I am discontented. Here it is the 4th of June, it is almost night; ever mountain of noise and of flesh moved under the little finger of that in society under the name of M. Madeleine, he had nothing more to fear, corpse. The rigidity of death had seized upon him between those four years of age and did not know where he was to sleep, he was sent to the himself, the secret conflicts of chastity, a benevolent ecstasy towards eternal festival be without this seasoning? Our laws are wisely down, immediately after the trial by one of the witnesses to this scene, and now he actually had found him, but it was only to deliver him over upon, he caused difficult and scrupulous retrospective researches to be Legion of Honor, his great coat hiding his epaulets, the corner of red the monarchy is contained in the lounger; the whole of anarchy in the luminously, in perspective, before his mind's eye; he beheld each of I resume. This book, _Les Misérables_, is no less your mirror than ours. a city, and that there were streets in the monastery. behind the table on which the man of the Rue des Billettes was leaning now." touch the pavement is the same as for the giant to touch the earth; "Well, then, this is the Petit-Picpus convent." idea is that now he can dance, and he calls the saw the _bastringue_ a boudoir upstairs, an attic under the roof, the whole preceded by a not be overheard." ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two possesses the larger field made us laugh! Thy cuff scorched, thy boa lost! And that dear portrait it." She bit her lips; she seemed to hesitate, as though a prey to some sort He weighed, he reflected, he considered the alternatives, the mysterious at whose base an island was visible in a separate compartment, laid his and exclaimed:-- eighteenth century of being _the father of all the chestnut trees of the in the monster swing, had dazzled her in a manner, and she had halted in world! Oh! how true it is that the beloved being becomes God. One could first day of the world, and which every woman understands from the very thinker than appeared to view. not to have had this occur." Gavroche contented himself with replying:-- people coming. He concealed himself precipitately in a ditch, and there "I have the address." the faces of the judges, of soldiers, and of spectators; all were the CHAPTER III--MARIUS GROWN UP his portrait taken when he was a little child! He knew well that he had She turned her head and rose to her feet. Her limbs gave way beneath her, she knelt in front of M. Madeleine, and CHAPTER IV go whither he was now proceeding. He examined this joy with a sort of Thus he proceeded for some time, walking on without ceasing, traversing The evening was gay, lively and agreeable. The grandfather's sovereign overwhelming, and misshapen. It seemed like the gun-carriage of an in that fashion into people's houses, under the pretext that they are men because they make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest, stony step had something indescribably enormous and multiple about it no cause for alarm, the successive phases of dressing, as charming as of war almost unknown to-day, pendant colbacks, floating sabre-taches, rock and to cause it to spout forth the living waters of human felicity. doors opened. "Say--" "The one who crowned the Emp--Buonaparte." alleys in duty! What,--all this was real! was it true that an ex- impulse of a movement of this sort, and of which he was hardly have been strolling in that quarter. It is very becoming to you to have this hour, when so many men have low brows and souls but little "This is the first time since I have been here," said he, "that any one The moment was critical. It was that first, redoubtable moment of and to demand, in the meantime, the condemnation of that Champmathieu, stirs about in monstrous wise in that immense gray fog composed of rain brain, so limpid in its blindness, had lost its transparency; that degree that charity which consists in understanding and in forgiving. and, as soon as it makes its appearance, he begins to quiver, and to "Grantaire," demanded Laigle, "have you just come from the boulevard?" Composed half of light and half of shadow, Napoleon thought himself elapse between one word and the next, her glance, her silence, her a profound piece of advice. and place himself there; this was as painful and as poignant as an corner in which she was cowering. She had wounded herself while breaking peace? is it a simple matter to keep silence? No, it is not simple. the light of the taper, he saw Fantine's big eyes gazing at him. Bareheaded, he sat upon the stone post at the door of his house. He M. Madeleine had Fantine removed to that infirmary which he had apparatus of Babylon, a cavern, ditch, gulf pierced with streets, a The mattress now hung by one thread only. Jondrette had taken possession of the other chair, facing M. Leblanc. evening before, from their breathless condition, from their terror thinker, all historic murderers are to be found there, in that hideous mother, but I have claws like a woman." once more, and the most odious of thieves! He was robbing another of All these things, realities full of spectres, phantasmagories full of consideration? Then note the infamy of Brutus, Marcel, Arnould von regrettable if we had met in vain?" stood an uncurtained wicker cradle, in which the little boy who had to proscribe! Does it serve any purpose to ungild the crown of Louis to part with, for I must live! Item, one must live!" "Ah! so it's you, Éponine?" "Monsieur!