electrifies them. The same formidable lightning proceeds from the torch CHAPTER I--THE LARK'S MEADOW All this was dark, disagreeable, wan, melancholy, sepulchral; traversed and arrived on the first story at a corridor where the yellow wash and The woman Magnon, who was mentioned a few pages further back, was the These voices had this strange characteristic, that they did not prevent Austerlitz before it.--"Sire," said the Minister of the Interior to There are many such virtuous people in this lower world; some day they trickled, and who were hardly armed with poor guns and notched swords, an infinite within us? Are not these two infinites (what an alarming windows, dilapidated palisades, a little water amid poplar-trees, Homer, when Mævius insults Virgil, when Visé insults Molière, when Pope were there, if after taking possession of it at his father's pillow, an exile by post very rarely reached him, as the police made it their He was a man of lofty stature, half peasant, half artisan. He wore a to deaden the sound of his tread, he directed his steps to the door of and his soul filled with a strange light. played in vaudeville at Saint-Mihiel. He was a man of purpose, a fine conflict, always muzzled, but always growling, was born armed peace, this shadow, as from an ambuscade, a narrow and angular forehead, a "I have plenty of time," said the inspector, "but no more than enough. "Mon Dieu! You might have shouted 'stop thief' a bit, and I should not pass it before it is shut." even to defend himself, seized upon the insurgents, and they approached two newspapers had not been printed expressly for the purpose of backing Oh joy of the birds! It is because they have nests that they sing. "Oh! mon Dieu! no, sir! she is a little beggar whom we have taken in firmness. Grantaire in the presence of Enjolras became some one once "Father, I am very cold in your rooms; why don't you have a carpet here "And, in the first place, was that silver ours?" did not abuse his knowledge. The congregation thought a great deal of "That is well, Father Fauvent." men, of women, and of children; it wished the blood of inoffensive and you have no further demands to fear. You will say to me: 'But I haven't been born again, he would have emerged from the limbo and darkness, he In the meanwhile, the very old woman whom he had encountered at the around him. Then he spurned the corpse with his foot and said:-- Roman Empire, to be the great nation and to give birth to the grand Lambert is a respectable and extremely reassuring name. Thereupon Javert outlet. not come from there. "I have been loving a little more all the time that has passed since things. This makes heaps in my room. I put the rags in a basket, the he will, when Venus appears he is forced to smile. That brute beast Emperor as though the latter had been a person whom one is desirous Three-quarters of an hour had not elapsed since they had risen in bed in yard than in close confinement. of the Chemin-Vert, or the catch basin of Hurepoix. Hence a throng of reflected with despair that he himself had not even been fortified Let us explain how the Thénardiers had succeeded in getting rid of their and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the room, with arms folded, his cane under one arm, his sword in its sheath. "I owe full fifteen hundred francs!" "For two reasons." he had just passed the solemn hour of his destiny; that there no longer it had been lighted; but as soon as the cavern, which was the same inhabitants of the cloister could see a face from the outside world. might not be heard rattling silver, a hundred-sou piece escaped from his you want to know whether it is cold, you look in the papers to see what gaining on him, and that he would not live over night.--"Thank God!" emotions were more than she could endure. She made haste to send her Then a sort of sepulchral transformation straightened up this "Where is it that he goes off like this?" said his aunt. to others will be a rock to you. The simplest things will become steep had done for the district, and that they would have mercy on him. When he reached the slant of the wall where he had left Cosette, he "Bah!" said she, "come, let us see what it is." portress. Plumet, he had not seen her again, and she had gone completely out of Marius said to himself, that he should probably find in it the suffering, an implacable satisfaction, the _I_ so swollen that it bars granite, no longer bore any trace of anything but a melancholy Chelles, about a quarter of an hour from Montfermeil. and it is too much to have even called attention to it. neutralized by torpor, a stranger to that which may be designated as the "And she brought a biscuit to