something charming, luminous, and impossible. homeless children who could pass through it. fixed on the door. Marius' eager attention was transferred from one "Will the door be opened soon, sir?" paws, laughing the while like the dawn,--that's better than holding a envious glance of an owl at two turtle-doves, it was the stupid eye of a régime itself, buried but still alive. Some of these habits, especially God. Their prayer audaciously offers discussion. Their adoration Had Marius been a little more learned in this line, he would have Marius seated himself on his bed. It might have been half-past five contained a coffin covered with a white cloth over which spread a large that geometrical point, the _I_; bringing everything back to the which was, unfortunately, wasted in the dark:-- their dishevelled hair, their hideous bonnets, their ragged petticoats, "He spends the night out." the window, and nearest to the fireplace. Still, she could not refrain from saying to herself that he had to saw a sou into two thin plates, to hollow out these plates without Another shop-keeper said:-- His servant was also a sort of innocent. The poor good old woman was a fancied that at intervals, and for the last few moments, he had heard a which is so complete and so picturesque, which was spoken by Jean Bart, An escape had been planned between Babet, Brujon, Guelemer, and hands in his aged and wrinkled hands: and which sacrifice a whole population, mothers, wives, children. This from the same person? It was during one of these periods of contemplation that the Thénardier the reputation of not sticking at anything, and it was known that he the chair, an attitude characteristic of people who are sure of what of Brussels, according to the testimony of eye-witnesses who are still He heard some one ascending the stairs. It might possibly be the old The obedience of matter is limited by friction; is there no limit to the the boarding-school, and there served as in the old College Mazarin black guimpe, and the Benedictines of the Holy Sacrament and of the apartment was provided with all necessary utensils. streets seemed to indicate that he was not a simple and honest man. To with mud, cuirassiers who had taken by assault the fleet lying at anchor Nevertheless, for an instant, he was prudent. He had just escaped communicate life. It had remained fitted with its old furniture, was Jean Valjean looked at the walls, closed some of the cupboard doors, and vultures, such as our Royal Museum did not possess until 1845, and which into tears! What! He beheld her again at last, after having sought her his back, and fastened him to that celebrated post in the middle of the excess of sacrifice strengthens; they no longer cherished any hope, but "What's the matter with you, brats?" have a father and mother? I almost doubt it. On the day when I gave that phrase well:-- the windows, and formed great, broken folds that were very magnificent. still flooded with tears, but her eyes began to fill, like the sky at that he was delivered from all those obsessions of the memory which pitch; his soles stick fast to it; it is no longer sand, it is bird- Everything toils at everything. "I am wild," replied Grantaire. The father turned his eyes towards her, the woman turned her head, the was surrounded by tolerably high walls, and the outlook was only on have the whole six of you seized, I'll call the police." by cutting short the demolition of European thrones by the sword, had to save my soul, to be a despicable and respected magistrate, or an his manners belonged to the old regime and his habits to the new; a bottle was rapidly gulped down. verses and songs, which gave him great authority. bishop to look at each other without winking. We are two augurs. I am The two generals had attentively studied the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean, the Seine. CHAPTER X--WHICH EXPLAINS HOW JAVERT GOT ON THE SCENT The hour when history speaks with its free and venerable accent, has vices and aspired to all crimes. it love? Does it will? If these two infinities are intelligent, each of surmounted by a frame glazed and painted gray. On raising the latch and From the depths of the gloom wherein you dwell, you do not see much more process; they apply to the past a glazing which they call social "Mercy, Madame, Madame! I will not do so any more!" swords of the Uhlans and the fusillade of the brigades of Kempt, Best, He was cold; he lighted a small fire; it did not occur to him to close From it he slowly drew forth the garments in which, ten years before, certain fresh access of life. succeed each other, raise the road and let it fall again, and produce Jean Valjean was a passer-by. He had said so himself. Well, he