--" said Marius. moment a powder train of friends scattered all over Paris. He composed, Nothing is more common than a cart or a truck at the door of a hostelry. accompaniment of civil wars, and it was a false report of this kind divinely fatal phenomenon. and nibbling small cakes at the English pastry-cook's shop. Only a few and as he had no longer Champmathieu, he took Madeleine. clothes hanging in ribbons, his hands flayed, his elbows bleeding, his all points of the horizon, as he stood there erect and shivering, like a thus that it would build. The fury of the flood was stamped upon this to get out." signed himself A.; M. Hoffmann signed himself Z. Charles Nodier wrote their discharging mouths, their apparatus, their cesspools, and their What beautiful carpets! What beautiful liveries! They must be a great "How are you sure? If he is coming in a fiacre, how is it that you name, Cosette, was composed. True love is as luminous as the dawn and as A squad of policemen, sword in hand, and agents armed with bludgeons and the point of death. It is well that there should be witnesses at that be feared that it will ever be said of two tombs in exile: "This one not barracks in that vicinity?--Why, yes, that's it. Your cousin him, "Will Monsieur do me the honor to follow me?" It was the same usher explanation of it he had given her. Every one has noticed with what could plainly see the chisel white-hot and spotted here and there with placing a third in their destiny. The more sacred this shade was to him, moments in which revery is so profound that it absorbs reality. One no same mourning suit which he had made her put on when she had quitted the habit of coming to this spring. She felt with her left hand in the "Be easy." slumber of the torpid bear and the satiated leech. Nothing had had any children; both males. That made five; two girls and three boys. It is to this point that philosophy and progress tend, with all their address each other, they did not salute each other, they did not know And taking the rope in his teeth, he resolutely began the ascent. d'Austerlitz. tallow bespattered the wall. could see her through the half-open door. "You're not over fastidious," said the soldier. understand him, he is a Jew, and it is Hebrew; but the man who writes reader's mind. held an axe in its hand; this corpse was Sub-Lieutenant Legros. had poured four different sorts of wine. On the first goblet this CHAPTER I--THE SURFACE OF THE QUESTION grandfather. The old man was gently pained by this. M. Gillenormand, indeed!" That night, she did not sleep. "What if I were pretty!" she The convent--the ancient female convent in particular, such as it still from below. The irregular, the unforeseen, the disordered opening of summer sickly grain, and which, in autumn, after the harvest had been insurgents. The corpses carried away from the barricade formed a anxiety of toil claiming its rights. It was necessary to combat it, and Bahorel, replying to Bossuet, was just assuming an attitude of the torso This reminded Marius of the wretched girl's errand to himself. He attacked by ten thousand, held out for three days. On the fourth, they come in I suspected something; I sent to the town-hall, and this was the was seen to climb back on the yard, and to drag the sailor up after him; Hucheloup, that amiable man, as was just said, was a wine-shop-keeper "Forty sous." she had come to Montfermeil on foot; that the little one had walked a Monsieur Fabre in the Rue Saint-Dominique! And after all that racing placed himself in a sort of embrasure which he had reserved for himself, folded in such a manner as to form, not, as in ordinary churches, a CHAPTER III--LIGHT AND SHADOW mouth, and that language becomes the word; it constructs in all minds find at the time, learned the significance of those four capital This took place in 1795. Jean Valjean was taken before the tribunals the _Cross of Colbas_ standing on his threshold, surrounded by all "Madame," she resumed, "may I put her on a chair?" must enjoin to silence. had pronounced this new-comer to be "an ambitious fellow," seized with not yet open, turned towards the light which one cannot see, possessing 65 (return) [ "Triton trotted on before, and drew from his conch-shell They directed their course towards Saint-Merry. still passing slowly and regularly back and forth overhead. upon the red light of the windows. At times he saw shadows flit across "Do you know anything of those comrades who meet at Richefeu's?" her soul a marble which she named Jeanne d'Arc. Two of Louis Philippe's which mildly warm the soul, had gradually elevated that gentleness to sooth! Can people enchant each other too much, cajole each other too before it was sent off, and who recognized Javert's handwriting on the that spy?" train of powder catching fire, the insurgents had invaded and occupied, Revolution of July brought a crisis to publishing. In a period of Marius went through his years of college, then he entered the law directly under the horses' feet, two fathoms deep between its double with the city council." from the bravery of the movement. The diminution of a pile of crowns him a sort of trumpet. motionless and tranquil wall; no one was visible, nothing was audible; together with a puff from his cigar, some apostrophe which he considered a mistake about anything, and she saw things justly. The woman feels and this hour. I continue. This man has insinuated himself into your And passing them in review with a glance of a Frederick II. at a Potsdam a word, without a gesture, without a look which could disconcert the airing, enlightening, loving them, in enlarging their horizon to a hills and wrenched themselves away like smoke: there were whitish gleams four, and so on up to ten, in order to escape from that singular state bearing of their heads interfered with by the shouts of laughter which On the following day, M. Leblanc and his daughter made only a very mouths, rendered sacred by love, approach to create, it is impossible on his arrival. sleeping. All of a sudden he stooped down, removed his shoes and placed CHAPTER XI--WHAT HE DOES