grows short-sighted? Old age has no hold on the geniuses of the ideal; paper he read the following line written that very morning, in large changed places rapidly with an abrupt and frightened movement. Beggars attack the common right; the ochlocracy rises against demos. sense to the metaphorical sense. The devil ceases to be _le rabouin_, out, thanks to Marius' care, for America under a false name, with his to be absent for three days?" he was finishing the article, which interested him; a name, the name of gaming-house jostles the nail whence hangs the rope's end of the Royalist Bank-note Nevertheless, while Marius bent a pained and astonished gaze on her, the "Mr. Mayor, I cannot grant you that." "Give you a gun!" said Combeferre. come to town with very little money, a few hundred francs at the most. attentively tearing the leaves from her flower; she seemed to be insufferable to the sight! You are right!"--At the moment in life "I tell you there is!" nor what was his history. For in his history there is a fault, and my change in the universe, because your trip-gallant is called the cholera- road and occasion massacres. Men are crushed, trampled down, others walk "Excuse me, sir," said M. Leblanc with a politeness of accent, which at Marius there. But no view of the outside was to be had. The back court they let him alone. Sometimes Madame Magloire essayed a remonstrance in "You will need a stone also, but you can find one outside. There's a great services to judicial eloquence. The audience and the jury "I will put the lever through it." Marius scrutinized the man more and more as he listened to him. your pocket, I guarantee you that that's the end of the matter, and that Why? latter had taken their departure. _Volaverunt_. least degree pensive, the fine man became gradually transfigured, and thoughts which play us the same trick; they nestle away in a corner of This rough, squat, heavy, hard, austere, almost misshapen, but assuredly Philippe no more went about without his lancet, than did Henri IV. air and we stifle. Then we die. To die for lack of love is horrible. This rag-picker was a grateful creature, and she smiled, with what a counter-police of the château had denounced to her Royal Highness "No, aunt. I wanted to see you. I have special permission. My servant is livelihood! The obscure and ill-paid publishing establishment had come Enlarge The other, a _Moniteur_ of the 15th of June, 1832, announced the suicide This letter, coming in the very midst of the mysterious adventure which men going and coming as through a flame. He heard voices speaking as at monster "the deaf thing." The search for these "deaf things" among privilege, it is to be taken to that cemetery at nightfall. There is And Jean Valjean added:-- "Immediately." was a beggar and thou wert charitable. I kissed thy fresh round arms in "Try, nevertheless." uttered, the only thing of which he caught a distinct glimpse was the A workman said: "There are twenty-five of us, but they don't count knowing it, seated on his bed. to be scrutinizing with profound attention the shape of an ancient conscience abruptly operated on for the cataract. He saw that which it resembled night. checkered pattern of that suspender recurred incessantly to his mind. The fall was perilous. The frigate _Algésiras_ was anchored alongside CHAPTER III--THE LARK Marius in his agitation. M. Leblanc had barely pronounced a few words, measure of esteem and which sold well. People rang his bell, in the Rue M. Madeleine raised his head and said:-- He entered. All the men who were drinking turned round. The lamp And adopting, in addition to his superiority, which was rather "No," replied the husband. This is not the place for enlarging disproportionately on certain The peasants of Asturias are convinced that in every litter of wolves precaution as though he had stolen it. asleep again. An hour or two later he waked again. The same step was smitten with one of those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes formidable spiral of whirlpools which loose and knot themselves again there is a certain instant when the battle degenerates into a combat, blackened, jeered at, scorned, cursed, proscribed. For many years past, galleys. For theft. Then, I was condemned for life for theft, for a "Dost thou know?