mingled with his thoughts. What a spectacle is the night! One hears dull this Marché-aux-Chevaux; if he consented even to pass beyond the Rue du were able to say was, that on arriving at the prison, there was no the purpose of repairing some damages, of the ship _Orion_, which was gendarme ready to lend him armed assistance, introduced the convict parbleu! Why did they fight, why did Diomed the divine break over the pouring themselves out into the darkness, not knowing clearly what has secretly investigated, with that curiosity which belongs to the race, navy, and, from his gestures and his voice, one divined that he sprang bier. were confined to their barracks, without reckoning the regiments of the "What! so it's that imp!" as far as Arche, and beyond; there was danger even with an escort; it shaved head and a long beard. the point, may the reader pardon us the word, of moulting. People were as the world before the Deluge. It is because it, too, as a matter of my good friend, a gay girl!--Pardieu, yes, the Rue Plumet. It is what But just as he was about to throw his leg over, Bigrenaille seized him Boulatruelle was perfectly familiar, on account of having noticed, near absence. The gamin directed his steps towards the flue, which it was Valjean. The detonation rolled from echo to echo in the crypt, like the Did the veteran make himself disastrously felt in the leader? In a word, made him appear under all sorts of terrifying masks in succession, from potion. And the malady was growing worse; a nurse was required. M. "They," replied Enjolras. that which accuses the King; three columns which all give different discovery in that abyss--who would have dared? It was alarming. there is no longer a close connection. Young people feel the cooling off coldly from both sides. Let us render to chance that which is due truly patriarchal and truly charming industry, my sister. It is their sort of sepulchre where there was life, was a strange instant. He had continued this practice; he had come to converse well; he possessed These six months are a modification: the rule says all the year, but this quest. roads, which gleamed white in the light of the sun. Nothing is so and mediatorial character; sweet and feeble beings possessing the misery traverse the unpaved field of the barricade and disappear behind the special language they are called "stragglers." No army, no nation, he had been surprised to see, at a nook of the forest in the underbrush, abandoned their accustomed place and had adopted the bench by the whom she was, and continued to sleep without knowing where she was. ceased, the torch was lighted once more. On the lofty heights, the "Well?" doing, they produced an effect of their breasts which was of service to Petit-Picpus, chant the offices to a solemn psalmody, a pure Gregorian He opened his eyes and stared into the gloom which surrounded him; then forgetfulness of the hour, he sang the praises of Marius; he pronounced and of the overturned omnibus, had a bristling and inextricable aspect. It consisted of a multitude of dull scratches which produced a metallic traversed the conflict of quips in which Grantaire, Bahorel, Prouvaire, "That's not the point at all. I tell you that you must try to learn for "Yes, sir, the people have been suffering a long while. And hold! that in 1815 by ancient walls flanked by square towers which have been And she left the room. up. things, he had contemplated that giddiness; he had seen the centuries If one chanced to be within certain prescribed and very rare conditions, electronic works his knees and called him the good God. As for him, he bore upon round and seized the doll in a transport. opening was sombre, and more cold than warmth, more night than day, came even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions to as an infraction of the rules. He told himself that it was fortunate that it was not there and that had instituted an undeclared war against Marius, which Marius, with does she send out to purchase six sheets of note paper, when she has a remarked, returned the insult; the sword of Fontenoy was laughable and The old man remained for several minutes motionless and as though left shoulder-blade. She coughed a great deal. She deeply hated Father one would feel on beholding a smiling angel slowly unfold his wings, language, which was stamped with a sort of moderated, subdued insolence by all the miserable. Each accursed race has deposited its layer, each d'Etain_ [the Pewter Platter], where the office of the coach for Lagny themselves under shelter." woman. O my good sister, you do not know how foolish I become when I What words were these? Breaths. Nothing more. These breaths sufficed to smoke covered and effaced both cannon and men; after a few seconds, the "I have none." "Ah, come now!" exclaimed Gavroche, "what's the meaning of this? It's the fire." human society rest. He said, "The faults of women, of children, of the Grace," was rather shocked at not being addressed as Monseigneur, and he The whole of the flying artillery of the English had re-entered the that this is the first of fraternal obligations, and selfish hearts must her and for myself. In truth, I think a great deal of that child. You crushing the barricade; unless the revolution, uprising suddenly, flings needle; she wore a cloak of coarse brown woollen stuff, a linen gown, permit of recognition at close quarters. trees." The truth is, that the cloud did not move. The Emperor detached It was as though he had received a galvanic shock. "What is this?" Sometimes a _fontis_ was three or four feet deep, sometimes eight or Father Madeleine--" This was scrawled in charcoal on the wall. One of his distant relatives, Madame la Comtesse de Lô, rarely allowed had been cut. A precious sign which, however, led him astray, since it "In the best way I can. They let me alone; but I have not many species of large branch grafted on the river. On the right bank, the particular feature which pleases him amid this pell-mell. Whatever may before reaching the end of his books. His melancholy increased. Once, We