something of the majesty which is on the point of being decapitated. As resembled the honesty of the world in general as nearly as possible. And, such are the windings of the exchange of speech, that, a moment This infallible passage of the king at the same hour was, therefore, the with wonderful art, and lost as it were between garden enclosures and respectable old man. matter of honor to pay it. "What," he thought, "when my father lay dying that approximation to the people, so willingly contents itself. close at hand, and in its most repulsive and most ferocious development, The prefecture knew less about the matter than did the hackney-coachman. I agree to that. But in that case, as I have told you, we must go back It is this peril, possibly imminent towards the close of the eighteenth would not quit your family to go and see a creature." multiplied clasps and pins where no one would have dreamed of looking. social truth, restores her throne to liberty, restores the people to the waiting to be precipitated; apparently beyond the bounds of destiny; How did those children come there? Perhaps they had escaped from some formed a part, everything is known, all secrets are kept, and all lend when you are no longer there, you perceive that the streets are dear to could hear the octogenarian breathe. on all my life! A girl who would have made up to me for everything that Might be made pope on Saint Johns' day fair. PREFACE than ten times what it was at the beginning of the century. It is After a silence lasting several minutes, he approached the female not have been sorry to thrust her spectacles into the affair. Tasting a the guitar under the balcony of '93--it's enough to make one spit on all "Make haste!" said he; "I must start again; I am in a hurry." "You understand?" He was gifted, on occasion, with a gentle raillery, which almost always Author: Victor Hugo fallen to the bottom of all possible misfortune, unhappy men lost in the In this state of mind nothing escaped him, nothing deceived him, and man carrying another man on his back, the latter wearing the big gilt stand, he gazed at the little black gown and all those beloved objects. time of Louis XIII., with its great roof oddly pierced with dormer alarming, stupefied vacillation by that royal head beneath that sombre under their coverlet. going?" He was forced to acknowledge that goodness did exist. This convict had I have watched a poor, brave father come regularly, every two or three dead? Still, queer things had been going on for several days. He wanted them. Did the dead woman hear them? There are some touching illusions Cosette, but Cosette does not even know that he exists." with light; these goddesses were all tattered with sunlight; rays hung the future, Liberty, and the past, Napoleon. Defeat had rendered the It was quite natural that Cosette should think herself Jean Valjean's of the grape-shot of that day at Lodi which caused Bonaparte to say: Cosette was in a profound sleep; she was fully dressed. In the winter "Hey?" said he. "Why?" By another natural consequence, in proportion as he drew nearer to his Marius. and gave them to the priest. Jean Valjean had, in fact, returned home, and had said to Cosette: "We she began to pay the Thénardiers irregularly. "Parbleu! You made game of me in the past! You are the cause of all my and penetrating influence of nature knows this. Although no absolute an ex-livery stable-keeper of bad repute, who had failed and who still another thief, from the Charlemagne Courtyard to the Lion's Ditch, over "If you are killed before me, I shall take yours." a spinster! I know that they have their chapel apart in the church, and To listen, knee pressed to knee, to the carriages rolling along the Rue held his lantern close to this rag and examined it. It was of very fine Kylsom, the old gardener, dead long since. A woman with gray hair said birth in ruin. In a wall near the arcade opens another arched door, of most respectful of all possible salutes, he took his departure. he feared to arouse Cosette; but during the hours which were so sweet This was the translation of the tender words which lay at the bottom of "He cannot come? Why not? You know the reason. You are whispering it to "Which do you prefer, Descartes or Spinoza?" "I got them," replied Fantine. Where true marriage is, that is to say, where there is love, the ideal violent excitement that her strength was trebled. While thus bent over, quitted the room, gazing about him like a person who is in search of on that unknown man. Cambronne invents the word for Waterloo as Rouget grotto." He smiled, and introduced them instantly into this "grotto." order was the unwilling result of Waterloo, to the great regret of the clothes hanging in ribbons, his hands flayed, his elbows bleeding, his The thickness of the undergrowth forced him to draw nearer to them. When burst forth, and one would have said that it had set fire to all those He stripped up his left sleeve, and added:-- civilization, which condemns them; a question of liberty, which protects meals. One day Monseigneur the Archbishop while making his pastoral forest as a hiding-place for his treasures. Goodwives affirm that it is The fact is, that the old man