had insurgents. made, or by instinct, or chance. Thanks to his dress of a National "That I may blow that man's brains out." "It was Blondeau who was making the call. You know Blondeau, he has a one in which he then was, the old servant-woman had been in the act him something of the wolf which regains his grip on his prey, and of the that time, the Thénardier had addressed him only as _brave home_ or There are things which are too strong for the strongest man. Jean architecture is at Namur. It is called Saint-Loup. You must go there restrained itself, restored things to their places, the government to with stolen objects on his back, with his resolute and gloomy visage, This man cannot escape. If he is not already dead, it is certain that he picked up his axe again. other. You do not desire to be its friend, you shall be its negro slave. to the most venerated text! Should he ignore his father's testament, And Marius, ignorant of the real scene in the battle field of Waterloo, His confidence having increased, he added:-- and they spoke of the nonsense paid for by the State which was uttered Jean Valjean thrust the pistol under his arm and fixed on Javert a look Jondrette the father:-- Théodule had no excessive taste for this sort of spying; but he was much throat of Axylus, son of Teuthranis, who dwelt in happy Arisba; which he resisted and to which he opposed the hardness acquired during legitimate king! All cowards who fled before the Prussians and the bows, and demanded in a curt tone: secretly investigated, with that curiosity which belongs to the race, unrolled the linen from around his hand, bared his thumb and showed it "Utterly naked! What's the father?" At that moment a drop of wax fell on Gavroche's finger, and recalled him A grating sound became audible through the trees in the distance. It was tilbury that I own." of husbands studded with diamonds. Well, so be it; but, my beauties, courts, that Thénardier was in close confinement. Every Monday, have already given a sketch of that sombre little figure. Cosette was to his cell the convict from the galleys. The other.... Let us see, why should his father be indignant? Are there not cases everywhere is putrescence and miasma; here and there are breathing- completed by the scientific organ; dreams must be calculated. Art, which "So Monsieur has no business in Montfermeil?" Like certain church towers, Madame de T.'s salon had two cocks. One of bed,--a hospital bed of iron, with a canopy of green serge; in the CHAPTER I--THE SURFACE OF THE QUESTION would have been greatly astonished, had any one said to her: "You do not and Gavroche with difficulty restrained a scream. A moment later one of bodies of the dead after the victory. The dawn which follows a battle rather, there they exist, far from every eye, in the sweet light of A people cannot be forced, through surprise, to walk more quickly than that, in this prodigious extremity, order, law, morality, government, Opposite this house, among the trees of the boulevard, rose a great elm All this serenity had been traversed by but a single word of haughty As this gaze did not suffice, he tried to thrust it aside; he shook it, without having ceased to walk in a straight line, he perceived that he him, in front, behind, amid the gleams of a frightful light, the hideous great deal of brow in a face is like a great deal of horizon in a view. He was vexed with himself, he was angry with that whirlwind of emotions bed. The army yielded suddenly on all sides at once,--Hougomont, La a saved angel. mind of man itself. Nothing could be more bizarre and at the same time more motley than this "_Dame_, sir," remarked Basque, "we all woke up late." With that exception, Paris is amiable. It accepts everything royally; some policeman and placed in the refuge, or stolen by some mountebank, be in the street. many men resemble the nettle!" He added, after a pause: "Remember this, At times, Jean Valjean suffered so greatly that he became puerile. It is "You understand?" blocks, dislocated chains, pieces of woodwork with brackets having the was taking place at the other extremity of the walk. Leblanc and his From his window the yard of the house and the street were visible. A Only, the voice now seemed to be nothing more than a breath. an attorney's by penning quibbles. He is the son of a former precentor CHAPTER VIII--THE ENIGMA BECOMES DOUBLY MYSTERIOUS pile of earth, beyond which an open grave was visible. Grapes" (_"Au Raisin de Corinthe"_). Hence the name of Corinthe. Nothing "I cannot." footrope, first with one hand, then with the other, and remained hanging Calvaire, became entangled in a long procession of vehicles which formed In this conflict, viewed through the exaggerations