Les Misérables, v. 5/5: Jean Valjean

  CHAPTER VI.

  MARIUS HAGGARD, JAVERT LACONIC.

  Let us describe what was going on in Marius's thoughts. Our readerswill remember his state of mind, for, as we just now said, everythingwas only a vision to him. His appreciation was troubled, for he was(we urge the fact) beneath the shadow of the great gloomy wings openedabove the dying. He felt that he had entered the tomb, he fancied thathe was already on the other side of the wall, and he only saw the facesof the living with the eyes of a dead man. How was M. Faucheleventpresent? Why was he here, and what did he come to do? Marius did notask himself all these questions. Moreover, as our despair has thepeculiar thing about it that it envelops others as it does ourselves,it appeared to him logical that everybody should die. Still he thoughtof Cosette with a contraction of the heart. However, M. Faucheleventdid not speak to him, did not look at him, and did not even seem tohear Marius when he raised his voice, saying, "I know him." As forMarius, this attitude of M. Fauchelevent relieved him, and if sucha word were permissible for such impressions, we might say that itpleased him. He had ever felt an absolute impossibility in addressingthis enigmatical man, who was at once equivocal and imposing to him. Itwas a very long time too since he had seen him; and this augmented theimpossibility for a timid and reserved nature like Marius's.

  The five men selected left the barricade by the Mondétour Lane,perfectly resembling National Guards. One of them wept as he went away,and before doing so they embraced those who remained. When the fivemen sent back to life had left, Enjolras thought of the one condemnedto death. He went to the ground-floor room, where Javert, tied to thepost, was reflecting.

  "Do you want anything?" Enjolras asked him.

  Javert answered,--

  "When will you kill me?"

  "Wait. We require all our cartridges at this moment."

  "In that case, give me some drink," Javert said.

  Enjolras himself held out to him a glass of water, and, as Javert wasbound, helped him to drink.

  "Is that all?" Enjolras resumed.

  "I feel uncomfortable at this post," Javert replied; "you did not actkindly in leaving me fastened to it the whole night. Bind me as youplease, but you might surely lay me on a table, like the other man."

  And with a nod of the head he pointed to M. Mabœuf's corpse. Itwill be remembered that there was at the end of the room a long, widetable on which bullets had been run and cartridges made. All thecartridges being made, and all the powder expended, this table wasfree. By Enjolras's order, four insurgents unfastened Javert fromthe post, and while they did so a fifth held a bayonet to his chest.His hands remained fastened behind his back, a thin strong cord wasattached to his feet, which enabled him to step fifteen inches, likethose who are going to ascend the scaffold, and he was forced to walkto the table at the end of the room, on which they laid him, securelyfastened round the waist. For greater security, a system of knottingwas employed by means of a cord fastened to the neck, which renderedany escape impossible; it was the sort of fastening called in prisons amartingale, which starts from the nape, of the neck, is crossed on thestomach, and is turned round the hands after passing between the legs.While Javert was being bound, a man standing in the doorway regardedhim with singular attention, and the shadow this man cast caused Javertto turn his head. He raised his eyes and recognized Jean Valjean, buthe did not even start; he merely looked down haughtily, and restrictedhimself to saying, "It is all plain."