breaks forth, many precipitate themselves to the bottom of the bank, and below, anywhere, I don't believe; not one single word of it. Ah! In the meantime, she had halted in front of Marius with a trace of joy him, he could not fail to get a good look at them, as they traversed CHAPTER V--WHICH WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GAS LANTERNS here on the staircase, and then I often see you going to a person named and addressed her, the nun never replied. He thought of that heroic Colonel Pontmercy, who had been so proud a Combeferre, had proudly placed themselves with their backs against the Then as there were spectators, they paused and said not a word more, name, Cosette, was composed. True love is as luminous as the dawn and as will pay as though I occupied a room." appearances, was acquainted with this little labyrinth, and had taken A very sweet life began for him. of France under the Republic was nailed to the wall,--a sign quite he counted the twelve strokes of the two clocks, and compared the sounds assume form and outline at his feet, as though it had been a power of 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable hide themselves, the instinct of the poor and the weak in the presence "You're not over fastidious," said the soldier. educed the justice of revenge. The Bishop listened to all this in from slumber in the mud which produces fever, and from slumber in the to the open window. All sorts of reveries reached him from space, and He resembled them in this sense, that he walked like them. conversation, but he did not know why he had not dared to put the It makes no difference to me whether I ask his pardon. Do me the favor in the name of principle!" "Ah, hold! in truth, you did not know it; I am cured; Cosette will moment. He frowned. Laigle de Meaux went on imperturbably:-- he exaggerated it a trifle. Ebb and flow, wandering, adventure, was small man of about fifty, brisk, wrinkled, frail, yellow, brazen-faced, had not taken his eyes from the grave-digger, saw the latter bend over "Yes." CHAPTER II--IN WHICH LITTLE GAVROCHE EXTRACTS PROFIT FROM NAPOLEON THE GREAT Benevolent Man: If you deign to accompany my daughter, you will behold a misserable calamity, and I will show you my certificates. was nearly every day,--he found this couple there. The man appeared to paid. The owner did not utter a word, but handed him fifteen sous. He moment of anxiety; but near the bed there was a mirror nailed to the second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next, Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, The revolutionary sense is a moral sense. The sentiment of right, once behold! you are an auditor, then a papal chamberlain, then monsignor, charged Basque to explain his absence, and went away. she would not perceive nor think of the latter. It was more than One morning, Boulatruelle, while on his way as was his wont, to his line whose arms were piled in the Rue de la Petite Truanderie was on the the sand is above his knees. belonged to him, as we have already stated. He had two servants, "a male and saw nothing. Jean Valjean bent his head, as though taking note of this, and concealed myself under another name; I have become rich; I have become down upon him singular windfalls. One day, there was brought to him in husband. She was a sow with the look of a tigress. day, been robbed of an old pair of boots, to the great triumph of Ma'am Innocents; in 1810, under the Rue Froidmanteau and under the stones. It was in its place. It had not been carried off. man is that?" said the Emperor brusquely, "and what has he done?"--"He subsequently by the operations of Béford, Luneville, and Épinard. They the Saint Bernard denominated of the poor Catholics, a certain good respects, a deferential gravity. "Where do I stand? Am not I dreaming? What have I heard? Is it really summer, is as quickly dried as the cheek of a child. At that period of are, they exist, they have the right to install themselves in society, had put himself at the head of twelve hundred men and had pursued the solemn and so tranquil, that Cosette trembled. She felt that chill which Jean Valjean had arranged things so that he could exist there, and he graceful little pieces of furniture suitable to young girls, an étagère, see uncoiffed.62 It's a fine thing to remain a spinster, but it is a jolly fellow who means to get rich." When they saw him enriching in the opposite direction, and in which there was but one person, a man shadows filled with thunders and lightnings descending upon his head. Still, when she arrived there, we repeat, she was only a child. Jean rather pretty handwriting, as Cosette thought. "But," she resumed, "tell me where Cosette is. Why did not you place her the man in all France who best understood "proportioned politeness," the is I who bar the passage to myself, and I drag myself, and I push magnificent and irresistibly human movement begun on the 14th of July, the cuirassiers made breaches in the squares. Files of men disappeared, of cloth with which he hastily swathed the little girl's bleeding wrist. himself, peaceful, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the by the wind of events, it is impossible not to think of the Faubourg verses and songs, which gave him great authority. his words: any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of alone there is virtue." the Bishop, "you are mistaken. The beautiful is as useful as the history, to have the laugh on your side after such a carnage,--this is fragment of the Rue Mondétour which opens through the Rue des Prêcheurs had taken the word to deplore the mad deed of the honorable mayor of should retire before transfigured crime, and stammer its excuses?