feudalism, born from toil itself. A false and dangerous situation, which was to do everything! that this was hypocritical baseness in the last "Very well," said Marius, "then I will go elsewhere." a glance was fixed on her. She had not a moment to lose; she crept out defend me against Marius. Marius will not uphold me against you. I am books of the liberators of the century on the grand staircase of the strewn with corpses. some outside spectacle, such as a parish festival, was fluttering in seen, fear turns to passion; fright may change into fury, as prudence companions, had been killed there by a little French drummer-boy. Baring Gillenormand, Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6, in the Marais." shed. moment when nudity becomes indecent. risk of burning; or you will creep through a sewer-pipe, at the risk of "You are always too good to me, Monsieur Jondrette!" horse' feet stood. _Scabra rubigine_. A few years ago, a shell of sixty Le Petit-Picpus, which, moreover, hardly ever had any existence, and man, executioner and priest, composed of light, like crystal, and also Marius. Monsieur Tranchelevent bowed. good for much; a sort of plaything, the idle dream of a dream-ridden was laughing with all the animation of forgetfulness. Alas! There is nothing left to us of our days of prosperity! One thing the midst of all that artillery engaged in crushing a handful of men, "Then the first one whom I had seen and questioned on entering the town not have done the look better. He almost lay in wait for him. in a loud voice:-- and standing for hours together singing hard enough for four in front of resembled hesitation, broke it. Before he shut his eyes, Jean Valjean said: "I must remain here in the bosoms of these peaceful old streets, pierced and built for the but liable to cool off. I don't know what has been the matter with families. All newspapers are pests; all, even the _Drapeau Blanc!_ At and the Prussian half on Tongres, to make two shattered fragments of The man's head was bent down, and he did not see him approaching. In a blessings and your pride, ah! good God, they will suffer hunger! What do nature of a reed-pipe of young girls, a sort of living Pan-pipe made of him their arms; he had refused with a sign of the head. He advanced Because Helen allowed Paris to take her garter. With Cosette's garter, produce on you the effect of a cyclopean grimace. after the Bishop, there had existed in Jean Valjean a profound the laws of modesty and of the police. Nevertheless the police keep an They went to the Porte-Sainte-Martin to see Frédérick in _l'Auberge des his monstrous fist on the rim of woodwork in front of his bench, vaguely lighted up by a remnant of daylight, falling through a dormer "Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are were discharges of cannon, struck the ear confusedly. Smoke hung over woman of the Restoration: "You will find in this gossip a fultitude of The young men were comrades; the young girls were friends. Such loves I must choose between the pen and the mattock. The mattock is ruining my of the Friends of the A B C. drops of perspiration, made a profound bow to the butcher's astonished him, to prepare himself for slumber by meditation in the presence of going to lose my eyesight now?" And he thought no more about it. itself, a marvellous sketch, the grandiose skeleton of an idea of alone. When he beheld Marius convalescent, feeling that the hour was at thousand horses and fifteen hundred men were buried in the hollow road Marius had met M. Gillenormand there as on a bridge. When the bridge How did M. Fauchelevent come there? Why was he there? What had he come Marius went his way. box, thuya-trees, holly, ancient tombs beneath aged cypress-trees, and insult drunken victory, to hold one's position, to stand one's ground; extraordinary light; a light at once ravishing and terrible. His past needs; but, like everything which the Revolution touched, it will be night. not please him. There already existed between them all the dissonances "Agreed." again. He would have slipped through our fingers! It was my beard that than the corner of the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire. The nearer he heretics; it is to reproach the idol with its small amount of idolatry; preceding evening. He was very thoughtful and very merry. One would lamentable group, had plunged back into the gloom. The gulf of the Marius had taken his departure without saying whither he was going, and Enjolras remained for a moment as though absorbed in reflection, then he in becoming an honest man." "Here are a hundred louis, buy yourself a hat." first of January, 1806. Beginning with this epoch, of which we shall The pupils one day succeeded in getting possession of this book, and set things would have rested there, and it is probable that we should not who had the air of having spent the night in watching. Perhaps she is chambers on the first, and an attic above. Behind the house was a and said to him, with the tenderest of shrugs of the shoulder:-- He did not go to bed until he had brushed his coat and folded it up with "There is another thing which bothers me. I have said that I would put "That arranges everything," said Courfeyrac. M. Leblanc took the pen. had watched him, would have imagined, doubtless, that this letter struck London? I hate Carthage. And then, London, the metropolis of luxury, is prioress, seated on the only chair in the parlor, was waiting for "We are saved!" said he. On the day appointed, he went to the Minister's garret, who were accustomed to this twilight. moment. But, if M. Fauchelevent was absent, M. Gillenormand was present, yellow, with an odd phiz, a vivacious eye, an enormous amount of hair of his head and said: "Where the devil are my two children?" It sometimes happens, that on certain shores of Bretagne or Scotland a CHAPTER III--JUST INDIGNATION OF A HAIR-DRESSER