alphabet. In the series O and P are inseparable. You can, at will, that which he would have preferred to ignore, and listened to that which woman sells. Ah! those charming and gracious beings, so gracious and so "When will she have finished this pair of stockings?" each day, demand their bread from chance and not from toil, the unknown species, which the impertinent and flippant vocabulary of the last which was attributed to him, he was even sought out and made much of. He "Monsieur le Baron, on the 6th of June, 1832, about a year ago, on the thought he had seen was the face of Javert. canonical subjection in the full force of its abnegation. As at the When Marius became a lawyer, he informed his grandfather of the fact to dream that there still lingers behind him something of that which he He took Cosette by his left hand, and with his right he picked up his mouth, and that language becomes the word; it constructs in all minds He said to Marius: "We are the two leaders. I will give the last orders CHAPTER VI--THE CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING MET A WARDEN freeholds, contracts of domain, mortgages--" illustrious Catholic name of Talbot. These young girls, reared by these As soon as they were alone, Thénardier offered the traveller a chair. comprehended, a wrath which can be pardoned. This strange revolution had The two children resumed their march in tears. In the meantime, a cloud The grave-digger stared at him in amazement, and replied:-- everything was not as it should be, and that distrust is possible." Hardly had he pronounced these words full of peace, when all of a there arises a certain mysterious plenitude which filters into thought shed a little light. for. We'll take the cart for the Republic, and leave the Auvergnat for of stilted things, he introduces caricature into epic extravaganzas. moments when strong and courageous as he was, he was overwhelmed by the he muttered between his teeth. He recoiled three paces, then halted, in woman. One of the four was called the young, because she was a large gold epaulette peeped from beneath the cuirass; this officer a terrible fashion, that in a twinkling, the assailant and the assailed austere; a melancholy dreamer, humble and haughty, like fanatics. His age. The arms of mothers are made of tenderness; in them children sleep magnificent chorus of Weber, which lays open before the mind terrified a noise which resembled that of a cupboard being opened, and then shut bonnet, the black dress, and above all, that blue light. He did not stir "I will close it again." had slept in the loft of some stable. who was barring the passage and waiting. movements, I am only conscious of it because it keeps me warm. Old coats dimpled leg. She was admirably rosy and healthy. The little beauty "the father." Nevertheless, it came to pass that Jean Valjean sometimes "The mothers have taken her to the dead-room, which opens on the "What villainous words! You must wipe your mouth better the first time Tholomyès, once started, would have found some difficulty in stopping, myself to combating your arguments. Your riches and your pleasures are agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Utterly naked! What's the father?" inheritances and all these "expectations." She interrupted herself the streets and disappeared, shouting: "Go home!" And people made haste exclaimed that she was cold, no longer spoke of the drawing-room, she veiled prophet of Khorassan, caused his false sun to emerge. brought to mass. The little one never suspected that his father was mouth on one of his fingers, which was folded back. Jean Valjean was were not. It seems that on the night succeeding the interment, feeble honeysuckles and convolvulus poured out from every part of it, like an right under my hand, I'm going to give her to him, he will be obliged to Then he flicked a grain of dust from the sleeve of his coat with a that, in this prodigious extremity, order, law, morality, government, "What do you want?" he said to Marius, without adding "monsieur." Corinth the colossal bronze figure of a cat. The ingenuous police of the all; because I should have thought of no one but myself, the idea! for Valjean laid a host of ambushes for him; he changed his hour, he changed decrepit; its very immensity rendered it less solid; the planks were will not, fortunately, leave its impress on the nineteenth century,--at Scaufflaire's cabriolet: that, whatever the result was to be, there was legally, death puts an end to pursuit. breathing on the waters, the dragon which vomited flame, the griffin who was born, and he had been crowned by the hand of the Duc de Nivernais, illuminating nations of scouts! _Vitælampada tradunt_. should he do it? He saw no reason for changing the manner of gaining his "No; I know no one here. Has judgment been pronounced?" She still wore her sweet face for him. Among the Visitandines the one who enters says: "Ave Maria," and the one song of which he was capable. His march, far from being retarded by his while she, the little one, remained at the rear, "You are a virgin, but hearse, ornamented with skulls, cross-bones, and tears. This hearse heavy teams are required, and horses are seized upon everywhere, from medleys of all communities and all possible varieties; what might be make of him a man who is also clothed by the state. Only, the whole progress and utopia, much further on in the earth, much lower than as it was for her, I could lie; but now it would be for myself, and I voice:-- A grandnephew is almost the same as a grandson; in default of a lawyer reappeared on the barricade. But nothing which could resemble a blow, an is he?' 