Les Miserables volume one teen book Seventh the short Matia affair by Victor Hugo narrated by Peter Silverleaf chapter 1 sister Sam please the incidents the reader is about to peruse were not all known at MC or M but the small portion of them which became known left such a memory in that town that a serious Gap would exist in this book if we did not narrate them in their most minute details among these details the reader will encounter two or three improbable circumstances which we preserve out of respect for the truth on the afternoon following the visit of Javier Mr Madeleine went to see fontine according to his want before entering fonteen's room he heard sisters on police summoned the two nuns who performed the services of nurse in the infirmary Lazar East ladies like all Sisters of Charity bore the names of sister perpetu and sister son please sister perpetu was an ordinary villager a Sister of Charity in a core style who had entered the service of God As One enters any other service she was a nun as other women are Cooks this type is not so very rare the monastic orders gladly accept this heavy peasant earthenware which is easily fashioned into a cappuccin or an Ursuline these rustics are utilized for the rough work of devotion the transition from a drawer to a Carmelite is not in the least violent the one turns into the other without much effort the fund of ignorance common to the village and The Cloister is preparation ready at hand and places the boar at once on the same footing as the Monk a little more amplitude in the smoke and it becomes a frock sister perpetu was a robust nun from Marine near pontois who shattered her Patois droned grumbled sugared the potion according to the bigotry or the hypocrisy of the invalid treated her patients abruptly roughly was grabbed with the dying almost flung God in their faces stoned their death Agony with prayers mumbled in a rage was bold honest and Ruddy sister son please was white with a waxing palette besides sister perpetu she was the taper beside the candle then Santa Paul has divinely traced the features of Her Sister of Charity in these admirable words in which he mingles as much Freedom as servitude they shall have for their Convent only the house of the sick for sell only a hired room for Chapel only their Parish church for Cloister only the streets of the town and the wards of the hospitals for enclosure only obedience for Greetings only the fear of God for Veil only modesty this ideal was realized in the living person of sister son please she had never been young and it seemed as though she would never grow old no one could have told sister son police's age she was a person we dare not say a woman who was gentle or steer well-bred cold and had never lied she was so gentle that she appeared fragile but she was more solid than granite she touched the unhappy with fingers that were charmingly pure and fine there was so to speak silence in Her speech she said just what was necessary and she possessed a tone of voice which would have equally edified a confessional or Enchanted a drawing room this delicacy accommodated itself to The Surge gown finding in this harsh contact a continual reminder of heaven and of God let us emphasize one detail never to have lied never to have said for any interest whatever even in indifference any single thing which was not the truth the sacred truth was Sister simply's distinctive trait it was the accent of her virtue she was almost renowned in the congregation for this imperturbable veracity the Avec car speaks of sister simples in a letter to the deaf mute Messiah however pure and sincere we may be we all bear Upon Our Candor the crack of the little innocent lie she did not little lie innocent lie does such a thing exist to lie is the absolute form of evil to lie a little is not possible he who lies lies the whole lie to lie is the very face of the demon Satan has two names he is called Satan and lying that is what she thought and as she thought so she did the result was the whiteness which we have mentioned a whiteness which covered even her lips and her eyes with radiance her smile was white her glance was white there was not a single spider's web not a grain of dust on the glass window of that conscience on entering the Order of Saint Vincent De Paul she had taken the name of some please by special choice some police of Sicily as we know is the saint who prefer to allow both her breasts to be torn off rather than to say that she had been born at segester when she had been born at Syracuse a lie which would have saved her this patron saint suited this soul sister sent please on her entrance into the order had had two faults which she had gradually corrected she had a taste for deities and she liked to receive letters she never read anything but a Book of Prayers printed in Latin in coarse type she did not understand Latin but she understood the book this Pious woman had conceived an affection for faunting probably feeling a latent virtue there and she had devoted herself almost exclusively to her care Mr Madeleine took sister some please apart and recommended fonteen to her in a singular tone which the sister recalled later on on leaving the sister he approached fontine Fontina awaited Mr Madeleine's appearance every day as one awaits a ray of warmth and joy she said to the sisters I only live when Miss Yola Marie is here she had a great deal of fever that day as soon as she saw Mr Madeleine she asked him and Cosette he replied with a smile soon miss your Madeleine was the same as usual with fontine only he remained an hour instead of half an hour to form teen's great Delight he urged everyone repeatedly not to allow the invalid to want for anything it was noticed that there was a moment when his countenance became very somber but this was explained when it became known that the doctor had bent down to his ear and said to him she is losing ground fast then he returned to the town hall and the Clark observed him attentively examining a road map of France which hung in his study he wrote A Few figures on a bit of paper with a pencil chapter 2 the perspicacity of Master School Flair from the town hall he betook himself to the extremity of the town to a Fleming named Master School Fleur French scoflare who let out horses and cabrioles as desired in order to reach this go flare the shortest way was to take the little frequented Street in which was situated the personage of the parish in which Mission Madeleine resided The Cure was it was said a worthy respectable and sensible man at the moment when Mr Madeleine arrived in front of the parsonage there was but one passerby in the street and this person noticed this after the mayor had passed the priest's house he halted stood motionless then turned about and retraced his steps to the door of the parsonage which had an iron knocker he laid his hand quickly on the knocker and lifted it then he paused again and stopped short as though in thought and after the lapse of a few seconds instead of allowing the knocker to fall abruptly he placed it gently and resumed his way with a sort of haste which had not been apparent previously Mr Madeline found Master School Flair at home engaged in stitching a harness over Master scale Flair he inquired have you a good horse Mr Mayor said the Fleming all my horses are good what do you mean by a good horse I mean a horse which can travel 20 leagues in a day the Jews said the Fleming 20 leagues yes to a Cabriolet yes and how long can he rest at the end of his journey you must be able to set out again on the next day if necessary to Traverse the same road yes the juice the juice and it is 20 leagues Mr Madeleine Drew from his pocket the paper on which he had penciled some figures he showed it to the Fleming the Figures were five six eight and a half you see he said total 19 and a half as well say 20 leagues Mr Mayor returned to Fleming I have just what you want my little white horse you may have seen him pass occasionally is a small beast from lower bulane he is full of fire they wanted to make a saddle horse of him at first but he read he kicked he laid everybody flat on the ground he was thought to be vicious and no one knew what to do with him I bought him I harnessed him to a carriage that is what he wanted sir he is as gentle as a girl he goes like the wind ah indeed he must not be mounted it does not suit his ideas to be a saddle horse everyone has his ambition draw yes Carrie no we must suppose that is what he said to himself and he will accomplish the trip your 20 leagues all at a full Trot and in less than eight hours but here are the conditions State them in the first place you will give him half an hour's breathing spell Midway of the road he will eat and someone must be by while he is eating to prevent the stable boy of the Inn from stealing his oats for I have noticed that in Inns the oats are often more drunk by the stable men than eaten by the horses someone will be by in the second place is the Cabriolet for Miss Yola Mary yes does Miss Yola Mary know how to drive yes well Mr Marie will travel alone and without baggage in order not to overload the horse agreed but as Miss yolomeri will have no one with him he will be obliged to take the trouble himself of seeing that the oats are not stolen that is understood I am to have 30 francs a day the days of rest to be paid for also not a farthing less and the beast's food to be at Missoula Marie's expense miss your Madeleine Drew three napoleons from his purse and laid them on the table here is the pay for two days in advance fourthly for such a journey a cabaret would be too heavy and would fatigue the horse Miss Universe consent to travel in a little Tilbury that I own I consent to that it is light but it has no cover that makes no difference to me as Miss yolomari reflected that we are in the middle of winter Mr Madeleine did not reply the Fleming resumed that it is very cold Mr Madeleine preserved silence Master score Flair continued that it may rain Mr Madeleine raised his head and said the Tilbury and the horse will be in front of my door tomorrow morning at half past four o'clock of course replied scoflare then scratching a speck in the wood of the table with his thumbnail he resumed with that careless Heir which the Flemings understand so well how to mingle with their shrewdness but this is what I am thinking of now Mr lameri has not told me where he is going where is Miss Yola Marie going he had been thinking of nothing else since the beginning of the conversation but he did not know why he had not dared to put the question are your horses four legs good said miss your Madeleine yes Miss yolamari You must hold him in a little when going downhill are there many descends between here and the place whether you are going do not forget to be at my door at precisely half past four o'clock tomorrow morning replied Mr Madeleine and he took his departure the Fleming remained utterly stupid as he himself said sometime afterwards the mayor had been gone two or three minutes when the door opened again it was the mayor once more he still wore the same in passive and preoccupied air Miss yosko Flair he said he at what some do you estimate the value of the horse and Tilbury which you are to let to me the one bearing the other the one dragging the other Miss Universe said the Fleming with a broad smile so be it well does Miss yulamari wish to purchase them or me no but I wish to guarantee you in any case you shall give me back the summit my return at what value do you estimate your horse and Cabriolet 500 francs Missoula Mary here it is Madeleine laid a bank bill on the table then left the room and this time he did not return Master School Flair experienced a frightful regret that he had not said a thousand francs besides the horse and Tilbury together were worth about a hundred crowns the Fleming called his wife and related the affair to her where the devil could miss you and Marie be going they held Council together he's going to Paris said the wife I don't believe it said the husband miss your Madeleine had forgotten the paper with the figures on it and it lay on the chimney piece the Fleming picked it up and studied it five six eight and a half that must designate the posting relays he turned to his wife I have found out what it is five leagues from here to has done six from hezdan to sample eight and a half from sample to Aras he is going to add us meanwhile Mr Madeleine had returned home he had taken the longest way to return from Master scope flares as though the parsonage door had been a Temptation for him and he had wished to avoid it he ascended to his room and there he shut himself up which was a very simple act since he liked to go to bed early nevertheless the portraits of the factory who was at the same time miss your Madeleine's only servant noticed that the lattice light was extinguished at half past eight and she mentioned it to the cashier when he came home adding is miss you lamari ill I thought he had a rather singular heir this cashier occupied a room situated directly under Mr Madeleine's chamber he paid no heed to the fortress's words but went to bed and to sleep towards midnight he woke up with a start in his sleep he had heard a noise above his head he listened it was a footstep facing back and forth as though someone were walking in the room above him he listened more attentively and recognized Mr Madeleine's step this struck him as strange usually there was no noise in Mr Madeleine's chamber until he rose in the morning a moment later the cashier heard a noise which resembled that of a cupboard being opened and then shut again then a piece of furniture was disarranged then a pause ensued then the step began again the cashier set up in bed quite awake now and staring and through his window panes he saw the reddish gleam of a lighted window reflected on the opposite wall from the direction of the Rays It could only come from the window of Mr Madeleine's chamber the reflection wavered as though it came rather from a fire which had been lighted than from a candle the shadow of the window frame was not shown which indicated that the window was wide open the fact that this window was open in such cold weather was surprising the cashier fell asleep again an hour or two later he waked again the same step was still passing slowly and regularly back and forth overhead the reflection was still visible on the wall but now it was pale and peaceful like the reflection of a lamp or of a candle the window was still open this is what had taken place in Mr Madeleine's room chapter 3. a tempest in a skull the reader has no doubt already divined the mission Madeleine is no other than Jean Valjean we have already gazed into the depths of this conscience the moment has now come when we must take another look into it we do so not without emotion and trepidation there is nothing more terrible in existence than this sort of contemplation the eye of the spirit can no way find more dazzling Brilliance and more Shadow than in man it can fix itself on no other thing which is more formidable more complicated more mysterious and more infinite there is a spectacle more ground than the sea it is Heaven There is a spectacle more Grand than Heaven it is the inmost recesses of the Soul to make the poem of the human conscience where it only with reference to a single man were it only in connection with the basis to men would be to blend all epics into one Superior and definitive Epic conscience is the chaos of chimeras of lusts and of Temptations the furnace of Dreams the layer of ideas of which we are ashamed it is the pandemonium of sophisms it is the battlefield of the Passions penetrate at certain hours past the livid face of a human being who is engaged in reflection and look behind gaze into that Soul gaze into that obscurity there beneath that external silence battles of giants like those recorded in Homer are in progress skirmishes of dragons and hydras and swarms of phantoms as in Milton Visionary circles as in Dante what a solemn thing is this Infinity which every man Bears within him and which he measures with despair against the Caprices of his brain and the actions of his life one day met with a Sinister looking door before which he hesitated here is one before us upon whose threshold we hesitate let us enter nevertheless we have but little to add to what the reader already knows or what had happened to Jean Valjean after the adventure with the little Gervais from that moment forth he was as we have seen a totally different man what the bishop had wished to make of him that he carried out it was more than a transformation it was a Transfiguration he succeeded in disappearing so the Bishop Silva reserving only the candlesticks as a souvenir crept from town to town traversed France came to MGR M conceived the idea which we have mentioned accomplished what we have related succeeded in rendering himself safe from seizure and inaccessible and henceforth established at mcrm happy and feeling his conscience saddened by the past and the first half of his existence belied by the last he lived in peace reassured and hopeful having henceforth only two thoughts to conceal his name and to sanctify his life to escape men and to return to God these two thoughts were so closely intertwined in his mind that they formed what a single one there both were equally absorbing and imperative and ruled his slightest actions in general they conspired to regulate the conduct of his life they turned him towards the Gloom they rendered him kindly and simple they counseled him to the same things sometimes however they conflicted in that case as the reader will remember the man whom all the country of mshorem called miss your Madeleine did not hesitate to sacrifice the first to the second his security to his virtue thus in spite of all his reserve and all his Prudence he had preserved The Bishop's candlesticks worn mourning for him summoned and interrogated all the little Savory yards who passed that way collected information regarding the families at Federal and saved old fosh levant's life despite the disquieting insinuations of Javert it seemed as we have already remarked as though he thought following the example of all those who have been wise holy and just that his first Duty was not towards himself at the same time it must be confessed nothing just like this had yet presented itself never had the two ideas which govern the unhappy man whose sufferings we are narrating engaged in so serious a struggle he understood this confusedly but profoundly at the very first words pronounced by Javier when the latter