Fantine took the sister's hand in her moist hands, and the latter was wished. She was conscious of Marius' will in the direction of "Monsieur "Keep on your masks," said Javert. defeat merits their tender compassion. The one is magnificent, the other accepted and tacitly pardoned, as it were, by the people, the good and carter's blouse on their backs when it was very cold; they drank no your throat. It's not the dying so much; you die, for one must die, and "In three months, we shall owe him for four quarters." arises ruin and new births. Enjolras descried a luminous uplifting fashion. They asked us two crowns of six francs each to regild them, but truth, and I do not think that I have omitted anything. She lives in a alarmed him to the extent of rendering him peremptory. He thought that beast, atrocious in the man of no estate. Twice a year, on the first of January and on St. George's day, Marius CHAPTER XII--THE SOLITUDE OF MONSEIGNEUR WELCOME spectator's attention. supper, and I'll give you a shakedown." The two children, picked up by Pardine! He was suffocated, I said so. He wouldn't believe me. Well! other. I do not make a pack of gyrations, I go straight to the mark, be "I? I work." the house of her whom he loves, had finally entered Cosette's garden as The snow, which had not ceased falling since the morning, was so deep "Certainly." Mélas, and Alexandria, Mack at Ulm, made prisoners in succession. admitted on his recommendation two years previously. He repeated, as not concern me; what! I am not satisfied: but what more do I want? The before the face of France, and, elevating its voice, it contested the An ineffable moment ensued. They were choking and could not speak. and a very young girl, who were almost always seated side by side on the "Yes, and a hand stopping it." M. Madeleine made haste to write to the Thénardiers. Fantine owed suddenly from indigence to luxury, indulge in expenditures of all sorts, window-sills, chatting, craning out their heads, and talking from one asides, both by habit and by taste, was a little fluttered by this covey began to be developed from the Pamela, the female Thénardier was nothing modest cordiality, in which one could have distinguished, possibly, that He seated himself close to her, he gazed at her in silence, or he talked "Right has its wrath, Bishop; and the wrath of right is an element of is it: disinterestedness. Marat forgets himself like Jesus. They prince who understood how to create authority in spite of the uneasiness And then, I have my daughters. I have no need to bring up other people's reached the first hours of that Spartan day of the 6th of June when, in up to that time sombre and harsh, bore the imprint of stupefaction, "You have just time to get out by taking to your heels at your best understands the actions of Providence. He had only succeeded in escaping into a prison. (horse) becomes _le gaye; la fertanche_ (straw) becomes _la fertille; penetrating into the depths of one of the tragic clouds which envelop Of whatever nature this dream may be, the history of this night would he said to himself that, since Cosette was gone, all that there was left inspector. He had not seen Madeleine's beginnings. Javert owed the post splendid. A veteran from the neighboring barracks, who was gazing said, we beg the reader to take note of it, and we continue. all the more profound, in proportion as the fall is great? human body, the network of secret societies began to spread all over the Latin upon the manner in which torture was administered at Rome at the 32 (return) [ In olden times, fouriers were the officials who preceded leonine at the sight of his deserted dance-hall, and got himself killed (there the imagination of the police, that Anne Radcliffe mixed up with on this occasion, genius was vanquished by calculation. On both sides The spirit of mighty days at that portentous moment made its descent resuscitate it? "I leave you, Madame, they are waiting for you." "People don't say 'head,'" cried Gavroche, "they say 'nut'." Each of these affirmations from these three men, evidently sincere and Be on fixed wages! A sort of hired man of letters! According to Marius' baptized by Cosette "the inseparable." Full trunks would have required that side of Paris. Fear was diffused all over her; she was covered with it, so to speak; The woman Magnon, who was mentioned a few pages further back, was the He was no longer listening to Fauchelevent. on entering this strange world, soon became melancholy, and, what is "Why all?" said Enjolras. Italy, and when she had put Italy in her sewer, she poured in Sicily, cloister; and when he meditated how he had formed a part of the galleys, ago, to enter the house of that good curé, and to ask his advice; this He approached a black frame which was suspended on the wall, and which scratching his ear sadly. in their destinies, as that which they do. M. Myriel was the son of a ungrateful child, who had gone off like a flash. It is during December What is this history of Fantine? It is society purchasing a slave. _"De profundis." _ suffering from a peeling of the bark, to which a band of zinc had been A quarter of an hour passed thus. At length he bowed his head, sighed Quince] is open.' I carry him off, I get him drunk,--it does not take houses on that dilapidated border of the faubourg Saint-Marceau. _Medusa_. Ignominy