Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [459]
Marius rose up, quivering, desperate, flashing.
He felt in his pocket, and walked, furious, towards Thénardier, offering him and almost pushing into his face his fist full of five hundred and a thousand franc notes.
“You are a wretch! you are a liar, a slanderer, a scoundrel. You came to accuse this man, you have justified him; you wanted to destroy him, you have succeeded only in glorifying him. And it is you who are a robber! and it is you who are an assassin. I saw you, Thénardier, Jondrette, in that den on the Boulevard de l‘Hôpital. I know enough about you to send you to the galleys, and further even, if I wished. Here, there are a thousand francs, bandit that you are!”
And he threw a bill for a thousand francs to Thénardier.
“Ah! Jondrette, Thénardier, vile knave! let this be a lesson to you, pedlar of secrets, trader in mysteries, fumbler in the dark, wretch! Take these five hundred francs, and leave this place! Waterloo protects you.”
“Waterloo!” muttered Thénardier, pocketing the five hundred francs with the thousand francs.
“Yes, assassin! you saved the life of a colonel there—”
“Of a general,” said Thénardier, raising his head.
“Of a colonel!” replied Marius with a burst of passion. “I would not give a farthing for a general. And you came here to act out your infamy! I tell you that you have committed every crime. Go! out of my sight! Be happy only, that is all that I desire. Ah! monster! there are three thousand francs more. Take them. You will start to-morrow for America, with your daughter, for your wife is dead, abominable liar. I will see to your departure, bandit, and I will count out to you then twenty thousand francs. Go and get hung elsewhere!”
“Monsieur Baron,” answered Thénardier, bowing to the ground, “eternal gratitude.”
And Thénardier went out, comprehending nothing, astounded and transported with this sweet crushing under sacks of gold and with this thunderbolt bursting upon his head in bank-notes.
Thunderstruck he was, but happy also; and he would have been very sorry to have had a lightning rod against that thunderbolt.
Let us finish with this man at once. Two days after the events which we are now relating, he left, through Marius’ care, for America, under a false name, with his daughter Azelma, provided with a draft upon New York for twenty thousand francs. Thénardier, the moral misery of Thénardier, the brokendown bourgeois, was irremediable; he was in America what he had been in Europe. The touch of a wicked man is often enough to corrupt a good deed and to make an evil result spring from it. With Marius’ money, Thénardier became a slaver.
As soon as Thénardier was out of doors, Marius ran to the garden where Cosette was still walking:
“Cosette! Cosette!” cried he. “Come! come quick! Let us go. Basque, a fiacre! Cosette, come. Oh! my God! It was he who saved my life! Let us not lose a minute! Put on your shawl.”
Cosette thought him mad, and obeyed.
He did not breathe, he put his hand upon his heart to repress its beating. He walked to and fro with rapid strides, he embraced Cosette: “Oh! Cosette! I am an unhappy man!” said he.
Marius was amazed. He began to see in this Jean Valjean a strangely lofty and saddened form. An unparalleled virtue appeared before him, supreme and mild, humble in its immensity The convict was transfigured into Christ. Marius was bewildered by this marvel. He did not know exactly what he saw, but it was grand.
In a moment, a fiacre was at the door.
Marius helped Cosette in and sprang in himself.
“Driver,” said he, “Rue de l‘Homme Armé, Number 7.”
The fiacre started.
“Oh! what happiness!” said Cosette. “Rue de l‘Homme Armé! I dared not speak to you of it again. We are going to see Monsieur Jean.”
“Your father! Cosette, your father more than ever. Cosette, I see it. You told me that you never received the letter which I sent you by Gavroche. It must have fallen into his hands. Cosette, he went to the barricade to save me. As it is a necessity for him to be an angel, on the way, he saved others; he saved Javert.