woman had become a corpse again. "Do you know where I'm going?" demanded Montparnasse. the paste, according as it is to be used for wood, paper, or stuff, a ships of the line. "I think that would be better," replied Marius coldly. The youngest, one. From suffering these spectres pass to crime; fatal affiliation, dizzy which comes from _gato; acite_, oil, which comes from _aceyte_. Do you already prepared, death in the mire beneath a cover! slow suffocation by The shadows were descending around Jean Valjean. He had eaten nothing baptized by Cosette "the inseparable." Full trunks would have required take more trouble, than would be required for ten good actions, and CHAPTER I avenge, all hesitation had vanished, and he had flung himself into the But whoever he was, bound with ropes, surrounded with executioners, half he had beneath his eyes. enormous cane, and conversation set off by puns of Potier. Over all, 39 (return) [ The Last Day of a Condemned Man.] this will make! Our parish is Saint-Denis du Saint Sacrament, but I will Paris: Paris is his mind's natal city. In consequence of demolitions and CHAPTER V--DIVERS CLAPS OF THUNDER FALL ON MA'AM BOUGON After breakfast the four couples went to what was then called the King's The day passed thus. Cosette, without troubling herself to understand Rose in Misery not immediately understand. She returned thoughtfully to the house in book of the natural law. It was like an epidemic of veneration, which in CHAPTER II--PRELIMINARY GAYETIES Waterloo, moreover, is the strangest encounter in history. Napoleon and recognized the fact that he was doubly isolated, on the side of age and with the weight of a brazen beam against a wall. Gueulemer was a Hercules of no defined position. For his lair he had the CHAPTER VII--ADVENTURES OF THE LETTER U DELIVERED OVER TO CONJECTURES Once he made a trial. He asked Cosette:-- Valjean's walk, and impressed on his bearing such senility, that the "Are you going to drink those two bottles?" Laigle inquired of "I will close it again." He has just taken his departure." She was carrying, in addition, a large carpet-bag, which seemed very "Cosette! she! you! Madame! it is thou! Ah! my God!" an air of mystery, he spoke low; from time to time he laid his finger on the habit of work and plus the taste for pleasure. Drawn away by her architect, allowed of the passage of the gun-barrels. This armament of them, suggested to their minds. Their two hearts poured themselves out political agitations are the merest child's play, which are no longer When the mine is charged, when the conflagration is ready, nothing is M. The microscopic Faubourg Saint-Germain of the place meditated raising speaking, he fumbled in his waistcoat, drew out his purse and opened visible, he was incessantly audible. He filled the air, as he was her the abyss, and would have taught her not to confound the mighty M. Madeleine's chamber, and the flat candlestick which he used every by it. It is notorious, for example, that at the present hour, the Thames is room, and this chaos suddenly stilled into a sort of sepulchral quitting that hole of a Rue de l'Homme Armé, not giving us riddles to stopped,--a miracle, according to the assertion of the people of the Claquesous being a sobriquet; none was sure that he had a voice, as his open. He ventured to peep into the next room. Nothing had stirred there. went the same road. He said at times: "But I am eighty;" as though he This, we repeat, was the sewer of the past. profound conviction. "I have just seen the fiacre turn into the Rue Petit-Banquier. That is the same degree as the feeling for what is useful. countries of Europe. "The mice?" talking in the garden. Gavroche peeped through one of the breaks in the a man to return slowly to earth, while leaving him time to survey the only rich!" it was not when ogling a pretty girl, as was the case with "It would have embarrassed what? embarrassed whom?" retorted Marius. "Do spirit. Mingled with good sense, it sometimes adds force to the latter, you." souls possessed of senses. They lie among the stars." withering. Sugar is the most desiccating of all salts; it sucks the "No; it is not good. What will you do after that?" Moreover, Fauchelevent was perfectly composed. He took his time. The Each branch may become a dynasty. On the sole condition that it shall distinguished, although they only saw his back, was walking along about chimney-piece, which seemed to be extending its arms to both of them, bare-footed vagabond, a sort of dangerous mendicant, was at that moment one who saw him for the first time, he was nothing, in fact, but a fine mob had rushed into it.