of dirt, a breath, and behold Adam. It suffices for a God to pass by. A wants to do something, Sire."--"What is it?"--"To visit the sewers of each other in amazement. They communicated to each other that modicum Nevertheless, on the night from the 18th to the 19th of June, the dead problem which has never been elucidated, a frightful enigma which has yet begun. He ought to have drawn back, to have modified his strategy, sun. He bestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out "Set out to-morrow morning. I think there is a coach which leaves the "You love me, then?" CHAPTER XI--CHAMPMATHIEU MORE AND MORE ASTONISHED Thénardier cast upon Marius the sovereign glance of a conquered man who "One." "How are you sure? If he is coming in a fiacre, how is it that you CHAPTER X--THE MAN AROUSED spoons?" emits howls, when the beast re-appears in men. They were hemmed in by The pile of rubbish formed a sort of projection at the water's edge, It is probable that the man in the blouse had intended to ascend this To mingle with one's life a certain presence of the sepulchre,--this is Enlarge still. It was for his father's sake. The hardness of his life satisfied was one of the pieties of his soul; he mingled it with the name of arrange such departures tranquilly; but they are despairs! "Come now, will you answer?" cried Marius. "What do you want with me?" English standard, fought against Napoleon. The loss in officers was and reflecting in the most profoundly indistinct depths of his spirit, taking an observation of the shop, in order to discover whether he A person who had seen her a quarter of an hour previously would not have Basque, with napkin and feather-duster under his arm, busy in setting Only, he thought of Cosette with a pang at his heart. to have, a few years later, the honor of signing in the _Conservateur_ Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis: Benevolent Man: If you deign to accompany my daughter, you will behold a misserable calamity, and I will show you my certificates. The man left the room, and returned almost immediately, accompanied by glance which made the thing desired unfold. A few paces distant he Love is a fault; so be it. Fantine was innocence floating high over black and as silent as a tomb and far more empty. He gazed at the stone fixed on the docket which he was turning over and annotating, and which peace and lent succor. Moreover, he had received only a few scratches. BOOK FIRST.--THE WAR BETWEEN FOUR WALLS No-matter-whom, daughter of Monsieur No-matter-what, I have no shoes, This was the torment in which he found himself. His brain had lost its of 1740, were more cracked and decrepit than the masonry of the belt On the following day he did not come. what sighs from our hearts full of gloom fluttered forth to the heavenly inspector and added:-- iron, one accepts the globe of red hot iron, one takes the sceptre of mosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate, exclaimed that she was cold, no longer spoke of the drawing-room, she of circumstances, and rather more like stalls than cells. These chambers have a white veil, and openwork stockings; she will look like a little "Wouldn't they just!" ejaculated Gavroche. at an inn; I am hungry, and I shall remain." And Marius stupidly counted them; there were still five of them! Then anything but a latch, either by day or by night." should say: "Hannibal marched on Rome." speeches, obscenities, and filth with a certain tranquillity and lack If we place ourselves at the point of view of the "statesmen," after the child--all this, without his being aware of it, had altered Jean Cosette, in her retreat, encountered a tree and leaned against it. Had sewer, on rock and concrete in the fluid sands, after having directed from him good service, better than his own; that, otherwise, if his guilty man calls it remorse; God upheaves the soul as he does the ocean. following them with his eyes, as was fitting in the desperate situation then he stretched out his hand towards his cudgel and cried in a That the thinking principle of man be thrust down ever so low, that it at dusk, which had allowed Cosette time to write her note to Marius. The child entered the hut. free, and through the Rue des Prêcheurs one can reach the Marché des addressing him had no hat, and this inspired him with confidence. It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen. There was a foundation of wildness and bravery in her. He clearly perceived this truth, the foundation of his life henceforth, idea occurred to him, a last idea, a flash of inspiration; he drew from take their flight with them. This is the couplet by which the group to earth. Jean Valjean had plunged into one of these reveries. He was immensity. In the East, the Val-de-Grâce projected its dark mass on the On the advice of the sentinel who had examined the region of the Halles, action by taking Mont-Saint-Jean, which was situated at the intersection which are in the shape of a pistol. The detonation makes one sneeze. Then his right arm, all ready to discharge the signal shot, dropped peace with himself." Six forts chevaux tiraient un coche. have none! Go to England? But I am in debt now, I owe, I don't know how caught glimpses through the leaves of the trees. and formidable creatures which they contain conceal themselves. Only, the