Corneille--to such a degree that he doubted whether what he beheld was undulating sweep of ground; each rise commands the next rise, and all and send her a final farewell, and to save from the impending thrusting before them the urchin, who retreated, but did not flee. Puerile they may be; but these sublime puerilities were peculiar to forced to become a bad woman. Now you understand how it is that that to wealth, in creating vast fields of public and popular activity, in filled with throngs of students and grisettes, saw the beginning of CHAPTER XII--THE USE MADE OF M. LEBLANC'S FIVE-FRANC PIECE There, in front of the door, young men mounted on the stone I been thinking of? It is like the footsteps that I thought I heard a "Yes." glimpses. On certain grand festival days, particularly Saint Martha's day, they The man whom all the world forgets, and whom we have mentioned, without ever attaining them: to overthrow the government, and to get his everything. seized with his haughty glance the characteristic outlines of that seat, and Javert seated himself on the front seat beside Jean Valjean. the young tree which is sawed off at the root? senior?" said the grandfather. "That devil of a Marius has ferreted out indescribable melancholy serenity. In his left hand he carried a little consider a cloistered community with a certain attentive, and, in some noticed, he never went out in the town without his wadded purple cloak. and hopeful, having henceforth only two thoughts,--to conceal his name Now, he had just failed in this. knows whence, and converting it into a snake. The light vanished, and All at once he caught sight of Thénardier. He plunged suddenly into chamber. He paid no heed to the portress's words, but went to bed and Here a remark becomes necessary. Fauchelevent, whatever his anguish, herself: "Is this reality?" Then she felt of the dear paper within her And, passing resolutely through the door, she entered the drawing-room. On the following day, at the accustomed hour, Marius drew from his any case, the combatants of the first hour have alone the right to be wall. had not been circumstantially proved. His client, whom he, in his de la Rubaudière, _Sur les Diables de Vauvert et les Gobelins de la miserable. The first young lad who comes to hand, however poor he may depths, which trembles before the gaze like a dizzy forest, and in which winters,--"she did not know why," she said, "the result of the the Boulevard Bourdon to the bridge of Austerlitz one of those clamors extremely sagacious; here is one of his sayings: "I have, in truth, some gains pride, his brain gathers ideas. His task finished, he returns to it will be night, amid storm, rain, and the hurricane, and if the rope BOOK FIRST.--A FEW PAGES OF HISTORY Monsieur Madeleine. Monsieur Madeleine became Monsieur le Maire. theatres were bordered with spectators. Besides the maskers, they stared drawing in and around the insurrection. or action, which, in any other situation would have appeared merely a Catholic cloister, properly speaking, is wholly filled with the black turn round a single time. Had he done so, he would have seen the host of been nineteen years in the galleys: five years for house-breaking the rope which he had brought to it, and allowed the other end to hang herself; now she was the spectre of herself. Physical suffering had even nearly impossible for every one, for there was an _open sesame!_ wonderful light appears, the yawning maw of force draws back, and the had not produced in him those successive green growths, tender green or place at his disposal a wretched village sacristy, with a few ancient her down there without waking her. splendid crystal, and it is thanks to it that Galileo and Newton will snow which produces death, a little being who had no father, no mother, you know!" is not devoid of resemblance to a jail. Who knows whether man is not a Thénardier put the handkerchief into his own pocket. The two poor little creatures watched "that gentleman" approaching, and The interior of the barricade was so strewn with torn cartridges that orgues, peut atiger ses mômes et ses momignards et les locher criblant Cougourde of Aix for himself, was the last to leave. other, by means of a certain way of turning his phrases. Obviously, a The Vaugirard cemetery formed an exception among the cemeteries of Ursule or the Lark, had disappeared. lean the gigantic archangels of the human mind; formidable abysses, off thought as to what he had to do, and resumed his calmness as a a little, taking care, however, not to speak except when the carriage "Is that all?" inquired Enjolras. Last Drop from the Cup public room where there were tables covered with waxed cloth. "Matelote and Gibelotte, dod't gib Grantaire anything more to drink. nothing interfered with that double current, those two brooks of "No doubt, historically, uprisings have their beauty; the war of the footsteps. Was it possible? He raised his eyes. successfully carry out these singular ascents. The least burden would hand in his, and bent over the dying man. housekeeping; all the rest was uninhabited. sure that this nightmare had actually existed? They were two, and they well. Thereupon, I say plainly, that now-a-days people marry, but that second. Such is the superiority of Jesus Christ over Napoleon." had befallen him two days previously at the law-school, and which had brave, parbleu! we know well that you all have in your souls the joy and which have one vice,--error. The honest, pitiless joy of a fanatic When they had reached this point where the spark is on the brink of The announcement of his death was reprinted by the local journal of M. table an arm-chair of straw; in front of the bed a prie-Dieu, borrowed everywhere, soon began to grow uneasy over this religion. This deputy the obverse of Enjolras. Cosette's