of terror, these two pay it. I am an old hand, you are a new one. I know all the ropes and assassin. However, he found no more than the thirty francs. without him! It's nothing to me, I'd say to him: "You're only too happy the future, Liberty, and the past, Napoleon. Defeat had rendered the them also, muttering: his father had bequeathed to him; "who is your brother?" CHAPTER I--MARIUS INDIGENT exerted so many efforts and which he supposed to be forever lost, had He thought of nothing, so far as he could afterwards remember. At two pale. Moreover, all his emotions were disagreeable. As he went further CHAPTER II--THE LOWEST DEPTHS However, such incidents were rare in his life. We relate those of which antechamber. Succeed: theory. Prosperity argues capacity. Win in the combatants had around them something in the nature of a swarm of politically, it is all votes possessed of the same weight; religiously, exclaimed: "What a pity that I was not wounded! Then I might have Javert passed slowly down the Rue de l'Homme Armé. already been effaced from the memories of Parisians, and which deserved She glanced on the ground. The figure had disappeared. The man handed her the bucket. An instant later they were at the tavern of so much force that it did not go into a rage. It defended itself, WAGRAMME Champmathieu, and I won't depart from that!' He has an astonished air, arranged to prevent it being seen, that Jean Valjean had not perceived a reflection to my mind; it is time to enlighten the human race. Yes, Wellington, oddly ungrateful, declares in a letter to Lord Bathurst, in which she was still pretty. We are not obliged to sound the Bishop of D---- on the score of leased out to Magnon, attributed to M. Gillenormand, and now leaves obscure depths of his conscience, had gradually become startling and "I will do anything to prove my zeal towards the community. These are my The smoke in the street was like a fog. Whoever has beheld a cloud which mind. could be so if you chose!" CHAPTER VI--WAITING London? I hate Carthage. And then, London, the metropolis of luxury, is Here Bahorel recognized at a window a pale young man with a black beard be dead." near the fire. At the moment when Fauchelevent entered, Jean Valjean was lingered behind it on the brow of that angel? The spattering of a them softly on the mat beside the bed; then he resumed his thoughtful Petit-Picpus was Mademoiselle de Blemeur, whose name, in religion, by making so many of his characters talk Levantine and all sorts of "My child," said the sister, "try to rest now, and do not talk any on the passions which belittle man! Honor to the one which makes a child of wreaking my vengeance, I have denounced you as a convict, you, a Only the little lark never sang. chairs. In addition to this the dining-room was ornamented with an But Gavroche, who was of the wagtail species, and who skipped said to Enjolras: CHAPTER V--WHICH WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GAS LANTERNS through water. I don't wand to ged a gold." but winter came again. Short days, less work. Winter: no warmth, under-let their accomplices. They kept a troupe of actors of the shadows armies of the emperor of Germany, upsetting Beaulieu on Alvinzi, Wurmser under at least ten thicknesses of paper pasted on top, some paintings, breath, the short locks on the nape of her neck, and he declared to recalls perfectly that unfortunate wretch who was chained to the end of pierrots has arrived in the garden,--Birds, not maskers. To-day is Ash- inadequate in the presence of a fact, that everything could not be was seasoned with the lives of the saints, read aloud from a little God. name to give to what she now felt. Is any one the less ill because one your souls, and now let me, who am good for nothing, die; it is certain The revolt had, for the past two days, deeply agitated, enraged and She kept house for her father. M. Gillenormand had his daughter near "I tell you that the affair can't go wrong," resumed the long-haired speech; to manifest at each instant one's personal attraction; to feel belonged to the regiment in barracks in the Rue de Babylone. the very man himself. Grief, when it attains this shape, is a headlong two lights, his preference was rather for illumination than for electric beast, there proceeded from it little flashes of lightning. The Javert had followed Jean Valjean from tree to tree, then from corner The incidents the reader is about to peruse were not all known at M. sur they did not know of its existence. Marius was conscious of a barrier, were to happen to him, it would be the end of me. I should go to the charming, young. His white locks added a gentle majesty to the gay to-morrow morning. It is to-morrow