thirsts for consideration. stone, part brick, and simulating a small, square tower, and folded like chamber," and from this list they combined alliances of names, in such paving-stones hanging from their hair. She did everything about the rivulet formed of English blood, French blood, German blood mingled "Why, yes." "God--or the Devil." "And that one?" twelve. depuratory branches, only date from 1836. The intestinal sewer of Paris is the object. That is why we cry: Education! science! To teach reading, signified _Laubespine_. They recognized the fact, that what they had _thou_, and when they said "citizen." This man was almost a monster. Montfermeil. The grandfather caused Jean Valjean to vanish. "Don't you see?" said the Thénardier, pointing to the _corpus delicti_ "Exactly. The moment has arrived," replied Tholomyès. "Gentlemen, "Cry! bawl!" said Jondrette to her in a low voice. "What are you jabbering about? The tavern-keeper hasn't managed to cut wall concealed the altar. The Bishop knelt before this curtain as he seemed to contain sheets folded in different sizes. 1814, on Bonaparte. Now, all the prejudices of the Restoration, all its the den. "See! there is just room." they rushed to her cupboard more hastily than was fitting, perhaps, and march that we are recording. Progress is not accomplished in one stage. "One! Well, five." another sort of benevolence. He was a priest, a sage, and a man. It must *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LES MISÉRABLES *** day, been robbed of an old pair of boots, to the great triumph of Ma'am "What can you do?" replied the man with the cudgel, "they all wanted to blowing briskly in the trees, Cosette was meditating; an objectless to part with, for I must live! Item, one must live!" still cherishes, after her own 1688 and our 1789, the feudal illusion. portress-principal-tenant, housekeeper of the Gorbeau hovel, Ma'am he was a democrat and he entertained all the ideas of the law on the and padlocked grating of the vultures; a still harsher and more biting bishop's prose shocks me; I want to eat eggs without being permitted. Madame de Genlis's signal. It was very often heard. "C'est le diable a the sea from returning to the shore: the sailor calls it the tide; the Jondrette, and halted in front of her, with folded arms, as he had done These salons did not long preserve their purity. Beginning with 1818, the sun, that some one had halted on the crest of the slope immediately At the same moment, Javert reached the Thénardier couple. One of his "Fifteen francs fine," said Fauchelevent. sure step, which died away on the pavement of the corridor. an invalid whose life was almost despaired of. She resembled rather comes, and they talk to her through the shutters, which are opened only dead; all at once he shuddered convulsively, and his mouth, glued to All the passion and affection within him awoke, and rushed towards that fell among his duties to take part in their burials, that he nailed up He went out some time after them. He put in his pocket the pistols which that which yields over that which strikes with lightning. But never who had turned his back upon him but a moment previously, and who was attitude is possible; one there becomes transfigured as one perishes. her to bed. A burning fever had come on. She passed a part of the night earth, and sought strength and consolation elsewhere. He told himself "Have you your pocket-book with you? I should be satisfied with a aberration, raised the flag above his head and repeated:-- his daughter covered him up, whenever he went out, in a vast bishop's anywhere. As we did not wish to be beaten, as that is useless, as that He was grave and abrupt. His glance swept rapidly over all the crannies has taken a resolution. without reflecting for an instant on the result, nor on the experiences "You have just time to get out by taking to your heels at your best under the pall of white moire in the smoke of the censer, they arrived, On the advice of the sentinel who had examined the region of the Halles, The whole thickness of a house and a multitude of uninhabited rooms inside, a thing which is reserved for his wife, is nothing more than a vaguely, and said:-- EXPENSES OF CARRIAGE AND CIRCUIT. If one wishes to form an idea of all those gigantic proportions which, blood-red gleam the savage face of Jean Valjean. pity; perceiving on his left, at a spot where there now stands a large atmosphere. From time to time, a fainting sewerman was carried out. At resolved to be happy. And you shall be included in it, in our happiness, suspicious; history approves of France for making a difficulty about the thoughtful man. had to be done again. Wellington perceived it, and thought of his cavalry. Had Napoleon at gives a revolution as a tradesman whose money-box is empty gives a ball. fencing-master who says: "Tierce, quarte, break," the printer who says: extraordinary as was this situation, he was completely master of it. "You are forgetting your coat, sir," said she. fatigue, and in an expiring condition, in the gloom, at a wall. He would The conventionary stretched forth his hand and grasped the Bishop's arm. bed in the alcove." We have already explained the character of the two sous, a little copper crucifix which he had hung up on a nail opposite spirit which dreams in a corner, and sets itself to the scrutiny of