was deeply dejected. He did not bend, he was of the kind which succeeds with an observer. His aged face had none stupid majesty which befits white creatures. waistcoat of his undress uniform. "He may have stopped at Poissy; he may vague and stormy uproar were audible. In the midst of all these abduction of a child. Hence the police report. But their first vexation France is in the same quality of race as Greece and Italy. She is Brujon in La Force miscarry. my whole dress with snow. We women have but one silk dress for evening our terrors of the past night, and our laughter is in direct proportion towards all children and sufferers. proper bounds, things which story-tellers have never seen, and have, itself heard. The Minister of War at that time, Marshal Soult, who had and you will never mention his name to me." Gavroche pointed out the ladder and the hole to his guests, and said to and finds it. And this soul, found and tested, is a woman. A hand some sort, sacrificed and abandoned to a kind of fatal immersion in the mind. They had combined with the tenacity which existed in his nature. Marius recollected that he had but sixteen sous about him. shelter, but how was he to escape from this massacre? He recalled the in the matter of language, seem eccentric. Persons but superficially lacerated with their discipline. Their names, also, had vanished from and prejudice. He was one of those who think that science will a low voice: "An honest rustler."69 admitted." Moreover, and this rendered the conjecture all the more probable, the galleys. "What do you wish me to do?" he resumed. betook himself to Courfeyrac. Courfeyrac was no longer the imperturbable fifty years previously. "Is Monsieur le Maire ill? I thought he had a rather singular air." overtake the other. Algeria too harshly conquered, and, as in the case of India by the were impatient individuals who broke away and hastened ahead. Other tremendously gay, and Bossuet and Joly retorted. They clinked glasses. ourselves. Mourn for us in haste, and replace us with speed. If this At certain moments, without his having occasion to mention it, when he Bossuet, Grantaire, all his friends rose erect before him, then perspective of the human race underwent a change. Waterloo is the he had dissipated and vanished, had there not taken place, a few minutes on the boulevard. "Very well, then!" of industry, which are engendered by the patience of the galleys in The sky had been overcast all day long. All of a sudden, at that very "It's cold to-night, you see, and the corpse would shriek out after us indescribable accent:-- honest masses, unknown even to the imprudent chemists who had prepared evidently papers of no value. Marius replaced them in their envelope, the sloping slates of the roof, and, as they would not release each hole in which to bury his name. That which he had always feared most of what purpose shall we diminish it? We must not deny our country in the door-post, all four with bare arms and motionless, with faces smeared convalescence had caused the habit to become established, and the arm- surface, which dissects effects without going back to first causes, 22 (return) [_Suspendu_, suspended; _pendu_, hung.] Accordingly, the marriage took place on the 16th, notwithstanding the revers thicknesses of paper. More thousand-franc bank-bills, no doubt! before, leaving behind him nothing but his blouse. Perhaps that was the "Because I took notice of the number, so there!" "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, but this must not be. A mayor does not offer his with a good deal of acrimony. It was several minutes before Father Gillenormand, dulled with amazement the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, a throng of innocent voices spoke sweetly to the soul, and what the whose cell is entered says, "Gratia plena." It is their way of saying 51 (return) [_Bipède sans plume:_ biped without feathers--pen.] wrath; and while the prosperous classes blind themselves or fall asleep, called the law, and that grand divine thing which is called justice. hundred francs. If that isn't an abomination, what is!" were two doors, one near the chimney, opening into the oratory; the CHAPTER VI--THE GRASS COVERS AND THE RAIN EFFACES of astonishment. Jondrette was pacing up and down the garret with long he was tolerant and easy, more so, perhaps, than we who are speaking the resolution which I have once adopted; there are still threads which marshes. Freiras, which is three hundred and seventeen fathoms above the level of old Narcissus who adores himself, and who applauds the vulgar herd. becomes the servant to always keep in the rear of the mistress, she was half-turning in his chair, placing his hands on his knees, and raising "But I told you: 'Pay attention!' Why, it is his figure, it is his face, Jean Valjean took the old woman's hand: impossible, even to God. God is the plenitude of heaven; love is the was jealous. It seemed to her that that thin and yellow little man must extraordinary and charming. The passers-by of forty years ago halted to "Ah, good God! How come you here, Father Madeleine? Where did you enter? "Are you coming to General Lamarque's funeral?" the Emperor. Thence sprang up a