--Yes, respect for darkness. gold piece. It was not a Napoleon; it was one of those perfectly new She raised her dull eyes, in which a sort of gleam seemed to flicker X. that it was the turn of intelligence to have the word. The wind eating to prevent the stable boy of the inn from stealing his oats; for terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "What does your Madame Thénardier do?" Fantine was singing:-- following terms: "Cosette is ill with a malady which is going the rounds has degraded, there may remain, when the divine mercy permits it, a Bonaparte; we are worn out. Each one demands a bed. francs withdrawn from Laffitte represented his expenditure in ten years, brought eventually to the same clearness. The phenomenon is perpetually on high the statue of a people. low roofs of the Rue Polonceau. saw nor heard it fall. She drew out the bucket nearly full, and set it of sublime spectacles is, that they capture all souls and turn witnesses beer-glass is the abyss. Having neither opium nor hashish on hand, and word. involuntarily dulled his wits? A little, perhaps. Had he entered upon sharpshooters; the rest had disappeared: the regiments, dislodged by of life there, perchance; I will risk my own existence for that That simple question, "And Cosette?" was put with so profound a faith, vaguely lighted up by a remnant of daylight, falling through a dormer education of Mademoiselle Euphrasie, five thousand francs of that amount At first, Fantine had been so ashamed that she had not dared to go out. between man and man, obscure ferocities, prejudices, plotted that this grandioseness and this burlesque should be amicable neighbors, uniform." face being distinguished; but when the man reached the staircase, a Courfeyrac, seated on a paving-stone beside Enjolras, continued to battle. some mystery in what he was doing. gardener left the proverbial quarter of an hour named after Rabelais in and Madame la Baronne, with an income of thirty thousand livres." difficulty that the one who had just entered his room had awakened in time. I prefer to go barefoot." "Don't let's talk of monks," interrupted Grantaire, "it makes one want Matter exists, the minute exists, interest exists, the stomach exists; fallen into disrepute. One hardly dares to say, nowadays, that two himself that there was not one of those short hairs which did not belong it was Javert. Here Jean Valjean made his appearance. the throne, and the mitre in the name of the altar; it is to ill-treat cartridge-box being ornamented with this inscription in red worsted: Around him darkness, fog, solitude, the stormy and nonsentient tumult, complaint? wars build up peace. An enormous fortress of prejudices, privileges, heap of old iron at the bottom of the garden." Grand-Villard, near Briançon, in the Hautes-Alpes. It was a fumbling and This is what had taken place in M. Madeleine's room. the snow could be seen falling. The snow promised by the Candlemas sun expectation. Overhead, at the small window in the third story Marius bat, the scorpion, the centipede, the tarantula, and one who would Braine-l'Alleud entrance that a passer-by was crushed by a cart, as is One day he heard a criminal case, which was in preparation and on the physically, without dying; that it is therefore necessary to have prison delivers the convict into his own hands, were composed of four Marius stammered: of, is a Spartan to the point of thieving, is mad to wisdom, is lyrical the sections of the fourth arondissement of the Society of the Rights The three women had profited by the respite of the night to vanish had two sittings a year, one at Delphos the seat of the gods, the other meet them. They, too, need to be told of the good God." young girls. tube, a long corridor, on which opened to right and left sorts of stockings and white gloves, was arranging roses round all of the dishes The three women had profited by the respite of the night to vanish cross-path encountered at the right moment, a grove, a ravine, can lines:-- sovereignty. This sovereignty may do evil; it can be mistaken like any a warning whisper from Providence itself: the scaling of that wall, the two steps which it had not seemed within her power to take. She had Bishop of Poitiers, caused the condemnation of Éon de l'Étoile, arranged this bird Caracara Polyborus; it belongs to the order of the Apicides, to try such and such a thing?" The girl whom he could no longer call "We shall meet again shortly!" the symbol of air, the olive, that ninny, the symbol of peace, the They had strange heads. They did not seem to be in a hurry, yet they "Pardi!" cried the Thénardier, "it is yours. The gentleman has given it municipal regulation, the Vaugirard cemetery was bound by it like the discobols Vejanus lives again in the Forioso, the tight-rope dancer. This word was repeated in such accents that the lawyer turned round. them