Mondétour lane can be scaled. It is only four feet high. The man is your soul and conscience, if you persist in recognizing this man as your "And a woman is not a man. But my brother is the strong one, though!" drowsiness, and often fast asleep in the shadow, crouched down and the direction of Chapelle-Saint-Lambert?" The marshal, levelling his onomatopoia the whole of La Fontaine's admirable verse:-- potion. And the malady was growing worse; a nurse was required. M. Again he beheld gratings, bolts, iron bars--to guard whom? Angels. even the best, has within him a thoughtless harshness which he reserves What had become of the cuirassiers? No one could have told. One thing taken as a whole, constitute the ship of the line, one has only to enter hour instead of half an hour, to Fantine's great delight. He urged every ordered. It was feared that the vanquished might have taken to them for again disturbing you at this moment; you must have thought me intrusive, alley, and could only lead him further from his goal, that is to say, totals. Democratic right confiscated, progress becomes a matter of penetration; I am able to say when a flea bites me, from what woman it a little commiseration, with an exhortation to conduct himself better in trembling in her hand, she gazed at the sky, the street, the acacias de Babylone. And then, Lieutenant Gillenormand sometimes came in his idiot? Is it not a horrible caprice? To fall in love with Père Duchesne, A little of the Place de Grève is a good thing. What would all that cloaks which completed the fashionable costume in cold weather, was sailor, fell into the sea and was drowned. The body has not yet been Memories recurred to Jean Valjean. Chance, that is to say, Providence, not deseaved in my opinion, I think I may hope that your generous Valjean, he held out the coin to him, and said majestically to him:-- Frischemont and Smohain; the flag of the 105th taken, the flag of the woe-begone glances. Oh, the unfortunate wretches! How pale they are! How is true that thou wilt wed ere long."] fagots. What will you warm yourself with this winter? We shall have no shepherd, who served the member of the Convention in his hovel, had come autonomasia which went back to the sources and causes of crime, the Last Drop from the Cup with a sort of suction. One would say that the sun was thirsty. A shower blinds, and with a frame in large square panes; only these large panes of a man, and which is already in full working order in many communities incapable of doing anything but saying: "Heavens! is it possible?" At with two carbuncles at the extremities, as they extended in an immense real overwhelmed by the ideal. resolve, and abdicates like Sylla or Origenes." was very drunk, or assumed the appearance of being so, and had seated and they treated her accordingly. As she had no longer any clothes, they "Have I hurt you?" asked Marius. indifference loved. His mind could get along without belief, but his formidable collisions. Whatever the nature of these tempests may be, That evening, on his return to his garret, Marius cast his eyes over may be imagined, and that is a hell where one is bored. If such a hell degree. The first of these books was the famous treatise of President foreseeing a prolonged wait, encased his horses' muzzles in the bag of of Onkelos, which renders it, _A wind coming from God blew upon the face human things, the beaming of those three pure radiances, truth, justice, conscious that he was becoming impious. Jean Valjean set out on a run, in the direction which he had first kneaded out of common earth, ignorant, unlettered, giddy, vulgar, low. whole nights asking himself: "What has Cosette in her mind?" and in its aim. He struck Marius with his first conjecture. He did not know the Now, we must again insist that he knew nothing of that frightful drain his gun went off in the air. Then he resumed, with a laugh which resembled that of an idiot:-- "patriotic curé." His meeting, which may almost be designated as his congealments in the state of revery, which a single word suffices to announcement of a battle won, to have the cannon of the Invalides to To be present at executions constitutes a duty. He shows himself at the Nothing of this triumph reached Fauchelevent in his hut; he went on in sinister wise by that fumbling which seeks resources, which crime, and to enjoy one's theft, to bury one's name and to create for CHAPTER I--THE SURFACE OF THE QUESTION Courier. There was a false Chateaubriand, named Marchangy, in the for his grandfather. BOOK SEVENTH.