entered his study at the moment when that name which he had buried beneath so many layers was so strangely articulated he was struck with stupor and as though intoxicated with a Sinister eccentricity of his Destiny and through this stupa he felt that shudder which precedes great shocks he bent like an oak at the approach of a storm like a soldier at the approach of an assault he felt Shadows filled with Thunders and Lightnings descending upon his head as he listened to Javert the first thought which occurred to him was to go to run and denounce himself to take that short matured out of prison and place himself there this was so painful and as poignant as an incision in the living flesh then it passed away and he said to himself we will see we will see he repressed this first generous Instinct and recoiled before heroism it would be beautiful no doubt after The Bishop's holy words after so many years of repentance and abnegation in the midst of a penitence admirably begun if this man had not flinched for an instant even in the presence of so terrible a conjecture but had continued to walk with the same step towards this yawning precipice at the bottom of which lay Heaven that would have been beautiful but it was not thus we must render an account of the things which went on in this soul and we can only tell what there was there he was carried away at first by the Instinct of self-preservation he rallied all his ideas in haste stifled his emotions took into consideration Javier's presence that great danger postponed all decision with the firmness of Terror shook off the thought as to what he had to do and resumed his calmness as a warrior picks up his Buckler he remained in this state during the rest of the day a whirlwind within a profound Tranquility without he took no preservative measures as they may be called Everything was still confused and jostling together in his brain his trouble was so great that he could not perceive the form of a single idea distinctly and he could have told nothing about himself except that he had received a great blow he repaired to fontine's bed of suffering as usual and prolonged his visit through a kindly Instinct telling himself that he must behave thus and recommended her well to the sisters in case he should be obliged to be absent himself he had a vague feeling that he might be obliged to go to a Russ and without having the least in the world made up his mind to this trip he said to himself that being as he was beyond the shadow of any suspicion there could be nothing out of the way in being a witness to what was to take place and he engaged the Tilbury from schoolflare in order to be prepared in any event he dined with a good deal of appetite on returning to his room he communed with himself he examined the situation and found it unprecedented so unprecedented that in the midst of his reverie he rose from his chair moved by some inexplicable impulse of anxiety and bolted his door he feared lest something more should enter he was barricading himself against possibilities a moment later he extinguished his light it embarrassed him it seemed to him as though he might be seen by whom alas that on which he desired to close the door had already entered that which he desired to Blind was staring him in the face his conscience is conscience that is to say God nevertheless he deluded himself at first he had a feeling of security and of solitude the boat once drawn he thought himself impregnable the candle extinguished he felt himself invisible then he took possession of himself he set his elbows on the table leaned his head on his hand and began to meditate in the dark where do I stand am not I Dreaming what have I heard is it really true that I have seen that Javier and that he spoke to me in that manner who can that show matya be so he resembles me is it possible when I reflected yesterday I was so tranquil and so far from suspecting anything what was I doing yesterday at this hour what is there in this incident what will the end be what is to be done this was the torment in which he found himself his brain had lost its power of retaining ideas they passed like waves and he clutched his brow in both hands to arrest them nothing but anguish extricated itself from this tumult which overwhelmed his will and his reason and from which he sought to draw proof and resolution his head was burning he went to the window and threw it wide open there were no stars in the sky he returned and seated himself at the table the first hour passed in this manner gradually however vague outlines began to take form and to fix themselves in his meditation and he was able to catch a glimpse with Precision of the reality not the whole situation but some of the details he began by recognizing the fact that critical and extraordinary as was this situation he was completely master of it this only caused an increase of his stupa independently of the severe and religious aim which he had assigned to his actions all that he had made up to do that day had been nothing but a hole in which to bury his name that which he had always feared most of all in his hours of self-communion during his sleepless nights was to ever hear that name pronounced he had said to himself that that would be the end of all things for him that on that day when that name made its reappearance it would cause his new life to vanish from about him and who knows perhaps even his new Soul within him also he shuddered at the very thought that this was possible assuredly if anyone had said to him at such moments that the hour would come when the name would ring in his ears when the Hideous words Jean Valjean would suddenly emerge from the darkness and rise in front of him when that formidable light capable of dissipating the mystery in which he had enveloped himself would suddenly Blaze forth above his head and that that name would not Menace him that that light would but produce an obscurity more dense that this rent Veil would but increase the mystery that this earthquake would solidify his edifice that this prodigious incident would have no other results so far as he was concerned if it seemed good to him then that of rendering his existence at once clearer and more impenetrable and that out of his confrontation with the Phantom of Jean valjeel the good and worthy citizen miss your medalen would emerge more honored more peaceful and more respected than ever if anyone had told him that he would have taught lost his head and regarded the words as those of a Madman well all this was precisely what had just come to pass all that accumulation of impossibilities was a fact and God had permitted these wild fancies to become real things his reverie continued to grow clearer he came more and more to an understanding of his position it seemed to him that he had but just waked from some inexplicable dream that he had found himself slipping down a declivity in the middle of the night erect shivering holding back all in vain on the very brink of the Abyss he distinctly perceived in the darkness a stranger a man unknown to him whom Destiny had mistaken for him and whom she was thrusting into the Gulf in his stead in order that the gulf might close once more it was necessary that someone himself or that other man should fall into it yet only let things take their course the light became complete and he acknowledged this to himself that his place was empty in the galleys that do what he would it was still awaiting him that the theft from Little Gervais had led him back to it that this vacant place would await him and draw him on until he filled it that this was inevitable and fatal and then he said to himself that at this moment he had a substitute that it appeared that a certain Sean Matthew had that ill duck and that as regards himself being present in the galleys in the person of that Sean Matthew present in society under the name of Monsieur Madeline he had nothing more to fear provided that he did not prevent men from sealing over the head of that Sean matya this Stone of infamy which like the stone of the Sepulcher Falls once never to rise again all this was so strange and so violent that there suddenly took place in him that Indescribable movement which no man feels more than two or three times in the course of his life a sort of convulsion of the conscience which stirs up all that there is doubtful in the heart which is composed of irony of joy and of Despair and which may be called an outburst of inward laughter he hastily relighted his candle well what then he said to himself what am I afraid of what is there in all that for me to think about I am safe all is over I had but one partly Open Door through which my past might invade my life and behold that door is Walled up forever that's Javier who has been annoying me so long that terrible instinct which seemed to have Divine me which had Divine me good God and which followed me everywhere that frightful hunting dog always making a point at me is thrown off the scent engaged elsewhere absolutely turned from the Trail Ends forth he is satisfied he will leave me in peace he has his Jean Valjean who knows it is even probable that he will wish to leave town and all this has been brought about without any aid from me and I count for nothing in it ah but where is The Misfortune in this upon my honor people would think to see me that some catastrophe had happened to me after all if it does bring harm to someone that is not my fault in the least it is Providence which has done it all it is because it wishes it so to be evidently have either right to disarrange what it has arranged what do I ask now what should I meddle it does not concern me what I am not satisfied but what more do I want the goal to which I have aspired for so many years that dream of my nights the object of my prayers to Heaven security I have now attained it is God who wills it I can do nothing against the will of God and why does God will it in order that I may continue what I have begun that I may do good that I may one day be a grand and encouraging example that it may be said at last that a little happiness has been attached to the Penance which I have undergone and to that virtue to which I have returned really I do not understand why I was afraid a little while ago to enter the house of that good cure and to ask his advice this is evidently what he would have said to me it is settled let things take their course let the good God do as he likes thus did he address himself in the depths of his own conscience bending over what may be called his own Abyss he rose from his chair and began to Pace the room come said he let us think no more about it my resolve is taken but he felt no joy quite the reverse one can no more prevent thought from recurring to an idea that one can the sea from returning to the shore the Sailor calls it the tide the guilty man calls it remorse God upheavs the soul as he does the ocean after the expiration of a few moments do what he would he resumed the gloomy dialogue in which it was he who spoke and he who listened saying that which he would have preferred to ignore and listened to that which he would have preferred not to hear yielding to that mysterious power which said to him think as it said to another condemned man two thousand years ago march on before proceeding and in order to make ourselves fully understood let us insist upon one necessary observation it is certain that people do talk to themselves there is no living being who has not done it it may even be said that the word is never a more magnificent mystery than when it goes from the thought to conscience within a man and when it returns from conscience to thought it is in this sense only that the word so often employed in this chapter he said he exclaimed must be understood one speaks to oneself talks to oneself exclaims to oneself without breaking the external silence there is a great tumult everything about us talks except the mouth the realities of the Soul are nonetheless realities because they are not visible and palpable so he asked himself where he stood he interrogated himself upon that settled resolve he confessed to himself that all he had just arranged in his mind was monstrous that to let things take their course to let the good God do as he liked was simply horrible to allow this error of fate and of men to be carried out not to hinder it to lend himself to it through his silence to do nothing in short was to do everything that this was hypocritical baseness in the last degree that it was a base cowardly sneaking abject hideous crime for the first time in eight years The Wretched Man had just tasted the bitter Savor of an evil thought and of an evil action he spit it out with disgust he continued to question himself he asked himself severely what he had meant by this my object is attained he declared himself that his life really had an object but what object to conceal his name to deceive the police was it for so petty a thing they had done all that he had done had he not another and a grand object which was the true one to save not his person but his soul to become honest and good once more to be a just man was it not that above all that alone which he had always desired which the bishop had enjoined upon him to shut the door on his past but he was not shutting it great God he was reopening it by committing an Infamous action he was becoming a thief once more and the most odious of Thieves he was rubbing another of his existence his life his peace his place in the sunshine he was becoming an assassin he was murdering morally murdering a Wretched Man he was inflicting on him that frightful living death that death beneath the Open Sky which is called the galleys on the other hand to surrender himself to save that man struck down with so Melancholy and error to resume his own name to become once more out of Duty the convict Jean Valjean that was in truth to achieve his resurrection and to close forever that hell once he had just emerged to fall back there in appearance was to escape from it in reality this must be done he had done nothing if you did not do all this his whole life was useless all his penitence was wasted there was no longer any need of saying what is the use he felt that the bishop was there that the bishop was present all the more because he was dead that the bishop was gazing fixedly at him that henceforth mayor Madeline with all his virtues would be abominable to him and that the convict Jean Valjean would be pure and admirable in his sight that men beheld his mask but that the bishop saw his face that men saw his life but that the bishop beheld his conscience so he must go to Aras deliver the false Jean Valjean and denounce the real one alas that was the greatest of sacrifices the most poignant of Victories the last step to take but it must be done sad fate he would enter into sanctity only in the eyes of God when he returned to infamy in the eyes of men well said he let us decide upon this let us do our duty let us save this man he uttered these words aloud without perceiving that he was speaking aloud he took his books verified them and put them in order he flung in the fire a bundle of bills which he had against Petty and embarrassed Tradesmen he wrote and sealed a letter and on the envelope it might have been read had there been anyone in his chamber at that moment to monsieur Lafitte Banker Rue datwa Paris he drew from his secretary of pocketbook which contained several banknotes and a passport of which he had made use that same year and he went to the elections anyone who had seen him during the execution of these various acts into which there entered such grave thought would have had no suspicion of what was going on within him only occasionally did his lips move at other times he raised his head and fixed his gaze upon some point of the war as though there existed at that point something which he wished to elucidate or interrogate when he finished the letter to Mr Lafitte he put it into his pocket together with the pocketbook and began his walk once more his reverie had not swerved from its course he continued to see his duty clearly written in luminous letters which flame before his eyes and changed its place as he altered the direction of his glance go tell your name denounce yourself in the same way he beheld as though they had passed before him invisible forms the two ideas which had up to that time formed the double rule of his soul the concealment of his name the sanctification of his life for the first time they appeared to him as absolutely distinct and he perceived the distance which separated them he recognized the fact that one of these ideas was necessarily good while the other might become bad that the first was self-devotion and that the other was personality that the one said my neighbor and the other said myself that one emanated from the light and the other from Darkness they were antagonistic he saw them in conflict in proportion as he meditated they grew before the eyes of his Spirit they had now attained colossal statures and it seemed to him that he beheld within himself in that Infinity of which we were recently speaking in the midst of darkness and the lights a goddess and a giant contending he was filled with Terror but it seemed to him that the good thought was getting the upper hand he felt that he was on the brink of the second decisive crisis of his conscience and of his destiny that the bishop had marked the first phase of his new life and that Sean mature marked II after the grand crisis the grand test but the fever are laid for an instant gradually resumed possession of him a thousand thoughts traversed his mind but they continued to fortify him in his resolution one moment he said to himself that he was perhaps taking the matter too keenly that after all this champ matya was not interesting and that he had actually been guilty of theft he answered himself if this man has indeed stolen a few apples that means a month in prison it is a long way from that to the galleys and who knows did he steal has it been proved the name of Jean Valjean overwhelms him and seems to dispense with proofs do not the attorneys for the crown always proceed in this manner he is supposed to be a thief because he is known to be a convict in another instant the thought had occurred to him that when he denounced himself the heroism of his deed might perhaps be taken into consideration and his honest life for the last seven years and what he had done for the district and that they would have mercy on him but this supposition vanished very quickly and he smiled bitterly as he remembered