Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK EIGHTH. THE WICKED POOR MAN CHAPTER XIII

Marius, dreamer as he was, was, as we have said, firm and energetic bynature. His habits of solitary meditation, while they had developed in him sympathy andcompassion, had, perhaps, diminished the faculty for irritation, but had left intact thepower of waxing indignant; he had the kindliness of a brahmin, and the severity of ajudge; he took pity upon a toad, but he crushed a viper. Now, it was into a hole of vipersthat his glance had just been directed,it was a nest of monsters that he had beneath hiseyes.　

"These wretches must be stamped upon," said he.

Not one of the enigmas which he had hoped to see solved had beenelucidated; on the contrary, all of them had been rendered more dense, if anything; heknew nothing more about the beautifulmaiden of the Luxembourg and the man whom he calledM. Leblanc,except that Jondrette was acquainted with them. Athwart themysteriouswords which had been uttered, the only thing of which he caught a distinct glimpse was thefact that an ambush was in course of preparation, a dark but terrible trap; that both ofthem were incurring great danger, she probably, her father certainly; that they must besaved; that the hideous plots of the Jondrettes must be thwarted, and the web of thesespiders broken. 　

He scanned the female Jondrette for a moment. She had pulled an oldsheet-iron stove from a corner, and she was rummaging among the old heap of iron.

He descended from the commode as softly as possible, taking care not tomake the least noise. Amid his terror as to what was in preparation,and in the horror withwhich the Jondrettes had inspired him,he experienced a sort of joy at the idea that itmight be granted to him perhaps to render a service to the one whom he loved.　

But how was it to be done? How warn the persons threatened? He did notknow their address. They had reappeared for an instant before his eyes, and had thenplunged back again into the immense depths of Paris. Should he wait for M. Leblanc at thedoor that evening at six o'clock, at the moment of his arrival, and warn him of the trap?But Jondrette and his men would see him on the watch, the spot was lonely, they werestronger than he, they would devise means to seize him or to get him away, and the manwhom Marius was anxious to save would be lost. One o'clock had just struck,the trap was tobe sprung at six. Marius had five hours before him.　

There was but one thing to be done.　

He put on his decent coat, knotted a silk handkerchief round hisneck,took his hat, and went out, without making any more noise than if he had beentreading on moss with bare feet.

Moreover, the Jondrette woman continued to rummage among her old iron.　

Once outside of the house, he made for the Rue du Petit-Banquier.　

He had almost reached the middle of this street, near a very low wallwhich a man can easily step over at certain points, and which abuts on a waste space, andwas walking slowly, in consequence of his preoccupied condition, and the snow deadened thesound of his steps; all at once he heard voices talking very close by. He turned his head,the street was deserted, there was not a soul in it, it was broad daylight, and yet hedistinctly heard voices.

It occurred to him to glance over the wall which he was skirting.

There, in fact, sat two men, flat on the snow, with their backs againstthe wall, talking together in subdued tones. 　

These two persons were strangers to him; one was a bearded man in ablouse, and the other a long-haired individual in rags. The bearded man had on a fez, theother's head was bare, and the snow had lodged in his hair.

By thrusting his head over the wall, Marius could hear their remarks.

The hairy one jogged the other man's elbow and said:--

"--With the assistance of Patron-Minette, it can't fail."

"Do you think so?" said the bearded man.　

And the long-haired one began again:--　

"It's as good as a warrant for each one, of five hundred balls,andthe worst that can happen is five years, six years, ten years at the most!"

The other replied with some hesitation, and shivering beneath hisfez:--

"That's a real thing. You can't go against such things."　

"I tell you that the affair can't go wrong," resumed thelong-haired man. "Father What's-his-name's team will be already harnessed."

Then they began to discuss a melodrama that they had seen on thepreceding evening at the Gaite Theatre.　

Marius went his way.

It seemed to him that the mysterious words of these men,so strangelyhidden behind that wall, and crouching in the snow,could not but bear some relation toJondrette's abominable projects. That must be the affair.　

He directed his course towards the faubourg Saint-Marceau and asked atthe first shop he came to where he could find a commissary of police.

He was directed to Rue de Pontoise, No. 14.

Thither Marius betook himself.

As he passed a baker's shop, he bought a two-penny roll, and ateit,foreseeing that he should not dine.

On the way, he rendered justice to Providence. He reflected that had henot given his five francs to the Jondrette girl in the morning,he would have followed M.Leblanc's fiacre, and consequently have remained ignorant of everything, and that therewould have been no obstacle to the trap of the Jondrettes and that M. Leblanc would havebeen lost, and his daughter with him, no doubt.