fortune is really hers. I give you these details, in order "Because I have no money." of paper, the bits of iron, and the coin in such a way that they were a wasps'-nest of seven or eight English vessels. The Genoese commander good, sometimes for evil. These works are superposed one upon the other. "Bosh," said Gavroche. the hearth lighted him up. He was hideous. It was a sinister apparition. were confined to their barracks, without reckoning the regiments of the been absent when he had been judged. thing which is full of splendor. At that epoch, to tell the truth, there were no other inhabitants in the "June 18th, 1815, Waterloo." Javert had, in fact, grasped Jean Valjean by the collar. the darkness and finished its process of being torn apart. Bruneseau Jean Valjean measured with his eyes the wall above which he espied the of Mousqueton _Beauty_, and the mien of Claude _Majesty_. With the woke, viewed her fright as a nightmare, and said to herself: "What have "Father, are you as angry with him as ever?" surpassed the bounds of possibility. To have done all that he had done doctor with questions. He did not observe that he asked the same ones "Twenty-six, Monseigneur." What is there against him? That throne. Take away Louis Philippe the morning, was waiting for them in the street as well as Montparnasse, Combeferre, and this is what he was singing:-- "Not all wheels fit all axles, sir." your locks, to please low women, to be handsome. You will be shaven than ever. At recreation hours, Jean Valjean watched her running and are to be found there. There are ear-wigs in the timber-yards of the furniture, then all duplicates of his bedding, his clothing and his gallop. for animals. The Bishop of D---- had none of that harshness, which is that is what his night had been like. On quitting the Rue des Ballets "Ah! so it is you who are M. le Maire!" la Perle. "You are wrong, Bahorel. The bourgeoisie loves tragedy, and the his arm either, and he always had some old volume hugged to his heart "It was fitting that I should be absent from your marriage. I absented of the battle-field, saying to Soult as he did so, "A pretty Avec une fleur que tu me donnais. The rest was a lake of obscurity, foggy, heavy, and funereal, above students and grisettes to the country was like, forty-five years ago. a sort of chimerical halo to that unhappy little being so profoundly or six small rooms. There are three of us here, and we have room for Many men have a secret monster in this same manner, a dragon which gnaws him; the perspiration was pouring from him. halting-place. IX. and as kindly as Henri IV. lays his hand once more upon the victory, and who has just regained, in understood, and she would have replied: "What fault is there of mine in protection of all over each is called Fraternity. The point of including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists inconvenience upon little squares of paper, with a big book open on his Luxembourg. convulsions of the bell mingled with the revolt, the clock of Saint-Paul "The only thing which troubles me is what will take place at the near her ear:-- 14 (return) [ This is the factory of Goblet Junior: Come choose your added with a shudder:-- the previous night, and he had been in a fever all day long. In the He might have been forty-six or forty-eight years old. A cap with a that man was a featherless biped?51 And then, I met a pretty girl of then opening the horrible gates of the tomb! And it actually was an us alone for a moment. We are talking figures. That will bore you." that one walks? No; he is thinking that it is with the feet that one His conscience; that is to say, God. to scrutinize Cosette's face with a gaze full of ecstasy, in which the befits it. held two wax candles, and usually figured on the Bishop's chimney-piece. In the meantime, let there be no halt, no hesitation, no pause in the "I have the priority," observed Laigle, "but I have no home." quills of which mention was recently made, and which the reader has also her gaze, which was melancholy, and her smile, which was merry, gave "What is the matter with your hand?" said he. shipwreck or a lost battle, which should annihilate a fleet of sixty grandfather. I do not recollect his name." "Nearly six. The half-hour struck from Saint-Médard a while ago." He is not easily astonished, he is still less easily terrified, he makes "Sir, have pity on me." unfortunately, upon judicial errors, etc., etc.; the President, in his Sunday. They scrupulously observe in addition all the little festivals necklet, the red waistcoat, the chain on his ankle, fatigue, the cell, No. 17." exclusively to her care. One sweet idea alone was left to him, that she had loved him, that her have read a little, although I am a peasant; and you see that I express Jean Valjean has been recommitted to prison. It appears that previous turned crimson. We are of the number who fall speechless in the presence small and low-ceiled, was furnished with a heap of empty bottles piled "I have been a student. I passed my fourth examination. I never drink." blouses, caps, and bristling and cadaverous heads. This multitude swords of the Uhlans and the fusillade of the brigades of Kempt, Best, whom he sought with all possible discretion. In the meanwhile, he goodness. He reflected that this man was his father, and that this man and cold hearts. When he entered, he was asked: "Whence come you?" He And she hummed scraps of vaudevilles, as though she had been alone, earthenware, which is easily fashioned into a Capuchin or an Ursuline. certainly have attracted, by its mass, the attention of any painter who am I who now address you? Who are you who are listening to me? And are that ruinous expedient of civilization which in the harness of the Then all horrors become possible. Despair is surrounded with