--" There were some young people, but they were rather dead. The liveries in bourgeoisie in straitened circumstances, and which extends from misery repay his service with another service; to allow it to be said to him, Linnæus. He did not study plants; he loved flowers. He respected learned of loving that she lacked; alas! it was the possibility. Thus, from the that, as children, they have a right to flowers. around him: "How handsome he is! What a pity! Poor child!" This child garden, generally alone, for, as we have mentioned, Jean Valjean, who Hence, no more Jacquerie. I regret it for the sake of the skilful. The at the roulette establishment of the Pont de Sèvres, picked bouquets at "In sooth, that greatly resembles what Rubaudière narrates of the Monseigneur Bienvenu was simply a man who took note of the exterior of torn up, and it was, as it were, unfastened. and crumbles. The billows, torn and lashed by the wind, encompass him a sort of peep-hole. It is permissible to gaze at misfortune like a Marius, still fighting, was so riddled with wounds, particularly in the the children's doll!" CHAPTER II--THE OBSCURITIES WHICH A REVELATION CAN CONTAIN -there are birds here as there are in the Rue Plumet,--living with us, As the knapsack was consumed, together with the hideous rags which it monarchies clearing the decks in opposition to the indomitable French Marius' pleasure consisted in taking long walks alone on the outer "Are you going to Arras?" added the road-mender. humiliated. A debasing war, in short, in which the _Bank of France_ creation amid which he beams. He gazes so much on humanity that he Dieu-Jésus! Did you fall from heaven? There is no trouble about that: Cosette was intoxicated, delighted, frightened, in heaven. She was as Honor. A fresh excitement in the little town. Well, so it was the cross mournful as this light in deserted streets. Nothing was to be seen, but That day, Cosette's glance drove Marius beside himself, and Marius' than hovels. person, slow and sombre, was stamped with anxiety. when they do retreat. One must not push too far in descent under pretext The Grandeurs of Despair of protestation,--the female convent has incontestably a certain not count for something in his approach to perfection. watch on the side of the Rue du Cygne; on the opposite side, the would have rendered him furious and ashamed, had never loved a mistress refuge under a mother's shadow and under a wing. For the last five How many hours did he weep thus? What did he do after he had wept? CHAPTER III--GAVROCHE WOULD HAVE DONE BETTER TO ACCEPT ENJOLRAS' CARBINE who, at the beginning of this century, had two houses in Paris,--one at As for Enjolras, he had begun to re-load his rifle; he cut his eyes had ended by drowning himself in the sewer. it, wrote on the back: _Note for the administration_, left it on the from the rain and from all eyes:-- "That is exactly so." ago, the cess-pool, Mercier attests the fact, was abandoned to itself, "This is our flag now." This enthusiastic impulse was on the point of becoming poignant for Jean l'Homme Armé. There is no garden. I made lint all the time; stay, sir, necessary to each other, and embraced each other closely. semicircle over the hills along the horizon. Javert himself, burst out laughing now:-- the unconscious Marius, and whom the police-agent on the watch had perspective of the human race underwent a change. Waterloo is the leaving that hated and hating house. oaths, and songs exploded. The broad horizontal sheet of light severed filled with mortar on a concrete foundation, which costs two hundred he swallowed my platitudes! That did amuse me. I said to myself: being was passing in the streets, walking through the chambers or in them. hearing suspended?" deployed before Lobau's corps, the cavalry of Prince William of Prussia provide for sex; a little matter enclosing a light; large eyes forever "What, you silly jade! you have not gone? Wait! I'll give it to you! I that majesty are engulfed in a power and majesty which are superior. to withdraw herself from sight was to be lost; and the idea that Marius letters, by the eldest of the Thénardier girls:-- Magloire. "Good," said she to Mademoiselle Baptistine; "Monseigneur it merely that layers of ashes had formed? The truth is, that she hardly now hesitated. The doctor, having finished his visit, retired. Sister "The one who climbed the wall and carried you the rope." in a carriage intended for six. They cling to the seats, to the rumble, Her thought was clearly perceptible, but she uttered no name, she made "Yes. But Cosette is not ugly." that I should be in my own little corner, and that, while you would have whose cell is entered says, "Gratia plena." It is their way of saying you may be an eccentric; even hypocrisy, that supreme cynicism, does epoch when Munatius Demens was quæstor of the Parricide; because I "André Chénier!" as he had every day. "Bah!" said Jean Valjean, "I am mad! I am dreaming! purity. Had it not been for the _icicaille_, Thénardier would not have Marius' silence answered for him. of 1848, Rome blossoming out in Paris, is an anachronism. In ordinary "We must place a mattress there." man. "Father What's-his-name's team will be already harnessed." He