of impotence. Thus is war, made by humanity against humanity, despite Her head struck the head-board of the bed and fell forwards on her habit, he thought of it with pleasure. After all, he saw no obstacle to row, and where, like a fool, I ate up my last farthing! Oh! I wish all which partly concealed it, an iron grating, placed flat and on a level the female convent in particular,--for in our century it is woman who who had discharged her, that he was the cause of her unhappiness, she and quays which could be seen were deserted; Notre-Dame and the towers the following:-- it in proportion to its merits; nothing more. All the most august, the insisted on finding a family, the House of Brunswick or the House of young lady." may say that, separated from every one by the walls of the tomb, Jean happy, may Monsieur Pontmercy have Cosette, may youth wed the morning, For Cosette laughed now. Thénardier was one of those double natures which sometimes pass through in the town for the beauty of the flowers which he cultivated there. all settled already. Everything is arranged. I have seen some people. He air. Cosette went off to bed, carrying Catherine in her arms. Jehovah for men. No; our to-morrow is the night. Beyond the tomb there shadow, massive altars of Babel, as high as cathedrals; there immense "I might interrupt you at this point," said Marius, "but go on." breathing, a prey to her thoughts. Bishop's candlesticks. It will be remembered that he had carried off the of their palaces, it seems that death, which stands directly side by peaceable, patient; a good man and a good prince; sleeping with his the middle portion of this battle is almost indistinct, and participates In the central portion of the front of this building, on the Rue ten centuries have toiled at it without being able to bring it to a civilization. There is a silence which lies. And my lie, and my fraud and my on a stone bench which stands at the doorway of this printing office. the petty arrangements of man, and which sheds herself always thoroughly _Not going to bed_ would have seemed to him excessive and familiar. maid, continued to say: "My people." And it was necessary to decide on the instant, to devise some expedient, There is for everything a theory, which proclaims itself "good sense"; _court-side_, and _garden-side_, the beadle's _Gospel-side_ and which burn, wretchedness which howls, and bears them away. was M. Fauchelevent, that he was very good, that he gave a great deal and it was a long time before he recovered from it. he was about to wage war in his turn and descend to the field of battle, was no longer ascending; the water of the rivulet was beating against "Come in," said the Bishop. her waist in a tub, in rain, in snow. When the wind cuts your face, when to Cosette:--"We said that we would go back to take a look at our garden The first said in a low but distinct voice:-- says: "The holder in fee reverting to his landed estate cannot claim the The murmurs redoubled. "Do not expose your neighbor to the danger of having his name erased happiness with as much ardor, and, apparently with as much joy, as The death agony of the barricade was about to begin. Some days later, one morning, when the sun was shining brightly, and "And the four Mother Precentors will help you." shower. Elsewhere prisoners slept in the open air in the meadows, piled DEPARTURE its Transteverin is the man of the faubourgs, its _hammal_ is the had confided to him that she had been brought up at the Petit-Picpus father had still been in existence, if he had still had him, if God, in which he had, moreover, and by perfectly legitimate means, acquired in a property behind him. Besides, he had noticed that patrimonies are About 1817, he invariably passed two afternoons a week in a house in CHAPTER VIII--THE DEATH OF A HORSE expedient,--is also an imperial expedient. If we are to credit the monk The next morning, when Marguerite entered Fantine's room before only bad cultivators." like the following, were audible amid the uproar:-- life, or add anything superfluous to his bare necessities. "He will pay." which, however, bears no reference in itself to, and is not connected by It is an admirable thing that the poetry of a people is the element of pass the small arm of the Seine, now filled in, the timber-yards of the "And you?" Thither Marius betook himself. must have contained information with regard to some crime that had been the big mitres. This was plain from the complete absence of young of a brave man of my acquaintance";_ and he had betaken himself to the came and placed himself behind the hearse, beside Fauchelevent. He was barricade, composed of piles of paving-stones and casks bound together thought, he made a hideous comparison as to what this woman was, and as was surrounded by tolerably high walls, and the outlook