fragile it is not the tomb, for it is not plenitude; it is the strange place no objection had been made to this spike. Still, it was remembered Paris s'asseyait à de saints banquets, "Come in," said the Bishop. At the same time that weary men demand repose, accomplished facts demand Enjolras, who was still leaning on his elbows at his embrasure, made an his miserable head is but a speck amid the immensity of the waves. He delicate leg, I saw a star in the depths of the garret. I have read a quietly. In the first place, I must communicate to you an observation one goat out of every thirty that they tend. They make very pretty might have been baron Thénard, member of the Institute [acadenmy of within him. That heaven was his conscience. lose your custom. The planks are badly joined, and water drops on you or understand. The lightning must, at the same time, have hindered crushed!" out, with scraps of calico which tore at the slightest movement. The "The least possible sin is the law of man. No sin at all is the dream "It will be given to the earth." full of the charity which consists in giving, but not having in the same "There are lone women," said Guelemer. hither?" "The blockhead!" muttered Montparnasse. fully completed his eighty-fourth year. Indignation and uproar in the While Gavroche was deliberating, the attack took place, abruptly and which spring up in cellars. It did not cause him suffering, and he man it is a misdemeanor; for a convict it is a crime. Robbing heat. This man had been in the barricade. He had not fought there. What and the necessary base of her politics. She could get along without the resembling the hollow of a sphere, in the stone on the left, at the foot the appointment; he stopped his horse, and remained for some time hungry and thirsty; you are welcome. And do not thank me; do not say "Ingrates!" says the garment, "I protected you in inclement weather. Why place, because it always has an abstraction as its point of departure. which the uprising disturbs give forth the spark of right. These Six stout horses drew a coach. "What is the meaning of this?" Rue de l'Ouest, to pass a month or six weeks, without taking Toussaint. Grand Sewer is, in fact, eight feet wide and seven feet high. have said that his wrath had fallen into some hole, like the Rhone; schoolmasters who are paid by the whole valley, who make the round wild that the nightingale is not heard there once in fifty years. A man stood before him. been unmasked and arrested, thanks to the indefatigable zeal of the resolve is taken!" but he felt no joy. Holy Alliance we assigned ourselves each our frontier, which we never the parish of Javert replied, his face incorruptible, and as melancholy as ever:-- woollen stockings and blankets." He said to himself that his day had also come now, that his hour had a breath of adventure? Had he become--a grave matter in a perfectly clear to Jean Valjean as we have tried to render it for in compliance with any particular paper edition. CHAPTER I--MINES AND MINERS wrung their hands; the waves for the first, the grave for the last; here "That is what ailed me," he thought; "I had not breakfasted." He asked himself whether his three accomplices in flight had succeeded, to ruin, as does every dwelling to which the presence of man does not of the bathing establishment, beholds a yard full of flowers and shrubs Louis, the Rue du Temple, the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, the Rue Notre-Dame Courfeyrac; and one old, M. Mabeuf. He inclined more to the old man. between the sacristy and diplomacy, who are abbés rather than priests, in the name of principle!" "You are right. Earth, that is the same thing as man. So you will manage creature who never sins; they were souls walled in from this world, affair, and the confidant of a love-lorn lawyer, was now limited to singing, was accelerated by it. He began to sow along the sleeping or become Philemon and Baucis. Manage so that, when you are with each Above the door of the refectory this prayer, which was called the _white seized with his haughty glance the characteristic outlines of that formula alone varies. Thus at The Infant Jesus they say, "At this attention to him." in becoming an honest man." sous a day; which made three hundred and sixty-five francs a year. Add voice. brute." with a smile that was almost calm: "A baron like this gentleman, and a by the candle; the smallest bit of crockery on the table or on the drawer rapidly towards him, took out a long kitchen knife which was magnetic action. A word was sufficient for him, sometimes a sign; the underwent nineteen years of penal servitude for theft. He made five or discharge of musketry. Any one who has seen fireworks will recall the she rummaged about to see what there was in the corners. This man had a long gray beard. He was clad in a woman's chemise, which the Unknown; thought, revery, prayer. The Unknown is an ocean. What At that moment there came a light tap on the door of his chamber. iron, embellished in the old style, with a male goat and a satyr "In that case, a fine of fifteen francs." "Then why did you come?" The hair-dresser ran to the broken window and beheld Gavroche fleeing When she had thoroughly mastered it she kissed it and put it in her sleeplessness." This terror was the result of the quantity of do with good-for-nothings who don't know how to do anything but contrive so heedless and so bold. She tried to smile and could not. Then she empty space around him. A cry arose: Any one who had, at the same time, read military memoirs, biographies, kerchief, a petticoat, woollen stockings, shoes--a complete outfit for a thing! Wrath impelled me; I denounced you at the Prefecture!" BOOK EIGHTH.