by Victor Hugo
CHAPTER XIX.
JEAN VALJEAN REVENGES HIMSELF.
So soon as Jean Valjean was alone with Javert he undid the rope whichfastened the prisoner round the waist, the knot of which was under thetable. After this, he made him a signal to rise. Javert obeyed withthat indefinable smile in which the supremacy of enchained authority iscondensed. Jean Valjean seized Javert by the martingale, as he wouldhave taken an ox by its halter, and dragging him after him, quittedthe wine-shop slowly, for Javert, having his feet hobbled, could onlytake very short steps. Jean Valjean held the pistol in his hand, andthey thus crossed the inner trapeze of the barricade; the insurgents,prepared for the imminent attack, turned their backs.
Marius alone, placed at the left extremity of the barricade, saw thempass. This group of the victim and the executioner was illumined by thesepulchral gleams which he had in his soul. Jean Valjean forced Javertto climb over the barricade with some difficulty, but did not loosenthe cord. When they had crossed the bar, they found themselves alonein the lane, and no one could now see them, for the elbow formed bythe houses hid them from the insurgents. The corpses removed from thebarricade formed a horrible pile a few paces from them. Among the deadcould be distinguished a livid face, dishevelled hair, a pierced hand,and a half-naked female bosom; it was Éponine. Javert looked askance atthis dead girl, and said with profound calmness,--
"It seems to me I know that girl."
Then he turned to Jean Valjean, who placed the pistol under his arm,and fixed on Javert a glance which had no need of words to say,"Javert, it is I."
Javert answered, "Take your revenge."
Jean Valjean took a knife from his pocket and opened it.
"A clasp-knife," Javert exclaimed. "You are right, that suits youbetter."
Jean Valjean cut the martingale which Javert had round his neck, thenhe cut the ropes on his wrists, and stooping down, those on his feet;then rising again, he said, "You are free."
It was not easy to astonish Javert, still, master though he was ofhimself, he could not suppress his emotion; he stood gaping andmotionless, while Jean Valjean continued,--
"I do not believe that I shall leave this place. Still, if by accidentI do, I live under the name of Fauchelevent, at No. 7, Rue de l'HommeArmé."
Javert gave a tigerish frown, which opened a corner of his mouth, andmuttered between his teeth,--
"Take care!"
"Begone!" said Jean Valjean.
Javert added,--
"You said Fauchelevent, Rue de l'Homme Armé?"
"No. 7."
Javert repeated in a low voice,---"No. 7."
He rebuttoned his frock-coat, restored his military stiffness betweenhis shoulders, made a half turn, crossed his arms while supporting hischin with one of his hands, and walked off in the direction of themarkets. Jean Valjean looked after him. After going a few yards Javertturned and said,--
"You annoy me. I would sooner be killed by you."
Javert did not even notice that he no longer addressed Jean Valjeanwith familiarity.
"Begone!" said Jean Valjean.
Javert retired slowly, and a moment after turned the corner of the Ruedes Prêcheurs. When Javert had disappeared, Jean Valjean discharged thepistol in the air, and then returned to the barricade, saying,--
"It is all over."
This is what had taken place in the mean while. Marius, more occupiedwith the outside than the inside, had not hitherto attentively regardedthe spy fastened up at the darkened end of the ground-floor room. Whenhe saw him in the open daylight bestriding the barricade, he recognizedhim, and a sudden hope entered his mind. He remembered the inspector ofthe Rue de Pontoise, and the two pistols he had given him, which he,Marius, had employed at this very barricade, and he not only rememberedhis face but his name.
This recollection, however, was foggy and disturbed, like all hisideas. It was not an affirmation he made so much as a question which heasked himself. "Is that not the Police Inspector, who told me that hisname was Javert?" Marius shouted to Enjolras, who had just stationedhimself at the other end of the barricade,--
"Enjolras?"
"Well?"
"What is that man's name?"
"Which man?"
"The police agent. Do you know his name?"
"Of course I do, for he told it to us."
"What is it?"
"Javert."
Marius started, but at this moment a pistol-shot was heard, and JeanValjean reappeared, saying, "_It is all over._" A dark chill crossedMarius's heart.