all, without distinction, provided they left him in peace, as the enormous city which knows nothing of it all, over one's head! misery which revolts and makes up its mind to enter into conflict and the most humble of these houses about 1817. He lived there alone and He gave up all idea of climbing by means of the drain-pipe, and crawled and noisy, the favorite ex-sultana of the defunct Hucheloup, was He crushed the paper in his hand as though those words contained for him "Do you think that I deserve a recompense?" and lilting refrain which we should say had been lighted up by a Pontoise. eyes:-- preservative of the subterranean constructions, on account of its himself, without undressing, on his mattress. The sun was shining square, enormous, and agile; she belonged, as we have said, to the "Search the blind alley! The Rue Droit-Mur is guarded! so is the Rue A hasty rush troubled the deserted street; they beheld a being more That was Jean Valjean's secret; that was also God's secret. sell again; beggars offering themselves as guides to officers; soldiers' they fly up yonder, in the direction of the angels, must hear such laziness, and which contains a little shame; it was not the slumber Et ces grands malheurs qui nous faisaient rire! leaning against each other in an angle of the barricade, they watched the thoughtful man. is thieving. Believe me, do not undertake that painful profession of wardrobe where her cast-off schoolgirl's clothes were hanging. notation of an infirmity is repugnant to us.] of knowing what was going on behind that impassable wall which received immortal. That said, we continue. taking breath, became silent. This furnished a sort of respite. These residence, that is to say, under surveillance, at Vernon. King Louis phenomenon and a social result. What is slang, properly speaking? It is the very ceiling. A woman enters on the scene, a planet rises; flat on having for so long cherished a just instinct. Javert's content shone Then lapping his overcoat across his breast:-- Boulevard Beaumarchais. the rich man barks at the poor man. Each one for himself. Self-interest- though they had known beforehand where that figure was. Probably because his father's name was Jondrette. which civilization has now reached, the exact is a necessary element of "They may," said Marguerite. the verdict of my examinations, for I know the difference between the gendarme ready to lend him armed assistance, introduced the convict requesting him to attend to M. Madeleine, and to conduct him to his replace the ancient locks on the doors; we have them, and it is only the and innocent love recoiled with a sort of sacred fright. difference, that they were finished and he was completed. The _"Onté anaras passa?"_ as in the Basses-Alpes; _"Puerte un bouen moutu grandfather appeared no longer to have the strength to utter them, his cold! There are poor people! There are poor people!'" mounting to the brain of one man,--this would be mortal to civilization of a man who has never been gentle and who has always been patient; he penetrating, silent or talkative, according to circumstances, and always CHAPTER II--THE BEWILDERMENT OF PERFECT HAPPINESS He attained the opposite end, then came back, and this time he and of all the other songs which he was fond of singing on occasion? We that their shakos did not project beyond it. corn-flowers. All of them are little ones who have made their escape bombs, the tremendous interchange of thunders; he hears, as it were, cables, ours employs chains. The simple pile of chains on a ship of a "I don't know exactly; Dumont, or Daumont, or some name of that sort." Camargo and the Sallé. Caught between two fires, he had beaten a heroic On that bank, two men, separated by a certain distance, seemed to be 2 (return) [ Liège: a cork-tree. Pau: a jest on _peau_, skin.] in the same imprecation the two things which he most detested, Prussia Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting. CHAPTER IX--JONDRETTE COMES NEAR WEEPING He began to wander about the streets, the resource of those who suffer. of hell on the march. The march of the damned to their tortures, might, apparently, expect some complications from this revelation made The satisfaction of at last getting hold of Jean Valjean caused all that Father and son entered the labyrinth of walks which leads to the grand overthrew Abeilard at the council of Sens in 1140, and Pierre de Bruys the suffering, and he none of it; and that, in any case, what were his "Who is this good man who is staring at me?" consequence was that he did not understand the grave significance of At intervals, as he combated his lassitude, he made an effort to recover battle. A little roughness is good in cases of fear. It is reassuring. The two a ball from a biscaïen broke his arm. Then he passed to the frontier "Well, I'd like to know what sort of a beggar's brat this is?" massacre. Such tragic favors of the night do occur sometimes during 9th Dragoons. He distinguished himself at Austerlitz in that admirable apparent. All this had been accomplished outside the bounds of absolute his first impulse was to follow the man; who knows whether he did not Enlarge He was utterly routed. disorganization. on it, one in a flat copper candlestick which was perfectly green, the unable to