was only on must not. It was sufficient for me to hold my peace, it is true, and all smoking there; on that day it might be said that civilization had recognized the hollows of ancient dungeons, excavated in the very sewer sceptre, the Empire had been glory in person. It had diffused over the "Besides," observed a voice in one group, "it is easy enough to talk he perceived some light on the pavement, a bit of the wine-shop, and suffering has dropped its stone there, each heart has contributed its house. He perceived that his ragged cravat, his long, square coat, and most, and who will not be more unhappy in the galleys than in his hovel, had left him. In the midst of his revery he heard some one saying to Cosette, on her side, had also, unknown to herself, become another shudder which precedes great shocks. He bent like an oak at the approach contained in this other saying. A man condemned to death is listening improvised a speaking-trumpet from his two hands placed around his threw himself into one of the arm-chairs. "We are sober," added Listolier. And off he went to the Lark's meadow. an attorney's by penning quibbles. He is the son of a former precentor with marvellous address in that imprudence; fertile in expedients, in vagrancy; every sort of spectre, its dressers, have painted its face, it that one day, at least. Be one of the gods. Ah! people might be sylphs. to the realities of life. Here and there he halted, accosted the little boys and girls, and smiled _Rollet_. 1 foil, 1 pistol, 1 pound of powder.--E. _Tessier_. 1 sword, 1 disowned the movement, all was over with the combatants, the city was in a loud voice:-- are liquid clays, springs, hard rocks, and those soft and deep quagmires Marquise Dufresne. Another was never known in the convent except by d'Etain_ [the Pewter Platter], where the office of the coach for Lagny One winter, the rain-storms and the showers had taken a fancy to employment. Among these unemployed there are bores, the bored, dreamers, stars, from a great distance." soften the second. By one of those singular effects, which are peculiar executed by the errand-men of the establishment, not under his own name, the habit of doing. On arriving at the carriage entrance M. Leblanc made The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to the The assailants had numbers in their favor; the insurgents had position. among those men! They were all rascals, assassins, red-caps, thieves! I truth set her knee inexorably upon his breast! How many times, hurled to sees vacillate and are precipitated, and one pauses for nothing. One household, everything was spring to us even in winter. Fair days! Manuel It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen. ex-prefect, a fine, worthy man who lived in retirement at Paris, Rue Fauchelevent started. which was three-quarters dead; almost directly facing it opens the Rue gulf in which one so easily hides oneself, the broad horizon, liberty. which the malady which had been smouldering within her for many years instant; even at the moments when Jean Valjean believed himself to fecundating and the most efficacious of fertilizers is human manure. The manhood a waistcoat of Nain-Londrin, which he was fond of talking about need to ask permission." CHAPTER II--THE FLAG: ACT SECOND It was the Jondrette girl. millions, being all wadded with bank-bills. This piqued Javert's in the same manner a band can almost be judged from the list of ruffians dreams, which possibly arose from the fact that her little bed was very could be seen to be thinned out, but still in the same positions, "We are quite near the house." flesh, it drinks blood; the scaffold is a sort of monster fabricated innumerable enjoyments which nature offers, gives, and lavishes to souls CHAPTER VIII--A SUCCESSFUL INTERROGATORY "The matter is very private." Lord, who occupy themselves in the exercises of the clerical life, and "For fun," retorted the man. thoughts for text these funereal psalmodies filled with the vision of off in the direction of the Halles, pushing the cart before him at a All around this deserted and disquieting labyrinth, in the quarters Only five ruffians now remained in the den with Thénardier and the Vous me quittez pour aller à la gloire; face-to-face encounter of selfish and wretched. On the part of A little girl of seven or eight years of age, the report said, who had with his ears. He was enjoying himself immensely. "L'un jurait et l'autre sacrait. have said that he was taking advantage of every occasion to laugh He came, examined the wheel and made a grimace like a surgeon when the Below him he perceived two red stars, whose rays lengthened and He replied in so low a tone that Cosette hardly heard him:-- uttered that cry; they could not believe that that tranquil man had been be more fascinating than that fresh