I’m
nearing the end of Les Misérables and
there are a number of scenes that are so rich I really have to post them. Here is one.
There will be more. Let me set
this up. The revolutionaries are at the barricades
and the fighting is not going well. Jean
Valjean is there just to watch and protect Marius and his hated nemesis, Javert
is a prisoner. Since the battle is about
to begin, there is an order to execute the prisoner, since he could no longer
be guarded, and Jean Valjean volunteers.
This is from Volume Five, Jean
Valjean, Book First, The War Between
Four Walls, Chapter XIX, “Jean Valjean Takes His Revenge.”
When Jean Valjean was
left alone with Javert, he untied the rope which fastened the prisoner across
the middle of the body, and the knot of which was under the table. After this
he made him a sign to rise.
Javert obeyed with that
indefinable smile in which the supremacy of enchained authority is condensed.
Jean Valjean took Javert
by the martingale, as one would take a beast of burden by the breast-band, and,
dragging the latter after him, emerged from the wine-shop slowly, because
Javert, with his impeded limbs, could take only very short steps.
Jean Valjean had the pistol
in his hand.
In this manner they
crossed the inner trapezium of the barricade. The insurgents, all intent on the
attack, which was imminent, had their backs turned to these two.
Marius alone, stationed
on one side, at the extreme left of the barricade, saw them pass. This group of
victim and executioner was illuminated by the sepulchral light which he bore in
his own soul.
Jean Valjean with some
difficulty, but without relaxing his hold for a single instant, made Javert,
pinioned as he was, scale the little entrenchment in the Mondetour lane.
When they had crossed
this barrier, they found themselves alone in the lane. No one saw them. Among
the heap they could distinguish a livid face, streaming hair, a pierced hand
and the half nude breast of a woman. It was Eponine. The corner of the houses hid
them from the insurgents. The corpses carried away from the barricade formed a
terrible pile a few paces distant.
Javert gazed askance at
this body, and, profoundly calm, said in a low tone:
"It strikes me that
I know that girl."
Then he turned to Jean
Valjean.
Jean Valjean thrust the
pistol under his arm and fixed on Javert a look which it required no words to
interpret: "Javert, it is I."
Javert replied:
"Take your
revenge."
Jean Valjean drew from
his pocket a knife, and opened it.
"A clasp-knife!"
exclaimed Javert, "you are right. That suits you better."
Jean Valjean cut the
martingale which Javert had about his neck, then he cut the cords on his
wrists, then, stooping down, he cut the cord on his feet; and, straightening
himself up, he said to him:
"You are free."
Javert was not easily
astonished. Still, master of himself though he was, he could not repress a
start. He remained open-mouthed and motionless.
Jean Valjean continued:
"I do not think that
I shall escape from this place. But if, by chance, I do, I live, under the name
of Fauchelevent, in the Rue de l'Homme Arme, No. 7."
Javert snarled like a
tiger, which made him half open one corner of his mouth, and he muttered
between his teeth:
"Have a care."
"Go," said Jean
Valjean.
Javert began again:
"Thou saidst
Fauchelevent, Rue de l'Homme Arme?"
"Number 7."
Javert repeated in a low
voice:--"Number 7."
He buttoned up his coat
once more, resumed the military stiffness between his shoulders, made a half
turn, folded his arms and, supporting his chin on one of his hands, he set out
in the direction of the Halles. Jean Valjean followed him with his eyes:
A few minutes later,
Javert turned round and shouted to Jean Valjean:
"You annoy me. Kill
me, rather."
Javert himself did not notice
that he no longer addressed Jean Valjean as "thou."
"Be off with
you," said Jean Valjean.
Javert retreated slowly.
A moment later he turned the corner of the Rue des Precheurs.
When Javert had
disappeared, Jean Valjean fired his pistol in the air.
Then he returned to the
barricade and said:
"It is done."
Excerpt
taken from The Literature Network.
As
we will see, allowing him to live becomes a devastating blow to Javert. Such an act of kindness from a person he had
tortured many times in life pierces his heart and disturbs his conscience. He cannot live with such an act of love.
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