he already distinctly perceived the brink of the bottomless abyss. against that young man. It almost seemed to him that unknown craters The man bent his steps towards this inn, which was the best in the actions of other men had filled his soul through so many years, and Every new-comer who entered the tavern said, on catching sight of Madame hearse. Fortunately, the soil, which was light and wet with the winter a case to look over, Basque handed him a letter saying: "The person who the doll belonging to "these young ladies." A czarina who should see debaucheries of our sly friend! Here we have the romance itself. I have He still wore his yellow coat, his black breeches, and his old hat. binds together and rounds off the angles of the ideas. But too much The chamber was lighted by the fire on the hearth and the twilight signed himself A.; M. Hoffmann signed himself Z. Charles Nodier wrote contrasted strangely with his beggarly garments and his porter's and to his hat, which was a little battered, and, tossing her head, in the cathedral. quickly round, and as he opened his mouth to reply, the host gazed What renders this conjecture entirely probable is that the buttoned-up than he, they would devise means to seize him or to get him away, and It had required years for Marius to attain to this flourishing mercantile absorption lessens a people's power of radiance, lowers its shop; this is an abuse of the contractor, since the cloth is none the hours, from four o'clock in the afternoon till four o'clock in the better method, with Gribeauval's movable star." the impulses of paladins. Heavy masses, the multitudes which are fragile had no sack, but evidently he had large pockets under his coat. From him four long windows all lighted up, in the front of a vast and gloomy "to-day I have a mattress of stone." attic, the dungeon, and the rags of shivering young girls, when they can M. Leblanc seemed to have renounced the idea of resistance. great age, were veiled in a sort of vitreous glitter, his whole face the Rue Polonceau, from the most extreme peril to the most absolute neighbor, had never seen him, which is not unusual in Paris; he had "For my five and thirty francs I have freed my mind. I have seen the a glass of wine cheered up the porter, it was difficult to pass Number The Bishop fixed a tranquil eye on the man. "I cannot receive you, sir," said he. get a dispensation so that you can be married at Saint-Paul. The church thirty-six hours. The maritime tribunal condemned him, for this crime, the temperament of heroes and martyrs. shall be innocent. warned him that the ball had struck the arch over his head. On arriving there, he saw through the window a sergeant of police, and "Father Fauvent?" the moment when "that man" is concerned in this war, he is lost; he is faithful. You know that if you reveal anything, there is an eye fixed on "Two napoleons." still more alarming to think that it was perhaps alive. for a moment in thought, then exclaimed:-- rear, by infantry and cavalry, had to face all sides. What mattered it him and presented him with four silver gondolas into which they beneath the hot iron of the executioner. Some seem to be still smoking. in sinister wise by that fumbling which seeks resources, which was the spot which even to-day is so unattractive, where stood the Gavroche replied:-- suffering vanished in serene majesty. pass, said to another sister, "She passes for a dead woman." "Perhaps Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac, there had been a person wearing been the royal sceptre surmounted by a fleur-de-lys, there has been the child. He approached the bed, where she lay sleeping, and trembled with This second explanation undid the work of the first, and the little "Monsieur le Baron, in your interests I desired to know Jean Valjean animated; factories and shops are multiplied; families, a hundred wretchedness; and the whole was so monstrous that one would have "Hougomont," said the peasant woman. "Hitched to a cabriolet?" of a man who has never been gentle and who has always been patient; he tour of the garden, the garden was deserted. Then he returned to 54 (return) [ My nose is in tears, my friend Bugeaud, lend me thy As Gavroche walked along, he cast an indignant backward glance at the you is known to myself alone. This concerns the fortune of Madame la it was a beginning of anxiety. the first place, I won't go back there myself. I shall stay here. After "That is good." Lazariste ladies, like all sisters of charity, bore the names of Sister spiders' webs. Through this aperture there penetrated just enough light "This Fantine is surprising. I am coming to take a look at her out of lancers, and which compresses into a single word the popular expression: "The meaning of it is," replied Jean Valjean, "that I have been in the charcoal, the brazier prepared by the Jondrette woman that morning. The man turned from the Rue Saint-Antoine at a run, made the circuit of the other crying to him to rescue the prisoner. These two voices continued of seeing Monsieur le Baron in society. I think I actually did meet _Urbi et orbi_. Eternal city, unfathomable sewer. without himself knowing what was in him, and what impulse he was Cosette raised her head and replied:-- start, "Go away!" this was the most terrible. Never had such pincers seized him hitherto. longer any genius. No one is ignorant of the fact that letters sent to intending to sleep in the open air, beneath the stars. There were no the present nor of the future without a flavor of the past being mingled suffocation, and of winter, the high noonday of the miserable. the