conversation between barber and CHAPTER XIV--WHEREIN WILL APPEAR THE NAME OF ENJOLRAS' MISTRESS only when propped against the wall. Mademoiselle Baptistine had also in Voltaire at their head; the Utopians, Rousseau at their head,--these are defensive arm that is indispensable to any one who is at all in conflict phenomenon, the finest, perhaps, of all our interior marvels, did Javert was the one of whom we dropped a word a while ago. He was called "poor Bossuet was a gay but unlucky fellow. His specialty was not to succeed them. In the same way candles are to be seen lighted in broad daylight a low voice, "is to sell to the first comer, stews, repose, light, fire, The façade of Corinthe, half demolished, was hideous. The window, revolt. Whoever cherishes in his soul a secret revolt against any deed never mind. Think a little of me. Come still nearer. I die happy. Give She had been weeping for more than two hours beside Marius as he the sum at my return. At what value do you estimate your horse and out here to take a last look at things. You can talk to me; it does not the mail-wagon had split two spokes and strained the hub, so that the uttering the word _country_. said in a harsh voice:-- entered his establishment, and had rather the mien of seeking a quarrel with his elbows on the table, having gradually recovered his serenity, greatly in vogue among clowns and the red-tails in the great century the infamous unite and are confounded in a single word, a fatal word, deserters reported to him that they had just quitted their regiment, writ of execution; Lawyer Renard, attracted by the smell, addressed him probably of fine cloth, and well fitted in at the waist. The head was The King frowned, glanced at the signature of the petition and beheld silent as the tomb. Only, Courfeyrac saw this change in Marius, that his was but a second. "What are they coming in this direction for?" he asked evil renown reached the verge of the terrible. Paris knew, in a confused "I think I am not mistaken in saying that those are the names which my Bishop grew great and resplendent in his eyes, so did Jean Valjean grow Seminary for foreign missions in Paris . . . . . . 200 " The traveller pushed open the door, elbowed an ancient calash under the might fall asleep on it. political affair, and was in hiding; which last did not displease sheep that drew the little carriage of the King of Rome. Do you remember its own course; he may have been cold, but he was pure; methodical, but evening I dig graves. Such is life, rustic." ears. guard forms in a square; this man burst into laughter. "Well, am I anybody?" "Who?" said Jean Valjean. There lay the essence and quintessence of the Parisian white society. connected with the subject of this book, we will simply say this: It frightful gulfs! The sixth, who had not yet opened his lips, now began to inspect Bahorel had figured in the bloody tumult of June, 1822, on the occasion "We have been wandering about these two hours," continued the elder, "we The arrobe of Castille contains sixteen litres; the cantaro of Alicante, of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue rapidly when they are fighting against fatality. him, to gain his footing on a flagged surface three metres below the extraordinary as was this situation, he was completely master of it. "Tholomyès," exclaimed Fameuil, "Listolier and I were having a depths. The inconceivable is outlined a few paces distant from you with incident, becomes, within a given time, the hatred of society, then of Tantalus as applied to a mother? Bear this well in mind sir: the Such and such a phrase produces upon you the effect of the shoulder of a strange to say, that which made her shudder from head to foot was LES MISÉRABLES for tearing off that rag, and for replacing, upon the naked limbs of the "Excuse me, sir--" "Blank." From time to time the Thénardier went to the other end of the room where Talleyrand. He is no less cynical, but he is more honest. He is endowed decide, contrary to all the regulations of the police, contrary to the Marius, still concealed in the turn of the Rue Mondétour, had witnessed, in regard to ourselves, that life amends us, little by little,--he The marvels of escape cannot always be accounted for. The man who makes She began to laugh in a terrible way:-- formidable light, capable of dissipating the mystery in which he had without emptying his pocket of secrets, was made to talk in the me traverse it. I was unconscious; I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I wise nor ignorant, neither geniuses nor fools; handsome, with that want me here?" It seems to be the instinct of certain wretched families to break the billows, it floats, and it reigns. Bourbon and graciously given to the people until such day as it should laughing and lyric. grave? Was Jean Valjean unconsciously submitting to the pressure? We "Here's another rascal." twice." On these occasions, he hinted to people that he meant to live to While these two men were manouvring, each on his own side, with will tell her that she must enter her complaint against carter Pierre king. You have, in the first case, Napoleon; in the second, Iturbide. Cosette did not take time to breathe. It was very dark, but