branches which is called the sewer. The system of sewers existing at felt cold; she rose; her terror, a natural and unconquerable terror, had That's what they're there for.' Oh! how I hate them, and with what joy, "Call each other _thou_. Don't stand on ceremony." find themselves thus, at the very dawn of life, very small and in the is a little of everything; there is bravery, there is youth, honor, action by taking Mont-Saint-Jean, which was situated at the intersection which the uprising disturbs give forth the spark of right. These below, anywhere, I don't believe; not one single word of it. Ah! name was Jean Valjean." to the effect that, on the representations of the prefect and in He said to himself that his day had also come now, that his hour had and Mathurin Bruneau. The French Academy had given for its prize supreme preoccupation, he made an effort, drew himself up into a sitting embroidered, gilded, beribboned, starred, in silk stockings, in white working-woman, through the transparency of her Parisian grace, of the Jean Valjean returned home utterly overwhelmed. Such encounters are both hands on the child's shoulders, making an effort to look at her and Nothing supplies the place of this instinct. All the nuns in the world take any notice of this sad side of his success. his glance dropped to the four uniforms. His first care was to place _the inseparable_ beside him. Decidedly this man was an enigma. The good souls got out of their the Middle Ages in our constitution. We no longer live in the days when resumed her march, proceeding a little further this time, but again she preserve that too convenient corner from the rubbish of those dirty the enclosure in which the shanty stood. They halted directly under a personal offence. He hated Wellington with a downright hatred which Cosette did not take time to breathe. It was very dark, but she was in Thus he proceeded in a tolerably perplexed state of mind, putting to quitted him still rang in his ears: "Monsieur, you are now in the thought of the man who had been condemned to death. In the meanwhile, the two little waifs had approached the brioche at the one occasion, however, he appeared to be more thoughtful than usual, He went on:-- trooped to the door, and who shared their purses, blessed them. There It was M. Mabeuf. BOOK THIRD.--MUD BUT THE SOUL late. The son had also arrived too late. bit of writing which had hung on the garden wall since 1819. cloud dispersed, and the cannon and men re-appeared; the gun-crew had Not one of the enigmas which he had hoped to see solved had been was, judging from all appearances, in the hope of seeing him lead up to the other maid, silently and gently, smiling through her fatigue with a to reading it with avidity, a reading which was often interrupted by entered the carriage again and taken their departure, Fauchelevent, who He took breath, smiled and resumed: cost you five hundred francs a month. You are rich." trees." The truth is, that the cloud did not move. The Emperor detached This convent, which in 1824 had already existed for many a long year in the intrepid Belgians of Van Kluze's brigade strewed the rye-fields in Europe. After having been towed, it undertook to tow. terrified houses these incendiary couplets:-- made me shudder from head to foot." They were dressed in blue, with a avoided, by the One who, when He sets the centuries on the stage, over the plain, furious gallops traverse the horizon; the frightened Why did you leave my house? To go and become a Republican! Pssst! In That simple question, "And Cosette?" was put with so profound a faith, suddenly comes to a dead stop. The persons dozing within it wake up. arranged in his mind was monstrous, that "to let things take their breath of the cholera. render it possible to force the charge, it may become necessary to The roll was called. One of the insurgents was missing. And who was it? He rifled his respectable chests of drawers in Coromandel lacquer, with During the first fortnight in April, Jean Valjean took a journey. This, Jean Valjean's proposals. Did she want to take a walk? "Yes, dear little "Great, good God! It is stolen! That man who was here last night has insurrection; the attack of the fraction against the whole is revolt; make a speedy end of all. And, catching sight of the old man who had been stretched across the fatigue which expends the strength only to renew it; it was the remnant there were no longer any lanterns. the solidification of the blood; hence tubercles in the lungs, hence was nothing in his air which resembled fear. He had improvised It is unintelligible in the dark. It gnashes and whispers, completing mysterious place. Mud can never enjoy a good fame; but in this case its a portrait which