that the theft of the Forty sues from the little gervix put him in the position of a man guilty of a second offense after conviction that this affair would certainly come up and according to the precise terms of the law would render him liable to penal servitude for life he turned aside from all Illusions detached himself more and more from Earth and sought strength and consolation elsewhere he told himself that he must do his duty that perhaps he should not be more unhappy after doing his duty than after having avoided it that if he allowed things to take their own course if he remained at M surim his consideration his good name his good works the deference and veneration paid to him his charity his wealth his popularity his virtue would be seasoned with a crime and what would be the taste of all these holy things when bound up with this hideous thing well if he accomplished his sacrifice a Celestial idea would be mingled with the galleys the post the iron necklet the green cap unceasing toil and pitulous shame at lent he told himself that it must be so that his Destiny was thus allotted that he had not authority to alter the arrangements made on high that in any case he must make his choice virtue without an Abomination within or Holiness within and infamy without the stirring up of these lugubrious ideas did not cause his courage to fail but his brain grew weary he began to think of other things of indifferent matters in spite of himself the veins in his temples throbbed violently he still paced to and fro midnight sounded first from the Parish Church then from the town hall he counted the 12 Strokes of the two clocks and compared the sounds of the Two Bells he recalled in this connection the fact that a few days previously he had seen in an iron manga shop an ancient clock for sale upon which was written the name Antoine Abba the Roma V he was cold he lighted a small fire it did not occur to him to close the window in the meantime he had relapsed into his stupor he was obliged to make a tolerably vigorous effort to recall what had been the subject of his thoughts before midnight had struck he finally succeeded in doing this ah yes he said to himself I had resolved to inform against myself and then all of a sudden he thought of fontine old said he and what about that poor woman here a fresh crisis declared itself by appearing thus abruptly in his reverie produced the effect of an unexpected ray of light it seemed to him as though everything about him were undergoing a change of aspect he exclaimed ah but I have here the two considered no one but myself it is proper for me to hold my tongue or to denounce myself to conceal my person or to save my soul to be despicable and respected magistrate or an Infamous and venerable convict it is I it is always I and nothing but I but good God all this is egotism these are diverse forms of egotism but it is egotism all the same what if I were to think a little about others the highest Holiness is to think of others come let us examine the matter the I accepted the eye he faced the eye forgotten what would be the result of all this what if I denounce myself I am arrested this Sean Matia is released I am put back in the galleys that is well and what then what is going on here ah here is a country a town here are factories and Industry workers both men and women aged Grand size children poor people all this I have created all these I provide with their living everywhere where there is a smoking chimney it is I who have placed the brand on the Hearth and the meat in the Pod I have created ease circulation credit before me there was nothing I have elevated vivified informed with life fecundated stimulated enriched the whole Countryside lacking me the soul is lacking I take myself off everything dies and this woman who has suffered so much who possesses so many merits in spite of her fall the cause of all whose misery I have unwittingly been and that child whom I meant to go in search of whom I have promised her mother do I not also owe something to this woman in reparation for the evil which I have done her if I disappear what happens the mother dies the child becomes what it can that is what will take place if I denounce myself if I do not denounce myself come let us see how it will be if I do not denounce myself after putting this question to himself he paused he seemed to undergo a momentary hesitation and trepidation but it did not last long and he answered himself calmly well this man is going to the galleys it is true but what the Jews he has stolen there is no use in my saying that he has not been guilty of theft for he has I remain here I go on in 10 years I shall have made 10 Millions I scatter them over the country I have nothing of my own what is that to me it is not for myself that I am doing it the prosperity of all goes on augmenting Industries are aroused and animated factories and shops are multiplied families a hundred families a thousand families are happy the district becomes populated Villages spring up where there were only Farms before Farms rise where there was nothing wretchedness disappears and with wretchedness debauchery prostitution theft murder all vices disappear all crimes and this poor mother rears her child and behold a whole country rich and honest ah I was a fool I was absurd what was that I was saying about denouncing myself I really must pay attention and not be precipitate about anything what because it would have pleased me to play the Grand and generous this is melodrama after all because I should have thought of no one but myself the idea for the sake of saving from punishment a trifle exaggerated perhaps but just at bottom no one knows whom a thief are good for nothing evidently a whole Countryside must perish a poor woman must die in the hospital a poor little girl must die in the street like dogs ah this is abominable and without the mother even having seen her child once more almost without the child having known her mother and all that for the sake of an old wretch of an apple thief who must assuredly has deserved the galleys for something else if not for that fine Scruples indeed which save a guilty man and sacrifice the innocent which save an old Vagabond who has only a few years to live at most and who will not be more unhappy in the galleys than in his novel and which sacrifice a whole population mothers wives children this poor little cousin who has no one in the world but me and who is no doubt blue with cold at this moment in the den of those tinnardias those peoples are Rascals and I was going to neglect my duty towards all these poor creatures and I was going off to denounce myself and I was about to commit that unspeakable Folly let us put it at the worst suppose that there is a wrong action on my part in this and that my conscience will reproach me for it someday to accept for the good of others these reproaches which weigh only on myself this evil action which comprises my soul alone in that lies self-sacrifice in that alone there is virtue he rose and resumed his March this time he seemed to be content diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth truths are found only in the depths of thought it seemed to him that after having descended into these depths after having long groped among the hardest of these Shadows he had at last found one of these diamonds one of these truths and that he now held it in his hand and he was dazzled as he gazed upon it yes he thought this is right I am on the right Road I have the solution I must end by holding fast as something my resolve is taken let things take their course let us no longer vacillate let us no longer hang back this is for the interest of all not for my own I am Madeleine and Madeleine I remain woe to the man who is Jean Valjean I am no longer he I do not know that man I no longer know anything it turns out that someone is Jean valjeaux at the present moment let him look out for himself that does not concern me it is a fatal name which was floating abroad in the night if it halts and descends on her head so much the worse for that head he looked into the little mirror which hung above his chimney piece and said hold it has relieved me to come to a decision I'm quite another man now he proceeded a few pieces further then he stopped short hum he said I must not flinch before any of the consequences of the resolution which I have once adopted there are still threads which attached to me that Jean Valjean they must be broken In This Very Room there are objects which would betray me dumb things which would bear witness against me it has settled all these things must disappear he fumbled in his pocket Drew out his purse opened it and took out a small key he inserted the key in a lock whose aperture could hardly be seen so hidden was it in the most summer tones of the design which covered the wallpaper a secret receptacle opened a sort of false cupboard constructed in the angle between the wall and the chimney piece in this hiding place there were some Rags a blue linen blouse an old pair of trousers an old knapsack and a huge Thorn cuddle shot with iron at both ends those who had seen Jean Valjean at the epoch when he passed through D in October 1815 could easily have recognized all the pieces of this miserable outfit he had preserved them as he had preserved the silver candlesticks in order to remind himself continually of his starting point but he had concealed all that came from the galleys and he had allowed the candlesticks which came from the bishop to be seen he cast a fertive glance towards the door as though he feared that it would open in spite of the boat which fastened it then with a quick and abrupt movement he took the hole in his arms at once without bestowing so much as a glance on the things which he had so religiously and so perilously preserved for so many years and flung them all Rags cudgel knapsack Into the Fire he closed the Fool's cupboard again and with redoubled precautions henceforth unnecessary since it was now empty he concealed the door behind a heavy piece of furniture which he pushed in front of it after the lapse of a few seconds the room and the opposite wall were lighted up with a fierce red tremulous glow everything was on fire the thorn cuddle snapped and threw out Sparks to the middle of the chamber as the knapsack was consumed together with the Hideous Rags which are contained it revealed something which sparkled in the ashes by bending over one could have readily recognized a coin no doubt the 40 Sue piece stolen from the little savoya he did not look at the fire but paced back and forth with the same step all at once his eye fell on the two silver candlesticks which Shone vaguely on the chimney piece through the glow old he thought the whole of Jean valje is still in them they must be destroyed also he seized the two candlesticks there was still far enough to allow of their being put out of shape and converted into a sort of unrecognizable bar of metal he bent over the Hearth and warmed himself for a moment he felt a sense of real Comfort how good warmth is said he he stirred the live coals with one of the candlesticks a minute more and they were both in the fire at that moment it seemed to him that he heard a voice within him shouting Jean Valjean valjeong his hair Rose upright he became like a man who was listening to some terrible thing yes that's it finish said the voice complete what you are about destroy these candlesticks annihilate this souvenir forget the bishop forget everything destroy this do that is right applaud yourself so it is settled resolved fixed agreed here is an old man who does not know what is wanted of him who has perhaps done nothing an innocent man whose whole Misfortune lies in your name upon whom your name weighs like a crime who is about to be taken for you who will be condemned who will finish his days in abjectness and horror that is good be an honest man yourself remain Monsieur Marie remain honorable and honored enrich the town nourish the Indigent rarely often live happy virtuous and admired and during this time while you are here in the midst of joy and light there will be a man who will wear your red blouse who will bear your name in ignomy and who will drag your chain in the galleys yes it is well arranged thus ah wretch the perspirations streamed from his brow he fixed a Haggard eye on the candlesticks but that within him which had spoken had not finished the voice continued Jean Valjean there will be around you many voices which will make a great noise which will talk very loud and which will bless you and only one which no one will hear and which will curse you in the dark well listen Infamous man all those benedictions will fall back before they reach heaven and only the malediction will Ascend to God this voice feeble at first and which had proceeded from the most obscured depths of his conscience have gradually become startling and formidable and he now heard it in his very ear it seemed to him that it had detached itself from him that it was now speaking outside of him he thought that he heard the last word so distinctly that he glanced around the room in a sort of Terror is there anyone here he demanded aloud in utter bewilderment then he resumed with a laugh which resembled that of an idiot how stupid I am there can be no one there was someone but the person who was there was of Those whom the human eye cannot see he placed the candlesticks on the chimney piece then he resumed his monotonous and lugubrious which troubled the dreams of the sleeping man beneath him and awoke him with a start this tramping to enforce Youth and at the same time intoxicated him it sometimes seems on Supreme occasions as though people move about for the purpose of asking advice of everything that they may encounter by change of place after the lapse of a few minutes he no longer knew his position he now recoiled in equal Terror before both the resolutions at which he had arrived in turn the two ideas which counseled him appeared to him equally fatal what a fatality what conjunction that that Sean mature should have been taken for him to be overwhelmed by precisely the means which Providence seemed to have employed at first to strengthen his position there was a moment when he reflected on the future denounce himself great God deliver himself up with immense despair he faced all that he should be obliged to leave or that he should be obliged to take up once more he should have to Bid Farewell to that existence which was so good so pure so radiant to the respect of all to honor to Liberty he should never more stroll in the fields he should never more hear the birds sing in the month of May he should never more bestow arms on the little children he should never more experience the sweetness of having glances of gratitude and love fixed upon him he should quit that house which he had built that little chamber everything seemed Charming to him at that moment never again should he read those books Nevermore should he write on that little table of Whitewood his old fortress the only servant whom he kept would Nevermore bring him his coffee in the morning great God instead of that the convict gang the iron necklet the red waistcoat the chain on his ankle fatigue the cell the camp bed all those Horrors which he knew so well at his age after having been what he was if he were only young again but to be addressed in his old age as thou by anyone who pleased to be searched by the convict God to receive the galley Sergeant's cuddlings to wear Ironbound shoes on his bare feet to have to stretch out his leg night and morning to the Hammer of the roundsman who visits the gang to submit to the Curiosity of strangers who would be told that man Yonder is the famous Jean Valjean who was mayor of mciorem and at night dripping with perspiration overwhelmed with lassitude their green caps drawn over their eyes to remount two by two the ladder staircase of the galleys beneath the Sergeant's whip oh what misery can Destiny then be as malicious as an intelligent being and become as monstrous as the human heart and do what he would he always fell back upon the heart-rending Dilemma which lay at the foundation of his reverie should he remain in paradise and become a demon should he Return To Hell and become an angel what was to be done great God what was to be done the torment from which he had escaped with so much difficulty was Unchained afresh within him his ideas began to grow confused once more they assumed a kind of stupefied a mechanical quality which is peculiar to despair the name of a romanville recurred incessantly to his mind with the two verses of a song which he had heard in the past he thought that romanville was a little Grove near Paris where young lovers go to pluck lilacs in the month of April he wavered outwardly as well as in Whitley he walked like a little child who is permitted to toddle alone at intervals as he combated his latitude he made an effort to recover the Mastery of his mind he tried to put himself for the last time and definitely the problem over which he had in a manner Fallen prostrate with fatigue ought he to denounce himself ought he to hold his peace he could not manage to see anything distinctly the vague aspects of all the courses of reasoning which had been sketched out by his meditations quivered and vanished one after the other into smoke he only felt that to whatever cause of action he made up his mind something in him must die and that of necessity and without his being able to escape the fact that he was entering a Sepulcher on the right hand as much as on the left that he was passing through a death Agony the agony of his happiness or the agony of his virtue alas all his resolution had again taken possession of him he was no further advanced than at the beginning thus did this unhappy Soul struggle in its anguish 1800 years before this unfortunate man the mysterious being in whom our summed up all the sanctities and all the sufferings of humanity had also long thrust aside with his hand while the olive trees quivered in the wild wind of the infinite the terrible cup which appeared to him dripping with darkness and overflowing with shadows in the depths all studied with stars chapter 4. forms assumed by suffering during sleep three o'clock in the morning had just struck and he had been walking thus for five hours almost uninterruptedly when he at length allowed himself to drop into his chair there he fell asleep and had a dream this dream like the majority of Dreams bore no relation to the situation except by its painful and heart-rending character but it made an