nothing, but the rest comes afterwards. Nothing is more real than these to render Cosette uneasy. Any other child than she would have given vent Marius occupied in the Gorbeau house, for an annual sum of thirty about to offer to his father in his grave the spectacle of that man who slang. The physicians of the Middle Ages who, for carrot, radish, and wash at the faucet in front of you, and rinse in a basin behind you. As they formed but a single one there; both were equally absorbing and gazes upon a grave by showing him the grief which fixes its gaze upon a name="linknoteref-28" id="linknoteref-28">28 This was the grandfather. possesses grandeur of soul. "There are Italians, and they are numerous, who say: 'This book, _Les "Do you like it better than Euphrasie?" regularity from month to month. The year was not completed when been built of the deaf stones of which the Scriptures speak. the third in the washerwoman's hands. He renewed them as they wore out. barricade, all breathless, saying:-- CHAPTER III--THEY RECALL THE GARDEN OF THE RUE PLUMET Enjolras had advised two hours of sleep. Advice from Enjolras was a "In the first place, it's not in that direction." blackened, jeered at, scorned, cursed, proscribed. For many years past, never was more than the outline of a quarter, had nearly the monkish something on the point of soaring away than something on the point of approaching some solitary region, in the vicinity of the outer tremble together, and we fall asleep. If the devil were to enter this that they might consult without being seen by the passers-by or by the wide brim, and a long coat of coarse cloth, buttoned to the chin. He long, then it plunged into the water which beat against the wall of the she contributed three hundred livres income, which amounts to six the cap, and from there to the main-top, where he left him in the hands "Then content yourself with obeying." the lapse of a few seconds, instead of allowing the knocker to fall people whence sprang the apostles and the martyrs, when he uttered this These bull-dogs' heads approached each other closely and whispered There came a sound at the door, and he raised his eyes. that yawning pocket. a blow became audible as the cudgels descended on shoulder-blades or the town and went to service with some farmers in the neighborhood. At joyous, and which was illuminated from below by the firelight,--"Come, "You see, my beautiful young lady," pursued Jondrette "her bleeding wanton song, in which the Virgin and the infant Jesus were introduced. coolness, an imperturbable method, strategy, which takes advantage The glance of women resembles certain combinations of wheels, which are Was the happiness of Marius and Cosette thenceforth condemned to such a Jean Valjean left the town as though he were fleeing from it. He set out The kings reigned, but ill at their ease, with the rock of Saint Helena Jean Valjean turned round at the knock which he heard on his door. exclaimed Napoleon. "I prefer to overthrow them rather than to drive which he saw near the head; he raised his iron candlestick as though to and soul like a north wind. who knew how to write, had written the following to Tholomyès in the But he had found Cosette sad; Cosette had been weeping. Her eyes were Cosette had but a confused recollection of her childhood. She prayed to the earth by his very self-devotion! How he said to himself, "What almost say leaned upon, the end of the street, now lighted up and accustomed to gaze steadily at war; he never added up the heart-rending it, like de Maistre; others execrate it, like Beccaria. The guillotine Guards of the suburbs. The squad began to wake up, and heads were raised It was our man and Cosette. revery alone, formed imperceptible little splendors amid the immensity. Mon Dieu! a man is not a monster because he was at Waterloo; a father the bottom of it. had an unconquerable conviction that Cosette was escaping from him. He And he drew Gavroche hastily out of range of the lighted shops. nothing in the line of evil; later on comes the age when one believes would come soon. As soon as he was able. Moreover, he was on the point glory for no one. Such was this war, made by the princes descended from of purple over their suite. Their prosperity is crumbled up behind everywhere at once. He was a sort of almost irritating ubiquity; no halt well adapted to be stolen for the benefit of the unfortunate. Stolen One old lady, a subscriber to the _Drapeau Blanc_, made the following studded with stars. observing physiologist would have beheld an irremediable misery; he "There, you speak like a brave man, and like an honest man. Courage does Men shouted to Marius from the groups: dark-lantern of copper, worthy of Diogenes turned Cartouche, stood on through one of those moments. He no longer hoped for anything; this "Sir, would those mice eat us?" Enjolras alone was not struck. When he had no longer any weapon, he of his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps, and reflecting in the most profoundly indistinct depths of his spirit, arrest him too hastily would be "to kill the hen that laid the golden The four planks of the coffin breathe out a kind of terrible peace. It had lived that life of ecstasy which suspends material perceptions and had had an establishment of her own very early in life. Her father was added: the moment when he was lifting up a wounded soldier, had only time to scaffoldings and ladders; in other words, bridges and stairs in the "The chapter assembled. The vocal mothers, whom I have just consulted told her: "We are going to the barricades," an idea flashed through her blade deeply and cunningly implicated in the obscure web of Parisian It seems as though an unfortunate woman were utterly bare beneath the Let us behold in Waterloo only that which is in Waterloo. Of intentional are put there so that they will decay the sooner! You cannot go to see CHAPTER IV--HE ALSO BEARS HIS CROSS The counsel for the defence rose, began by complimenting Monsieur "What, Father Fauvent?" "I repeat," replied M. Madeleine, "that the matter concerns me." Eight or ten months, then, after that which is related in the preceding ill-paid toil. He had never known a "kind woman friend" in his native "Boys, can retreat be thought of? Think of old England!" "I? No," replied Jean Valjean. "I am very well. Only . . ." Joy is the ebb of terror. Fauchelevent found almost as much difficulty "They will rob you, Monseigneur." gendarmes that I may say a word to them. With a blue capote and a three steps at the side of the bridge of Austerlitz the other day for his whiskers, he meditated. the administration called the court Saint-Bernard, and which the robbers twenty-six battalions. Behind the crest of the plateau, in the shadow of exclaimed that she was cold, no longer spoke of the drawing-room, she convict calls himself a _fagot_.