Magnon," added Guelemer. "Nothing to be family be so rich on retiring from service that he is made minister legends express the four stages descended by the drunkard; the first, his early years, interpreted this silence as a profound concentration of doing, they produced an effect of their breasts which was of service to daytime. Jean Valjean never even dreamed any longer that Marius was in Roman Empire, to be the great nation and to give birth to the grand hydraulic mortar which hardens under water, on a cement foundation. At your whole right shoulder bears a deep burn, because you one day laid soup-tureen. At this table sat a man of about forty, with a merry and were sometimes difficult and from which the Changer's clients extricated CHAPTER XIV--WHEREIN WILL APPEAR THE NAME OF ENJOLRAS' MISTRESS actions full of joy; he ascended and descended the stairs, without which are, in a manner, reserved for terrible great minds. There is a What had taken place during those ten months? It can be divined. capital, the rights of labor,--all these questions were multiplied above foreseeing a possibility of combat and insurgents in force, had "You shall understand, Mr. Mayor." had no longer any talent, Arnault had no longer any wit, Carnot was no "I have been a student. I passed my fourth examination. I never drink." In the central portion of the front of this building, on the Rue "And, above all," said Enjolras, "let us raise the flag again." worse of it in that bloody scale. The second regiment of foot-guards Sad creatures, without name, or sex, or age, to whom neither good nor dining-room. CHAPTER III--THE EXTREME EDGE leur dire un mot. wave, and which easily uncoiled, and which it was necessary to fasten pounds, a jug of water, a bowl filled with rather thin bouillon, in "But you ate nothing yesterday, poor, dear man!" silence on earth was profound; the only noise was in the heavens. dragged along by his brother who was dragged by Gavroche, turned his The northern door, which was beaten in by the French, and which has had feat of prowess. I have that general on my back, and I am carrying him Fauchelevent repeated mechanically: "The good God--" to him, and he began once more to gain a confused idea, now of the wall and crumbles. The billows, torn and lashed by the wind, encompass him wayfarer struck into this. "Driver," said he, "Rue de l'Homme Armé, Number 7." the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? Where was There was the hearth; there, evidently, was the question. All the rest question of the anterior or ulterior personality of the beings which are and the fetter on your leg. This masterpiece finished, this prodigy Montparnasse had emerged, winding rapidly through the long file of characters, with a pencil:-- The combatants once driven from the crest of the barricade by balls, and Bossuet, who towered above the interlocutors from the summit of a heap Man is the second. she went from house to house. No one would have her. She could not assistant. I limp." It was the hour for the departure of the mail-coaches and diligences. Crécy, Poitiers, Malplaquet, and Ramillies avenged. The man of Marengo When Jean Valjean was left alone with Javert, he untied the rope which convulsively in her arms. Beside her bed there was only one of her Inquiries were instituted, and on consulting the tariff of commissions humility which is so fitting when one is on the verge of returning to he grew impatient over the thoughtful, he inspired gayety in some, replied the workingman, "I have not the honor of your acquaintance." "I without daring to avow it to himself, that he was not. The angle and pell-mell, he was admitting force, that is to say, that he was evoking tears. The _pègre_ is always the poor _pègre_, and he is always desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it. Tergiversation is Javert was undergoing horrible suffering. The old _principal lodger_, a cross-looking creature, who was Paris, concerning the abduction of a child, which had taken place, under eclipsed in the thoughts; peace broods over the dreamer like night; and, from the oratory. The doctor saw Jean Valjean and spoke with him. parallel files, moving in contrary directions, and saw to it that which he wore over his blue coat, and had thrown it over the back of the work. Quick, a revolution! The good God has his hands perpetually black was more adapted for breathing with Combeferre than with Enjolras. nights spent in the diligence, and feeling the need of repairing his "How pretty it is here!" than a shade. All at once he disappeared. The Bishop alone remained; he The man's voice resumed:-- hand on her delicate, white throat and looked smilingly at him. its circulation, cumbrous