impression on him this nightmare struck him so forcibly that he wrote it down later on it is one of the papers in his own handwriting which he has bequeathed to us we think that we have here reproduced the thing in strict accordance with the text of whatever nature this dream may be the history of this night would be incomplete if we were to admit it it is the gloomy adventure of an ailing soul here it is on the envelope we find this line inscribed the dream I had that night I was in a plane a vast loomy plane where there was no grass it did not seem to me to be daylight nor yet night I was walking with my brother the brother of my childish years the brother of whom I must say I never think and whom I now hardly remember we were conversing and we met some passes by we were talking of a neighbor of ours in former days who had always worked with her window opened from the time when she came to live on the street as we talked we felt cold because of that open window there were no trees in the plane we saw a man passing close to us he was entirely nude of the Hue of ashes and mounted on a horse which was Earth color the man had no hair we could see his skull and the veins on it in his hand he held a switch which was a Supple as a Vine shoot and as heavy as iron this Horseman passed and said nothing to us my brother said to me let us take to the Hollow Road there existed a Hollow Way wherein once saw neither a single shrub nor a spear of moss everything was dirt colored even the sky after proceeding a few Paces I received no reply when I spoke I perceived that my brother was no longer with me I entered a village which I aspired I reflected that it must be your Mount View why Romeoville this parenthesis is due to Jean valjeune the first street that I entered was deserted I entered a Second Street behind the angle formed by the two streets a man was standing erect against the wall I said to this man what country is this where am I the man made no reply I saw the door of a house open and I entered the first chamber was deserted I entered the second behind the door of this chamber a man was standing erect against the wall I inquired of this man whose house is this where am I the man replied not the house had a garden I quitted the house and entered the garden the garden was deserted behind the first tree I found a man standing upright I said to this man what Garden is this where am I the man did not answer I strolled into the village and perceived that it was a town all the streets were deserted all the doors were open not a single living being was passing in the streets walking through the chambers or stalling in the gardens but behind each angle of the walls behind each door behind each tree stood a silent man only one was to be seen at a time these men watched me pass I left the town and began to ramble about the fields after the lapse of some time I turned back and saw a great crowd coming up behind me I recognized all the men whom I had seen in that town they had strange heads they did not seem to be in a hurry yet they walked faster than I did they made no noise as they walked in an instant this crowd had overtaken and surrounded me the faces of these men were earthening Hugh then the first one whom I had seen and questioned on entering the town said to me where are you going do you not know that you have been dead this long time I open my mouth to reply and I perceived that there was no one near me he woke he was icy cold a wind which was chill like the breeze of Dawn was rattling the leaves of the window which had been left open on their hinges the fire was out the candle was nearing its end it was still black night he rose he went to the window there were no stars in the sky even yet from his window the yard of the house and the street were visible a sharp harsh noise which made him drop his eyes resounded from the Earth below him he perceived two red stars whose Rays lengthened and shortened in a singular manner through the darkness as his thoughts were still half immersed in the midst of sleep ode said he there are no stars in the sky they are on earth now but this confusion vanished a second sound similar to the first aroused him thoroughly he looked and recognized the fact that these two stars were the lanterns of a carriage By the Light which they cast he was able to distinguish the form of this vehicle it was a Tilbury harness to a small white horse the noise which he had heard was the trampling of the horse's Hooves on the pavement what vehicle is this he said to himself who is coming here so early in the morning at that moment there came a light tap on the door of his chamber he shuddered from head to foot and cried in a terrible voice who is there someone said I miss you olamari he recognized the voice of the old woman who was his Fortress well he replied what is it Miss Yola Marie it's just five o'clock in the morning what is that to me the Cabriolet is here miss yolomery what Cabriolet the Tilbury what Tilbury I did not miss yolomery order a Tilbury no said he The Coachman says that he has come from Missoula Marie what Coachman Coachman miss your skull Flair that name sent a shudder over him as though a flash of lightning had passed in front of his face ah yes he resumed Monsieur Flair if the old woman could have seen him at that moment she would have been frightened a tolerably long silence ensued he examined the flame of the candle with a stupid Heir and from around the wick he took some of the burning wax which he rolled between his fingers the old woman waited for him she even ventured to uplift her voice once more what am I to say Miss Yola Marie say that it is well and that I am coming down chapter 5. hindrances the posting service from Aras to MCO M was still operated at this period by small male wagons of the time of the empire these male wagons were two-wheeled cabrioles upholstered inside with thorn-colored leather hung on Springs and having but two seats one for the Post boy the other for The Traveler the wheels were armed with those Long offensive axles which keep other vehicles at a distance and which may still be seen on the road in Germany the dispatch box and immense oblong Coffer was placed behind the vehicle and formed a part of it this Coffer was painted black and the Cabriolet yellow these vehicles which have no counterparts nowadays had something distorted and hunchbacked about them and when one saw them passing in the distance and climbing up some road to the Horizon they resembled the insects which are called I think termites and which though with but little corsolette drag a great train behind them but they traveled at a very rapid rate the post wagon which set out from harass at one o'clock every night after the mail from Paris had passed arrived at mgrm a little before five o'clock in the morning that night the wagon which was descending to msiorem by the Hess down Road collided at the corner of a street just as it was entering the town with a little Tilbury harnessed to a white horse which was going in the opposite direction and in which there was but one person a man enveloped in a mantle the wheel of the Tilbury received quite the violent shock the postman shouted to the man to stop but the traveler paid no heed and pursued his road at full gallop that man is in a devilish hurry said the postman the man thus hastening on was the one whom we have just seen struggling in convulsions which are certainly deserving of pity wither was he going he could not have told why was he hastening he did not know he was driving at random straight ahead with her to harass no doubt but he might have been going elsewhere as well at times he was conscious of it and he shuddered he plunged into the night as into a gulf something urged him forward something drew him on no one could have told what was taking place within him everyone will understand it what man is there who has not entered at least once in his life into that obscure Cavern of the unknown however he had resolved on nothing decided nothing formed no plan done nothing none of the actions of his conscience had been decisive he was more than ever as he had been at the first moment why was he going to add us he repeated what he had already said to himself when he had hired School flares Cabriolet that whatever the result was to be there was no reason why he should not see with his own eyes and judge of matters for himself that this was even Bruton that he must know what took place that no decision could be arrived at without having observed and scrutinized that one made mountains out of everything from a distance that at any rate when he should have seen that show mature some wretch his conscience would probably be greatly relieved to allow him to go to the galleys in his stead lechevere would indeed be there and that breve the Chanel dur that old conflicts who had known him but they certainly would not recognize him ah what an idea that Javier was a hundred leagues from suspecting the truth that all conjectures and all suppositions were fixed on Sean matya and that there is nothing so headstrong as suppositions and conjectures that accordingly there was no danger that it was no doubt a dark moment but that it should emerge from it that after all he held his Destiny however bad it might be in his own hand that he was Master of it he clung to this thought at bottom to tell the whole truth he would have preferred not to go to eras nevertheless he was going thither as he meditated he whipped up his horse which was proceeding at that fine regular and even Trot which accomplishes two leagues and a half an hour in proportion is the Cabaret Advanced he felt something within him draw back at Daybreak he was in the Open Country the town of M shiram lay far behind him he watched The Horizon grow white he stared at all the chilly figures of a winter storm as they passed before his eyes but without seeing them the Morning Has Its specters as well as the evening he did not see them but without his being aware of it and by means of a sort of penetration which was almost physical these black silhouettes of trees and of Hills added some gloomy and Sinister quality to the violent state of his soul each time that he passed one of those isolated dwellings which sometimes border on the highways he said to himself and yet there are people there within who are sleeping the Trot of the horse the Bells on the harness The Wheels on the road produced a gentle monotonous noise these things are Charming when one is joyous and lugubrious where money is sad it was broad daylight when he arrived at Hester he halted in front of the Inn to allow the horse a breathing spell and to have him give him some oats the horse belonged as scofler had said to that small race of the boulane which has too much head too much belly and not enough neck and shoulders but which has a broad chest a large group of thin fine legs and solid Hooves a homely but a robust and healthy race the excellent Beast had traveled five leagues in two hours and had not a drop of sweat on his loins he did not get out of the Tilbury the stable man who brought the oats suddenly bent down and examined the left wheel are you going far in this condition said the man he replied with an air of not having aroused himself from his reverie why have you come from a great distance went on the moon five leagues ah why do you say ah the man bent down once more was silent for a moment with his eyes fixed on the wheel then he rose erect and said because though this wheel has traveled five leagues it will certainly not travel another quarter of a league he sprang out of the Tilbury what is that you say my friend I say that it is a miracle that you should have traveled five leagues without you and your horse rolling into some ditch on the highway just see here the wheel really had suffered serious damage the shark administered by the male wagon had split two Spokes and strained The Hub so that the nut no longer held firm my friend he said to the stableman is there a wheel right here certainly sir do me the service to go and fetch him he is only a step from here hey miss your boy Master boygaya the wheel ride was standing on his own threshold he came examined the wheel and made a Grimace Like a Surgeon when the latter thinks a limb is broken can you repair this wheel immediately yes sir when can I set out again tomorrow tomorrow there is a Long Day's work on it are you in a hurry sir in a very great hurry I must sit out again in an hour at the latest impossible sir I will pay whatever you ask impossible well in two hours then impossible today two new spokes in a hub must be made Monsieur will not be able to start before tomorrow morning the matter cannot wait until tomorrow what if you were to replace this wheel instead of repairing it also you are a wheel right certainly sir have you not a wheel that you can sell me then I could start again at once a spare wheel yes I have no wheel on hand that would fit your caviarity two wheels make a pair two wheels cannot be put together haphazard in that case sell me a pair of Wheels not all wheels fit all axles sir try nevertheless it is useless sir I have nothing to sell but cartwheels we are but a poor country here have you a Cabriolet that you can let me have the wheelwright had seen at the first glance that the Tilbury was a hired vehicle he Shrugged his shoulders you treat the cabarets that people let you off so well if I had one I would not let it to you well sell it to me then I have none what not even a spring cut I'm not hard to please as you see we live in a poor country there is in truth added the wheel right an old kalash under the shed Yonder which belongs to a Bourgeois of the Town who gave it to me to take care of and who only uses it on the 36th of the month never that is to say I might let that to you for what matters it to me but the Bourgeois must not see it pass and then it is a collage it would require two horses I will take two post horses where is Monsieur going to Aras and miss your wishes to reach there today yes of course by taking two post horses why not does it make any difference whether Monsieur arrives at four o'clock tomorrow morning certainly not there is one thing to be said about that you see by taking post horses Monsieur has his passport yes well by taking posed horses Monsieur cannot reach at us before tomorrow we are on a crossroad the relays are badly served the horses are in the fields the season for plowing is just beginning heavy teams are required and horses are seized upon everywhere from the post as well as elsewhere Monsieur will have to wait three or four hours at the least at every relay and then they drive at a walk there are many Hills to ascend come then I will go on a horseback unharnish the Cabriolet someone can surely sell me a saddle in the neighborhood without a doubt but will this horse bear the saddle that is true you remind me of that he will not bear it then but I can surely hire a horse in the village a horse to travel to harass at one stretch yes and that would require such a horse as does not exist in these parts you would have to buy it to begin with because no one knows you but you will not find one for sale nor to let for 500 francs or for a thousand what am I to do the best thing is to let me repair the wheel like an honest man and set out on your journey tomorrow tomorrow will be too late the deuce is there not a male wagon which runs to add us when will it pass tonight both the posts pass at night the one going as well as the one coming what it will take you a day to mend this wheel a day and a good long one if you set two men to work if I sit ten men to work what if the spokes were to be tied together with ropes and that could be done with spokes not with the Hub and the Fairly is in a bad State too is there anyone in this Village who lets out teams no is there another wheel right the stableman and the wheel right replied in concert with a toss of the head no he felt an immense Joy it was evident that Providence was intervening that it was it who had broken the wheel of the Tilbury and who was stopping him on the road he had not yielded to this sort of first summons he had just made every possible effort to continue the journey he had loyally and scrupulously exhausted all means he had been deterred neither by the season nor fatigue nor by the expense he had nothing with which to reproach himself if he went no further that was no fault of his it did not concern him further it was no longer his fault it was not the act of his own conscience but the act of Providence he breathed again he breathed freely and to the full extent of his lungs for the first time since javez visit it seemed to him that the hand of iron which had held his heart in its grasp for the last 24 hours had just released him it seemed to him that God was for him now and was manifesting himself he said to himself that he had done all he could and that he now had nothing to do but retrace his steps quietly if his conversation with the wheel ride had taken place in a chamber of the Inn it would have had no Witnesses no one would have heard him things would have rested there and it is possible that we should not have had to relate any of the occurrences which the reader is about to peruse but this conversation had taken place in the street an e coliqui in the street inevitably attracts a crowd there are always people who ask nothing better than to become spectators while he was questioning the wheel rights some people who were passing back and forth halted around them after listening for a few minutes A young lad to whom no one had paid any heed detached himself from the group and ran off at the moment when the traveler after the inward deliberation which we have just described resolved to retrace his steps this child returned he was accompanied by an old woman Monsieur said the old one my boy tells me that you wish to hire a Cabriolet these simple words uttered by an old woman led by a child May the perspiration trickle down his limbs he thought that he beheld the hand which had relaxed his grasp reappear in the darkness behind him ready to seize him once more he answered yes my good woman I am in search of vocabulary which I can hire and he hastened to add where there is none in the place certainly there is said the old woman where interpolated the we all right at my house replied the old woman he shuddered the Fatal hand had grasped him again the old woman really had in her shed a sort of basket spring card the Wheel rides and the stable man in despair at the prospect of the traveler escaping their clutches interfered it was a