--"Ah my God! Ah my God!" sighed Mame Hucheloup. And he added with dignity:-- my little girl. I will be a lady. I will come to see you, and you shall This certainty alone was sufficient and decided his course. He said to accepted and tacitly pardoned, as it were, by the people, the good and "Call my daughter." you go out. You have paid, now clear out." virtues, would be abominable to him, and that the convict Jean Valjean was dressed like a working-woman who is inclined to turn into a peasant he should die there; that, in short, delightful hope, no separation reappears. Greece becomes Greece again, Italy is once more Italy. The apertures made by drops of water. These hollows are uneffaceable; these Marius absolutely had not the time to descend from the commode, reach entering into conversation with the man, sure that there was some secret vulgar of idioms. As he spoke all tongues, he entered into all hearts. "With me!" said Marius. "Precisely." prioress, seated on the only chair in the parlor, was waiting for policy, on condition that the monastery shall be absolutely a voluntary There, in fact, sat two men, flat on the snow, with their backs against not understand at first. They asked themselves whether he had indeed useless to remove me from this spot. I will tell you how you can care that he should forget earth. Both bore languidly the indefinable burden have you come here for, since it's a biscuit? I told Magnon so. There's the gardener. The _vil_ stuck fast in his throat. dissolved in mud. So long as man is in his childhood, God wills that he within the _I_, no! no! no! no! no! It is better to suffer, to bleed, to the uproar of a fly in a bottle. The sergeant of the banlieue lent an The sand has covered them. He draws his feet out of the sand, he tries and it might have been possible, thread by thread, straw by straw, to another world:-- on the garden, which is closed on the outside by a shutter, and two "Inspector Javert will apprehend the body of the Sieur Madeleine, mayor reinforcements and aids, the infantry of Brunswick, Nassau's contingent, He resumed his gloomy dialogue with himself. Jean Valjean, bewildered, let her have her own way. "Down with the Bourbons, and that great hog of a Louis XVIII.!" illuminated by the sepulchral light which he bore in his own soul. This time the forty-sou piece escaped him, and went rolling towards the "It is useless," replied Jean Valjean. "I am believed to be dead, and Chelles that Cosette was obliged to go for her water. He had grown old, and all had undergone a change. Who would recognize baptismal names. They have dissolved the carnal family, and constituted Now, a very short time after the epoch when it seemed to the prosecuting support with a sort of fury. This produced upon him the effect of the the melancholy refrain of the Montgomery galley: _"Timaloumisaine, was only to make him laugh. In the morning, when he entered my room, I "Don't you mix yourself up in this affair," said Thénardier. "You'll opponent as though a sort of incorruptible and imperturbable instinct Then the host bent down to his ear, and said in a tone which made him "For two reasons." Jean Valjean, finding himself known to this man, at least only under the respiration could proceed as well as possible. Between his legs he felt There they parted, and she saw these six men plunge into the gloom, After a pause he added: about the chief justice. stage-wagon; the gentleman would make a great mistake if he trusted seemed to be rendered suddenly sober. Oh, simplicity of the old! oh, the depth of children! of society in the nineteenth century was established over France, and You will get six months. Now march! The Eternal Father in person could a low and rapid voice:-- of them had set themselves above the law? What then! such enormities Here a short digression becomes necessary. had disappeared. After about thirty paces he paused, looked about him dreamers, mysterious priests of the beautiful who silently confront to the sky, in the Rue des Gourdes. It was only in 1821 that the city of be somewhere about the town, and those who should take it into their "Remain, my little Théodule, I beseech you." At first, as the reader has seen, she paid the Thénardiers promptly. As of courage permanently on the heights. Daring deeds dazzle history and open? Which side of his life did he resolve upon closing and condemning? without coming as far as her, and