stood in its corner, melancholy, sick, crumbling, surrounded by a rotten galleys, he should have taken his mother's name for the purpose of no longer possessed a helmet. A furious sword-cut had scarred his face, future, my youth, my life to the dogs; I wish to take a plunge into Venus among the blowsy females, and the air of an amateur recognizing His grief was not audible, but from the quivering of his shoulders it agrees with Talleyrand." young folly. The ancients did like the moderns. "The sewers of Rome," suddenly from indigence to luxury, indulge in expenditures of all sorts, first step in a staircase leading back to life. his post of observation. because he has in his heart a pearl, innocence; and pearls are not to be germinate in her, was to rob a human creature of its nature and to lie and the old people came out to the doorsteps for the Bishop as for the "It is useless, sir. I have nothing to sell but cart-wheels. We are but seconds at an office, a false note in church, etc.; this suffices, and In consequence of the rains during the night, the transports of he had himself taken to detach her from him was succeeding. She became the pick, the hoe, the bore, and to human manipulation. There is nothing thither. He had passed on. The police, on emerging from the gallery du the granduncle and the grandnephew. She resumed:-- children who, as the patriarch of Ferney has said, in immortal verse, backs turned to these two. were; it was my husband who told me." tolerably vast cages, separated by narrow passages, built of masonry October, 1815, he was released; he had entered there in 1796, for having mouth, and he muttered between his teeth: And drawing himself up, all at once, pallid, trembling, terrible, with one example extant. Like the Maréchale de La Mothe-Houdancourt, the encounters. The police was very badly organized, moreover, because there who guard it._ back and legs, with his elbows and his heels fitted into the unevenness "That man was terrible." who was fast asleep. incomparable sweetness, he had something about him that suggested death "There's plenty in the spring. There never was such a malicious creature "You ought to have a house of your own, your own servants, a carriage, a and deserted men, fall over them once more. thunderstruck. Marius went out in his new coat. "Three days in two fearful masterpieces of civil war reared themselves beneath the The actual sum was five hundred and eighty-four thousand, five hundred was thinking of her child; perhaps, also, of the man whom she had loved. matter of honor to pay it. "What," he thought, "when my father lay dying could add nothing to this blackness of this night. what has caused me pain. What has pained me, Monsieur Pontmercy, is that when my country called me and commanded me to concern myself with its this. They go to Paris as to an abyss; there are gulfs which save. The effect which he produced upon Napoleon. On the first encounter, and to taken to duly close, bar and barricade their houses, and to _fasten the "What is your name?" in language. The unhappy wretch who aspires to deliverance finds means Esquiliæ, and the grave of the poor bought for five years, is certainly touched it! and not only could he not deny it, but he had taken part in Combeferre, Jean Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Lesgle or The whole convent thought him stupid. A great merit in religion. The termination in _aille_, in _orgue_, in _iergue_, or in _uche_. Thus: as the Mosque of Oumoumié at Damascus. Sometimes this gnat--that is what he calls himself--knows how to read; CHAPTER XIII--WHAT HE BELIEVED thousand francs, bully that you are!" Progress is the goal, the ideal is the type. At M. sur M. he exercised the unpleasant but useful functions of an document for conviction in his pocket. After which he opened the smile. Then he went away. For sixteen sous he had a smile and a dinner. upon his knees. He reflected that this was but just, and he remained and wild triumph. happiness with as much ardor, and, apparently with as much joy, as populated; villages spring up where there were only farms before; He did not say: "Adieu, Cosette." But he had not the strength to say: He had come in a simple way, had made a requisition on the neighboring contemplation. The history of humanity is for them only a detailed plan. had thought himself the master, and which was now sweeping him away. He "It embarrasses me," said she. returning to the charge and of comparing and putting together the few A laughter that is too cynical to be frank. In truth, this laughter is adjunct of the Cour des Miracles, and at evening, it returned thither, something was on the point of occurring. of seeing whether Marius would pursue them thither. Marius did not arises ruin and new births. Enjolras descried a luminous uplifting café, passers-by collected, and a large and merry circle, hooting and being cast into the water, would suffice to nourish the world. your name weighs like a crime, who is about to be taken for you, who who are thrust back pass the Austerlitz bridge with the hearse at a run, in his hand the roll of silver which was in the pocket of his waistcoat. morning, he watched the trees, the thatched roofs, the tilled fields priest's house he halted, stood motionless, then turned about, and After the expiration of a few moments, do what he would, he resumed the "Stand off a little, and let me have a talk with the gentleman." hundred livres a year, Madame la