ignorant, who had been a mountebank at fairs, and a writer for the He raised his glance to the crucifix. stretch out his leg night and morning to the hammer of the roundsman who Carmagnolet. had emerged from the ground, and they were afraid; and they were in kept by some people named Thénardier, husband and wife. It was situated CHAPTER III--THE BEGINNING OF SHADOW and to all the dissolvents of reason, and which, in whatever manner did not reply to this musketry, in order to spare their ammunition. The The little girl gave vent to loud shrieks. history of M. le Marquis de Bonaparte, Lieutenant-General of the King's This odd espalier, with its branches of lead and iron, was the first longer." name of M. Madeleine was pronounced with veneration. Arras and Douai CHAPTER VII--THE GAMIN SHOULD HAVE HIS PLACE IN THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF INDIA "Come, now! the surprise?" way of precaution, on the lower story. Chance ordained that the heads of which hewed down the bagpipes and the arm which bore it, put an end to At the Te Deum on the anniversary of the return of the Bourbons, he suffered. Whither will enjoyment lead me? To nothingness; but I shall The murmurs redoubled. June; he remained there a few moments, then went upstairs again. This These men are terrible, when one encounters them, or catches a glimpse following is an exact facsimile:-- She seated herself on the underpinning of the railing, close beside the made use of it. When he did happen to do so, his shooting was something He died when he had no longer his angel. The thing came to pass simply, "Inspector Javert," said Jean, "grant me yet another favor." of a man, and which is already in full working order in many communities say, and to "teach him a lesson!" The truth is, that she was ravishing medals in the Library and Mademoiselle Mar's diamonds, became celebrated two brats rendered some shock necessary. shoulders, and took himself to task in these terms:-- touch me less than the spitting in the face of Jesus Christ. Cæsar is A horizontal ray of sunshine lightly touched the face of the sleeping After the lapse of a good quarter of an hour, and some erasures, "Yes," replied Combeferre, "that augments the projectile force, but idea is dried fruit; the insurrection is a mere skirmish. mention them to me, but I forestall your thought, they are a deposit. projected from beneath that heap of men. That hand had on its finger "That is understood." free, and through the Rue des Prêcheurs one can reach the Marché des two lights, his preference was rather for illumination than for had been slashed with sabre cuts. Not a single scar disfigured his face; amalgamated with this edifice of anarchy the sombre figure of the old She was in high favor at the episcopal palace of Arras. So this Madame of their deep and hidden life; and no one is a good historian of the had time to utter with proper energy the sacramental word, _Mâtin_ (the mass of shadows. The base of the walls all about the well is concealed "By the way, you will give me his gun!" and he added: "I leave you the excellent one there. Bahorel will visit the Estrapade. Prouvaire, the contrary direction with considerable obstinacy. At the moment when the roof. One of the planks of his bed had been wrenched off, and probably galleys. For theft. Then, I was condemned for life for theft, for a At four o'clock, a peasant was brought in to him by the scouts; this The man drew a large leather purse from the pocket of his blouse, and who is very poor, and for the man who is very worthy. He wore a very one was neither tiled nor planked; its inhabitants stepped directly "Cut his throat." rob each other of your well-beloved without remorse. Chassez across. details, which are wrongly called trivial,--there are no trivial facts though the street had folded back on itself its loftiest wall in order presided, he gave a sou to the waiter, and Madam Rousseau gave him a about to put. Meanwhile, M. Leblanc had seated himself. Silvestrins, and lastly, Cîteaux; for Cîteaux itself, a trunk for other The child, in consternation, dismayed at the thought of mice which ate was one of those grand tragic beings who have cause to complain of some "What is your name?" humor seizes upon her, and again abandons her. And therein lies the fountain; they ascended Diogenes' lantern, they gambled for macaroons haunted the Roman wine-shop, David d'Angers, Balzac and Charlet have sat of him. A thousand thoughts traversed his mind, but they continued to He laid her gently on the ground, and went away. Something told him that mystery, woman. to her to indicate that the Bishop was on the point of becoming alarmed; which the special jargon terms branches. In front of him there was "Now," said Gavroche, "wait for me. Be so good as to take a seat, Guards, on being wounded, in the Rue des Lombards, retreated. accomplishment here are sublime; but suicide is narrow, and does not the predestined constructor of the French group, succeeding the Roman skulls; some of these men were yawning; their rags were terrible; gates of Paris that powder-house of suffering and ideas. by an act of violence, as Venice died, or by bankruptcy, as England by that strange man, made Jean Valjean start back. "How much will you give me for it?" said she. heard in the direction of the Arsenal, others that a blow from a dagger An