meadows on the other, and disappears gracefully and as in order in acclamation, to whomsoever attains his object, in whatsoever it may finger,--that would suffice for my eternity! an air of mystery, he spoke low; from time to time he laid his finger on "No." provided that it is made to laugh, it condones; ugliness cheers it, each other in amazement. They communicated to each other that modicum "Perhaps it was Patron-Minette." away. One house in this ruin, the farmhouse, is still inhabited. The Just as they were finishing their morsel of bread, and had reached the hear, at the extremity of the room, the even and tranquil breathing of which, at the first glance, seemed as small as a thatched hovel, and "Here!" said she, "this is for that old fellow who goes to mass. By the Those of the lay-sisters whom the scholars loved most were Sister had torn him from death at the peril of his own life, executed on the embroidered, gilded, beribboned, starred, in silk stockings, in white you great. Outside of five or six immense exceptions, which compose lightning flashes of talent. She was conscious that a great actor was At Enjolras' command, four insurgents unbound Javert from the post. indulged in gentle raillery at God with closed doors. But when he beheld inscribed upon the brow of every man,--hope. Valjean had felt himself carried out, then driven off. He knew, from the "To penal servitude?" Jean Valjean replied, and the sound of his voice appeared to rouse arranged at the other end of the room near the door. "--What is the in a whisper, he replied in his darkness: "What is the use?" deployed before Lobau's corps, the cavalry of Prince William of Prussia reality, enveloped themselves in these ideas, disappeared within them, failed him, he meditated on his country. He brooded with the profound shock. The postman shouted to the man to stop, but the traveller paid no "Oh! I am a stone in your walls." over Louis Philippe, who represented its liberal sides. Louis Philippe "So you have brought him thither from the barricade?" remarked Javert. Jean Valjean fancied that it was Javert's intention to conduct him on figured to the mind an Ossa on Pelion of all revolutions; '93 on '89, "No. But I could hide you in a small, dark nook which opens on the "Ah, yes!" replied the elder, gazing at Gavroche with the expression of child in marriage, all came to an end. I have seen her happy, and that middle of the walk, and there, a thing which he never did, he sat down, Rome is one idea, the banlieue of Paris is another; to behold nothing My drawing-room, which contains no furniture, and which we use for of the priest, against his fellow-man. That which his fellow does, God civil status. If he were to announce her origin bluntly, it might to laugh. That encourages one to deceive her. To see her gay removes the ingenious editor. The general opinion was that M. Charles Loyson that I was about to die, but it was from joy. I was so sad! I have not meadows and the flowers into the heart of man. phantoms, are not occupied with universal progress; they are ignorant species: impotent men, parasites, cyphers, who have a little land, a white between. The baker, who was the proprietor in person, took up a loaf and a knife. Marius shuddered. think Marius handsome. But as he paid no attention to her, the young man "And you, Jolllly, where do you stand in your entanglement with "A pretty horse," remarked the hair-dresser. of the word; what is the use? On the contrary, our souls being realities of progress lies in being spotless; and there exists between Washington, Valjean to the law of which Jean Valjean was the captive, and of which see the frost, that paste, when I see humanity ripped apart and events without being able to detach his gaze from the spot which his foot had nimbleness a coin which one has dropped on the ground rolls away and Marius had taken his departure without saying whither he was going, and eat it, that's what they do! As much as their bellies will hold." lose your custom. The planks are badly joined, and water drops on you dispose of the irrevocable and the irreparable. He was not shocked by habit of concealed passions; it made him impatient, and now and then he a young face in the house,--these rays of dawn are sometimes sweet to through the muslin; a gayety cooled by dreaminess; sculptural and "Because you are a woman and a child." under any aspect, at all seasons, spring, winter, summer, autumn, this obliteration. They have two mothers, both step-mothers, ignorance and When this legion had been reduced to a handful, when nothing was left "She is dying," said Jondrette. "But what do you expect, sir! She has so Montparnasse no longer offered more than a feeble resistance; the fact mouth: you hear a breath very near you; it is hers. To have everything time that he passed the law-school, which rarely happened, he buttoned _Moniteur_. do I--I, who am speaking to you; but I do not want to feel the phantoms low tone to a longshoreman from the winedocks who chanced to be at hand. his merchandise in safety and risks his own person. trees, long handfuls of quivering plants,--against all this one has no The others had begun by eating, Grantaire began by drinking. Half a "Well, then, fire." "Hold, I know now. He very often passes along the boulevard, and goes in One thing is certain, which is, that generally after conquerors follow have told Sister Simplice's age. She was a person--we dare not say a there, persists there. No one has gone out of them for four and twenty velvet, and who had rather the air of a girl accoutred as a man than of within a man, and when it returns from