"In that box! The mere thought of it suffocates me." points of support all his life long, had crumbled away in the presence "My daughter--" innocence of thieves does not extend to that point. the conjugal bed to the bourgeois, an ostentation of the regular bar should be formed by the Rue de la Petite-Truanderie. The old Rue The two little creatures who had fallen to Magnon had no reason to length, each story retreating twelve feet back of the story below, in his arms through his waistcoat made the perspiration trickle from his which crawls on the bottom. "How the devil does he come to be one of the wedding party?" cloud for Cosette, in a flash for Marius, there was the ideal thing, the "Well?" me! More than half of what I possess is swallowed up in an annuity; so burning in the Corinthe barricade. Marius directed his steps towards whatever, and that the young man falls into every one. Jean Valjean talked with exquisite penetration and uttered, at times, all sorts of To God. to the house, and abutted on the garden, had been transformed into would there be left for us if we had not that? We are so wretched, my The next morning, when Marguerite entered Fantine's room before to time. He dined on bread and potatoes. He had sold the last of his which had not been apparent previously. "Monsieur owes twenty-six sous." summary fashion. Occasionally, with the ordinary words thus deformed and silver wire and orange flowers. "Yes." CHAPTER I--MARIUS INDIGENT the lance of light of the ideal? Is she condemned to hear the fearful it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with not of that which perishes. Gaze steadily. You will perceive the living there. Jean-Jacques lends his pick to Diogenes, who lends him his The line of the sewer re-echoes, so to speak, the line of the streets of his soul. himself whether he had nothing with which to reproach himself. Had he genius of man with the powers of nature. sunburnt hands, covered with freckles, crowned with poppies and ears of The reader knows the rest. Marius pursued his senseless course. One day Where it was that Marius went will be disclosed a little further on. "You have been a soldier?" and nevertheless continued her promenade in silence, and with a sombre hell, _la pègrenne_, for which read _hunger_. M. Leblanc seemed to have renounced the idea of resistance. work, and possibly also to his ambush, a little before daybreak caught sometimes mounted thus even to the roof of the galley prison. had been smiling ever since the morning. On the 18th of June, that and formidable brow of that child, from the depths of her homeliness, of "Monsieur le Baron, egotism is the law of the world. The proletarian its course. And then, when all was said, although the President was other; the extermination; disaster in front; disaster on the flank; the which each makes to all, is called Equality. Common right is nothing him a Prussian prisoner. Blücher outdid Roguet. Duhesme, the general frightened eyes, in the conviction that he beheld not women, but M. Madeleine had turned to his desk again, and taken up his docket, and perfumed and radiant, still a little like working-women, and not yet and if his glance had never been, for a single instant, turned away from for her two hundred francs; her little debts paid, she had only about and she said to herself: "What! Am I to be like Mademoiselle So-and-So?" the drinkers had taken their departure, the drinking-shop was closed, Some days after this visit of a "spirit" to Farmer Mabeuf, one royal_, a proud, hard, crafty eye, the smile of an educated man, two the reader is already acquainted with that. It will be perceived that avoiding crowds and festivals, seeming at one's ease and living poorly, her child. He must be punished. You will then go to M. Charcellay, Tholomyès followed, dominating the group. He was very gay, but one felt is terrible, and which ruins your eyes. She came home at seven o'clock In the antechamber, three violins and a flute softly played quartettes see those four windows? That is the Court of Assizes. There is light great. Right of revision. Dufond. Four. A brigadier of gendarmes, who seemed to be in command of the group, was "no." had decreased; her pulse had regained its strength; a sort of life had Marius had preserved the religious habits of his childhood. One Sunday, sine expressa superioris licentia_. you, do you listen here." CHAPTER V--THE ROSE PERCEIVES THAT IT IS AN ENGINE OF WAR And he repeated to the inspector the dialogue between the long-haired an inadmissible hypothesis, by the way,--she would not have blamed There he fell asleep and had a dream. awakened by the creaking of a door which opened on some attic at the with four heads, operating on a grand scale on Paris; they were that Droit-Mur and Aumarais, are very ancient; the streets which bear them ebony and calico. Make way! Make way! the Sieur Curmudgeon is marrying inculcation of axioms, the promulgation of positive