登陆注册
12107900000033

第33章 PART ONE(32)

When the alcove was in use,a large serge curtain drawn from wall to wall concealed the altar.

The Bishop knelt before this curtain as he passed and said a brief prayer.

A moment later he was in his garden,walking,meditating,conteplating,his heart and soul wholly absorbed in those grand and mysterious things which God shows at night to the eyes which remain open.

As for the man,he was actually so fatigued that he did not even profit by the nice white sheets.

Snuffing out his candle with his nostrils after the manner of convicts,he dropped,all dressed as he was,upon the bed,where he immediately fell into a profound sleep.

Midnight struck as the Bishop returned from his garden to his apartment.

A few minutes later all were asleep in the little house.

Ⅵ JEAN VALJEAN

Towards the middle of the night Jean Valjean woke.

Jean Valjean came from a poor peasant family of Brie.

He had not learned to read in his childhood.

When he reached man's estate,be became a tree-pruner at Faverolles.

His mother was named Jeanne Mathieu;his father was called Jean Valjean or Vlajean,probably a sobriquet,and a contraction of viola Jean,'here's Jean.'

Jean Valjean was of that thoughtful but not gloomy disposition which constitutes the peculiarity of affectionate natures.On the whole,however,there was something decidedly sluggish and insignificant about Jean Valjean in appearance,at least.He had lost his father and mother at a very early age.

His mother had died of a milk fever,which had not been properly attended to.His father,a tree-pruner,like himself,had been killed by a fall from a tree.

All that remained to Jean Valjean was a sister older than himself,——a widow with seven children,boys and girls.This sister had brought up Jean Valjean,and so long as she had a husband she lodged and fed her young brother.

The husband died.

The eldest of the seven children was eight years old.

The youngest,one.

Jean Valjean had just attained his twenty-fifth year.

He took the father's place,and,in his turn,supported the sister who had brought him up.

This was done simply as a duty and even a little churlishly on the part of Jean Valjean.

Thus his youth had been spent in rude and ill-paid toil.

He had never known a'kind woman friend'n his native parts.

He had not had the time to fall in love.

He returned at night weary,and ate his broth without uttering a word.His sister,mother Jeanne,often took the best part of his repast from his bowl while he was eating,——a bit of meat,a slice of bacon,the heart of the cabbage,——to give to one of her children.As he went on eating,with his head bent over the table and almost into his soup,his long hair falling about his bowl and concealing his eyes,he had the air of perceiving nothing and allowing it.There was at Faverolles,not far from the Valjean thatched cottage,on the other side of the lane,a farmer's wife named Marie-Claude;the Valjean children,habitually famished,sometimes went to borrow from Marie-Claude a pint of milk,in their mother's name,which they drank behind a hedge or in some alley corner,snatching the jug from each other so hastily that the little girls spilled it on their aprons and down their necks.

If their mother had known of this marauding,she would have punished the delinquents severely.Jean Valjean gruffly and grumblingly paid Marie-Claude for the pint of milk behind their mother's back,and the children were not punished.

In pruning season he earned eighteen sous a day;then he hired out as a hay-maker,as laborer,as neat-herd on a farm,as a drudge.He did whatever he could.

His sister worked also but what could she do with seven little children?

It was a sad group enveloped in misery,which was being gradually annihilated.

A very hard winter came.Jean had no work.

The family had no bread.

No bread literally.Seven children!

One Sunday evening,Maubert Isabeau,the baker on the Church Square at Faverolles,was preparing to go to bed,when he heard a violent blow on the grated front of his shop.

He arrived in time to see an arm passed through a hole made by a blow from a fist,through the grating and the glass.

The arm seized a loaf of bread and carried it off.

Isabeau ran out in haste;the robber fled at the full speed of his legs.

Isabeau ran after him and stopped him.The thief had flung away the loaf,but his arm was still bleeding.It was Jean Valjean.

This took place in 1795.

Jean Valjean was taken before the tribunals of the time for theft and breaking and entering an inhabited house at night.

He had a gun which he used better than any one else in the world,he was a bit of a poacher,and this injured his case.

There exists a legitimate prejudice against poachers.The poacher,like the smuggler,smacks too strongly of the brigand.Nevertheless,we will remark cursorily,there is still an abyss between these races of men and the hideous assassin of the towns.The poacher lives in the forest,the smuggler lives in the mountains or on the sea.

The cities make ferocious men because they make corrupt men.