frightful old trap it rests flat on the axle it is in actual fact that the seats were suspended inside it by leather thongs the rain came into it the wheels were rusted and eaten with moisture it would not go much further than the Tilbury a regular ramshackled Old Stage wagon the gentleman would make a great mistake if he trusted himself to it etc etc all this was true but this trap this Ram Shackled old vehicle this thing whatever it was ran on its two wheels and could go to Aras he paid what was asked left the Tilbury with the wheel right to be repaired intending to reclaim it on his return had the White Horse put to the card climbed into it and resumed the road which he had been traveling since morning at the moment when the cart moved off he admitted that he had felt a moment previously a certain joy in the thought that he should not go with her he was now proceeding he examined This Joy with a sort of Wrath and found it absurd why should he feel Joy at turning back after all he was taking this trip of his own free will no one was forcing him to it and assuredly nothing would happen except what he should choose as he left hezda he heard a voice shouting to him stop stop he hoarded the car with a vigorous movement which contained a feverish and convulsive element resembling hope it was the old Woman's little boy Monsieur said the latter it was I who got the card for you well you have not given me anything he who gave to all so readily thought this demand exorbitant and almost odious ah it's you you Scamp said he you shall have nothing he whipped up his horse and set off at full speed he had lost a great deal of time at hisda he wanted to make it good the little horse was courageous and pulled for two but it was the month of February there had been rain the roads were bad and then it was no longer the Tilbury the cart was very heavy and in addition there were many ascents he took nearly four hours to go from hezdan to sample four hours for Five leagues at sample he had the horse unharnessed at the first Inn he came to and led to the stable as he had promised School Flair he Stood Beside the manager while the horse was eating he thought of sad and confusing things the innkeeper's wife came to the stable does not miss your wish to breakfast come that is true I even have a good appetite he followed the woman who had a Rosy cheerful face she led him to the public room where there were tables covered with waxed cloth make haste said he I must start again I am in a hurry a big Flemish servant mate placed his knife and fork in all haste he looked at the girl with a sensation of comfort that is what ailed me he thought I had not breakfasted his breakfast was served he seized the bread took a mouthful and then slowly replaced it on the table and did not touch it again a Carter was eating at another table he said to this man why is there bread so bitter here because it was a German and did not understand him he returned to the stable and remained near the horse an hour later he had quitted sample and was directing his course towards tongue which is only five leagues from harass what did he do during this journey of what was he thinking as in the morning he watched the trees the thatched screws the tilled fields passed by and the way in which the landscape broken at every turn of the road vanished this is a sort of contemplation which sometimes suffices to the soul and almost relieves it from thought what is more Melancholy and more profound than to see a thousand objects for the first and the last time the travel is to be born and to die at every instant perhaps in the vagus region of his mind he did make comparisons between the shifting Horizon and our human existence all the things of Life are perpetually fleeing before us the dark and bright intervals are intermingled after a dazzling moment an eclipse we look we hasten we stretch out our hands to grasp what is passing each event is a turn in the road and all at once we are old we feel a shock all is black we distinguish an obscure door the gloomy horse of Life which has been drawing us halts and we see a veiled and unknown person unharnessing amid the Shadows Twilight was falling when the children who were coming out of school beheld this traveler into tank it is true that the days were still short he did not halt to tongue as he emerged from the village a laborer who was mending the road with stones raised his head and said to him that horse is very much fatigued the poor Beast was in fact going at a walk are you going to Aras out in the Roadmaster yes if you go on at that rate you will not arrive very early he stopped his horse and asked the laborer how far is it from here toward us nearly seven good leagues how is that the posting guide only says five leagues and a quarter ah return the roadmender so you don't know that the road is under repair you'll find it bad a quarter of an hour further on there is no way to proceed further really you will take the road on the left leading to Carol C you will cross the river when you reach kambler you will turn to the right that is the road to more alloy which leads to Aras but it is night and I shall lose my way you do not belong in these parts no and besides it is all Crossroads stop sir resume the road mender shall I give you a piece of advice your horse is tired return to tank there is a good in there sleep there you can reach your ass tomorrow I must be there this evening that is different we'll go to the Inn all the same and get an extra horse the stable boy will guide you through the crossroads he followed the road Mendez advice retraced his steps and half an hour later he passed the same spot again but this time at full speed with a good horse to Aid a stable boy who called himself a postilian was Seated on the shaft of the carrier still he felt that he had lost time Knight had fully come they turned into the crossroad the way became frightfully bad the cart lurched from one rut to the other he said to the postilian keep it a trot and you shall have a double fee in one of the jolts the wiffle tree broke there's the wiffle tree broken sir said the postilian I don't know how to harness my horse now this road is very bad at night if you wish to return and sleep at time we could be in our ass early tomorrow morning he replied have you a bit of rope and a knife yes sir he cut a branch from a tree and made a whiffled tree of it this caused another loss of 20 minutes but they set out again at a gallop the plane was gloomy low hanging black crisp fogs crept over the hills and wrenched themselves away like smoke there were whitish gleams in the clouds a strong Breeze which blew in from the sea produced a sound in all quarters of the Horizon as of someone moving furniture everything that could be seen assumed attitudes of Terror how many things shiver beneath these vast breaths of the night he was stiff with the cold he had eaten nothing since the night before he vaguely recalled his other nocturnal trip in the vast plane in the neighborhood of D eight years previously and it seemed but yesterday the hour Struck from a distant Tower he asked the boy what time is it seven o'clock sir we shall reach our acid Aid we have but three leagues still to go at that moment he for the first time indulged in this reflection thinking it odd the while that it had not occurred to him sooner that all this trouble which he was taking was perhaps useless that he did not know so much as the hour of the trial that he should at least have informed himself of that that he was foolish to go thus straight ahead without knowing whether he would be of any service or not then he sketched out some calculations in his mind that ordinarily the sittings of the court of assises began at nine o'clock in the morning that it could not be a long Affair that the theft of the apples would be very brief that there would then remain only a question of identity four or five depositions and very little for the lawyers to say that he should arrive after all was over the postilian whipped up the horses they had crossed the river and left monsa alloy behind them the night grew more profound chapter 6. sister some police put to the proof but at that moment fonteen was joyous she had passed a very bad night her cough was frightful her fever had doubled in intensity she had had dreams in the morning when the doctor paid his visit she was delirious he assumed an alarmed look and ordered that he should be informed as soon as Mr Madeleine arrived all the morning she was Melancholy said but little and laid plats in her sheets murmuring the while in a low voice calculations which seemed to be calculations of distances her eyes were Hollow and staring they seemed almost extinguished at intervals then lighted up again and Shone like stars it seems as though at the approach of a certain Dark Hour the light of Heaven fills those who are quitting the light of Earth each time that sister son please asked her how she felt she replied invariably well I should like to see Mr Madeleine some months before this at the moment when fonteen had just lost her last modesty her last shame and her last Joy she was the shadow of herself now she was the Specter of herself physical suffering had completed the work of moral suffering this creature of 5 and 20 had a wrinkled brow flabby cheeks pinched nostrils teeth from which the gums had receded a lead and complexion of bony neck prominent shoulder blades frail limbs a clay skin and a golden hair was growing out sprinkled with gray alas how illness improvises old age at midday The Physician returned gave some directions inquired whether the mayor had made his appearance at the infirmary and shook his head Mr Matalan usually came to see the invalid at three o'clock as exactness's kindness he was exact about half past 2 14 began to be restless in the course of 20 minutes she asked the nun more than 10 times what time is it sister three o'clock struck at the third stroke fontine sat up in bed she who could in general hardly turn over joined her yellow fleshless hands in a sort of convulsive clasp and the nun heard her utter one of those profound sighs which seemed to throw off dejection then faunting turned and looked at the door no one entered the door did not open she remained thus for the court of an hour her eyes riveted on the door motionless and apparently holding her breath the sister dared not speak to her the Clock Struck a quarter past three fontine fell back on her pillow she said nothing but began to plant the sheets once more half an hour passed then an hour no one came every time the Clock Struck fourteen started up and looked towards the door then fell back again her thought was clearly perceptible but she uttered no name she made no complaint she blamed no one but she coughed in a Melancholy way one would have said that something dark was descending upon her she was livid and her lips were blue she smiled now and then five o'clock struck then the sister heard her say very low and gently he is wrong not to come today since I am going away tomorrow sister son please herself was surprised at Mr Madeleine's delay in the meantime fontine was staring at the test of her bed she seemed to be endeavoring to recall something all at once she began to sing in a voice as feeble as a breath the nun listened this is what fontine was singing lovely things we will buy as we stroll the faux bogs through roses are pink cornflowers are blue I love my love corn flowers are blue yesterday in the Virgin Mary came near my stove in embroidered mantle clad and said to me here Hide Neath my veil the child whom you one day begged from me haste to the City by linen by a needle by a thread lovely things we will buy as we stroll the fuborgs through dear holy virgin beside my stove I have set a cradle with ribbons decked God give me his loveliest star I prefer the child that has granted me Madame what shall I do with this linen fine make of it clothes for thy newborn babe roses are pink and corn flowers are blue I love my love and corn flowers are blue wash this linen where in the Stream make of its soiling knot spoiling not a Petticoat Fair with its bodies fine which I will embroider and fill with flowers Madame the child is no longer here what is to be done then make of it a winding sheet in which to bury me lovely things we will buy as we stroll the forebergs through roses are pink cornflowers are blue I love my love corn flowers are blue this song was an old cradle romance with which she had in former days lulled her little cozette to sleep and which had never occurred to her mind in all the five years during which she had been parted from her child she sang it in so sad a voice and to sow sweetener that it was enough to make anyone even a nun weep the sister accustomed as she was to austerities felt a Tear Spring to her eyes the Clock Struck six on teen did not seem to hear it she no longer seemed to pay any attention to anything about her sister son please sent a serving maid to inquire of the Fortress of the factory whether the mayor had returned and if he would not come to the infirmary soon the girl returned in a few minutes fontine was motionless and seemed absorbed in her own thoughts the servant informs sister some police in a very low tone that the mayor had set out that morning before six o'clock in a little Tilbury harness to a white horse cold as the weather was that he had gone alone without even a driver but no one knew what road he had taken that people said he had been seen to turn into the road to harass that others asserted that they had met him on the road to Paris that when he went away he had been very gentle as usual that he had merely told the Fortress not to expect him that night while the two women were Whispering together with their backs turned to 14's bed the sister interrogating the servant conjecturing fonteen with the feverish vivacity of certain organic maladies which unite the free movements of Health with the frightful emaciation of death had raised herself to a knees in bed with her shriveled hands resting on the bolster and her head thrust through the opening of the curtains and was listening all at once she cried you are speaking of miss your Madeleine why are you talking so low what is he doing why does he not come a voice was so abrupt and hoarse that the two women thought they heard the voice of a man they wheeled round in a freight answer me cried 14 the servant stammered the poetress told me that he could not come today become my child said the sister lie down again 14 without changing her attitude continued in a loud voice and with an accent it was both the imperious and heart-rending he cannot come why not you know the reason you are Whispering it to each other there I want to know it the servant made hasten to say in the nunzir say that he is busy with the city council sister son please blushed faintly for it was a lie that the maid had proposed to her on the other hand it seemed to her that the mere communication of the truth to the invalid would without doubt deal her a terrible blow and that this was a serious matter in fonte's present state her flush did not last long the sister raised her calm sad eyes to faunting and said has gone away fonteen raised herself and crouched on her heels in the bed her eyes sparkled Indescribable Joy beamed from that Melancholy face gone she cried he has gone to get cozette then she raised her arms to Heaven and her white face became ineffable her lips moved she was praying in a low voice when the prayer was finished sister she said I am willing to lie down again I will do anything you wish I was naughty just now I beg your pardon for having spoken so loud it is very wrong to talk loudly I know that well my good sister but you see I am very happy the good God is good miss your Madeline is good just think he has gone to month for May to get my little cozette she lay down again with the nun's assistants helped the nun to arrange her pillow and kiss the little silver cross which he wore on her neck and which sister simplys had given her my child said the sister try to rest now and do not talk anymore took the sister's hand in her moist hands and the latter was pain to feel that perspiration he set out this morning for Paris in fact he need not even go through Paris monthema is a little to the left as you come fence do you remember how he said to me yesterday when I spoke to him of kazette soon soon he wants to give me a surprise you know he made me sign a letter so that she could be taken from the tinnarias they cannot say anything can they they will give back because Ed for they have been paid the authorities will not allow them to keep the child since they have received their pay do not make signs to me that I must not talk sister I am extremely happy I'm doing well I am not ill at all anymore I am going to see Cosette again I am even quite hungry it is nearly five years since I saw her last you cannot imagine how much attached one gets to children and then she'll be so pretty you will see if you only knew what pretty little Rosy fingers she had in the first place she will have very beautiful hands she had ridiculous hands when she was only a year old like this she must be a big girl now she's seven years old she is quite a young lady I call her cousin but name is really your phrase stop this morning I was looking at the dust on the chimney piece and I had a sort of idea come across me like that that I should see Cosette again soon and yeah how wrong it is not to see one's children for years one or to reflect that life is not eternal oh how good Miss YULA Mary used to go it is very cold it is true he had on his cloak at least he will be there tomorrow will he not tomorrow will be a festival day tomorrow morning sister you must remind me to put on my little cap that has lace on it what a place that mount for May is I took that Journey on foot once it was very long for me but the diligences go very quickly he will be here tomorrow with kozet how far is it from here to month for May the sister who had no idea of distances replied oh I think that he will be here tomorrow tomorrow said fontine I shall see cause it tomorrow you see Good Sister of the good God that I am no longer ill I am mad I could dance if anyone wished it a person who had seen her record of an hour previously would not have understood the change she was all Rosy now she spoke in a lively and natural voice her whole face was one smile now and then she talked she laughed softly the joy of a mother is almost infantile well resume the nun now that you are happy mind me and do not talk anymore fontine laid her head