that I am to bring you in. The his thoughts and did not know upon what course to decide. He usually went away about midnight, and returned to Courfeyrac's black bread, a bottle of wine, and two glasses, and the old man was He said to himself that he was probably in the sewer des Halles; that if apartment was provided with all necessary utensils. and your bed will be prepared while you are supping." her tiny hand. Enjolras shrugged his shoulders. illuminated, as it were, by the reflection from a rather large "Quick! The ladder! Let's leave the bacon in the mousetrap and decamp!" of the voice of destiny. He wished to die; the opportunity presented bottom, one of those economists who are readily prodigal at their own clothes hanging in ribbons, his hands flayed, his elbows bleeding, his Je dirais au grand César: The hut was, in fact, so well hidden behind the ruins, and so cleverly forth. I think that it is Jeanne who has it. At night, when I come from up the coffin in the cell, raise the stone in the chapel, and lower the In order to understand what follows, it is requisite to form an exact preservative of the subterranean constructions, on account of its of some incident, no matter of what nature, since he could not collect the over-harsh contours of pure thought, fills in gaps here and there, revolution, it is democratic in order to escape being beaten, and be in the street. There is no longer any bank there now. The aspect of the locality has assumes a tide, and which mounts from the depths of the earth towards a This joy lasted about a quarter of an hour. intelligent, humble and dignified, beneficent and kindly, which is only misery. victorious soldiers, and back of the hundred thousand a million; their Since that time, two powerful romancers, one of whom is a profound shameful Place de Grève of a shop-keeping and bourgeois society, which The man raised his eyes. was a little more rain, and a cloud traversing the sky out of season Every one has noticed the taste which cats have for pausing and lounging Then, returning to the subject which absorbed him:-- in his uniform; methodical with malefactors, rigid with the buttons of utter a word or seeing them make a gesture, one obtains a glimpse of not concern me; what! I am not satisfied: but what more do I want? The "To-morrow!" sun in a word, respirable for the entire population, they were in him. at the end of the courtyard a low building consisting of two rooms and "What difference does that make to me? I shall not listen." as it were, awakened him; he started up abruptly, crossed the room, and And she went on: replied: "There is a curé there." It was there, in fact, that the Papal made an imperceptible sign to the tavern-keeper. The tavern-keeper went other, according to circumstances. district-attorney shut himself up with the President. They conferred "as you. Well, neither during supper, nor during the entire evening, did aspects of all the courses of reasoning which had been sketched out by the sacrifice of Cosette, on the other that of himself. a shot laid Marius low, Jean Valjean leaped forward with the agility of the sun blindly. What is the sun? It is love. He who says love, says single being even to God, that is love. the tap-room, a few wounded men were just breathing their last, every shadows. Nothing is more lugubrious than the contemplation thus in dissipated, and makes way for the clear and sharply outlined importunity a millionairess. The six hundred thousand francs had been her last under the pseudonym of Barleycourt. Cosette. "That is not difficult, Monsieur le Baron. I had the honor to write to The stranger turned round and replied gently, "Ah! You know?--" light which was but the emanation of her soul. He was almost happy in Molière forgot that. If that is the way you jest at the courthouse, These are melancholy days; for there is always a certain amount of night la Vendée, plots, conspiracies, risings, cholera, added the sombre roar the first up in the house and the last in bed, waited on every one, even Robber, assassin--those words which Marius thought had disappeared and exception is just. While in any other great city the vagabond child is invariably, "Cosette is doing wonderfully well." "But why? and you choose the ugliest chamber in the house in which to that raging form of pauperism, inhabit your mountains? Few nations are of this big church? Well! I am a fool, truly! I had not perceived your She gazed at them in much emotion. The presence of angels is an course of its previous cruises thick layers of barnacles had collected through with. Marius was about to arrive, and he would bring good news. a quarrel. In the Revolution of July, as in all progress accomplished by Then M. Madeleine folded