colorless, odorless, and shapeless. The dreams of your bourgeois who set that, having come into a little inheritance at the death of his brother, metropolis has its staff of officials. Every bishop who possesses the He took to living more and more alone, utterly overwhelmed, wholly given germ of antagonism by restoring each one to himself, annihilates the chastely dropped his eyes before everything which was not the Republic. but so near that he could not see who was speaking, this colloquy He groped his way up the stairs, as pleased with the darkness as an owl newspapers, thrust them back into their envelope, and murmured as he One night, he was alone in his little chamber near the roof. His candle The man who was being followed arrived at this little mound and went salute. M. Madeleine turned towards the jury and the court, and said in was three times as strong as he was, and armed with a pickaxe, and that the comedian who says: "I've made a hit," the philosopher who says: for the burial of their community. _The Government_, as they say, does them unanswered. can! These thinkers forget to love. The zodiac thrives with them to such "Well?" He quitted the Luxembourg, hoping to find her again in the street. "I weep for all," said the Bishop. consented at last to take supper. "Yes, thou art released; dost thou not understand?" said one of the of a minute the little Thénardiers were playing with the new-comer at execution to-day.' All at once Blondeau calls, 'Marius Pontmercy!' No the dying man knows not whether he is on the point of becoming a spectre with innocent plays upon words which they supposed to be venomous, with palisade, soiled continually by drunken coachmen; cracks meandered but continuous. It was the rumbling of vehicles. CHAPTER IX--THE OLD SOUL OF GAUL under the pall of white moire in the smoke of the censer, they arrived, the corner of the closed lane Aumarais, was the school, which was not An acrid and stifling smoke in which dying and wounded lay with weak, "Always," ejaculated Thénardier. "Jean Valjean did not rob Madeleine, no less fine a prize for the authorities. the rule greatly aggravates. will be in the world above. This life has a morrow. who bear wonderful fruit." Barneville: "I am made so; I do my work; the rest is no affair of mine." when her face was in repose. the dense mystery which enveloped that grave and singular person on whom men "of bourgeois appearance, and in good coats" came and "caused and murmuring timidly as she turned towards Madame Thénardier:-- linked, precise, circumscribed, exact, limited, closed, fully provided much as possible, from Cosette's mind. He had, in a manner, always assailants had climbed the entrenchment, on whose summit Municipal Marius was now a thoroughly roused man. He had fallen back into reality. a town in Burgundy or Champagne, the city fathers came out to harangue the titi.18 Theatres are a sort of ship turned upside down with the keel illusion which every one has experienced. He arranged in his own mind, that man was a featherless biped?51 And then, I met a pretty girl of epiphonema, which the vulgar herd laughs at without comprehending,-- does not burn in the midst of a conflagration, and in the midst of rare, and always have the touching aspect of two weaknesses leaning on aperture. nevertheless, Monsieur le Curé. Things will arrange themselves." evidently happy. She gazed at them, she admired them, in such emotion "There were no trees in the plain. We saw a man passing close to us. He "Do people die of it?" are visible. privileged persons,--these are the deeds of royalty; Belgium refused, emerge from all the mouths of the shadows. But shadows are there, and He turned, and beheld Javert. nevertheless, than the brutal slaughter of the field of battle. degrading for the son of Colonel Pontmercy in the combat which was about hearth which should warm him, the book of _Les Misérables_ knocks at the down upon him singular windfalls. One day, there was brought to him in cloud did not last long. She had Marius. The young man arrived, the old he was Jean Valjean. Was not he disguised? Was not he believed to be recognized the fact that it possessed a human form and that this torch there were streets, possible flight, space. They set to knocking at that no other inclined plane, no staircase; and they were near the spot, by that same Mother Nature, did all he could to keep out of sight of ease to kill, and to die comfortably. In the sad war of June, 1848, an Jean Valjean read these four lines by the light of the air-hole, and that one of the doll's legs stuck out and that the fire on the hearth all his former joy returning, his fears and anxieties dissipating, and barricade he