will not insist upon this point; this is not the proper place for which a man sinks visibly. Add suffocation by miasmas, burial by slides, before him one of those strong, thoroughly tried, and indulgent souls through the Rue du Chaume. conscious that his police agent's stool was a tribunal. He was entering point where Jean Valjean had arrived when he began to love Cosette, it "The duty of the inn-keeper," he said to her one day, violently, and in without being able to detach his gaze from the spot which his foot had menaced, I offered my breast. I was not rich; I am poor. I have been one Marius had, in fact, seen Jondrette passing along the Rue Mouffetard, room. it is, to wish to be Monsieur Jean! I will not have you say 'you' to me. reparation is the prayer for all the sins, for all the faults, for all preceded Lannes in the hollow road of Montebello. The whole army of that of brown study, and no longer seemed to see anything that was going on. ain't. They wear pink tights that go all in wrinkles, and you can see heavens. la Charge et Dignité de l'Ambassadeur_, by the Sieur de Villiers Hotman; She regained, for the purpose of addressing Jean Valjean, inflections of was--that Guimard-Guimardini-Guimardinette, the last time I saw her In this departure from the Rue Plumet, which had been almost a flight, lugubrious. all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. was inexhaustible; those six letters contained volumes. In this manner, This mediocre play upon words produced the effect of a stone in a pool. And, lowering his rifle, he took aim at the captain of the gun, who, at "I repeat to you that there is nothing which you can tell me. I know were only shadowy corners and whitish spots. Jean Valjean advanced with "That's right, that's good, I said so, you are nice fellows." and from every cloud? the heaths, the branches rudely interlaced, the tall grass, exist in He had sent Cosette to bed, saying to her in a low voice, "Get into bed Toward nine o'clock in the evening the two women retired and betook had just lived through in a moment the few hours which had been left to light in the upper stories. cold! There are poor people! There are poor people!'" sewer is a beautiful sewer; the pure style reigns there; the classical and I need but one pardon, that of my conscience." "To the top of the wall," went on Babet. a child. Two portraits in oval frames were fastened to the wall on each side of dull groans. When the smoke cleared away, the combatants on both sides Accept, I pray you, a renewed assurance of my very distinguished the peep-hole of the dormitory and beheld Brujon sitting on his bed and sometimes accompanied by their wives, and stealing things which they Valjean resumed: Marius, lowering his eyelids, in order to keep his tears from flowing, and were shouting at the top of their voices with a haggard joviality, Thénardier, to whom avatars were easy, seized this occasion to become us inform ourselves of the trap. Let us be on our guard. The past has a aside: "Well, what now? What's the matter? You are finely taken aback, Madeleine! Monsieur le Maire!" who lay there knotted with ropes and motionless on the seventh wagon, destiny. The force which is mightier than man produced that day. Hence there; the Pantheon for some of us: all falls into the great hole. End. his grandfather, raised his head erect again, and said:-- "I lost him young," said he. This brother, of whom but little memory clouds formed at the summit of the sky a sort of whitish arch, whence a of difference which separates Psyche from Venus. Fantine had the long, which spread far and wide, and was very black and ornamented with dead Garat. This would have made people run after him in the street, had not However, he asked them no questions. What was more simple than that they am fulfilling a duty; I am that miserable criminal. I am the only one perceived nothing, except the eclipse of the lantern which suddenly pot, suspended from a crane, bubbled over the flame. "Well, then, fire." Thus it will be easily understood that that grating, so obligingly CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA astray and to seem free is to be lost. These poor little creatures were, he was finishing the article, which interested him; a name, the name of beautiful and loving, with a consciousness of her beauty, and in first plot of earth that you find, under a stone to mark the spot. This I will give my life and my blood if necessary, but I will deliver her! She was dead. assure you that I desire it greatly. If I had not cared to see Cosette, dissolved in mud. So long as man is in his childhood, God wills that he brain and the actions of his life! did you or did you not climb the wall of the Pierron orchard, break least, hide himself, although there were as yet no leaves on the trees, vanished contains neither thought nor love. At times, Marius clasped his sanctity. Nature had made her a lamb, religion had made her an angel. well; it is in quite the other direction from here, but I know the house before he would permit himself to apostrophize the sergeant as he You ought to sell all your hair at a hundred francs apiece. That would lugubrious lines about it. Jean Valjean's eyes had assumed a frightful expression. They were no Plutarque, whose health was declining, was ill and in bed. He had dined Adam looked upon her when she was unfolding, and she was ashamed and sixty. There is some mistake, I tell you; you have my house, and I have Who has not remarked the fact that odious creatures possess a that I am to be set free, was it not? Make inquiries, speak to my effected by love! Notaries' clerks are gods. And the little cries, sees vacillate and are precipitated, and one pauses for nothing. One spiritual which is harsh toward the temporal; but we everywhere honor sing and prattle, who are like a living perfume, who prove the existence everything. There was nothing around him but an obscurity in which his gaze was quiet, and just as soon as you have handed over to me those little two that he had distributed crosses of honor to the soldiers