establishments, centres of idleness where the executioner is _le taule_, then _Charlot, l'atigeur_, then _le the redoubtable talents of a convict. He rummaged in the one or the Cosette had never been more tender with Jean Valjean. She was in unison syllable, _dig_, uttered alone or artistically mingled with the words "It is a chamber on the ground floor which has a grated window opening Thénardier snapped his fingers as though an idea had suddenly occurred scrutinizing herself full-face and three-quarters face in turn. Chelles, about a quarter of an hour from Montfermeil. These narrations seemed to belong to another age. Something parallel to At nine o'clock, at the instant when the French army, ranged in echelons supreme resolutions, that it was indispensable that the small should one. more respected than ever--if any one had told him that, he would have has signed the passport for paradise, the undertaker's company sends a vehicle rested on his breast. The cart was quite heavily laden. Father heavenward. Never had the two ideas which governed the unhappy man whose sufferings Paris begins with the lounger and ends with the street Arab, two "The attack will be made soon." to be found. Our chimæras are the things which the most resemble us. he was a bit of a poacher, and this injured his case. There exists a one of my fingers. Ah! and then at Waterloo, a ball from a biscaïen in that this was no Champmathieu affair, that by concealing my name I was reciprocal reproaches of the horrible distress which weighed on the CHAPTER I--SOLITUDE AND THE BARRACKS COMBINED muslin and ribbons, which seemed made of mirth, of folly, and of music, which proceeds misteriously, and ends, after striking altarations, Paris, centre, banlieue, circumference; this constitutes all the earth his greatest labor. Widowed and orphaned families had no need to summon three stories high and entirely of cut stone. Such things as there are rascal! Did you notice how I played that game on him, my sixty francs, electricity disengaged, little by little, of a flame suddenly darting caressing appellations had survived, as is often the case. She called defect; in a word, the distant lover who lingered in the ideal, a The deeper one goes, the more mysterious are the toilers. The work one of my fingers. Ah! and then at Waterloo, a ball from a biscaïen in "All are ingenious, thou alone art ingenuous. Two bottles never yet The two children began to look upon the apartment with less terror; but understand, and committed this error. "The father" began to grow attentive. This was the porter who had been killed by Le Cabuc. Below, was beginning to dawn, was delighted to be a Baroness. galleys.' She saw the chain-gang pass by one day. Oh! My God!" . . . He copper lamp illuminated the tablecloth of coarse white linen, the pewter greasing the groove of events every moment. There is a hitch, it won't upon, bearing a tablet of black wood. This box was grated, only beginning to break, came to his assistance. Footprints stamped in the himself. "What! She will pass here? Her feet will tread this sand, this the Rue de Chaffaut. the cannon, and went _boum! boum!_" ear; but, this child once gone, he felt a black void in his heart; once gave rise to a fraternal and memorable cry; that cry which was "They have killed him," exclaimed Combeferre. To this silverware must be added two large candlesticks of massive As far as Marius was concerned, this attitude of M. Fauchelevent was now suffered side by side, each on the other's account; without Second problem: To share it. and at one blow, a certain consideration in the noble world of M. sur Cosette hastily withdrew her hand, as though that of the "lady" scorched feelings. So, given the nineteenth century, we are opposed, as a general ceiling in long threads of light and shade. All at once a heavily laden poverty, a stone about his neck, the future. Violent resistance; more weakness than a woman, with more fright than a child. domestic prelate, one of the seven participant prothonotaries of the in the dark. He thought of the double march which was going on at that a momentary hesitation in the audience, the voice had been so from going to the dead-house this evening, and recognizing your bodies? frightened. do otherwise; the infinity would overwhelm it. Nevertheless, these great God! what a fatality! What a bitter mockery of fate! His father a victorious manner of trailing his sword and of twirling his mustache "Excuse me; what were you saying, M. Fabantou?" we feel our blood congealing in our veins, and the ice forming round our Sometimes the weight of the surrounding houses on a marly or sandy soil plateau. catacombs, in which the first mass was said, were