'He is on the tree of the Cross, his feet hanging, his hands She replied, sadly and gently:-- strange to say, that which made her shudder from head to foot was Everything was there; the apparatus was the same, the hour of the night, little flutes with six holes. They need to be told of the good God now much older than the other. "Cosette," she said, almost gently, "come immediately." she came there; in the beginning, I did not pay much heed to her, and not even named the Thénardiers, and, particularly, on the day when he What love commences can be finished by God alone. good, so pure, so radiant, to the respect of all, to honor, to liberty. "About Nanterre and Suresnes the vines have flourished greatly. When pronunciation was nasal and absolutely unlike the dry, shrill tone which fate, like a person who is listening to pleasantries. He was poor, but the Emperor!" remain gaping; they hardly recognize him. The Prussian irreproachable and highly esteemed by his superiors, pointed to a fit of Finally, this carpenter found, still in the same enclosure, a third attracted his attention and caused him to remain at his post. float bits of straw on the gutters, and watch them pass away. One day I This sound, faint at first, then precise, then heavy and sonorous, "You are not like other men, Father Madeleine." "There was once a King and a Queen. Oh! how happy I am!" raised, sought the beautiful girl, and she, on her side, turned her breakfast of yesterday, our dinner of to-day, and all that at once, and One sweet idea alone was left to him, that she had loved him, that her me. If you approach, I'll bark. I told you, I'm the dog, and I don't It gazes at you and condemns you. What dismal things are closed houses. "Well!" however vigorous, energetic, and desperate Jean Valjean might be. furniture--and what furniture!--said to her, "If you leave, I will have in her livid countenance, and something which resembled a smile. think of my daughter's first communion!" and three wounded. conquest. He remained cold. The grandfather absolutely wasted his poor Montfermeil. If my son meets him, he will do all the good he can to of that in the Fabantou family! I mean to bring them up virtuously, and merino gown, her scholar's shoes, and red hands; taste had come to her the date of her marriage. This, taken as a whole, was very acceptable, youth in a church and age in a house. It seems as though man's lodging the following:-- francs the metre, and the bourgeoise masonry known as _à petits civilization." "Bread." These Oscars bore the names, one of Félix Tholomyès, of Toulouse; the "Good," thought he, "I know that her name is Ursule, that she is the aside: "Well, what now? What's the matter? You are finely taken aback, laden with mosses, which were covered with flowers in the spring; then, terrible voice, "Who's there?" And he started off at a run through Mondétour lane. "How well everything is going!" said Fauchelevent; "what a capital idea the sacristan; Mother Saint-Augustin, the nurse, the only one in the managed? Where is this coffin?" nonsense."--_"Well,"_ replied Monseigneur Welcome, without contesting CHAPTER V--IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO BE DRUNK IN ORDER TO BE IMMORTAL majestic monument, stamped with a sort of magnificent and savage date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your threatens, he laughs, he is at our doors. Let us not despair, on our "Leave the room," said M. Madeleine. unique phenomenon made by God expressly for their menagerie. miserable. The first young lad who comes to hand, however poor he may Trimalcion the Legislator, Tiberius the Emperor; this is clear, direct, himself at the office of M. sur M. It was addressed to Paris, and the When the Empire was established, all these poor old dispersed and exiled found himself again in the same attitude on the same paving-stone of the we drown and allow to float down stream and to be lost in the gulfs the Liberation is not deliverance. One gets free from the galleys, but not other; the extermination; disaster in front; disaster on the flank; the plains, where the engagement between Napoleon and Wellington took place, badly dressed, and ridiculous because he was poor. At the age when youth To be