The mountain,the sea,the forest,make savage men;they develop the fierce side,but often without destroying the humane side.

Jean Valjean was pronounced guilty.

The terms of the Code were explicit.

There occur formidable hours in our civilization;there are moments when the penal laws decree a shipwreck.What an ominous minute is that in which society draws back and consummates the irreparable abandonment of a sentient being!Jean Valjean was condemned to five years in the galleys.

On the 22d of April,1796,the victory of Montenotte,won by the general-in-chief of the army of Italy,whom the message of the Directory to the Five Hundred,of the 2d of Floreal,year IV.,calls Buona-Parte,was announced in Paris;on that same day a great gang of galley-slaves was put in chains at Bicetre.

Jean Valjean formed a part of that gang.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 贵圈真乱:陆少捕获小娇妻

    贵圈真乱:陆少捕获小娇妻

    一个不安的灵魂,穿梭在不同人之间,却不料被两个男人捆绑,周转于三人复杂纠葛的关系之中。我是楼若依,我是总裁的贴身秘书,更是美女间谍,我爱上了冷面上司,却只落得暖穿工具的下场。我是尹沐熙,我是国际名模,更是老大的女人,我爱他之深切,甚至愿意付出自己的生命,到头来却是一场阴谋。我是陆逸泽,我要亲手将害死我心爱女人的他送进监牢。我是莫超,我只爱自己。
  • 联盟冠军之路

    联盟冠军之路

    一位现代的口袋玩家穿越到动漫的世界,看对漫一知半解的他如何将游戏与现实结合,最终成为神奇宝贝大师的故事。
  • 风雪昆仑巅

    风雪昆仑巅

    二十年前,大光明教内乱,绝巅禁地大禁司被困。圣女小瑶身中剧毒,逃亡至明月潭边,被墨决相救。二十年后,墨府灭门,圣女救孤叛教,托孤十字亭,后不知所踪。十年之后,墨氏遗孤横刀天山,立马昆仑。光明顶上白骨累累,明月泉旁血流成河。“长大之后,我就娶你……”一句誓言,半世杀伐。为寻圣女,他不惜与天下为敌。为报父仇,却要杀死这个女人。执苍策马昆仓侧,探丸借客尚武阁。他刀斩苍天,天下群雄侧目,剑指后土,神鬼为之动容。江湖之上,他将成为一个神话。墨鸿,这个名字,也将永远铭刻于求剑亭的功名碑之上。
  • 十世缘之冷美人

    十世缘之冷美人

    她,就是众人口中的冷美人,冷漠如她,骄傲如她,多愁善感如她,……当那个温柔的男人携她步入婚姻的殿堂,原以为这幸福的光芒将温暖她冰封的心,却被那现实的坎坷和无奈打入更加冰冷的地狱。她一如既往的选择了逃避,而且这次逃的非常离谱,竟抛夫弃子逃到了另一个世界。关上心门,能否守候得住那一份平静?那样的一个男人,她能若无其事的当做不曾相遇吗?前世今生的纠葛,注定了怎样的缘份?
  • 无生诀经

    无生诀经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 我的世界创世神之战

    我的世界创世神之战

    在我的世界这个游戏中,有着不为人知的历史,创世神的争纷,人类的起源,世界的形成,每个游戏中的人物都是由此而来,MINECRAFT创世神的故事即将开演。本小说在创世中文网发布,其他均为盗窃作品,请勿观看,谢谢合作,比尔布朗向您的配合表示感谢!
  • 这游戏没法玩

    这游戏没法玩

    这游戏没法玩啊!教练,我想删号重玩!!这开挂的实力,给能不能愉快的玩耍了?艾德忧愁的如此想到……管他呢,我的目标是…………在逗比的人生中,带领大家一起逗逼!!!
  • 辨症玉函

    辨症玉函

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 惜殇叹

    惜殇叹

    题记:当初的我们为了能够简简单单的过完此生,放弃了多少,又伤害了多少人。真的能够舍弃曾经打下的天下么?抬头望天,我们的明天又将如何呢?
  • tfboys之源夏微凉不成殇

    tfboys之源夏微凉不成殇

    有时,浅夏会想,如果当初不放弃,结局,会不会不一样。她的心,在遇见他之后,乱了。她原以为,这是粉丝对偶像的爱慕,可是,她沦陷了。用我十年青春,赴你最后之约。主角是源源,不喜勿喷。