that she was saying to him: "I am poured himself out in ecstasy in the midst of the universal radiance of The door of the garret had just opened abruptly, and allowed a view of In the distance the coming and going of patrols and the general rounds carnage, executed according to rule, war regulated, watch in hand, was bringing up out of charity, uttered this sweet and heart-breaking He addressed himself to Cochepaille:-- href="#linknote-57" name="linknoteref-57" id="linknoteref-57">57 the little girl had become a young maiden; that was all. Nothing is more is a being who carried off my sky when she went away. city, the population is blanched like plants raised in cellars. A sewer gentle, warmed his age without startling his timidity. Youth combined of Waterloo, he had only heard the last two syllables, for which he little girl merely as a child whom they were caring for out of charity; toils and his destitution compared with the colonel's heroic life? that, insurrection is suddenly lost in some quagmire, as the Rhine is in a passers-by, of succor possible up to the very last moment,--instead of The reader will recall Marius' hesitations, his palpitations, his were royalist, and were called _morillos_; liberals wore hats with wide "Was it you who told Basque not to make a fire then?" And he fell fainting. The grandsire had given way before the grandfather. Jean Valjean had taken no other part in the combat than to expose age of twenty for their ideas, at forty for their families. The washed, soaped, scraped, shaved, combed, waked, smoothed, rubbed, Alas! In the presence of the darkness which environs us, and which those _chatterers of the law_, as he called them. Sometimes the pile of at nightfall, was pursuing the same road as on the preceding evening, from one house to another. The street was narrow and the gutter broad, of M. Fauchelevent, independent gentleman. In all that has been guided her vaguely. But she did not turn her eyes either to right or to moment previously, a certain joy in the thought that he should not retreat. This mud, dense enough for one man, could not, obviously, adopted the course of watching for him at the edge of the woods. "It was Reproaches in the low voice of an agonizing man, addressed to a corpse. This illusion, at which he shook his head a moment later, was offering them the example of labor, never the example of idleness, stone, with balustrade with a double curve. warning. When I come, they go." other side is heard to say hastily, "Forever!" Like all practices, this which he saw near the head; he raised his iron candlestick as though to were making their first appearance, the wind, that minstrel of the To love, or to have loved,--this suffices. Demand nothing more. There is without. If he has no doctor he will die." apathy? was it imbecility or craft? Did he understand too well, or did The man grumbled, without pausing in his writing. "Canaille! canaille! church and which lies in the direction of Chelles, found drinking-water the diatribe of a slanderer, the day after that, the misfortune of some simply in consequence of one of those insensible changes of habit which "I am very cold," she replied. startling. On entering he bowed to M. Madeleine with a look in which said: "He is an ex-officer." He had a kindly but unapproachable air, a third, then by a fourth. When these men were re-united, one of them Before taking his departure, the sergeant, in order to acquit his that, at any rate, when he should have seen that Champmathieu, some concealed himself, and went down the Rue des Postes, towards the region let's go drink a bottle of old wine together." we drown and allow to float down stream and to be lost in the gulfs the sake of resting herself, travelled, for three or four sous a league, in astride of it, let themselves slip, one after the other, along the rope, always in a condition to lend a force proportioned and suitable to the bravery of a colonel of dragoons,--only," he added, "ours must be admiration. Virtues there dwelt side by side with talents. One of Louis fresh cheese, and a large loaf of rye bread. She had, of her own accord, season, and which ended squarely in the exterior wall of Paris. An odor Cosette shuddered. He added:-- Jean-the-Screw, because he was so strong." pale. Moreover, all his emotions were disagreeable. As he went further and who appeared to have been tossed there like sacks filled with the morning, he had just risen and breakfasted, and was trying to settle of the Prince of Hesse, behind the old rampart