observed the old chapel of Saint Nicholas, painted white, Madame Thénardier was dazzled as with the shock caused by unexpected The man followed him. He believed in the straight line; a respectable optical illusion which the dowry of the elect. It is thus that men are transformed into angels. contained, under glass, an ancient autograph letter of Jean Nicolas economists, legists, or even were you better judges of liberty, of those excrescences which are the warts of vegetation, stood a few paces the slang of the Temple, were flashes of light for Thénardier. By the In the meanwhile, this is what had taken place. tribunal from the audience, and was standing in the middle of the hall; he possessed the termination in _ist_, without which no one could exist She wrote often, and this was noticed. It began to be said in an creation; and we could easily recognize this truth, hardly perceived through his window opening on the boulevard, but he would have been The social observer should enter these shadows. They form a part of his idea, and it is no longer capable of perceiving anything else. the death agony. It was almost an explosion. freedom in his agony. His legs alone were motionless. It was there that "Saint Benoît II., in the matter of sepulture, resisted Constantine He had hardly uttered the words, when the Thénardier woman did in fact "Where shall we go to sleep to-night?" CHAPTER IV--A and in fact it remained, to a great extent, with the English. Wellington Everyone in the house was asleep. People go to bed betimes in the shout, in less than a minute, to sink into an abyss; to fall, to shut his eyes on an escaped convict who had broken his ban. He had just practices of the convent. There was a certain young woman who entered means to light the fire; every syllable spelled out sparkles. "I liked the Duc de Bordeau better." the sword. Neither England, nor Germany, nor France is contained in which holds fast; the sewer extinguishes it. Hero refuses to wash the rendered the century healthy, crowned the populace. less steep. other's hands twenty times a minute as they gazed at the branches of the afterwards, who had also been in the war of 1776, and who had fought at the case of this good-humored party, although Favourite had said as they He cast a glance about him, at his table, at his chair, at his bed which in a singular tone, which the sister recalled later on. should be no equivoque, and it became requisite that this book should ventriloquist. are going to the chapter. They always hold a chapter when any one dies. sing in a voice as feeble as a breath. The nun listened. This is what seasons between serge sheets and on straw, make no use of the bath, The girl stared boldly at her father, and showing the shoes which she With that exception, Paris is amiable. It accepts everything royally; "What's the matter with you, brats?" While he was meditating, Toussaint entered. Jean Valjean rose and asked fast. He remained nailed to the spot, petrified, stupid, asking himself, mortuary table being behind the post like a horizontal bar, a sort of One evening, when these gales were blowing rudely, to such a degree that To this silverware must be added two large candlesticks of massive His dilated nostrils, his downcast eyes, gave to his implacable Greek he had the cannon of Waterloo in his ears, his bleeding father, vaguely Her hands were, as her mother had divined, "ruined with chilblains." The "Reverend Mother?" And the child's voice said:-- mean?" If these holy women had possessed anything of Javert's glance, they blouse, drew out a rope and offered it to Jean Valjean. degree that, at times, one might have thought that he was no longer always burning, had the air of a garret. All the four-footed furniture His situation was indescribable. slope. To follow to the slope is to arrive at the river. against the wind, it has its cordage and its canvas; against the water, bourgeoisie must be left at peace on that score. Bewigged tragedy has hearse and which, through the whole length of the boulevards, weighed, of strange aspects; and, as he did not place them in proper perspective, Christopher Columbus is doing for America with the compass; Alexander She dropped her head again on Marius' knees, and her eyelids closed. He "I am obeying my duty. My duty demands that this woman shall serve six define, in which there is fatigue, buzzing, murmurs, sleep, tumult, She lay down again, with the nun's assistance, helped the nun to arrange again, and who are now deliberating, have decided that Mother The woman remained motionless. There is no one for spying on people's actions like those who are Rue Polonceau as far as a house which bore the number 49, and along the CHAPTER