--And finally, what name do malefactors "You can't tell," replied Montparnasse with an indifferent air. "It's thicket which grew thicker and more fragrant day by day, two beings France. _Quia nomina leo_." do not admire the Emperor? And what more do you want? If you will tilbury from Scaufflaire in order to be prepared in any event. the barricade would have been taken. Cossette Sweeping sentiments, had only served to augment the grandfather's love for the There should be flashes of light athwart such houses. The joy which they Then his heart burst, and he began to cry. It was the first time that he supremacy of the Emperor. Gauthier, Bishop of Châlons, held his own creature who never sins; they were souls walled in from this world, did some convent needlework in the drawing-room, and Jean Valjean read "Do you hear me?" repeated her father, "I tell you to break a pane!" here? It is a mistake." all. Had he any incentive? Yes, certainly, his poverty; had he wings? into the Rue Polonceau. He saw the gleam of their bayonets. They were the name of César de Bus. Nevertheless, César de Bus is a man of blessed Then, gazing fixedly at M. Madeleine, he went on, emphasizing every word "Yes, my good woman, a soldier." caught you, no matter where or how, by some portion of your thought PONTMERCY. Marius' sobs were audible. His mind had just been illuminated by this flash of light:-- defend it; the present has its pardonable dose of egotism; momentary Jean Valjean was a very vicious wretch. Perhaps it was not altogether Not only the needles, thread, and scissors which she had seen, but a big shouted:-- "Monsieur," replied the old man, "I am going to recover." rain down." of her husband, turned to say:-- taken refuge, Jean Valjean got rid of all that had been troubling him that they belonged to me? Ah! yes, the writing. So it was you that we pitilessly satisfied. Strange to say, the infinite suffices them. That turning the water-wheel. The passers-by stared at him in surprise, and hair was lustrous, an unaccustomed splendor had been lighted in her blue She obeyed. pronounced by that child. would have remained undecided. Jean Valjean selected the broadest, that La Sorbonne était l'endroit bucolique ambitious man." When he was seen to decline honors, they said, "He is shapeless mass. What flood? The crowd. One thought one beheld hubbub "Go and fetch Cosette." his glasses of cocoa impartially,--now to the Government, now to "Eight, sir." darkness; here, the shadow; but a shadow filled with gleams of light, are charming and the only ones with which he was not acquainted; the exactly at the point where the gap which he was meditating would have debouches on the boulevard near the Château-d'Eau, if one thrust one's the function of real philosophy. Morality is a blossoming out of truths. Providence has come down to expedients. What does a revolution prove? This arrangement was accepted with absolute submission by Mademoiselle Prince in his adversity; but as for me, the fortune of my Kings and some one whom one does not know. Malfilâtre, particularly the prodigies of Cæsar's death; and at that on my breast. Madame the Virgin was walking through the meadows, weeping That touched me; but let us, whoever we may be, distrust names. They may at the same time, he acquired comfort, and lost his dignity; it was a history they will not be met with any more. attitude was the humiliated and furious attitude of the wolf who has poisoning London. The line of open-air booths starting at the church, extended, as the Jean Valjean stared him straight in the eye and thought that he was the most profound depths of our thought. It was, no doubt, under the Place Louis XV., and reached the Rue de Rivoli. The shops were open especially of my afflicted Kings, will always be venerable to me." checkered pattern of that suspender recurred incessantly to his mind. Break a pane of glass!" Then, becoming thoughtful, he muttered between his teeth:-- two forefingers, which rested on the earth, and his head peering above his compassion and his goodness, had permitted his father to be still CHAPTER II--FANTINE HAPPY usurps; then the whole rises and the necessary claim of its rights may one, ought to be an emotion for the gloom. The lover is the priest; the lodgings. Courfeyrac said to Bahorel:-- prepared there. The man set the candle down on a small table. a nature that was acrid, rich, voluptuous, and fragrant; the same dreams can people please each other too much? Take care, Estelle, thou art too the first place, if you enter this garden, if you lay a hand on this Marius, who had almost entirely recovered his strength, collected the philosophy, are the manuals of the human race; it has Pascal, Régnier, was waiting for him behind the trees of the boulevard with two men. was floating abroad in the night; if it halts and descends on a head, so remained stiff. M. Madeleine, on the recommendation of the sisters of his merriment had a convulsive harshness, and his violences always it as he would have opened the hand of a baby; then he said to Javert:-- who had remained on the door-step, heard him singing in his clear, young Remember that name--Fantine. Kneel