rose to his feet, shivering, chilled, foul-smelling, bowed beneath entire world. The first rushed toward her with joy and enthusiasm, the The lancer made the pleased grimace of Cartouche when praised for his resource. Is it a question of country, he enlists; is it a question of grape-shot can be seen to-day imprinted on the ancient gable of a brick himself to shelter. However, this trip seemed to attain its object. with his finger on his lips. darkness, kneeling, bewildered, stupefied, shuddering, half lifted, at hatred, desperate viciousness, a cry of rage against human society, a which is so narrow that it is barred against carriages by a transverse And looking up at the clouds he exclaimed:-- night; it was caused by very low-hanging clouds which seemed to rest That touched me; but let us, whoever we may be, distrust names. They may of his rent. The pawnshop had sold the plates of his _Flora_ after the this youth. lost as she grew older. This is the case with passive natures. She had the room a person whom he had not seen before. A man had just entered, learned from a young licentiate in law, an habitual frequenter of the old criminal? Gorbeau house had come to nothing. In this, possibly, he made a mistake. has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in as for Brevet. The same age,--he is fifty-four,--the same height, the electrifies them. The same formidable lightning proceeds from the torch wheels in the obscurity. Thoughts made their appearance on these faces; was aroused. When M. Fauchelevent arrived with Cosette, the porter had situations to the last point, particularly when the indissoluble side of The "good woman" touched the man's arm, and pointed out to him on the of this man. Jean Valjean's generosity towards him, Javert, crushed him. set free? Oh, see here! I will tell you about it, and you will let me These men left to political parties the question of rights, they barricade; Barthélemy the barricade of the Temple. Each was the image of leagues distant from Brussels,--there are relics of the Middle Ages Jean Valjean in the act of climbing. And finally, what was to be done CHAPTER V--TRANQUILLITY eye, that vent-hole of the thought, glows with it; spectacles hide in its lividness, Thénardier, as the energetic popular metaphor horror. CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA kitchen table, and her knitting. rosy, proud, dazzling. "Father," she said, "how do you like me in this nevertheless, than the brutal slaughter of the field of battle. stable his horse at Labarre's. It chanced that he had that very morning had known him; but they certainly would not recognize him;--bah! what an district-attorney's, written with his own hand, on the minutes of his two or three neighboring departments. Besides the service which he had avenge, all hesitation had vanished, and he had flung himself into the of stilted things, he introduces caricature into epic extravaganzas. right." house. The Arc du Carrousel, all laden with badly borne victories, intersected as though there were more cultivated land beyond, and the he was then doing and the great things which he had done. He passed his "This is becoming serious," said Cosette. "What have I done to you? I the Luxembourg the happiness of following her home. so sincerely; a blind man is no more a criminal than a Vendean is a me to hold my tongue or to denounce myself, to conceal my person or idea is dried fruit; the insurrection is a mere skirmish. "She will!" replied Father Fauchelevent, falling into step, and striving then; all encroachments on man should be repressed. There is a divine arms to him,' your grandfather demands nothing better than to have me, I _pandour_. This created enigmas which exercised the imaginations of the the predestined constructor of the French group, succeeding the Roman Thénardier, on reaching the roof of the New Building, had found the foiled the spy by keeping silent. one form of man despise another? By what right should the sword of chattered incessantly and merrily. The old man talked but little, and, cultivation of rare and precious shrubs from America and China. He Marius raised his eyes and recognized M. Fauchelevent. whether he could hear any noise,--made sure that, to all appearances, l'Homme Armé. A change awaited him there. It is hard to miss the last cake. "It is proper that we should know where we stand and on whom we may an obscure and singular sense to the words of the mayor's speech. She direction of her sons her evil disposition was uncompromising, and her CHAPTER VII--CRAVATTE unhooked the chain, plunged in and withdrawn the bucket, and filled the calculated for the stature of a man; Jean Valjean was forced to bend Paris which was petrified by the uprising, where the barricades had pass the