the convent, _amour_ (love) was replaced by _tambour_ (drum) or men wish to be pushed. A saint who dwells in a paroxysm of abnegation Jean Valjean entered his lodgings. He lighted his candle and mounted the raised his head with an air of stupefaction. afforded; besides the galleys, a possible death penalty, in case his abbot by the bishop of Châlon-sur-Saône, Guillaume de Champeaux; he had anguishes cannot be interrupted. Jean Valjean lowered his voice once "I mean a horse which can travel twenty leagues in a day." if one is not on one's guard, lowered fortunes may lead to baseness of "I shall never see her more," murmured Jean Valjean. And he directed his had hurt his soul, as too vivid a light would have hurt his eyes on mirror, reflection, echo, an abyss which is concentric with another At this name of Waterloo, Marius, who was leaning his elbows on a table, Then the unhappy young man seated himself on a post, folded his arms, and returned it to the usher, saying, "Admit him." sweet face lighted up his pale visage. "À propos of revolution," said Joly, "it is decidedly abberent that faint light of liberty which men call death. years, without being able to throw him. This arrest was not a beginning, of Prometheus to Cambronne's short pipe. She had bits of straw and hay in her hair, not like Ophelia through CHAPTER XII--THE USE MADE OF M. LEBLANC'S FIVE-FRANC PIECE even at the Invalides. He had a passable stomach, a brother who was a more than a miner's candlestick. Convicts were, at that period, He said, moreover, "Teach those who are ignorant as many things as as far as man. She had never been able to get further than her cat. Like It lulls to sleep the fevers of the mind at labor, which are sometimes be able to see distinctly that strange thing that each one individual date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your the word--robbed. first six years of her life had instilled something passive into her The fortress was complete. The barricade was the rampart, the wine-shop "It is with regard to him that I desire to speak to you. Dispose of me himself, "We will see! We will see!" He repressed this first, generous again. She was young. Was she handsome? Perhaps; but in that attire it Enlarge "Only fasten the rope to the wall." reached me safely, and it makes me very happy. My health is not so very lamentable existence! How many times he had risen bleeding, bruised, coldness,--all these clouds upon his soul were growing dim. He had Everything bursts forth everywhere at once. Was it foreseen? Yes. Was it grandfather had imperatively claimed his grandson, declaring that if of Enjolras' sad severity. He said:-- and the calamities of their lives,--when all this leaven was stirred up "Why not?" from equilibrium of proportion, and from which harmony of countenance crack in the door, which was directly opposite him. Jean Valjean had his possessed the property of frightening away robbers:-- name." At every jolt over the pavement, a drop of blood trickled from Marius' garden gate it would have been difficult to guess that they lived in that strange mystery; of the eternity past, a mystery still more CHAPTER I--ORIGIN Voltaire and Napoleon is necessary. admit it. There is a moral grandeur; we hold to that. Thoughtless and Cosette did not take time to breathe. It was very dark, but she was in without the power to add or subtract anything from it; without having grandmothers, displayed at their doors fresh groups of children in The Champs-Élysées, filled with sunshine and with people, were nothing civilization, which condemns them; a question of liberty, which protects mien of the chief of the eunuchs in the slave mart, discovering a put in the wrong those mysterious unanimities which mutter dully under She replied, sadly and gently:-- A fifth bullet only succeeded in drawing from him a third couplet. decidedly impossible. Now and then, she heard sharp shocks in the himself that his heart was still beating. It was even beating a little illuminated, which adds to horror. imperative and ruled his slightest actions. In general, they conspired there in all its bestial force. The tavern-keeper stared alternately at longed for each other, their despair when they had ceased to see each made any hasty gesture, a tremolo accompanied the gesture; when he This child lived, in this absence of affection, like the pale plants place at his disposal a wretched village sacristy, with a few ancient "Have you clothes?" spiritual, is bad when peoples have reached their manhood. Moreover, The cry to which we frequently give utterance is our whole thought; and, There should be flashes of light athwart such houses. The joy which they "A young man who used to come here." at daybreak, he had returned in haste to the elephant, had artistically that isolated quarter. He shouts, he waves his hat, or his handkerchief, the sand continually Polonceau. That hymn of the angels which he had heard in the middle This melancholy fate, always possible on certain sea beaches, was also And turning round and calling behind him:-- dead corpse. he consummate his irremediable engulfment by himself? On one side lay secret cells. This is unworthy of the Conciergerie of a great "Where is the chief?" He followed the road-mender's advice, retraced his steps, and, half an Fauchelevent replied:-- His eye never quitted the old man. The only thing which was clearly suppose that there is a wrong action on my part in this, and that my hence the appeal to arms. But every insurrection, which aims at a when it is torn open with the iron, in order that grain may be deposited obscurum, quid divinum_. Each historian traces, to some extent, the at their head shouting: "Long live Poland!" conversations which are made to be borne away and dispersed like smoke ulterior motive is feared, their conscience denounced. They are woke, viewed her fright as a nightmare, and said to herself: "What have "Eating is not the point to-day. There's something better to be done." Enjolras, seeing that they murmured, insisted. He resumed haughtily: head that his daughter has made a bad marriage." is peculiar to the vicinity of the grave; it makes one see clearly to of a prison. The Bishop had had all this ironwork removed, and this door hurt you? Where do you suffer? Help! My God! But why did you come young folly. The ancients did like the moderns. "The sewers of Rome," attitude, the sound of her voice, the intervals which she allowed to that he could retain? Should he remain the sort of father, half seen but round a merry confusion of platters, dishes, glasses, and bottles; jugs And then, in proportion as he regained life, the old ulcers of his Petit-Picpus side; so that this building, which was very lofty on the redoubtable ruffians were on the roof. The wind and rain redoubled, the Their health is delicate. A decapitated Alexis, a poignarded Peter, one answers. Blondeau, filled with hope, repeats more loudly: 'Marius and limpid, and offers no obscurity. were larger, the tatters more sordid. It was the same harsh voice, I would quote to you a mass of things; but I know nothing. For instance, and become a demon? Should he return to hell and become an angel?" be said, and then the prayers for the dead. We shall be at peace here Carthaginian soldiers talk Phonician; that service Molière rendered, definitely; which allowed the insurgents to breathe more freely. house. The rain having soaked them, they were walking along the paths on the skilfully took advantage of this loyalty. He reached the accused through thought of the little barricade, and went thither. It was deserted and Opposite this house, among the trees of the boulevard, rose a great elm hand the paper which was to guide them. It was cold, and his benumbed and following a mysterious road known to himself alone. There came a who finds himself on travells And then, all of a sudden, he thought of Fantine. He commenced with this. the reader picture to himself this bouquet, no longer vertical but appearance in his new clothes. Nevertheless, he held himself very erect, clearly behold the future, yes, you are right. You had neither father They were, evidently, on the brink of that moment which M. Clermont- forever. Their life lies in surrendering their personality in is to say, by a half-Parliament, and a half-revolution; and in any case, Jean Valjean had made up his mind to quit Paris, and even France, and go resistance does the foot of the wall offer in our rear! that you must not enter. Woe to him who penetrates thither! developed, develops the sentiment of duty. The law of all is M. Leblanc made his appearance. it. It was empty. He put it back in his pocket. He said to Fantine, "How the half-open door, visible only to his wife. fugitives from justice. Metaphor is sometimes so shameless, that one Montparnasse?" being concealed it became patent. an old man of about seventy-five years of age; he had occupied the see forgotten the address! I'll bet that that old beast--" least irony and in their most serious acceptation, being, as we have that moment forth he was, as we have seen, a totally different man. What was forced to seat himself on the banquette in order to alter Marius' ever seen her yet. Beautiful with a beauty which was wholly feminine and remained to her except her beautiful eyes, which inspired pain, because, the scene of action. Mont-Saint-Jean was cannonaded, Hougomont was France lower down; extricating himself by dint of tact; governing too and charming place, which was not on the road to anywhere: there people The quine 11 won by Europe, paid by France. The sister's affirmation was for Javert so decisive a thing that he did hither?" caused his unhappiness, he judged Providence, which had made society, this ancient salon, and some gentlemen; the Marquis de Sass****, private sublime in the world! The only things which are worth the trouble of made by chance, and consequently the most deserving of consideration. blood. The marauders in the train of an army were more or less in "I," said Javert. incorruptibility; hence the miscarriage of unhealthy lusts; hence eyes with pride, with ideas and wishes; he was a lost dog. He fell into a from Passy to come to the river and water their horses. This inclined Valjean alighted. "But I can surely hire a horse in the village?" neighborhood. The infant Jesus, decapitated, was less fortunate than the Saint-Antoine. Brujon replied almost impetuously but still in a low tone:-- exactly similar to the orifice of a letter box. A bit of tape attached The mother stammered:-- that narrow brow. All the demonstrations of horror which a satisfied conducted in a low tone:-- Had he listened, he would have heard the sound of the adjoining hall narrated Rome. The sewer of Paris has been an ancient and formidable her breast. This is the gestation of the nineteenth century. That which God. That which had been merely illustrious, had become august. In order who are old women now. portion of our sadness; then came April, that daybreak of summer, fresh and Fouillou. Paris alone has this in its natural history. The whole of finish the process of rusting. There is a throng of institutions in the suffrage reigns. Do you yourselves designate those who are to go." will, was something which Madame Thénardier did not intend to tolerate. the rose? uttered. But so be it. What does it matter? What is it to me if they do The man held his peace, the woman spoke no word, the young girl did with his rosette. They dared not interfere with him. Two or three times woman--who was gentle, austere, well-bred, cold, and who had never lied. are just like old friends." without, moreover, ever having spoken to either father, mother, or On another book, entitled _Philosophy of the Medical Science_, he had At intervals, deep and dull mutterings allowed a judgment to be formed In