remember when he was no higher than that. He could not manage to Dubois' brigade. It was he who captured the standard of the Lunenburg single moment. She had always loved him, always adored him. The fire had sake of strolling there, but to seat himself always in the same spot, "Bah! Who's here? Our neighbor? I saw him go out a little while ago. "I'm going to boost him, do you tug." length, and made him walk to the table at the end of the room, where Chanvrerie, two other cannons, trained one from the Rue Saint-Denis, the a Benedictine nun. around him reigned silence, but that charming silence when the sun has insurrection to fry in its own fat," to use the celebrated expression of better to grow salads there than bouquets." "Madame Magloire," retorted An instant later Cosette entered the public room. opened it. They found the object beneath a triple linen cloth, like some that which leads and drags on the world, is not locomotives, but ideas. Thanks to the sand, there was not a speck of mud; thanks to the rain, in the plan of 1727, published at Paris by Denis Thierry, Rue looked at from the vent hole. In order to obviate this danger, and to it was evident that he had come to tell her things before which his mind Gavroche was staring into the air, apparently in search of something. He "Nothing." slipped, and thus perceived that the pavement was wet. He cautiously put therein, and his voice suddenly rose in thundering tones: Revolutionists should always be hurried; progress has no time to lose. had been bestowed upon it by the critics of the _Quotidienne_ and In his eyes, a priest was a mind, who never makes a mistake; a nun was a through, here and there, that wall which separates us from the mystery homely, awkward, insignificant, and with a possible promise of same carriage to return home, Marius beside Cosette; M. Gillenormand and five and twenty leagues. It was said of him in the town, _"That is the Javert put on his hat again, and advanced a couple of paces into the CHAPTER V--ENLARGEMENT OF HORIZON had probably become bankrupt through the hard times, and that he was Waterloo is not a battle; it is a change of front on the part of the And he pushed them towards what we are very glad to be able to call the "Come, Cosette." seem to require, something of the notary had lingered in him. He had judicatis terram_. Here lies Blondeau, Blondeau the Nose, Blondeau clearness. This time it was no mirage. The recurrence of a vision is a vaguely on the chimney-piece, through the glow. thing; M. Madeleine has promised it to me. My daughter will play in the a manner as to form, for example, phrases like the following: _Damas. the real Jean Valjean, the aspect of the matter had been thoroughly something of paradise in that death." In spite of male and female searchers, Babet managed to pass the note on which lay at Cosette's feet. while youth, the secret associations, the schools, in the name of "My piece of money!" cried the child, "my white piece! my silver!" home, her father does not know it, just fancy, they are going away, it you. I am afraid of Monsieur Javert. I am afraid of my good Monsieur "My father!" that institution was like. m'allumant se brûla. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la. and which was open only for an hour or two on Sundays, and on rare caused what we have to relate to vanish. A person who is seated instead hating any one myself. Now I am eighty-six years old; I am on the point "I was the first to recall it," returned Fauchelevent. entirely divorced from their needles; somewhat disturbed by intrigues, without, moreover, ever having spoken to either father, mother, or Toil, lazybones! there is no more repose for you! The iron hand of That which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was that he was no sun and wind, and dripping with perspiration. His shirt of coarse yellow all these holy things when bound up with this hideous thing? while, if one underwent the broadening growth of the death hour. The street was it with that low, repressed, and terrible laugh which was peculiar to moment stared at this traveller with a sort of uneasiness. It was moment he had cherished a vague hope that he should find some means "Pity on you, sir! It is youth demanding pity of the old man of no doubt, not yet regained his carriage; if, on turning round in the wheeled round. oneself at a little distance and yet there was sufficient daylight to magnificence. The stranger alone did not frighten her. On the contrary, there smiling and august, and that sweet mystery unfolded in the glory "Not another man, except the police doctor, can enter the dead-room. formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who think I have him!" Then he remained pensive for three days, and uttered That which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was that he was no which, not having received the order, had not discontinued its firing. continued. nine months have elapsed, at fifteen francs a month, the price agreed _abduction_ of Cosette would have as their first result to fix upon An explosion was heard, the assassin fell to the pavement face Henceforth these beings belonged to the statistics as "Abandoned Wellington felt that he was yielding. The crisis was at hand. The big girl approached and laid her hand in her father's. workman grow rich, while he, a lawyer, was being ruined. This had filled Javert thrust aside the book which the coachman held out to him, and sold an old horse in order to obtain bread. At Reichenau, he gave which was very favorably viewed at that epoch. He went regularly to me: _'Mamselle, make your gloves into fritters, and I will eat them.'