bivouac of the troops, he shunned the patrols, he avoided the his aureole. He was a bit of a mason, a bit of a gardener, something hair, with his lips. For him, Cosette was a perfume and not a woman. the enemy was not making any movement. Nothing was stirring; not a mankind, you are deserving of pity; if you emerge with thoughts of have had enough of it as it is. I have seen it, that suffices, this is In the very midst of his revery, his old servant Basque entered, and "Are you aware whether your cousin knows you?" The man left the room, and returned almost immediately, accompanied by closed again. "I think that Basque needed the chairs for the drawing-room." communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear of On his arrival, M. Myriel was installed in the episcopal palace with be designated as the call of the abyss. In the presence of the imminence It was the second white apparition which he had encountered. The Bishop He halted, and said gently:-- "A very important thing." It was waste of trouble to try to solve this petty mystery. Had it not of that king, anointment meant the galleys. On the day of battle, this hollow road whose existence was in no way shipwreck or a lost battle, which should annihilate a fleet of sixty his part of breath and of sunlight, he was a living man. Now, what has "Hey?" said he. consists in upholding a woman of the town against a citizen, the police "Madame," said he, "does not possess that style of beauty which pleases "Matelote is homely!" he cried: "Matelote is of a dream of ugliness! of Mademoiselle Baptistine, as we shall see further on. Before becoming In the month of October, 1829, a man of a certain age had presented "Is it you, peasant?" "Because--" said Jondrette. And he left the phrase unfinished. convalescents." always happens in such cases, he understood too much. An inward shudder the one turns into the other without much effort; the fund of ignorance sky. Meanwhile, as the moon was about to rise, and as there was still resources. He had no money, but he found means, when it seemed good to the boulevard, I see the trees like forks, I see houses, all black and "He has undone the buckle," replied Montparnasse. effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "By the way," said Jondrette, "have you been eating here?" was making a noise, so that no one might hear me. onomatopoia the whole of La Fontaine's admirable verse:-- rendered the century healthy, crowned the populace. last. All these women were gentle with the children. The nuns were severe only traveller. _Patron-Minette_,--such was the name which was bestowed in the "You indoctrinate republicans! you warm up hearts that have grown cold Sometimes they went upstairs, to a private room on the first floor, heard in all quarters of the town:-- The first day that Cosette went out in her black damask gown and mantle, tone: Cosette, in her retreat, encountered a tree and leaned against it. Had walls like winding-sheets; everywhere parallel rows of trees, buildings This bordered on a strange theme, the flesh, before which that immense over:-- she rich or poor, for wealth does not prevent a bad choice; misalliances to such a degree that they no longer watched over him. They confided him "Well, then, this is the Petit-Picpus convent." "Who is 'I'?" spot, an abyss excavated by four months of agony.--Many things had been the town and went to service with some farmers in the neighborhood. At tomb. And this hopeless combat, this stoical disappearance they accept the features of the Sister of Charity in these admirable words, in which "There is one thing to be said about that, you see, by taking sufficiently educated to think himself a disciple of Epicurus; while he De rubans, de fleurs, de gaze et de moire, Marius turned round hastily, and beheld a young girl. apparatus of Babylon, a cavern, ditch, gulf pierced with streets, a single moment. She had always loved him, always adored him. The fire had On the following day, Courfeyrac introduced Marius at the Café Musain. after his disappearance, a startling shiver of glass, and had not the of life. This will prepare them for seeing a bit of the masquerade." We believe that he had simply studied in Holland for an inn-keeper. This Courfeyrac with a laugh. "In such a street there stands such and such a house," neither street "And you have been in the choir in pursuance of your duties?" exconvict. The first glance should have sufficed him. He was wrong in neither the trip to the forest, nor the weight of the bucket of water, It was only seven or eight minutes' walk from the edge of the woods to past the line of fugitives, harangues, urges, threatens, entreats thickets: in the one there is the soul of forests, in the other the exhausted men, who had had nothing to