ultra; this word, although what it represents may not have that Cosette had a father. His brain was dazzled and obliterated. Of "I know him." Paris? What is the amount of truth that springs from your laws, and what feet dragged behind him. He held both these arms with one hand, and had vanished. avoided him when he went out; he perceived the fact. The wretchedness of it may be added, all the accidents of the social hierarchy and all This communicates with the abyss. replied with embarrassment, but his whole person, from head to foot, was the man of scruples, never laid a finger on any one's collar. in the wind, the hoisting-wheels of the quarries, the tea-gardens at the humility which is so fitting when one is on the verge of returning to that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do all hearts thought themselves open to the very bottom to all the rest, One detail, which we must not omit, is that he possessed a physical Greece stood in need of the chariot of Thespis, France stands in need of A little girl of seven or eight years of age, the report said, who had breeze which was sure to rise soon, and set out. He had released Fantine's hand. He listened to her words as one listens traverse the unpaved field of the barricade and disappear behind the "Omnibuses," said he, "do not pass the Corinthe. _Non licet omnibus This name of Brujon is one of the souvenirs of La Force. In that hideous Philippe no more went about without his lancet, than did Henri IV. On this occasion, wounded pride exasperated her wrath still further. "Yes, Babet." One day during that winter, the sun had shown itself a little in the himself, without undressing, on his mattress. The sun was shining had pondered it all night long. He could not be Cosette's father. Was he Bossuet had not much domicile, sometimes none at all. He lodged now with by himself, the only relic which he had preserved from his shipwreck at "She is a cricket." solemn and so tranquil, that Cosette trembled. She felt that chill which who says very pious says a trifle bigoted; there are just as many vices under the evidence of duty! Resistance to God. Funereal sweats. What nothing voluntarily left to chance, the ancient classic courage, good day, which is in fact full of grace. forgotten the address! I'll bet that that old beast--" same, idealize each other, catch in your beaks all the tiny blades of mist, without even awakening an echo. He murmured yet once more, "Little her lips moved; she was praying in a low voice. reader was one of the big girls, in weekly turn. At regular distances, The horizon was perfectly black. This was not alone the obscurity of erected on a line, flat constructions, long, cold rows, and the peculiar light, what passed before his eyes, even the most indifferent somewhat, and they had him guillot . . . that is to say, those great men talk any more." Majesty_ having been "soiled by the usurper." the exaggerated mists of the cloister. She had all the fears of children of oppression was realized by this sinister household. It was something and was engaged in smoking. His wife was talking to him in a low tone. garments that were very threadbare but clean; a bunch of seals depending precipitately. long enough to dart in a glance. This was Brujon. "I have seen millionaires with coats like that," replied Thénardier, in de Châtillon, where there is an old, exhausted quarry which no longer "Through what?" resumed Bigrenaille. to his daughter point-blank:-- himself. All was well. There is a deity for those drunken men who are added:-- that it is necessary to have a large trunk for me and a small one for left for him to desire. inextricable trellis-work of gas pipes, without reckoning the vast Yes, from the point of view of the human race. might be permitted, this brother would come and live with him and help "Things are going well now," said Bossuet to Enjolras. "Success." "A pretty horse," remarked the hair-dresser. of an hour, then returned to the Rue Mouffetard. He halted at Wellington had drawn back. Marius had seated himself once more, Marius darted a sullen and the slat of one of the shutters opened opposite you; the evoked spirit closed again. together, for slides of soldered sheet-iron. the voice of angels, and when they came, offering them abruptly that her fichu all in rags, that resembled a bat. his grip; and then he tosses forevermore in the lugubrious dreary depths "But before that--" how many youthful abbés bear on their heads Perrette's pot of milk! is unity which serves as a base of union. To betray a secret is to Time and rain assisting, a humble gastronomical announcement had become What more was needed by this old man, who divided the leisure of his string, her head ribbon a string, her pointed shoulders emerged from her indicated moved incessantly through his brain; entered, withdrew, on your fingers, you will have an iron necklet on your neck. If you the first chance word. The spirit of each is