登陆注册
12107900000039

第39章 PART ONE(38)

The owner did not utter a word,but handed him fifteen sous.

He objected.He was told,'That is enough for thee.'

He persisted.

The master looked him straight between the eyes,and said to him'Beware of the prison.'

There,again,he considered that he had been robbed.

Society,the State,by diminishing his hoard,had robbed him wholesale.Now it was the individual who was robbing him at retail.

Liberation is not deliverance.

One gets free from the galleys,but not from the sentence.

That is what happened to him at Grasse.

We have seen in what manner he was received at D——

Ⅹ THE MAN AROUSED

As the Cathedral clock struck two in the morning,Jean Valjean awoke.

What woke him was that his bed was too good.

It was nearly twenty years since he had slept in a bed,and,although he had not undressed,the sensation was too novel not to disturb his slumbers.

He had slept more than four hours.

His fatigue had passed away.He was accustomed not to devote many hours to repose.

He opened his eyes and stared into the gloom which surrounded him;then he closed them again,with the intention of going to sleep once more.

When many varied sensations have agitated the day,when various matters preoccupy the mind,one falls asleep once,but not a second time.Sleep comes more easily than it returns.

This is what happened to Jean Valjean.

He could not get to sleep again,and he fell to thinking.

He was at one of those moments when the thoughts which one has in one's mind are troubled.

There was a sort of dark confusion in his brain.His memories of the olden time and of the immediate present floated there pell-mell and mingled confusedly,losing their proper forms,becoming disproportionately large,then suddenly disappearing,as in a muddy and perturbed pool.

Many thoughts occurred to him;but there was one which kept constantly presenting itself afresh,and which drove away all others.

We will mention this thought at once:he had observed the six sets of silver forks and spoons and the ladle which Madame Magloire had placed on the table.

Those six sets of silver haunted him.——They were there.——A few paces distant.——Just as he was traversing the adjoining room to reach the one in which he then was,the old servant-woman had been in the act of placing them in a little cupboard near the head of the bed.——He had taken careful note of this cupboard.——On the right,as you entered from the dining-room.——They were solid.——And old silver.——From the ladle one could get at least two hundred francs.——Double what he had earned in nineteen years.——It is true that he would have earned more if'the administration had not robbed him.'

His mind wavered for a whole hour in fluctuations with which there was certainly mingled some struggle.

Three o'clock struck.

He opened his eyes again,drew himself up abruptly into a sitting posture,stretched out his arm and felt of his knapsack,which he had thrown down on a corner of the alcove;then he hung his legs over the edge of the bed,and placed his feet on the floor,and thus found himself,almost without knowing it,seated on his bed.

He remained for a time thoughtfully in this attitude,which would have been suggestive of something sinister for any one who had seen him thus in the dark,the only person awake in that house where all were sleeping.

All of a sudden he stooped down,removed his shoes and placed them softly on the mat beside the bed;then he resumed his thoughtful attitude,and became motionless once more.

Throughout this hideous meditation,the thoughts which we have above indicated moved incessantly through his brain;entered,withdrew,re-entered,and in a manner oppressed him;and then he thought,also,without knowing why,and with the mechanical persistence of revery,of a convict named Brevet,whom he had known in the galleys,and whose trousers had been upheld by a single suspender of knitted cotton.The checkered pattern of that suspender recurred incessantly to his mind.

He remained in this situation,and would have so remained indefinitely,even until daybreak,had not the clock struck one——the half or quarter hour.

It seemed to him that that stroke said to him,'Come on!'

He rose to his feet,hesitated still another moment,and listened;all was quiet in the house;then he walked straight ahead,with short steps,to the window,of which he caught a glimpse.The night was not very dark;there was a full moon,across which coursed large clouds driven by the wind.

This created,outdoors,alternate shadow and gleams of light,eclipses,then bright openings of the clouds;and indoors a sort of twilight.

This twilight,sufficient to enable a person to see his way,intermittent on account of the clouds,resembled the sort of livid light which falls through an air-hole in a cellar,before which the passersby come and go.

On arriving at the window,Jean Valjean examined it.It had no grating;it opened in the garden and was fastened,according to the fashion of the country,only by a small pin.He opened it;but as a rush of cold and piercing air penetrated the room abruptly,he closed it again immediately.