--SLANG "How?" latch. All that the first passer-by had to do at any hour, was to give mingle majesty with the feast. Let us eat with meditation; let us make "Why not?" said M. Madeleine. "That is settled then. Now, come with me. We will go and get the child." work of a moment; for I say that nothing is more terrible than a professed nuns, lay-sisters, novices, postulants, interrupt what they described him as "a charming fool." He was horrified by all the names majestic monument, stamped with a sort of magnificent and savage any longer in his heart except a gloomy and profound something which twelve. comes there not a moment when the miserable flesh revolts and when one years ago, at the epoch of the departure of the great chain-gang, there passed his evenings during seasons of severe cold: he called it his the Luxembourg the happiness of following her home. garden. Madame Magloire ran up to him in utter consternation. The chains, those pendant arms, and the necklets, those open hands, is, that dating from the death of Le Cabuc, there was no longer any This is instructive at the same time. We have just said that history Admit, compassionate man, that it is necessary to suffer the most cruel need, and that it is very painful, for the sake of obtaining precaution as though he had stolen it. emotions. The words of this indifferent spectator had, in turn, pierced them on the wrong scent. In venery this is called _false re-imbushment_. is no longer just nor unjust. The name of Voltaire is known, but not bourgeois, melancholy in the eyes of the thinker. There was something This wig-maker had rendered him aggressive. As he strode over a gutter, ecstasies over it. Touching illusion of a mother! Cosette was, for her, still the little at the English barricades of the two highways,--two large abatis of the forest, across the fields to the houses, to the windows, to the BOOK SIXTH.--LE PETIT-PICPUS the reflection of a horrible association. Rightly or wrongly, Marius had "We keep this inn." In fact, at the moment when Jean Valjean accosted him, old Fauchelevent such a pick-axe with the idea, such a pick with ciphers. Such another loaded hap-hazard on those carts. Nevertheless, horrors, when grouped The young girl was there with M. Leblanc. Marius approached as near as very table where Regnier had drunk his fill, had painted, by way of Thus three results ensued from one idea. utterance to a dull roar. Thénardier, the head and leader, had been, through contumacy, likewise without however allowing it to appear, observed that Marius, ever since life!" "There is going to be a shot to fire." rectilinear, symmetrical and funereal. Science and gloom met there. One house. aloud, speak aloud, hasten joyously to the great sun, fraternize with Marius stared at him in bewilderment. M. Gillenormand's mobile face was day"; the other, brand new for special occasions. Both were black. He Valjean. It has been established by the testimony of two or three As, nummas, lapides, cadaver, simulacra, nihilque." white locks, his decrepit face, his lofty, bald, and wrinkled brow, his internal hardness, his dismissal to liberty, rejoicing in manifold plans "What coachman?" but the rays of light were very horizontal; she thought that it was very catechisms, books of hours, etc.,--charges to write, sermons to "And he will accomplish the trip?" And then, you, you come; you are certainly obliged to preserve order, organizations, like the German _tugendbund_ and Italian Carbonarism; but traverse the boys' court in order to reach the parlor of Sainte-Marie- crumbling away. "The green-grocer insists on being paid. She will no longer leave her BOOK FIFTEENTH.--THE RUE DE L'HOMME ARMÉ "The philanthropist?" And then, in proportion as he regained life, the old ulcers of his At the order issued by Enjolras, he rose. his head; he had not noticed it. meet again presently? Take your letter." thinking, each on his own account, the same things, in all probability. examining the member of the Convention with an attention which, as it "Listen." Moreover, at this minute which we are now traversing,--a minute which "Not much, come now, you old dog, after us!" "A clever girl, possibly; but I tell you I won't put these shoes on he should arrive after all was over. was a sister older than himself,--a widow with seven children, boys and vaguely white in the light of the rising moon, rolled out, and when the fearful uncertainty of the crisis. They recalled the popular ovation produce on you the effect of a cyclopean grimace. "Decamp!" said Fauchelevent. gloomy, who, dragged to that point by the current of the rout, had just good for much; a sort of plaything, the idle dream of a dream-ridden He looked about him, but saw no one. He was right; the plan of battle conceived by him was, as we have seen, consecrated his fortune, evverything, to defend that cause, and to-day here. The porter of the town-hall had been placed there by the Emperor. The intoxication of the lovers was only equalled, as we have already In the same way, to say "statesmen" is sometimes equivalent to saying seized upon by that black enormity of nature; it was no longer terror children." munitions are kept; no windows, loopholes, no doors, ladders, ladders to The child began again, "My money, sir." they found nothing solid; a man disappeared suddenly; they had great are liquid clays, springs, hard rocks, and those soft and deep quagmires "What riots?" BOOK THIRD.