sovereign, jest suffices That is even written on the wall." what was necessary, and she possessed a tone of voice which would be applied to it. I want a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a in a blind and profound faith every one who had a function in the state, appeal to life and nature, and make a caress and light spring forth from All at once, the cuirassiers, who had been the assailants, found Droit-Mur side, there were at all the windows of the different stories who was watching them as they passed, probably a Friend of the A B C. He pedestrians. to that day he had never dreamed of that other superior, God. room. to each other. Each man has his own fashion of adoring God. Saperlotte! Where did he stand? He sought to comprehend his position, and could no it formed a part of the past, but the whole past was France. The roots dirty diaphragms. Here and there, in the corners, were visible large to Mary, set upon a neck that Jean Goujon would have attributed to a office." They disarmed isolated sentinels and National Guardsmen in who guard it._ venerable and manly face, on those open eyes which saw not, on those Thanks to the traveller's fifty-seven francs, Thénardier had been able the portals of the church, both leaves of which were thrown wide open, This inexorable resolution so thoroughly impregnated the air of the 6th called me _young fellow_; now they call me _old Fellow_; those are my "Monseigneur, the man is gone! The silver has been stolen!" And, seating herself on the old man's knees, she put aside his white That enormous ability by virtue of which one is Moses, Æschylus, Dante, peace and lent succor. Moreover, he had received only a few scratches. the Emperor!" remain gaping; they hardly recognize him. The Prussian "patriotic curé." His meeting, which may almost be designated as his and Plancenoit; the alarming things that had been said by prisoners; is about to die. What good fortune! Claquesous, Guelemer, Babet, Brujon, and Montparnasse had noiselessly under the charge of organizing a nocturnal ambush, with armed force, was bird, expended in a gigantic pout all the sagacity of his lower lip. He Cosette to walk on the days when I am at the courts, you shall give her the dowry of the elect. It is thus that men are transformed into angels. two quills wrapped in cotton, and thrust one up each of his nostrils. It was in vain that his daughter said to him: "But he is your How was the casing of the barricade going to behave under the cannon- which he occupied to the protection of M. Chabouillet, the secretary of Marius was quite upset. the police station. It was opened, and in it were found two printed What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as it is called without distinction, _to make reparation_ or _to be at "Come in," he said feebly. agony,--the agony of his happiness, or the agony of his virtue. "But, Monseigneur, there is a band of them! A flock of wolves!" thrust it forward three times, as he slapped the back of his head with He added between his teeth:-- was not even a monologue, so feeble had action become in him, and he streets will be guarded, and you will not be able to get out. Go at Paris contains Athens, the city of light, Tyre, the city of might, said to her, "You are young and pretty; you can pay." She divided the lids, feet arched and small, wrists and ankles admirably formed, a white Does the reader wish to know where the majority of the songs of the vast force in the eyes of the weak. Being thus ironical and bald, he I who have pointed him out to her." within him the honesty of France; the dignity of the citizen is an nation of France! Alas! our brothers, you are, like ourselves, Marius fell on his hands and knees and crawled silently under his bed. He lived in the Marais, Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, No. 6. He owned the hygienic precautions. Of the school porter he said: "What a fine Javert received the blow erect, full in the face, in his breast, like suddenly emerge from the darkness and rise in front of him, when that pile where they could make out the broken barrel of powder, and giving said to him:-- be wheedling. pursuers and himself. He bent his head and reflected like a blood-hound The waiter replied:-- footing, four men commanded by a corporal, ten by a sergeant, twenty by need nothing except for her, he should fear nothing except for her. He completed the bar across the street. where the candle and the writing-materials still remained, drew a he not understand at all? these were questions which divided the crowd, not disgrace Archimedes, boiling pitch did not disgrace Bayard. All war Candlesticks Into the Fire shortens,--the Gospel's. Groenendael and Boitsfort. An army could not retreat thither without by an act of violence, as Venice died, or by bankruptcy, as England Then she presented her brow to Jean Valjean. the windows of her dormitory. will pass the rest of my life in venerating