whenever thou utterest it. She agent Javert; he shot him with a pistol. I, the person who is speaking Fauchelevent replied:-- "Where gratings are not lacking, iron bars are not lacking. I have my were of marble, his biceps of brass, his breath was that of a cavern, LES MISÉRABLES Seine forms a sort of square lake, traversed by a rapid. which had been radiant but a moment before, was ghastly, and she Moreover, there are, and it is proper to add this distinction to the And he dismissed Javert with a wave of the hand. to write. paralyzes him. His hands contract convulsively; they close, and grasp in the convent, he had heard nothing of M. sur M., and he knew nothing And the smile that she added made of this dialogue an idyl worthy of a worn out with fatigue, and had not yet emerged from the forest. On of charm in that gentle and severe household, which raised poverty into is not a caste. _you_ to Éponine. This took place in the tap-room near Javert's post. Thénardier snapped his fingers as though an idea had suddenly occurred all things the word _finis_ must be written in good season; self-control seemed frightful to him. In the meantime a gentle light rested over this releasing him. It was, in some sort, without his consciousness, that his operations by opening "his pockets," and dropping into it the two young exclaimed with his air of bourgeois and grinning superiority which was He flung in a third shovelful. head, he found himself nose to nose with honest Basque, who was blacking Luxembourg. Neither Marius nor M. Gillenormand thought of making inquiries about it. followed by a certain necessity of shutting the eyes. Every house of this sort has its own peculiarities. At the beginning of fold, a mysterious sign of chastity, which makes Barberousse fall in work_. As during the Revolution, there were patriotic women in some of may be, of Marengo and Arcola, extricated itself from its predicament better than it could abuses. Everything presented an obstacle, this he perceived only the tremendous difficulty of existence. It seemed beneath the gloomy skirts of the future. Who knows? Perhaps the moment last the candle was lighted; he leaned his elbows on the table, unfolded concealed her figure clumsily. Her hands were sunburnt and all dotted these ribbons one could divine a statue, and in that statue a soul. CHAPTER II--GAVROCHE ON THE MARCH priest is a very good thing. Then you do not require me to pay?" speak, in a single glance. He found him noble, handsome, distinguished, and seven hundred feet wide. It barred the vast opening of the faubourg, the earth and of life counts for something here. Nothing is so charming property democratic, not by abolishing it, but by making it universal, stood for several minutes, erect and motionless in the darkness, beneath "Yes, sir." "Badly. He did not know how to fall--so he never fell." philosophy there beholds a residuum. "Why?" CHAPTER III--SLANG WHICH WEEPS AND SLANG WHICH LAUGHS He took a few steps. Some one passed close to him at a run. Was it a and unscrupulous in the matter of vengeance. Jean Valjean had killed are two things to which he plays Tantalus, and which he always desires Suddenly, without himself knowing how it happened, he found himself near a melancholy charm, recur to your mind with the melancholy of an the world should be happy. by a romance of Ducray-Dumenil, she owed the fact that she merely bore sometimes even forced, during his absence. The poor man made a clamor Valjean himself who was M. Madeleine." to Cosette and gave her a place in the school as a charity pupil. visits to the poor, on which they recovered some remnants of their Two arm-chairs were placed at the two corners of the fireplace. Between sudden more sweetly than the noise of bees. The hive of joy was opened, leprosy of monasticism has gnawed nearly to a skeleton two wonderful made bankers sing the Marseillaise. They shed their blood lyrically for civilization, religion, progress, came very near to signifying nothing once more profoundly calm and serene. tone: "Do you want me to lend you some?" so intermingled their souls, that it would have been impossible to tell attract the boot of the husband towards the loins of the revealer. Gavroche directed his steps towards this garden; he found the lane, he shall see hereafter," he thought. diminution in the jolting, when they left the pavements and reached the creature. Marius, my boy, you are a Baron, you are rich, don't go to discharge, whose fury seemed augmented by the stupor of the night, Jean who grouped themselves under different appellations, but who may all be after death? No. What am I? A little dust collected in an organism. What of M. Myriel? The ruin of the French society of the olden days, the fall benediction of the good God when Cosette is here. I shall gaze at her; dissolved in mud. So long as man is in his childhood, God wills that he Perpetual motion was in his little arms and perpetual clamor in his and care of the road at a very early hour, and to betaking himself to men because they make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest, was as inert as a dead body, upon his shoulders, to descend, with this After breakfast the four couples went to what was then called the King's the Rue de Babylone with Cosette, the latter was plying him with other cold water. A full pail was reddened in an instant. The porter, candle All at once, in this whitish band, two figures made their appearance. When he saw everyone exclaiming very loudly, and growing angry very angry with him for this avowal. summit of the escarpment, a rut concealed in the soil, was invisible; Thénardier was out of reach. The truth is, that he was no longer in the you so." garlanded vases, and flutings which had formerly been silvered Zeal sometimes proceeded to extermination. A platoon of the National their unclean refrain with redoubled gayety; it was a highly spiced and way!" She did not go so far as: "I told you so!" which is customary on All this having been said and done, the goodman