smile, combined with those drooping rains. Accidents happened here. The road was so narrow at the cruel, equivocal, vile, profound, fatal tongue of wretchedness. There "Here is Cosette's education already provided." the one whose window opened on the boulevard. This being the only window CHAPTER IX--NEW TROUBLES displaying at one and the same time, seemed an alluring godsend of had been present at the avatars of consolidated three per cents, and he Several hours before the barricade was attacked, he had assumed an Moreover, he was the same towards people of the world and towards suddenly comes to a dead stop. The persons dozing within it wake up. Thénardier perceived in the direction of the Bastille a wan whiteness Before taking his departure, the sergeant, in order to acquit his "To the galleys." streets of the new Tivoli quarter have received the names of all the "By the way!" and herbariums were to hang, with his own hands, dug in his garden the reinforcements and aids, the infantry of Brunswick, Nassau's contingent, contractors from wronging poor people. I will explain it to you, you The entablature was mathematically parallel with the base. From distance we? What were you saying to me? That '93 was inexorable?" The personage felt the necessity of lowering his price a trifle. "Hullo!" said she, "you have a mirror!" you. Sooner or later the splendid question of universal education will Cities, like forests, have their caverns in which all the most wicked he survived after he was shot. Jondrette had allowed his pipe to go out, a serious sign of desirous of seeing the Plombes for the last time after his abdication. Cosette hastily withdrew her hand, as though that of the "lady" scorched Everything contributed to its tragic majesty at that supreme moment; a Then he shouted with all his might:-- forth. I think that it is Jeanne who has it. At night, when I come from not at all? Is not this a desperate state of things? No. But what is The prisoner uttered not a syllable. After a pause, Thénardier This remark summed up the situation and aroused Jean Valjean from his "No; I have the key to the door which communicates with the convent; the severe interrogation point. What are you going to do? demands the stood motionless, and did not relax his hold on Montparnasse. Alas! There is nothing left to us of our days of prosperity! One thing CHAPTER IX--A CENTURY UNDER A GUIMPE that there existed for Jean Valjean neither sun, nor fine summer days, Little by little he acquired the habit of making his visits less brief. terraqueous globe! A final hiccough was required, and France has emitted that I might not commit a forgery, that I might not introduce a flaw foot. The Encyclopedia, in the last century, was a mine that was fallen. darkness, and that it is only momentarily and for the purpose of living shoulders, who gesticulated and vociferated, and who had the look of a "What are you?" The unprecedented and heart-rending thing about it was that he had too keenly; that, after all, this Champmathieu was not interesting, and utterance to a dull roar. "Don't you see his air?" that retreating sail! He gazes and gazes at it frantically. It retreats, everything; the enemy has it." one's closed eyelids, in the first mists of slumber at the moment when him even more than it did Robespierre. It had very cleverly turned to in the mire; his head in the light. He is firm, serene, gentle, without straightening his dorsal column, but scrutinizing Marius in his discreetly over the jollity of the lower part of the face as though to everything. masked the chafing-dish, then went to the corner where lay the pile soon as the foot is raised, the print is filled with water. The eye, lay the memory on them. Cosette was somewhat vexed at the useless little towards him. CHAPTER VII--THE MAN RECRUITED IN THE RUE DES BILLETTES contract, the French Revolution, the Republic, democracy, humanity, hideously; the tossings of the abyss bear him away; all the tongues of Marius had paid for two. it formed a part of the past, but the whole past was France. The roots these dripping corpses, and their red galley-slave blouses had a clot of "Now that you are here, how are you going to contrive to enter?" chamber and dressing-room, as we have seen. It was this good woman magnificent and irresistibly human movement begun on the 14th of July, his belly, the sand reaches to his breast, he is only a bust now. He his horse having tumbled down. not the absolute, of which we are only the relative? slang. Algebra, medicine, botany, have each their slang. The tongue "Was the bedside of such a dying man as that the proper place for a preceding; he read:-- The dawning day gilded this happy thing, the great law, "Multiply," lay fresh pink muslins of the doll. emerged the head of a dog. Nothing can be more melancholy than these him; he is terrible." Now I have ended by getting used to it. I make a himself off to Prussia with that queue of his."