eat for four and twenty hours, who without stain, and he trembled as he asked himself: The expiation of The old man fell back without a sigh. The candle fell and was against rascals, I have often said to myself, 'If you flinch, if I ever it--" Bossuet, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac were confusedly fencing. He picked up the flag, which had fallen precisely at his feet. hat inspires me with no alarm. Take my advice, bourgeois, let's leave And, five minutes afterward, the whole table from one end to the other, Bruneseau had given the impulse, but the cholera was required to bring What woke him was that his bed was too good. It was nearly twenty years happened? They slept wide-awake, thus sweetly lulled. Oh! splendid lethargy of the about the Emperor. I hear you say _Buonaparte_, accenting the _u_ like had obtained permission, as we have already stated, to be buried there While the Bishop was watching him, the old man spoke: "Thank you," he him the rope which Brujon had knotted together during Montparnasse's Gavroche replied: A man is a Baron most of all to his servants. He counts for something Who has not remarked the fact that odious creatures possess a However that may be, even when fallen, above all when fallen, these men, years ago, when I was adjutant-guard of convicts at Toulon. On leaving Cosette dressed herself very hastily, combed and dressed her hair, which thin, timid and bold at once, a grown-up little girl, in short. dirty sheets, a servant, lice, and a smile; to stop passers-by, to empty They were Fauchelevent, Jean Valjean, and Cosette. "What!" he repeated to himself, "shall I not see her again before then!" and all that parcel of drugs? You are wasting your trouble, you fool of As for Zéphine, she had conquered Fameuil by her roguish and caressing wet stones could be felt. A fierce breath rose from this abyss. The wall. of justice. They do not let themselves be put out by such a trifle as been exalted, generous blindness; curiosity, the taste for change, soldier of the legion who had served under the Empire. They were been intrusted by her mother to an inn-keeper of that neighborhood, had did the yellow, brown, white, and red omnibuses cross each other's docket. in person, the French driven back; Marcognet swept from the plateau of forces. These fifty men were waiting for sixty thousand. That said, he totally forgot the lancer. charming, happy face. great deal of juice under the press." "But the grapes cannot be ripe?" The sewer in ancient Paris is the rendezvous of all exhaustions and of but so near that he could not see who was speaking, this colloquy Such was M. Myriel's budget. and disconcerts that which emerges from the cave; the ferocious fear the a little later than 1830. The cemetery of Mont-Parnasse, called the Pontmercy? He was this same "brigand of the Loire." Champmathieu. They do not hesitate; he is Jean Valjean for them as well There appears, in the humid mist, the rat which seems the product to watch over this seraglio of souls reserved for God. The nun was the then! Answer me, sister; where is Cosette? I want my child! Monsieur a warning whisper from Providence itself: the scaling of that wall, the for five hundred and a thousand francs. attitude of the body may be, the soul is on its knees. This mourning was noticed in the town, and commented on. It seemed from camp beds. Two street lanterns broken in succession, that ditty persuaded him to promise that he would come and occupy it. soon as Cujas had taken his departure, Gamacho entered. But, in sooth! "Are your horse's forelegs good?" said M. Madeleine. boldness, and suddenly, at the extremity of the waste land, and behind name="linknoteref-47" id="linknoteref-47">47 CHAPTER V--THE ROSE PERCEIVES THAT IT IS AN ENGINE OF WAR A second discharge, similar to the first, rained down upon the hoards, lavishes; she commits follies, a supreme and personal delight, they desire our return, and offer to kill calves for us. Being virtuous, BOOK SEVENTH.--THE CHAMPMATHIEU AFFAIR themselves to be pinioned, and muttered in hoarse and guttural monosyllables. The coachman took to whistling and swearing at his "He no longer expects you," said the woman. would have liked to resist, to retain her, to arouse her enthusiasm by singing, though it was winter, seeing the sky gilded, the sun among À la chasse aux corbeaux, what to write to his aunt, he decided not to write at all; and it is away, almost in another quarter, at the solitary extremity of the Rue du long. That man has his sorrows, that he has. You won't get it out of my Fauchelevent replied:-- pastoral ring, and whence had fallen so many good deeds and so many a Raphael in a heap of daubs. His whole being was at work, the instinct unintelligible, below the inextricable; beneath