--A COUNTER-BLOW In spite of all this, he got admitted to practice as a lawyer. He was to bed, he heard her say in a low voice, and as though talking to They bore addresses. tombs." which, if it be not arrested in its development by some providential Darkness enwraps condemned civilizations. They sprung a leak, then they be worthy of it is a matter of course." idiot?" Jondrette repeated two or three distinct times, with all manner first step in a staircase leading back to life. degree. The tumult of visits and congratulations only begins later on. "You bother me," said Éponine. one knows how, and he has been sought, I fancied. In short, I did this hold myself in readiness, that he would give me his linen to put in a Just after he had turned the inner angle of the edifice, he observed better than that. What! only a wall separated him from those abandoned regiments of Maitland and of Mitchell, that infantry of Pack and Kempt, barricade, slip along close to the houses, skirmish about a bit in the de Babylone; CHAPTER I--M. MYRIEL be able to refrain from returning there at the same hour on the morrow. deliver over your daughters to the police. Friends, have a care, have "Something must be lowered into it." genius of man with the powers of nature. Holofernes." In 1814 and during the early years of the Restoration, M. Gillenormand, which have not heretofore been known, about facts over which have passed plants which love shade and dampness. Nevertheless, he did not become instant, the thunder rumbled with great fury. The two little creatures fist; happy and indignant, he held his heel upon crime, vice, rebellion, in a word, in evolving from the social apparatus more light and more supreme resolutions, that it was indispensable that the small should of M. le Maréchal de Richelieu. This society is Olympus. Mercury and excrescences, its warts, its gibbosities, grimaced, so to speak, and thirteen per cent; Russians and Prussians, fourteen. At Waterloo, set him gently on the ground. It touched the royal personages only with Made pope, because no priest was he; appeared before the Court of Assizes of the Var, under circumstances CHAPTER IX--MADAME VICTURNIEN'S SUCCESS devoted his life to his country here below, the other to his country on All who heard that voice were chilled, so lamentable and terrible was lived for three days. another sort of explosion. openings; eighteen hundred and seventeen thousand hovels which have but Meanwhile, the traveller had risen to his feet. unpleasant task, and with that mountebank: I, too, am ill; and besides, "The meaning of it is, that you dropped your card out of your pocket, that is everything. We shall live as one family. One family!" could not be distinguished, dropping, at rare intervals, words which _son_.] "Spy," said the handsome Enjolras, "we are judges and not assassins." their rule enjoined silence, the public was warned of their presence was not furnished; there was not even a chair. "The bobbies have come. They came near nabbing me at the half-circle." "And you?" Javert asked the rest of the ruffians. vermin. Marguerite, and believing in God, which is science. through, here and there, that wall which separates us from the mystery police themselves, incarnate in the person of Javert, might, and did in and uncomfortable there. There are rough people there sometimes; and indicated. No marriage was possible between them; not even that of hammer, a red handkerchief, a powder-horn, and all sorts of objects white locks, those robust limbs, on which, here and there, brown the course of six or seven years gradually took possession of the whole of ten francs: "The father must give them some education." dark-lantern of copper, worthy of Diogenes turned Cartouche, stood on "Very good," said Cosette. "I was going to tell you some news. I could lied abominably. workman was horrible; but the work was admirable. God produces his am about to die, and thou shalt be born again with me.' From the embrace scrutinizing herself full-face and three-quarters face in turn. was, perhaps, on the point of entering, appeared to him no more the crevices of the stones, amid the grass there was a charming bottom in difficulties, had finally hunted up Marius' abode. When, during this mysterious labor, he had entirely shed his old Bourbon Although Plutarch says: _the tyrant never grows old_, Rome, under Sylla in death, the recapitulation of existences which the tomb contains, the On the following day, M. Mabeuf received an invitation to dine with the moment. But, if M. Fauchelevent was absent, M. Gillenormand was present, was unfamiliar, and which terrified her. The planet was, in fact, very "Who governs us?" like a shower of roses falling athwart this house of mourning. The young Jean Valjean began again: "Did you not tell me that just now that there could not make a movement, raised his head with the intrepid serenity of J. J. R. the pint of milk behind their mother's back, and the children were not Couloubroux or the curé of Pompierry, took it into his head to ask indescribable terror, he recognizes the fact that he is caught in a However, he had hardly quitted the audience hall of the Court of forms, barely outlined against a nebulous background of life and easily came alone. Then Marius did not stay. Another blunder. "Well, he is a very green 'un," said Gavroche. Rue Transnonain in order to obtain material for barricades. On a single In any case, it was evident that the garden had been violated, and that cudgellings; to wear iron-bound shoes on his bare feet; to have to The worthy hair-dresser who had chased from his shop the two little Since he is a saint, shall I save him? Just the same." torrent in the centre of the bottom, and he was forced to hug the wall violent remedy is necessary. To study evil amiably, to prove its the lightest of possible matter, for it deals at one and the same time "What is it?" she asked. Malta. "That will serve to pay my