Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [151]
He followed this road rapidly. At the spot where it intersects the old road bordered with trees that goes from Gagny to Lagny, he heard footsteps approaching. He concealed himself hastily in a ditch, and waited there till the people who were passing were a good distance off. The precaution was indeed almost superfluous, for, as we have already said, it was a very dark December night. There were scarcely two or three stars to be seen in the sky.
It is at this point that the ascent of the hill begins. The man did not return to the Montfermeil road; he turned to the right, across the fields, and gained the woods with rapid strides.
When he reached the wood, he slackened his pace, and began to look carefully at all the trees, pausing at every step, as if he were seeking and following a mysterious route known only to himself. There was a moment when he appeared to lose himself, and then he stopped, undecided. Finally he arrived, by continual groping, at a glade where there was a heap of large whitish stones. He made his way quickly towards these stones, and examined them with attention in the dusk of the night, as if he were passing them in review. A large tree, covered with these excrescences which are the warts of vegetation, was a few steps from the heap of stones. He went to this tree, and passed his hand over the bark of the trunk, as if he were seeking to recognise and to count all the warts.
Opposite this tree, which was an ash, there was a chestnut tree wounded in the bark, which had been staunched with a bandage of zinc nailed on. He rose on tip-toe and touched that band of zinc.
Then he stamped for some time upon the ground in the space between the tree and the stones, like one who would be sure that the earth had not been freshly stirred.
This done, he took his course and resumed his walk through the woods.
This was the man who had fallen in with Cosette.
As he made his way through the copse in the direction of Montfermeil, he had perceived that little shadow, struggling along with a groan, setting her burden on the ground, then taking it up and going on again. He had approached her and seen that it was a very young child carrying an enormous bucket of water. Then he had gone to the child, and silently taken hold of the handle of the bucket.
7
COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE UNKNOWN, IN THE DARKNESS
COSETTE, we have said, was not afraid.
The man spoke to her. His voice was serious, and was almost a whisper.
“My child, what you are carrying there is very heavy for you.”
Cosette raised her head and answered:
“Yes, monsieur.”
“Give it to me,” the man continued, “I will carry it for you.”
Cosette let go of the bucket. The man walked along with her.
“It is very heavy, indeed,” said he to himself between his teeth. Then he added:
“Little girl, how old are you?”
“Eight years, monsieur.”
“And have you come far in this way?”
“From the spring in the woods.”
“And are you going far?”
“A good quarter of an hour from here.”
The man remained a moment without speaking, then he said abruptly:
“You have no mother then?”
“I don’t know,” answered the child.
Before the man had had time to say a word, she added:
“I don’t believe I have. All the rest have one. For my part, I have none.”
And after a silence, she added:
“I believe I never had any.”
The man stopped, put the bucket on the ground, stooped down and placed his hands upon the child’s shoulders, making an effort to look at her and see her face in the darkness.
The thin, puny face of Cosette was vaguely outlined in the livid light of the sky.
“What is your name?” said the man.
“Cosette.”
It seemed as if the man had an electric shock. He looked at her again, then letting go of her shoulders, took up the bucket, and walked on.
A moment after, he asked:
“Little girl, where do you live?”
“At Montfermeil, if you know it.”
“It is there that we are going?”
“Yes, monsieur.”
He made another pause, then he