LES MISÉRABLES.
BY
VICTOR HUGO.
PART SECOND.
COSETTE.
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY SIR LASCELLES WRAXALL.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1887.
[Illustration: FAUCHELEVENT AND THE GRAVE-DIGGER.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
COSETTE.
BOOK I.
WATERLOO.
I. ON THE NIVELLES ROAD
II. HOUGOMONT
III. JUNE 18, 1815
IV. A
V. THE QUID OBSCURUM OF BATTLES
VI. FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON
VII. NAPOLEON IN GOOD HUMOR
VIII. THE EMPEROR ASKS THE GUIDE A QUESTION
IX. A SURPRISE
X. THE PLATEAU OF MONT ST. JEAN
XI. BÜLOW TO THE RESCUE
XII. THE GUARD
XIII. THE CATASTROPHE
XIV. THE LAST SQUARE
XV. CAMBRONNE
XVI. QUOT LIBRAS IN DUCE
XVII. OUGHT WATERLOO TO BE APPLAUDED?
XVIII. RESTORATION OF DIVINE RIGHTÉ
XIX. THE BATTLE-FIELD BY NIGHT
BOOK II.
THE SHIP "ORION."
I. NO. 24,601 BECOMES NO. 9430
II. TWO LINES OF A DOUBTFUL ORIGIN
III. ON BOARD THE "ORION"
BOOK III.
THE PROMISE TO THE DEAD FULFILLED.
I. THE WATER QUESTION AT MONTFERMEIL
II. TWO FULL-LENGTH PORTRAITS
III. MEN WANT WINE AND HORSES WATER
IV. A DOLL COMES ON THE STAGE
V. THE LITTLE ONE ALONE
VI. BOULATRUELLE MAY HAVE BEEN RIGHT
VII. COSETTE IN THE DARK WITH THE STRANGER
VIII. IS HE RICH OR POOR?
IX. THÉNARDIER AT WORK
X. THÉNARDIER HAS ONE REGRET
XI. NO. 9430 REAPPEARS, AND COSETTE WINS IT IN THE LOTTERY
BOOK IV.
THE GORBEAU TENEMENT.
I. MASTER GORBEAU
II. THE NEST OF AN OWL AND A LINNET
III. TWO EVILS MAKE A GOOD
IV. THE REMARKS OF THE CHIEF LODGER
V. NOISE MADE BY A FALLING FIVE-FRANC PIECE
BOOK V.
FOR A STILL HUNT A DUMB PACK.
I. STRATEGIC ZIGZAGS
II. IT IS FORTUNATE THAT THE BRIDGE OF AUSTERLITZ WILL CARRY WAGONS
III. CONSULT THE PLAN OF PARIS IN 1727
IV. ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE
V. A THING IMPOSSIBLE IN GASLIGHT
VI. THE BEGINNING OF AN ENIGMA
VII. CONTINUATION OF THE ENIGMA
VIII. THE ENIGMA INCREASES
IX. THE MAN WITH THE BELL
X. HOW JAVERT ONLY FOUND THE NEST
BOOK VI.
PETIT PICPUS.
I. NO. 62, RUE PICPUS
II. THE OBEDIENCE OF MARTIN VERGA
III. SEVERITIES
IV. GAYETIES
V. AMUSEMENTS
VI. THE LITTLE CONVENT
VII. A FEW PROFILES FROM THE SHADOW
VIII. POST CORDA LAPIDES
IX. A CENTURY UNDER A WIMPLE
X. ORIGIN OF THE PERPETUAL ADORATION
XI. THE END OF LITTLE PICPUS
BOOK VII.
A PARENTHESIS.
I. THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA
II. THE CONVENT AS AN HISTORICAL FACT
III. ON WHAT TERMS THE PAST IS VENERABLE
IV. THE CONVENT FROM THE MORAL STANDPOINT
V. PRAYER
VI. ABSOLUTE GOODNESS OF PRAYER
VII. CARE TO BE EXERCISED IN CONDEMNING
VIII. FAITH, LAW
BOOK VIII.