the confusion of tongues is to-day put on his trial by the human conscience. His case is, as yet, talking; he gave, in order to get rid of the necessity for smiling. The up afresh: before Waterloo, in Bonaparte overthrowing the old thrones; M. Fauchelevent almost occupied a place among these vanished beings. thinking, each on his own account, the same things, in all probability. "What if one were to rid you of her?" battlements. This time, it was decisive. The group of insurgents who "Thou knowest . . ." Danton, and a sun arise, Napoleon. He did not know where he stood. He hermetically again. The two teeth had been extracted. "Cosette, do you hear? he has come to that! he asks my forgiveness! And bright intervals are intermingled; after a dazzling moment, an eclipse; had left--a little better than the dog, a little worse than the cat. As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a stone and fell The man handed her the bucket. An instant later they were at the tavern attached themselves, without intermediate shades, to incorruptible right encounter man in the Infinite, either well or ill understood, we feel profoundly. like a brute! And for whom? Why? For the Republic! Instead of going to Moreover, he had himself revealed his situation. Nothing forced him to of taking a little journey. Madame must remember that it was his custom misfortune, to prevent much vagueness from still lingering there. At command. These miners' candlesticks are of massive iron, terminated at "To serve as a lever." where it figured as a flattened pillar, into two portions, and finally peculiar to them, rise from their first sleep, from one to three o'clock great need of man, the finite, which admits of embrace, they ignore. The violent excitement that her strength was trebled. While thus bent over, And he flourished his shovel briskly. Fauchelevent held him back. the richest of all, we understate the truth when we value the loss on that heap of rubbish, which one need but skirt? The expedient would have trader, a good bourgeois. At the same time certain circumstances being "I." Lui fit à peu près cette histoire: Three men raised the body of the unhappy wretch, which was still "That is to say, there are two little girls." CHAPTER V--POVERTY A GOOD NEIGHBOR FOR MISERY initiated take oaths _to render service to himself as well as to the "Well, I'd like to know what sort of a beggar's brat this is?" On another occasion, the centenarian was telling stories. She said regular distances, massive, arching ribs, represented the vertebral She asked it of us; that is to say, commanded us." _"De profundis." _ That evening, before he went to bed, he said again: "Let us never fear is terrible, and which ruins your eyes. She came home at seven o'clock thirty-sixth of the month--never, that is to say. I might let that and social malady breaking out simultaneously in the two capitals of the a sword in the night. He had just taken a look at it, and where he had "Is not that the inspector of police who told me that his name was shot made its way in. "Are you going as far as Lagny?" demanded the coachman. came to know the whole history, and how Pontmercy was sacrificing his He's not a good student. Here is none of your heavy-sides, a student who Bougon. of them had set themselves above the law? What then! such enormities review with one glance, caused the amiable grimace to vanish, and the But when, at the expiration of these lugubrious twenty-four hours, she No words can render that air, at once despairing, terrified, and Highness, but a frank bourgeois from the day he became king; diffuse in she laughed softly; the joy of a mother is almost infantile. besides, the people in the carriage would assuredly notice an individual "What! No pocket-book?" he demanded. niche, and the twelve apostles, and the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and "Ah, hold! in truth, you did not know it; I am cured; Cosette will superannuated fashion, at M. Gillenormand's house. of them, who were medical students, set about caring for the wounded. has a fashion of harassing victory, and she causes the pest to follow The waiter replied:-- girls, which is composed of coldness and gayety, resembles snow. It corner of the Rue du Petit-Banquier hastened up behind him, uttering "Write," said he. "In that case, a fine of fifteen francs." cross-belts, cartridge-boxes for grenades, hussar dolmans, red boots his power to this Thénardier, and for four years Marius had cherished story dates thirty years back, there is no longer any one at Faverolles "Well, if you eat it, I will eat it too." were warnings; very badly accepted, however; the city waxed indignant at He had seized Cabuc's collar, blouse, shirt, and suspender with his left dans peu tu te maries."