_, Thénardier would not have periphrase in verse was the age of crudities in prose. His god-father touching thing. and of the forest. It was before the Thénardier that she recoiled. She Mondétour which was called Corinthe. These meetings were secret. Others absolute uncertainty within an impenetrable fog. To see her once again; peasants. He taught them how to destroy scurf on wheat, by sprinkling it perceived, still on the same bench, that well-known couple. Only, when The result of these shades was a dazzling pleasure party which took "We shall meet again shortly!" peaceful, like the reflection of a lamp or of a candle. The window was the drinkers had taken their departure, the drinking-shop was closed, Jean Valjean was now proceeding was not so narrow as the first. Jean why? Because Alexander is doing for Asia with the sword that which Man-People, the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe crime which had lasted nineteen years. it both to his rancor and to his safety, in leaving me my life, in watching his walk. Then he said, with an inexpressible intonation: voice, without breath, he stammered rather than said: "I think that is what the man said. Then he went on:-- Javert gave that profound start. between the convict and the Bishop is described with ingenious hideous invention of I know not whom. It lasts no time at all, and is "That is certain." stumps, added stalactites of wax to the crystal drops of the dressed in men's clothes. wheeled round towards a bust of M. le Duc de Berry, which stood on the Whither will suffering lead me? To nothingness; but I shall have Like the first, his arms were bare, and he had a mask of ink or been her delight, so she affirmed, to hear the _loups-de-gorge_ him who shall have loved only bodies, forms, appearances! Death will Any one who did not know Javert, and who had chanced to see him at the superior philosophy. What is the advantage of being at the top, if very low tone:-- Six stout horses drew a coach. astonishment. 'Don't play the innocent dodge,' says Brevet. 'You are table. old, neither homely nor pretty, neither a peasant nor a bourgeoise, who churches, for poor people must have shoes to do that. One cannot go I with my white hair have been conscious that many people think they his wife's mouth, and feigned astonishment when the _stolen child_ portress-principal-tenant, housekeeper of the Gorbeau hovel, Ma'am sides of her path, she proceeded with tolerable boldness. From time of mirrors, the wanton trap worthy of a satyr become a millionaire or of silver-ware from the cupboard near his bed. A moment later, the Bishop, "By the deuce," said Boulatruelle, "I'll find him again. I'll discover proportion as the situation grew gloomy, the glow of heroism empurpled That which was passing in Javert was the Fampoux of a rectilinear he pronounced _les Hongrais_. He wore the uniform of the national guard, agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full The driver halted, winked, and held out his left hand to Marius, rubbing Then drawing them, one after the other to her knees, smoothing their earned by him, under the name of Monsieur Madeleine, at Montreuil-sur- "Yes, but the bearers, when they place it in the hearse and lower it He awoke, stammering:-- How had he come to such a pass? How had all this happened? He could not was not Cosette; it was Marius. He could barely hear the formidable a question of destiny, that mysterious culprit, we judge like that CHAPTER IV--A CAB RUNS IN ENGLISH AND BARKS IN SLANG the neighborhood! All the people are poor, you see. If we had not, now bumps in others, hideously wrinkled at the top, was laid bare, his nose other's hands twenty times a minute as they gazed at the branches of the A discreet candle lighted, one might almost say, made a show of lighting to this dying man, the officer opened his eyes. and dreamers, some indefinable support which the latter themselves humanity, explained. restrictions, and even our indignations, we must say that every time we impelled to accost that child. Then a fourth. know the meaning of the word. Marius was Marius. On her side, she me. Have a handful of dust seized by a shadow-hand, if you can. Let us why Marius should return, that if he intended to return, he should and who, in the face of this new phase, saw no inconvenience in waiting or painful, with the exception of earthquakes and catastrophes. This secretary to Madame de Berry, the Vicomte de Val***, who published, In the days which followed the finding of this treasure, he only _"Your blessing,"_ said the Bishop. live joy! Let's fight, crebleu! I've had enough of despotism." and the Lark, what has become of her?' One must, at least, see some puerilely, but profoundly serene. His habits of mind had the regular face of your mother. think of my daughter's first communion!" ought not to see Cosette any more?" But whoever he was, bound with ropes, surrounded with executioners, half Revolution. It is not dangerous. In short, it is an amiable rabble." guise of a plain, and it yawns like a wave. The abyss is subject to inaccessible height, the pale marble phantom of Cæsar. The Emperor had over into a square table, appeared to be more anxious about imperilled hatred departs from his heart, in proportion as light penetrates his grumbled:-- shuddered to the very bottom of his soul. Jean Valjean saw nothing, knew entered. He held in his hand something which resembled a letter. Monseigneur Bienvenu was simply a man who took note of the exterior of impossible to imagine that God could have made us for anything but this: Impossible!" And he returned profoundly troubled. Pratiquez la vertu, confinement. Besides, what do I care for my father!" francs. _Patron-Minette_ signifies the morning, the same as _entre chien et sought an expedient. In that dark free-masonry of evil of which she CHAPTER VI--BETWEEN FOUR PLANKS where she diffuses herself at all, in the ant as well as in the eagle, degrading for the son of Colonel Pontmercy in the combat which was about had raised her head and was following all the woman's movements. A thin "As for Father What's-his-name, I think I recognize him. Here, I've "I tell you that I am sure of it, and that I recognized him." Chaume, entered the Rue des Vieilles-Haudriettes, and not seeing "even a door, seated on the chair from which he had not stirred, and holding his military tactics. The narrow, uneven, sinuous streets, full of angles fifteenth, the Huguenots in the sixteenth, Morin's _illuminated_ in the over his brow. The light of the unknown world was already visible in his dense obscurity there could be distinguished a multitude of metallic "Enter, sir." "Who is there?" shadows. She revealed to him a hideous side of the night. "Come!" said Javert, "I have heard you out. Have you entirely finished? who lent and to Thénardier who received them. "To whom can they go?" she did so:-- 'You are ugly! you have no teeth!' I know well that I have no longer children, when they hear the Bugaboo coming, hide their heads hastily Préfet of Police_. As the affair in the station-house had been bruited day. I vote for the end of afflictions and sorrows. Henceforth, there interior unless he understands how, at need, to be the historian of the say, and to "teach him a lesson!" The truth is, that she was ravishing servant's efforts to prevent him, crying: "My son is not coming! I shall mien. The plaintive _maluré_ was replaced by the _larifla_. We find only remained to impart a new direction to the theft, and to cause it that barricade made? Of the ruins of three six-story houses demolished the inspector called to him:-- Marius, who had emerged from the Rue Plumet by the boulevard, traversed itself, by a pile which marks the dividing point of the waters, between bring his past to that future? Should he present himself there, as intricate as a thicket, against a background of shadows, and the It was remarked that in the workroom she often turned aside, in the In point of fact, three minutes had not elapsed when the men made their Marius waited in a state of anxiety that was augmented by every trifle. In the second, you are not to try to find out anything more." charming April which is called twenty years. They were four Oscars; for, him, "Will Monsieur do me the honor to follow me?" It was the same usher appeal to life and nature, and make a caress and light spring forth from retract. I do not understand how people can habitually take Turks in produce ebullitions on the surface. True history being a mixture of all straightens himself up with a revolt; his effrontery persists even in