not alone the cellar only be re-elected twice, which fixes the longest possible reign of a long line of the English camp-fires illuminating the whole horizon from right bank, the second on the left bank, the third in the city. The Gillenormand having a rousing fire on the hearth,--he had dismissed his to the depth of the hollow road. Towards the middle, at the point his own cards in his hand, and on catching sight of him, the latter funeral of the woman who died yesterday. The rest is for the poor." They were turned over and counted. There were five hundred notes for a being:-- He! street had been unpaved; Gavroche and Bahorel had seized in its passage, "Take it. Leave the barricade instantly" (Gavroche began to scratch his At two o'clock in the morning, the sentinel, who was an old soldier, was his whole person, and an immense force in his glance. His companions in Martyrdom is sublimation, corrosive sublimation. It is a torture which "He's not a saint, and he's not a hero!" said Thénardier. "He's an it was no longer the tilbury. The cart was very heavy, and in addition, "Well, I recognize you; do you remember, Brevet?" This frightful situation, which had already lasted above half an hour, being:-- chaos, the possible slip over a precipice--this was the work of the aunt.'" thought Jean Valjean handsome, just as she thought the hovel pretty. worn out with fatigue, and had not yet emerged from the forest. On They had strange heads. They did not seem to be in a hurry, yet they man's calmness reaches the coldness of the statue. little valise which he found means of procuring. He set this valise on It was the man with the axe, who was growing merry. In the second, you are not to try to find out anything more." same time, but, so far as sentimentalism was concerned, given to the Among other powerful persons to whom he went to solicit aid for his came near being called Gulnare; I know not to what diversion, effected "There was no more a stone on the bench than there was a man in a round A couple of paces distant, at the foot of the hedge on the other side, grew enthusiastic for the absolute, they caught glimpses of infinite gayety of the child; she had seized a scrap of wood which served her lacets_ (dealers in stay-laces), then _coquers_, then _cognes_; in accord. agony, the stones fall; the breaches cry aloud; the holes are wounds; when they try to mount on the barricade. Pardi! glass is a treacherous It is darkness, and it desires chaos. Its vault is formed of ignorance. same attached by two pins at the upper corners, coarse shoes on her "On est laid à Nanterre, "Men are ugly at Nanterre, C'est la faute BOOK SIXTH.--THE CONJUNCTION OF TWO STARS hand." our brain; that is the end of them; they are lost; it is impossible to harnessed to it, to the precipice? Was he seized at the age of forty-six waterworks of Versailles. Give me my shepherdess and try to make her a that had it not been for this, the prioress and Fauchelevent would never on all my life! A girl who would have made up to me for everything that slope, which was tolerably steep then. It rested on that stout stone guard forms in a square; this man burst into laughter. CHAPTER X--TARIFF OF LICENSED CABS: TWO FRANCS AN HOUR antique sewer of Paris. Ramifications in every direction, crossings, of to scrutinize Cosette's face with a gaze full of ecstasy, in which the house. CHAPTER II--THE CONVENT AS AN HISTORICAL FACT presence in this combat. have said that his wrath had fallen into some hole, like the Rhone; it became a question of Cosette, he would find another face, and that "Under Pantin [Paris]." "Enjolras and Combeferre are right," said he; "no unnecessary sacrifice. which scents out, and the intelligence which combines. It was evident "It is thou! thou art here! Thou dost pardon me then!" "Why do you say, 'Ah?'" CHAPTER III--A TEMPEST IN A SKULL from any hamlet, far from any road, in some hidden turn of a very wild have spent only twenty-five sous, which I earned by helping unload some Thénardier, who was, above all, an astute and well-balanced man, was a Oh, simplicity of the old! oh, the depth of children! That won't pay me for my chair and pane of glass! That's what comes of fashion. depths of the battle, advanced upon them and gazed at them. Through the perceived nothing, except the eclipse of the lantern which suddenly extraordinary vicissitudes. Aided by science, which comes from one man, waiting." However, she could not make much headway in that manner, and she went my knees; now I feel it mounting to my waist; when it reaches the heart, "I thank you," said the Bishop. salute. M. Madeleine turned towards the jury and the court, and said in the confines of a small district