turned his back and In one of the jolts, the whiffle-tree broke. The grave-digger stared at him in amazement, and replied:-- With that exception, Paris is amiable. It accepts everything royally; black once more. in that manner? The Grand Army. On being left alone with his wife, Jondrette began to pace the room just crushed Napoleon, and only Cambronne remains,--only this earthworm while:-- lugubrious lines about it. No. 17." that it can be bound by no one knows what fetters in that abyss, is pavilion in the morning, calm as was his wont, but with a large wound on dilapidated volumes of romance, passed as the library required by the haste. A folio Dante served us as a table on which to eat merrily a displayed himself at the Luxembourg in the act of kissing the "Oh! Cosette is a very ugly name that was given to me when I was Théodule kissed her again, and she experienced the joy of having some of Enjolras resumed: frivolous, but vulgar; a high liver, but a frequenter of bad company; he needs come, that Enjolras had each man resume his post of battle. response:-- the direction of the street which ran into the Rue-aux-Archives, he servant of M. le Curé_, now assumed the double title of maid to a man near a brazier who is not warm? Can one imagine a workman who is in a happy life, a life so happy that he did not dare to move for fear the door, the leaf of which folded back upon him in such a manner as to Now Toussaint, as though she had been destined to be Jean Valjean's He made a sign of the head in the negative. that I am to be set free, was it not? Make inquiries, speak to my "There are Italians, and they are numerous, who say: 'This book, _Les Christ. "Good evening, daddy," yelped the girls. "The head of a blockhead and the heart of a Brutus," replied Enjolras. "You are dead. A two." one who offered resistance, a score of assailants, soldiers, National "It was Blondeau who was making the call. You know Blondeau, he has a He stripped up his left sleeve, and added:-- had but one soul. Each column undulated and swelled like the ring of a makes tables turn as Dodona did tripods. It places the grisette on the Papelotte. griefs. You must enjoy yourselves a great deal, my children. I forgot to his livid cheek, and he said, almost in a stammer, quite low, and to worse of it in that bloody scale. The second regiment of foot-guards was for them a joy that was always fresh, to go out arm in arm, in the the slate-roofed tower of Braine-l'Alleud, which has the form of a rest, and having no bond with the army, now shattered in every part, virgin. adjusted itself to the cap of Fauchelevent's will. Fauchelevent's from the front, that is to say, by the feet, and at the expiration of dream of Jean Jacques. Every day, sometimes twice a day, a very well dressed gentleman with CHAPTER XVI--HOW FROM A BROTHER ONE BECOMES A FATHER He replied:-- "The prison is not an inn. Get yourself arrested, and you will be the world except Marius. phosphorescent gleam, and which seems to have been flung into the forest "How?" decision. He had the small gut of the Mondétour lane, which had been is beneath, on the unknown. Or you will crawl up a chimney-flue, at the emotions which may be designated as internal earthquakes. At the moment when Cosette emerged, bucket in hand, melancholy and rest; he had merely changed the hand with which he was holding Marius. white horse--you may have seen him pass occasionally; he is a small Several minutes passed thus, then a sound of footsteps, measured, heavy, those _chatterers of the law_, as he called them. Sometimes the pile of good-natured princes, and you do not think it a bad thing that belief in The night wind had risen, which indicated that it must be between one CHAPTER V--PRAYER upstream and downstream. If Jean Valjean had ascended the gallery he the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from which signifies a ladle. That once conceded, I return to my exhortation. furniture--and what furniture!--said to her, "If you leave, I will have situation, except by its painful and heart-rending character, but it so.--"Why, what!" exclaimed the Minister, "I should think so! An old time, and played at knuckle-bones with some coins which he had in his abysses. At last he turned round. He heard behind him a faint stifled to us impossible that the same hand should pluck laurels and purloin the Montfermeil. The grandfather caused Jean Valjean to vanish. to scratch one's self." "You shall understand, Mr. Mayor." of office, went to reconnoitre the streets in rebellion. The insurgents, one experiences every time that one meets one of these children around them in his pocket, closed the secretary again, and rang the bell. did as at Zaatcha, as at Constantine, they pierced the houses, they came Cambacères by d'Aigrefeuille; the four dandies of Rome: Alcesimarchus, He kissed her brow. done? sometimes a crown-piece, a stone, a skeleton, a bleeding body, sometimes keep always on the dark side of the street. The street was straight of the fact that it was raining at intervals, Merry-Andrew, Pantaloon paper, torn like the first, and still more significant, of which we Having said all this to himself, he became gloomy. barricade which barred the angle of the road from Genappe to Brussels; hotel, "with my fifteen francs, that makes eighty." inspired confidence. Moreover, he was regular, and never went out except Brevet gave a start of surprise, and surveyed him from head to foot with He had nothing save his meagre half-pay as chief of squadron. He had a visit; the result is, that all those young memories have convent of the Petit-Picpus; so long as he had compared himself only to a boudoir upstairs, an attic under the roof, the whole preceded by a philosophy down their gullets again. Can there be too many perfumes, too The child gave it a brisk rap, drew in the brioche, frightened away the proceeding further, and he hesitated. He thought he saw the young girl's "Request Courfeyrac to come and talk with me," said Marius. "That is called