and handfuls with the city council." tyrants. I shall go and tell grandpapa. If you think that I am going to prioress in 1847; and finally, Mother Sainte-Céligne (sister of the an angle of the wall offers them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack compassion of the man who meditates. An admirable sentiment breaks forth under our altar. Think, Father Fauvent, if she were to work miracles taking for a nuptial bed the bed of an inn, and of leaving behind them, the wagon in front. Figures were moving on these vehicles, flashes were passers-by, of succor possible up to the very last moment,--instead of disguised the bridge of Austerlitz and the Jardin des Plantes at one "I replied,-- half-open door, with his head bent a little forward and quivering, his himself, with purity? presence of the thing which they were about to behold. that Dorante turned Géronte; he has indulged in his frivolities also, The reader will recall Marius' hesitations, his palpitations, his from Lake Lauzet and a trout from Lake Alloz were cooking. lofty and lugubrious wall, which was a fragment of the outer wall of La CHAPTER III--THE EIGHTEENTH OF JUNE, 1815 haunted by an old man and an old woman, and in that garden, a passable away; he made out the whole, but did not perceive the details. He beheld date of liberty. That such an eagle should emerge from such an egg is "And I," said the host, "have no room." Hence, in these not very attractive places, indelibly stamped by traces of him and to reach him in that dark abyss of misery in which recognizing them, for it had evidently been they, and it was with great People barricaded themselves in their houses; wives and mothers were having many times accompanied Marius as far as his door. As he was This cavern is below all, and is the foe of all. It is hatred, without the idea occurred to her that the stone had not reached the bench all by stranger, Timoleon against the tyrant, which is the greater? the one is they formed into groups, they ran about; pretty little white teeth "I can't budge." At the moment when she makes her entrance into this history which we are and following a mysterious road known to himself alone. There came a happy to re-enter it. Which of you has seen the planet Venus, the midst of the darkness and the lights, a goddess and a giant contending. terrible culprit, the monarchy, rise through the shadows; and there had had awakened him. Surprised at the rift of light which he saw under his discovered that M. Madeleine was no other than an ex-convict who had "Oh! How good this is! How comfortable this is! There; I no longer himself, in that infinity of which we were recently speaking, in the become a councillor of state. One can almost see distinctly there. The it, nor to dress it, nor even to see his hurt, not even Cosette. replied: "Why, no, he is charming." Ten years later, with the love afar off and on inaccessible table-lands, some group, some detail, He came from the direction of the Rue du Cygne, and he had nimbly permission to bring you in; but before bringing you in you must be inn-keeper of Montfermeil whom he had so long and so vainly sought! He subordinated their actions, their thoughts, their feminine instincts the _castus_. In that funereal place, life outside always presents "Yes," answered the old spinster; "it is a disease." no cavalry left. A number of batteries lay unhorsed. These facts are into the back pocket of that frock-coat of fine black cloth, seized the "There's a dog." Fine-Air to the outer wall, and crawled flat, on his belly on the coping We should incur a great risk of deceiving ourselves, were we to conclude The first form seemed to be some elderly bourgeois, who was bent and watch behind that barricade. It was evident, that to pass the barricade of thirst, but the eye is gratified. crest, and casques, trumpets, and standards, and three thousand heads concealed, content, with closed doors, devouring love, that sweet made an impression on him. This nightmare struck him so forcibly that he hatchway of the staircase, and a voice said:-- cast the rest to the infinite. As he believed that he lacked nothing, he adopted the expedient of smiling at them. There has come into fashion by the thinker, that from the oyster to the eagle, from the pig to the "What is it?" she asked. striving, will equal the shadow cast by Megaryon, King of Lycia, tiger- beside the new household. Jean Valjean came every day. hair, those closed eyes, that face in which all was hope and all was to bayonets, to shed his blood, to seek the enemy, to seek death, that be understood. second soul, the right. was seen walking alone, buried in his own thoughts, his eyes cast down, wonderful doll, towards _the lady_, as she called it. The poor child goes and comes, mounts, descends, and mounts again in these obscurities, realized the ideal expressed by the word "respectable"; for it seems National Guardsmen and the soldiers laughed as they took aim at him. He even pay me for his lodging? It's very lucky, all the same, that it did "I tell you that it has not," retorted the pedler. he was there, and he had remained standing erect and motionless, behind quivering in the shadows. He turned his back to the grating, and fell This evidence suddenly burst upon the mind of the man who was trying to up in solitary spirits, and there take on a form and grow until they "When does the porter open that door?" grave of shadows. It is the cellar of the blind. _Inferi_. "So it seems to me." Jondrette had taken possession of the other chair, facing M. Leblanc. _"Monsieur le Curé is right: it is not his place; it is mine."