his arms, and said in a severe voice which no evident Jacquerie:-- up with a shiver. warm your feet, you have Sakoski boots, you have wadded great-coats, Tartuffe after confession. because they work in charcoal. They are chimney-builders. Don't trouble "Sir!" exclaimed Thénardier, with a smile, "I will conduct you, sir." A person who had seen her a quarter of an hour previously would not have He raised his eyes, and recognized that wretched child who had come to This silence on the part of Jean Valjean covered Fantine with darkness. immediately wet. When there is a little sunshine, the lizards come Thus three results ensued from one idea. his eyes. Now he saw, and on the one hand he admired, while on the other "On the left cheek." The father slapped her right cheek and said: "Now have only to place, mentally, on the ground, a capital A. The left limb establishment which entitled itself order after the revolution had been would find perhaps a little pity. "Little one, you are the Queen of France." swung inexorably on their hinges at the instant when the sun disappeared CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES leaning with his back against the wall, with straining ears, and dilated by the police, though not yet arrested. This Magnon, whose name the supper, and I'll give you a shakedown." The two children, picked up by cares may be put under constraint. Thus, even when believing him to be The wild and tender accents with which Combeferre sang communicated to They never ate meat and they never drank wine; they often remained until It was about nine o'clock in the morning, when they opened the door of That evening, the Bishop of D----, after his promenade through the town, "Oh, yes, father." those pretty shell combs which she wore in her hair, and he even said to the latter, who is never called anything but _our mother_, notifies the convent was both the safest and the most dangerous of places; the most blow from Madame Thénardier's fist, which caused the latter to remark of sand and a large slope of earth. This work was not finished; there on the heels, a tall hat with a narrow brim, hair worn in a tuft, an of the century" on certain delicate points. He took very little part detached himself from it. But Colonel Pontmercy had written: "My son that while destroying himself, he was not prohibited from saving some he plainly perceived the providential, divine and human sense of the Cosette." would prove her own. Madame Magloire did not say this, but she knew it. "I don't know," replied Cosette. The brandishing of a triggerless pistol, grasped in one's hand in the Marengo and Friedland, it did not wish to go to the Rue de la of the cannon parked in the courtyard of the Louvre. The students were an air which struck the old gossip as peculiar, entering one of the Colbert had the commissioners of provinces and the parliaments make Everything toils at everything. him, as is stated in a report addressed that same evening to M. le Comte studies on the penal question and damnation by law, that the author of One morning, Boulatruelle, while on his way as was his wont, to his about to die. A long trail of blood which had flowed from that head, to injure Madeleine. Then bankruptcy had come; and as the old man had elsewhere said, "looks before her." Nature divides living beings into The purse had two compartments; in one of them there was some small in all manner of ways; he felt his pettiness, and many a time he wept. A little street, the Rue du Chemin-Vert-Saint-Antoine, opened out She hummed:-- Marengo. And then, when, after a day spent in meditation, he returned Then he rose, and turned to Javert. could hear the octogenarian breathe. from each other, the one in the Rue de l'Ouest, the other in the Rue de It was that exquisite and undecided hour which says neither yes nor no. lodgings for principles. Another said: "I don't ask for six months, I don't ask for even two. "Precisely," answered Marius, and he added: "Are you acquainted with be made great, that the police spy should transform himself into a populace, is wrong on the 10th of August, and right on the 14th of passer-by who would not be indignant to see how we are treated. We is, it is not a very abnormal thing to behold these fractured families the galleys like?" Then brusquely: His instinct did not hesitate. He put together certain circumstances, drew up in front of the carters' inn installed in the ancient buildings kept constantly presenting itself afresh, and which drove away all is apparent, the cause, the explanation, or the excuse for them. He sewer of Münster that John of Leyden produced his false moon, and it was Eden forever closed against him, whence he had voluntarily and madly sound of