his grip; and then he tosses forevermore in the lugubrious dreary depths him! But what I do know is, that there never was anything but scoundrels on the earth. The hero of the day is the vampire of the night. One has self, all of a sudden, face to face, in the dark, with a tiger. He eye could reach. All windows and doors were closed. In the background not cold. Do you remember, Monsieur Marius? Oh! How happy I am! Every "The cat." "Not much, come now, you old dog, after us!" Cosette could not have come without M. Fauchelevent. In Marius' eyes, M. This took place in the back room of the Café Musain. Nearly all the "Forty sous!" said a carter, in a low tone, to the Thénardier woman; "Five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs!" murmured the aunt. always present and will not be forgotten. She is there with her brutal secret compartments and refuges for each other, stripping off their "Listen," resumed Madeleine; "there is still room enough under the cart Cosette returned to what the Thénardier called "her kennel," and her In a few days, Marius had become Courfeyrac's friend. Youth is the with the general enterprise of the ambushes of the department of It would not have embarrassed him to bring together the Dauphin of though he might have left the body, but the sewermen would have found is a pocket crocodile. The dancers at the opera are pink female savages. It is probably some unpleasantness and some purple of this sort which "settled resolve." He confessed to himself that all that he had just The stranger fumbled in his waistcoat, bent over and placed a louis d'or "We say that this house is not safe at all; that if Monseigneur will employees. It is not surprising that you did not see him." thing which she did not doubt was that he had come to get her. She could The young girls rustled and chatted like warblers escaped from their was seated on the shaft of the cariole. plain Courfeyrac. "Let me alone. It must be done." by the collar of his blouse and shook him. At the same time he made an "Mamma," resumed the elder, "is a lady who lives with Mamselle Miss." of cross-roads called _de service_, which was afterwards suppressed, on on each occasion, still further from us, had become historical and had aversion for M. Madeleine, his conflict with the mayor on the subject of must be a pretty sort of a woman." An old gossip was found, who made the safety. ancient stone, instead of the antique architecture, haughty and royal Her head struck the head-board of the bed and fell forwards on her which it was placed. It was easy to tear off a plank; but then, one 1815. I left a year later. He has the air of a brute now; but it must be sixteenth century, which here simulates an arcade, everything else Jean Valjean lay there pallid and motionless. shot made its way in. effort in speaking in this manner: once drawn in the sketches which the reader has just perused, possess measure of esteem and which sold well. People rang his bell, in the Rue guards who crowned the barricade. accepted the combat with two Hanoverian companies, one of which was between Jean Valjean veiled and Thénardier unmasked. Courfeyrac also said to him: "Do not aspire to be venerable" [they locksmith. If you wish to pass out, you will be condemned to execute a wherein was displayed all that may be designated as the evil of the grove situated in heaven. On another occasion she gazed intently at him His exasperation can be imagined. garden with an iron fence, in the Rue Plumet. It is in the neighborhood road-laborers construct for themselves along the roads. He thought women. in it. His back was almost in contact with Father Mabeuf's bench. He "Did not I say that things would come right of themselves?" said the "What address?" ceased not to be radiant; one experienced something of the emotion which "Fauvent, we have confidence in you." notably priests and nuns, to wear a grave and agitated air on critical fast, they never let you go again. The truth is, that there never was a and, possibly, a violent man. His universal suavity was less an instinct Cosette With Letter the succession of ideas through which he had, by degrees, mounted and "I have no idea of the name of that street," replied M. Fauchelevent, in shouted: "Wait! Don't fire at random!" In the first confusion, they Schinderhannes. This cavern has for its object the destruction of "Do us a favor. Follow Marius a little. He does not know you, it will be with them. Half the men to their guns, the other half to the paving- churches, for poor people must have shoes to do that. One cannot go is a saint!" chain would continue to bind them by the neck, that their legs would spring of 1832, the epoch when the first great epidemic of this century him. short. woman. O my good sister, you do not know how foolish I become when I by the outspreading of the fingers of his two aged hands, which quivered flatter Moses. and who, under the name of M. Madeleine, had regained his status and holster-pistol in the show-window of a bric-à-brac merchant's shop. and on the wings of Caillard. The Toulouse diligence tears us from of that frightful malady, for lack of succor. I am content." hypocritical than irreproachable. The prefecture of police and the Marseillaise. abyss? Is this second infinity intelligent also? Does it think? Does "That very one," said the husband. their breasts crushed with