Les Miserables (5 page)

“It's an old inn sign,” I said. “It's worth about three francs.”

The paint was chipped and peeling, but I knew the sign. I could still make out THE SERGEANT OF WATERLOO in faint letters. Underneath the letters was a picture of a soldier carrying another soldier on his back.

It was hard to believe the man before me could be the innkeeper—the man called Thénardier.

“I will accept a thousand francs for this sign,” he said.

I was caught in a trap. Escape wouldn't be easy.

“I won't accept one franc less. I hope you have your wallet on you.”

The man grinned wickedly.

I rose from my chair and stood with my back to the wall. I looked around the room.

Thénardier stood near the window with two of the four men. His wife stood near the door with the other two. The trap was a tight one.

Suddenly Thénardier jumped at me. His eyes were blazing with anger. His fists were clenched.

“Don't you know me?” he screamed. “Don't you recognize me?”

“No,” I replied calmly.

Just then the door swung open. Three more men entered, wearing black masks. One carried a heavy stick. The other had a butcher's axe.

“Is everything ready?” Thénardier asked them.

“Yes,” said one of the men.

Thénardier came close, then thrust his face into mine.

“Don't you recognize me? My name isn't Fabantou or Jondrette. My name is Thénardier. Recognize me now?”

“No more than before,” I replied. My eyes gave nothing away. I needed to buy time.

“Your goose is cooked, my noble patron!” Thénardier spat out the words. “You're spitted and roasted, my fine bird!”

He started to pace the room.

“You don't know me, eh?” he said. “It wasn't you who came to my inn in Montfermeil ten years ago and took Fantine's brat from me? So you don't know me! Well, I know you, all right.

“I knew you the minute you shoved your
noble face inside my door,” he raged. “You'll not get away from me, my generous millionaire.

“It isn't smart to take a man's servant,” he continued. “I'll teach you not to threaten me with a heavy stick. You were the strong one that day. Today it's my turn. I hold the cards now. And you're done for, my beauty!”

Thénardier stopped. He was out of breath.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” I said. “I'm a poor man. I don't know you. You're confusing me with someone else.”

“Have you anything to say before we go to work on you?” he replied.

I said nothing. What was the point?

The big man with the axe took his mask off. “If there's any chopping to be done, I'm your man!” he said.

Thénardier shouted at the man for
showing his face. In that instant, I ran for the window.

I was nearly out, but three men lunged at me. Six hands pulled me back inside.

I knocked down two of the men. But two more took their place. I was buried under a flood of fists.

“Don't hurt him!” shouted Thénardier. “I want to talk to this gentleman.”

I was shoved into a chair.

“I find it strange,” began Thénardier. “You haven't shouted for help once. Not even with the window open. I wonder. Are you as afraid of calling down the law as we are?”

I said nothing.

“We can help each other,” continued Thénardier. “I'm not a bloodsucker. All I want is two hundred thousand francs. You don't have it with you. But you can write your daughter for it.”

He turned to get paper and pen. I
lunged for the fireplace and grabbed the red-hot poker. I faced the room.

“You're a poor lot,” I cried. “My own life is not worth much. You can do what you want with me. Look!”

I pulled up my left sleeve. I pressed the poker to my bare skin. There was a hiss of burning flesh.

“Poor fools,” I said. “I don't fear you.” I threw the poker through the open window.

“Do what you like with me,” I said.

“Slit his throat!” cried one man.

Thénardier liked the idea. He picked up a knife from the table and started toward me.

Escape to Rue Plumet

Thénardier was almost upon me when suddenly his wife cried out, “Look at this!”

She handed him a balled-up piece of paper.

“How did this get here?” asked Thénardier.

“Through the open window,” replied his wife.

“That's right,” said one of the men. “I saw it go by.”

Thénardier unfolded the note. He read it by candlelight.

“It's Eponine's handwriting, by God!” he exclaimed. “Our daughter writes, ‘The police are here!' We better clear out! We'll leave the mouse in its trap.”

But the mouse had dashed. I slipped through the window while everyone was busy with the note. I disappeared just as Javert opened the front door.

Thénardier and his gang were caught in their own trap!

Later I would learn how Marius saved my life. He had gone to the police that afternoon after overhearing Thénardier bragging to his wife about the trap he had set for me. And, amazingly, Eponine had printed the note for him that very morning, to prove that she could write!

When it looked as though Thénardier was going to kill me, Marius tossed the note through the hole.

I ran to my house on Rue Plumet. The house was protected by a stone wall. Cosette and the housekeeper lived there. I lived in a small cottage in the garden.

The next day I was sick with fever from the burn on my arm. Cosette nursed me with care. Everyday she brought me food. And everyday she read to me. I loved books about travel.

Cosette didn't ask me how I got the burn. She knew, from our years of secrets, when
not
to ask questions.

I thought life would return to the way it had been. Memories of the young man in the garden would grow dim with time. How happy I was at this thought. I felt reborn!