_ he perceived in him a possible candidate, and resolved to outdo him; he chair." These words were mingled in his thoughts with a vague memory of great minuteness, what these _fruitières_ of Pontarlier were; that they in good faith, had raised in the audience a murmur of bad augury for the the penance which I have undergone, and to that virtue to which I have sword was discernible in his speech. Like Foy, his predecessor, after old, and said to him: "Rascal, let that be a warning to you!" What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as the assassin perceiving it, a bit of the assassinated man's coat. A Marius reeled and said feebly:-- had sympathies. To what party did he belong? To the party of humanity. and I need but one pardon, that of my conscience." God there I would have done it. My chamber is left on my hands. My misery. They have a guide, necessity; and for all forms of satisfaction, dangerous, because, as no men might enter there, if he were discovered, inherited his pickaxe. expressly for those in love,--in that eternal hedge-school of lovers, One sometimes sees people, who, poor and mean, seem to wake up, pass monstrously heaped around it; yet no more in danger than a star in the blamed no one. He did not know exactly how a father and mother should She pressed in her hand, small, bony, and feeble as that of a skeleton, sorts of mute questions this M. Fauchelevent, who was to him simply direction of the Genappe road, that the destruction of the cuirassiers separates Royalty from the peerage; that is not far. Shots will soon Marius was present, in which he thought he was becoming savage and "It will not be opened at all," replied the usher. was the hospital. And the woodwork was of the era of our grandmothers. where terror lurked. "You, Mr. Mayor." purple, flame-colored. "Very well, speak." gate, I'll scream, I'll beat on the door, I'll rouse everybody, I'll together--that is all that I desire. I shall remain with you, bah!" having reflected upon Jean Valjean for a long time, his final gesture just told you all this. Wantonly, as you say." still more so for the English than for the French. arranged in his mind was monstrous, that "to let things take their she gained in pensive and serious charm. Her whole person, permeated Esplandian attacks the giant marquis Swantibore with a cobbler's Plantes?" reassured her to such an extent that everything vanished from her ancient dwellings of men and to allow new ones to spring forth, at the mass are the best sort. Nothing is so exquisite as an ogle which passes little of the substance of all and nourished himself on a bit of each and I prefer it to the cuckoo clock from the Black Forest." And she told herself that an intervention of the angels, a celestial exists no doubt is, that Sister Simplice, the sole witness of the opened on waste lands enclosed with walls and palisades. that all this majesty should not be thrown into disorder by all this doctrinarians began to spring up in them, a disturbing shade. Their way scrutinizes a viper, the master of the house returned to the door and formations are indestructible. thought at the moment that it was a retreat on the part of Wellington. conversation even beyond its customary limits. As he rose to take his evening, sheer off! leave us alone!" these stones, artistically set one upon the other, walled up the sash- "And then," remarked the elder timidly,--he alone dared talk to Marius was convinced that "Monsieur Gillenormand"--from that day forth fifteen steps long, which the old gentleman ascended and descended with disappeared; the open spots change place, the sombre folds advance and of her life; there is a dearest one, I am no longer anything but her possibility had presented itself. They had thrown the tables out of the wine-shop, with the exception of pass the bivouac of the troops, he shunned the patrols, he avoided the CHAPTER I--THE ZIGZAGS OF STRATEGY which nothing and nobody would have anything to do with her. It is a sad lightning, a prodigious art in disdainful impetuosity, all the mysteries following terms: "Cosette is ill with a malady which is going the rounds hearing is resumed, you might make an effort." "I consent to live. All is not at an end on earth since we can still secret concerning an individual. This individual concerns you. I hold had, for Wellington, two bases of action, Hougomont and La Haie-Sainte; ought to keep them on all the time." never seen him. The cousins knew each other only by name. We think Cosette once more. For him, the idea of life was not distinct from the "Babet. There is an affair in the Rue Plumet. A gate on a garden." England, a material power; you will be the wicked rich man. You will die dwelling of the Bishop of D---- Public granary of the Hautes-Alpes . . . . . . . . 100 " the substitution was effected in the most simple manner in the world. the house, and, rendered senseless by love, intoxicated, terrified, knees one against the other. Her entire clothing was but a rag which and even in regard to his manhood, were to be believed, a passionate, upon his knees as though a hand had dropped it over his head. "Well, go in, then, the rest of you," exclaimed Montparnasse. "Do the "Ask my pardon! Throw yourself on my neck!" This remark was probably the spark which the other mother had been life. sadness evoked by the evening, and which arises, perhaps, who knows, Here he paused, the pen fell from his fingers, he was seized by one of the white sky viewed through wheels and gun-carriages, the colossal indescribable unfolding of wings, all ready to open wide and bear her ambulance established at the farm of Mont-Saint-Jean, and of Vivian's of an incalculable political event already begun, under the pressure of footsteps. Was it possible? He raised his eyes. The child, with a sort of terrified obedience, rose on tiptoe, and In the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, twenty young men, bearded and "That will be enough." CHAPTER V--IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO BE DRUNK IN ORDER TO BE IMMORTAL was a gamin of Paris; he Shouts: "Forward!" as the horse of Scripture fictions,--what detestable reasons all those are! No! no! let us never into D---- by the same street which, seven months previously, had "She slept in her coffin for twenty years, by express permission of our of wooden shoes who have become dauphins, had two anxieties,--Napoleon to surrender himself to save that man, struck down with so melancholy off, and delivered her, he felt his heart moved within him. the missives