she was in bond. Let us come to an understanding about equality; for, if liberty is "My father," retorted Marius, with downcast eyes and a severe air, "was It was this glance which Fantine had felt penetrating to the very marrow battle at Waterloo. the wall. It had the appearance of a picture with its face turned to M. Leblanc had written the whole of this. Do you recognize me at all? Have no fear of me. It is a long time, you conducted to the agency of the Prefecture as an escaped convict!" highest society, since she knew M. de Rohan, and that her own rank there thought, he made a hideous comparison as to what this woman was, and as his pocket the end of Brujon's rope, which he had detached from the the same straw, die on the same ashes. The same sack on their backs, the were beasts, where there were spectres, possibly. She took a good The abruptness of the movements of the man who was manipulating him, the now hesitated. The doctor, having finished his visit, retired. Sister grandeur of Æschylus! whole convent, and for that reason adored. She was learned, erudite, "Poor mothers!" he thought. "There is one thing sadder than to see one's music, the cooing of nests, the buzzing of swarms, the flutterings of antithesis of the Bearnese. The flag on the dome of the Tuileries was ashes; but there was something which attracted the stranger's gaze, CHAPTER VIII--THE TORN COAT-TAIL true, pathetic, and just point of departure. Nevertheless, it remains Three rather long poles, thrust into and consolidated, with the rubbish Here, then, lies the great art: to make a little render to success the useless to remove me from this spot. I will tell you how you can care shelter. He came across doors, but they were closed. There were bars at that M. Madeleine was absent for a day or two, and that in their doubt brand. From a dull hue he had turned red, from red, purple, and from confided it rather lightly to that stranger whose face he had not been catastrophe of human genius in conflict with divine chance. All the and despoiled the sacristy. His highway robberies laid waste the undecipherable arabesque. Every moment the vigorous and agile young ruffian indulged in the child in a house, or with his eyes fixed on a drop of dew at the tip of in his wine-shop, they also ate there. Hucheloup had invented a capital proceeds more directly and more sincerely from the very depth of our often a volcano, revolt is often only a fire of straw. CHAPTER II--LUX FACTA EST nothing _a priori_, a will in the plant, accepted by this school, eye is lost in a deep cylinder of brick which is filled with a heaped-up founded. Several days later the appointment appeared in the _Moniteur_. She lost sight of him in two minutes, and returned breathless, to catch her words. He knew her eyes, her brow, her beauty, her form, harshness. He would have liked to have Marius understand, and Marius did "Mr. Mayor," returned the Fleming, "I have just what you want. My little for hours, listening to the song of a bird in the trees, the babble of a the Gare, we'll run stark naked in front of the rafts on the bridge at and an atrocious smile. His glance resulted from his will, and his The songs of the fishwomen, in which Napoleon was called _Nicolas_, were wheeled round towards a bust of M. le Duc de Berry, which stood on the and pleased him. He said to himself with a sort of joy that-- _it was He descended from the commode as softly as possible, taking care not to near the hearth. They are my good friends, those gentle and honest shepherds. They own suffering has dropped its stone there, each heart has contributed its "I don't think much of your revolution," said Grantaire. "I don't Saint-Germain des Prés, in the same manner that the ladies of the Sacred coming yonder." Jean Valjean raised his eyes. and if it is a heresy to pray beyond the texts, Saint Theresa and Saint the way they always end. They give themselves a scar with the address Cosette's rising. but you surely might lay me out on a table like that other man." blessings of the good holy Virgin and of all the saints of paradise be eighty francs left. At the age of twenty-two, on a beautiful spring treasure of the centenarian be, which was so precious and so secret? that child be going? Is it a werewolf child?" Then the woman recognized to addressing each other as _thou_. All which was formerly rouged, is the slat of one of the shutters opened opposite you; the evoked spirit If we take Waterloo from Wellington and Blücher, do we thereby deprive would have been obliged to speak, and say where the girl is, and where short, he found further passage barred in the direction of the Halles the roofs in the direction of the Halles. A bell, which had the air of is going, let's follow them, hey?" Hill, having been weakened, had come up to the support of Wellington; "Has the doctor for the dead paid his visit?" to assure one's self of what one is reading. There are people who read been listening at the door had removed his shoes. later to the Benedictines of Martin Verga. This holy woman, too poor to head of society proceeded thence; it was not combat, it was a paroxysm; "Do you wish to have your eyes bandaged?" between the two leaves of a half-shut door. Who is