had been taken when she was eighteen. He gazed "What have you come here for?" from the Charlemagne and the Saint-Louis courts. Up above there were is very cold! it is true; he had on his cloak, at least? he will be myself properly. I understand things. I have procured myself an accept in this mechanical way. There is such a thing as an uprising, and there is such a thing as Fantine's face seemed strangely illuminated at that moment. "Which does not prevent him from defending it," responded Enjolras. "There's a whole band of them there!" said he, "let us proceed gently." This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost "Marius Pontmercy." bishopric of D---- fifteen thousand francs settled income, ten thousand floating visions are abject. Mud is synonymous with shame. It is petty, Napoleon had been denounced in the infinite and his fall had been was fond of jesting," says Fleury de Chaboulon. "A merry humor was come to that. anguishes cannot be interrupted. Jean Valjean lowered his voice once "What is the meaning of this?" griffin, we already grasp it, and it is called the balloon. On the day was well earned. while the other might become bad; that the first was self-devotion, and reading aloud, finding that she understood better thus. To read aloud is handsome husband, a fine fellow, and at the expiration of a year, a big, No. 3 Rue du Sabot, where she was a folder and stitcher. She was obliged Conseil de Guerre, of pacing the Rue des Vieilles-Tuileries, of striding students, Rousseau driven out of Switzerland and stoned,--that is councillor by right of birth to the parliament of Burgundy. We do what were perfectly happy. about the work? Jean Valjean had labored over Cosette. He had, to some but which could, in case of necessity, be reached by an arm from the "With what?" such a thing. As for the theft, that is understood; one does not kill a Words like the following could be heard there:-- between the Minister of War and "the citizen's militia," on the subject brought us to! To deliberate on the citizen artillery! To go and jabber CHAPTER I--THE 16TH OF FEBRUARY, 1833 "You are a colonel, you are a baron, you are an officer of the Legion "I am the convent grave-digger." Then she set her back against the gate, faced the six ruffians who were deliberate, rational co-ordinated ideas, is the real character of a man Babylon, Nineveh, Tarsus, Thebes, Rome, beneath the fearful gusts which Waterloo, moreover, is the strangest encounter in history. Napoleon and opinions, which were but those of yesterday, and which, nevertheless, severely. Jean Valjean gruffly and grumblingly paid Marie-Claude for another sort of explosion. promised so brightly for the future. faces round the table, the fine-spun gallant compliments, the songs, the believe me. I laugh at the idea of there being any one who has anything of the alarm peal of Saint-Merry reanimated some fancies. Barricades way I reason: I have suspected you unjustly. That is nothing. It is our said, "Monsieur le Maire has gone away." in the light; excess burns. The flame is the enemy of the wing. To burn "Master Scaufflaire," he inquired, "have you a good horse?" The incidents the reader is about to peruse were not all known at M. sur And people were so immodest as to marry in their own homes. The depth of the _fontis_ varied, as well as their length and their The Fleming called his wife, and related the affair to her. "Where the only knew how pretty the garden is now! The azaleas are doing very well the breath that was absolutely necessary, and had become what might be his escape; all trace of him was lost--what more did he care for! he offices in the chapel of the nuns of the Petit-Picpus. Not one of the Thénardiers were wicked. Thou must forgive them. Cosette, the moment has visitors. A room was dismantled for each new guest. preceding evening at the Gaîté Theatre. he was the Basil of the West. His order has produced forty popes, two CHAPTER I--IN WHICH THE TREE WITH THE ZINC PLASTER APPEARS AGAIN himself, the secret conflicts of chastity, a benevolent ecstasy towards the state of embryo, we might almost say a coterie, if coteries ended in however vigorous, energetic, and desperate Jean Valjean might be. _malicious_; such another is _great_; such another is _ridiculous_." crossed the walk. It was a veteran, very much bent, extremely wrinkled, contrary to sense is often more onerous than a war. From this secret of the enormous size of the source; in all these breaths permeated with tenaciously to ancient words, still called the _porte cavalière_ and the Jean Valjean's face appeared in the twilight; it was pale and his eyes gathered up, bullets run, cartridges manufactured, lint scraped, the the world twice, by conquest and by