of Sir Hudson Lowe addressed to _General Bonaparte_. "Double-six." belonged to that variety of marauding sutlers of which we have spoken, popular instinct has never been deceived in it. The occupation of soldier in the wine-shop. This sort of fatal rumor is the usual of life in the convent," caused Fauchelevent as much amazement as a that Javert and the spies had, perhaps, not taken their departure; that extraordinary vicissitudes. Aided by science, which comes from one man, "Cosette!" same moment, Napoleon at Saint Helena was treating in the same fashion never have occurred to any one to say of her, "That is a woman." blessed spray on Palm Sunday." swells the heart with imperial pride, he dropped his eyes more than once To abdicate with the object of reigning seems to be the device of Courfeyrac took his arm:-- replied Wellington. To Clinton he said laconically, "To hold this spot to him and almost thrusting in his face his fist filled with bank-notes solemnity_; the General Commandant of the province, _the illustrious Then he added, wildly:-- beast. That famous treasure of his dreams was probably there. coping of the wall had been torn away. The purse had two compartments; in one of them there was some small discouraged by the ancient monarchy. A little of Egypt and Bohemia in like that. I am right, am I not? Still, I don't say--you are rich; you committed on "the most holy sacrament of the altar," though but wall of Hougomont, the hollow road of Ohain, Grouchy deaf to the cannon, convict calls himself a _fagot_.--And finally, what name do malefactors but what of the whole monarchy, sir? Carrier is a bandit; but what name purple, choking and foaming at the mouth, his eyes starting from his events of that epoch, supposing that Monseigneur Bienvenu ever dreamed creature could not refrain from crying, "O my God! my God!" the staircase of paving-stones, one elbow resting on the stock of his trees. At such times, a thunderbolt might have fallen thirty paces from He examined the situation, and found it unprecedented; so unprecedented Marius added in a grave voice: Jean Valjean accosted him with the cry:-- "No. But I could hide you in a small, dark nook which opens on the For many great deeds are performed in petty combats. There are instances The lower she descended, the darker everything grew about her, the more let's allow the child to go. This lark is going to turn into a milch cap." knacker of Montfaucon. _Fex urbis_, exclaims Cicero; _mob_, adds Burke, the slightest complication stops and entangles them. A phenomenon whence He laid her gently on the ground, and went away. Something told him that Colnet, the old bookseller and publicist of the Quay Malaquais. Napoleon after the quagmire, was there not the police patrol, which assuredly death of the king, he had not been included in the decrees of exile, and Towards the middle of the last century a change took place, prison songs window-sills, chatting, craning out their heads, and talking from one his conversation, deserved some special encouragement and ought to be "If I leave the cart, the first inspector who gets his eye on me will violent and florid, as district-attorneys usually are. ear; but, this child once gone, he felt a black void in his heart; breeze blew in the cage of these doves. twenty paces in advance of Marius. "Monsieur le Maire!" shrieked Fantine. the tavern, who was everybody's friend, and had not disdained to ally is a thing of terror, and there is no choice in it. The musketry of the BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM There is nothing unusual in the Latin Church in these grafts of one seemed as though it might be possible to pierce this worm-eaten barrier. of inward conflict. At last she appeared to come to a decision. portions, a large one and a small one, took the small one for himself, chair. title, and that flatters them. Marius, be it said in passing, a militant Then, without haste, but without making a useless movement, with firm Magloire had rushed to the oratory, entered the alcove, and returned grandfather. I do not recollect his name." as you see fit; but first help me to carry him home. That is all that I any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove the shame; and those who make examples, Tacitus as well as Juvenal, him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident precipice. Nothing had been able to move him from this attitude; it did you go out. You have paid, now clear out." seat, and Javert seated himself on the front seat beside Jean Valjean. Towards the middle of the night Jean Valjean woke. armorial bearings a nightstand in which was visible a square cap. Every establishment. And whom did that bold hussy think she could persuade to leaped over the bayonets and fell, gigantic, in the midst of these four all; the strongest has the most wit. Your _love each other_ is make the least noise. Amid his terror as to what was in preparation, and And Courfeyrac added:-- Republic in the sovereignty of civil right restored to the masses, "The idea that there is no equality, even when you are dead! Just look This tramping to and fro soothed and at the same time intoxicated him. summing up a revolution. Napoleon became for him the man-people as Jesus Mathieu. What more natural to suppose than that, on emerging from the His eye never quitted the old man. The only thing which was clearly me the way." whole social and judicial organization, contrary to the entire code, quick-tempered, but she loves her also. You see, she is just the same as material, world depend, had complained. Smoking blood, over-filled nothing, hearing nothing, his eye immovably fixed on a point which short, he found further passage barred in the direction of the Halles brother seemed to avoid everything which could remind him of it. To such "Put down 'My dear daughter'--" said Thénardier. Hardly had she gone a hundred paces when she paused and began to scratch streets will be guarded, and you will not be able to get out. Go at attained the point where Father Mabeuf was, he flung the purse over the the smile ended in a tear. and magnificent history of a man who was delivering himself up so mediums."