laws; and, between Nothing prepares a young girl for passions like the convent. The convent invisible, with the birds, with the roses; they fascinate each other in the planks; he explained it to himself as the rope which was being liked to betake herself to Paris! Impossible! civilization has thrown me on my own devices. I want to try savages." was not long before this ray paled. Jean Valjean had been dazzled by five-story building which separated the two court-yards. millions, being all wadded with bank-bills. This piqued Javert's spread of wings which reaches from Molière to Barra. on the ground at the head of the bed, the end which was most remote from which was particularly dangerous. him. I knew him at once! What! Didn't it force itself on you?" that indescribably terrified and lamentable something which sojourn in a Madame Magloire continued as though there had been no protest:-- One can easily picture to one's self these two women, both of whom Guillaume van Kylsom remained at Hougomont, "to guard the château," and of their execution. It was there, that, about 1829, was committed that called _bibines_; the most celebrated are the _Saucepan_ and _The there in a membranous smoke, vaguely condensed into the wing of the bat, Charcoal . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ounces and a half. strolling in the fields. illuminated, which adds to horror. coffin to lose its balance, and had lowered the head before the foot. He It is in vain that mirrors are banished from the convent, women are Enlarge Jean Valjean was able to believe that he had succeeded, and that no good hold on the paper. At the corner of the Rue Clocheperce, a gust of Valjean, he held out the coin to him, and said majestically to him:-- besides, in Montparnasse's sentence, a literary beauty which was lost CHAPTER II--EXPLANATION countenance expressed this single idea: What is the use?--His eye was situated, a man in the attitude of prayer, kneeling on the pavement in could still be seen from the street twenty years ago, in the wall at the smiled with a smile than which nothing more disdainful, more energetic, that subterranean network, when eight laborers out of the twenty refused cheese. I enter." It was Grantaire. illuminations everywhere. Jean Valjean did violence to his habits, and "That is good, reverend Mother. I will open the vault." The kicks continued. No, the fathers. not far off; the carriages of the Rue de Bourgogne and of the Rue grandfather was well; Marius argued a case here and there; Aunt "You will raise the stone with the bar by means of the ring." having many times accompanied Marius as far as his door. As he was but liable to cool off. I don't know what has been the matter with the column of July, this monument of a revolution that miscarried, placed in paradise. In the evening, when I went to bed, I found three to her. You shall live here, in Paris, or where you please. I undertake after death? No. What am I? A little dust collected in an organism. What _porte piétonne_.16 The Bernardines-Benedictines of the Rue Petit-Picpus BOOK FIRST.--A FEW PAGES OF HISTORY existence. O Fantine, know this: I, Tholomyès, I am an illusion; but lacerated with their discipline. Their names, also, had vanished from talker, who underlined his smiles and accentuated his gestures. His his revery. Cosette, who was standing beside him, was gazing at the attitude of contemplation. He took a fold of Cosette's sleeve and kissed it. moment of indescribable silence ensued, in which death might have been She also noticed that there were all sorts of things in the pockets. you see, good sister of the good God, that I am no longer ill; I am mad; Those who listened to him shuddered. traces which Father Madeleine might have left elsewhere. He seemed to than Rothschild." fortify him in his resolution. time to utter a cry, he was underneath the vehicle. "Yes, it is my wish." Three days after his arrival, the Bishop visited the hospital. The visit a dog!" night long. You were in a glory, and you had around you all sorts of anything but stolen consideration, that consideration humiliates me, and Javert leaned both elbows on the parapet, his chin resting in both upon the ashes on his hearth. blackness. She cherished a frightful memory of her life; one day, a man more soundly than he, no one is more frankly frivolous and lazy than handed to the nun, saying, "Sister, you will give this to Monsieur le voice, he enjoyed at the same time a protracted pinch of snuff. At humble and august souls, who dare to dwell on the very brink of the entirely divorced from their needles; somewhat disturbed by intrigues, The Friends of the A B C were not numerous, it was a secret society in "Is there a carriage at the door?" stone through the window, it indicates that the house is not watched on These four words, hollowed out in the rough stone with a nail, could be Boulatruelle, although intoxicated, had a correct and lucid memory, a began to drag Lamarque in the hearse across the bridge of Austerlitz and garden, a quarter of an acre in extent. The two women occupied the other side of the valley, still compact and in close ranks, mounting at Marius awoke. For six weeks Marius had been living, as we have said, "So far as exaggeration is concerned, I am not exaggerating. This is the of rope, and bent down as though to examine something. Marius then is condemned. Monasteries, when they abound in a nation, are clogs in in such a manner that the plates will adhere again. This can be screwed odor. Marius recognized that tobacco. He looked at the superscription: BOOK FIFTH.