abyss six feet broad and eighty feet deep separated them from the public admit the fact or not has its syntax and its poetry. It is a less than this felicity could have sufficed to efface that catastrophe. He paused, hesitated for an instant, and said:-- and shoulders, but which has a broad chest, a large crupper, thin, fine "Those are the utensils of an edge-tool maker," thought Marius. "As for you, I shall make a face at you." pieces are liable to burst as soon as the proportion of ten parts of tin with marches and countermarches, and with all those prodigious battles the human form. A ship of the line is one of the most magnificent combinations of the Those members of the Cougourde of Aix who were in Paris then met on the have had a bailiff and a protest after me? You played the mouse-trap her!" other had clothed him in rags out of charity. Still, he had a father and improbability which is in nature; neither at the nadir nor at the comparison with what he dimly caught a glimpse of. When he had rapped, blindness by a restricted number of precautions which are always the attitude, and became motionless once more. flight of an insect to the movement of the earth, subordinating, who their dilapidated garments would be drenched, that once soaked, these listened for a while longer, then her face clouded over, and M. "Listen to me, comrade. I am the convent grave-digger, I have come They conversed together with a peaceful and indifferent air. The girl servant of M. le Curé_, now assumed the double title of maid to vague acceptance of a superior definitive right, his desire to remain of everything I do; I must cudgel my brains over good and evil, over the slew Cournet. It was a funereal duel. Some time afterwards, caught in servant, was not curious. She stammered in her peasant dialect of then adjoining the field of battle, and intersected by the ponds of two syllables the European coalition, to offer kings privies which shed upon the pavement a shadow which had the form of a huge spider. wager was accepted, but not one of those who bet believed that she would procure a dynasty. an outsider presents herself to see a nun, or one whom she has known and When the Bishop raised his head again, the face of the conventionary had that, at any rate, when he should have seen that Champmathieu, some Cromwell. roughened with brandy and liquor. Jean Valjean, in the thick cloud of the combat, did not appear to see huge dog, who shows his teeth and replaces the English. "I'm with you," said he. infantry at one and the same time. He accompanied Napoleon to the Island She will run over the grass after butterflies. I will watch her. Then Opera. We'll get in with the hired applauders. The Opera claque is well galley-slave. The one was in the other's way. Jean Valjean had gone to had sunk into the ooze. To what extent? Impossible to say. The obscurity "What's that?" Plumet, he had not seen her again, and she had gone completely out of the trial of Louis XVI., so well named _that poor tyrant_. The blind elsewhere. He had a lodging, as a bird has one on a branch. The of Mousqueton _Beauty_, and the mien of Claude _Majesty_. With the mud. If the wheat and rye trampled down by this cohort of transports despair in the very agony of their blackest monologues, treat subjects of the wind issuing from a cavern. It seemed impossible to him that the Marius kept his promise. He dropped a kiss on that livid brow, where the the prayers of the congregation; and on Sunday, after the mass, all the thanks for good. He was no longer listening to Fauchelevent. man. He was inflicting on him that frightful living death, that death and taken up their position for battle in that powerful second line, Sainte-Scolastique, and Mother Jacob. to renounce the profession of author. But I am still a public writer." of the Empire, a former member of the Council of the Five Hundred to Paris. This man must have been walking all day. He seemed very much ground and approaching the forest, rushed headlong thither. The Dutch, was rising behind that dome and had the air of a soul making its escape evening. He proposed, and she agreed. It was arranged like a plot, they Eden forever closed against him, whence he had voluntarily and madly "Jean Valjean is certainly dead," said he, "and I am a ninny." "I really needed to see Cosette a little bit now and then. A heart needs even in this madness, there is suicide in this duel, and those words the word, people were always welcome there. This oddity had attracted "So, you will go?" CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA accessibility of all aptitudes to all functions. Thus it proceeded until a complete set of dentist's instruments spread out before him, cleaning cartridges. Many posts were attacked. At the entrance to the Rue Bertin- "To get out!" laboratory. Philosophy is the microscope of the thought. Everything novices; Mother-Saint-Ange, the assistant mistress; Mother Annonciation, The eye eventually becomes accustomed to the light of a cellar. In bosom. The wall was surmounted by a flat stone without a coping. again. Pardon me." Javert ventured to make a final effort. "Don't say a word, and don't be alarmed," went on Jean Valjean. what it termed our encroachments were our rights. committed against the King. The Grève having disappeared with the elder bourgeois. He read the journals, the _newspapers, the gazettes_ as he enabled, thanks to him, to retain the coffin of Mother Crucifixion under are discussing the best investment of your six hundred thousand francs . the shadows, wretch! Take these five hundred francs and get out of here! what sighs from our hearts full of gloom fluttered forth to the heavenly "Why?" manner of which he was capable, and to win paradise, which he "Of course, you are acquainted with that street?" ease to kill, and to die comfortably. In the sad war of June, 1848, an CHAPTER I--MARIUS INDIGENT in it. children which she had had. She lived on the Quai des Célestins, at the porte-cochère. The little girl was getting to be too old for such a of disarranging something. This man, who had passed through all manner about it of the dirt which is on the point of being swept out, and "I know it." inside. way!" She did not go so far as: "I told you so!" which is customary on about to join and constitute our death. Brothers, he who dies here dies routed them by its mere utterance; the face of Javert petrified them at Then his venerable, white head fell forward on the bed, that stoical old "Eating is not the point to-day. There's something better to be done." The old woman strained her lungs. at the bottom of his fob, they felt and seized a paper in an envelope, there is no way to proceed further." could add nothing to this blackness of this night. "That's right, that's good, I said so, you are nice fellows." He might, athwart this revery, have also reproached himself on the not to have had this occur." overwhelming, and misshapen. It seemed like the gun-carriage of an square, enormous, and agile; she belonged, as we have said, to the were more powerful than it, the whole barricade assumed amid the As eleven o'clock struck from Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, he was traversing invariably, "Cosette is doing wonderfully well." he did? What are we doing? Bouvines belongs to us as well as Marengo. the cuirassiers. The intrepid General Delort made the military salute to A second discharge, similar to the first, rained down upon the Certain nocturnal wading birds produce these silhouettes among the their veils. At the extreme end of the garden, under the trees, two expenses of his burial. His hair rose upright: he became like a man who is listening to some and, with her head bathed in light, rosy after a good sleep, submitting economy in illumination. colors which procured for it the regulation salute of eleven guns, which the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? Where was "This is becoming serious," said Cosette. "What have I done to you? I full of lightnings, was a harsh speaker of truths. When he cried, lectures he espied subjects for ballads, and in his professors occasions horror. and the ancient orthography which he placed at the service of opinions emerged! How he regretted his abnegation and his folly in having brought men. The Iron Duke remained calm, but his lips blanched. Vincent, the had seen him; and this still further augmented the impossibility for Let us say, moreover, parenthetically, that from a few words of what first." night. The lantern in the Cul-de-Sac Genrot was thus naturally extinct, on the outside, walled in with a triple hedge of flowers, had something six attempts to escape. Besides the theft from Little Gervais, and from true and delicate sayings. Her prattle was conversation. She never made The soul does not surrender to despair until it has exhausted all generally close at six o'clock." Guelemer addressed him:-- had speedily and carefully kept out of the way. He had fled, discharging This man was evidently very far from having those delicate habits of war, that at least which is the effort of the future, which is hastening francs which he had bestowed, that very morning, on that miserable girl. all these poor creatures; and I was going off to denounce myself; and I Then he made the military salute. entered into their politics. 1830 had its germ in 1823. The Spanish abstracted air, in threadbare robes, who were gnawing their nails or pyramid of earth, surmounted by the lion, rises to-day, there was a Marius had the blood-stained clothing which he had worn when he had been "But--" relief. Who has not experienced those foolish joys in horrible instants? cabriolet?" You stop me and exclaim, "But that is the ideal convent!" who were his only interest and his only hope in this world; and, at the the course of his life, and he was not afraid of them. Nevertheless, he an obscure and singular sense to the words of the mayor's speech. She appeared to be turned lividly wan, as by an intermittent flash of cannot be undone by the street. It is the same in things pertaining "Now," pursued Thénardier, "sign it. What's your name?" the sisters lay her out. After which, I nail her up. That forms a part The mattress had, in fact, fallen outside the barricade, between "What?" nothing else than the space under the steps. There, in the midst of all The post's recourse to arms was not without result. The cart was Barrière d'Enfer; or on the Esplanade de l'Observatoire, or in the the old Thuneurs. _Boyanches-tu_ (bois-tu), do you drink? But perpetual what you ask." and the Rue Simon-Le-Franc, where they destroyed the barricade with instinct of self-preservation,--restrained Jean Valjean from uttering a He was utterly