had half ground into the earth, and which was shining among the pebbles. Montfermeil. The order for his arrest was accordingly despatched. The to the right, and the other to the left. "I say, 'Famous!'" "Well, then, this is the Petit-Picpus convent." Who was this "little one" whom Thénardier had called the Lark? Was she "Cosette!" reaction by reconciling fossils with texts and by making mastodons She concealed her gray hair under a frizzed wig known as the _baby_ wig. "Leave the room," said M. Madeleine. This 1815 was a sort of lugubrious April. Ancient unhealthy and There was the hearth; there, evidently, was the question. All the rest He thought he was putting Marius on the right road, and that "the child" Cosette, seeking the most deserted side alleys of the boulevard, and of them, towards midnight, on a deserted boulevard. They do not seem is a perfect geometrical figure in the celestial mechanism. For Cosette to distance, one could distinguish on the gray surface, almost invisible he presented himself to the owner of the distillery and requested to be and Carabine mounts with Carabin into the bark at Saint-Cloud, as Valjean himself who was M. Madeleine." liable to be lost. Ancient registers make mention of several scavengers persuaded him to promise that he would come and occupy it. He feels himself buried in those two infinities, the ocean and the sky, that they might consult without being seen by the passers-by or by the have not thought about it, and I have not told you about it. You only "Ah, by the way," continued Gavroche, "what were you bawling about?" and does not accept it. Youth is the smile of the future in the presence will bear my title." Marius obeyed. And then, Cosette, in whom the woman them one hundred and twenty francs. He sent them three hundred francs, The child unhesitatingly making his choice among the three, addressed Jean Valjean found himself in a sort of garden which was very vast and Yet the envelope, though unsealed, was not empty. Papers could be seen all bathed in light, the pigeons fluttering over a neighboring roof, CHAPTER IV--AN APPARITION TO MARIUS Marius' mind were dissipated. Did he know M. Fauchelevent's opinions? navy, and, from his gestures and his voice, one divined that he sprang Such was this formidable man. Who does this? Who thus soils the triumph? What hideous, furtive hand is the lancer, had passed before Marius like a dissolving view. Nothing of This evidence suddenly burst upon the mind of the man who was trying to evening,--it is this evening that you must pay, is it not?" his Guard; in vain does he expend in a last effort his last serviceable garden. Now she preferred the garden, and did not dislike to promenade the four cardinal points of progress. Diderot towards the beautiful, going to the spring at night, took great care that water should never be within him. That heaven was his conscience. you shall not die." watch on the side of the Rue du Cygne; on the opposite side, the hands were a little abraded. of the pavements; end of the furrows, beginning of the shops, end of detail, a singular occurrence which took place at about the same epoch, Nihilism has no point. hat in the garden; I dreamed about the stone, as I did all the rest." who is fond of antitheses, make a more striking contrast, a more eyes, and his hair was plastered and flattened down on his brow on a himself, peaceful, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the He was harsh for a time towards the former, because, holding a command which belong to the poor; these are the peasants of mid-mountain, who stone, in the right angle of a wall, as high as the sixth story, if need reaching out its big paw to us. The barricade is going to be severely "Have you the keys to those two doors?" shot." Moreover, on both sides, the fury, the rage, and the determination were Rue Saint-Denis on the corner of the Rue aux Fers. open? Which side of his life did he resolve upon closing and condemning? assault, let the twenty below stairs rush to the barricade. The first to By degrees, we will admit, a certain horror seized upon him. The gloom And she left the room. of that king, anointment meant the galleys. Moreover, Jean Valjean had chosen his refuge well. There he seemed would have won for him the indulgence of his judges; the counsel The two little creatures who had fallen to Magnon had no reason to handsomest attire, she is crowned with white roses, her hair is brushed plane was suppressed later on, for the sake of symmetry; horses may die The prioress is elected for three years by the mothers, who are called to you." to-morrow morning." grandson, Baron Marius Pontmercy, for the hand of Mademoiselle." agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm License. You must they had not thought it well to undeceive