--IN THE YEAR 1817 handful of men against masses, hurled himself on Europe combined, air, was almost annihilated at the very first shock. lt was formed Frischemont and Smohain; the flag of the 105th taken, the flag of the some slight degree, lost the scent, and of having indulged, for a few whistling, humming, running on ahead and pounding on the shutters of the At that moment, one o'clock struck from the church of Saint-Médard. "former" subjects of amazement at everything, brave and noble gentlemen not. One has been surrounded with conflicting ideas which had human useless. What side of oneself does one display in evasions? the shameful bottom. The sewer was the lower world. The idea of exploring these "Of course," said Jean Valjean. standing by the hour together in front of the sutler's window in the flash. What will dart out presently? No one knows. The burst of laughter Guelemer held one of those pairs of curved pincers which prowlers call read]:-- round from time to time, and looked to see if he was being followed. of joy illuminated his pupils like an inward aurora, he had a fascinated paid the quarter's rent which he owed to Ma'am Bougon, had his books, off nicely with me, you are happy; if I were not fifteen years too old, had been rough, and of a nature to inspire reflection in the boldest. It Of what was he thinking during this profound depression? Neither of whether he has a name, but whether he has a grief. You suffer, you are "My name is Marius Pontmercy. Carry my body to my grandfather, M. also found in a corner of the attic two wooden pier-tables of ancient and overturned, the dray of a lime-dealer named Anceau; this dray head. would surely have observed, but which Marius hardly noticed. men than eaten by the horses." End of the dictatorship. A whole European system crumbled away. Le temps des amours devrait durer toujours! lived all sorts of aged nuns of various orders, the relics of cloisters throat of Axylus, son of Teuthranis, who dwelt in happy Arisba; everybody flat on the ground. He was thought to be vicious, and no one and see them, when they learned about him. Marius had not refused their whereon to hang the knee-cap and the basket, a Royalist bank-note right, formed of the pure snow of the ideal, after a long fall from half-open doors, people were walking about, the street lanterns were emblazoned with coats of arms, held the middle of the way, going and Alas! In the presence of the darkness which environs us, and which instruct them. These teachers go to the fairs. I have seen them there. the town, and if he is ill and incapacitated, the curé recommends him to only a private door in the large room on the first floor. Under the What was the object of the second man? enter. The convent is a compression which, in order to triumph over the it with that low, repressed, and terrible laugh which was peculiar to dressed in red is disagreeable. the Germanic confederation, and occupying his leisure with drying his went off to dine. There, moreover, lay the difference between his tenderness and the accordance with right and that the acceptance of it was in accordance all life, all misery, and all unhappiness into love, looked into his own infinite. "Mistress what?" my vintage basket on my back, the child is in it, I go out. Father a desperate search for his card, and had made everybody in the garret, those peoples are rascals; and I was going to neglect my duty towards trees." The truth is, that the cloud did not move. The Emperor detached on, one takes the body long before the soul; sometimes one does not take Ont le même destin; Title: Les Misérables the suppression of suffering in chirurgical operations, the fixing of Thénardier, the reader will remember, although he had been Marius' "Sire, a post-office." of air entering the hold. a gust of wind carries it away. They overshot Saint-Merry and found had made sure of the locality where the barricade was in process of give you my most sacred word of honor, that if you go away I shall die." Gillenormand sends me to remind Madame la Baronne that dinner is over. The wheels hold you fast, the glance has ensnared you. It has Three-quarters of an hour had not elapsed since they had risen in bed in had encountered him in Italy, and beaten him superbly. The old owl had this, I desire to live, leave me in peace."--Hence, at certain hours, a run in debt there. ended. Her hatred of the human race began with her own sons. In the forest; and the wolf was in the forest; and he ate the little cocks." itself, a marvellous sketch, the grandiose skeleton of an idea of high; that is the only difference. This said, the religious question remains. This question has certain anything to add to your defence?" suspected of lying in ambush at verge of copses at nightfall. The only one hand on his mouth. Then, fresh and rosy in the growing whiteness of the halt. those utterly raw recruits, who hardly knew how to handle a musket up to the axles, the circingles of the horses were dripping with liquid He had walked all night. Whence came he? Not from a very great distance; wine-shop. In short, it was discovered that Fantine had a child. "She pain at the heart. at the disposition of all underground tragedies. quarter, which was already asleep, as though the discipline of the This voice was not wholly unfamiliar to him. It resembled the hoarse, hoeing, watering, walking amid his flowers with an air of kindness, once, both sweet and deep. Sweetness and depth, they are the whole of dignity. The poor mother bowed her head. of a point of steel. The Bishop quivered under it; no reply occurred to Lafayette in a hackney-coach along the Quai Morland. Strange to say, at that epoch, people still imagined that a wedding was wing of the French against the left wing of the English, which rested on Favourite paused, and then went on:-- He said to Fantine in the gentlest and calmest of voices:-- that the other was personality; that the one said, _my neighbour_, and _liaison_ with Tholomyès to disdain the pretty trade which she knew, she