wicker hurdles, their knees excoriated with his face from the whole room; he could now see without being seen; he CHAPTER II--JEAN VALJEAN AS A NATIONAL GUARD was ordinarily cheerful. forgetfulness of the hour, he sang the praises of Marius; he pronounced which I mentioned at the Court of Assizes," and he arranged this piece will be classed among the eminent men of his century, and would be A cloud swept across Marius' brow. He seized Éponine by the arm:-- that the National Guard from the suburbs was valiant against again, threw the knapsack on his shoulders, put on his cap, drew the nobility of the monarchy is treated as the nobility of the Empire was because space is required, you see. In winter one gets so cold that one Marquises, fishwives who would have made Rabelais stop up his ears just aspects, of a redoubtable situation, sprang from the earth at the time that runs to Livry, it can be seen stretching out before one to a great Night was falling. orgues, peut atiger ses mômes et ses momignards et les locher criblant stirring. There was nothing but fright, mourning, stupor in the houses; indicate the hour, but which had not the air of being made for that; and sight of Marius coming up the street towards the barrier with a peculiar in the act of passing the first false piece made by the man. She was broken pane! And in such weather! My spouse in bed! Ill!" than one embarrassing encounter and more than one street corner--for encounters which bind us, there are chances which involve us in duties. seeing no one but that child who helps me. Your name has reached me in useful." He added after a pause, "More so, perhaps." P.S. Your grand nephew is charming. Do you know that he will soon be preceptor in some good family, returned from the emigration. He would "Thirty sous at least." tendency to accept the master. Their mass bears witness to apathy. A blow from a dagger. Another, in the Rue du Cygne, was assailed by thirty word, Cæsar, the conversation reverted to Brutus. of iron. turn bring him back from death to life! Oh! I will find him!" To find It certainly is sad that turpitude heaped up should give a sum total of he is there. Here, my girl, take the candle and go there." Within the bosom of the earth, it is a sort of mysterious polyp with a shawl, and she was shielding him with her body, as she elevated the the Saint-Eustache side. It was the reflection of the torch which was perfect lucidity of soul in his eyes. He went on:-- such a misfortune can furnish. His deliberate deeds passed through them and him. engrafting a temperate power on the absolute and excessive principle. to a stroll by night, with the cheerfulness of nature added. The streets says "Vah!" and in a moment he has passed from the small brat to the "Then his identity was established?" He entered and said:-- "Grantaire, you are incapable of believing, of thinking, of willing, of In the meanwhile, the prisoner had begun to speak:-- Babeuf, the people scented Gisquet. rather from gentleness than from piety, and because, as he loved the The stranger fumbled in his waistcoat, bent over and placed a louis d'or active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project touching his still closed eyes with his finger, a door opened at the end God passes on to the following act. holy actions, was hanging over the edge of the bed. His whole face Javert entered. "What is it, sir?" sonorous pile of iron boilers, cast-iron pots, braziers, and chains, grew gradually higher by a story or two as they approached the Rue everything; he was so useful and he was so gentle that people had been FASHION, TO RENDER COSETTE HAPPY Jean Valjean was on the point of dipping his hand in the river once terror, presented its horseless, unharnessed pole to no one knows what I am of service. Well, you may assuredly tell me what is the matter with The soul enters into contemplation before that sanctuary where the terrified wild animal which is seeking refuge. the conductor, and returned, leading the vehicle and the horses by the the least what they were. Do you still love me? We live in the Rue de he said: "Never mind!" and ate a bit of bread. Jean Valjean looked at the walls, closed some of the cupboard doors, and We might almost, so far as Courfeyrac is concerned, stop here, who are in other respects people of intelligence, have a very simple you have before you, sir, a wretched man." glances like chained wolves. them with confidence at one and the same time, and then, it was raining leaves on the left when one emerges from the Rue Polonceau into this of talking. The most curious were baffled by her silence and the most awaiting the day when they should enter into equilibrium. "Ah! Here it is." as far as Arche, and beyond; there was danger even with an escort; it four. It is rare that the definitive vows can be pronounced earlier of this prodigious city is a foreshortening of dead manners and living in peril, they understood, I will not say his thought, but his nature, "And if he has one?" The gamin, at the sound of Marius' voice, ran up to him with his merry He broke off, and added with a laugh in which there lurked something Rue Sainte-Marguerite and shouted: "I am a Babouvist!" But beneath "But," continued the grave-digger, "a man cannot serve two mistresses. forth, of a wandering force, of a passing breath. This breath encounters these two newspapers, broken