Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [287]
Suddenly Thénardier addressed the prisoner:
“Monsieur Fabre, here, I may as well tell you this much right away.”
These few words seemed to promise a clearing up. Marius listened closely. Th6nardier continued:
“My spouse is coming back, do not be impatient. I think the Lark is really your daughter, and I find it quite natural that you should keep her. But listen a moment; with your letter, my wife is going to find her. I told my wife to dress up, as you saw, so that your young lady would follow her without hesitation. They will both get into the fiacre with my comrade behind. There is somewhere outside one of the barriers a maringotte with two very good horses harnessed. They will take your young lady there. She will get out of the carriage. My comrade will get into the maringotte with her, and my wife will come back here to tell us: ‘It is done.’ As to your young lady, no harm will be done her; the maringotte will take her to a place where she will be quiet, and as soon as you have given me the little two hundred thousand francs, she will be sent back to you. If you have me arrested, my comrade will take care of the Lark, that is all.”
The prisoner did not utter a word. After a pause, Thénardier continued:
“It is very simple, as you see. There will be no harm done unless you wish there should be. That is the whole story. I tell you in advance so that you may know.”
He stopped; the prisoner did not break the silence, and Thénardier resumed:
“As soon as my spouse has got back and said: ‘The Lark is on her way,’ we will release you, and you will be free to go home to bed. You see that we have no bad intentions.”
Appalling images passed before Marius’ mind. What! this young girl whom they were kidnapping, they were not going to bring her here? One of those monsters was going to carry her off into the gloom? where?—And if it were she! And it was clear that it was she. Marius felt his heart cease to beat. What was he to do? Fire off the pistol? put all these wretches into the hands of justice? But the hideous man of the pole-axe would none the less be out of all reach with the young girl, and Marius remembered these words of Thénardier, the bloody signification of which he divined: If you have me arrested, my comrade will take care of the Lark.
Now it was not by the colonel’s will alone, it was by his love itself, by the peril of her whom he loved, that he felt himself held back.
This fearful situation, which had lasted now for more than an hour, changed its aspect at every moment. Marius had the strength to pass in review successively all the most heart-rending conjectures, seeking some hope and finding more. The tumult of his thoughts strangely contrasted with the deathly silence of the den.
In the midst of this silence they heard the sound of the door of the stairway which opened, then closed.
The prisoner made a movement in his bonds.
“Here is the bourgeoise,” said Thénardier.
He had hardly said this, when in fact the Thénardiess burst into the room, red, breathless, panting, with glaring eyes, and cried, striking her hands upon her hips both at the same time:
“False address!”
The bandit whom she had taken with her, came in behind her and picked up his pole-axe again:
“False address?” repeated Thénardier.
She continued:
“Nobody! Rue Saint Dominique, number seventeen, no Monsieur Urbain Fabre! They do not know who he is!”
She stopped for lack of breath, then continued:
“Monsieur Thénardier! this old fellow has cheated you! you are too kind, do you see! I would have sliced up his mug, to begin with! And if he had acted up, I would have cooked him alive! Then he would have had to talk, and had to tell where the girl is, and had to tell where the rhino [dough] is! That is how I would have fixed it! No wonder that they say men are stupider than women! Nobody! number seventeen! It is a large porte-cochère! No Monsieur Fabre! Rue Saint Dominique, full gallop,