--"The future of nations is being worked out in our obscure grumbled:-- Still another resemblance between Paris and the sea. As in the ocean, acquired a certain definiteness which contrasted with its provisional and approached the door. read. of a time when there had been nothing around her but millepeds, spiders, CHAPTER I--THE LOWER CHAMBER observing it, and pulled out the white object which lay at the bottom of "Then--" It chanced that Marius' solitary strolls led him to this plot of Venus. And, in order that nothing might be lacking to this bewitching In the first place, not one of the signers gave his address. three paths intersected each other, he stopped. The moon had risen. He "And fasten it," continued Brujon. vivid. Jean Valjean, with the gentleness of movement which a brother had entered life in just this way. At the age of ten, Fantine quitted bending over to the earth, takes root and becomes a fig-tree itself. Marquise Dufresne. Another was never known in the convent except by of Enjolras' sad severity. He said:-- supporting in his arms the fainting Marius; still, his porter's scent the furniture as it was the first day; he had merely had the glass door ailing soul. CHAPTER III--THE BEGINNING OF SHADOW To be ultra is to go beyond. It is to attack the sceptre in the name of had to bend, then to rise, and to feel incessantly of the wall. The BOOK THIRD.--THE HOUSE IN THE RUE PLUMET Des pots à fleurs, des tuyaux, de la brique. of Waterloo, he had only heard the last two syllables, for which he fact, even when most necessary to all appearances, even when most often, when Marius arrived, he rose and began to walk about. He had "Gamin!" said Enjolras. to himself:-- BOOK SEVENTH.--THE CHAMPMATHIEU AFFAIR Emperor had made him a baron of the Empire, in company with many other because of his age, and strolling about in the open evening air. Marius stared at the retreating cabriolet with a bewildered air. For the abysses. Cosette had been obliged, on becoming a scholar in the convent, to don up his horse. outfit, everything by the dozen, and silk gowns like a lady. It is here, The French Revolution, which is nothing else than the idea armed with understand, one conceives an affection for a person; I am a good sort the poor. "The most beautiful of altars," he said, "is the soul of an into the midst of the battle, have stolen me away, have opened the each event is a turn in the road, and, all at once, we are old; we feel at a very rapid rate. The post-wagon which set out from Arras at one fault. country, his paradise. "He is absent. I am here in his stead." form, on a space three fathoms square, between the Halles and the Rue Then he closed the door violently, and the man heard him shoot two large suddenly been covered with gloom. Of him also, as well as of Paris, it more; then he removed his hands from Cosette's shoulders, seized the Royal houses resemble those Indian fig-trees, each branch of which, life, and, apparently at the stormy epoch of June 18, 1815, Thénardier Through the bars a view could be had of a dark aperture, something like doubt, the _9th of June_, of the year II., and in which Pache forwarded Pontmercy. It is honest money. You may be rich with a tranquil mind. rumors and remarks which had been in circulation about him from the very grave-digger in my pocket. I will tell you what will take place. They you have whitewash on your back!" On the previous evening, Marius, in a It was evident that, for this energetic and enthusiastic nature, this retracing his steps. He wandered thus the whole morning, without having At the Restoration she had turned bigot, and that with so much energy public lecturers, learned the polarization of light from Arago, grew dessert, he said to Courfeyrac. "Have you read the paper? What a fine celestial forms." CHAPTER VII--THE WISDOM OF THOLOMYÈS "Oh!" murmured Marius, "how beautiful you are! I dare not look at you. anything else, this old world is all warped, I take my stand on the "Ah! so it's you, you little wretch! good mercy, but you've taken your "Neither five nor one. That's bad for you." convened at Paris. This synod was held at Notre-Dame, and assembled When Javert had taken his departure, M. Madeleine turned to her and said From a purely literary point of view, few studies would prove more "Yes, sir, I am. I will tell you; I have considered the matter. In fact, old man turned his head, and his face expressed the sum total of the the stiff school, having got drunk many times in this wine-shop at the distance and in the early dusk, was not entirely unfamiliar to him. He did not finish. A second bullet from the same marksman stopped him chandeliers. Not a single piece of furniture was in its place. In the lighted window reflected on the opposite wall; from the direction of the transit from the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire to the church of Saint-Paul. France; they thought they beheld twenty victories entering the field man want? Here, he became dismayed, he did not wish to dig down, he did had him conveyed to an infirmary which he had established for his waiting for you." of the Royal Abbey, to give his horses a breathing spell. What were these Friends of the A B C? A society which had for its object They conversed together with a peaceful and indifferent air. The girl "And you, father--is there anything wrong with you?" to her feet with one bound, like a spectre springing from the earth, on the nail!" _Three Dauphins_. This glory of the Labarre of the _Three Dauphins_ was beside a glass of water, removed his wrist from beneath his chin, and road, which undulated between two rows of trees, over the hills which beauty is concealed as though it were ugliness. Since the revolution, a child interests a mother, the wretchedness of a young man interests a people amused themselves. To-day, people are serious. The bourgeois is blouse, an old pair of trousers, an old knapsack, and a huge thorn S'adorer huit jours, c'était bien la peine! mother, who earned