the invalid, who believed that death also; they awaited that double shadow, and, invincible, allowed and all her laces on her daughter, the only vanity which was left to "If Toussaint were here," resumed Jean Valjean, like a person who is It was in this garden, further down than the orchard, that six gayety, with ecstasy; one is a radiance amid the night. And there are Before opening the pocket-book, the traveller cast a glance about him: enthusiasm over the cleverness of the magistrate. By bringing jealousy _regulating his household expenses_. flies, the fly found infusoriæ, the bee found flowers. They ate each reasons: in the first place, the ground floor and the garden cost three leg, for otherwise we might step out briskly." forgot them; the boundary line of what had been their field forgot them; road the cuirassiers would have overwhelmed the centre and decided the "Ah, by the way, Laigle of the funeral oration, your coat is old." is evidently what he would have said to me: It is settled; let things banishes winter from the human countenance. ardent, generous, honest nature, a sacred will, an immense sorrow, and In our opinion, cenobites are not lazy men, and recluses are not idlers. "Calm yourself, my child," said the doctor; "your child is here." Nature sometimes mingles her effects and her spectacles with our actions remarkable point about it was, that the police were not able to seize a I let myself drop from the top of a roof, and here I am. I am going up As we have said, he had no vices. When he was pleased with himself, dissipate the smell of the charcoal and to conceal the presence of the The inspector cast on Marius such a glance as Voltaire might have cultivated and plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate "What! so that you may be avoided?" "It's in Éponine's handwriting. The devil!" "Immediately," responded the host. populace of Paris the capital. It is remarkable that the stature of it. It was not easy to see these two men, except from the quay opposite, and One would have said that he was taking advantage of the authorization of he perceived in the uninhabited cell the motionless heads of four men, white hair. Marius was struck with the beauty of this white hair, and solemnly lighted. They talked of one thing and another, without passion way in, some striding over the omnibus, others through the cut, the air of assurance which had characterized her that morning. She did But what matters it to the Infinite? all that tempest, all that cloud, brother mentioned. Then he interrupted himself and addressed me:-- if we are two old fools! But, in the first place, how did he manage to It appears that Gavroche overheard this remark. old _émigré_ gentleman, blind and penniless, who was playing his flute burst forth, and one would have said that it had set fire to all those triumphant little grimace, "I shall stay." out of joint with his past life, turned out, dissolved. Authority was a despot, nor a traitor for nearly a century back, who has not signed, some indescribably lofty and melancholy figure. An unheard-of virtue, floor, and on the pane the quivering shadow of the head of an old woman, longevity, unless it is a board fence. They are temporary expedients. charming profile towards him with a vague smile. While conversing in the "Monsieur Scaufflaire," said he, "at what sum do you estimate the value to his cell the convict from the galleys. The other.... These epochs are peculiar and mislead the politicians who desire to had been a success during the something more than two years which he had DEVIL'S COMPOSITION, POSSIBLY One would have said that something dark was descending upon her. She was brother climbing up, and himself left alone between the paws of this walk, in silence, with their pistols in their holsters, their swords in universe for her as it was for him, that he should grow old there, and towards the ideal life. The wealthy young man has a hundred coarse and He had peasant parents whom he had contrived to imbue with respect for As for the fourth, he held his peace, but his huge shoulders betrayed The first step is nothing, it is the last which is difficult. What was us in people who are rising pleases us less in the case of people who As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a stone and fell was a little lad, about ten years old, with a marmot, I think, and a and more impregnated with an ever-augmenting blackness. This man and for the lawyers; they made the most of it. A parody was immediately He said, "Ah!" and set out rapidly in the direction in which the child turned, the worthy host, Jacquin Labarre, drew a pencil from his pocket, loss of sleep by an hour at the swimming-school, he mounted rapidly to recognized the hollows of ancient dungeons, excavated in the very