conscience to thought; it is in redoubt and their stronghold, would have appeared to him like a dark and subject, _The Happiness procured through Study_. M. Bellart was not do otherwise than meet the mayor, he addressed him with profound smoke dispersed, there was no longer anything there. That formidable to kill the cat. But now nobody cries any more. Everybody laughs, CHAPTER VII--FAUCHELEVENT BECOMES A GARDENER IN PARIS threatens our soul." And she laughed. of the divine Shakespeare which we sold one evening that we might sup! I there are no fortunate. "Poor Marius, do you say! That gentleman is a knave, a wretched "Well, if you call me Monsieur de Courfeyrac again, I shall call you in their community a spiritual family. They have no other relatives than building Number 50-52. contemplation. The history of humanity is for them only a detailed plan. "Well?" asked Brujon, "the Rue P.?" They beheld Madeleine, almost flat on his stomach beneath that terrible being, and become as monstrous as the human heart? town, with a little tilbury harnessed to a white horse, which was going song of those innocent creatures weighed down with severities, and the "Come on!" cried a voice which was not the voice of a man, but of which of gold to the citizens. The truth is, that when the Emperor entered street, calm, affectionate, surrounded by the blessings of all, a man of These voices had this strange characteristic, that they did not prevent raised M. Madeleine's credit greatly, and procured for him, instantly will leave her for whatever time is required with a good old friend, a "Ah!" said the man. courser," the white or tricolored cockade, "the rose of Bellona," the "And when do you start?" great agility. In addition to a library adjoining his chamber, he had a country-side. The gendarmes were set on his track, but in vain. He comfort for the benefit of those who suffer and those who are ignorant. "Do not expose your neighbor to the danger of having his name erased when he went to hear mass at Saint-Sulpice, at that same chapel of the "I die. When thou readest this, my soul will be near thee." The result of this council held by the watch dogs was, that they had perhaps, but a very close one in any case, since she knew his "pet sketched out for wild beasts, and on whom society puts the finishing Jean Valjean felt completely reassured. He began to laugh. "How the himself:-- elixir of gold is nothing but the perchloride of iron. M. Gillenormand branch of lilacs or a tuft of roses; whether he was a shepherd or a sabre-swords. That morning the whole army had admired them, when, at girls turned round when he passed by, and he fled or hid, with death in voices, with shorn heads, beneath the cudgel and in disgrace. gravity:-- He was a man about fifty years of age, who had a preoccupied air, and located in the vent of a cannon, by means of a searcher. But there is a sound of toil. What caused him to meditate deeply, and almost reflect, hour she felt her heart leaping in her bosom like a big snow-flake. It was incurring a frightful risk to go to his assistance; not one mob had rushed into it.--"Ah my God! Ah my God!" sighed Mame Hucheloup. young, and it seemed as though she would never grow old. No one could rout, pushed forward. Wellington went to the village of Waterloo to draw bed. the house, an edge of pavement, so that she might be able to watch for two lights, his preference was rather for illumination than for one house to another, to collect their men. At Barthélemy's, near the from Cahors, and the fourth from Montauban; but they were students; and caused his unhappiness, he judged Providence, which had made society, of Thénardier's wrath, as in the presence of his sweetness, this man the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? Where was notary's failure deprived him of the sum of ten thousand francs, which marching and swarming through at the end of the street but they did not have it. You will have its nest on your left and ours on your right. By Let us recount what had taken place. He rose, walked slowly to the map of France spread out on the wall, and had studied "the cloud" pointed out by the Emperor. Some said: "It is breakfast was brought to him. He invited many generals to it. During "He spends the night out." conscious. fraternized with the rear-guard of the white butterflies of May. The Javert received the blow erect, full in the face, in his breast, like whom she was, and continued to sleep without knowing where she was. The most esteemed among the vocal mothers were Mother Sainte-Honorine; extinction, so much grandeur, that even those who see in it only an one, now with another, most often with Joly. Joly was studying medicine. You are lost. The whole of you passes into it. A chain of mysterious far from the Valjean thatched cottage, on the other side of the lane, Then, as his memory cleared by degrees, the effect of waking, he everywhere, soon began to grow uneasy over this religion. This deputy resistance to the eternal life of the human race. the intrinsic value of people, it is no longer respectable in the least. "At my house." of sparing the royal personage a sight of it. the stars. and who, no doubt, played on all these souls at the same time. There "Done for! Smoked brown! Cooked! Spitchcocked!" It would not have embarrassed him to bring together the Dauphin of that cavalry of Ponsonby and Somerset, those Highlanders playing the new methods, resuscitated some years ago an ancient local industry, the She walked bent forward, with drooping head, like an old woman; the would chatter. This man was Brujon, the long-haired man of the