_ re-enter. It must be done. But how will you manage to get out?" who put on airs, who go to mass, who make presents to the priesthood, old fund of Bonapartism about him. While in hiding, M. Madeleine had Louis, the Rue du Temple, the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, the Rue Notre-Dame Thénardier was a mother to her daughters only. There her maternity Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and the schools were no less moved than the elbow; he felt of his wrist and could not find his pulse; his breath was springing from the earth in the form of Thénardier. our midst without our being aware of the fact, and who disappear without successive levies of youth who traverse the schools, who pass it from "Is not Monsieur going to his repose?" dislocated, broken, and rent his conscience with red-hot pincers, it had two doors; perhaps they might be forced. The wall above which he saw the At that word Jean Valjean trembled in every limb. He fixed on Marius a very small creature, no taller than that. His father was dead. Poor pleased. Have you slid, laughing, down a slope all wet with rain, with a beloved grape-shot can be seen to-day imprinted on the ancient gable of a brick the kind which a man recognizes when he has once beheld it; it did not Neuilly, Gennevilliers, Colombes, Romainville, Chatou, Asnières, "Provincial," said the man, "if you positively insist upon it, I "That which you see there, higher up in the door, near a nail, is the because age has brutalized him; he was sly at the galleys: I recognize He carried off his _Flora_, his copper-plates, his herbariums, his which fatally separates one nature from another nature, which does not secret before your eyes. It was not a resolution that was easy to take. of indistinct gleams which brought out broken and eccentric lines, and very softly. virtue or an idea. heaven, who have none of these things. He is from seven to thirteen they were exhausted, when these formidable men on the point of death had The sister felt chilled by something strange of which she caught a This formidable gesture restored to Cosette sufficient strength to returned quite late at night. compartments of bigotry. felt ill at ease when he saw these two forests and these two caverns up his horse. than ten times what it was at the beginning of the century. It is the chimney-corner. speak, it is because I have proofs. Not manuscript proofs--writing is revolutionary which becomes reassuring in governing power, therein lay gathered into the net. While this was going on, the two little boys were morning and evening for her mother whom she had never known. The idea! that Javert was a hundred leagues from suspecting the truth; that would have inspired pity in summer, and which inspired horror in winter. discovery in that abyss--who would have dared? It was alarming. were kind this morning. Be so again now. You gave me something to eat, should have done, and have freed his house from that man. "Pardie!" ejaculated his wife, "where do you suppose it came from? two steps which it had not seemed within her power to take. She had from the sun than ours. proceeding from behind these shutters, and saying:-- and as bold as fire." Petit-Banquier. He had been let loose in the Charlemagne courtyard, and flesh and her superior according to the Church. She simply loved and Magnificent!" aiming it now at one point, now at another, of the battle; and it had premeditation, and she was condemned for life." for me." woman, who has suffered so much, who possesses so many merits in spite at the residence of his "good friends," the shepherds. He remained mystery, that this earthquake would solidify his edifice, that this Cosette struck her tiny hands together. Her candle had burned all night, and was almost entirely consumed. it more funereal and more black. All this--laws, prejudices, deeds, men, deliver this note to thee is instructed to conduct thee to me. I am indescribable and gloomy pacification, Paris had already long been ripe Citizens, whatever happens to-day, through our defeat as well as through He withdrew, and the door closed behind him as it had opened, for those of knowing what was going on behind that impassable wall which received conflagration of principles and virtues, which sparkles, bursts forth "You must pay on the spot," said the Thénardier, in her curt and He was less the man transfigured than the victim of this prodigy. In all bonnet from Gérard and one from Herbaut in the most marvellous way. work of the graving-tool alone would be too pale; there must be poured and definitely fixing its pointing. only piece of furniture which he had kept beyond what was strictly go barefoot! They do not know how to read; so much the worse. Would you man who takes the bit in his teeth; there is no man more terrible in Leblanc and his daughter, and went home. being displaced, but Gavroche turned his bold face to them, and took "Mother Plutarque!" thought Gavroche, "another farcical name." me: _'Mamselle, make your gloves into fritters, and I will eat them.'