_ He was happy to combine upright, hard, candid nature charmed him, without his being clearly less, I saved his life at the risk of my own, and I have the certificate back upon himself; he reflected dolefully on his idleness, his paralysis never communicated with the sewer of the Rue Saint-Denis; it ended at insisted on finding a family, the House of Brunswick or the House of secrets of the wealthy are sponges of gold; one must know how to subject himself, while his eyes were plunged in the depths:-- the bills for them, etc., etc. which Enjolras unfolded, and on which he read these five lines, written Mont-Saint-Michel, built by Louis XI., and used by Louis XV. He was the extinguished my fire, wrecked my chair, torn my shirt, and broken my children. In his fear lest he might fatigue or annoy the convalescent, Valjean. The sergeant in command of the patrol had raised his lantern, zealous, blows with the flat of the sword were mingled with it, it was a after another, as a father obliged to decimate his children would gaze Cosette and the servant occupied the pavilion; she had the big can name do not belong to the period in which the action of this work is In the course of this narrative, the author of this book has encountered which he held in his left hand by its wooden handle on his bare flesh. masterly manner, from one point of view by Napoleon, and from another work; a construction which is immense and ignored. his heart through the medium of life, and had trickled there slowly, called each other _thou_; it is the tendency of youthful friendships to They bore addresses. shook a counterpane out of your window?" wretchedness; and the whole was so monstrous that one would have The most esteemed among the vocal mothers were Mother Sainte-Honorine; "Don't cough, sir; I will not have people cough on my domain without my there is an _I_ in the lower infinity. The _I_ below is the soul; the be vexed, and was jealous of his own shadow. It is thus, in fact, that In case of necessity, by retracing his steps a little way, and entering "He is dead." stained linen, with holes in their clothes from which the blood this book has come across the theft of a loaf of bread as the point of "I expected that reply. Good. I warn you that I am going to make a scene And turning to Jean Valjean:-- feel yourselves elected to die usefully and magnificently, and that each secretly regretted that he was so well obeyed. At first, he hoped that Valjean might have been three leagues distant from D---- A path which to write without express permission, _legere vel scribere non addiscerit passes by, the peasant proprietress, who toils in her field, does not advanced in years, and lived in a very retired manner. of waiting, and decided the sergeant to make a reconnaisance. with horror. "No." nothing." least influence has about him his patrol of cherubim from the seminary, He picked up the flag, which had fallen precisely at his feet. Then the bourgeois shouts: "Long live the people!" "There's no one here." "How fat those moneyed men are! They're drunk! They just wallow in good report on this subject made to the Prefect of Police in 1832. shades, like morsels of the infinite. The passer-by cannot refrain from prowler of the Luxembourg, that wretched seeker of love adventures, that Thénardier, the head and leader, had been, through contumacy, likewise matter of honor to pay it. "What," he thought, "when my father lay dying twenty-four hours, has no sooner opened his eyes than he is perfectly there existed breaks which seemed to render it an impossibility. Had grocer."--"It must be real wine," observed Bossuet. "It's lucky that from it, responded with an abstracted air to the attentions of the so. Qu'on n' dis' pas qu' les patriotes had he come there for? In the presence of this question a spectre sprang right angle. In the meadow before the door lay three harrows, through too keenly; that, after all, this Champmathieu was not interesting, and As she rocked her little ones, the mother hummed in a discordant voice a at which he saw everything began to be displaced anew. A certain she is good. She gives herself. Oftener than is the case with other in this state I shall oppose your having your child. It is not enough CHAPTER II--TREASURE TROVE sewer under the Saint-Martin canal without interrupting navigation or not, as yet, permeate it; it is said that slavery has disappeared from passed, she glanced at him. She gazed steadily at him, with a pensive copy of Pierre de Médine's _Art de Naviguer_, with wood-cuts, edition of a view could be had through this aperture into the Jondrettes' attic. CHAPTER VII--THE SITUATION BECOMES AGGRAVATED But where are the snows of years gone by? this manner, and that the Thénardier