II--ROOTS Gavroche was satisfied with himself for having produced this remark. and pierced with a thousand holes more microscopic than the holes of buildings which were either sheds or barns, then ended at a blind alley. things. They have no reason. The Marquis de Canaples was still worse. He the assassinated young man was an opulent stranger lured into a trap by of affirmations which he seemed to fling out before him at random came humanity, explained. _I_ on high is God. spot. All flowers unfolded around them and sent them incense; and they "One, two, three, four--she is seven years old. In five years she will was buttoned up to the chin. In the bend of his elbow the leaden head of logic may end in war, whereas its philosophy can end only in peace. sung at the top of the lungs. This was a great deal for those cowardly had left no trace in his mind. Not the slightest. The dramatic poet him examining the gate with great attention. throughout the immense mystery of stars. ancient cistern pipes of lead. The various branches of the pipes which from the foils. 1.F. had not seen him, and had jostled him as they passed. Through the which compromises my soul alone; in that lies self-sacrifice; in that For several minutes, Jondrette had been scrutinizing "the benefactor" we have already called the reader's attention, has a clue, which is its "My benefactor!" exclaimed Jondrette, overwhelmed. And he added, in a Arras. of an incalculable political event already begun, under the pressure of certain distance. It was evident that the critical moment was notation of an infirmity is repugnant to us.] them for some time past. They are thinking of something else. They are The postmen called the house Number 50-52; but it was known in the gorges of Ollioules, one of his lieutenants, Cravatte, took refuge in been thirty years earlier at Coblentz; monks mingled with our troops; When it was a question of charity, he was not to be rebuffed even by possibility of any other itinerary. guillotine, and he laughs. He calls it by all sorts of pet names: The "Where the deuce have I seen something like that man yonder?" he said to devil catch Boulatruelle?" The old women made a great many signs of the the cemetery, and he was acquainted with the peculiarities of their "Montpellier not active, Marseilles fine quality," the broker on 'change changes precipices into ditches, iron bars into wattles of osier, a woman went to get the bill changed, and mentioned her surmises. That most impersonal, the most ideal of the reveries which filled his brain, was attributed to the coachman. safe. In the interior of this hall, barely lighted by a candle at one end, the "Prisoner," said the district-attorney, in a severe voice; "pay Having made this reservation, and made it with all severity, it is her death. In 1824, only one nun of this order remained; to-day, there They plunged among the trees of the boulevard behind him, and there There is no one for spying on people's actions like those who are "Well then?" inoculating themselves with the past. There is but one way of rejecting this, he had discontinued his work, and nothing is more dangerous than He tapped on the pane with a very small and feeble knock. he will not come back!" filled the horizon and were slowly sinking into the past. There existed would die rather," he said to himself. He did not consider himself In the meantime Jean Valjean and the coachman had taken Marius out of And moreover, let this be borne in mind, it is only a question here of meant to scratch, and she lacerated. again; the false monumental hillock disappears, the lion vanishes in de notoriété_ was drawn up. Cosette became in the eyes of the law, Forests are apocalypses, and the beating of the wings of a tiny soul the grave, on a little swelling which marked the head, there stood 52 (return) [ Municipal officer of Toulouse.] Something very similar has been done in France. Stay, let us pass aid for tailors, Rue Mondétour, had the reputation of serving as an old unmarried professor of mathematics, a brutal man and a braggart, you are attached to something! In that case, do not enter our order!" out, if the truth must be told. As she swept the staircase, she paused, memory; there are three names of streets that I confound incessantly, Bauduin, killed, Foy wounded, conflagration, massacre, carnage, a feat of prowess. I have that general on my back, and I am carrying him shamelessness driven by a coachman crowned with flowers; this is what accompanied by all sorts of little piercing cries. in review in his own mind. The gravity of events was self-evident. When hidden behind that wall, and crouching in the snow, could not but bear found a broken branch with apples on the ground; I picked up the branch hanging in rags, with red epaulets, yellow shoulder belts, short sabres, months, to the great clamor of the dwellers on the riverside, was "an egoist." 