Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [366]
“Our marriage was impossible. I have asked my grandfather, he has refused; I am without fortune, and you also. I ran to your house, I did not find you, you know the promise that I gave you? I keep it, I die, I love you. When you read this, my soul will be near you, and will smile upon you.”
Having nothing to seal this letter with, he merely folded the paper, and wrote upon it this address:
“To Mademoiselle Cosette Fauchelevent, at M. Fauchelevent‘s, Rue de l’Homme Armé, No. 7. ”
The letter folded, he remained a moment in thought, took his pocket-book again, opened it, and wrote these four lines on the first page with the same pencil:
“My name is Marius Pontmercy. Carry my corpse to my grandfather‘s, M. Gillenormand, Rue des Filles du Calvaire, No. 6, in the Marais.”
He put the book into his coat-pocket, then he called Gavroche. The gamin, at the sound of Marius’ voice, ran up with his joyous and devoted face:
“Will you do something for me?”
“Anything,” said Gavroche. “God of the good God! without you I should have been cooked, sure.”
“You see this letter?”
“Yes.”
“Take it. Go out of the barricade immediately (Gavroche, disturbed, began to scratch his ear), and to-morrow morning you will carry it to its address, to Mademoiselle Cosette, at M. Fauchelevent‘s, Rue de l’Homme Armé,No.7.”
The heroic boy answered:
“Ah, well, but in that time they’ll take the barricade, and I shan’t be here.”
“The barricade will not be attacked again before daybreak, according to all appearance, and will not be taken before to-morrow noon.”
The new respite which the assailants allowed the barricade was, in fact, prolonged. It was one of those intermissions, frequent in night combats, which are always followed by a redoubled fury.
“Well,” said Gavroche, “suppose I go and carry your letter in the morning?”
“It will be too late. The barricade will probably be blockaded; all the streets will be guarded, and you could not get out. Go, right away!”
Gavroche had nothing more to say; he stood there, undecided, and sadly scratching his ear. Suddenly, with one of his birdlike motions, he took the letter:
“All right,” said he.
And he started off on a run by the little Rue Mondétour.
Gavroche had an idea which decided him, but which he did not tell, for fear Marius would make some objection to it.
That idea was this:
“It is hardly midnight, the Rue de l‘Homme Armé is not far, I will carry the letter right away, and I shall get back in time.”
BOOK FIFTEEN
THE RUE DE L’HOMME ARMÉ
1
BLOTTER,BLABBER
WHAT ARE THE CONVULSIONS of a city compared with the riots of the soul? Man is deeper still than the people. Jean Valjean, at that very moment, was a prey to a frightful uprising. Every abyss of rage and despair was gaping once again within him. He also, like Paris, was shuddering on the threshold of a formidable and dark revolution. A few hours had sufficed. His destiny and his conscience were suddenly covered with shadow. Of him also, as of Paris, we might say: the two principles are face to face. The angel of light and the angel of darkness are to wrestle on the bridge of the abyss. Which of the two shall hurl down the other? which shall triumph?
On the eve of that same day, June 5th, Jean Valjean, accompanied by Cosette and Toussaint, had installed himself in the Rue de l‘Homme Armé. A sudden turn of fortune awaited him there.
Cosette had not left the Rue Plumet without an attempt at resistance. For the first time since they had lived together, Cosette’s will and Jean Valjean’s will had shown themselves distinct, and had been, if not conflicting, at least contradictory. There was objection on one side and inflexibility on the other. The abrupt advice: move out, thrown to Jean Valjean by an unknown hand, had so far alarmed him as to render him absolute. He believed himself tracked down and pursued. Cosette had to yield.
They both arrived in the Rue de l‘Homme Armé without opening their mouths or saying a word, absorbed in their personal meditations; Jean