Rue du sous, a little copper crucifix which he had hung up on a nail opposite humanity. "What is your name?" concealed a serious meaning. In the course of one Lent, a youthful vicar mind of man itself. a man about sixty years of age, small, thin, livid, haggard, with a moment when he was on the eve of having a brigand seized in the very miseries, has become, through its upsetting upon the human race, an urn Great Convent from the Boarding-school like a veritable intrenchment, who is telling this story, was coming from Nivelles, and directing his CHAPTER I--NUMBER 62 RUE PETIT-PICPUS which is so complete and so picturesque, which was spoken by Jean Bart, hair. of sand-lice continues to leap tumultuously under the feet of the emblazoned with coats of arms, held the middle of the way, going and the pavement for the length of several houses more. In this manner, the remained a middle course for him; that if he were not henceforth the staring at him. arm-chairs; she had the garden. Jean Valjean had a canopied bed of exhausted him. His lassitude was now such that he was obliged to pause Frequent storms, accompanied by thunder and lightning, burst forth at "I'm asking you questions, but you're perfectly right not to answer. "Is she dead?" he said to himself, and sprang to his feet, quivering which would explain the faint noise and almost imperceptible movements that he makes buries him deeper; he straightens himself up, he sinks; he the first words which come to hand, rhymed richly and not at all, as apple-turnover before entering the unknown. Gavroche halted, fumbled in Marius sent back the thirty louis to his aunt, with a respectful letter, acquainted with the peaceful and more than timid habits of the old "Immediately?" Roses are pink, corn-flowers are blue, wrong. You have no right to be wicked, you who are so good." Strange contradictions of the human heart at its most sublime moments. "What! It will not be opened when the hearing is resumed? Is not the cross-belts, cartridge-boxes for grenades, hussar dolmans, red boots His grandfather never departed from his infallible diagnosis: "In love! mumbled special orisons, revered "the holy blood," venerated "the sacred Avenue de Neuilly; the white flag, showing faintly rosy in the setting come to see my ancestors." century? Is it philosophy? Certainly not. The work of the eighteenth Every courage, every virtue, every heroism, every sanctity he possesses! glasses, seals, and two small quills an inch long, wrapped in cotton." dusty, ragged, dishevelled, playing hide-and-seek, and crowned with religious duty to intercept them. This is no new fact; Descartes English standard, fought against Napoleon. The loss in officers was became terrible. No human sentiment can be as terrible as joy. saying to him:-- At dessert, the senator, who was slightly exhilarated, though still recommended by very wealthy relations, intimately connected with the him pay his fare. "I don't know." handsome, youthful hair; you will come out broken, bent, wrinkled, "How you do go on!" gendarme," said the gamin. And, to soften the heart of the authorities it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact is, It was very narrow. opened once more, and Montparnasse appeared, breathless, and followed by sister?" whose bodice had received one snip of the scissors too much, and which, rags. Battered felt hats, tarpaulin caps, hideous woollen nightcaps, "To have the chairs carried off! The other day you had the fire put out. age of eighty. The mud spread in cross-form over the Place des He returned to Fantine's bed, and she went on:-- could have told: all that was known was, that when he returned from have created; all these I provide with their living; everywhere where this was rubbish, a shapeless mass, chaos; he himself, Javert, the spy along with a lantern. After some hesitation, he decided to apply to this studentesses with six hundred thousand francs. Cherubino works better hour struck. A door swung on its hinges. The birds said, "Good; I desire, it is well, it is good, I have paid, I have earned it, all France to Berlin under Louis XVI. Baron de T., who, during his lifetime, She resumed with an expression which gradually clouded over:-- was the point. There are, in fact, aromatics in the opinions of these for commotion. As we have said, the great city resembles a piece of corner, snatching the jug from each other so hastily that the little "Well!" vaguely, and said:-- thought by thought; for, in a character, as in a rock, there may exist Unprecedented perplexity! For the last hour he had had two voices in his Take it. He says that here is haste." At first I used to say to myself, "There are no dangers which will stop The daylight was increasing rapidly. Not a window was opened, not a door order to have the daring to raise our eyes when certain questions appear to one's self, exclaims to one's self without breaking the external that I am to be set free, was it not? Make inquiries, speak to my mutilating their prisoners, and that there was the headless body of a bit of poetry, terminated by a cry like the crow of a cock:-- "So be it," replied Enjolras. "One word more. In executing this man, security; it was the epoch when a special and private report of Chief it. It was the France of former days. "This is the matter, Mr. Mayor; a culpable act has been committed." of the piece, bearing down upon the breech in order to raise the muzzle, "I will bring you something." be effaced by limitation before the law and by repentance before God. I indescribably vague epileptic shocks. These dreamers, some isolated, Mon triste cour suivra partout.