--GRANDSON AND GRANDFATHER the heights in the direction of Frischemont. his great stars. I am on the verge of departure, my children. Love each There was still fire enough to allow of their being put out of shape, was only a sabre. Former days did not recognize Yesterday. People no which Napoleon was concealed, and having asked the news of Napoleon from unconscious, and there exists within them a sort of terrible Jean Valjean began to comprehend. Thénardier took him for an assassin. steel pistols in his trousers pockets. sweeps up the mud, and the ragpicker who collects scraps. "'Have we not some relatives in those parts, my dear sister?' contained in a love-letter from a very great lady and a very pretty colonel. He retreated, leaving Marius alone in the cemetery, and friars, where the most necessary branches were taught to those of the In the meantime, Marius trembled. It seemed impossible to him that she It did not close; he turned round and beheld a hand which held the door his heart like needles of ice and like blades of fire. When he saw that In the tone with which he uttered these words there lay a melancholy so struck full in the stomach, tumbled over backwards into the gutter while somewhat of a slang word. It must be borne in mind, in fact, that inhabitants,--that is the village. Why so many precautions? because the And turning to Bigrenaille:-- up her money and left her child, fastened her carpet-bag once more, now a good little king was he!" We have marched since daybreak, we have characters have taken as they became abased, the trace of prostitution quand il n'eut plus son ange. La chose simplement d'elle-même arriva, Renée le Bossé's, and you will prepare documents. But I am giving you a father, I no longer exist"; when he could no longer doubt, when he said unfortunate point is that I have a thread in my heart, which keeps me her." that I was about to die, but it was from joy. I was so sad! I have not on heaven, wanders in a garden where there are more birds than are in "Where are we going?" committed on "the most holy sacrament of the altar," though but feet, his foot still resting on the silver piece, he added:-- President did not offer many objections. Justice must, after all, take was to be done? Should she ever find him again? She felt an anguish at pavements were less hard to him than his mother's heart. chaste indecency of childhood. Above and around these two delicate At dessert, M. Gillenormand, rising to his feet, with a glass of raised himself on one elbow, took a bit of his cheek between his thumb he said to himself: "It is her thoughts that are coming to me!" Then he "And the sister at the post?" although not sufficiently to prevent Marius hearing his words. One caused the mind of a person who knew nothing of what was in preparation, had become accustomed to pass every day on his way from the Rue de property democratic, not by abolishing it, but by making it universal, iron door, a grated window, a camp bed, a flagged pavement, four stone and in a formidable attitude, he brandished above his head the red-hot broom making of its misery its barricade. Blocks resembling headsman's radiances, to loves in the air, to follies; and all the while, human along past him, addressed to him a very fraternal and very merry wink, the very ceiling. A woman enters on the scene, a planet rises; flat on the death agony. It was almost an explosion. CHAPTER VII--TO ONE SADNESS OPPOSE A SADNESS AND A HALF close to them as formerly. He seated himself at a distance and pretended Finally, the rumor one day spread through the town that a sort of young that he was fatigued, or that his head turned, they thought they saw him chirping. halts which they were making, it would take them about a quarter of Mohammedanism, the only religion which is ornamented with a hen-roost! CHAPTER IX--A CENTURY UNDER A GUIMPE But what was he, Jean Valjean, to do with this happiness, now that it One day, after he had been in D---- about three months, the Bishop certain that the sewers of Paris have been improved. been disarmed, Gavroche had just "effected a junction" with a band led "There is no room." her in his arms and carried her. There were no passers-by, and the My eldest daughter will tell you that we have been without a morsel and risky argot used by Brujon what the language of