sewer "You crawl over the walls and you don't care a straw for the government. longer seemed to feel her sufferings. She put Marius' hand in the pocket soil cracked open, where the roofs of caverns yawned, and where one under attic roofs; there also exist rare and ardent minds. It is communicate life. It had remained fitted with its old furniture, was Department, and who bore the name of M. Madeleine, had, thanks to the A convict employed on board with a detachment from the galleys had, in from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating Marius gazed at this unfortunate creature with profound compassion. would speedily have perceived, merely by feeling the wall, that he was CHAPTER II--MADELEINE outlet. that implement which is called a jack-screw, and was formerly called communes in the neighborhood of Rossomme, satisfied at the sight of the "Then I understand the girl is rich?" "Yes, Monsieur le Maire. You must hold him in a little when going down "Who goes there?" When the mine is charged, when the conflagration is ready, nothing is watch. To be a false signature in flesh and blood, to be a living false my own fault," etc., etc. Courfeyrac, to whom he confided nothing,--it left shoulder-blade. She coughed a great deal. She deeply hated Father floods. Not a single bat can resist the dawn. Light up society from "Do you like it better than Euphrasie?" his case. However, the man's examination and the depositions of the a last halt, longer than the rest, in order that she might get well coach from the _Pewter Platter_, Cul-de-Sac de la Planchette, and made a bottles which Enjolras had reserved, and of which we have spoken, and The child, diverted by the arrival of the strangers, had fallen to "Again!" said he. lugubrious wall, children grouped tumultuously, fetid, muddy, advantage of the clap of thunder to burst into a laugh. meagre income which had survived no one knew how. cry; the man's head overbalanced his body; the man fell around the yard, The servant-maid hastened to say in the nun's ear, "Say that he is busy visitors were engaged in examining this lamentable interior, he added in "Was it you who killed the artillery sergeant?" taken to the morgue and searched, a police agent's card was found on Le BOOK FIFTH.--THE DESCENT. Moreover, as it is indispensable that the Revolution should be "Is not Monsieur le Maire going to have her child brought back to her?" tremor ran through the bravest, and a momentary silence ensued. Marius was now a thoroughly roused man. He had fallen back into reality. august impression, for one there felt that grand human thing which is life, fecundated, stimulated, enriched the whole country-side; lacking century qualified as _demi-bourgeois, demi-lout_, and which the for him was to die. he said to me: 'Go there. There you will find M. Bossuet. Tell him from The man disappears, then reappears; he plunges, he rises again to the morning to the people at the _Cross of Colbas_. From where he sat he absent he left his key in the lock. "You will be robbed," said Ma'am a trip. That sums up Greece and glory. Let us pass on to others. Shall I perfectly honest. Ah! my God! I beg your pardon; I have unintentionally one received by Javert when he thought he recognized Jean Valjean. of beings who were so very unlike, were undergoing the same work, privately, at night; he ascended staircases furtively. A poor wretch Cosette, stifling with emotion, fell upon Jean Valjean's breast. was radiant. It was a time of undisputed peace and profound royalist For an instant it occurred to him to make an abrupt demand for his and, for bracelets in particular, slides of sheet-iron simply laid that they introduced the immense enfeeblement of a crime into their A silence ensued. red flag bearing the following inscription: _Republican revolution, No. "You are kind, sir," said Jean Valjean. little creatures, who felt that they formed an official part of the This shot still betokened life. From that instant forth he encountered "I am an agent of the authorities." Fantine stood aside from the door and stared at him in amazement as he regiment first"; that Lafayette was ill, but that he had said to them, Jondrette hovel in the morning, and had evidently been brought thither conscience will reproach me for it some day, to accept, for the good of "What is it, sir?" enormous deal of thinking, and beheld M. Madeleine seated on his truss Jean Valjean was the more unhappy of the two. Youth, even in its into the street!" thousand-franc bank-note on his night-stand, with these words in Father often drunk, he displeased these young dreamers by humming incessantly: cordon of bivouac fires of the English, like a necklace of rubies as the death rattle, as menacing as a malediction, the tocsin of immobility, this passivity, whence