by Victor Hugo
CHAPTER III.
CONSULT THE PLAN OF PARIS IN 1727.
After going three hundred yards he came to a spot where the roadformed two forks, and Jean Valjean had before him, as it were, the twobranches of a Y. Which should he choose? He did not hesitate, but tookthe right one, because the other ran towards the faubourg, that is tosay, inhabited parts, while the right branch went in the direction ofthe country, or deserted parts. Still they did not walk very rapidly,for Cosette checked Jean Valjean's pace, and hence he began carryingher again, and Cosette laid her head on his shoulder and did not saya word. At times he looked back, while careful to keep on the darkside of the street. The first twice or thrice that he turned he sawnothing, the silence was profound, and he continued his walk with alittle more confidence. All at once, on turning suddenly, he fanciedthat he saw something moving on the dark part of the street whichhe had just passed. He rushed forward rather than walked, hoping tofind some side lane by which he could escape, and once again breakhis trail. He reached a wall, which, however, did not render furtherprogress impossible, for it was a wall skirting a cross-lane, intowhich the street Jean Valjean had entered ran. Here he must make hismind up again whether to turn to the right or left. He looked to theright; the lane ran for some distance between buildings, which werebarns or sheds, and then stopped. The end of the blind alley, a highwhite wall, was distinctly visible. He looked to the left; on this sidethe lane was open, and at a distance of about two hundred yards fellinto a street, of which it was an affluent. On that side safety lay. Atthe moment when Jean Valjean turned to his left in order to reach thisstreet, he saw at the angle formed by the street and the lane a speciesof black and motionless statue; it was evidently a man posted there toprevent him from passing. Jean Valjean fell back.
The part of Paris where Jean Valjean now was, situated between theFaubourg St. Antoine and la Rapée, was one of those which havebeen utterly transformed by those recent works which some calldisfigurements, others beautifying. The fields, the timber-yards, andold buildings have been removed, and there are now brand-new widestreets, arenas, circuses, hippodromes, railway stations, and a prison,Mazas,--progress as we see with its corrective. Half a century back,in that popular language all made up of traditions which insists oncalling the Institute "les Quatre Nations," and the Opéra Comique"Feydeau," the precise spot where Jean Valjean now stood was called "lePetit Picpus." The Porte St. Jacques, the Porte Paris, the Barrière desSergents, the Porcherons, the Galiote, the Celestins, the Capucins,the Mail, the Bourbe, the tree of Cracow, Little Poland, and LittlePicpus, are names of old Paris swimming on the surface of the new. Thememory of the people floats on the flotsam of the past. Little Picpus,which by the way scarce existed, and was never more than the outlineof a quarter, had almost the monastic look of a Spanish town. Thestreets were scarce paved, and hardly any houses lined them; exceptingtwo or three streets, to which we are about to refer, all was wall andsolitude. There was not a shop or a vehicle, scarce a candle lighted inthe windows, and every light was put out by ten o'clock. The quarterconsisted of gardens, convents, timber-yards, and kitchen-grounds, andthere were a few low houses with walls as lofty as themselves. Suchwas the quarter in the last century; the Revolution fiercely assailedit, and the Republican board of works demolished and made gaps in it:rubbish was allowed to be shot there. Thirty years ago this quarter wasdisappearing under the erasure of new buildings, and now it is entirelyobliterated.
Little Picpus, of which no modern map retains a trace, is very clearlyindicated in the plan of 1727, published at Paris by Denis Thierry,Rue St. Jacques, opposite the Rue du Plâtre; and at Lyons by JeanGirin, Rue Mercière. Little Picpus had what we have just called a Yof streets formed by the Rue du Chemin Vert St. Antoine dividing intotwo branches, the left-hand one taking the name of the Petite RuePicpus, and the right-hand that of Rue Polonceau. The two branches ofthe Y were joined at their summit by a sort of cross-bar called RueDroit-mur. Any one who, coming from the Seine, reached the end ofRue Polonceau, had on his left Rue Droit-mur, turning sharply at aright angle, in front of him the wall of that street, and on his righta truncated prolongation of the Rue Droit-mur called the Cul-de-sacGenrot.
It was here that Jean Valjean was; as we said, on perceiving theblack shadow standing on watch at the corner of the Rue Droit-mur andthe Petite Rue Picpus, he fell back, for this phantom was doubtlesswatching for him. What was to be done? He had no time to retrograde,for what he had seen moving in the shadow a few moments previouslyin his rear was of course Javert and his squad. Javert was probablyalready at the beginning of the street at the end of which JeanValjean was. Javert, according to appearances, was acquainted withthis labyrinth, and had taken his precautions by sending one of hismen to guard the outlet. These conjectures, which so closely resembledcertainty, whirled suddenly in Jean Valjean's troubled brain like ahandful of dust raised by an unexpected puff of wind. He examined theblind alley; that was barred. He examined the Rue Picpus, a sentrywas there, and he saw his black shadow distinctly thrown on the whitemoonlit pavement. To advance was falling into this man's clutches; tofall back was throwing himself into Javert's arms. Jean Valjean felthimself caught in a net which was being slowly hauled in, and looked upto Heaven in despair.