CEMETERIES TAKE WHAT IS GIVEN THEM.
I. HOW TO GET INTO A CONVENT
II. FAUCHELEVENT FACES THE DIFFICULTY
III. MOTHER INNOCENT
IV. A PLAN OF ESCAPE
V. A DRUNKARD IS NOT IMMORTAL
VI. BETWEEN FOUR PLANKS
VII. FAUCHELEVENT HAS AN IDEA
VIII. A SUCCESSFUL EXAMINATION
IX. IN THE CONVENT
ILLUSTRATIONS.
FAUCHELEVENT AND THE GRAVE-DIGGER, Vol. II. Frontispiece
Drawn by G. Jeanniot.
"SHE GLIDED ALONG RATHER THAN WALKED"
Drawn by G. Jeanniot.
BOOK I.
WATERLOO.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE NIVELLES ROAD.
On a fine May morning last year (1861) a wayfarer, the person who
is telling this story, was coming from Nivelles, and was proceeding
toward La Hulpe. He was on foot and following, between two rows of
trees, a wide paved road which undulates over a constant succession
of hills, that raise the road and let it fall again, and form, as it
were, enormous waves. He had passed Lillois and Bois-Seigneur Isaac,
and noticed in the west the slate-covered steeple of Braine l'Alleud,
which looks like an overturned vase. He had just left behind him a wood
upon a hill, and at the angle of a cross-road, by the side of a sort of
worm-eaten gallows which bore the inscription, "Old barrier, No. 4," a
wine-shop, having on its front the following notice: "The Four Winds,
Échabeau, private coffee-house."
About half a mile beyond this pot-house, he reached a small valley,
in which there is a stream that runs through an arch formed in the
causeway. The clump of trees, wide-spread but very green, which fills
the valley on one side of the road, is scattered on the other over the
fields, and runs gracefully and capriciously toward Braine l'Alleud.
On the right, and skirting the road, were an inn, a four-wheeled cart
in front of the door, a large bundle of hop-poles, a plough, a pile
of dry shrubs near a quick-set hedge, lime smoking in a square hole,
and a ladder lying along an old shed with straw partitions. A girl
was hoeing in a field, where a large yellow bill--probably of a show
at some Kermesse--was flying in the wind. At the corner of the inn, a
badly-paved path ran into the bushes by the side of a pond, on which a
flotilla of ducks was navigating. The wayfarer turned into this path.
After proceeding about one hundred yards, along a wall of the 15th
century, surmounted by a coping of crossed bricks, he found himself in
front of a large arched stone gate, with a rectangular moulding, in the
stern style of Louis XIV., supported by two flat medallions. A severe
façade was over this gate; a wall perpendicular to the façade almost
joined the gate and flanked it at a right angle. On the grass-plat in
front of the gate lay three harrows, through which the May flowers
were growing pell-mell. The gate was closed by means of two decrepit
folding-doors, ornamented by an old rusty hammer.
The sun was delightful, and the branches made that gentle May rustling,
which seems to come from nests even more than from the wind. A little
bird, probably in love, was singing with all its might. The wayfarer
stooped and looked at a rather large circular excavation in the stone
to the right of the gate, which resembled a sphere. At this moment the
gates opened and a peasant woman came out. She saw the wayfarer and
noticed what he was looking at.
"It was a French cannon-ball that made it," she said, and then added:
"What you see higher up there, on the gate near a nail, is the hole of
a heavy shell, which did not penetrate the wood."
"What is the name of this place?" the wayfarer asked.
"Hougomont," said the woman.
The wayfarer drew himself up, he walked a few steps, and then looked
over the hedge. He could see on the horizon through the trees a species
of mound, and on this mound something which, at a distance, resembled a
lion. He was on the battlefield of Waterloo.