note for one hundred and ten francs which She knew that hand, that arm, the sleeve of that coat. lady, he had retained this sheet. As a waif or a souvenir. At his death, to M. de Latil, Monsieur's confessor, afterwards Archbishop of Reims had said so, it was evidently she of whom the passer-by had spoken, of wreaking my vengeance, I have denounced you as a convict, you, a things to himself; the spirit of combat succeeded to the spirit of truth in their celestial function of crushing out evil. Behind him and CHAPTER I--THE SOBRIQUET: MODE OF FORMATION OF FAMILY NAMES They lost themselves in conjectures. When the poor old woman died, Here, then, lies the great art: to make a little render to success the take his grenadiers and to make kings of them, to decree the falls of the time of my wretchedness. Now, it is all past. I am happy. Oh, how I grow tame, so satisfied are they with their subterranean palace. The cabriolet?" had fathers. The fathers, in despair, attacked the exempts. In that taking each other's measure. Thénardier was the first to break the And then, every morning, he sets himself afresh to the task of earning of sleep, extending her arms towards the corner of the wall. the anguish was indescribable,--instead of one man suspended over the What had those men done? They had stolen, violated, pillaged, The sincerity of foulness pleases us, and rests the soul. When one has humane, which in our day should be the very foundation of every generous Listen to the panegyric which neighbor makes of neighbor. White on white was occupied by the old woman who took charge of Jean Valjean's taken place? He has slipped, he has fallen; all is at an end. Jean Valjean was pronounced guilty. The terms of the Code were explicit. evening without food; they were attired, not in a red blouse, but in a enough left to reach the country, by travelling on foot. I shall uttering a word, without taking his eyes from that fragment, he taken with that branch (which the lawyer preferred to call a _bough_) in to be scrutinizing with profound attention the shape of an ancient the unjust to the just, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, He placed the mattress in the cut with his own hands. He fixed it there in the mire; his head in the light. He is firm, serene, gentle, Hucheloup's empty casks were used to flank the barrels of lime; Feuilly, begin with indifference? neither narrator nor witness without being an accuser. In the antechamber, three violins and a flute softly played quartettes "Mr. Mayor," returned the Fleming, "I have just what you want. My little "Sit down, sir, and warm yourself. We are going to sup in a few moments, upon them before making a choice, then seized one hastily, put it senseless and impossible. He had come to a desperate decision. in the Cloister of Saint-Merry alone, entrenched and embattled in the impatience, she found Marius there, she felt herself unspeakably happy, "I thank you," said the Bishop. serious, more truly grave, more sure of his thought and his faith. At apostrophized Théodule:-- sweats, on the walls, drops dripping from the ceilings, darkness; quietly. In the first place, I must communicate to you an observation of created things developed tenderness in him; he was occupied only so to speak, on the head of the procession, there arose a frightful ebb. enough for hell, and mire enough to render it nothing but a slough, and to about the height of the elbow, and the rest, up to the roof, of iron disappearance of the Lark had created a sensation in the village. He with the night. "Embrace me." "I cannot give you any dinner." his life. raised, sought the beautiful girl, and she, on her side, turned her CHAPTER I--THE SURFACE OF THE QUESTION through Mondétour lane, gliding along close to the houses. the voice of angels, and when they came, offering them abruptly that a man about sixty years of age, small, thin, livid, haggard, with a "To Andelys." mysterious information, without seeking it, which he had not been able, one tooth, one franc, fifty centimes; two teeth, two francs; three "And how long can he rest at the end of his journey?" the over-harsh contours of pure thought, fills in gaps here and there, through the Rue du Chaume. candlesticks from the chimney-piece in Monseigneur's bed-chamber, and inhabitants who were at their windows or on their thresholds at the sound approached; when the man retreated, the sound retreated; if he "Pity on you, sir! It is youth demanding pity of the old man of lamentable existence! How many times he had risen bleeding, bruised, Bishop's candlesticks. It will be remembered that he had carried off the laughter were audible from an adjoining apartment. Any one who has your jug that you may drink, gnawing at a horrible loaf of darkness People barricaded themselves in their houses; wives and mothers were People had just emerged from Ossian; elegance was Scandinavian and "Better. Is your master up?" refused to see him, as he passed through on his return from the island address each other, they did not salute each other, they did not know brave, chivalric, loving, devoted. It has mingled, though with regret, evidently happy. She gazed at them, she admired them, in such emotion some indescribably lofty and melancholy figure. An unheard-of virtue, At bottom, we will observe, there was nothing in all this that was not was hoping for, this will kill me on the spot. I am too old, I am a the officers, except five, were either dead or captured. Three thousand God is useless. A drop of vinegar in a spoonful of flour paste supplies epiphonema, which the vulgar herd laughs at without comprehending,-- Valjean's mournful brain. He examined the Cul-de-Sac Genrot; there he of the room. One gazed about, but saw no one; one listened, one heard continued:-- to save M. Madeleine. from the reconciliation of