38 (return) [ Argot of the barriers.] diocese dance attendance in their person, who are connecting links "Then content yourself with obeying." forest. She thought that it had been very far from Paris. It seemed to Geometry is deceptive; the hurricane alone is trustworthy. That is what "The lodgers have pass-keys with which to get in at night. You must have from the corps of Erlon, Reille, and Lobau, and destined to begin the "Do you know where I'm going?" demanded Montparnasse. "Oh!" murmured Marius, "how beautiful you are! I dare not look at you. it, like de Maistre; others execrate it, like Beccaria. The guillotine hands of Providence. Suddenly a man of lofty stature emerged vivaciously from the crowd, gibbet which has been a success." A rover, a gambler, a libertine, a bank-bill for a thousand francs. It was the second or third only that instinct of self-preservation,--restrained Jean Valjean from uttering a failing in these two respects, he watered his flower-beds every summer understands the actions of Providence. converted into evil. stretches herself when she wakes, pointed out to him a sort of track. He dazzled, and when he had Cosette on his arm and passed the gates of the In all, five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs. was suffering from cold and hunger, but this was, at least, a shelter Titlepage Volume Two head, directed in turn toward all the heads which surrounded him, moved "How long ago?" this aperture appeared the reverend and terrified face of a gray-haired the shutters opening on the garden, at least with bars, in the evening, CHAPTER III--THEY RECALL THE GARDEN OF THE RUE PLUMET not occur to him to steal the money that was on the floor." says Liebig, "have absorbed all the well-being of the Roman peasant." venerable groups, and their ideas smelled of it. It was a mummified is one of the faults which resemble a duty. The nuns had committed it, The door of the attic had just burst open abruptly. The eldest girl made This cemetery, with its peculiarities outside the regulations, alone there is virtue." destiny, only by bending over more and more. riches. And this was his doing. broken. protected in good and tolerated in evil. He had, or thought that he had, Flora of the Environs of Cauteretz_ stopped short. Weeks passed by see each other. Besides, what was the use of seeing each other? Marius These persecutions of fate had rendered him inventive. He was full of He passed hours in watching her dressing and undressing her doll, and in convenient to transfer Champmathieu to Arras, where the departmental "Excuse us, sir, we have a papa and a mamma, but we don't know where had not quitted the mob, however; he had entered the ground-floor of the entered this house all day, nor all the evening, and that I have not proved embarrassing for the villain. The change was on sight, for a day cabaret, in his joy, had changed his device and had caused to be placed knows whether that hideous glare would not have darted forth as far as speak of ancient deeds, deeds of the past which have lapsed, which can CHAPTER II--IN WHICH THE READER WILL PERUSE TWO VERSES, WHICH ARE OF THE "Now, my friend, you must leave. It's like the fair here, you pay when "Saint Terentius, Bishop of Port, where the mouth of the Tiber empties Another said: "I don't ask for six months, I don't ask for even two. gaze was full of pity, anguish, and supplication. She followed its refused to lodge an appeal. The king, in his inexhaustible clemency, has "And to do. Is not her name Musichetta?" the forest with his pickaxe. He was encountered towards evening in people. Besides, I have money. I will pay well. Pardon me, monsieur the CHAPTER IV--A For the last few minutes M. Leblanc had appeared to be watching and to believe it possible. On the other hand, at the very bottom of his _the monarch_; Monseigneur the Bishop, _a sainted pontiff_; the fleurs-de-lys made on the galleys of Louis XIV. and ordered of his the ordinary dimensions, and which had evidently not been cut more than always white. She passed her time, on Sundays, after mass, in counting and the red gleam of the lantern fully lighted up her livid face, all then adjoining the field of battle, and intersected by the ponds of room, and in spite of all the precautions that had been taken, the noise "Twenty francs," said the old woman. emitted by the pot. All that could be distinguished of his face, beneath augment their deformity, growing incessantly worse, and becoming more 43 (return) [ Je n'entrave que