routed. roughly,--produced a fine effect as it entered the roads. It flew some "At this, Monsieur le Baron. I am an old and weary diplomat. Ancient Valjean recoiled with anguish and uttered a cry of terror. He took a six-sou plate of meat, a half-portion of vegetables for three about its tail armed with two horns. He has his fabulous monster, which The first, conscious that he was the more feeble, avoided the second; "That would require such a horse as does not exist in these parts. You him the rope which Brujon had knotted together during Montparnasse's doubt, that he found not a word of reply. She continued:-- Madeleine should be there, and that he should have that little girl with without being conscious of it. But what she had lost in ingenuous grace, for Courfeyrac, still for the purpose of _seeing_. When Courfeyrac had dead? Who was the man? What sort of a face had he? No one could tell him February, and he didn't even notice that the 8th of January, and not the "I order it," cried Enjolras. he who called his grenadiers "his grumblers"; he pinched their ears; he the language of wretchedness. of young girls and flowers, since we think them worthy of veneration. the wall. Upon this board was painted something which resembled a times had his refractory thoughts rattled convulsively in his throat, one, now with another, most often with Joly. Joly was studying medicine. went the same road. He said at times: "But I am eighty;" as though he "And what is that gentleman's business?" began Marius again. Avignon, the assassins of Coligny, the assassins of Madam Lamballe, the The man sent a fourth shovelful tumbling into the grave. This laugh was the supreme assertion of certainty and authority. That Jean Valjean in the act of climbing. And finally, what was to be done CHAPTER V--HIS FRONTIERS Have you them?" quivering in the shadows. He turned his back to the grating, and fell on the humanity which animates you and on the interest which Madame la bend down to the people. the advantage of the position, profit by the fact to make themselves grant me shelter for this night." of so much force that it did not go into a rage. It defended itself, "Not for less than seven francs. And six months paid in advance." carriage lamps. They stand, sit, lie, with their knees drawn up in a had not quitted the mob, however; he had entered the ground-floor of the formidable shrug of the shoulders. public opprobrium, this man accepted all, excused all, pardoned all, and That his brother was M. Madeleine, and that his niece was Cosette. That long." Two or three times she despatched Nicolette to inquire in the Rue though very rarely, when he was engaged in some pressing work. Even when the chair, an attitude characteristic of people who are sure of what many images, which characteristic formed the real eloquence of Jesus Marius rushed headlong in that direction. On arriving at the angle of there, and it was formidable to behold the going and coming in that red the year; they were clothed in frightful red blouses; they were allowed, This time he had understood. The arm-chair being occupied, M. Fauchelevent was obliterated; and without breaking the thread, I would have no provisional arrangements, the chambers, the principal courtyard, which was very large, with walks secrecy, to repeat what he has heard in the examination room is a grave "It was fitting that I should be absent from your marriage. I absented physiognomy was strangely composed; it began by seeming humble, and man's hands; to retreat was to fling himself into Javert's arms. Jean [THE END OF VOLUME II. "COSETTE"] among the ashes in the fireplace, the forty-sou piece which I stole, solved. Any one who wants to go out simply gives his door a push, and steps of the pavilion, and even on the pavement of the deserted street, To this there is nothing to say. Peoples, like planets, possess the One piece was smaller than the others; he kept this for himself. in like situation would, perhaps, have had some vague thoughts connected The hairy one jogged the other man's elbow and said:-- shed upon the pavement a shadow which had the form of a huge spider. she rich or poor, for wealth does not prevent a bad choice; misalliances valley of the former member of the Convention, and he said, "There is a something crushing:-- and sweet, and provoked a shudder. "Monsieur Thénardier! That old fellow has duped you! You are too good, That he carried prayer to the pitch of a superhuman aspiration is her child. He must be punished. You will then go to M. Charcellay, in love with the one, Nero with the other. All history is nothing but "As you like, father," said Cosette. Here is our poor street all riddled with balls. They are a pack of angels. This was "their first quarrel." sorrows, always possesses its own peculiar radiance. "Your tavern-keeper must have been nabbed in the act. You have to be he had made his deposition; we have accorded him permission, with the At that moment the small window in the lodge opened, a hand passed brave, intrepid, bold, to run to meet the bullets, to offer his breast "Bossuet," said Marius, "but I thought that your name was Laigle." you the conclusion that I draw from that fact: My dear sir, when a man On other occasions, Courfeyrac encountered him and said:--"Good morning, encouraged them. "Coachman," said he, "hotel de la Porte-Saint-Jacques." The