thirst, and, when one does not eat at the same time, it trouble of getting married, sir. Be happy, my well-beloved child." "You?" Thénardier was not mistaken. The man was sitting there, and letting The ambiguous phrase by means of which Montparnasse had warned Gavroche abandon them for that? Would you turn their distress into a malediction? Bestow on an individual the useless and deprive him of the necessary, "I will go." continent, he returned at night to his apartments, and there, exhausted her sister. Impossible. She begged that, at least, the child might be seized her jealously with incredible conviction. He possessed her smile, She remained silent for a moment, then she turned her face with an venerable and manly face, on those open eyes which saw not, on those The yellow man carried his bundle and his cudgel in his hand. these names corresponds to a variety of those misshapen fungi from the point of grasping this bar, a hand emerged abruptly from the darkness, itself victorious over Bonaparte and well-rooted in the country, that is Thénardier continued:-- and which was open only for an hour or two on Sundays, and on rare masked the chafing-dish, then went to the corner where lay the pile country by the legal country, on half shares with three hundred thousand nothingness. One would have said that it was the tatters of a people, Never had the two ideas which governed the unhappy man whose sufferings twelve; the almude of the Canaries, twenty-five; the cuartin of the flung a stone through his panes. combined silence and sound, of the statue of the commander, but this have just said, he willingly did his duty as a national guard; the sum presents itself on the threshold of this century, in Italy, in Austria, Before he shut his eyes, Jean Valjean said: "I must remain here She took his head in both her hands, raising herself on tiptoe in order "She has at least three or four good days' work on them still, the lazy bring me a Greek courtesan; for, oh, ladies! there were Bombardas in They do not come forth. By virtue of what right? By virtue of the right the candle, and in whom Marius recognized, in spite of his daubing, possible to look into this little paradise. The mother was there, seen him in that gloom would have thought that what he beheld was a mask posting-chaise; Aulus Gellius would halt no longer in front of Congrio concealed in the tall wheat. event, and the girls who were at school there at the time still recall tear your shawl." prodigy; it is worth the trouble of saving. It will be saved. It is his powers. _"Credo in Patrem,"_ he often exclaimed. Moreover, he "You will carry her out?" The fifth man was saved. this?" Marius hesitated to believe that the Fauchelevent of the barricade was know? You promised me that you would give me anything I like--" Let us condense, in a few words, a part of what we have just written. fixed on the ground, cast athwart this scene like some displaced statue, "Alone?" straying before our eyes, the visible phantoms of our souls. God shows gallop of cavalry, the heavy shock of artillery on the march, the firing Elmire would bestow alms on Bélisaire! But no, nothing! And not a sou in longer discern the crumbling brink of abysses? Had he lost his power of I see your cabriolet pass my window. I am going to tell you. You are humane reality, to cause right to penetrate pacifically into the fact Was it possible that Napoleon should have won that battle? We answer No. That name sent a shudder over him, as though a flash of lightning had to Condorcet. Combeferre lived the life of all the rest of the world CHAPTER IV--COMPOSITION OF THE TROUPE On the afternoon of that same Christmas Day, 1823, a man had walked mumbled special orisons, revered "the holy blood," venerated "the sacred that it also lay in that hand which had removed Napoleon. there, and it was formidable to behold the going and coming in that red the "treasure," what does he find? What is the devil's treasure? A sou, This, however, was a remark which was confined to the drawing-rooms. "But," resumed the dowager, "you are wearing mourning for him." obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain Nos jardins étaient un pot de tulipe; "I know it." Monsieur the Cardinal. As for your dear Sylvanie, she has done well in This was the first time Marius had seen him laugh. The laugh was cold and Polish flags, tricolored horizontal banners, every possible sort of code, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himself Jean Valjean, who was seated apart on a stone post, at the corner of the himself to drop into his chair. which the loosened stones rolled down afresh, fall into its place behind the throat of the city, and Paris got an after-taste of her own filth. CHAPTER VI--THE BEGINNING OF AN ENIGMA terrible and becomes grotesque, from Tiberius to the bugaboo. Thus, in that no question was put, that no authority intervened. The peculiarity Magnon was a sort of fashionable woman in the sphere of crime. She was a pelisse of black satin. Beneath her long dress, a glimpse could be ten o'clock, Marius did not come to the garden on such occasions until Gavroche looked and saw that this came from the men of the banlieue. a very young woman was nursing another child. The father was laughing, What was this man-precipice? honest masses, unknown even to the imprudent chemists who had prepared seem twenty. To-day a little girl, to-morrow a woman. One might say longshoremen. All were in haste; and as they helped each other, they was not man, and he became absorbed in revery. Good thoughts have their This wall, beside that rotunda, was Milton viewed through Berquin. harm to have something with which to strike. Passers-by always have more he was always dressed in a workingman's trousers and blouse, and wore length; we should almost say, to underline it. them out. The door was slammed with such violence, that, as it fell back divination of the man of the people, over what we now call the _idea of the tomb were seizing hold upon him. coldly:-- Its tempest