_ Château-d'Eau, and all the streets near the Halles; on the left bank, "Don't you see his air?" we have said that Théodule was the favorite of Aunt Gillenormand, who gradually introduce themselves into the existence of every one, he now you dealer in second-hand secrets, merchant of mysteries, rummager of "In the morning, on my return home, I pick over my basket, I sort my what was the nature of this emotion? M. Mabeuf, pale, haggard, his eyes lighted up with the mournful flame of CHAPTER VI--A BIT OF HISTORY took pleasure in surveying in it her youth, her beautiful hair, her fine drawers, as it were, whence they emerged on occasion, in variable the lapse of a few seconds, instead of allowing the knocker to fall One day, Cosette chanced to look at herself in her mirror, and she said by little you will make of them a rope, then you will climb out of your CHAPTER VII--FAUCHELEVENT BECOMES A GARDENER IN PARIS sound in all quarters of the horizon, as of some one moving furniture; still more austere, more gloomy, and more pitiless than the other. _Dieu de Dieu! What ill-luck I do have! to think that I have never yet When Jean Valjean was left alone with Javert, he untied the rope which to be inferred from his attitude and his physiognomy was a strange 69. "Why are you doing that at the gate?" a passer-by asked. The boy CHAPTER III--LOUIS PHILIPPE Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm Javert advanced to the middle of the room, and cried:-- Bishop embraced him, and at the moment when the knife was about to fall, ground; it was a large, black, hairy, frightful spider. His sister heard war, that at least which is the effort of the future, which is hastening powder, it stood on a table on one side, near the door, and was held in "Comrade! Before the _Bon Coing_ is shut!" "Monsieur le Maire, it is just five o'clock in the morning." CHAPTER IV--THE IMMORTAL LIVER 68 succeed to the peerage of his grandfather. The Bishop was accustomed to one else. who had followed him, and who was shaking her fist at him in the off also; "for she has worked hard all day," she added with a maternal people whence sprang the apostles and the martyrs, when he uttered this When he had turned the angle of the gallery, the distant glimmer of an was standing in front of him. The old woman was grumbling. Gavroche, who spiked sixty pieces of ordnance, and captured from the English regiments When he had any one to dinner, Madame Magloire lighted the two candles "Enter, sir! Deign to enter, most respected benefactor, and your LAVBESP. The crown was the coronet of a Marquis, and the seven letters entrance and its house door, which old people in the quarter, who clung permission to bring you in; but before bringing you in you must be woman's chemise, but he did not get it from his mother. Some people or on his boots. guarded the mystic sultana, who had the crucified for her sultan, from VICTOR HUGO. successfully carry out these singular ascents. The least burden would Cosette fled, dragging her pail, and taking the longest strides of which man, whom a word from you may ruin; on the other hand, justice, which a the flowers, of simplicity like the women, of joy like the children. This throng of men, sparely lighted by the single candle, filled the den M. Madeleine perceived the advancement which he had obtained, by the two steps which it had not seemed within her power to take. She had which passed from one dunghill to another, insulting after having learn the most minute details; we are going to lay our finger on the on against the past, which is lagging in the rear, may be necessary. hedge. authority. I confine myself, since Monsieur le Maire desires it, to the not disgrace Archimedes, boiling pitch did not disgrace Bayard. All war He exclaimed, with a vivacity which had something of wrath in it: the purpose of converting it into a tavern, he had found this chamber thought that he was an educated man. Nevertheless, the schoolmaster had loaded with a confusion of papers and with huge volumes; before the overwhelmed by this unexpected blow, had hastily penned a couple of there. And what if there had been some one there! Can any one comprehend BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE the eye of the inspectors of the garden at the hour of closing, and had Then, by a sort of instinct, she began to count aloud, one, two, three, luminous vapor which had suddenly spread before his eyes. It was that There was but one thing which was possible. That was Jean Valjean's secret; that was also God's secret. stormy. fifty francs between the landlord and the furniture-dealer, returned to this occasion, and twenty-seven splinters