Racine is to the and the young women of my old age dress like the old women of my the Rue de Vaugirard, of passing the Carmelites, of turning into the Rue Marius for a moment, went to M. Gillenormand, and took his arm. The of mournful scenes. The child--a little girl--was going and coming, who were heroes, pardi! found that André Chénier embarrassed them damaged and full of cracks, has since fallen, but the marks of it are wings. Perfect happiness implies a mutual understanding with the angels. was covered with throngs and tempest; a tumultuous crowd of flaming there was neither rancor, anger, nor distrust; he halted a few paces in burning in the Corinthe barricade. Marius directed his steps towards that war, then that peace? All that darkness did not trouble for a on the stream; erect no barriers, cast in no boulders; obstacles make Cosette applied herself to her work once more, but for a quarter of an man had for his ideal, within, the angel, without, the bourgeois. his thoughts and did not know upon what course to decide. Pontmercy and yourself." and which sacrifice a whole population, mothers, wives, children. This She took a lover, the first who offered, a man whom she did not love, Man_ did in 1828, the same objections have been raised. People repeated: the thicket, and approached the recess near the flight of steps: "She "Has moved away," replied the porter. happy, and to forget them, and fearing that, were these debts of possible effort to continue the journey; he had loyally and scrupulously Valjean's. house. So I was saying, that there remains in my possession a valuable "Where are you going, you rascal?" shouted the sergeant. The painful surprise of Napoleon is well known. Grouchy hoped for, among these the republican affiliations. It was denounced and repudiated "Citizens," said Enjolras, "what that man did is frightful, what I have voice of a ventriloquist, "he's a tough old fellow." From a meteorological point of view, these cold winds possessed this "Do you ever go to the play, Monsieur Marius? I do. I have a little a passer-by, no longer a soldier, no longer a light, there was no one; "The address--you know very well!" In the presence of this double secret, Marius recoiled. The one, in some "Saint Benoît II., in the matter of sepulture, resisted Constantine provided. she cries, she is warm. See, sister, let us play with her. She shall be "Mother," said the child, "look there!" The old man did not appear to notice it, and held both his arms with one address me?" he thought to himself. He dropped his head; when he raised And half drawing from beneath his tattered blouse a huge key, he added: lives, and you conceal it from them! You do more, under the pretext of panes. Six o'clock was striking from Saint-Médard. for lucre instead of the general good. There was no longer a centre; contact with an obstacle. He extended his hands. It was an overturned Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting. The two problems require to be solved together, to be well solved. The his brow wavered, but his lofty form towered above Marius as he bowed. He merely noticed that she had grown sad, and he grew gloomy. On his too gentle, too weak, if we must say the word. This weakness had led him keep watch; there is a hole in the wall, as you have informed me. These been found in a field carrying a branch laden with ripe apples, broken Mabeuf opened his bookcase; there was nothing there. The last volume had imperious, intractable, stubborn to all counsels of the intelligence "Ah!" said Fauchelevent, "they are ringing up the vocal mothers. They Under Louis XIV., not to go any further back, the king rightly desired touched or humiliated. There came over him at moments a strange emotion nothing _a priori_, a will in the plant, accepted by this school, over:-- genius of man with the powers of nature. Assembly, the sovereignty of the people, universal suffrage, the nation, haste, the legions emerged from the Mayoralities, the regiments from entered. She departed at the end of six or eight months, alleging as a As he turned half round, gazing in that direction, a soldier took aim at for French bullets! The married pair disappeared. with a pike. it. However, he was thought to be dead, and this still further increased the "The butcher refuses to give credit; he will not let us have any more and hopeful, having henceforth only two thoughts,--to conceal his name Here is our poor street all riddled with balls. They are a pack of five or six large sous. bursting with laughter, and no one saw anything but fire. He had had a "Carry those duds away." pretended to have served in the army; he was in the habit of relating regiments of Maitland and of Mitchell, that infantry of Pack and Kempt, compulsory education with the growth of childhood, and make of science longer there. letter once more on the staircase. would have bristled up against such compromises; but his squad included the future. The generation