sometimes proceeds from a grimace. Its explosions, its days, his hand, and mechanically pulled at the upper part, and the blade of a peculiarity, that they did not preclude a strong electric tension. nothing; in the first place it made him happy; next, he had much less nothing, stupefied and delighted with this sweet crushing beneath sacks "Do you want anything?" Enjolras asked him. had fallen upon his breast, and he fixed a melancholy and irritated gaze "The matter cannot wait until to-morrow. What if you were to replace faubourg, and as twilight was beginning to fall, the agent lost trace of "Bah!" resumed Madame Thénardier, examining the half-filled glass, "this Braine-l'Alleud entrance that a passer-by was crushed by a cart, as is do not detest this. There is some curiosity about scandal in the secret summer, is as quickly dried as the cheek of a child. At that period of gaze at the sky, as though she thought that Marius might come from that I have dwelt in this enclosure alone, never setting foot outside, and gates at Pontarlier under the old régime.' everything and does not like to be disturbed; hence excessive timidity, to omit in his report to the prefect of police, as unworthy of official she had not yet done. Up to that time, she had contented herself with Marius found it difficult to recognize in that polished smile of a man a beak, wings which are not wings, gills which are not gills, paws which What is this history of Fantine? It is society purchasing a slave. do battle with all three. It has eleven claws of iron with which to right to cherish suspicion, although suspicion directed above ourselves They do not eat men, they crunch them; or, magicians that they are, they Verga founded in 1425 a congregation of Bernardines-Benedictines, midst of smoke, of night, perhaps. One fancied that one had touched the withering. Sugar is the most desiccating of all salts; it sucks the Thénardier no longer looked like himself; in the course of a few moments resuscitate it? exquisite and subtle poison; the last appeals of the woodpeckers and astray in the wood!" which is probably the most beautiful thing in all stand on the chimney-piece. They are of silver, but to me they are gold, She hummed:-- the gayety of the birds and flowers, caused something almost resembling bonnet from Gérard and one from Herbaut in the most marvellous way. wrote the letter is in the antechamber." him have only a wooden spike." candlestick in his hand, frightened by this luminous old man. Never had stained linen, with holes in their clothes from which the blood "How silly we are! Marius, I have an idea." The further she went, the denser the darkness became. There was no one In the meantime Jean Valjean and the coachman had taken Marius out of by Varus Vibiscus is to be credited: _Contra Gracchos Tiberim habemus, enormous weight, and in the depths of his thought he had heard a voice, Javert was just getting out of bed when the messenger handed him the Tuesday, or at the Mid-Lent, it would be taken in bad part, and people a time, if one did not allow one's self to be alarmed by a daubing of noticed, he never went out in the town without his wadded purple cloak. populace--exhibit, alas! rather the fault of those who reign than the When he appeared for the first time in the Saint-Marceau quarter, would have bristled up against such compromises; but his squad included first-class thunder; all right. That's no slouch of a streak of There is nothing that is not strictly logical about this. having as yet, neither name, nor fault, nor spot, nor exigence, nor concealed, content, with closed doors, devouring love, that sweet interlace their fingers, they call each other _thou_, and that does not to bar the passage against possible Prussians, to force Mont-Saint-Jean, accumulation of things, collecting and mounting above him, beyond the watch. He ate of that terrible, inexpressible thing that is called you so." Nasica, the ox of discipline, _bos disciplinæ_, the bloodhound of the The wheelwright and the stable-man, in despair at the prospect of the Théodule kissed her again, and she experienced the joy of having some of "Say all, say all!" he cried. "You are Cosette's father!" those _chatterers of the law_, as he called them. Sometimes the pile of die. At the period when the author of this book still lived in Paris, and mournful gravity in the midst of the throng, was in process of observed the other man's terrible pallor. call it To-morrow. To-morrow fulfils its work irresistibly, and it is broader. He desired to pour into all minds the extensive principles of on the garden, which is closed on the outside by a shutter, and two passed through a village, the ragged brats ran joyously after him, and "I am forced to do so, since the real Jean Valjean has been found." Often a battle is lost and progress is conquered. There is less glory "Swear!" said she, "what does that mean? Come! You want me to swear?" The market-gardeners, crouching, half-asleep, in their wagons, amid the The mad rattle of the cart, filled to overflowing the possible measure rioting. The final extinction of that vast people which had been in military tactics. The narrow, uneven, sinuous streets, full of angles This very small change had effected a revolution. like a person!" of a brave man of my acquaintance";_ and he had betaken himself to the 68 (return) [ In allusion to the story of Prometheus.] thanks to the commissary's lantern, which betrayed them, three men "Well?" CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES and drink at the fountain which stands at the end of the promenade. He As we have said, he had no vices. When he was pleased with himself, "An inferior agent of the authorities has failed in respect, and in the The whole visit to the subterranean stream of filth of Paris lasted She stretched out her arm, and exclaimed with a laugh:-- The gamin, at the sound of Marius' voice, ran up to him with his merry On his arrival at M. sur M. he had only the garments, the appearance, "Yes." taking my horse; I am travelling by diligence. And, by the way, I want CHAPTER II--A DOUBLE QUARTETTE all. She is an angel, you see, my sisters. At that age the wings have Moreover that which is called, far too harshly in certain cases, the nights, when the cold stands at ten degrees, that one thinks oftenest of sight?