But things were not going to be like before. Everything was changing. Winter was giving birth to spring. And new ways were replacing the old.

“I want you to walk in our garden,” I
said to Cosette one April morning. “You never go there.”

“I will, Father,” she replied. “Spring is such a wonderful time.” She was happy again, and so was I.

I took my walks at night. That was the only time I felt safe enough to go into the streets. Just the same, I dressed as a workman. I felt even safer in my disguise.

One night I saw Thénardier in the street. He wasn't in prison after all. What was worse, the family lived in our part of the city—too close for comfort.

The next day I told Cosette we were moving. She grew sad. Her happiness of the last few weeks vanished. The garden had been good for her, but not for the reason I thought.

In the morning I found an address scratched on the stone wall. The letters were fresh.

They read: 16 RUE DE LA VERRERIE.

“This must be that young man's address,” I thought. “He is seeing Cosette behind my back. And he knows we are moving, so he gives her his address.”

That night I watched from my bedroom window. The lovers met in the garden. They greeted one another with such joy.

Now I knew why Cosette was so happy. She had been meeting her lover every night!

I discovered later that Thénardier's daughter Eponine knew the streets of Paris well. She had found our place and told Marius.

We couldn't move somewhere else in the city. We had to leave the country. We would move to England!

At the Barricade

In that year of 1832 there was unrest in every quarter of Paris. People were speaking against the government. Students were planning revolution.

It was rumored that the popular leader, General Lamarque, was near death. He was the only man in the government who cared about the poor. When he died, Paris would explode.

Cosette and I would spend one last week at our apartment in Paris. Then we would board a ship and sail for England.

Cosette said she didn't want to leave France. Still, she helped me pack our few belongings.

Then General Lamarque died. On June 5, 1832, his funeral procession made its way through the streets of Paris. The spark was struck. The powder keg was set to blow.

On the evening of that same day, I wandered back to the house on Rue Plumet. I wanted to take a last walk in our garden. A street boy called to me. He had a note for Cosette. It was from her lover. I opened it and read it.

So my enemy would soon be dead. I didn't have to do a thing and he would be gone from my life! I put the letter in my pocket. I didn't want Cosette to know where Marius was.

But my heart was heavy. Now I knew how much they loved each other. Though they couldn't marry, their hearts would always be one.

From the date on the letter, I saw that Marius intended Cosette to read it the next morning. Perhaps there was still time.

I changed into my old National Guard uniform. I left the house fully armed, headed for Marius's barricade.

How could I know that I would meet two enemies there? One enemy wanted my
daughter. The other wanted my freedom.

Yes, Javert was at the barricade. Our paths would cross once more.

The barricade was enormous—three stories high and seven hundred feet long. Built in front of an inn, it blocked the entrance to three streets.

Anything and everything went into building the barricade. Doors, screens, broken windows, bedroom furniture, stoves, chairs, pots and pans. Whatever was at hand.

Behind the barricade young men with guns waited for the king's soldiers to come down the street.

I got there at dawn, just as men with families were being sent home.

“There must be no unnecessary deaths,” Marius was saying. “Those men with wives and children must leave at once.”

“In another fifteen minutes it will be too late,” said Enjolras, their leader. “The soldiers will be here.”

I offered to stay and fight.

“Citizen, you are most welcome,” said Enjolras. “But we are about to die.”

I said nothing. I had faced death many times in my life.

Suddenly there was the sound of trumpets. The barricade was under attack!

“On guard!” cried Marius from the top of the barricade.

Another man on the barricade shouted, “When there are no more kings, there will be no more war!”

“Heads down and get back to the wall,” shouted Enjolras. “All of you down on your knees.”

The soldiers were firing at the barricade. The whole barricade was being hit with bullets. We were cloaked in a cloud of smoke.

I was certain Marius would be the first one shot. He was standing in the line of fire.
He didn't seem interested in protecting himself.

A soldier was posted on the roof nearby. He could see straight into our stronghold.

I took aim with my musket and fired. I struck the soldier's helmet. It clattered into the street, and the soldier ran off.

“Why did you fire at the helmet and not at the man?” asked Enjolras.

I said nothing. Killing wasn't as easy for me as it seemed to be for these young men.

A spy was tied up in the inn. Enjolras told me to go and check up on him. I entered the inn, and the spy turned to me. I knew the man.

“So here we are,” he said.

It was Javert.

He asked for a drink. I held a glass to his lips. Then Enjolras came in and put a gun on the table.

“I haven't forgotten you,” he said to Javert.

He turned to me. “The last man to leave this place will blow out this spy's brains.”

“May I be that man?” I asked.

“All right,” replied Enjolras. “You can have the spy.”

I picked up the gun. Javert's eyes were upon me. I released him from the post, and we left the inn. His hands were tied behind his back so I helped him over the barricade. We walked down an alley.