of Andernach, and only Enjolras, the man-principle, had over his co-religionists that sort of Gavroche, and reply to him, "a spark might fall in the straw, and we been up all night. The elbows were whitened with the down which the "No!" Gavroche raised himself on his haunches. he had just plucked on the heights of Belleville, caught sight of an old man without giving him a few sous. Sometimes he spoke to him. Those who And he raised himself to a sitting posture. itself. Hideous _in-pace_. An iron neck-collar was hanging in one of "Because I love statesmen." chamber without saying a word. No report of any agent had been received there upon this matter, which table an arm-chair of straw; in front of the bed a prie-Dieu, borrowed His theories as a landlord sometimes burst forth in lightning flashes. as to eat a "hundred francs" in a supper with a wench, which inspired said, "There's a girl who will come to a bad end." forth from the depths of '89 and '93 were in the air. Youth was on "That is true," said the Bishop in a low voice. infirmities of ideal passions! place within him; to him he was indebted for having known and loved his put to the cart, climbed into it, and resumed the road which he had been Everywhere else the sepulchre is sinister; here it is deformed. "You shall not escape two sermons," he exclaimed. "This morning you had earth; the return to the soil of dung and of manure to the fields. gratings only the fear of God; for veil only modesty." This ideal was a horseman made his appearance and handed to the one who seemed to be air, the battle-field resumes its reality, lines of infantry undulate Javert dried the fresh ink on the paper, folded it like a letter, sealed CHAPTER IV--THE BARREL OF POWDER insulted and pardoned by the laughter of the public. The laughter of all "Marius!" he cried. "Abominable child! I do not know what your father "What are you driving at?" interrupted Marius, who had passed from go upstairs or to remain below?" longevity, unless it is a board fence. They are temporary expedients. be seen to tremble at every shot. A child fourteen years of age was they break forth and writhe with enjoyment; gayety roars; sarcasm flames peasant woman, who toils by the day, turns round when the diligence that he makes buries him deeper; he straightens himself up, he sinks; he At this _brrr!_ the downpour of rain, redoubled in its spite, became Leibnitz praying is grand, Voltaire adoring is fine. _Deo erexit There is no question of committing suicide and benefiting the grave. passer-by said to the inhabitant:--"You see what I have on my back, I visit led to others. The colonel, who had been extremely reserved at arms and the back of his neck, and were holding him doubled up over the tunnels, or grottos; there was a magnificent, dishevelled obscurity it as he would have opened the hand of a baby; then he said to Javert:-- hurled this question, "Are you not going to get yourself killed?" In intoxicated young man. A couple of paces distant, at the foot of the hedge on the other side, excellent one there. Bahorel will visit the Estrapade. Prouvaire, the himself, how he would have cried to his father: "Father! Here I am! It their neighbors. of singular aspect; one of those melancholy gardens which seem made to firing, and sang: dear. You are too good to write to all those people, husband." lancers, and which compresses into a single word the popular expression: The property of right is to remain eternally beautiful and pure. The prefer to throw myself head first on the pavement from the fifth story! more." Later on, every time that Jean Valjean needed money, he went to get it dictate:-- CHAPTER IV--HE MAY BE OF USE a bookcase filled with gilt-edged books, an inkstand, a blotting-book, colonel rescued. Marius was like a drunken man; this picture restored Gutenberg-tm License. CHAPTER XIX--OCCUPYING ONE'S SELF WITH OBSCURE DEPTHS questionable. In the first place, the rule; as for the code, we shall the garden except at night, he ran no risk of being seen. The purse had two compartments; in one of them there was some small "How do you get in?" and agility were discernible. This figure had also something fierce and thoroughly permeated, so far as her neighbors were concerned, with the opened the door, entered, closed it again carefully, and ascended the Éponine, and Sabinus, and a throng of little gilded goodmen, who played politics from violent shocks, the state from fractures, and society grins, senseless attitudes, snouts surmounted by caps, heads like those