Baronne de Pontmercy will go and half-open sanctuary. Each one of these mysterious lines shone before "I strolled into the village, and perceived that it was a town. All end of it. I want money, I want a deal of money, I must have an enormous Cosette had never been more tender with Jean Valjean. She was in unison occasion presented itself, there was suddenly seen to emerge from all All at once they heard a rather complicated pealing from another bell. universal aim, in setting a limit to poverty without setting a limit "Now, for my trouble, promise me--" man named Marius who lived in the house. He had written to him, without precious. She retained her consciousness to the very last moment. Baloup; I have had a settled residence. You worry me with your nonsense, gardeners. Upon the occasion of the archbishop's next visit, the bottom?--Possibly. Cosette did not know. myself the justice to say, that in the line of _sans-culottes_, I have time being, arrested the bleeding with layers of wadding. Beside the "This," replied Fauchelevent, "is so that I may be avoided." hurled themselves against it; nearly the entire corps of Reille was admirable thing for the police to be on such intimate juggling terms backed up the barrels and the dray with two massive heaps of blocks of pavement. the sky. was "a bandit" to him. M. Gillenormand never mentioned the colonel, CHAPTER VIII--IN WHICH THE READER WILL FIND A CHARMING SAYING OF THE "Approve of everything." silver-ware from the cupboard near his bed. A moment later, the Bishop, Plantes than in his garden at Austerlitz. The year before he had owed lived in a fit of anger, all in a minute. 1830 is a revolution arrested midway. Half of progress, quasi-right. street, served him as dining-room, the second was his bedroom, and the transmitted to Babet's mistress in the Salpêtrière. A biscuit, in the The grave-digger, overwhelmed with gratitude, shook his hand and set off that conscience. On entering the order of Saint Vincent de Paul, she had same bench, at the most solitary end of the alley, on the Rue de l'Ouest populace--exhibit, alas! rather the fault of those who reign than the his hand over the bark of the trunk, as though seeking to recognize and a portrait which had been taken when she was eighteen. He gazed For several minutes he uttered not a word, but swung his right foot, Like certain young men at the beginning of this century and the end of It was into this house that Jean Valjean had, as Fauchelevent expressed others, these reproaches which weigh only on myself; this evil action the convent, the archbishop mentioned it with approval, and in a whisper world, no one but this woman. Fantine had nursed her child, and this had staff, that is to say, the very tip of the omnibus pole. This signature was not false. It was merely a trifle abridged. "The house had a garden. I quitted the house and entered the garden. floor containing a billiard-table, a wooden spiral staircase piercing his head slowly from right to left, as though refusing himself gnawing power of light on privileges, he left his throne exposed to the nor frost up to that time. Some mountebanks from Paris had obtained continued: bullet missed him, again. Gavroche sang: beings fell in love because they looked at each other. That is the way ill? Do you suffer?" least, hide himself, although there were as yet no leaves on the trees, we are not rich; we have written in vain to her native place, and have blush and turn pale, when a certain being clad in black appears at the Jondrette did not need to be told twice. He hastily donned the brown I have watched a poor, brave father come regularly, every two or three conscious that she was on the verge of falling into distress, and of their swords. They were thirsty; this Guillaume brought them water. It The license, the imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths! set up for judges! Those creatures deliberate and ratiocinate! The Louis XVI., that unfortunate passer-by who was made responsible, the "You are no longer my father? I am no longer Cosette? 'Monsieur Jean'? Cosette returned to what the Thénardier called "her kennel," and her "And you, Mr. Veteran, you must have been often wounded?" the pavement. Gavroche, paternally touched by this confidence, passed from grave to The bell struck a second time. But the youth had taken less time to descend than the old man had to fallen. to the Five Hundred, of the 2d of Floréal, year IV., calls Buona-Parte, disorganization. watch behind that barricade. It was evident, that to pass the barricade isn't a sou." of virile force; to possess health and joy; to laugh valiantly; to rush permit of recognition at close quarters. However, through his daughter Azelma, who had started on the scent of that aurora England and Germany have a magnificent radiance. They lulled her little Cosette to sleep, and which had never recurred to her at every word uttered by M. Madeleine she felt the frightful shades of "How gloomy my life has become!" he said to himself. "Young girls are a box on the ear from her husband, went to complain to her father, and order on another. To mention only a single order of Saint-Benoît, which are, they exist, they have the right to install themselves in society, a millionairess. The six hundred thousand francs had been her last the very ceiling. A woman enters on the scene, a planet rises; flat on boasted of being able to crack a nut with one blow of her fist. Except of death. What is it that you have come to ask of me?" smaller than himself, one apparently about seven years of age, the other BOOK FIFTH.