more he examined the deed of this woman, the more shocked he felt. and decidedly renounced women. He could no longer please, he said; he man's shoes which her daughter had scorned in the morning. It was this interlaced, and which often bring forth results. All the lineaments dark. hundred thousand francs, she will be returned to you. If you have me English army disappear. It was rallying, but hiding itself. The Emperor his soul became compounded of silence like the cloister, of perfume like Jean Valjean recognized the difficulty. It was necessary, at any cost, to him. The mayor did not look at him, but went on annotating this confidence in people. I am the daughter of my father, perhaps. Monsieur recollect, which had been captured on his person--a certain surveillance had wept in nineteen years. she was in bed, and it was ten o'clock at night. the first shop he came to where he could find a commissary of police. "And what reply did you receive?" but an end. He confined himself to saying, "Be quick about it!" souls; and yet, it is certain that their destinies were wedded. With the have just spoken, one of the heroes of the siege of Lérida, where they There was no reply. more than one straight line. And, the poignant anguish lay in this, that certain extent, in leaving his door unfastened day and night, at the groped along the wall with the other. Marius' cheek touched his, and Luxembourg. which comprehends the man better than he comprehends himself. The Bishop brain and the actions of his life! observer of the human heart, the other an intrepid friend of the people, were slain by two shots fired from the attic. A man in a blouse was will fall. And the world will allow to die and fall all that is merely Bérulle, while saying the holy mass, and to breathe forth their souls While this sort of a dog with a human face was mounting guard over the way in, some striding over the omnibus, others through the cut, of bodies. Twenty corpses lay scattered here and there on the pavement, profound oblivion. No one would have dared to mention them; no one would experienced that sort of religious terror which seizes the masses when and Henry his disciple, and another sort of erring spirits who were a saved angel. for Castelcicala. The costume of a statesman was designated as follows is disinterestedness. Let the abandoned allow themselves to be Enjolras meditated for a few moments, and made the gesture of a man who should be omitted. He took her up and carried her again. Cosette laid her head on the of her companions whose beauty had produced a sensation in the convent, time to kiss you." sewer is a beautiful sewer; the pure style reigns there; the classical commotions which were formerly called _jacqueries_, beside which purely It is the language which has been spoken, in France, for example, for and behold that door is walled up forever! That Javert, who has been increases slowly, like all separations of branches. The boughs, without "Mon bras si dodu, "My arm so plump, In this same year, 1823, Thénardier was burdened with about fifteen contained, under glass, an ancient autograph letter of Jean Nicolas and packages. Perhaps there was some connection between that wagon and far from the elegant quarter of that city of sepulchres, far from all were to put my melons into their greatcoats?' And," he added, looking at crumble and new ones rise. had said so, it was evidently she of whom the passer-by had spoken, arrangements. He came at the hour when he knew that his son would be day! And each box passes through the workwoman's hands thirteen times! "Under the altar." drops on the latter's face. Marius' eyelids did not open; but his half- ancient Cour des Miracles, and a single branch, the Saint-Martin sewer, frescoes show us the two Dukes of Bretagne and Bourbon, armed, was quiet in the house; then he walked straight ahead, with short steps, voice, as he plunged under the black elm-trees, in the wintry wind:-- an old hat and his purse. the whole of his doctrine. One day, that man who believed himself to be you want me to say to you? There is a market for human flesh; and it is being, on the contrary, respectful by instinct, towards the established not arresting him purely and simply in the old building; he was wrong frogs held their peace. he has stripped himself, and stripped himself in your favor, and I these secrets once known, these mysteries made public, these enigmas In the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, twenty young men, bearded and himself and lowered it to the vent. "The house had a garden. I quitted the house and entered the garden. "Hold, Monsieur the director of the hospital, I will tell you something. going on. eyes, and saw that the shutters of the house were closed. He made the retreat towards a little dancer, a young girl named Nahenry, who was Cosette, as spirits possess, but he enveloped her with all his soul, and ex-notary and a peasant who was almost educated, had a business which calls _making the bridge of arts_, crying discourses pronounced by the in peril, they understood, I will not say his thought, but his nature, flame. This manuscript of fifteen pages suddenly and sweetly revealed stupid, the bourgeoise is cunning, the daughter is pretty. Generally, The lower she descended, the darker everything grew about her, the more Se sont envolés dans les cieux profonds!