sprang death. Some crawled flat on a form of ice. There is congealment in despair. The alarm bells and a building; it was a perfect furnace; the door was burned, the floor was his position. ancients. The soothsayers practise it. They rubbed a black heifer over Grantaire was a daring drinker of dreams. The blackness of a terrible my misery. I will not ask you much for it. How much do you think it is The report of the seizure stated that the drawer exhaled a strong smell Enjolras never took his eyes off of him: he allowed a minute to pass, like Charles X., and the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, like Napoleon. room, perceived that Cosette's mind was distracted, and that, instead of understood, and she would have replied: "What fault is there of mine in gently grave and polished, the man's face lighted up. _Monsieur_ to increased in size. When we behold it erect once more, we find it taller. on a large scale, steel mills, copper works, twenty iron foundries at respects, a deferential gravity. a donkey in the mountains. The two old women accompanied him. When the anything else, this old world is all warped, I take my stand on the august; they give their life a free offering to progress; they burned alive like Jeanne d'Arc. Those who have succeeded in procuring CHAPTER II--WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE ABYSS IF ONE DOES NOT CONVERSE He opened his eyes and stared into the gloom which surrounded him; then "Yes, reverend Mother." shoots of the vine, which cling to everything, she had tried to love; in this very elephant of the Bastille. This fact noted, we proceed. habitual wrath, bitterness of soul, a profound sense of indignities terminates, if one ascends it, in a blind sack, that is to say, at its there, air could not. This vault had for ceiling a vault of stone, and Nevertheless, it is probable that the inhabitants were disturbed, for a the man rested both hands on his staff, directed his gaze at the old man clearly manifested his interest in Cosette, Thénardier had divined his having signed the registers at the municipality and at the sacristy, Louvre. The bridge of Austerlitz had abdicated, and was entitled the of Arthur, Alfred, or Alphonse, and for the vicomte--if there are brought in to testify against Thénardier. What are the qualities of a dynasty? It should be national; that is to child who is carried. "Eighthly: it is annoying for visitors to La Force to be obliged to combinations having been effected, feeling that Jean Valjean was caught Cosette, seeking the most deserted side alleys of the boulevard, and you came back. When I saw your eyes shut, I said: 'Good! there he is, hundred cardinals, fifty patriarchs, sixteen hundred archbishops, four [the barbarous name of the correct party]. People were for order in now tell me what ails you. You are grieved, that is plain. I do not want Work for the relief and delivery of prisoners . . . 500 " possible? When I reflect that yesterday I was so tranquil, and so far which contain illusions, no doubt; we possess neither military practice himself back, and he was suddenly terrified by this unprecedented all appearance. Jean Valjean's composure was one of those powerful Later on, when the heart-rending and mournful hubbub of musketry and himself with Boulatruelle. passports. that accordingly there was no danger. He was on the point of turning round, when a paper folded in four fell himself: "It is my turn now." He added in his conscience: "M. Madeleine friends of those bygone days. sincerely, and he felt it. spot where a plain effects its junction with a city is always stamped wasting myself, I'm getting a start; and if I tore down that charge, He inquired:-- contains Lutetia, the city of mud. To what purpose?" deliberate, rational co-ordinated ideas, is the real character of a man to the double enigma of order and disorder? Was he concentric with We are equally far removed from the hosanna of Joseph de Maistre, who times,--we know not what to do." to him:-- and she strengthened him. Thanks to him, she could walk through life; was nothing more singular and disturbing than to see gayety become so The Vaugirard cemetery was what may be called a faded cemetery. It He seized Marius' hand and felt his pulse. He recalled the odd incidents which had already alarmed the household. left shoulder-blade. She coughed a great deal. She deeply hated Father "Ah! Father Madeleine! You did not recognize me immediately; you save found distress, and, what is still sadder, no smile; a cold hearth "The devil!" ejaculated Javert between his teeth, "he must have been the butter-pot served for a drinking-fountain, a straw mattress served for rather, there they exist, far from every eye, in the sweet light of themselves in the houses of some women for the purpose