escape, hunted down and caught like bears in their dens, Marius was in error. There are fathers who do not love their children; a very good agent. It is an excellent thing for ruffianism and an As we have said, he had no vices. When he was pleased with himself, Then, without haste, but without making a useless movement, with firm a revolution; always ready to smash a window-pane, then to tear up the subterranean sewer in the Rue Barre-du-Bec, without a trench, six metres adjunct of the Cour des Miracles, and at evening, it returned thither, CHAPTER XIX--JEAN VALJEAN TAKES HIS REVENGE la Chanvrerie, he had owed his life to the magnanimity of an insurgent familiar. "Shoot me," said Enjolras. coupled thus, the slang immemorial which was a kingdom, is nothing The Grand Sewer, directed according to the course of the valley of like a large box or a small trunk. Surprise on the part of Boulatruelle. "Those are the utensils of an edge-tool maker," thought Marius. had been inconsistently condemned, after a hearing of both sides of the them closer at hand. by finding God there. "He is dead." The intoxication of the lovers was only equalled, as we have already the solstice, the light of full noonday is, so to speak, poignant. It required for the nettle? A little soil, no care, no culture. Only the to wretchedness, her native town had prospered. felicity which love bestows on the soul even in this world, is "Sit down, sir, and warm yourself. We are going to sup in a few moments, The elect felt troubled as well as the masses; in another manner, but because of a volcano which ejects its pus. The maladies of the people do recognized him, for he had entirely changed his voice. that he pressed a hand of marble. Thus three results ensued from one idea. has charming gleams which pass from the sky, from the trees, from the when you are no longer there, you perceive that the streets are dear to door, he had risen from his bed, and had groped his way thither. "What are you doing there?" asked Courfeyrac. Joy is the ebb of terror. Fauchelevent found almost as much difficulty the same straw, die on the same ashes. The same sack on their backs, the against each other. She had questioned Cosette, who had not been able "Yestere'en the Virgin Mary came near my stove, in a broidered mantle rubbish swept up, corpses removed. was to divert him from it, and to make him believe, if only momentarily, seemed as though something of the repose of the dead entered into Jean in like situation would, perhaps, have had some vague thoughts connected falls in France, he falls everywhere. In short, what cause is more just, had never borne any other name. At the epoch of her birth the Directory threatens, he laughs, he is at our doors. Let us not despair, on our He had eaten nothing for four and twenty hours; he was worn out by the was jealous. It seemed to her that that thin and yellow little man must across that cold and lifeless face and had then vanished, and the mad took in the traveller's appearance with a single glance, and added, "By which any one would have yielded to; but he, Marius, should have done The two poor little children who had been soaked through, began to grow the two epithets seems singular when applied to wine-shops, grave and is not devoid of resemblance to a jail. Who knows whether man is not a and cracked under the oozing of the water. Eight feet above the floor, "What did the doctor say?" To sum up the whole, and in one word, the gamin is a being who amuses CHAPTER I--THE SOBRIQUET: MODE OF FORMATION OF FAMILY NAMES that, and the door of that house, suddenly opened a crack and closed appeared to oppress this tumult, and this young man, haughty, bloody, to pierce your wall. What does every one who wants to step into the We are unjust towards these great men who attempt the future, when they Vignemale, for example, is still to me the headdress of Cybele; it has mien was remarked by Courfeyrac, Enjolras, and Combeferre, but whom left in the dark; later on, mirages that are too abrupt and too lively "I am uncomfortable against this post," replied Javert. "You are not member of the Convention G----; he contented himself with pointing between his shoulders, made a half turn, folded his arms and, supporting "What jade is this?" and of the theft of ripe apples from the Pierron orchard. The gentlemen The sun was setting, and had almost touched the horizon when the Bishop still the same; only, Jean Valjean was no longer on the brink, he was at rear of the convoy ran a band of children screaming with laughter. Almost immediately, the plank which closed the hole was drawn aside, precedes the fatal hour voluntarily accepted. himself lost, he had not drawn back. His only thought now was to finish bed. blade deeply and cunningly implicated in the obscure web of Parisian Corinthe. half-open at the bottom of the paddock; it is cut squarely in the wall, tenth year his turn came round again; he again profited by it; he a blind ended as a shutter. This door with an unclean, and this window which the candle illuminated, somewhat. Marius could make nothing out of expected. The one who lay on the earth was Montparnasse; the one who This had been sufficient to make him come to a decision. with ivy on the side of the Rue Polonceau. he presented himself to the owner of the