on her pillow and said in a low voice yes lie down again be good for you are going to have your child sister some please says right everyone here is right and then without stirring without even moving ahead she began to stare all about her with wide open eyes and a joyous Heir and she said nothing more the sister drew the curtains together again hoping that she would fall into a doze between seven and eight o'clock the doctor came not hearing any sound he thought fonteen was asleep entered softly and approached the bed on tiptoe he opened the curtains a little and by the Light of the taper he saw fonteen's big eyes gazing at him she said to him she will be allowed to sleep beside me in a little bed will she not sir the doctor thought that she was delirious she added see there is just room the doctor took sister some police aside and she explained matters to him that Mr Madeleine was absent for a day or two and that in their doubt they had not thought it well to undeceive the invalid who believed that the mayor had gone to month for May that it was possible after all that her guess was correct the doctor approved he returned to fontine's bed and she went on you see when she wakes up in the morning I shall be able to say good morning to her poor kitten and when I cannot sleep at night I can hear her asleep her little gentle breathing will do me good give me your hand said the doctor she stretched out her arm and exclaimed with a laugh ah hold in truth you did not know it I am cured cozette will arrive tomorrow the doctor was surprised she was better the pressure on her chest had decreased her pulse had regained its strength a sort of Life had suddenly supervened and reanimated this poor worn out creature doctor she went on did the sister tell you that Miss Yola Mary has gone to get that might of a child the doctor recommended silence and that all painful emotions should be avoided he prescribed an infusion of pure King Kona and in case the fever should increase again during the night a calming potion as he took his departure he said to the sister she is doing better if Goodluck willed that the mayor should actually arrive tomorrow with the child who knows that our crises so astounding great joy has been known to arrest maladies I know well that this is an organic disease and in an advanced state but all those things are such Mysteries we may be able to save her chapter 7. The Traveler on his arrival takes precautions for departure it was nearly eight o'clock in the evening when the card which we left on the road entered the port crochet of the hotel de la post inaras the man whom we have been following up to this moment alighted from it responded with an abstracted heir to the attentions of the people of the Inn sent back the extra horse and with his own hands led the little white horse to the stable then he opened the door of a billiard room which was situated on the ground floor sat down there and leaned his elbows on a table he had taken 14 hours for the journey which he had counted on making in six he did himself the Justice to acknowledge that it was not his fault but at bottom he was not sorry the landlady of the hotel entered it does Monsieur wishabad does Monsieur require supper he made a sign of the head in the negative the stableman says the monsieur's horse is extremely fatigued here he broke his silence will not the horse be in a condition to set out again tomorrow morning oh Monsieur he must rest for two days at least he inquired is not the posting station located here yes sir the hostess conducted him to the office he showed his passport and inquired whether there was any way of returning that same night to MGR M by the mail wagon the seat beside the post boy chance to be vacant he engaged it and paid for it Mr said the cloud do not fail to be here ready to start to precisely one o'clock in the morning this done he left the hotel and began to wander about the town he was not acquainted with Aras the streets were dark and he walked on at random but he seemed bent upon not asking the way of the passes by he crossed the Little River kranchang and found himself in a Labyrinth of narrow alleys where he lost his way a citizen was passing along with a lantern after some hesitation he decided to apply to this man not without having first last behind and in front of him as though he feared less someone should hear the question which he was about to put Monsieur said he where is the courthouse if you please you do not belong in town sir replied the Bourgeois who was an oldish man well follow me I happen to be going in the direction of the courthouse that is to say in the direction of the hotel of the prefecture for the courthouse is undergoing repairs just at this moment and the courts are holding their sittings provisionally in the prefecture is it there that their sizes are held he asked certainly sir you see the perfect shirt of today was The Bishop's Palace before the Revolution Monsieur de Cosi who was Bishop in 82 built a grand holder it is in his grand hall that the court is held on the way the Bourgeois said to him if miss your desires to witness a case it is rather late the sittings generally close at six o'clock when they arrived on the grand square however the man pointed out to him four long Windows all lighted up in the front of a vast and gloomy building upon my words sir you are in luck you have arrived in season do you see those four windows that is the court of the sizes there is a light there so they are not through the matter must have been greatly protracted and they are holding an evening session do you take an interest in this affair is it a criminal case are you a witness he replied I have not come on any business I only wish to speak to one of the lawyers that is different said the Bourgeois stop sir here is the door where the Sentry stands you have only to ascend the grand staircase he conformed to the Bourgeois directions and a few minutes later he was in a hall containing many people and where groups intermingled with lawyers in their gowns were Whispering together here and there it is always a heartbreaking thing to see these congregations of Men robed In Black murmuring together in low voices on the threshold of the halls of Justice it is rare that charity and pity are the outcome of these words condemnations pronounced in advance are more likely to be the result all these groups seem to the passing and thoughtful Observer so many somber hives where buzzing Spirits construct in concert all sorts of dark edifices this spacious Hall illuminated by a single lamp was the old Hall of the Episcopal Palace and served as the large of the Palace of Justice a double-leaved door which was closed at that moment separated it from the large apartment where the court was sitting the obscurity was such that he did not fear to accost the first lawyer whom he met what stage have they reached sir he asked it is finished said the lawyer finished this word was repeated in such accents that the lawyer turned round excuse me sir perhaps you are a relative no I know no one here as judgment being pronounced of course nothing else was possible to penal servitude for life he continued in a voice so weak that it was barely Audible then his identity was established what identity replied the lawyer there was no identity to be established the matter was very simple the woman had murdered her child and the infanticide was proved the jury threw out the question of premeditation and she was condemned for life so it was a woman said he why certainly the limousine woman of what are you speaking nothing but since it is all over how comes it that the hall is still lighted for another case which was begun about two hours ago what other case oh this one is a clear case also it is about a sort of black art a man arrested for a second offense a convict who has been guilty of theft I don't know his name exactly there's a Bandit's Fizz for you I'd send him to the galleys on the strength of his face alone is there any way of getting into the courtroom sir said he I really think that there is not there is a great crowd however the hearing has been suspended some people have gone out and when the hearing is resumed you might make an effort where is the entrance through you on the large door the lawyer left him in the course of a few moments he had experienced almost simultaneously almost intermingled with each other all possible emotions the words of this indifferent spectator had in turn pierced his heart like needles of ice and like Blades of Fire when he saw that nothing was settled he breathed freely once more but he could not have told whether what he felt was pain or pleasure he drew near to many groups and listened to what they were saying the docket of the session was very heavy the president had appointed for the same day two short and simple cases they had begun with the infanticide and now they had reached the convict the old offender are the return horse this man had stolen apples but that did not appear to be entirely prude what had been brewed was that he had already been in the galleys at too long it was that which lent a bad aspect to the case however the man's examination and the depositions of the witnesses had been completed but the lawyer's plea and the speech of the public prosecutor were still to come it could not be finished before midnight the man would probably be condemned the Attorney General was very clear and never missed his culprits he was a brilliant fellow who wrote verses and Usher stood at the door communicating with the Hall of the assises he inquired of this Usher will the door be open soon sir it will not be opened at all replied the Usher what it will not be opened when the hearing is resumed is not the hearing suspended the hearing has just begun again replied the Usher but the door will not be opened again why because the hall is full what there is not room for one more not another one the door is closed no one can enter now the Usher added after a pause there are to tell the truth two or three extra places behind a Monsieur the president but miss Yola president only admits public functionaries to them so saying the Usher turned his back he retired with bowed head traversed the anti-chamber and slowly descended the stairs as though hesitating at every step it is probable that he was holding council with himself the violent conflict which had been going on within him since the preceding evening was not yet ended and every moment he encountered some new phase of it on reaching the landing place he leaned his back against the balusters and folded his arms all at once he opened his coat Drew out his pocketbook took from it a pencil torn out a leaf and upon that leaf he wrote rapidly By the Light of the street Lantern this line then he ascended the stairs once more with great strides made his way through the crowd walked straight up to the Asher handed him the paper and said in an authoritative manner take this to monsieur president the Usher took the paper cast a glance upon it and obeyed chapter 8. an entrance by favor although he did not suspect the fact the mayor of M suram enjoyed a sort of celebrity for the space of seven years his reputation for virtue had filled the whole of bass boulane it had eventually passed the confines of a small district and had been spread abroad through two or three neighboring departments besides the service which he had rendered to the chief town by resuscitating the black jet industry there was not one out of the 140 communes of the Aron dismal of M shorem which was not indebted to him for some benefit he had even at need contrived to Aid and multiply the industries of other around this months it was thus that he had when occasion offered supported with his credit and his funds the Linen Factory at boloin the flax spinning industry at fuevo and the hydraulic manufacture of cloth that buber saw Kosh everywhere the name of Monsieur Madeline was pronounced with veneration Alas and do I envied the happy little town of mciorem it's mere the counselor of the Royal Court of dwive who was presiding over this session of the assizes at RS was acquainted in common with the rest of the world with this name which was so profoundly and universally honored when the Asha discreetly opening the door which connected the council chamber with the courtroom bent over the back of the president's armchair and handed him the paper on which was inscribed the line which we have just perused adding the gentleman desires to be present at the trial the president with a quick and deferential movement seized a pen and wrote a few words at the bottom of the paper and returned it to the Usher saying admit him the unhappy man whose history we are relating had remained near the door of the hall in the same place and the same attitude in which the Usher had left him in the midst of his reverie heard someone saying to him will Monsieur do me the honor to follow me it was the same Usher who had turned his back upon him but a moment previously and who was now bowing to the Earth before him at the same time the Usher handed him the paper he unfolded it and has he chanced to be near the light he could read it the president of the court of assises presents his respects to Mr Madeleine he crushed the paper in his hand as though those words contained for him a strange and bitter aftertaste he followed the Usher a few minutes later he found himself alone in a sort of wainscotted cabinet of severe aspect lighted by two wax candles placed upon a table with a green cloth the last words of the Usher who had just quitted him still rang in his ears Monsieur you are now in the council chamber you have only to turn the copper handle of Yonder door and you will find yourself in the courtroom behind the president's chair these words were mingled in His Thoughts with a vague memory of narrow corridors and dark staircases which he had recently traversed the Usher had left him alone the Supreme moment had arrived he sought to collect his faculties but could not it is chiefly at the moment when there is the greatest need for attaching them to the painful realities of life that the threads of thought snap within the brain he was in the very place where the judges deliberated and condemned with stupid Tranquility he surveyed this peaceful and terrible apartment where so many lives had been broken which was soon to ring with his name and which his fate was at that moment traversing he stared at the wall then he looked at himself wondering that it should be that chamber and that it should be he had eaten nothing for four and 24 hours he was worn out by the jolts of the card but he was not conscious of it it seemed to him that he felt nothing he approached a black frame which was suspended on the wall and which contained under glass an ancient autograph letter of Jean Nicholas pasch mayor of Paris and Minister and dated through an error no doubt the 9th of June of the year two and in which patch forwarded to the commune the list of ministers and deputies held in arrest by them any spectator who had chance to see him at that moment and who had watched him would have imagined doubtless that this letter struck him as very curious for he could not take his eyes from it and he read it two or three times he read it without paying any attention to it and unconsciously he was thinking of fontine and cozette as he dreamed he turned round and his eyes fell upon the brass knob of the door which separated him from the court of his sizes he had almost forgotten that door his glance calm at first paused there remained fixed on that brass handle then grew terrified and little by little became impregnated with fear beads of perspiration burst forth among his hair and trickled down upon his temples at a certain moment he made that Indescribable gesture of a sort of authority mingled with Rebellion which is intended to convey and which does so well convey Padia who compels me to this then he wheeled briskly round caught sides of the door through which he had entered in front of him went to it opened it and passed out he was no longer in that chamber he was outside in a corridor a long narrow Corridor broken by steps and greetings making all sorts of angles lighted here and there by lanterns similar to the night table of invalids the corridor through which he had approached he breathed he listened not a sound in front not a sound behind him and he fled as though pursued when he had turned many angles in his Corridor he still listened the same silence reigned and there was the same Darkness around him he was out of breath he staggered he leaned against the wall the stone was cold the perspiration lay ice cold on his brow he straightened himself up with a shiver then they're alone in the darkness trembling with cold and with something else too perchance he meditated he had meditated all night long he had meditated all the day he heard within him but one voice which said alas a quarter of an hour past us at length he bowed his head side with Agony dropped his arms and retraced his steps he walked slowly and as though crushed it seemed as though someone had overtaken him in his flight and was leading him back he re-entered the council chamber the first thing he caught sight of was the knob of the door this knob which was round on a polished brass Shone like a terrible star for him he gazed at it as a lamb might gaze into the eye of a tiger he could not take his eyes from it from time to time he Advanced a step and approached the door had he listened he would have heard the sound of the adjoining Hall like a sort of confused murmur but he did not listen and he did not hear suddenly without knowing himself how it happened he found himself near the door he grasped the knob convulsively the door opened he was in the courtroom chapter 9. a place where convictions are in process of formation he Advanced a pace closed the door mechanically behind him and remained standing contemplating what he saw it was a vast and badly lighted apartment now full of uproar now full of Silence where all the apparatus of a criminal case with its Petty and mournful gravity in the midst of the throne was in process of development at one end of the hall the one where he was were judges with abstracted air in threadbare robes who annoying their nails or closing their eyelids at the other end a ragged crowd lawyers in all sorts of attitudes Soldiers with hard but honest faces ancient spotted woodwork a dirty ceiling tables covered with surge that was yellow rather than green doors blackened by hand marks tap room lamps which emitted more smoke than light