He scrutinized the garden with that attentive gaze which studies rather than looks.The garden was enclosed by a tolerably low white wall,easy to climb.Far away,at the extremity,he perceived tops of trees,spaced at regular intervals,which indicated that the wall separated the garden from an avenue or lane planted with trees.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 为你守一座空城

    为你守一座空城

    一位刚出生的婴儿,被天雷劈中后成为雷体,但天赋极低一位老者收他为徒,从此,他踏上了成为强者的第一步,他是否能踏上巅峰,成为主宰一切的天玄神,他碰到的朋友是否是真朋友,是否能跟爱人长相厮守。
  • 梦醉华生:丫鬟要上天

    梦醉华生:丫鬟要上天

    什么?权势滔天的丞相之女居然沦为丫鬟,还捕获了异国帝王的心?因为,上一世她的心千疮百孔,所以,这一世她再也不会向命运屈服。“皇上,奴婢给你剥橘子怎么样?”易禾悝狗腿的拿起橘子。“橘子哪有你好吃?”万倾抱起易禾悝走向龙榻。“给朕生个儿子?”“不要,不要啊!”
  • 天真老婆傻傻爱

    天真老婆傻傻爱

    她喜欢他整整六年。谁都知道她爱他,他却当她是透明人。哥哥这里表明了不稀罕,弟弟那里却主动缠上来。正当她被那快滴出水的温柔感动得死去活来的时候,他再次出现在她面前,还总在她面前和火辣美女卿卿我我。她呕得五内俱伤,他笑得云淡风轻。他是她命里的毒,早已深入骨髓。忘不掉!舍不去!她伸出了手,却总也抓不住他飞舞的衣角。苦苦追逐中,他渐行渐远。是她太傻,还是他太腹黑?
  • 赫赫宗周

    赫赫宗周

    两千多年前的女性是什么样子的呢?书上说那是一个等级鲜明制度森严的时代,会是如何走向礼崩乐坏的呢?和如今性侵怪姑娘穿得少一个尿性,自古灭国怪红颜,我一直对两千年前那位姑娘很好奇,但是翻边了各种史书对她的描述都是不经思考的复制且篇幅甚少。所以,这些,都是我的想象,是我心中的那位姑娘!
  • 超能巨星

    超能巨星

    一觉醒来,整个世界都变了。原先的各类经典电影消失不见,经典歌曲渺无音讯。詹慕摸了摸下巴,然后坚定的说道,“作为一名娱乐爱好者,这种事情是绝对不能容忍的,所以,应该先写个电影好那?还是来首歌曲好?”
  • 水墨年华:落缨传

    水墨年华:落缨传

    来来去去,走走停停,纵使没有樱花,没有水荷,他依旧在原地等她。嘴角带笑,眉目含情,纵使没有交谈,没有言语,这却是最好的回答。提笔磨砚,一朝春去红颜老,花落人亡两不知。如花美眷,似水流年,回得了过去,回不了当初。停笔望天,物是人非,岸边垂杨,人走茶凉。
  • 王源我爱你你爱我吗

    王源我爱你你爱我吗

    女主:叶欣.安雨梦.林敏.反派女主;周琳.徐蕾.陈雪洁.男主:王源.王俊凯.易烊千玺......
  • 仙佛策

    仙佛策

    佛本是道,道亦是魔,魔可成佛,世间的是是非非善恶对错谁又说的说的清楚讲的明白。本是一腔热血保家卫国,无奈国之将亡,必生造孽,一步步走上一条血腥的不归路。
  • 北代皇族缘

    北代皇族缘

    看一代皇族恩怨,原本表面坚定,可谁会料想,一个上官北代的出生,注定不平凡,儿时的那一掛,却隐藏了多少艰辛褪变过程,看一双红眸,是福亦是祸,看她猜不透的身世,自己亦是未知。。。
  • 你是我遥不可及的光

    你是我遥不可及的光

    她和他在樱花盛开时认识,他在樱花盛开时向她告白,他在樱花盛开时向她求婚,他们在樱花盛开时结婚,她却在樱花盛开时向他提出离婚......