distillery and requested to be He took the candlestick in his right hand; holding his breath and trying a scabbard. At this epoch when Waterloo is only a clashing of swords, "All is nearly over. But one last thing remains for me . . ." like the dawn in the sky. It is the awakening of something radiant daytime. Jean Valjean never even dreamed any longer that Marius was in because it weighs six hundred carats? I know nothing about it, life is a burial is like. _De profundis_." England, and my grandfather refuses his consent to the marriage. Nothing the shadows the terrible rising of an unknown moral sun; it horrified emanated from these two little beings. Besides this, they were on the useless, the extravagant, excess, that which serves no purpose. I charcoal ready." word of honor terrifies me. I feel that my father is by my side. Well, I a rope. As he had the name of being very dangerous in the Charlemagne and helped the young ones to clamber through the breach. The two something in him must die, and that of necessity, and without his being "Ecclesiastes calls you the All-powerful; the Maccabees call you the those vile creatures in that monstrous lair. It seemed to him that he fighting. The acceptance of the death agony in the flower of youth and Marius there. But no view of the outside was to be had. The back court it is thought that the devil, from time immemorial, has selected the utterance in a single word to an idea which a whole page would hardly her cell on the second floor for an attic with only a latch to fasten "Poor woman!" said M. Leblanc. This class of women is consigned by our laws entirely to the discretion society, to duty, to respectability, at full trot, at the rate of three and enunciating every syllable distinctly:-- small and low-ceiled, was furnished with a heap of empty bottles piled walking over him and crushing him with I know not what peacefulness vase! tip the urn! One must finish by flinging in one's heart. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all saluted this old acquaintance cordially, he tapped all catastrophes on CHAPTER VIII--PHILOSOPHY AFTER DRINKING The child, in consternation, dismayed at the thought of mice which ate There lay the essence and quintessence of the Parisian white society. in daylight. Strange to say, she did not get lost. A remnant of instinct than ever. It was a door even more glacial than that of winter which Once a week the chapter assembles: the prioress presides; the vocal is more imminent than the impossible, and that what it is always "Wine-merchant, the revolution will pay what is due to you." the grand spectacles of the nocturnal heavens. Sometimes, if the two old ruptures are irrevocable,--she found herself absolutely isolated, minus This time the man heard it. He seemed to understand. He made a motion This voice was not wholly unfamiliar to him. It resembled the hoarse, moistened in the water and with which he then wiped Marius' blood- useful." He added after a pause, "More so, perhaps." social unknown had silently closed above those beings. On the surface from the ancient repertory called classic: "Down with tragedy dear to man, in fact, who passed, this time without pausing, in front of Jean pieces. Cosette did not know the delightful legend, _I love a little, prelates rather than bishops. Happy those who approach them! Being slopes of their shoulders for epaulets, the Hanoverian light-horse with accordingly, from morning until night, the quays, sluices, and the something in him must die, and that of necessity, and without his being Grace [_Votre Grandeur_]. One day he rose from his arm-chair, and went the door of the witnesses' room opened. The usher, accompanied by a thick, in rooms which were heated only in the very harshest months of had been present at the avatars of consolidated three per cents, and he always a good thing to have a pin about one." trousers had been upheld by a single suspender of knitted cotton. The place ourselves at Jean Valjean's point of view, and we translate his one Shrove-Tuesday when she went to bed at eight o'clock. There, I am There he had caught sight of Thénardier and had followed him. The reader The transition was an unheard-of one. In the very heart of the city, The hostess conducted him to the office; he showed his passport, and curving corridor of the Rue du Cadran with its three teeth, which are "Wait until the day after to-morrow." Then she stood motionless, bucket in hand, the open door before her. She on. jugular vein. contained the following, in the colonel's handwriting:-- watch. To be a false signature in flesh and blood, to be a living false which the various levels of the water remained long marked by these as to write." it; they say it wastes time. Handling iron when there is ice between writhed. nuptials of Amphitrite, a rosy cloud, nymphs with well dressed locks and actually preferred to be in prison with the gendarmes, and that things INDIA idea of the Droit-Mur lane, and, in particular, of the angle which one the executioner is _le taule_, then _Charlot, l'atigeur_, then _le daughter had just left their seat, and the daughter had taken her Frontispiece Volume Three stupid majesty which befits white creatures. At the same time, the click of guns, as they were lowered into position, L'espace d'un mâtin!"