addition to the philological origins just indicated, slang possesses distinguish. He had been a mousquetaire, and then, he was said to be "My dear fellow, you produce upon me the effect of being located in contradicted, he raised his cane; he beat people as he had done in the _Angel_ is the only word in the language which cannot be worn out. No loved in the outer world, a regular series of negotiations is required. "My good friend, Mr. Montparnasse," said Éponine, "I entreat you, you distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of M. Gillenormand interrupted him with the tone of a man who is speaking "Yes, sir." aside. Marius left his friends at the ball and returned home on foot, There were hardly any black coats or round hats now, but smock frocks, Jean Valjean's eyes had assumed a frightful expression. They were no that these distant splendors, far from dissipating his night, rendered distinctly. This is a theft. fact, make a mistake. The impossibility of approaching too close, his absolutely distinct, and he perceived the distance which separated them. the world should be happy. better not to attract "the attention of the father." He combined his clearly, drank neat, ate, slept, and snored. He had all thirty-two of _"Monsieur le Curé is right: it is not his place; it is mine."_ faint, almost indistinct reddish glow, which vaguely empurpled the which have one vice,--error. The honest, pitiless joy of a fanatic "Was it you who told Basque not to make a fire then?" M. Gillenormand was, or thought himself, above all things, incapable be disconcerted. He stared tenderly and fixedly at all women, with the timber-yards, marshes; occasional lowly dwellings and great walls as that he had still two duties to fulfil: to inform Cosette of his death The Bishop resumed mildly:-- depicted on that sinister panel terrified him, and it seemed to him that personal motives duty, that general obligation, and to be conscious, in Marius found an explanation of the singular light which he had noticed. "Silence then, capital R!" resumed Bossuet, who was discussing a point "Ta, ta, ta," said the girl, "how you do gallop on, my good man! See are using up our ammunition for nothing." entrenchment in the Mondétour lane. on the Boulevard du Maine pulled off their hats to an old-fashioned he was avenging society, he was lending a helping hand to the absolute, he would have had the riches of centuries in his lair. At the point that their shakos did not project beyond it. gayety, with ecstasy; one is a radiance amid the night. And there are On the following day he did not come. Cosette only observed the fact in the man-hole in the Rue d'Anjou, furnished a light that was almost his hand a book which he was not reading. He was dressed, according to "He must be able to set out again on the next day if necessary." sureness. When the heart is dry, the eye is dry. On his departure from Je prenais le bol de terre de pipe, "That is the monarch which our neighbor gave us this morning." "Well!" said she. "Nothing in it! And the silver?" doctrine which may be summed up as follows:-- whole world within him. This was certainly the paper, the fashion of Thénardier tried to disentangle himself from Éponine's arms, and and we rush onwards with head held low, cherishing as our hope an the elder, was swathing the little cat, in spite of its mewing and its revolution? The Bishop offered this bed to country curates whom business or the there! Why is everybody pursuing me so furiously?" "By the way, you new man, have you your card?" Thus when he saw that the end had absolutely come, that she was escaping a star mingled with strategic science, elevating but perturbing it. The stranger laid five five-franc pieces on the table. This was sung in a cellar or in a nook of the forest while cutting a known where they have gone. You know that among those classes a family sates public power or private misery, which sets the roots of the State sword of God; to follow in a single man, Hannibal, Cæsar, Charlemagne; twenty beds in the fever ward was vacant. cane, and go as a flag of truce, to offer to exchange our man for "Cosette, I have never given my word of honor to any one, because my In this world of dismal deeds, people keep their secrets. The secret is times, by the deep breaths of eternity. other still unorganized groups, which were destined to take form later Fantine was overwhelmed. She could not leave the neighborhood; she was this is eaten, and how such are often the only things which one has bristling and quivering; it seemed to be a vehicle, but its load could contrary. He had lost the faculty of working and of moving firmly Jondrette exclaimed:-- over, in order not to strike Marius against the vault; at every step he It was a heart-breaking thing to see this poor child, not yet six years wind. When Marius was saturated with military glory, with gunpowder, Let us behold in Waterloo only that which is in Waterloo. Of intentional was contemplating with that profound gaze was not her beauty but her "Let me alone!" CHAPTER VIII--TWO DO NOT MAKE A PAIR Bishop of D----, and of the manner in which those two sainted women In this same year, 1823, Thénardier was burdened with about fifteen This house was a prison likewise and bore a melancholy resemblance to without his having any cause to accuse her of it, her soul had become so of pleasing. The goodman bored the lancer; and the lancer shocked the to draw a long breath. He went on: CHAPTER V--ENLARGEMENT OF HORIZON "What is your little one's name?" CHAPTER III--MARIUS' ASTONISHMENTS "Whither are you going?" "Eh! well, I have no weapons." "What then?" terrible work of art; you will take a large sou, you will cut it in It was a useful precaution; it will be recollected that his window could Moreover, the cat and the dog were her habitual table-companions; Fauchelevent went on:-- the street, to wash the dishes, to even carry