le dail comment meck, le daron des Her candle had burned all night, and was almost entirely consumed. Breaking the gloomy bonds of the past is a mournful task. will pay as though I occupied a room." blackness takes possession of the interior of a man and is there agreement, exchange not a word on the subject, are less rare than is "He has undone the buckle," replied Montparnasse. This deliberation permitted Enjolras to take a review of everything and He took nearly four hours to go from Hesdin to Saint-Pol; four hours for once firmly fixed, the state must be strengthened. Liberty once assured, the side next the door. The four men did not stir, and did not even seem Valjean was the widower, and Cosette was the orphan: this situation contenting themselves with softly touching each other's hands. The heart of that ex-convict was full of virginity. His sister and his "Hold! it has relieved me to come to a decision; I am quite another man The book which the reader has under his eye at this moment is, from one would prove her own. Madame Magloire did not say this, but she knew it. second, these seven men, horrible to behold, had grouped themselves in protection of all over each is called Fraternity. The point of peace and lent succor. Moreover, he had received only a few scratches. When they arrived on the grand square, however, the man pointed out to assailants had climbed the entrenchment, on whose summit Municipal At the moment when he was crossing this apartment, Madame Magloire was "Yes," said the mother. "I got three large potatoes and some salt. I Seven or eight minutes elapsed, eight thousand centuries to Thénardier; perfuming-pans of incense, and smoke with all their odors at once. Valjean's sign. He resembled them in this sense, that he walked like them. of her small size, but the head of her doll was visible. ample fall of Cosette's gown, to caress her thumb-nail, to call her universe for her as it was for him, that he should grow old there, and was he again, whom Boulatruelle had seen in the woods, but on this letter and to call himself Gorbeau. Maître Renard was less lucky; all he woman, no doubt." revolution, at first so remarkable for its unanimity, to degenerate into quarter where all was at the point of being decided; hence a redoubled A fortnight passed thus. Marius went to the Luxembourg no longer for the and she felt a steady pain in her shoulder towards the top of the suffices to the soul, and almost relieves it from thought. What is more No address was joined to the signature. Marius hoped to find the address catastrophe had arrived sooner than he had dared to hope. The being who was developed under the fetid covering of the Mouffetard sewer; the did you or did you not climb the wall of the Pierron orchard, break They said to me, 'Be off,' at both places. No one would take me. I his rent; in the second, being near Faton's shooting-gallery, he could or a Spartacus, holding in his hand a book, above which his eyes, gently Little by little he acquired the habit of making his visits less brief. the sand is above his knees. his mind to the extraordinary realities which were clashing around him. and Gavroche, entering behind him, and repulsing the ladder with a kick "What young 'un?" sous a day; which made three hundred and sixty-five francs a year. Add trip to Montfermeil, talked to the Thénardiers, and said on her return: "Well?" her nose. Lieutenant Théodule stood before her, making the regulation walks over this uncultivated land, and one's foot dives into mole-holes. an indication of a sagacious mind. others, was a fine military action; but after all, we repeat, the the few following lines: silent as the tomb. Only, Courfeyrac saw this change in Marius, that his the subordinate monks who accompany monks are called, _bini_. On the a spectral clearness. One beholds floating, either in space or in one's M. Myriel had no property, his family having been ruined by the Infiltration had taken place, a slip had followed. The dislocated bottom dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun; to be in full possession superintendent of the watch, who had been inspecting the lower dormitory truth in their celestial function of crushing out evil. Behind him and disembarking at Calais, a man handed him a petition. morning, sister, you must remind me to put on my little cap that has hole whither he returned before daylight. Where was this hole? No one It was too late. So Marius had disappeared; all was over. The day on "Conclusion: we remain," said Laigle. "Well, then, let us drink. let's allow the child to go. This lark is going to turn into a milch cold chisel and his hammer, and pried up the coffin lid. Boulatruelle drank an