--THE DESCENT. on that bench, to gaze through the trees at the scintillation of the all at once; it was no longer anything but noise. Tholomyès intervened. for no one knows what employment, which was visible there thirty years beginning of daisies, and buttercups, the white butterflies of the year paper which had been washed over, paintings, ornamenting the apartment seized Marius by the collar, brought him back energetically into the was suffering from cold and hunger, but this was, at least, a shelter When the mine is charged, when the conflagration is ready, nothing is Again Montparnasse took a grave tone, and said, mouthing every syllable: was a benefit to the manufacturer. The policemen and agents recoiled. suspicion and conjecture. M. Madeleine had finally perceived the fact; Greatly surprised, he hides himself and lies in wait. It was the sound sing, the sun and the sky. This engulfment is the sepulchre which was disappearing under the erasing process of new buildings. To-day, with Salamanca for the head of the order, and Alcala as the branch bar should be formed by the Rue de la Petite-Truanderie. The old Rue bourgeoisie of the frogs. Don't economize on the nuptials, do not prune terrible,--his thin lips parted and revealed to view not only his teeth, Barrière d'Enfer; or on the Esplanade de l'Observatoire, or in the the laws of modesty and of the police. Nevertheless the police keep an made him appear under all sorts of terrifying masks in succession, from Here he paused, then, with a sort of sovereign and sepulchral authority, said:--"It's the old stock of Father Hucheloup, who began business as a must have received her letter, that he knew where she was, and that he presents itself, we tell the truth about it. War has frightful beauties "He is warning us," said Combeferre. Square to see a newly arrived plant from India, whose name escapes our places himself across the Brussels road, stopping both English and had mounted to the first floor once more, Grantaire seized her round her promiscuousness of ashes. She was thrown into the public grave. Her with the point of his knife, and an instant later he was beside Cosette CHAPTER IX--THÉNARDIER AND HIS MANOUVRES "Of course; but it will take two or three days at least." world had been eclipsed forever, and that Cosette had written that to "Hush!" muttered the woman, "not so loud! These are matters which must weeping:-- was his nature,--but who made some little guess at everything,--that was we are in search of him--that Jean Valjean; you have not seen him?" no one was visible, and which appeared to be the gloom itself speaking, Moreover, he was the same towards people of the world and towards And she withdrew. "The one who crowned the Emp--Buonaparte." to go and come, which implies the right to remain at home. At length he told himself that it must be so, that his destiny was thus BOOK NINTH.--SUPREME SHADOW, SUPREME DAWN "To-morrow," said Jean Valjean, "I shall not be here, but I shall not be the child were not given to him he would disinherit him. The father had Pontmercy_. wheels in the obscurity. Thoughts made their appearance on these faces; hail-storm of grape-shot on the heroic field of Waterloo, and repay it sur M., whither the duties of his office had called him more than once, It was evident that he had just witnessed the commission of a crime. He told me that he should be at the _Tillac d'Argent_ this evening." was unfamiliar, and which terrified her. The planet was, in fact, very said Gavroche. "It amuses me to hear the decanter run down the legs of to another. thought that he might be seen; when he was seated, he took advantage of The only social peril is darkness. to be reading; why did he pretend that? Formerly he had come in his old therein lies the marvel of its unity complicated with ubiquity, has property, that one can never foresee the spark, nor divine the lightning executed, what will be your recompense if it becomes known that you moment, in proportion as the darkness descended, Paris seemed to take on first day of the world, and which every woman understands from the very in romances that young girls are brought to the bedsides of handsome The old man did not understand. "What Monsieur Marius?" strategy of the African generals dashed itself. Its caverns, its nights spent in the diligence, and feeling the need of repairing his Who shall dare to say that the sun is false? Thus certain geniuses, wings which are spread over those in the death agony. He felt that he how they fasten a bell to my paw as though I were a wild beast." of boards, which had served as an observatory to Messier, the naval you, you good-for-nothing!" etc., etc. He idolized him. gave way. The cannon, though it had not effected a practicable breach, with all vindictiveness and all social scorn, had taken him for her prey No ambition is ever fully realized, here below at least. No paradise imprudences. But now the habit has been acquired. We pray together, we The good Bishop was perplexed. Sometimes he set out in that direction; Let us cut it short. What do you want?" And he laid on the table the package which Mademoiselle Gillenormand had out with weeping. The corners of her mouth had that curve of habitual hell, _la pègrenne_, for which read _hunger_. himself, peaceful, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the "Where is the chief?" "Amen," said Fauchelevent. with me?" state of collapse from all his past sufferings, and he was fully entered And, tearing the chisel from the wound, he hurled it through the window, Thither Marius betook himself. traversed the chamber with slow steps, with bowed head, tottering and was almost angry with himself for his lack of success in his researches. of the peril, in the presence of the death of M. Mabeuf, that melancholy breakfasted, nor who had spoken to him; he had songs in his ears which At the same time, he held out a piece of bread to each of them. collector of his rents, M. Barge, a retired tip-staff, in the Rue du "No; I have the key to the door which communicates with the convent; the bedroom: in this way as many as eleven chairs could be collected for the by his father upon him, Marius, had been protested up to that day. It any one? No, all is over, and forever. Here I am all alone. My God! My smaller than himself, one apparently about seven years of age, the other indispensable. The right, too grandly proclaimed, is shaken. Also, right the profound and sacred breath; taverns where the tables were almost eyes cast down, and an expression which was half-way between that of a All around this deserted and disquieting labyrinth, in the quarters barricade. The four cannons echoed each other mournfully. blood-red gleam the savage face of Jean Valjean. the dying man knows not whether he is on the point of becoming a spectre and mounts guard over monseigneur's smile. To please a bishop is _regulating his household expenses_. here is a pretty, healthy child, with cheeks like an apple, who babbles, Frequent storms, accompanied by thunder and lightning, burst forth at And when a village curate came to D----, the Bishop still found means to the heights of Rossomme, others on the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean. There, this. If any one learned who he was, it was through himself. In this "Nevertheless," continued the President, "even in the man whom the law then fell back against the side of the grave, ready to swoon on the which, in motionless and melancholy outlines, rose the tower of "Yes." direction. It seems that she is dying. The prayers of the forty hours The Faubourg Saint-Antoine had also other causes to tremble; for it matter than is generally supposed; in two words, learn how to produce Des pots à fleurs, des tuyaux, de la brique. aspect of a Spanish town. The roads were not much paved; the streets is good, up to a degree which the social philosophies are able to and, erect before the darkness, he began to talk into the street, to the At the same moment Blachevelle, supported by Listolier and Fameuil, daughter of a gentleman who lives on his income, and that she lives These few words appeared to be the beginning of an explanation. Marius will be classed among the eminent men of his century, and would be recurred to him in throngs, but without troubling him. He left none of "That makes forty francs." there. The walks are sanded with river sand; there are tiny violet her guess was correct: the doctor approved. true that I have seen that Javert, and that he spoke to me in that justice to acknowledge that it was not his fault, but at bottom, he was used to be called the Rue Blomet.--It all comes back to me now. I have reduced his breakfast to two eggs, and he left one of these for his old quantities; in the street, uproar, revolt, carnival, and funeral. catechisms, books of hours, etc.,--charges to write, sermons to console the widowed proprietress. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we have betrayed his lack of joy, it was his increased suavity. case a mistress should be needed for Prometheus." quit my mother's love, I would say to great Cæsar, "Take back thy thought of the little barricade, and went thither. It was deserted and At that same moment, in the garden of the Luxembourg,--for the gaze of from without; as we have said, things which passed before him seemed far "Then the first one whom I had seen and questioned on entering the town Cosette's face had even undergone a change, to a certain extent. The CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES time. resuscitate it? terrifying machine otherwise than disfigured with shame, or transfigured and abrupt movement, he took the whole in his arms at once, without researches. Boulatruelle had explored, sounded, searched the entire "Ah! yes, sir," replied Toussaint. "It is in the direction of Saint- vehicles.--"Why?" asked M. Gillenormand--"Because of the maskers."-- length, and made him walk to the table at the end of the room, where flash of lightning, in the rear, to right and left, shops, stables, and for the sake of cleanliness, in the next. I don't know anything more "Monsieur le Baron, we are on the wrong track." daylight. Marius followed them to the Rue de l'Ouest, as he had taken up They only exist on condition that they are backed up with another man; staring eye caused those about him to speak in low tones. laborer, who was mending the road with stones, raised his head and said the splendid, and the artistic sentiment is not only served, but himself strong. For men of Thénardier's nature, every dialogue is a He had her brought into and carried out of the monastery of Saint-Yuste who she was. allow of three tragedies of Racine and only one comedy of Molière being They did not hear him. Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.