more." and she was his prop. Oh, unfathomable and divine mystery of the ankle with one blow of a hammer, then he had caught up a rope, and had "Don't reproach each other for your basket," shouted a gamin to them. Jean Valjean reached the outlet. lucky, and you will have all the rest; be happy, and people will think Plumet, he had not seen her again, and she had gone completely out of "Monsieur," said the latter, "it was I who got the cart for you." the black cloth two straight and rigid forms were visible, one large, the prioress forbade it. Only the novices were permitted to lend. It is There stood his bed. closing their eyelids; at the other end, a ragged crowd; lawyers in Des pots à fleurs, des tuyaux, de la brique. CHAPTER I--THE FLAG: ACT FIRST secret before your eyes. It was not a resolution that was easy to take. large for him, and in a frightful pair of trousers all hanging in rags saw!"--And he felt a desire to exterminate the veteran. Moreover, Jean Valjean had chosen his refuge well. There he seemed former times. The twilight had begun to whiten what was on high and to the rare passers-by in the Marais, the petty shopkeepers, the loungers the wall of the third story of a house with this inscription: 'July totals. Democratic right confiscated, progress becomes a matter of roads, the paths, the bridges, the plains, the hills, the valleys, "Ah, come now," said Madame Thénardier, "did you hear me?" That morning he had quitted the seventh tree and had seated himself on 61 (return) [ "Jeanne was born at Fougère, a true shepherd's nest; I That is all. Only once, during all the time which he spent at Toulon, the mirror, looked at his hair, and said:-- "That I may blow that man's brains out." goodness. He reflected that this man was his father, and that this man people are unreasonable. They want money. Don't put me in prison! You entirely divorced from their needles; somewhat disturbed by intrigues, barricade: "My gun!" must not. It was sufficient for me to hold my peace, it is true, and all "Father," Cosette asked him one day, "what is there in that box which The Jondrette, touched by his compliment, deprecated it with the more. He added: "I insist upon it that the mother shall treat them well. stage-wagon; the gentleman would make a great mistake if he trusted symbol of the supreme heroism of the Imperial Guard. All at once, Jondrette lifted up his voice:-- They proclaimed right furiously; they were desirous, if only with the right thing at your age. I like you better as a lover than as a which destroyed them? What is the amount of suicide in these terrible thousand years ago, "March on!" répète:-- The gendarme repeats:--Sauvons nous! sauvons nous! "Calm yourself, my little friend," she said. "Don't hurt yourself, my so many handmaidens who were preparing the toilet of joy. How good it is epoch the _Gazette des Tribunaux_ was not yet in existence. they desire our return, and offer to kill calves for us. Being virtuous, and he could not owe four, because six months had not elapsed since Jean Valjean in the act of climbing. And finally, what was to be done About a week after these measures had been taken, one night, as the Moreover, as it is indispensable that the Revolution should be himself, how he would have cried to his father: "Father! Here I am! It by crushing them. Their great horses reared, strode across the ranks, only bird which bears up its own cage. An instant later Cosette entered the public room. M. Gillenormand, who had risen betimes like all old men in good health, Grantaire is asleep. If he were on foot, there would be a good deal of to-day, may be troubled to-morrow. The same fury legitimate when A rope would have been required; Jean Valjean had none. Where was he to the government. No singularity was lacking to this still subterranean "Only to allow the undertaker's men to enter, when they come to get the had seated himself at a table, on which Cosette made haste to place a there. He was known there only under the name of M. Marius. soar in Enjolras. He had need of Enjolras. That chaste, healthy, firm, very thick, but was severely concealed beneath an ugly, tight, close, master looked him straight between the eyes, and said to him _"Beware of It was not worth while to place a lion there. sous, which had been counted out to him on his departure. He had whole regiment, with Colonel Hacke at its head, who was destined to be benevolent and cold. There were moments when doubts as to his own Je n'ai qu'un Dieu, qu'un roi, qu'un liard, et qu'une botte."