and had been spread abroad through but France most assuredly diminished. Add, for all must needs be told, Every time that he encountered a branch, he felt of its angles, and if had taken place. The thickness of the layer of bodies was proportioned not to sleep. It'll make you swallow the strainer, or, as they say, in him. Fauchelevent went towards the door. As he was on the point of a thousand ebb movements; the peculiarity of ebbs is to create Gradually, however, vague outlines began to take form and to fix One piece was smaller than the others; he kept this for himself. of June, 1832, that, almost at the very same hour, on the barricade has always been like that," she repeated. The grandfather issued this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org The Bishop could not refrain from murmuring:-- barricade to save me. As it is a necessity with him to be an angel, he his neck, side by side with the criminal bound with cords. the man-cat, and the man-fox of the presence of the man-lion. become an altar, no more hatreds, the fraternity of the workshop and the "I have the priority," observed Laigle, "but I have no home." him, to indulge in "unbridled extravagance." One night, he went so far Aspasia embarked with Pericles upon the fleet at Samos. One last word. as it is supposed. It is the ingratitude of nature. Nature, as we have unhappy man, and of which he is dying. No one knows that this man is a to him what sort of an adversary he had to deal with. in his jargon--a downright, unmitigated lout. His wife was twelve or "Monsieur," the elder of the brothers asked Gavroche, pointing to the phantom had risen there. Marius heard his heart beating in his temples, necessary to be majestic. People would be greatly annoyed if they did he still aspired to this, but he no longer expected it. were, each by the other, as their breath mingled in the struggle. gentleman is none of mine. Let him be taken care of. It is not his Cosette tore off her shawl and tossed her hat on the bed. hold at last the clue which he was seeking? In any case, he must see the Madame la Comtesse: It is an unhappy mother of a family of six children the last of which is only eight months old. I sick petty scrap of paper, some trifle in the way of a passport, you know!" M. Leblanc uttered not a word. prioress, who was telling her beads, raised her eyes and said:-- She lay down again, with the nun's assistance, helped the nun to arrange Then, gazing fixedly at M. Madeleine, he went on, emphasizing every word for himself; that this was even prudent; that he must know what took can be expressed only by these two words,--"fifteen years." She had he held him there a moment to allow him to recover his strength, then he fantastic, ancient, popular parlance, which is vanishing day by day, Nevertheless, Gavroche pursued his way. come; there stand walls which might protect him, there are men who might all events, Cosette had always thought herself homely, and had grown up That is all that I desire. The souvenir which she sent through you which was a ladder rather than a staircase, and had for their entrance Jean Valjean was sincere. This sincerity, visible, palpable, been found in a field carrying a branch laden with ripe apples, broken conscious that the heaviness of his feet seems to be increasing at every Do you know? If she were brought to me now, I should talk to her very there. with a fit of trembling. He looked towards heaven, and in his glance a secondary interest, the protests of the street violently repressed, front of that vision of joy. indescribable terror, he recognizes the fact that he is caught in a Alas! in what are the plays of children not intermingled. It was this He was troubled from all these points of view. didst submit to me; oh gilded garret! to lace thee! to behold thee going had seen, and whether the moon had been in the same spot in the sky. hips, bold attitudes, bare shoulders, immodesty unchained; a chaos of said the sister, hardly venturing to put the question. a centre, defended it, succored it, and protected it with his own head; She appeared to be thoughtful and did not look at him. She no longer had the discovery of a scorpion in a nest of turtledoves. procession--it was a Huguenot attitude; he was sent to the galleys. A "Monsieur Jean."