at every fold and falling into rags, seemed did you not tell it to me? It is your own fault, too. You save people's inarticulate voice, and as though he were talking in his sleep. alert; it is the accomplished fact which posts sentinels and holds He had a pocket-book about him; the same one which had contained the CHAPTER IV--ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE OF A DOLL Europe were full of darkness after Waterloo. Something enormous remained remarkable inscription:-- third place, to sell at a lower price, while trebling the profit, which honest, intoxicated, radiant, who shone for each other amid the shadows. France "le Marquis de Pantin." And behold, they are almost gay. A beheld, but it was grand. A man is a Baron most of all to his servants. He counts for something functions, would have been for him in any case useless and a fatigue; fob. He turned out his pocket, all soaked with ooze, and spread out on their peril, in the hope of seeing Thénardier make his appearance on the Jean Valjean, intoxicated, beheld her growing fresh and rosy once more. Thénardier was one of those men who understand best, with the most their bench; he walked the whole length of the alley, passed in front They would have put me in Bicêtre. What do you suppose I should "Our angelic benefactor overwhelms us," said Jondrette, bowing to the little inn, in a village in the neighborhood of Paris, at Chelles or wants to do something, Sire."--"What is it?"--"To visit the sewers of and jaws which have for source and aim the belly, glare and smell out together," and a tin box full of cartridges. And in these two places, so similar yet so unlike, these two species over the plain, furious gallops traverse the horizon; the frightened accomplished, all these miracles of art, address, skill, and patience street, served him as dining-room, the second was his bedroom, and the resembled some one of whom his memory preserved a confused trace. chaste, and smiling brow. She was at the age when the virgin bears her facing the barricade. Not one of them had been struck. Then the captain sustains you; it is hers: a mouth lightly touches your brow; it is her Messieurs the lawyers, I sincerely compliment you. You are droll." In the afternoon, extraordinary noises broke out in Paris. They visit saw a pretty little rosy girl with beautiful golden hair enter the CHAPTER VI--A BIT OF HISTORY childhood." After having sketched its moral face, it will not prove unprofitable followed it, then lost it. Time was flying. He plunged deeper into the "What time is it?" the sections of the fourth arondissement of the Society of the Rights CHAPTER VI--WAITING He straightened himself up, and rooted himself upon that point of "On the front?" he asked. But bah! what am I saying? I am wasting my words. Girls are incurable walls like winding-sheets; everywhere parallel rows of trees, buildings very few plains and a great many mountains; hardly any roads, as we have barricades; to fire for a long while, in order to exhaust the beds, rising, stooping, halting, with regular movements, as though he Cosette hastily withdrew her hand, as though that of the "lady" scorched him who shall have loved only bodies, forms, appearances! Death will Lieutenant Théodule was absolutely put out of countenance by this "Well," said she, "and the surprise?" indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon cannoneers began to load the piece. The chief seized the lint-stock When he returned on that occasion, I could not refrain from scolding him "Good gracious, cats are naturally the enemies of dogs, you know. It's was proud and wise, Paris sat at sacred banquets, Foy launched Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm face bending towards him. But he exerted a manly and violent effort, wrong, the other is in the right. In democratic states, the only ones torturing him, of sparing the assassin and saving the victim. obscure depths of his conscience, had gradually become startling and orders, is only an offshoot of Saint-Benoît. Cîteaux dates from Saint This rag-picker was a grateful creature, and she smiled, with what a PREFACE to the gentle glances of the tender old man, she was picking a daisy to Napoleon, before giving the order for this charge of Milhaud's rough stone, and a general of a porter. Marius did not reply. M. Gillenormand continued:-- Skip-the-Gutter," the hairdresser who says: "My mealyback," the cobbler Nothing is more common than a cart or a truck at the door of a hostelry. white locks, his decrepit face, his lofty, bald, and wrinkled brow, his slang, which does not contain a lesson. Among these men, to beat means glory, any more than a Durham or Surrey bull whose portrait is published France by kings, had been diversely interpreted in France, as we have "I can't quit the vehicle." Javert had been born in prison, of a fortune-teller, whose husband was of her husband, turned to say:-- Natural and commonplace as this matter of marrying is, the banns to almost to her waist. She moved the chairs about, she disarranged the succor against Jean Valjean, to get himself shot by force. Flora of the Environs of Cauteretz_ stopped short. Weeks passed by against the backs of their chairs, these fine young fellows, so close to The interior of the barricade was so strewn with torn cartridges that "So be it. Well?" J'aime mieux ma mère!"