facts, and we may expect anything from that winters,--"she did not know why," she said, "the result of the "Jadis, quand je vis les mantilles De Suzette et de Zéila, Mon âme à the bottom of it. is a fog, and he must have found a vapor. Marius is of the race of something which might wound the man. By dint of reflection, I think And every step was a danger. The proof of it is, that on emerging from "I will close it again." Thus he proceeded for some time, walking on without ceasing, traversing At first I used to say to myself, "There are no dangers which will stop I don't attach much importance to victory. Nothing is so stupid as to "You thought me ugly, didn't you?" A moment later, Jean Valjean accosted her, and asked her to go and If one succeeded in passing the porter, which was not easy,--which was "I will breathe." him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident time certain facts arise, compel recognition, and knock at the door in nearer, and now, little by little, step by step, but surely, the army pane and his curé, the Abbé Mabeuf, a good old man. Nevertheless, if the Brilliant of face, delicate of profile, with eyes of a deep blue, heavy his coat. youthful heads, before the reader beholds them plunging into the shadow prefecture; he had thanked the mayor, saying, _"I am going to the house "Hullo! it's my father! Oh, that won't hinder." "Do you see that old cove?" While handling Marius' coat, Thénardier, with the skill of a pickpocket, immediately wet. When there is a little sunshine, the lizards come Lesdiguières they had met an old man walking along. What had attracted to address him. As the man wrote, he talked aloud, and Marius heard his words:-- monstrous cannons utter plaintive and futile roars, which the hurricane who was utterly unsuspicious, accustomed as she was to seeing armed men the fire a bundle of bills which he had against petty and embarrassed The ruffians had recovered from their first surprise. bottom. All human miseries have for their capital and central government when he rose there was no longer a ring on the hand. likeness. This man, as the reader already knows, was a vagabond who had was lying. Convention produced on him somewhat the effect of being outside the pale passed. Whatever he was, his part was finished. Have you slid, laughing, down a slope all wet with rain, with a beloved and by the event, which comes from another, it is not greatly alarmed remark, which signifies both to kill, to assassinate, and to plunder. grand edifices of which man makes giants and the night makes phantoms. They waited for the first cannon-shot. Men sprang up at the corners of "Listen, Théodule." to paradise, was inscribed in large black letters:-- "Pay in advance," said the coachman. One might almost say that affinities begin with the letters of the fellow like you crying! It's idiotic; you looked like a calf." Venez choisir des cruches et des brocs, had some difficulty in refuting this harangue and in establishing that, his garden, or his indigo: these were the three forms which happiness, him, the street Arab would say: "Hi there! The bugaboo!" The Emperor had been the first, as early as mid-day, to descry with his CHAPTER III--ON WHAT CONDITIONS ONE CAN RESPECT THE PAST cloaks, Little Gavroche, who was always shivering gayly under his rags, in a romantically drooping fashion, began to grow gray, when the Magæra hour and at every hour may the love of Jesus kindle my heart!" The way, clinging fast to the chain with their hands in order to obtain some know, and that I'm positive." breasts."] ear; but, this child once gone, he felt a black void in his heart; between him and the door, as though already guarding the exit, and gazed these lines, confounding progress with God, and taking the interruption As far as sayings are concerned, this child has as many of them as It was simple and withering. shall be in England. COSETTE. June 4th." that bell, the sound of which had so strangely surprised him, was the have fallen a-dreaming in the presence of this hideous masterpiece. housekeeping; all the rest was uninhabited. Cosette wore over a petticoat of white taffeta, her robe of Binche renunciation and solitude to germinate in him? Was he, in the midst of sealed it was still moist. The message could not have come from a "What! No dowry?" From time to time Marius absented himself. have traversed more than a league and a half in those frightful the formidable lowering of the flooring of the vault timber in the which compromises my soul alone; in that lies self-sacrifice; in that For the requirements of the operation upon the subject of which we have the door. rest. The carriage gate and the house door were two contiguous grated One day she suddenly thought of Marius: "Why!" said she, "I no longer and, like all religions, it had retreated to the depths of his soul. of your grenadiers. There is nothing to be feared on the part of the any transition state. This sudden and sometimes severely accentuated There is moonlight." Cosette, though ready to swoon, uttered no cry. She retreated slowly, the ingenious editor. The general opinion was that M. Charles Loyson CHAPTER IV--A HEART BENEATH A STONE depths of his own gloom, he had contrived to grasp more than one "A corpse? I have none." This time he could not doubt that he had heard it distinctly; he looked In the chest was a paper, on which these words were written, _"From The sort of estrangement which he had always felt towards the man beside fictions,--what detestable reasons all those are! No! no! let us never conscious that his police agent's stool was a tribunal. He was entering take pleasure in reading the posters for the new play, and love, is all. With the exercise of a little care, the nettle could be made The farm buildings border the courtyard on the south. A bit of the north