suspended from Nails in the wainscape on the tables candles in brass candlesticks Darkness ugliness sadness and from all this there was disengaged and austere and August impression for one there felt that grand human thing which is called the law and that grand Divine thing which is called Justice no one in all that throng paid any attention to him all glances were directed towards a single point a wooden bench placed against a small door in the stretch of a wall on the president's left on this bench illuminated by several candles set a man between two John arms this man was the man he did not seek him he saw him his eyes went thither naturally as though they had known beforehand where that Vigor was he thought he was looking at himself grown old not absolutely the same in face of course but exactly similar in attitude and aspect with his bristling hair with that wild and uneasy eye with that blouse just as it was on the day when he entered d full of hatred concealing his soul in That Hideous mass of frightful thoughts which he had spent 19 years in collecting on the floor of the prison he said to himself with a shudder good God shall I become like that again this creature seem to be at least 60 there was something indescribably cool stupid and frightened about him at the sound made by the opening door people had drawn aside to make way for him the president had turned his head and understanding that the personage who had just entered was the mayor of M surim he had bowed to him the attorney general who had seen Mr Madeline at msrm whether the duties of his office had called him more than once recognized him and saluted him also he had hardly perceived he was the victim of a sort of hallucination he was watching the judges clerks jeanned arms a throng of cruelly curious heads all these he had already beheld once in days gone by 27 years before he had encountered those fateful things once more there they were they moved they existed it was no longer an effort of his memory a mirage of his thought they were real John's arms and real judges a real crowd and Real Men of Flesh and Blood it was all over he beheld the Monstrous aspects of his past reappear and live once more around him with all that there is formidable in reality all this was yawning before him he was horrified by it he shut his eyes and exclaimed in the deepest recesses of his soul never and by a tragic play of Destiny which made all his ideas tremble and rendered him nearly mad it was another self of his that was there all called that man who was being tried Jean valjeong under his very eyes unheard of vision he had a sort of representation of the most horrible moment of his life enacted by his specter everything was there the apparatus was the same the hour of the night the faces of the judges of soldiers and of Spectators all were the same only above the president's head they hung a crucifix something which the courts had lacked at the time of his condemnation God had been absent when he had been judged there was a chair behind him he dropped into it terrified at the thought that he might be seen when he was seated he took the advantage of a pile of cardboard boxes which stood on the judge's desk to conceal his face from the whole room he could now see without being seen he had fully regained consciousness of the reality of things gradually he recovered he attained that phase of composure where it is possible to listen was one of the jurors he looked for Javert but did not see him the seat of the witnesses was hidden from him by the Clark's table and then as we have just said the hall was sparely lighted at the moment of this entrance the defendant's lawyer had just finished his plea the attention of all was excited to the highest pitch the affair had lasted for three hours for three hours that crowd had been watching a strange man a miserable specimen of humanity either profoundly stupid or profoundly subtle gradually bending beneath the weight of a terrible likeness this man as the reader already knows was a vagabond who had been found in a field carrying a branch Laden with ripe apples broken in the orchard of a neighbor called the PIRA Orchard who was this man an examination had been made Witnesses had been heard and they were unanimous light had abounded throughout the entire debate the accusation said we have in our grass not only a Marauder a Steeler of fruit we have here in our hands abandoned an old offender who has broken his band and ex-convict a miscreant of the most dangerous description a malfactor named Jean valjeel whom justice has long been in search of and who eight years ago on emerging from the galleys at too long committed a highway robbery accompanied by violence of the person of a child a savoya named little Gervais a crime provided for by article 383 of the penal code the right to try him for which we reserve Hereafter when his identity shall have been judicially established he has just committed a fresh theft it is a case of a second offense condemn him for the fresh deed later on he will be judged for the old crime in the face of this accusation in the face of the unanimity of the witnesses the accused appeared to be astonished more than anything else he made signs and gestures which were meant to convey no or else he stared at the ceiling he spoke with difficulty replied with embarrassment but his whole person from head to foot was a denial he was an idiot in the presence of all these Minds ranged in order of battle around him and like a stranger in the midst of this society which was seizing fast upon Him nevertheless it was a question of the most menacing future for him the likeness increased every moment and the entire crowd surveyed with more anxiety than he did himself that sentence freighted with Calamity which descended ever closer over his head there was even a glimpse of the possibility afford it besides the galleys a possible death penalty in case his identity were established and the affair of little Gervais were to end thereafter in condemnation who was this man what was the nature of his apathy was it imbecility or craft did he understand too well or did he not understand at all these were questions which divided the crowd and seemed to divide the jury there was something both terrible and puzzling in this case the drama was not only Melancholy it was also obscure the council for the defense had spoken tolerably well in that provincial tongue which has long constituted the eloquence of the bar and which was formally employed by all Advocates at Paris as well as at Roman or at Mont brison and which today having become classic is no longer spoken except by the official orators of magistracy to whom it is suited on account of its grave sonorousness and its Majestic stride a tongue in which a husband is called a consort and a woman a spouse Harris the center of Art and civilization the king the Monarch Monsignor the bishop a sainted bontiff the district attorney the eloquent interpreter of public prosecution the arguments the accents which we have just listened to the age of Louis XIV the grand age a theater the Temple of Melbourne mean the reigning family the August blood of our Kings a concert a musical solemnity the general commandant of the province the illustrious Warrior who Etc the pupils in a seminary these tender levities errors imputed to newspapers the Imposter which distills its venom through The Columns of those organs Etc the lawyer had accordingly begun with an explanation as to the theft of the apples an awkward matter couched in fine style but Benin musay himself was obliged to allude to a chicken in the midst of a funeral oration and he extricated himself from the situation in stately fashion the lawyer established the fact that the theft of the apples had not been circumstantially proved his client whom he and his character of counsel persisted in calling Sean mature who had not been seen scaling that wall nor breaking that Branch by anyone he had been taken with that branch which the lawyer preferred to call a bow in his possession but he said that he had found it broken off and lying on the ground and had picked it up where was there any proof to the contrary no doubt that Branch had been broken off and concealed after the scaling of the wall then thrown away by the alarmed Marauder there was no doubt that there had been a thief in the case about what proof was there that that Thief had been shot mature one thing only his character as an ex-convict the lawyer did not deny that that character appeared to be unhappily well attested the accused had resided at Federal the accused had exercised the calling of a tree pruner there the name of Sean matya might well have had its origin in jean-mature all that was true in short four Witnesses recognize Sean Matthew positively and without hesitation as that convict Jean Valjean to these signs to this testimony the council could oppose nothing but the denial of his client the denial of an interested party but supposing that he was the convict Jean Valjean did that prove that he was the thief of the apples there was a presumption at the most not a proof The Prisoner it was true and his counsel in good faith was obliged to admit it had adopted a bad system of Defense he obstinately denied everything the theft and his character of convict and admission upon this last point would certainly have been better and would have won for him the Indulgence of his judges the council had advised him to do this but the accused had obstinately refused thinking no doubt that he would save everything by admitting nothing it was an error but ought not the paucity of this intelligence to be taken into consideration this man was visibly stupid long continued wretchedness in the galley's long misery outside the galleys had brutalized him Etc he defended himself badly was that a reason for condemning him as for the affair with little Gervais the council need not discuss it it did not enter into the case the lawyer wound up by beseeching the jury in the court if the identity of Jean valje appeared to them to be evident to apply to him the police penalties which are provided for a criminal who has broken his ban and not the frightful chastisement which descends upon the convict guilty of a second offense the district attorney answered the council for the defense he was violent and Florida as District Attorneys usually are he congratulated the council for the defense on his loyalty and skillfully took advantage of this loyalty he reached the accused through all the concessions made by his lawyer The Advocate had seemed to admit that the prisoner was Jean Valjean he took note of this so this man was Jean Valjean at this point had been conceded to the accusation and could no longer be disputed here by means of a clever autonomasia which went back to the sources and causes of crime the district attorney thundered against the immorality of the Romantic school then Dawning under the name of the satanic school which had been bestowed upon it by the critics of the Cotillion and the oriflam he attributed not without some probability to the influence of this perverse literature the crime of champ matya or rather to speak more correctly of Jean valjeon having exhausted these considerations he passed on to Jean valje himself who was this Jean Valjean a description of Jean valje a monster spewed forth Etc the model for this sort of description is contained in the tale of terramin which is not useful to tragedy but which every day renders great services to judicial eloquence the audience and the jury shuddered the description finished the district attorney resumed with an oratorical turn calculated to raise the enthusiasm of the Journal of the prefecture to the highest pitch on the following day and it is such a man etc etc etc Vagabond beggar without means of existence etc etc inured by his past life to culpable deeds and but little reformed by his sojourn in the galleys as was proved by the crime committed against little Gervais etc etc it is such a man caught upon the highway in the very Act of theft a few Paces from a wall that had been scaled still holding in his hand the object stolen who denies the crime the theft the climbing the wall denies everything denies even his own identity in addition to a hundred other proofs to which we will not recur four Witnesses recognize him javer the upright inspector of police Javier and three of his former companions in infamy the convicts breather shinaldier and coshpayee what does he offer in opposition to this overwhelming unanimity is denial what obduracy you will do justice gentleman of the jury etc etc while the district attorney was speaking the accused listened to him open mouth with a sort of amazement in which some admiration was assuredly Blended he was evidently surprised that a man could talk like that from time to time at those energetic moments of the prosecutor's speech when eloquence which cannot contain itself overflows in a flood of withering epithets and envelops the accused like a storm he moved his head slowly from right to left and from left to right in the sort of mute and Melancholy protest with which he had contented himself since the beginning of the argument two or three times The Spectators who were nearest to him heard him say in a low voice this is what comes of not having asked Mr Balu the district attorney directed the attention of the jury to this stupid attitude evidently deliberate which denoted not imbecility but craft skill a habit of deceiving Justice and which set forth in all its nakedness the profound perversity of this man he ended up by making his reserves on the affair of little javet and demanding a severe sentence at that time as the reader will remember it was penal servitude for life the council for the defense Rose began by complimenting Monsieur lavagar General in his admirable speech then replied as best he could but he weakened the ground was evidently slipping away from under his feet chapter 10. the system of denials the moment for closing the debate had arrived the president had the accused stand up and address to him the customary question have you anything to add to your defense the man did not appear to understand as he stood there twisting in his hands a terrible cat which he had the president repeated the question this time the man heard it he seemed to understand he made a motion like a man who was just waking up cast his eyes about him stared at the audience the gened arms his counsel the jury the court laid his monstrous fist on the rim of Woodwork in front of his bench took another look and all at once fixing his glance upon the district attorney he began to speak it was like an eruption it seemed from the manner in which the words escaped from his mouth incoherent impetuous palmell tumbling over each other as though they were all passing forward to issue fourth at once he said this is what I have to say that I have been a wheel right in Paris and that it was with Monsieur balub it is a hard trade in the wheel right straight one works always in the open air in Courtyards under sheds when the Masters are good never in closed workshops because space is required you see in Winter one gets so cold that one beats one's arms together to warm oneself but the Masters don't like it they say it wastes time handling iron when there is ice between the paving stones is hard work that wears a man out quickly one is old while he is still quite young in that trade at 40 a man is done for I was 53. I was in a bad State and then work when I was so mean when a man is no longer young they call him nothing but an old bird old Beast I was not earning more than 30 sue a day they paid me as little as possible the Masters took advantage of my age and then I had my daughter who was a lawn dress at the river she earned a little also it suffice for us too she had trouble also all day long up to her waist in a tub in rain and snow when the wind Cuts your face when it freezes it is all the same you must still wash there are people who do not have much linen wait till late if you do not wash you lose your custom the planks are badly joined and water drops on you from everywhere you have your petticoats all damp above and below that penetrates she has also worked at the laundry of the all four Rouge where the water comes through faucets you are not in the tub there you washed at the forehead in front of you and rinse in a basement behind you as it is enclosed you are not so cold but there is that hot Steam which is terrible and which ruins your eyes she came home at seven o'clock in the evening and went to bed at once she was so tired her husband beat her she is dead we have not been very happy she was a good girl who did not go to the ball and who was very Peaceable I remember one shrove Tuesday when she went to bed at eight o'clock there I am telling the truth you have only to ask oh yes how stupid I am Paris is a gulf who knows father shot Matthew there but Monsieur beloop does I tell you go see it Mr baloops and after all I don't know what is wanted of me the man ceased speaking and remained standing he had said these things in a loud rapid hoarse voice where they sort of irritated and Savage ingenuousness once he paused to salute someone in the crowd the sort of affirmations which seemed to fling out before him at random came like hiccups and to each he added the gesture of a Woodcutter who is splitting wood when he had finished the audience burst into a laugh he stared at the public and perceiving that they were laughing and not understanding why he began to laugh himself it was inauspicious the president and attentive and benevolent man raised his voice he reminded the gentleman of the jury that the sure balub formerly a master wheel right with whom the accused stated that he had served had been summoned in vain he had become bankrupt and was not to be found then turning to the accused he enjoined him to listen to what he was about to say and added you are in a position whose reflection is necessary the gravest presumptions rest upon you and may induce vital results prisoner in your own interests I summon you for the last time to explain yourself clearly on two points in the first place did you or did you not climb the wall of the pr Orchard break the branch and steal the apples that is to say commit the crime of breaking in and Theft in the second place are you the discharged convict Jean Valjean yes or no The Prisoner shook his head with a capable Heir like a man who was thoroughly understood and who knows what answer he is going to make he opened his mouth turned towards the president and