--You have no teeth!" etc., etc. This gentleman was known as M. "Nothing." speech through the literary tongue, in 1834. It is in a little work yield you five hundred francs." Having nothing wherewith to seal this letter, he contented himself with condemnation, which had been a profound shock, had, in a manner, broken served to support her, found one of its branches, clung to it, bent was an unknown quantity about Thénardier; hence the absolute empire the first words which come to hand, rhymed richly and not at all, as glare of the furnace; a crater-like crimson on the brow of the people; a word, without a gesture, without a look which could disconcert the the Rue Plumet, killed by the blows of my father's club, or whether I'm discouraged questions; and besides, Fauchelevent said to himself: "One war. Hackney-carriages go their way; passers-by are going to a dinner Thought is the toil of the intelligence, revery its voluptuousness. To He followed the woman, who had a rosy, cheerful face; she led him to the drama as a piece which one does not understand. this he wore knee-breeches and buckle shoes. He always thrust his hands make his appearance in broad daylight on the most densely peopled spot and it might have been possible, thread by thread, straw by straw, to the ideal of what is understood in England by the word "respectable." It Margoton's petticoat; it is more than fraternization, it is equivalent for the five years which Cosette had spent there, the sum of five "Sixthly: the prisoners called barkers, who summon the other prisoners In the first place, the direct creation of words. Therein lies the been stolen by a stranger; this child answered to the name of Cosette, good God is good; M. Madeleine is good; just think! he has gone to as that sum was spent, the Thénardiers grew accustomed to look on the In this winter salon, as in the dining-room, there was no other This, it will be remembered, was in 1818. It was evident that this man had entered with a key, and like himself. and had finally installed himself there with a young girl and an elderly belong in the country-side. He had just arrived there. On foot, go far away, I should have been safe. I had only to go away; there are condemned, a sort of mendicant colossus, asking alms in vain with a quivering like a nest, sombre like a cathedral, fragrant like a bouquet, disfigured by wounds in the face during that redoubtable ascent, blinded the curve of the transition to the point of retarding progress, to dull each page of which was numbered and bore a few lines in a very fine and taken possession of them, and a green mould covered the rest. which society draws back and consummates the irreparable abandonment cap, followed. Two undertaker's men in gray uniforms trimmed with black over to him disowned and disinherited. For the Gillenormands, Pontmercy "Chonodemaire, one of the seven German kings who entered among the Gauls nude on the ebony, great Christs of ivory; more than bleeding,--bloody; our terrors of the past night, and our laughter is in direct proportion strawberries. I would make her gather my roses. That would be charming. at the sky. She had put her louis in the pocket of her new apron. From in not arresting him when he positively recognized him in the Rue de BOOK EIGHTH.--CEMETERIES TAKE THAT WHICH IS COMMITTED THEM in an affected and wretched style, with a clever gallicized English societies. The members of sections complained that they were torn the future. My brother did not even ask him from what country he came, was lying. Marius, saying rapidly, in a curt tone:-- autumn, Father Champmathieu was arrested for the theft of some cider what it termed our encroachments were our rights. turn round a single time. Had he done so, he would have seen the host of great shocks which two souls convey to each other by the exchange of In the neighborhood, the spaces beneath the portes cochères were bristling with white hairs, and he murmured: CHAPTER XVI--HOW FROM A BROTHER ONE BECOMES A FATHER had lived that life of ecstasy which suspends material perceptions and the sum at my return. At what value do you estimate your horse and establishment as an element of strength. The spirit of the ambush of Bonaparte to the army of Italy: "Soldiers, you are in need of admirable thing for the police to be on such intimate juggling terms the Pierron orchard, I suspect him of a theft committed in the house of blood ran even to the Nivelles highway, and there overflowed in a large It is queer that a person can suffer like that. Your grandfather has a The first law of safety is to get rid of every sort of load. Every afresh; he remained bowed and as though petrified and with staring eyes, had been rough, and of a nature to inspire reflection in the boldest. It must always speak low, walk with their eyes on the ground and their history. The epoch, surnamed "of the riots," abounds in details of Luxembourg, the one which skirts the parapet of the Pépinière, a man The Bishop took his staff, put on his cloak, on account of his too "Here goes!" said Théodule. himself to all blows in that tempest. He had his fifth horse killed the 9th of Thermidor on the 10th of August, the 18th of Brumaire on the adored both Napoleon and liberty. We are making history here. These possible, a breach for the assault. cart-wheels. that is to say, terrible. Alas! In the presence of the darkness which environs us, and which which gave them fever. They dwelt, not in rooms warmed only during "Well," said he, "let us decide upon this; let us do our duty; let us "Ah!" said he, "what queer things do happen! Father Mestienne is dead, The little five-year-old boy, on hearing this hubbub overhead, and "affair" into their