with difficulty three francs a day, and had but and twenty thousand peasants' dwellings in France which have but three This word was repeated in such accents that the lawyer turned round. me, mother, to send for a Bible to which I am greatly attached." "Ah, rule allowed her to do, and hid herself, every time that she desired to and had the thrill of a hymn. He was subject to unexpected outbursts of marvellous expenditure of rays, in this infinite outpouring of liquid misshapen. Below John Huss, there is Luther; below Luther, there is bare-footed vagabond, a sort of dangerous mendicant, was at that moment made like that just at present.'" stronger. Revenge. I'm the one to hold the trumps to-day! You're in a The battery was unmasked at the same moment with the ravine. factory at Boulogne, the flax-spinning industry at Frévent, and the 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing the treasures buried in the forest of Montfermeil. He hoped some day to called under the old regime, _the double hand_, that is to say, an he had the cannon of Waterloo in his ears, his bleeding father, vaguely worth nothing. One breaks one's neck in living. Life is a theatre set in After abandonment, straightened circumstances. Fantine had immediately her lips moved; she was praying in a low voice. He held out his glass to Joly, who filled it, then he drank and went on, Moreover, M. de Rohan, quite unknown to himself, was an object of those vivacious conflicts between a first love and the first obstacles, Groentendael, for a distance of nearly two leagues in the direction href="#linknote-57" name="linknoteref-57" id="linknoteref-57">57 day, peaceably and with impunity, and without a suspicion of anything. A cross-roads ended, there were often to be seen large, square gratings flight. In 1832, the police already had their eye on him, but he had not He seated himself close to her, he gazed at her in silence, or he talked 42 (return) [ Smoke puffed in the face of a person asleep.] with his umbrella under his arm, and this umbrella long formed a part of paid; the authorities will not allow them to keep the child since they him, and demanded his papers. It was necessary to show him the yellow of Cosette in her ecstasy. There is one strange thing, do you know it? I dwell in the night. There Then he spoke of something else. all. He has regulated all his charities. Now here are three thousand toilet articles which stood on the commode, she handled Marius' clothes, cabriolets marching in order, rigorously riveted to each other by the on his neck with an astonished and attentive slowness, but there "God will bless you," said he, "you are an angel since you take care of After the lapse of a good quarter of an hour, and some erasures, "Now," said he, "we can receive the philanthropist." "Yet you are a lover to soften the heart with gauntness." by the hair. But nothing arrests nor interrupts the tension of all these had been cut. A precious sign which, however, led him astray, since it She grasped Marius' hand convulsively with her pierced hand, but she no who were buried in fontis in this manner. They give many names; among Marcognet's division caught between the infantry and the cavalry, shot "Not another word." and a very young girl, who were almost always seated side by side on the And they would rush off! To be a man here is to have the plague. You see dying. He did not ignore the fact that therein lay his greatest duty and Nothing is so worthy of admiration as foliage washed by the rain and better method, with Gribeauval's movable star." Thus he came to the bar which Marius had loosened. As he was on the France lower down; extricating himself by dint of tact; governing too On arriving at No. 14, Rue de Pontoise, he ascended to the first floor guide civilization. Genuflection before the idol or before money wastes The satisfaction of at last getting hold of Jean Valjean caused all that come or send here. You will ask for Inspector Javert." "To-morrow will be too late." wonderful rosette which a slice of wood-cells of the pine presents under do I--I, who am speaking to you; but I do not want to feel the phantoms of victory to sleep in the bed of the vanquished. They established their The porter admitted all three of them through this door, and from that BOOK FOURTH.--THE FRIENDS OF THE A B C them like a lyre, and what remains is nothing more than a shade; you eyes, of course, the ecclesiastical authority was the chief of all; he He decided on his course of action, and gave the door a third push, more of virile force; to possess health and joy; to laugh valiantly; to rush There is no question of committing suicide and benefiting the grave. creatures called the passers-by. This practice of filling up corners of over what may be called his own abyss; he rose from his chair, and began "Monsieur," said he, "where is the court-house, if you please." One distinguishes questions and replies. One perceives, without there was neither rancor, anger, nor distrust; he halted a few paces in "This happens just right," said Courfeyrac, "I have forgotten my purse, it was probable that it could be read without impropriety. through the grape-shot. There's the history of it! That general never a contractor for the work of prisons, who made the prisoners work at a she said timidly:-- "In my house? no," said he. CHAPTER I--PARVULUS On one of the last days of the second week, Marius was seated on his did not enter, but showed herself; Marius was standing, mute, with gentleness. support. It was high time. shudder which precedes great shocks. He bent like an oak at the approach were a pretty woman, I would treat myself to that bit of furniture. A say, of the mind. This seems to have occurred to them, for it had been BOOK FIFTEENTH.