said in the first place then he stared at his cap stared at the ceiling and held his peace prisoner said the district attorney in a severe voice pay attention you are not answering anything that has been asked of you your embarrassment condemns you it is evident that your name is not Sean matya that you are the convict Jean valje concealed first under the name of Jean mature which was the name of his mother that you went to Aven that you were born at favorable where you were a pruner of trees it is evident that you have been guilty of entering and of the theft of ripe apples from the piran orchard the gentleman of the jury will form their own opinion The Prisoner had finally resumed his seat he arose abruptly when the district attorney had finished and exclaimed you are very Wicked that you are this is what I wanted to say I could not find words for it at first I have stolen nothing I am a man who does not have something to eat every day I was coming from IE I was walking through the country after a shower which had made the whole country yellow even the bonds would overflowed and nothing sprang from the sand anymore with the little blades of grass at the Wayside I found a broken Branch with apples on the ground I picked up the branch without knowing that it would get me into trouble I have been in prison and they have been dragging me about for the last three months more than that I cannot say people talk against me they tell me answer the Jean dami was a good fellow nudges my elbow and says to me in a low voice come answer I don't know how to explain I have no education I'm a poor man that is where they wrong me because they do not see this I have not stolen I picked up from the ground things that were lying there you say Jean Valjean I don't know those persons they are villagers I worked for missio Balu Boulevard my name is Sean Matthew you are very clever to tell me where I was born I don't know myself it's not everybody who has a house in which to come into the world that would be too convenient I think that my father and mother were people who strolled along the highways I know nothing different when I was a child they'd call me young fellow now they call me old fellow those are my baptismal names take that as you like I have been in over and I have been in favor all body well can't a man of meaning without having been in the galleys I tell you that I have not stolen and that I am father shall matter I have been with Mr Balu I've had a settled residence you worry me with your nonsense there why is everybody pursuing me so furiously the district attorney had remained standing he addressed the president IAL president in view of the confused but exceedingly clever denials of the prisoner who would like to pass himself off as an idiot but who will not succeed in so doing we shall attend to that we demand that it shall please you and that it shall please the court to summon once more into this place the convicts breve Cosby and Chanel dür and Police Inspector Javier and question them for the last time as to the identity of the prisoner with the convict Jean Valjean I would remind the district attorney said the president that Police Inspector Javier recalled by his duties to the capital of a neighboring arondisman left the courtroom and the town as soon as he had made his deposition we have accorded him permission with the consent of the district attorney and of the council for the prisoner that is true Mr President responded the district attorney in the absence of Senor Javert I think in my duty to remind the gentleman of the jury of what we said here a few hours ago javer is an estimate man who does Honor by his rigorous and strict property to inferior but important functions these are the terms of his deposition I do not even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions to give the lie to the prisoner's denial I recognize him perfectly the name of this man is not Sean Matthew he is an ex-convict named Jean valjeel and is very vicious and much to be feared it is only with extreme regret that he was released at the expiration of his term he underwent 19 years of penal servitude for theft he made five or six attempts to escape besides the theft from Little Gervais and from the piran orchard I suspect him of a theft committed in the house of his grace of the late Bishop of d i often saw him at the time when I was adjutant of the galley guard at the prison in too long I repeat that I recognize him perfectly this extremely precise statement appeared to produce a vivid impression on the public and on the jury the district attorney concluded by insisting that in default of Javert the three Witnesses should be heard once more and solemnly interrogated the president transmitted the order to an usher and a moment later the door of the witnesses room opened the Usher accompanied by Jean Dam ready to lend him armed assistance introduced the convict believe the audience was in suspense and all beasts heaved as though they had contained but one soul the ex-convict breve wore the black and gray waistcoat of the central prisons River was a person 60 years of age who had a sort of businessman's face and the heir of a rascal the two sometimes go together in prison with the fresh misdeeds had led him he had become something in the nature of a turnkey he was a man of whom his superiors said he tries to make himself of use the chaplains bore good testimony as to his religious habits it must not be forgotten that this past under the restoration said the president you have undergone an ignominious sentence and you cannot take an oath breve dropped his eyes nevertheless continued the president even in the man whom the law has degraded there may remain when the Divine Mercy permits it a sentiment of honor and of equity it is to this sentiment that I appeal at this decisive hour if it still exists in you and I hope it does reflect before replying to me consider on the one hand this man whom a word from you may ruin on the other hand Justice which a word from you may enlighten the instant is Solemn there is still time to retract if you think you have been mistaken rise prisoner breve took a good look at the accused record your souvenirs and tell us on your soul unconscious if you persist in recognizing this man as your former companion in the galleys Jean Valjean breve looked to the prisoner then turned towards the court yes Mr President I was the first to recognize him and stick to it that man is Jean valjeaux who entered at two laws 1796 and left in 1815. I left a year after he has the heir of a brute now but it must be because age has brutalized him he was Sly at the galleys I recognize him positively take your seat said the president prisoner remains standing Chanel dier was brought in a prisoner for life as was indicated by his red Catholic and his green cap he was serving out his sentence at the galleys of too long when she had been brought for this case he was a small man of about 50 brisk wrinkled frail yellow brazen-faced feverish who had a sort of sickly feebleness about all his Limbs and his whole person and an immense force in his glance his companions in the galleys had nicknamed him I deny God Chanel dear the president addressed him in nearly the same words which he had used to breve at that moment when he reminded him of his infamy which deprived him of the right to take an oath Chanel deer raised his head and looked the crowd in the face the president invited him to reflection and asked him as he had asked breve if he persisted in recognition of the prisoner burst out laughing but yeah if I didn't recognize him we were attached to the same chain for five years so you are sulking old fellow take your seat said the president the Asha brought in coshpai he was another convict for Life who had come from the galleys and was dressed in red like Chanel gear was a peasant from lourd and a half bear of the Pyrenees he had guarded the flocks among the mountains and from a shepherd He had slipped into a brigand was no less Savage and seemed even more stupid than the prisoner he was one of those wretched men whom nature sketched out for wild beasts and on whom Society puts the finishing touches as convicts in the galleys the president tried to touch him with some grave and pathetic words and asked him as he had asked the other two if he persisted without hesitation or trouble in recognizing the man who is standing before him he is Jean valjeau said koshpai he was even called Jean the screw because he was so strong each of these affirmations from these three men evidently sincere and in good faith had raised in the audience a moment of bad augury for the prisoner a murmur which increased and lasted longer each time that a fresh Declaration was added to the proceeding The Prisoner had listened to them with that astounded face which was according to the accusation his principal means of Defense at the first the Jean dams his neighbors had heard him Mata between his teeth uh well he's a nice one after the second he had said a little louder with an heir that was almost out of satisfaction good and the third he cried famous the president addressed him have you heard prisoner what have you to say he replied I say famous an uproar broke Out Among the audience and was communicated to the jury it was evident that the man was lost ushers said the president in forced silence I'm going to sum up the arguments at that moment there was a movement just beside the president a voice was heard crying go away pie look here all who heard that voice were chilled so lamentable and terrible was it all eyes were turned to the point whence it had proceeded a man placed among the privileged Spectators who were seated behind the court had just risen had pushed open the half door which separated the tribunal from the audience and was standing in the middle of the hall the president the district attorney Monsieur Bama tabwa 20 persons recognized him and exclaimed in concert miss your Madeleine chapter 11. Sean matya more and more astonished it was he in fact the Clark's lamp illumined his countenance he held his hat in his hand there was no disorder in his clothing his coat was carefully buttoned he was very pale and he trembled slightly his hair which had still been gray on his arrival in arrest was now entirely white it had turned white during the hour he had sat there all heads were raised the sensation was Indescribable there was a momentary hesitation in the audience The Voice had been so heart-rending the man who stood there appeared so calm that they did not understand at first they asked themselves whether he had indeed uttered that cry that they could not believe that that tranquil man had been the one to give that terrible outcry this indecision only lasted a few seconds even before the president and the district attorney could utter a word before the ushers and the Jean dams could make a gesture the man whom all still called at that moment miss your Madeline had Advanced towards the witnesses do you recognize me said he all three remain speechless and indicated by a sign of the head that they did not know him who was intimidated made a military salute Mr Madeleine turned towards the jury in the court and said in a gentle voice Gentlemen of the jury order the prisoner to be released Mr President have me arrested he is not the man whom you are in search of it is I I am Jean Valjean not a mouth breathed the first commotion of astonishment had been followed by a silence like that of the grave those within the hall experience that sort of religious Terror which seizes the masses when something Grand has been done in the meantime the face of the president was stamped with sympathy and sadness he had exchanged a rapid sign with a district attorney and a few low-toned words with the assistant judges he addressed the public and asked in accents which all understood is there a physician present the district attorney took the word gentleman of the jury the very strange and unexpected incident which disturbs the audience inspires us like yourselves only with a sentiment which is unnecessary for us to express you all know by reputation at least the honorable Mr Madeleine mayor of M CRM if there is a physician in the audience we join the president in requesting him to attend to Mr Madeleine and to conduct him to his home did not allow the district attorney to finish he interrupted him in actions full of suavity and Authority these are the words which he uttered here they are literally as they were written down immediately after the trial by one of the witnesses to this scene and as they now ring in the ears of those who heard them nearly 40 years ago I thank you Mr district attorney but I am not mad you shall see you are on the point of committing a great error release this man I am fulfilling a duty I am that miserable criminal I am the only one here who sees the matter clearly and I am telling you the truth God who is on high looks down on what I am doing at this moment and that suffices you can take me for here I am but I have done my best I concealed myself under another name I have become rich I have become a mayor I have tried to re-enter the ranks of the honest it seems that that is not to be done in short there are many things which I cannot tell I will not narrate the story of my life to you you will hear it one of these days I robbed Monsignor the bishop it is true it is true that I robbed little Gervais they were right in telling you that Jean Valjean was a very vicious wretch perhaps he was not altogether his fault listen honorable judges a man who has been so greatly humbled as I have as neither any remnants is to make to Providence nor any advice to give to society but you you see the infamy from which I have tried to escape is an injurious thing the galleys make the convict what he is reflect upon that if you please before going to the galleys I was a poor peasant with very little intelligence a sort of idiot the galleys wrought a change in me I was stupid I became vicious I was a block of wood I became a Firebrand later on Indulgence and kindness saved me as severity had ruined me but pardon me you cannot understand what I am saying you will find my house among the ashes in the fireplace the Forty Sue peace which I stole seven years ago from Little Gervais I have nothing further to add take me good God the district attorney shakes his head you say miss your Madeleine has gone mad you do not believe me that is distressing do not at least condemn this man what these men do not recognize me I wish Javier were here he would recognize me nothing could reproduce the sumber and kindly Melancholy of tone which accompanied these words he turned to the three convicts and said well I recognize you do you remember Barry there he paused hesitated for an instant and said do you remember the knitted suspenders with a checked pattern which you wore in the galleys Revere gave a star to surprise and surveyed him from head to foot with a frightened Heir he continued General dear you who conferred on yourself the name of janeir your whole right shoulder Bears a deep burn because you one day laid your shoulder against the chafing dish full of coals in order to efface the three letters t f p which are still visible nevertheless answer is this true it is true said Channel dear he addressed himself to cosplay Cosby you have near the bend in your left arm a date stamped in blue letters with burnt powder the date is that of the landing of the emperor it can March 1 1815. pull up your sleeve your spy pushed up his sleeve all eyes were focused on him and on his bare arm held a light close to it there was the date the unhappy man turned to The Spectators and the judges with a smile which still rends the hearts of all who saw it whenever they think of it it was a smile of Triumph it was also a smile of despair you see plainly he said that I am Jean Valjean in that chamber they were no longer either judges accusers nor chandams there was nothing but staring eyes and sympathizing hearts no one recalled any longer the part that each might be called upon to play the district attorney forgot he was there for the purpose of Prosecuting the president that he was there to preside the council for the defense that he was there to defend it was a striking circumstance that no question was put the No Authority intervened the peculiarity of sublime spectacles is that they capture All Souls and turn Witnesses into Spectators no one probably could have explained what he felt no one probably said to himself that he was witnessing The Splendid Outburst of a grand light all felt themselves inwardly dazzled it was evident that they had Jean Valjean before their eyes that was clear the appearance of this man had suffice to suffuse with light that matter which had been so obscure but a moment previously without any further explanation the whole crowd as by a sort of electric Revelation understood instantly and at a single glance the simple and magnificent history of a man who was delivering himself up so that another man might not be condemned in his Stead the details the hesitations little possible oppositions were swallowed up in that vast and luminous fact it was an impression which vanished speedily but which was irresistible at the moment I do not wish to disturb the court further resume Jean Valjean I shall withdraw since you do not arrest me I have many things to do the district attorney knows who I am he knows whether I am going he can have me arrested when he likes he directed his steps towards the door not a voice was raised not an arm extended to hinder him all stood aside at that moment there was about him that Divine something which causes multitudes to stand aside and make way for a man he traversed the crowd slowly it was never known who opened the door but it is certain that he found the door open when he reached it on arriving there he turned around and said I am at your command Mr district attorney then he addressed the audience all of you all who are present consider me worthy of pity do you not good God when I think of what I was on the point of doing I consider that I am to be envied nevertheless I should have preferred not to have had this occur he withdrew and the door closed behind him as it had opened for those who do certain Sovereign things are always short of being served by someone in the crowd less than an hour after this the verdict of the jury free the said champ matyeur from all accusations and Sean met you being at once released went off in a state of stupid faction thinking that all men were fools and comprehending nothing of this vision