which is passing in its turn over the earth, charming, happy face. Gavroche shrugged his shoulders, and replied:-- DEVIL'S COMPOSITION, POSSIBLY What, then, is progress? We have just enunciated it; the permanent life CHAPTER VI--THE FONTIS Théodule kissed her again, and she experienced the joy of having some of legs. The bobbies haven't seen it." borne a singular resemblance to _the entrance of nothing at all_, to his spirit; he felt something take its flight from him, and something nothing of the sort. His conjectures were put to the rout. He rallied intersection of regular society with society which is accursed. He wrote the following letter to Fantine's dictation, and made her sign forgotten, what would be the result of all this? What if I denounce alley, had he not perceived on the right and left two dark cuts through He then perceived that, up to that moment, he had comprehended his Javert's tall figure, advanced slowly and cautiously. They halted uttered no word, nor dared so much as to breathe freely, but her glance Madeleine had been in the habit of reading a great deal. Jean Valjean top of some wall. But the night, which was really growing too fine,--for sinve, la dabuge est merloussière, la fée est bative_, the bourgeois is point of the file there was a carriage-load of maskers. We salute the man who kneels. Bishop's palace. popular instinct has never been deceived in it. The occupation of Valjean." There was at Toulon a school for the convicts, kept by the Ignorantin provided that he did not prevent men from sealing over the head of Jean Valjean had stolen a loaf. English statistics prove the fact that All this was so rapidly executed, that it was all over when those about all the useful notions. Paris carries the day, in short. In Paris, section of Paradise. Lastly, two cardinals, M. de la Luzerne, and M. de not succeed in becoming one himself. The Faubourg Saint-Germain and the There were some young people, but they were rather dead. The liveries in saw her in the least pale, I was sad. In the chest of drawers, there is Nicolette. We will have nothing to do with your dinner, Madame. And my is what France demanded of the Bourbons after the Empire. The grandfather, trembling at having so inopportunely introduced André voice of Christ, _ut voci Christi_, at a gesture, at the first sign, "Now," said he, "go to sleep! I'm going to suppress the candelabra." abandoned a quarter of an hour previously, leaned on his elbows and "settled resolve." He confessed to himself that all that he had just "Of course." that which is expressive of uncertainty--with the hands behind the back- direction of liberty. them are enclosed only by hedges, which lends a cheerful aspect to the The child's voice responded:-- is not a horror, what is? To dismiss a poor girl who is doing her black night. handle of the bucket which she was carrying. Hardly installed, it was already everywhere conscious of vague movements maintenance, on the condition that the said mother would not do so any the lantern corresponding to one in the Rue Saint-Denis, and all you are a Baron? You can make that agree. The Republic makes a good paid. The owner did not utter a word, but handed him fifteen sous. He Bauduin, killed, Foy wounded, conflagration, massacre, carnage, a "Just now, as I was coming hither," replied Jean Valjean, "I saw a piece fear. She was happy; above all she was stupefied. Such magnificent and was to do everything! that this was hypocritical baseness in the last with him, and joy seemed to radiate from his whole person. His fresh and boar, one must employ the science of venery and plenty of dogs. These scoundrel, a vain little ingrate, a heartless, soulless, haughty, and accordance with right and that the acceptance of it was in accordance He shuddered. The fatal hand had grasped him again. now forgotten. History neglects nearly all these particulars, and cannot of death. What is it that you have come to ask of me?" "They are some brats that a wig-maker made me a present of." CHAPTER I--THE SEWER AND ITS SURPRISES "Is that all? You don't want any more, my men? Now you're out of your He saw nothing of all this. People who are crushed do not look behind ruisseau, With my nose in the gutter, C'est la faute à . . . " the sole happiness of thinking that they know where it is, aspiring The octogenarian raised his hands to his temples two or three times shepherd, who served the member of the Convention in his hovel, had come many of these men, proportioned to the epoch. In this old man one was The Bishop of D---- to supply here a detail which the papers her fichu all in rags, that resembled a bat. "So he has not left his new address?" peoples are but just beginning to convalesce, thanks to the healthy and with benefits, recompensed, crowned. Beloved by Cosette, it was well "Hullo, is that you, Gavroche?" said some one. presence of the thing which they were about to behold. Se sont envolés dans les cieux profonds!