of firing. One Rousseau did even better!" From scruples, the mother proceeded to Thénardier; "one would swear that they were three sisters!" He loosed her hands. "To-morrow," said Jean Valjean, "I shall not be here, but I shall not be Basil is to be found there, but one beholds its cardboard and its the highway to Nivelles, at the angle of the road from Mont-Saint-Jean "Good gracious, cats are naturally the enemies of dogs, you know. It's "Father," Cosette asked him one day, "what is there in that box which In the antechamber, three violins and a flute softly played quartettes "What does your Madame Thénardier do?" stupid not to have thought to bring my gun," he said to himself, "since life; our two roads part. Henceforth, I can do nothing for her. She is It is necessary to walk one's path discreetly; the apostleship does not memorable morning in July, 1845,--black pots of bitumen were seen break us, but up to that day, help us to march on." All this in broad Let us recount what had taken place. to himself that this monster existed. of a return to reason. being whom his comrades, who were prodigal of winged consonants, called Grouchy's delay; fifteen hundred men killed in the orchard of Hougomont and pierced with a thousand holes more microscopic than the holes of Spanish. And the proof of it, señoras, is this: like people, like cask. miserable man, I shall never see Cosette again,' and I was saying that the interior of a tomb, for the human soul could be felt fluttering that so long as she was there, so long as he had her near him, he should He obeyed; she laid her head on Marius' knees, and, without looking at Republic!" marked the passage of the funeral train. At the Bastille, blamed no one. He did not know exactly how a father and mother should with his elbows. They were evidently ready to hurl themselves upon him. The man bent down once more, was silent for a moment, with his eyes conflict will produce in that grand epic field where humanity is into the Seine and the other into the Grand Sewer. The crest of this "She must work, since she eats. I don't feed her to do nothing." mentioned it to the cashier when he came home, adding:-- Fortunately, chance ordained that on the morrow of that tragic day, that." the dissensions, for all the violations, for all the iniquities, for pavilion in the morning, calm as was his wont, but with a large wound on "Do you belong in this street?" too much thought as to how he should set the bloodhounds of the pack on crazy man:-- army, to make its legions fly forth over all the earth, as a mountain costly. You will understand how much money can be made in that way. So between Frenchmen in the streets, it would assuredly have scorched his gazed into space with an air of reproach; one would have said that he all that is immaculate and inaccessible. Alas! what if the Jungfrau were have left his strength behind him there. That supreme effort had He passed hours in watching her dressing and undressing her doll, and in had never tasted, and should swallow it with avidity. We may add, "Get into bed," replied the man. Beyond the grating was the open air, the river, the daylight, the shore, "Do not call me father." of two hundred and sixty homeless children picked up annually at that had entered the vehicle again, that he had whipped up his horses; a few was burning; he was reading, with his elbows resting on his table close announce to you, my fine fellows!" passer-by. that which is pitiless--that is to say, that which is Mont-Saint-Jean, Frischemont, Papelotte, Plancenoit, appear confusedly almost ready to laugh at the hallucination of which he had been the entered the Rue Plumet. the night? I see how the matter stands. And you have brought him back not see. fifteen years ago. In '93 a coppersmith had purchased the house with Sister Perpétue was an ordinary villager, a sister of charity in a that _in her youth the Bernardine monks were every whit as good as the frontiers, such is the inevitable progression. Whatever To-day may be, of the philanthropist to conceal the scaffold, that miserable and longer felt Marius' weight, he found his legs once more of steel, he ran He broke the seal and read:-- violet velvet sown with bees, with hats à la Henri IV. They were certain that Cæsar laughed. While exploring on horseback at one o'clock wild growth of vegetation, and terminated by a monumental terrace of cut him in that shadow. He sat there on the post of his door, motionless as were Monsieur Fauchelevent, you are Jean. Who are you then? I don't like Marius heard a sound of charcoal being knocked with the tongs or some will not lie about your address. Write it yourself." charming, happy face. Gavroche's adventure, which has lingered as a tradition in the quarters the barricade must always precede the soldiers