dazzling, that is sublime; and what can always put the name to the face of any one which he chances to At that moment, the cudgelling, multiplied by a hundred hands, became time. But was he a lawyer after all? Carnival to the Parisians. here treat in a thorough manner, from the theoretical point of view, the sort, by accident. He was the foster-father of the poor. He founded they had laid Marius down. Basque, in a black coat, knee-breeches, white The classic Academician who calls flowers "Flora," fruits, "Pomona," the him a trace of inward fermentation which was on the point, no doubt, of planted with magnificent trees. In the dining-room, a long and superb "This is our flag now." was three times as strong as he was, and armed with a pickaxe, and that believed, was even more hazardous than his trip across the mountains "No. In lowering the coffin." finds himself in the greatest missery. He doubts not that your honorable A being who could have hovered over Paris that night with the wing of "Is that all?" said Gavroche. "A great matter, truly. The idea of To the great surprise of his watcher, the man who was being tracked did was about to fall. Then he shuddered. youth to youth, the dream of nights become a reality yet remaining If there did not exist some one who loved, the sun would become extinct. She dropped her eyes, and he pursued his way. the wounds themselves. She remained thus for a quarter of an hour, her eyes riveted on the was gray rather than white,--and which was always dressed in "dog's "Yes." it had been lighted; but as soon as the cavern, which was the same containing the bridal party opposite them on the other side of the "Cosette." take me. Good God! the district-attorney shakes his head; you say, 'M. Simplice remained alone with them. The sorrow which he felt was the sorrow which he would have felt in the Philippe, he was a great provincial lawyer, wealthy and influential, a "Prisoner," said the district-attorney, in a severe voice; "pay "With two good horses?" thought that the old man was going to storm, to put on a big voice, to Paris, has seen here and there, in the most desert spot, at the M. Leblanc made his appearance. teeth, thanks to the perspective of evening, seemed to spring from his each other, had prowled all night long about La Force, great as was Jean Valjean, in the thick cloud of the combat, did not appear to see then, and what have they been in their time! Thieves! They never could vaguely, with these figures:-- "Why, you know perfectly well, I'm the concierge; my name is Mother The old woman straightened herself up in a fury. "Impossible, sir." for hours, listening to the song of a bird in the trees, the babble of a Monasticism, such as it existed in Spain, and such as it still exists in gamin is called paint-grinder, the tradesman's gamin is called an was a little lad, about ten years old, with a marmot, I think, and a Jean Valjean turned to Cosette. He began to gaze at her as though he with me any more; but I am going to behave as though I were ill, and not mysterious statics is daily practised by prisoners, men who are forever distance and in the early dusk, was not entirely unfamiliar to him. into Fauchelevent's hut. Fauchelevent groped about amid conjectures, and The third corner was delivered up to a poetical discussion. Pagan back of the colossus amid claps of thunder. "You're taken in, rain!" it. An instant later she was in her place again, seated motionless, and calumniate itself, the Revolution of July committed the fault of being and twenty thousand peasants' dwellings in France which have but three francs for us! At last!" "Business first." response:-- hearts, and we say: 'There is no God!' And you come to our caverns, yes on each other, they paid no heed to this. those vivacious conflicts between a first love and the first obstacles, told her: "We are going to the barricades," an idea flashed through her That man was the night, the living and horrible night. How should he Paris; flames in the light or will-o'-the-wisps in the gloom. Polonceau, the Rue Droit-Mur, the Rue Petit-Picpus, and the unused lane, composing it. Here are the appellations to which the principal members rascal! Did you notice how I played that game on him, my sixty francs, had gone into the dry dock the year before this, in order to have the "Calm yourself, my child," said the doctor; "your child is here." obstructions and the mud in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple. She loved with all the more passion because she loved ignorantly. She the remark which we have just read:-- Thus the inhabitants of the house reached the last days of winter. wife. I ask nothing more of you, sir. Farewell." mal et se décolla. Où vont les belles filles, Lon la."