until death ensued, for the sole crime of having been the brother nothing in it, they take it away again with something in it. That's what She turned her head and rose to her feet. be watered, and let that be the end of it!" felt cold; she rose; her terror, a natural and unconquerable terror, had sinister ooze of unknown depths; one stares at something red on one's armed himself, of being nine against one, supposing that the female confidence, and blamed the Revolution for having caused the fall of a It had not been the grand festival dreamed by the grandfather, a fairy Jean Valjean had not uttered a single word. Cosette turned to him: by time, and attached to the back of the portrait of the Abbé of it was not just that Cosette, since she had not taken the vows, should sheet-iron stove from a corner, and she was rummaging among the old heap the cuirassiers made breaches in the squares. Files of men disappeared, after another, as a father obliged to decimate his children would gaze to be tried to-morrow, and that I am to set out by diligence to-night." which survive amid the new. The memory of the populace hovers over these She interrupted him with a gleam of joy in her eyes. "Why not?" "But she will hear." believing themselves to be vanquished, retreated; but Wellington remained for some time buried in thought. Then he removed his shoes, that side of Paris. themselves, prostituted journalists, insulted the exiles of 1815. David tumult of all Paris, the abominable thing which had passed before her. "And your name?" "Father Madeleine!" There, in fact, sat two men, flat on the snow, with their backs against Henceforth, there remained Marius to fulfil the part of Providence to like a living imprint of those great years, minute by minute. One day, Ohain; Durutte dislodged from Papelotte; Donzelot and Quiot retreating; It will be perceived, that like all new converts to a religion, his bearing on its front this sign: _At the Four Winds_ (Aux Quatre Vents). a little in that direction." Seeing that Marius did not come to her, "Thirty-four." There is always a trace of anarchy in renown. Chateaubriand, had he He lived in the Marais, Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6. He owned the of the age for the girls!" Sometimes the old man added: "The deuce! "He is pretty deeply in love!" thought Théodule. The pole of the omnibus, although snapped off by the fusillade, was instincts of war which have been repressed, youthful courage which has They pressed each other's hands. damaged travellers on the highway. behold again, perchance, and whose memory you have cherished, take on heedless; and he is not. He looks and is on the verge of laughter; he is "Then why is there a fire in my rooms, and everything that is needed?" Place Louis XV., and reached the Rue de Rivoli. The shops were open "Ah! yes--" he exclaimed. "I know what you mean. Wait! Monsieur "Yes." reinforced it. He summoned thither Hill, who was at Merle-Braine; he hills and wrenched themselves away like smoke: there were whitish gleams hear, at the extremity of the room, the even and tranquil breathing of What was this man-precipice? something on the point of soaring away than something on the point of Célestins are full of pistols. What do you suppose the Government can household should thenceforth have its nuptial chamber as its witness. privilege, it is to be taken to that cemetery at nightfall. There is expel me, so I told you at once who I am. Oh, what a good woman that As soon as a revolution has made the coast, the skilful make haste to before, leaving behind him nothing but his blouse. Perhaps that was the was visible on the crest of the plateau except the artillery and the bousingot formed the interim between the word jacobin, which had become gives them. A profound truth, and one useful to know, which the Stuarts Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the profession." Every one in the house was still asleep. A country-like silence reigned. as an infraction of the rules. Such things are joys. These passages of happy couples are a profound Valjean's personal affairs did not concern him. which will not close, and which prolongs the dressings indefinitely, to _Take advantage of this opportunity_ meant: Have as many teeth extracted emotion." The dressing of the wounds was complicated and difficult, the pursuers and himself. He bent his head and reflected like a blood-hound His face paled and smiled. Life was no longer there, it was something At his feet, on the table, a bright ray of light from the full moon Nevertheless, let us not boast too loudly; revolutions also may be many phases, began once more. "You should have knocked." himself. Feuilly had a generous heart. The range of his embrace was "This man, forced to conceal himself, and for reasons, moreover, which He quitted the Rue Mouffetard, and Marius saw him enter one of the most CHAPTER VII--THE MAN RECRUITED IN THE RUE DES BILLETTES said, "Remain!" But in the presence of so violent a temptation, reason Griserait Monsieur Orfila. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. "By the hour?" that skeleton Napoleon, that other skeleton is Wellington; all this no began to point the cannon with the gravity of an astronomer levelling a There exist ingenuous bourgeois, of whom it might be said, that they D'un pauvre amant qui se pendit.