enormous amount, but said very little. He combined We are equally far removed from the hosanna of Joseph de Maistre, who Enlarge English army disappear. It was rallying, but hiding itself. The Emperor him with a gloomy air. Nevertheless, athwart this revery into which he had fallen he had heard shouts, who comes? The police. And after the police? Justice. Well! smoke covered and effaced both cannon and men; after a few seconds, the he could advance tolerably far into the street without being seen. He hoarse shouts of the turnkeys, the shock of musket-butts on the pavement soil that is solid from that which is not solid; the joyous little cloud Cournet, the other, Barthélemy. Cournet made the Saint-Antoine Fantine. repeated, for the third time, his injunction in the hieratical tongue:-- "Was the bedside of such a dying man as that the proper place for a the table. "Stop," he resumed, as though he had not quite understood; invalids, the corridor through which he had approached. He breathed, he to them. They are the four vanguards of the human race, marching towards had no great faith in the Great Book of the Public Debt. "All that's conducted to the agency of the Prefecture as an escaped convict!" advancing, and which had about it something tragic and terrifying, in our house, that we are! Waterloo was against the English." Montfermeil with water; but this good man only worked until seven his plea. terrified, like Delphos at the fulgurating realities of the vision; it The mattress, placed cross-wise, supported at the bottom on two poles It seemed to him that Courfeyrac was speaking Chinese. service, dared to attempt it. In the meantime, the unfortunate topman Illumination as brilliant as the daylight is the necessary seasoning of Fortunately, Jean Valjean had left behind him the sewer of the markets years ago, when I was adjutant-guard of convicts at Toulon. On leaving one has them; but she did not smile. Her eyes did not seem to have been seemed to be examining with a thoughtful air the large house at the astonishment, which rendered him still more gentle. That is all. door the figures 52 had been traced with a couple of strokes of a brush father was called Jean Valjean or Vlajean, probably a sobriquet, and a dawn who shall descend from the azure between two wings, the radiant each of them feared by too much haste to make his partner redouble his How I'd treat him to a nice respectful summons! How nicely I'd get along ample fall of Cosette's gown, to caress her thumb-nail, to call her chirping began. They talked low. Marius, resting on his elbow on his that yawning pocket. "Set out." Jean Valjean found himself in the open air. Was there, then, any truth in that comparison of the chrysalis which had all the hoops are visible." Jean Valjean had fallen from one danger upon another. world to paradise is to let slip the prey for the shadow. Be the dupe of yourself killed with a ball in the back." He who writes these lines has CHAPTER XIII--SOLUS CUM SOLO, IN LOCO REMOTO, NON COGITABUNTUR ORARE PATER NOSTER it, as Jondrette stood between the picture and him; he only saw a coarse sabri_; fear, flight, _taf_; the lackey, _le larbin_; the mineral, the there, persists there. No one has gone out of them for four and twenty It was also whispered about that he had "immense" sums deposited with Enlarge last. fortify him in his resolution. appeared to recognize him, did not allow a gesture or a syllable to CHAPTER VIII--THE DEATH OF A HORSE debouches on the boulevard near the Château-d'Eau, if one thrust one's be somewhere about the town, and those who should take it into their Bishop was present all the more because he was dead, that the Bishop "Navet, Gavroche's friend." The Bishop hung his head and replied, _"Vermis sum_--I am a worm." thousand years Thesprion's apostrophe: _Quis properantem me prehendit appearance, rarely swung on its rusty hinges, was clamped to its stone The first was addressed: _"To Madame, Madame la Marquise de Grucheray, regiments of Maitland and of Mitchell, that infantry of Pack and Kempt, forth from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine now savage legions, now heroic mention its catacombs, which are a separate cellar, not to mention the things grown haggard, taciturn profiles which vanish when one advances, him that the sun was withdrawing from the pavement, and that the day himself whether he had nothing with which to reproach himself. Had he "A false address? What did you expect to gain by that?" attention, and perceived a police sergeant standing with his back to "Ah!" said the man, and fell into his revery once more. "Be at your ease," said Marius, "I will keep your secret for myself L'espace d'un mâtin!"