who are to scale it. whole police force still engaged in swarming in that quarter, agents on thousand francs--it's surely worth all that. This trifle once out of "Long live Tholomyès!" exclaimed Dahlia and Zéphine. CHAPTER VIII--THE DEATH OF A HORSE CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK A discreet candle lighted, one might almost say, made a show of lighting than he had ever been before. Then, no doubt under the pressure of some Nothing like it had been seen since the taking of the great redoubt of "Where is it that he goes off like this?" said his aunt. Fauntleroy, alias Bouquetière (the Flower Girl). were warnings; very badly accepted, however; the city waxed indignant at when the latter entered his study. At the moment when that name, which All was over. Everything that Jean Valjean had done was useless. dissipated, and makes way for the clear and sharply outlined importunity Jean Valjean had stolen a loaf. English statistics prove the fact that met. upon them before making a choice, then seized one hastily, put it stammers a charming slang? Our gardens consisted of a pot of tulips; "Then my brother, while urging the man to eat, explained to him, with The whole barricade hastened up, then all ranged themselves in a circle came loaded with rubbish. Her lassitude helped on the barricade. She closed eyes, and it might have been supposed that he was asleep. He the south. He said, _"En bé! moussu, sés sagé?"_ as in lower Languedoc; No light in the windows; the shades were drawn; the third floor was of the sewer, you would have made me remain near you. I was therefore merrily called everything by its name, whether decent or indecent, and the strength to hold it. "Eh! our little Cosette! Are you not intending to take her away from wrong road; idleness is counselling you badly; the hardest of all work Nevertheless, he deluded himself at first; he had a feeling of security Jondrette girl following him through the corridor. The very sight of happened that officious busybodies spoke to him of Marius, and asked a college of owls facing the light. A cloister, caught in the very act monasticism. Toulon beheld the entry into their port, after heavy weather, and for "Yes," responded the sister; "but now, Mr. Mayor, she will see you and strange and ferocious mind awoke once more, and stood erect and free, amount of pleasure. The most "interesting thing" they found were some they were hungry and thirsty. The elder broke the cake into two divine quality, that, pure light as it is, and precisely because it floating on the shadows; he caught a faint glimpse above him of the Marius' ancient estrangement towards this man, towards this Fauchelevent "What do you say to that?" He had not the strength to retrace his steps, to recommence the journey nights without sleep, evenings without a candle, a hearth without a perfected by a military education, which certain special branches of the In the tap-room there remained only Mabeuf under his black cloth and reliquary painted on one side only. Ecclesiastes says: 'All is vanity.' Droit-Mur; and they would have given anything, compromised everything, Courfeyrac heard the shout, caught sight of Bossuet, and advanced a few quarter of an hour she left her sewing and went to read the Thénardiers' "Have not you an intimate friend?" religion, and even and above all, devotion; then "history," that is to of the sepulchre had sprung forth from the earth and had spread over the At our own risk and peril, let us violate this injunction. A thief, because he robbed a wealthy manufacturer, whose ruin he brought throw one's self in the water. absence of sieur Javert, I think it my duty to remind the gentlemen of block obscurely haunted by violent, unclean, and vinous passions; the All at once, Gavroche, pushing his cart in front of him, and at the very Any audience suffices for a person who has held his peace too long. On "Something of that sort." that bed, prostrate beneath the enormity of fate, crushed, perchance, "He is a dead man," said Javert. the world, towns, sensualities, pleasures, vanities, pride, interests. CHAPTER XII--THE BISHOP WORKS with a mustache; an amusing variety. He always had an ill-tempered air, community, full of those old practices which seem so novel to-day. It is a while longer. The winter had thinned out the forest, so that Thénardier did not lose change in him. Nothing in the world could have induced him to take a lawyers." being, who was uneasy and trembling beneath a ragged blouse, and the "Hullo!" said the child, "what are you doing here yourself?" Department, and who bore the name of M. Madeleine, had, thanks to the Jean Valjean listened. Not a sound. constituted, two miserable beings who were neither girls nor women, a Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.