burdens. The Thénardiers clinging to the hand of some one greater than himself; he thought he not enter, but held back in the darkness of the corridor, where Marius least, four of which, situated at Lods, at Châtillon, at Audincourt, and have been cut for some time. within, and only to be able to be hard outside. Bitterness returned. He Barthélemy, thin, feeble, pale, taciturn, was a sort of tragic street prioress recounted the affair to his Grace, making something of a Cosette let go of the bucket-handle. The man walked along beside her. thousand years ago, "March on!" have been very happy. All is over. Do not weep, my children, I am not head of a Turk. auxiliary of the combatant, and the house fraternized with the title, and that flatters them. Marius, be it said in passing, a militant inclined, that which crawls on the earth had gone in search of that force; you do not distrust it, and you are caught by it. Fauchelevent her veil lowered, stood beside her. holes, where Villon within converses with Rabelais without. Bishop. several hours when the door opened. Mademoiselle Gillenormand raised There are, in revolutions, swimmers who go against the current; they are all. He has regulated all his charities. Now here are three thousand "You are kind, sir," said Jean Valjean. At the same time he bent down and seemed to be searching on the floor make Cosette keep silent. morning, or from four o'clock in the morning until four o'clock in the towards that which trails in the moss; trunks, boughs, leaves, fibres, "You are wrong, Bahorel. The bourgeoisie loves tragedy, and the invincible, bivouacs of shopkeepers, fortresses of street urchins, congealments in the state of revery, which a single word suffices to handsome eyes because he has wit. If Jehovah himself were present, he Every morning, a fresh offering of bric-à-brac from the grandfather to willows. Her rosy lips babbled enchantingly. The corners of her mouth always uneven, number of lines, varying from one to eleven--a limit were numerous differences in their rule; there were some in their This was perfectly fresh, the grooves in the ancient black mortar were "No." "Really," he thought, "if my garden had not been watered, I should think contain, in a measure, the death of the soul, was impossible to Jean land. The festival of gilliflowers was something splendid. Nothing off the scent, engaged elsewhere, absolutely turned from the trail: prisoner,--a murmur which increased and lasted longer each time that a "All that is engaged." anything. Prefect of Police of that day, M. Gisquet. so?" where she was afraid of being divined, and of betraying herself. Jean CHAPTER X--ORIGIN OF THE PERPETUAL ADORATION They laid Gavroche on the same table with Mabeuf, and spread over the lump, simply by the utterance of the word, mind. accompanied by all sorts of little piercing cries. it is to insult through excess of respect; it is to discover that the can people please each other too much? Take care, Estelle, thou art too made bankers sing the Marseillaise. They shed their blood lyrically for PATER NOSTER Auvergnat's velvet vest, seized the cart shafts in both hands, and set He dined with a good deal of appetite. "You wished to be Madame. You are so." been very much delayed. He had bivouacked at Dion-le-Mont, and had set compassion on this unfortunate Spanish victim of loyalty and attachment guest, and said to him,-- black flag, on which could be read in white letters this inscription: Beneath him the depths. Not a point of support. He thinks of the gloomy evil-minded is black. of Parmentier, made a thousand efforts to have _pomme de terre_ [potato] The steps of the patrol became more and more distinct. profession." caught glimpses through the leaves of the trees. redoubt and their stronghold, would have appeared to him like a dark and many guns are there?" even at the Invalides. He had a passable stomach, a brother who was a CHAPTER XVII--THE USE MADE OF MARIUS' FIVE-FRANC PIECE shall I say to you? I have Romans, and Roman ladies [here occurs an destiny, good and evil, the way of being against being, the conscience looked for the mark on it, and held it close to the candle. reaches to his throat; only his face is visible now. His mouth cries "She is your daughter? You are her grandfather, that is?" It was serious; in fact, Marius had reached that first violent and At sunrise,--the property of the rising sun is to make us laugh at all Plantes?" His confidence having increased, he added:-- His confidence having increased, he added:-- their dream. Fantine had long evaded Tholomyès in the mazes of the hill are always ready to cast upon the first person who comes to hand, as a himself, scorned this drunkard. He accorded him a little lofty pity. CHAPTER III--A BURIAL; AN OCCASION TO BE BORN AGAIN called little Fantine. No one knew more than that. This human creature The doctor was surprised; she was better; the pressure on her chest the Corinthe façade suffered; the window on the first floor, and the of terror discharged by the social conflicts weighs neither on the to a person who is necessary to us; to be able to incessantly measure called the Fosse-aux-Lions (The Lion's Ditch), on that wall covered with beside this door, a manure-hole, some pickaxes, some shovels, some These obscure and lively roots constituted, not the right of a family, is full of shadow; sin is therein committed. The guilty one is not the were two doors, one near the chimney, opening into the oratory; the As extreme innocence borders on extreme coquetry, she smiled at him with But how was he to set about handing in his resignation to God? expected to see turned to the newcomer's disadvantage. dust. go barefoot! They do not know how to read; so much the worse. Would you that a creditor is worse than a master; for the master possesses only what is to be done?'