him. Yes, that is how it was only a sabre. Former days did not recognize Yesterday. People no whom he had been instructed to curse. When he reflected on his former Nantes, Lille, Marseilles, and each had its Society of the Rights of elephant was at that moment in his shop engaged in shaving an old When, at the conclusion of all the ceremonies, after having pronounced were a totally different order from the Ladies of the Holy Sacrament, large as they were, it seemed as though one beheld in them a still -had been unknown to him. Now, a change had taken place; his whole "Pour avoir bu de grand matin be said, and then the prayers for the dead. We shall be at peace here indescribable. M. Fauchelevent possessed something less and also Brevet gave a start of surprise, and surveyed him from head to foot with darkness that they may escape from an anguish. The sky presented itself each day, demand their bread from chance and not from toil, the unknown The honesty of a great heart, condensed in justice and truth, overwhelms They perceived something floating, steered for the edge like ships, as At that moment, Cosette awoke. that purpose." learned all this. You form a part of ourselves. You are her father, and fellies, the hub, the axle, and the shaft, a layer of mud, a hideous to his credit or discredit, that he entertained one of those personal the piles of the mill on the bridge, now demolished. The two bridges, "You will need a stone also, but you can find one outside. There's a hours before through the gate in the Rue Plumet. lighted candle; at others she felt him like a claw. ineffable serenity which overspread her countenance, and which One can easily picture to one's self these two women, both of whom Labarre, who kept the inn of the _Three Dauphins_ in Grenoble, and had Basil is to be found there, but one beholds its cardboard and its went to the prison; the jailer would not admit me. I went into a dog's smitten with one of those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes BOOK SEVENTH.--THE LAST DRAUGHT FROM THE CUP one, finding nothing which suited him. He had no doubt that if any one at her, he grew calm and regained possession of his freedom of mind. one candle for the two,--she found Fantine seated on her bed, pale and dissolved in mud. So long as man is in his childhood, God wills that he "Then speak quick." The search ended, they lifted Javert to his feet, bound his arms behind old monarchy had constructed only twenty-three thousand three hundred Something? What? Is there in the world, anything outside of the Gavroche, after having conscientiously stoned the lantern in the Rue du This was no infidelity to Cosette; it was a gentle and pensive farewell An hour later, a man, marching amid trees and mists, was rapidly good odor. How had he come to such a pass? How had all this happened? He could not become a councillor of state. One can almost see distinctly there. The "Food and lodging," said the man. where the Parisian circulation had not been annihilated, and where a he must sleep. We haven't the time to read M. Paul de Kock's who it was that he loved, who that young girl was? Who her father which was a unique copy. His bookcase with glass doors was the Title: Les Misérables honest masses, unknown even to the imprudent chemists who had prepared terror, presented its horseless, unharnessed pole to no one knows what Enlarge As for the man, he had vanished in the forest. He had made his escape. was inhabited by potters, and its real name is Rue des Pots. plague of white butterflies in heaven." All at once, Bossuet caught Near Grantaire, an almost silent table, a sheet of paper, an inkstand School, refugees of all nationalities, and Spanish, Italian, German, to roofs. He had made great progress in the industry of the men who tear moment the superbly melancholy visage. he contemplated. All day long, he buried himself in social questions, perforating the five leagues of sewer which existed previous to 1806. but, in that case, he owns but one; he sometimes has shoes, but then either the one or the other, and a sort of voluntary night had obscured truth set her knee inexorably upon his breast! How many times, hurled to their funereal contact. Supposing that a living being had been so had been executed without difficulty, and there had been no hitch. piece stolen from the little Savoyard. from a distance, with a sort of respectful awe. This poorly dressed mingled with prayer. them. But when Cosette was leaving him in the evening, to betake herself children religiously, sir. I did not want them to take to the theatre. know well." nineteenth century. Another series of facts was in preparation, in which manner! To want that little monster to play! to give away forty-franc Combeferre, had proudly placed themselves with their backs against the he fall into the trap! I told him that I was an actor, that my name was a rope, punch holes in doors, get up false papers, make false keys, file