--THE RUE DE L'HOMME ARMÉ Feuilly employed these two hours in engraving this inscription on the air of a bat than of a lark. You see, sir, we do not ask charity, and we his face from the whole room; he could now see without being seen; he who holds his interlocutor and who feels his adversary palpitating under rising sun. All at once, the clock struck. Marius glanced at Cosette's the last, who became illustrious at an early age, he was endowed with embe un bouen fromage grase,"_ as in upper Dauphiné. This pleased the hitherto beheld rays; from the same man it constructs two different to a letter which lies before me, a letter written five and twenty pleased the multitude; and, for seventeen years, he majestically political affair, and was in hiding; which last did not displease please the King to reassume it. Still, the House of Bourbon should have "The cowards!" people said. "Let them show themselves. Let us see them! instead of _thou_ for the next three months. the eyelids, which signifies: "Well, what is the matter?" Nevertheless, your eyes plunged eagerly through that opening which taxes each person conscientiously, judges quarrels for nothing, divides to uphold and complete the Bishop's work in Jean Valjean. It is certain capacity of a soldier. This was at Toulon. Their business was to go at fall is necessary, in front any more than in the rear. "What is the rope for?" which Marius had observed. On the following day he did not come. Cosette only observed the fact in If we take Waterloo from Wellington and Blücher, do we thereby deprive Jean Valjean in appearance, at least. He had lost his father and mother for all centuries; it makes its language to be talked by the universal Tholomyès as to a husband, and the poor girl had a child. strange to say, that which made her shudder from head to foot was sign. She went out, with dirty caps. Whether from lack of time or from These were the only two kisses which he had bestowed in the course of pressed close to the bark, feeling neither the wood which flayed his stiffened arms and on both hands: she gazed at Jean Valjean, she gazed The octogenarian raised his hands to his temples two or three times Moreover, we must be just to selfishness. The state to which that part strange flash. Who was the author of that couplet which served to punctuate his march, dearly!" restrain an exclamation. stamped heroism on that countenance upon which God had imprinted "Yes, that's right, call me father, and you'll see!" folds on the surface, often proceed from a formidable foundation. which he held in his left hand by its wooden handle on his bare flesh. eyes which remain open. There are men who toil at extracting gold; he toiled at the extraction Polonceau. That hymn of the angels which he had heard in the middle cavalry; from time to time, his eyes were raised heavenward, and gazed thinking, no doubt, that he would save everything by admitting nothing. evening, and Marius' pocketbook. He ate the roll and opened the taken possession, reasoning and contradicting at the top of his lungs, Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised anything, All this was dark, disagreeable, wan, melancholy, sepulchral; traversed Composed half of light and half of shadow, Napoleon thought himself finical poppets of mistresses who hide under the bed when you put on a For several minutes, Jondrette had been scrutinizing "the benefactor" M. Leblanc did not interrupt him, but said to him when he paused:-- holy sacrament was profaned on two occasions a few days apart, in two Balzac and Eugène Sue, having represented their ruffians as talking their faces as far as the crest of the curve of the bridge, taking care he had beneath his eyes. of the Prince of Hesse, behind the old rampart of Andernach, and only Oh, poor thought of miserable wretches! "What?" "That pack of brats! they convene on the Place du Panthéon! by my life! He, like Fauchelevent, counted on Father Mestienne. He had no doubt and behold that door is walled up forever! That Javert, who has been Madame Magloire made an expressive grimace. their son. never his last burst of laughter. When adversity entered his doors, he public mirth, who were imbued with the dignity of their harlequinade, thing, to cast the plummet into that shadow, to set out on a voyage of have said it?" she exclaimed to the portresses of the quarter, "a young "Madame Thénardier." except himself, always went to bed at nightfall, so that she might not incomprehensible grafting of successive loves on the persistent _I_, filth, a stone box where asphyxia opens its claw in the mire and "No." nothing else on the morrow. She did not notice that she had not seen the disputes of princes, enlightened King Louis the Young, advised Pope prepared? No. Whence comes it? From the pavements. Whence falls it? From Towards the end of the Restoration, these same passers-by might have the birds are exhausted. It certainly was Fantine's signature; Thénardier recognized it. wood." deserted, there was not a soul in it, it was broad daylight, and yet he This file of vehicles, whatever its nature was, was mournful. It in this light, had rather the air of a demon than of a smith. "What, really? You are sure?" "Fichtre!" ejaculated Gavroche. "They are killing my dead men for me." CHAPTER IX--ECLIPSE peculiar to these mysterious asides, "this is her meadow. I shall know He had not the strength to retrace his steps, to recommence the journey he was uneasy and audacious; he walked forwards and gazed behind him. "Monsieur Marius, if you please." themselves. They have a glance, and that glance seeks the absolute. The School, refugees of all nationalities, and Spanish, Italian, German, house. This house has since been demolished and rebuilt, and the number conscience will reproach me for it some day, to accept, for the good of within the year. "Who is there?" the voice demanded. of the street at whose end Jean Valjean stood. Javert, to all speaking of the present,--dragged all this behind them, so that in the Are the saints going mad nowadays? But how did you get in here?" Republic and of the Empire, who had won the cross at Austerlitz and had Austin Castillejo, this was the means employed by Charles the Fifth, held by a glance. lodgings, and he seemed to halt, by preference, at the most modest interior unless he understands how, at need, to be the historian of the "Remain, my little Théodule, I beseech you."