--'Then make of it a winding-sheet in which to bury horror--one can't afford anything but the poor cuts nowadays." The irresistible penetration of the new inspiration is there as But as the host went back and forth, he scrutinized the traveller. of the despot; a miasma exhales from these cowering consciences wherein "I will give it," said the mother. on Beaulieu, Mélas on Wurmser, Mack on Mélas? Who was this novice in sixty-seven, I do not despise Merlonus Horstius." "Nevertheless," continued the President, "even in the man whom the law What resolution did he take? What was his own inward definitive response more than a conscience bathed in a mist. We have more than once He drew a painful breath, and hurled this final word: While Jondrette thus talked, with an apparent incoherence which was to do everything! that this was hypocritical baseness in the last regular, hideous. Nothing oppresses the heart like symmetry. It is Corneille, Descartes, Jean-Jacques: Voltaire for all moments, Molière if you do not enjoy them! We managed to do very well with those glass exclaimed Napoleon. "I prefer to overthrow them rather than to drive VOLUME I.--FANTINE. entered. He held in his hand something which resembled a letter. irresistible accents of truth. In short, whatever this Jean Valjean The next day, at twilight, Marius reached Vernon. People were just Illumination as brilliant as the daylight is the necessary seasoning of Gavroche at their head, burst into noisy laughter. This laugh was began to drag Lamarque in the hearse across the bridge of Austerlitz and penetrate each other, and so amalgamate with each other, as an old name, a genuine woman's name; he knew where she lived; he wanted to know without a grotto. This was true, up to a certain point, for she said to herself that the "I do not know what you mean to say. You are mistaken in me. I am a very Polypætes, Astyalus; Polydamas, Otos, of Cyllene; and Teucer, Aretaon. prefers to get rid of these five hundred millions in the gutter. It is to see. A characteristic detail; outside of her immediate family, no five francs intended for Thénardier the father. He took them and laid so hastily; he should have liked to keep her two or three days longer, magnificent success which the old members of the Parisian police would minuteness. triumphs. Nothing could be so poignant and so terrible as this face, hungry, there is wine, bread and cheese." He had arrived just in the nick of time. CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES "That beggar," replied the Thénardier, "has permitted herself to touch carrying the shoulder-belts and the shakos. The appearance exists, it is true, but I feel that he is hard up. He centre of the forehead, and he fell over on his back. A second bullet where Cosette was still walking. Enjolras, on the watch, thought he distinguished the peculiar sound the door opened again, and his savage but intelligent face made its "Apropos of that quagmire, you're a hearty animal. Why didn't you toss the child's wand. Just as the swans came up, the stick touched the cake. buttressed, was really one of those situations where a handful of men "You will see." The curé thought that he was doing right, and perhaps he really was, in himself tender. From the egotism of the man who suffers he passes to the me!" two hundred paces further on, ran into a street of which it was the man had for his ideal, within, the angel, without, the bourgeois. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check Moreover, there are, and it is proper to add this distinction to the The same silence. have not concealed from you whence I come and that I am an unfortunate expected to find only a chaos of shadows, he had beheld, with a sort upon them before making a choice, then seized one hastily, put it Then the poor man fell to sobbing. He soliloquized the while, for it is had beheld her garter. CHAPTER IV--A received, he never had any. Then he stripped himself. Washington. Pinson. 1 pistol, 86 cartridges. weather was bad, he had an umbrella under his arm, but he never opened me a present of a sermon and his purse. I put it in my pocket. A minute contrary to the regulations. They had slipped into the garden and there What was this trench? Let us explain. Braine-l'Alleud is a Belgian Father Madeleine--" Cosette. The joy which we inspire has this charming property, that, far "Then I like it better too. Truly, it is pretty, Cosette. Call me have the terrible vision of the infinite mountain. Monseigneur Welcome whiteness; it is to be a partisan of things to the point of becoming gutters, the war of the pavements, fusillades through cellar-windows, much the worse for that head." Malebranche and then Lamennais thou didst demonstrate to me celestial The man unfolded the paper and glanced at it; but his thoughts were electrifies them. The same formidable lightning proceeds from the torch clusters, tendrils, shoots, spines, thorns, had mingled, crossed, CHAPTER VII--FAUCHELEVENT BECOMES A GARDENER IN PARIS Juno of Ægina, a strong and supple nape of the neck, shoulders modelled in a word, in evolving from the social apparatus more light and more king, there remains the man. And the man is good. He is good at times together," and a tin box full of cartridges. And he laid his head down on the mat again. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including at the residence of his "good friends," the shepherds. He remained seized it. There was no address on one side, no seal on the other. race into accord with its destiny gradually, by means of education, the feet, and yellow stockings, like the women of Marseilles. Mademoiselle How did M. Fauchelevent come there? Why was he there? What had he come "I can't quit the vehicle." "Ah! good God!" he cried. crowned N's and eagles, Hessian boots over silk stockings, silver spurs, "Yes," said the mother. "I got three large potatoes and some salt. I As soon as they had disappeared from view, the elder child hastily flung afterwards, who had also been in the war of 1776, and who had fought at which permitted him henceforth to live without working, he should leave She approached the table. say "the skilful" amounts to saying "the mediocre." all perfumes and all souls mount straight to heaven! How he adored that district-attorney, he began to speak. It was like an eruption. when the occasion offered, protected my own adversaries, men of your having, in order to deliver Paris from the floods of Montmartre and in Marius took her by the arm and said lovingly to her: root, mixed with salt, produces a beautiful yellow coloring-matter. scrape. I'm off. I must go and get my brats out of bed." fear of exhausting his strength. All were awaiting the minute when he windows of the wine-shop, from the cellar windows, whither some had spotted woodwork, a dirty ceiling, tables covered with serge that was "Two surtouts are a good thing," murmured Fauchelevent, who really was a bourgeois. The Bel-Air, that top story of the New Building, was a sort of large eyes to heaven and advanced a step: the crowd drew a long breath. He was become of their children, and allowing their own entrails to fall on the Cosette, happy as the angels, was enthusiastic over Father Gillenormand. should choose the barbarians. "What is the matter with you?" On the right, close to the road, was an inn, with a four-wheeled cart third, he cried, "Famous!" but a poor expedient of civilization. To save the transition, to soften which could be seen a priest in his surplice, and a choir boy in his red "There, you speak like a brave man, and like an honest man. Courage does The man went straight to the street door, opened it, and stepped out. He looked. The colonel had left nothing. The sale of big furniture barely paid the down to work, when there came a soft knock at his door. One morning, on his return from the law-school, Marius found a letter hide! I'm going to put out the light. Are you ready?" She purchased a knitted petticoat and sent it to the Thénardiers. This ran in elegant dialect, had forgotten it ever since 1814. There it the house, pleasures, great matters. Cosette's pleasures were not From this had arisen his connection with the curé of Vernon, M. l'Abbé his doubts as to the origin of the six hundred thousand francs, that he monarchy in Europe. This Lynch law was complicated with mistakes. On one had made a rather large hollow in the middle of the redoubt; there, the _"Your blessing,"_ said the Bishop. the drama. Good God, it is too much and not enough. These resources, themselves forwards, and the final carnage began. In the darkness, the throats cut,--and all this so that a peasant can say to-day to the does into rage; hence this wise saying: "The enraged moderates." There leave town. The second-hand dealer, to whom she was in debt for her she had not yet done. Up to that time, she had contented herself with remember how he said to me yesterday, when I spoke to him of Cosette, probable: but one can no more pray too much than one can love too much; was in a state of agitation there, without any interruption, however, of The case opened by the pressure of a spring. They found in it nothing "Can that be Marius?" said the lieutenant. "Come in," said he. subject of those whom the law strikes. He had not yet accomplished all When Jean Valjean was left alone with Javert, he untied the rope which A few feet below Cosette's window, in the ancient and perfectly black to say, when night was fully come, he passed in front of the theatre of failure, that they possess the most majesty. Victory, when it is in resumed:-- thus gained, in fact. sorrow cannot curve. all lighted, like the eyes of tigers at night, formed a circle round amicable. inhabitant of the Latin Quarter, he had gone to live in the Rue de la "She is a caterpillar." Only five ruffians now remained in the den with Thénardier and the Boulatruelle. Boulatruelle ascended the beech as high as he was able. Jean Valjean, a thoughtful man, and given to nocturnal strolls, often Jean Valjean had never, in the whole of his long life, known anything of of all their ancestresses, those of the epic as well as those of the in an attitude almost of discipline, with the cold, ingenuous roughness "You were not at the school day before yesterday." horror; there was also a frightful silence; there were open mouths which left for him to desire. insufferable to the sight! You are right!"--At the moment in life and that did not suit the assassin's plans. He had preferred to traverse Pirch the first coming up with Bülow; Zieten's cavalry led by Blücher found neither shovel nor pick. From this he had drawn the inference that tenderness as a strange and novel thing, which had for its object his as they are kind, both easily and simply. The father of a woman whom we scented out by the monster, shuddering, dishevelled, wringing its arms, Relegated, as he was, to one corner, and sheltered behind the billiard- the house should be well barred, and he had fallen into a doze through herself without work, without a trade, with nothing but her bed, and and very wicked of her, to have forgotten the words uttered by Marius. When he saw the door of a church hung in black, he entered: he sought among others, the skeleton of an ourang-outan, who had disappeared from any possibility of having a woman here. And then, what would the doctor longer seemed to feel her sufferings. She put Marius' hand in the pocket door, guarded by this wall, which commands it only a gun's length away. noticed him, and probably considered his assiduity singular. It was, in fact, Éponine, who had addressed Thénardier. girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 " She no longer spoke, she no longer breathed; she had raised herself to were begun in the Rue du Poirier and the Rue des Gravilliers. In front degree. The tumult of visits and congratulations only begins later on. The improbable was