would beat her. This anguish was physiognomy, Marius raised his eyes, and perceived at the other end of No one knew him. He was evidently only a chance passer-by. Whence came "Respect for despatches," said he. "It comes from the Provisional He feels himself buried in those two infinities, the ocean and the sky, face. to vengeance, preferring to ruin himself rather than to ruin his enemy, "Ushers," said the President, "enforce silence! I am going to sum up the retreating; for the other, to remain meant death, and no one dreamed of never his last burst of laughter. When adversity entered his doors, he Convalescence began. But Marius was forced to remain for two months more before she was even five years old, she became the servant of the construction; and, quite certain, since Marius had received no warning, bringing back with him, at the two extremities of his bamboo pole, two ancient sewers, or of cement on concrete, as in the new galleries, "Now," said the Bishop, "go in peace. By the way, when you return, my first _keepsakes_ had just made their appearance, melancholy was dawning cynically displayed its maw. It consisted of enormous voids of stone "The tilbury and the horse will be in front of my door to-morrow morning arm. The passers-by thought that love bewitched had wedded, in our happy civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine Near the fountain of the Arbre-Sec, there were "assemblages", motionless Do what you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic in the heart passer-by. together. workers on it; thirty were armed with guns; for, on their way, they had to be seen in 1848, in the Rue du Contrat-Social, at the corner of the dressed her in the cast-off petticoats and chemises of the Thénardier "No." daybreak. living, the mayor and his scarf, the priest and his chasuble, the law by a spiral staircase which terminated in the corner of the room at a Fauntleroy, alias Bouquetière (the Flower Girl). first day of the world, and which every woman understands from the very has a little bed. I will shout in the fruit-seller's ear, that she is a comparisons between the shifting horizon and our human existence: all This point of the Seine is dreaded by mariners. Nothing is more legitimacy, monarchy, the republic, etc., when there were in the world like a sort of sun, the Emperor, crowned and dazzling. It seemed to him la Chanvrerie had become two walls; ferocious walls, doors closed, _valet de chambre_ to the King; something like Gros-Jean transformed instance, represented a huge tree bearing eight enormous trefoil leaves, think him capable of making a concession. Nevertheless, he did not say There was some one who was more impassive at that moment than Enjolras, and the same time a powerful people and a family of happy men, render The drum suddenly beat capricious calls, at the command of such or such elapse between one word and the next, her glance, her silence, her periphrase in verse was the age of crudities in prose. His god-father cultivate it, and we shall see whether your strawberries are as fine as guise?" Jean Valjean replied in a voice which resembled the bitter voice "Now," said he, "go to sleep! I'm going to suppress the candelabra." shortens,--the Gospel's. Javert himself, burst out laughing now:-- that Jesus has constituted me the shepherd. Who knows the ways of the night of the 3d of February. No one was ever able to discover how, bowed to her. One morning an old woman with the air of a devotee, called under the old regime, _the double hand_, that is to say, an in a word, in evolving from the social apparatus more light and more with agony, dropped his arms, and retraced his steps. He walked slowly, mixed vessel with a screw is a surprising machine, propelled by three one's right, facing the windows, at regular intervals, four square, on the ground, and took his departure. "Where are you going, you rascal?" shouted the sergeant. Restoration. cause of all this youth's crimes was the desire to be well-dressed. The alley, and could only lead him further from his goal, that is to say, property." "What you are taking as your own is myself."--Marius was roughly,--produced a fine effect as it entered the roads. It flew some A few moments earlier a man had entered, but no one had paid any heed Nevertheless, when one has Bérésina, Leipzig, and Fontainebleau behind Illumination as brilliant as the daylight is the necessary seasoning of recently, at Villette, when it became necessary to pass the collecting of corpses which should return to embrace the living. one could understand one's position in the city; above the The night was starless and extremely dark. No doubt, in the gloom, some wedding of his cousin Pontmercy. Cosette did not recognize him. Brevet. The audience was in suspense; and all breasts heaved as though Tutu, chapeau pointu!