Les Misérables, page 110
CHAPTER XI--NUMBER 9,430 REAPPEARS, AND COSETTE WINS IT IN THE LOTTERY
Jean Valjean was not dead.
When he fell into the sea, or rather, when he threw himself into it, hewas not ironed, as we have seen. He swam under water until he reached avessel at anchor, to which a boat was moored. He found means of hidinghimself in this boat until night. At night he swam off again, andreached the shore a little way from Cape Brun. There, as he did not lackmoney, he procured clothing. A small country-house in the neighborhoodof Balaguier was at that time the dressing-room of escaped convicts,--alucrative specialty. Then Jean Valjean, like all the sorry fugitiveswho are seeking to evade the vigilance of the law and social fatality,pursued an obscure and undulating itinerary. He found his firstrefuge at Pradeaux, near Beausset. Then he directed his course towardsGrand-Villard, near Briançon, in the Hautes-Alpes. It was a fumbling anduneasy flight,--a mole's track, whose branchings are untraceable. Lateron, some trace of his passage into Ain, in the territory of Civrieux,was discovered; in the Pyrenees, at Accons; at the spot calledGrange-de-Doumec, near the market of Chavailles, and in the environs ofPerigueux at Brunies, canton of La Chapelle-Gonaguet. He reached Paris.We have just seen him at Montfermeil.
His first care on arriving in Paris had been to buy mourning clothesfor a little girl of from seven to eight years of age; then to procurea lodging. That done, he had betaken himself to Montfermeil. It willbe remembered that already, during his preceding escape, he had made amysterious trip thither, or somewhere in that neighborhood, of which thelaw had gathered an inkling.
However, he was thought to be dead, and this still further increased theobscurity which had gathered about him. At Paris, one of the journalswhich chronicled the fact fell into his hands. He felt reassured andalmost at peace, as though he had really been dead.
On the evening of the day when Jean Valjean rescued Cosette from theclaws of the Thénardiers, he returned to Paris. He re-entered it atnightfall, with the child, by way of the Barrier Monceaux. Therehe entered a cabriolet, which took him to the esplanade of theObservatoire. There he got out, paid the coachman, took Cosette bythe hand, and together they directed their steps through thedarkness,--through the deserted streets which adjoin the Ourcine and theGlacière, towards the Boulevard de l'Hôpital.
The day had been strange and filled with emotions for Cosette. Theyhad eaten some bread and cheese purchased in isolated taverns, behindhedges; they had changed carriages frequently; they had travelled shortdistances on foot. She made no complaint, but she was weary, and JeanValjean perceived it by the way she dragged more and more on his handas she walked. He took her on his back. Cosette, without letting goof Catherine, laid her head on Jean Valjean's shoulder, and there fellasleep.
BOOK FOURTH.--THE GORBEAU HOVEL
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