Les Misérables, page 208
CHAPTER III--BABET, GUEULEMER, CLAQUESOUS, AND MONTPARNASSE
A quartette of ruffians, Claquesous, Gueulemer, Babet, and Montparnassegoverned the third lower floor of Paris, from 1830 to 1835.
Gueulemer was a Hercules of no defined position. For his lair he had thesewer of the Arche-Marion. He was six feet high, his pectoral muscleswere of marble, his biceps of brass, his breath was that of a cavern,his torso that of a colossus, his head that of a bird. One thought onebeheld the Farnese Hercules clad in duck trousers and a cotton velvetwaistcoat. Gueulemer, built after this sculptural fashion, might havesubdued monsters; he had found it more expeditious to be one. A lowbrow, large temples, less than forty years of age, but with crow's-feet,harsh, short hair, cheeks like a brush, a beard like that of a wildboar; the reader can see the man before him. His muscles called forwork, his stupidity would have none of it. He was a great, idle force.He was an assassin through coolness. He was thought to be a creole. Hehad, probably, somewhat to do with Marshal Brune, having been a porterat Avignon in 1815. After this stage, he had turned ruffian.
The diaphaneity of Babet contrasted with the grossness of Gueulemer.Babet was thin and learned. He was transparent but impenetrable.Daylight was visible through his bones, but nothing through his eyes. Hedeclared that he was a chemist. He had been a jack of all trades. He hadplayed in vaudeville at Saint-Mihiel. He was a man of purpose, a finetalker, who underlined his smiles and accentuated his gestures. Hisoccupation consisted in selling, in the open air, plaster busts andportraits of "the head of the State." In addition to this, he extractedteeth. He had exhibited phenomena at fairs, and he had owned a boothwith a trumpet and this poster: "Babet, Dental Artist, Member of theAcademies, makes physical experiments on metals and metalloids, extractsteeth, undertakes stumps abandoned by his brother practitioners. Price:one tooth, one franc, fifty centimes; two teeth, two francs; threeteeth, two francs, fifty. Take advantage of this opportunity." This_Take advantage of this opportunity_ meant: Have as many teeth extractedas possible. He had been married and had had children. He did not knowwhat had become of his wife and children. He had lost them as one loseshis handkerchief. Babet read the papers, a striking exception in theworld to which he belonged. One day, at the period when he had hisfamily with him in his booth on wheels, he had read in the _Messager_,that a woman had just given birth to a child, who was doing well, andhad a calf's muzzle, and he exclaimed: "There's a fortune! my wife hasnot the wit to present me with a child like that!"
Later on he had abandoned everything, in order to "undertake Paris."This was his expression.
Who was Claquesous? He was night. He waited until the sky was daubedwith black, before he showed himself. At nightfall he emerged from thehole whither he returned before daylight. Where was this hole? No oneknew. He only addressed his accomplices in the most absolute darkness,and with his back turned to them. Was his name Claquesous? Certainlynot. If a candle was brought, he put on a mask. He was a ventriloquist.Babet said: "Claquesous is a nocturne for two voices." Claquesous wasvague, terrible, and a roamer. No one was sure whether he had a name,Claquesous being a sobriquet; none was sure that he had a voice, as hisstomach spoke more frequently than his voice; no one was sure that hehad a face, as he was never seen without his mask. He disappeared asthough he had vanished into thin air; when he appeared, it was as thoughhe sprang from the earth.
A lugubrious being was Montparnasse. Montparnasse was a child; less thantwenty years of age, with a handsome face, lips like cherries, charmingblack hair, the brilliant light of springtime in his eyes; he had allvices and aspired to all crimes.
The digestion of evil aroused in him an appetite for worse. It was thestreet boy turned pickpocket, and a pickpocket turned garroter. He wasgenteel, effeminate, graceful, robust, sluggish, ferocious. The rim ofhis hat was curled up on the left side, in order to make room for a tuftof hair, after the style of 1829. He lived by robbery with violence.His coat was of the best cut, but threadbare. Montparnasse was afashion-plate in misery and given to the commission of murders. Thecause of all this youth's crimes was the desire to be well-dressed. Thefirst grisette who had said to him: "You are handsome!" had cast thestain of darkness into his heart, and had made a Cain of this Abel.Finding that he was handsome, he desired to be elegant: now, theheight of elegance is idleness; idleness in a poor man means crime. Fewprowlers were so dreaded as Montparnasse. At eighteen, he had alreadynumerous corpses in his past. More than one passer-by lay withoutstretched arms in the presence of this wretch, with his face in apool of blood. Curled, pomaded, with laced waist, the hips of a woman,the bust of a Prussian officer, the murmur of admiration from theboulevard wenches surrounding him, his cravat knowingly tied, a bludgeonin his pocket, a flower in his buttonhole; such was this dandy of thesepulchre.
