Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Read Free Book Online

can tie a stone to it and drown the body in the river. So let’s settle up. Here’s the key. Where’s the money?”
    I had thirty francs in my waistcoat pocket. It was nothing. I spread the coins on a ledge in the wall.
    â€œYou didn’t kill for much,” said Thénardier.
    Then he searched Marius’s pockets. “It’strue,” he said. “There is no more money. I guess you better go out. It’s like a fare. You pay when you leave. You’ve paid. So you can leave.”
    He laughed. Then he bent to help me put Marius on my back. He put the key to the bolt. The bolt slid back and the grate opened without a sound.
    I walked into the cool night air. Thénardier bolted the grate behind me.
    At last I was outside! I laid Marius on the nearby riverbank. The darkness, stench, and horror were behind me.
    I was washing my hands and face in the river when I sensed someone standing behind me.
    I turned. The tall man behind me wore a long coat. He held a policeman’s stick in one hand. In the half-light I saw who it was—Javert!

The Day That Follows Night
    Javert didn’t recognize me. He gripped his stick and stared.
    â€œWho are you?” he asked calmly.
    â€œMyself,” I replied.
    â€œAnd who is that?”
    â€œJean Valjean.”
    Javert put the stick between his teeth. He clapped a hand on my shoulder and leaned forward. Our faces nearly touched. He saw it was me.
    He had chased Thénardier to the sewers. He had gone after a mouse and caught a lion!
    â€œInspector Javert,” I said. “You have got me. I am your prisoner. Just grant me one thing. Help me take this man home. He needs a doctor.”
    Inspector Javert called for his carriage. His face was hard, like stone.
    By the time we reached Marius’s grandfather’s house, it was late in the evening. Everyone was asleep. The doorkeeper let us in.
    â€œThere is still life in him,” I said and laid the wounded young man on the couch.
    I joined Javert in the buggy. But there was one more thing I needed to do. I asked him for one more favor.
    â€œLet me go home for a minute. After that you can do what you like with me,” I said.
    Javert was silent for a moment. Then hepulled down the window in front of him and said to the driver, “Drive to number 7, rue de l’Homme-Armé.”
    I wanted to tell Cosette that Marius was safe. I wanted to tell her where I kept my money. Then I would go with Javert. It was over for me.
    â€œI’ll wait for you here,” said Javert when we had arrived.
    I went upstairs to my room. Before calling Cosette, I looked out the window. To my astonishment, Javert was gone.
    It was only later that I learned the truth. Javert threw himself into the Seine and drowned.
    Maybe he couldn’t bear to take me to prison. Maybe his duty to the law made it impossible for him to let me go. But I had spared his life, so he needed to spare mine.
    You know the story from here, my dear Cosette. Now you know that the money Igave you when you married Marius—600,000 francs—was really mine to give.
    I wasn’t at peace living in your house because of my secret. One day I took Marius aside. I told him I was an ex-convict.
    Marius was stunned. “But what does it mean?” he asked.
    â€œIt means I was a prisoner for nineteen years,” I said. “I escaped. I belong in prison even now.”
    â€œBut you didn’t have to tell me,” said Marius. “You could have gone on living with us under the name you were using—Fauchelevent.”
    â€œI once stole a loaf of bread to stay alive,” I replied. “But now I cannot steal a name in order to go on living.
    â€œHow would it be if someday we were all out together and the police recognized me and took me away?” I continued. “What would Cosette think? No, it’s better this way.”
    But I made Marius promise not to tell you. I moved out of his