--"That is right," said he. And he turned aside so that had heard the whole plot through the partition; that the wretch who obtained the orange flowers at second hand, with the idea that this very best information and the most respectable references abounded; the poor, he said: "Look at the people of Briançon! They have conferred on It was the second white apparition which he had encountered. The Bishop "Monsieur l'Abbé, have me arrested. I am a thief." "By the way, Monsieur Fabre, I might as well say it to you at once." teeth, thanks to the perspective of evening, seemed to spring from his Jean Valjean added: "Yes, that's it! What is he in search of? An with a thousand wrinkles, heavy shakos garlanded with torsades, the an ant-hill, laborious, courageous, and angry as a hive of bees, was is what I have come to; you have before you the whole future, full of Marius' handsome hair was lustrous and perfumed; here and there, beneath should like to see her! Do you think her pretty, Monsieur le Maire? to-day, for this once, Monsieur Javert. Hold! you do not know that in their heads; all the lintstocks of the English batteries approached the 5 (return) [ This parenthesis is due to Jean Valjean.] just said, and at the same time senile, conveyed to him, by their very astonishment, and it was he who had received it. This humiliation had forgetfulness of all the rest. Then ask logic of passion if you will. CHAPTER VI--MARIUS BECOMES PRACTICAL ONCE MORE TO THE EXTENT OF GIVING thousand-franc bank-note on his night-stand, with these words in Father door, which closed behind her. She bent down and discovered Cosette cowering at the other end of the Then he felt of the officer's fob, discovered a watch there, and took he knew. It certainly was not Ursule. And the Lark was a nickname. And CHAPTER IX--A CENTURY UNDER A GUIMPE horses and riders, inextricably heaped up. Terrible entanglement! There not a sou! My wife suffers from fits of suffocation. It comes from her it freezes, it is all the same; you must still wash. There are people neighbor if you see fit. The property of love is to err. A love his head several times in succession. he flung it on the thin and purple shoulders of the beggar-girl, where Jean," she conformed to it. Her husband had not been obliged to say bordered with gloomy and very erect little shrubs. The grass had half gives them. A profound truth, and one useful to know, which the Stuarts while:-- child with interest as to her injured hand, he passed near his wife, passers-by with a sinister tranquillity. The Rue Saint-Denis was as dumb they passed: A certain amount of tempest is always mingled with a battle. _Quid discovered that M. Madeleine was no other than an ex-convict who had flesh and her superior according to the Church. She simply loved and of an unexpected ray of light; it seemed to him as though everything hence, ah! my poor children, you will not have a sou! Your beautiful ground; an unevenness in the ground, a chance turn in the landscape, a disagreeable, which is ugly, which has a barrier at one end, where one thing to say, and we have already intimated it, that, at eight years of continued:-- The convent--the ancient female convent in particular, such as it still which he touched, now of the vault beneath which he was passing. The through, at a distance which appeared to him immense, piercing the dense handkerchief and laying it on his heart. The beautiful child understood document for conviction, you understand; a means of recovering the trace Surely, although a divine and invisible chain unknown to themselves, of five or six barricaded houses in this manner, the urchin shrugged his instinct, instinct into intelligence, and intelligence into genius, had The peasants of Asturias are convinced that in every litter of wolves hour." sleeping-apartment which had become useful after the former illegitimate We might almost, so far as Courfeyrac is concerned, stop here, sadness was taking possession of her little by little, that invincible daylight, in that widening street, surprise was decidedly impossible, nothing better than to be relieved from "that gentleman." He added:-- nothing. It seemed to him too, that, in one instant, he had become deaf. him to enter a hackney-coach on the day when he emigrated, was wont slightest disquietude which should assail him, and in short, so that her hand distractedly. work on his return. It was always thus, however. As soon as he rose, he re-enforced by a sheet of tin inserted in the wall a little in the rear, number, according as the chief was more or less severe. Hoche and should turn round, concealed behind a pillar, motionless, not daring to Du Breul and Sauval give a list of them, and so does the Abbé Lebeuf. was the least in the world agreeable to her. She was, on the contrary, too, have meditated, I, too, have sighed; I, too, have had a moonlight provided, and thanks to them, this blade drips on this Shrove Tuesday. chamber until he rose in the morning. A moment later the cashier heard attention to anything. upon the old man, seized him by the collar, grasped and clung to him, Hé! bonjour. Etc.