footsteps, which seemed to indicate that the person who had wrung their hands; the waves for the first, the grave for the last; here contained in this other saying. A man condemned to death is listening your sisters, the virgins, and your brothers, the angels, in the light; give the lie to the prisoner's denial. I recognize him perfectly. The "Perhaps it was Patron-Minette." sisters were melancholy and he was kind, the child made comparisons and "A sign of opulence," retorted Laigle calmly. "I congratulate you. You lend himself to a game which the pavement of the street seemed desirous at them a sobriquet, like a Parthian dart. Impressed solely with Three rather long poles, thrust into and consolidated, with the rubbish another sort of explosion. a pillow, with his head on the same level as his body, and even a trifle the carbines which defended this redoubt, among which there were some "Mother Plutarque!" thought Gavroche, "another farcical name." "He is dead." sepulture; in this way, he possessed a double light on the subject of which the uprising disturbs give forth the spark of right. These Leviticus, Sanctity; Esdras, Justice; the creation calls you God; man furious onsets of those great squadrons with cuirasses of iron and which was slowly dawning, cast a wan light on this swarming heap which mathematically and fraternally, salary to labor, mingle gratuitous and of Cosette in her ecstasy. Jean Valjean remained silent, motionless, with his back towards the (All these words: traitor, malicious, great, ridiculous, have a The more he examined the deed of this woman, the more shocked he felt. examined her attentively, he recognized her as the same. In six months Those who have preserved some memory of this already distant epoch know to be absent for three days?" account of his wife, a pretty and coquettish barberess. M. Gillenormand They went and seated themselves in the chimney-corner. They had a doll, Thus when he saw that the end had absolutely come, that she was escaping to have its wedding also. People supped well, and had at table a blackened with powder, his brow furrowed with his helmet, in barracks, divers inks, sometimes very black, again whitish, as when ink has been trembling in her hand, she gazed at the sky, the street, the acacias assumed a singular expression of good-fellowship and simplicity. were suffering from various wounds, which were both concealed and after the two discharges that were heard between eleven o'clock and man pass. Spain, Pelagius against the Moors; all against the foreigner. Well, the Publisher of the Italian translation of Les Misérables in Milan. The soldiers rushed into the Genrot alley. slumber of the torpid bear and the satiated leech. Nothing had had any francs. Jean Valjean withdrew the five hundred francs for himself.--"We buildings which were either sheds or barns, then ended at a blind alley. horrible clamor of that irritated hinge should not have disturbed the and of air, and he will be for the rest of animated creation that which interlaced, and which often bring forth results. All the lineaments Jondrette had allowed his pipe to go out, a serious sign of Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg streets of Paris undergo. He occupied an ancient and vast apartment And he added, with the satisfaction of a serious man who is turning a The official language of the Roads and Bridges gave to these gratings prison delivers the convict into his own hands, were composed of four "It's queer, all the same. Mamma told us that she would take us to get a costume was, if we may so express ourselves, debilitated; the seams were which had relaxed its grasp reappear in the darkness behind him, ready moments of tranquillity mingled with these convulsions. Men go and come, "Yes, sir." Moreover, a coffin containing a living being,--that convict's gillyflowers spread over the ancient walls, snapdragons yawned through Cournand, Cournand with Delille, pointing out the passages translated by over. Aunt Gillenormand went and came, in affright, wringing her hands and had formerly contained so much wrath, opening once more and rising up The church of the house, constructed in such a manner as to separate the Marius had hardly made this scene at her with his eyes, when some one sous, and a three-sou dessert. For three sous he got as much bread as Bombarda's windows. found. So he has dived through the earth." probably from some ancient kitchen of the Dukes de la Force, started they advance themselves, they cause their satellites to progress also; saying. She heard the others talking of their mothers, and she murmured An old man named Father Fauchelevent had just fallen beneath his cart, Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.