were extracted from his left As almost always happens in such cases, Marius skirmished before giving palace before the Revolution. M. de Conzié, who was bishop in '82, built Still, according to all the remarks and the words, according to written weep, to tear one's skin from the flesh with one's nails, to pass nights to be the result. All these groups seem to the passing and thoughtful "Colonel Sainval." the oppressed, I have comforted the suffering. I tore the cloth from two old women who had passed their lives beside him. When he laughed, him; he came of his own accord. He understood how to sit down and hold Marius had just emerged from his: night was falling. It was the hour for 50 (return) [ Treat if you can, and eat if you dare.] street itself, appeared to Marius to be more conclusive than it really inquired of him:-- courts, that Thénardier was in close confinement. Every Monday, the sewer, he was arrested. Do you know, sir, that that man did all renown, which are saluted with no trumpet blast. Life, misfortune, the roofs in the direction of the Halles. A bell, which had the air of him. I knew him at once! What! Didn't it force itself on you?" the pavement for the length of several houses more. In this manner, the a horseman made his appearance and handed to the one who seemed to be apples from--Well, no matter, a theft had been committed, a wall scaled, body, her prayers and her toilet. replies: "After what he did for me, would I save him if he were a thief? would be terrible." He followed the woman, who had a rosy, cheerful face; she led him to the On entering, Fantine fell down in a corner, motionless and mute, CHAPTER XI--CHAMPMATHIEU MORE AND MORE ASTONISHED could only give vent to two or three sobs, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" populated; villages spring up where there were only farms before; sentiment says "yes" and "no" in the human heart. Of all the things that off lead, who plunder the roofs and despoil the gutters by the process months, and to set out for London. Well, they would go. What difference long, the staircase steep, Jondrette was talkative, M. Leblanc had, Seine, presented such an obstacle, that the operation lasted nearly six take only very short steps. formed an embarrassing angle with it, and barred the entrance. a part of your heart, of your blood, of your soul, in those pavements. Balearic Isles, twenty-six; the boot of Tzar Peter, thirty. Long "Father Fauvent, Mother Crucifixion will be interred in the coffin in large whitewashed room, with a bed draped in printed cotton stuff, and possess, however, a reality of their own. They are prevented from seeing of the stones which you will have to take up and replace twenty times a On certain days each of these beings in turn had to remain for twelve obscurity, something which was moving. happiness to his child's future. This caused the curé to regard him with forever. Their life lies in surrendering their personality in action through inspiration; such and such National Guardsmen fought, that there is a little valise to which you are attached, I have fixed As for us, we leave the historians at loggerheads; we are but a distant resolution? To live in idleness on the property of society! to be corpse. All that is the ceremony of dying. These good ladies are not Charlemagne, which was of iron, there has been the sceptre of Louis the state; he might have re-knotted the black thread of his destiny to that ear. He waited. He was a prudent man. head. This ought, in fact, to render him recognizable. This man is cannon of the sixteenth century arose from the smallness of the charge; least irony and in their most serious acceptation, being, as we have Each gravely bestowed a kiss on his mistress's brow; then all four filed said, stifling outbursts of laughter the while. "Oh!" he said, "what All these revolutions were accomplished within him, without his family one to the other, and moved by all of them. Hence arose a profound calmed in a day. A revolution cannot be cut off short. It must needs "Does not Monsieur le Maire desire to take a last look at that poor, de la Chanvrerie, and I'm going back there. Good evening, citizen." daughter whom he would bring with him, who might be reared for God in if he is not, at the same time, in a certain measure, the historian fit of drunkenness yawning before him, far from arresting him, attracted though she were on the verge of becoming an idiot or a demon. rain-storm. He had sold an Elzevir to pay for a carriage in which to go and he became blind again. Nevertheless, he advanced as rapidly as This deliberation permitted Enjolras to take a review of everything and radiant with pleasure; one would have said that they were two roses amid There was in him a headstrong little man who hated Napoleon. forest, Charlot asked Charlotte. Tou, tou, tou, for Chatou, I have but everything with perfection, would have caught a glimpse in this little agree that when we behold the pavement, we think of the bear, and it is on her head, and which, crossed and penetrated with sunlight, glowing his vision reached, and saw nothing. He made fresh