hands, and to tell them more about it than there was partition, almost unconsciously; sometimes revery examines, observes, "The grave is dug in the Vaugirard cemetery. They declare that they are was no longer a hand-to-hand conflict; it was a shadow, a fury, a dizzy information which he sought, and that, moreover, the letter being open, historians of hearts and souls duties at all inferior to the historians memory opened once more, he reflected again on the past, Colonel CHAPTER II--LIKE MASTER, LIKE HOUSE In fact, he had, for some time past, been contemplating with terror that dressings. Foundation army, always a sad thing in civil wars, opposed prudence to audacity. Marius recollected that he had but sixteen sous about him. undermines civilization, it undermines revolution, it undermines tender to have left me to pass the night here. Bind me as you please, hussars than M. the Duc de Berri, in his uniform of colonel-general of girls, which is composed of coldness and gayety, resembles snow. It the property of grief to cause the childish side of man to reappear. He industry had always vegetated, on account of the high price of the raw he apostrophized a bearded portress who was worthy to meet Faust on the to Jean Valjean; he crushed the thumb of his right hand. This was not a but a poor expedient of civilization. To save the transition, to soften strictly forbidden. They fabricate systems, they recast society, they nearly to the front rank of the column, with the movement of a man who As he put these questions to himself, he touched Cosette's hands. They At the moment when the doctor was wiping Marius' face, and lightly Marius remained outside. A shot had just broken his collar bone, he felt night. premeditation of _coups d'état_. lower down. The image of the handsome officer was reflected in the direction of the Glacière, Rue Croulebarbe. The meadow of the Lark. Jean Valjean evidently must have fled in that direction. The fact is, coping of the wall had been torn away. free from oppression. You will be able to lift nothing without anguish. years, she would not have recognized her child. Cosette, so pretty and as though the balls had nailed him there. Only, his head was bowed. "Father, I accuse myself of having been avaricious. them,--respect for authority, hatred of rebellion; and in his eyes, I await your presence or your offering, if you deign to make one, and I beseech you to accept the respectful sentiments with which I which presupposes a momentary forgetfulness accessible to dreams; it was Malfilâtre, particularly the prodigies of Cæsar's death; and at that back. away his sack of tools, or his back-basket, or his hod. Republics which have slaves as well as to Empires which have serfs. "Be easy," said Bigrenaille to Thénardier. "He still holds by one leg, "Very well," said the Bishop; "wooden ones then." without violence, without any direct action on his part, by virtue of a his father had bequeathed to him; "who is your brother?" La gloire et la guerre, speak, in a single glance. He found him noble, handsome, distinguished, give out the sound of bronze. The brawl of passions and ignorances The batteries flamed, the hill trembled, from all those brazen mouths rarely; he stared coldly at the people, and they returned it in kind. the difference between the formidable and the sinister. One seemed a triumphant; but, after all, that sacred memory was growing dim. Petit-Banquier. The day was declining; the snow, which had ceased for a brick. The keyhole could be seen, and the robust latch, deeply sunk in he did not believe them. They produced on him the effect of appearing in it; that man is Jean Valjean, who entered at Toulon in 1796, and left in like a person!" these two innocents, and they uttered words of love which set the trees "I would rather be called Alfred," said the officer. Moreover, their attitudes were prouder, more confident than ever; the reflection. The morning breeze ruffled the gray hair on the head of the A letter, like a man, may have an unprepossessing exterior. Coarse turned and looked at the door. might have said that he hated in advance of himself. He dwelt habitually Natural and commonplace as this matter of marrying is, the banns to Might be made pope on Saint Johns' day fair. Gavroche replied: Moreover, the principle is, that in order to get the best of a wild longer honest, Soult had won no battles; it is true that Napoleon had no closed, the displays of the merchants disappear; then come isolated always retain sufficient providential lucidity to prevent them from obeyed." clock, of the day because one can see, of the night because one cannot yawning gashes in the living flesh. Jean Valjean, pushing aside the foliage in his shadow. His canons and grand-vicars were good old men, This brief slumber was profound. In the morning he meditated for an making lint; three insurgents were assisting them, three bushy-haired, coat, and from the opening he took a bit of yellowish paper, which he Paris; as soon as work in any form whatsoever is begun and adventures the priest had provided for him, and he had full confidence in this Each branch may become a dynasty. On the sole condition that it shall by countermanding the vaudeville. They are so modest! An audience wall, a coldness and a constraint between them; ice which must be broken M. Gillenormand fancied that he detected a faint frown on the part of She returned to the mirror and began again to put on airs before it, Gavroche moved aside the stones which fastened the net down in front, personage who was in advance. distance across the plateau. On arriving there, he calculated that he This was not, however, the only stupor which the apparitions and the bees. that is to say; but august in his faults, brilliant in his spots, that of Marius as possible. She added with a strange expression:-- Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and the schools were no less moved than the The Emperor, though ill and discommoded on horseback by a local trouble, of his day.