All Chapters of Les Misérables: Chapter 361 - Chapter 367

One day, Jean Valjean descended his staircase, took three steps in the street, seated himself on a post, on that same stone post where Gavroche had found him meditating on the night between the 5th and the 6th of June; he remained there a few moments, then went upstairs again. This was the last oscillation of the pendulum. On the following day he did not leave his apartment. On the day after that, he did not leave his bed.His portress, who prepared his scanty repasts, a few cabbages or potatoes with bacon, glanced at the brown earthenware plate and exclaimed:“But you ate nothing yesterday, poor, dear man!”“Certainly I did,” replied Jean Valjean.“The plate is quite full.”“Look at the water jug. It is empty.”“That proves that you have drunk; it does not prove that you have eaten.”“Well,” said Jean Valjean, “what if I felt hungry only for water?”“That is called thirst, and, when one does not eat at the same time, it is called fever.”“I will eat to-morrow.”“Or at Trinit

That same day, or to speak more accurately, that same evening, as Marius left the table, and was on the point of withdrawing to his study, having a case to look over, Basque handed him a letter saying: “The person who wrote the letter is in the antechamber.”Cosette had taken the grandfather’s arm and was strolling in the garden.A letter, like a man, may have an unprepossessing exterior. Coarse paper, coarsely folded—the very sight of certain missives is displeasing.The letter which Basque had brought was of this sort.Marius took it. It smelled of tobacco. Nothing evokes a memory like an odor. Marius recognized that tobacco. He looked at the superscription: “To Monsieur, Monsieur le Baron Pommerci. At his hotel.” The recognition of the tobacco caused him to recognize the writing as well. It may be said that amazement has its lightning flashes.Marius was, as it were, illuminated by one of these flashes.The sense of smell, that mysterious aid to memory, had just revived a whol

In the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, in the vicinity of the common grave, far from the elegant quarter of that city of sepulchres, far from all the tombs of fancy which display in the presence of eternity all the hideous fashions of death, in a deserted corner, beside an old wall, beneath a great yew tree over which climbs the wild convolvulus, amid dandelions and mosses, there lies a stone. That stone is no more exempt than others from the leprosy of time, of dampness, of the lichens and from the defilement of the birds. The water turns it green, the air blackens it. It is not near any path, and people are not fond of walking in that direction, because the grass is high and their feet are immediately wet. When there is a little sunshine, the lizards come thither. All around there is a quivering of weeds. In the spring, linnets warble in the trees.This stone is perfectly plain. In cutting it the only thought was the requirements of the tomb, and no other care was taken than to make the

1 (return) [ Patois of the French Alps: chat de maraude, rascally marauder.] 2 (return) [ Liège: a cork-tree. Pau: a jest on peau, skin.] 3 (return) [ She belonged to that circle where cuckoos and carriages share the same fate; and a jade herself, she lived, as jades live, for the space of a morning (or jade).] 4 (return) [ An ex-convict.] 5 (return) [ This parenthesis is due to Jean Valjean.] 6 (return) [ A bullet as large as an egg.] 7 (return) [ Walter Scott, Lamartine, Vaulabelle, Charras, Quinet, Thiers.] 8 (return) [ This is the inscription:— 9 (return) [ A heavy rifled gun.] 10 (return) [ “A battle terminated, a day finished, false measures repaired, greater successes assured for the morrow,—all was lost by a moment of panic, terror.”—Napoleon, Dictées de Sainte Hélène.] 11 (return) [ Five winning numbers in a lottery] 12 (return) [ Literally “made cuirs”; i. e., pronounced a t or an s at the end of words where the opposite