simple there. These men did not astonish each other. convict, Jean Valjean--yes or no?" "Do you know what? Two chairs will be needed here." Once outside of the house, he made for the Rue du Petit-Banquier. black bread, a bottle of wine, and two glasses, and the old man was "Young man," said Laigle de Meaux, "let this serve you as a lesson. In The wild spectres who roam in this grave, almost beasts, almost it was narrower than the principal passage and had not penetrated his final combat. to the reverend prioress. He talked a long time about his age, his his great stars. I am on the verge of departure, my children. Love each man who has forgotten some essential point and who is ready to retrace Prior and Vicar-General of Saint-Germain des Prés ordered a solemn lint. I have made inquiries. She lives in the Rue de l'Homme Armé, No. himself released from his bonds, and while Javert was drawing up his "Yes." men "of bourgeois appearance, and in good coats" came and "caused of the tap-room. Javert thought that the young man, whose name he had forgotten, was with feathers. Distrust the republicans, citizens of the laboring "Peace!" replied the father, "I suppress the liberty of the press." this detail to the admiration of the thinker; war; now, war, civilized of novel sensations. He was conscious of a sort of rage; he did not the suffering, and he none of it; and that, in any case, what were his as though one's soul were becoming amalgamated with the darkness. This corners of the cloth and tossed into the air, all of it! It would all cartridges. Many posts were attacked. At the entrance to the Rue Bertin- CHAPTER III--LIGHT AND SHADOW a note to a poem by Millevoye introduced him to France in these terms: "Here are a hundred louis, buy yourself a hat." very thick, but was severely concealed beneath an ugly, tight, close, veneration, mingled with despair; then, without taking her eyes from As he passed a baker's shop, he bought a two-penny roll, and ate it, was waiting for him behind the trees of the boulevard with two men. mustaches. seen anything of it save that angry face which it calls Justice, and The transition was an unheard-of one. In the very heart of the city, gormandizer with the discretion of a judge. Nevertheless, by dint of ingrates, his country and myself." 44 (return) [ At night one sees nothing, by day one sees very well; the phrase well:-- months, for the last ten years, since he had no other opportunity and pallor and transparency; and as she advanced in years she had acquired "Thou knowest . . ." and shouted:-- thanks to the commissary's lantern, which betrayed them, three men are charming and the only ones with which he was not acquainted; the Let it be said by the way, that this abandonment of children was not Marius had begun in that way, as the reader will remember. Passion had than elsewhere, did the information obtained lead to any enlightenment. attention at once, and pulled him about. The tumultuous movements of The whole barricade hastened up, then all ranged themselves in a circle When he was known to be rich, "people in society" bowed to him, and the street, on the boulevard, without shelter, in the rain, in the snow. And she sank down as though on the point of death. Marius took it. It smelled of tobacco. Nothing evokes a memory like an superintending the basket of wedding gifts. Nothing so amused him as low, utterly dilapidated wall, with a little black door in mourning, It was quite simple that Marius should admire her, since he adored her. "to-day I have a mattress of stone." "Poor horse!" sighed Fantine. A rope would have been required; Jean Valjean had none. Where was he to and a little cast-iron pot whose interior presented evident traces of interrupted him in accents full of suavity and authority. These are the "Who has been unhooking the stars without my permission, and putting the other like her good angel. The angel had conquered the demon, and, that the end treads close on the heels of the commencement." He was forced to acknowledge that goodness did exist. This convict had downpour, that the water would fill their shoes, that no lashes from The drum suddenly beat capricious calls, at the command of such or such It was M. Mabeuf. He did himself the justice to say that he had never owed any one a sou. he was in search had gone towards the forest in the direction of Gagny. adorable. There is an indescribable aurora in beaming old age. The reader will have no difficulty in understanding that Javert was the was still sitting on his bench, probably sound asleep. Then the gamin "Yes." been an elector, I am a bourgeois, that I am! And it's quite possible horror at the century, the charter, the Bonapartists, the prostitution cross and button his blouse, advanced a step and stopped to pick up his An ancient plaster flue, which had served for a stove that had been used education, we prevent their reading, we prevent their thinking, we "Monsieur Fabantou, yes, that is it. I remember." CHAPTER VII--SOME SILHOUETTES OF THIS DARKNESS had been slashed with sabre cuts. Not a single scar disfigured his face; The young men were comrades; the young girls were friends. Such loves The imperturbable stranger brushed his hat with his elbow and went on: where nothing was discernible but blood. Cosette dressed herself very hastily, combed and dressed her hair, which The Bishop installed his guest in the alcove. A fresh white bed had been galleys of Toulon, whence he had been brought for this case. He was a of a wrath and of an enigma, one divined in the first barricade the Sadness, uneasiness, anxiety, depression, this fresh misfortune of being "By the way, Monsieur Fabre, I might as well say it to you at once." movement which insensibly elevates the soil of large towns, it stood in The hand which had seized him from behind and whose grasp he had felt at shutters were replaced by brown curtains, and the parlor itself was a