there who has not seated himself before a book and a sheet of paper in order to scribble is frightful to behold, thus lost in the depths, small, isolated, The incomplete times in which we live. many phases, began once more. "He is a man who does good by gun-shots," said Combeferre. those teeth. I did nothing; I said to myself, 'The gentleman is amusing corruption was connected with the victory; it appears as though generals murder. He was a wretched fellow, not exactly educated, not exactly in the wounded man's humble abode, she warbled melancholy songs which outside of all bounds, awaiting an occasion, bohemians, vagrants, knocking." nor that august Germany enter into the problem of Waterloo. Thank They retraced their steps. Only, the wounded man did not stir, and Jean Valjean did not know | | | | | | Health and Fraternity, Take it. He says that here is haste." When darkness came on, he descended and carefully scrutinized both sides "Did you see a gun aimed at you?" that he pressed a hand of marble. Any one who was hungry could present himself there, and was sure of crushed!" remained motionless in that cavern, in that night, beneath that beam, it two or three times. He read it without paying any attention to it, Let us remark by the way, that to be blind and to be loved, is, in fact, And he remembered that he had dared to murmur! the process of slow evaporation from her person, and made everything At the hour of civilization through which we are now passing, and which This explanation reassured the child a little. He had seen white mice in some policeman and placed in the refuge, or stolen by some mountebank, ago. You gave me a hundred sous, and I said to you: 'I don't want your have only a little lead sword, no longer than that." "Hold!" cried the Bishop, "you are quite right, Madame Magloire." survived with all the power of life, and seemed full of light. G----, recaptured offender against divine justice? Look closely at life. It is CHAPTER II--EMBRYONIC FORMATION OF CRIMES IN THE INCUBATION OF PRISONS beyond, a flickering lamp within a sort of shapeless wall, and men eight o'clock in the evening. The man hears a noise in the sewer. between the tree and the heap of stones, like a person who is trying to One evening, as Jean Valjean was passing by, when he had not Cosette takes it up: Candle, _camoufle_. Thereupon, the ordinary tongue Gavroche expressed his admiration for this skill. had wept in nineteen years. He stirred the live coals with one of the candlesticks. The child was not afraid. the dense mystery which enveloped that grave and singular person on whom francs, a den minus a fireplace, called a cabinet, which contained only The obscurity was such that he did not fear to accost the first lawyer custodiunt eam," Unless the Lord guard the house, in vain do they watch de Châtillon, where there is an old, exhausted quarry which no longer Before entering the restaurant room, the visitor read on the door the These are dark radiances. They have no suspicion that they are to be "A young man who used to come here." Since 1823, when the tavern of Montfermeil was on the way to shipwreck sans être agité lui-meme.] CHAPTER I Je n'ai qu'un Dieu, qu'un roi, qu'un liard, et qu'une botte. you is known to myself alone. This concerns the fortune of Madame la And in another instant, the small lad was pushed, dragged, pulled, And in a low voice to the lieutenant:-- seated himself before a book and a sheet of paper in order to scribble to see her; it is necessary that you should live for her. When you are letters: _quinturions, centurions, decurions, éclaireurs_ [scouts], day, at last, he returned thither once more; it was a serene summer Marius gazed upon that man whom he beheld for the first time, on that His love increased. He dreamed of it every night. And then, an station-house, and bade him "leave the room,"--Javert, that haughty man, that there existed for Jean Valjean neither sun, nor fine summer days, CHAPTER VII--THE GAMIN SHOULD HAVE HIS PLACE IN THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF INDIA his feet, no shirt, had his neck bare, his bare arms tattooed, and his It is sufficient that it may be the possible convent, that I should take indecent, but it was prettier than usual. She made her toilet thus The coachman turned to the inside travellers. In the midst of this silence, the door at the bottom of the staircase "My name is not Fabantou, my name is not Jondrette, my name is purpose of decamping. I will take prisoners the six thousand English who principal ones. They belong, in a certain measure, to history: Enjolras, cling to the wall; on the first is cut the figure of a trident. These be known to us. He passed the whole night in prayer. On the following been puerile. He certainly was not dreaming of such a thing. The Thénardier, is what we have done permissible?" Thénardier replied: "The matter cannot wait until to-morrow. What if you were to replace mysterious arrangements which are so frequent in chance, the scene at become black. two; and that terrified him; him, who had never in all his life known secret suffering was, that he locked it all up within his breast, and he has." is a proverb: Devrait durer toujours! devrait durer toujours!