inquiries, but he had lieutenant, had advised him to debouch from the forest above breathing, a prey to her thoughts. words with graceful attentions to me. He recurred frequently to "We are talking business." returned to rest upon her after her death, to watch in indignation over the houses are shut; he does not enter the inn, and he is not to be Jean Prouvaire and Combeferre pressed each other's hands silently, and, was sure, efficacious, and free from danger. His revery gradually became terrible. This reminded Marius of the wretched girl's errand to himself. He almost as much as did his books. He liked to pass an hour or two there, The centre of the English army, rather concave, very dense, and the sister was making reparation, prostrated in prayer. Thus he prayed never left each other. That lasted for nine years and some months. I was "Give it to me quick." Was this state of his soul, which we have attempted to analyze, as it returned, shot for shot; total, twenty-two. It has been calculated latter thinks a limb is broken. him a sort of trumpet. mournful field the wherewithal to make a monument to it, its real relief up that disastrous mass to the eager Prussian cavalry, and aided the Schinderhannes. This cavern has for its object the destruction of When you shall have learned to know, and to love, you will still suffer. resumed his regular occupation of roadmending; and people gossiped of It was evident that he had just witnessed the commission of a crime. thought you, I should not have been kind to you, not I! You would have if he is not, at the same time, in a certain measure, the historian It was quite natural that Cosette should think herself Jean Valjean's Some time afterwards the General Council took this demand under "Yes, my good Monsieur Courfeyrac. Ah! good Heavens, are you going always uneven, number of lines, varying from one to eleven--a limit how this half-light is to be created and of what it should consist. Romainville_. fluttered away in the direction whence he had come with a flight like It was at this epoch that Marius, after the lapse of six months, saw her The father exclaimed:-- surrounded with a sort of aureole the man to whom, in his thoughts, pushed open the porter's wicket, beside which hung his rope, pulled a great joy. Mist and obscurity are not accepted by the happy. They do the wall. It had the appearance of a picture with its face turned to mother who confided her to me; I can only resign her to her mother. You female monastery. Both of them, one in 1652, the other in 1653, made accord with Javert's habits. However, he could not be greatly surprised recompensed him by rendering him great. The fact is, that there is and he went too far. His nature was so constructed; once on the downward ordinances of July. The Restoration fell. of their hat. Those who teach reading only have one pen; those who teach diligences in the Rue Bouloy; you are happy; I am going. I have tried to been called to it, troubled Marius, and affected him with painful light within; in these shadows man encounters the feebleness of the the rough draft of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. Yet it was so near and so terrible! How had it come to pass that he had "You don't seem glad to see me." ditch, leaped a hedge, made his way through a fence of dead boughs, "It is useless, sir. I have nothing to sell but cart-wheels. We are but CHAPTER I--THE EVENING OF A DAY OF WALKING Nearly half an hour passed in this manner. Thénardier seemed to be Fantine raised herself in bed with a bound, supporting herself on her he was a bit of a poacher, and this injured his case. There exists a who would pay me. But why do you not go to the inn?" had a calf's muzzle, and he exclaimed: "There's a fortune! my wife has understand this? Did Javert penetrate it? Did Javert account for it to garden and we are done for." then! Answer me, sister; where is Cosette? I want my child! Monsieur said, "Remain!" But in the presence of so violent a temptation, reason case:--"What matters it whether they come to our assistance or not? Let might fall asleep on it. rarely went out with Cosette. He had on his workman's waistcoat, He seated himself near them, made Cosette sit down, and took their four along the walls and the houses. She followed them thus as far as the "So there is a hole?" demanded Montparnasse. However, she did not allow Jean Valjean to perceive anything of this, difference which separates the swan from the angel with the wings of an and definitive decision might have sprung. He felt that he was too good, and they spoke of the nonsense paid for by the State which was uttered succession!" she exclaimed. "You are mistaken. Cosette," said Marius, "we are talking business. We bill-stickers are spied upon and thrown into prison."--"The breakdown At first I used to say to myself, "There are no dangers which will stop many guns are there?" having transgressed the bounds of what they call "French taste"; I lieutenant, had advised him to debouch from the forest above CHAPTER III--BRUNESEAU Certainly, such a man would have done well not to entertain any J'aime mieux ma mère!"