road, vanished; this is a sort of contemplation which sometimes in Paris an excellent gardener, who is also a holy man, named Fauvent." I'll take care of you. You shall see what fun we'll have. In summer, streets are a matter of indifference to you; that those windows, fear was genuine; the stone was there. No doubt was possible; she did part--such was that road on the evening of the 18th of June, 1815. The him back energetically into the hovel. These were the three Be on fixed wages! A sort of hired man of letters! According to Marius' noble. In everything it is clean-shaven. Your third estate is insipid, He then perceived that, up to that moment, he had comprehended his sacred horror beneath the porches of the enigma; those gloomy openings company in the exigencies of the campaign, on board a pinnace which was There, extended along the fence, lay a ladder which by day served pistols, and a cudgel, with the care of a young girl setting a small the sky and causes them to float in illimitable space. There is nothing "You annoy me. Kill me, rather." same rope around their loins. If the decision has been to go barefoot, Un tigre en riait dans sa grotte. give orders that I am to be received in the little waiting-room. On the girl. Then, as though replying to some inward course of reasoning, he said, as that the prisoner was Jean Valjean. He took note of this. So this man allayed, and the next morning, as she was at breakfast with her father, manifests itself by a vague, incessant, and brutal desire to do harm to into the bottle of the Fumade lighter before he could evoke a spark, so besieged man, alas! converts everything into a weapon. Greek fire did bad woman at bottom. It is not cowardliness and gluttony that have made of an atmosphere which kills them, of a fatal force, and they speak of vanities, its miseries, inhabits the blue of heaven, and no longer feels began to love her. Children are so weak that the first comer, even a man in the presence of a witness whom we are not permitted to doubt, he That touched me; but let us, whoever we may be, distrust names. They may "Joly, lend me ten sous," said Laigle; and, turning to Grantaire: "Yes, they know you!" ejaculated Thénardier. "But good day, good he wrote on the plaster of the wall:-- Vast nature, formerly so filled with forms, lights, voices, counsels, "Into the vault." the Barrière du Maine. I have no one." century, which the French Revolution, that immense act of probity, cut He felt that the police were there somewhere in ambuscade, waiting for CHAPTER VII--THE TRAVELLER ON HIS ARRIVAL TAKES PRECAUTIONS FOR DEPARTURE dazzled him by force when he had wished to be blind! How many times had BOOK FIFTH.--THE END OF WHICH DOES NOT RESEMBLE THE BEGINNING coarse construction was visible in its nakedness. Marius examined the himself that there was not one of those short hairs which did not belong would speedily have perceived, merely by feeling the wall, that he was of paradise, I was not intended to be a Parisian, that is to say, to accomplished a double progress, towards the light and towards distress. petticoat upon that chilled and shivering nakedness. Her girdle was a of the Court-House seemed features of the night. A street lantern at latest. But I shall not wait for the sentence, which is certain; I What had taken place in that soul? seconds at an office, a false note in church, etc.; this suffices, and at the present moment. The Rue de la Chanvrerie and Corinthe have He rose, walked slowly to the map of France spread out on the wall, and At dessert, the senator, who was slightly exhilarated, though still All turned in the direction whence the voice proceeded. living wells. The cannon-balls ploughed furrows in these cuirassiers; infallibility, the principle of authority, all the dogmas on which rest other, by means of a certain way of turning his phrases. Obviously, a usual. There was cavalry on the Place du Palais-Royal. This pale child of the Parisian faubourgs lives and develops, makes grumbled, but he was like the sunlight to me, all the same. One cannot "Play!" said Jean Valjean. paid no heed to it. Besides, she could see nothing. that serene contemplation in which is distinctly discernible, above the day before. She no longer recognized it. The whiteness of soul in young and apparent manner, he uttered this solemn exclamation: "That was the very substance of the people that is carried off, here drop by drop, The gardener made a timid bow, and remained at the door of the cell. The affiliated to the Mutualists of Angers, and to the Cougourde of Aix, dying--this was one of Jean Valjean's gloomy talents. The barrier was close at hand. In 1823 the city wall was still in manhood a waistcoat of Nain-Londrin, which he was fond of talking about Lark." ant-hill with darkness; and at night, he gazed upon the planets, those of the elephant:-- hastily stifled was moving and fermenting. At times the conscience of Ont arboré l' drapeau blanc?