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CHAMPMATHIEU MORE AND MORE ASTONISHED
It was he, in fact.
The clerk's lamp illumined his countenance. He held his hat
in his hand; there was no disorder in his clothing; his coat was
carefully buttoned; he was very pale, and he trembled slightly;
his hair, which had still been gray on his arrival in Arras, was
now entirely white:
it had turned white during the hour he had sat there.
All heads were raised:
the sensation was indescribable; there was a momentary hesitation
in the audience, the voice had been so heart-rending; the man
who stood there appeared so calm that they did not understand
at first.
They asked themselves whether he had indeed uttered that cry;
they could not believe that that tranquil man had been the one
to give that terrible outcry.
This indecision only lasted a few seconds.
Even before the President and the district-attorney could
utter a word, before the ushers and the gendarmes could make a
gesture, the man whom all still called, at that moment, M. Madeleine,
had advanced towards the witnesses Cochepaille, Brevet, and Chenildieu.
"Do you not recognize me?" said he.
All three remained speechless, and indicated by a sign of
the head that they did not know him.
Cochepaille, who was intimidated, made a military salute.
M. Madeleine turned towards the jury and the court, and said
in a gentle voice:--
"Gentlemen of the jury, order the prisoner to be released!
Mr. President, have me arrested.
He is not the man whom you are in search of; it is I: I am
Jean Valjean."
Not a mouth breathed; the first commotion of astonishment
had been followed by a silence like that of the grave; those within
the hall experienced that sort of religious terror which seizes
the masses when something grand has been done.
In the meantime, the face of the President was stamped with
sympathy and sadness; he had exchanged a rapid sign with the district-attorney
and a few low-toned words with the assistant judges; he addressed
the public, and asked in accents which all understood:--
"Is there a physician present?"
The district-attorney took the word:--
"Gentlemen of the jury, the very strange and unexpected
incident which disturbs the audience inspires us, like yourselves,
only with a sentiment which it is unnecessary for us to express.
You all know, by reputation at least, the honorable M. Madeleine,
mayor of M. sur M.; if there is a physician in the audience, we
join the President in requesting him to attend to M. Madeleine,
and to conduct him to his home."
M.Madeleine did not allow the district-attorney to finish;
he interrupted him in accents full of suavity and authority. These
are the words which he uttered; here they are literally, as they
were written down, immediately after the trial by one of the witnesses
to this scene, and as they now ring in the ears of those who heard
them nearly forty years ago:--
"I thank you, Mr. District-Attorney, but I am not mad;
you shall see; you were on the point of committing a great error;
release this man! I am fulfilling a duty; I am that miserable
criminal.
I am the only one here who sees the matter clearly, and I
am telling you the truth.
God, who is on high, looks down on what I am doing at this
moment, and that suffices.
You can take me, for here I am: but I have done my best; I
concealed myself under another name; I have become rich; I have
become a mayor; I have tried to re-enter the ranks of the honest.
It seems that that is not to be done. In short, there are
many things which I cannot tell.
I will not narrate the story of my life to you; you will hear
it one of these days. I robbed Monseigneur the Bishop, it is true;
it is true that I robbed Little Gervais; they were right in telling
you that Jean Valjean was a very vicious wretch.
Perhaps it was not altogether his fault.
Listen, honorable judges! a man who has been so greatly humbled
as I have has neither any remonstrances to make to Providence,
nor any advice to give to society; but, you see, the infamy from
which I have tried to escape is an injurious thing; the galleys
make the convict what he is; reflect upon that, if you please.
Before going to the galleys, I was a poor peasant, with very little
intelligence, a sort of idiot; the galleys wrought a change in
me.
I was stupid; I became vicious:
I was a block of wood; I became a firebrand.
Later on, indulgence and kindness saved me, as severity had
ruined me.
But, pardon me, you cannot understand what I am saying.
You will find at my house, among the ashes in the fireplace,
the forty-sou piece which I stole, seven years ago, from little
Gervais.
I have nothing farther to add; take me. Good God! the district-attorney
shakes his head; you say, 'M. Madeleine has gone mad!' you do
not believe me! that is distressing.
Do not, at least, condemn this man!
What! these men do not recognize me! I wish Javert were here;
he would recognize me."
Nothing can reproduce the sombre and kindly melancholy of
tone which accompanied these words.
He turned to the three convicts, and said:--
"Well, I recognize you; do you remember, Brevet?"
He paused, hesitated for an instant, and said:--
"Do you remember the knitted suspenders with a checked
pattern which you wore in the galleys?"
Brevet gave a start of surprise, and surveyed him from head
to foot with a frightened air.
He continued:--
"Chenildieu, you who conferred on yourself the name of
`Jenie-Dieu,' your whole right shoulder bears a deep burn, because
you one day laid your shoulder against the chafing-dish full of
coals, in order to efface the three letters T. F. P., which are
still visible, nevertheless; answer, is this true?"
"It is true," said Chenildieu.
He addressed himself to Cochepaille:--
"Cochepaille, you have, near the bend in your left arm,
a date stamped in blue letters with burnt powder; the date is
that of the landing of the Emperor at Cannes, March 1, 1815; pull
up your sleeve!"
Cochepaille pushed up his sleeve; all eyes were focused on
him and on his bare arm.
A gendarme held a light close to it; there was the date.
The unhappy man turned to the spectators and the judges with
a smile which still rends the hearts of all who saw it whenever
they think of it.
It was a smile of triumph; it was also a smile of despair.
"You see plainly," he said, "that I am Jean
Valjean."
In that chamber there were no longer either judges, accusers,
nor gendarmes; there was nothing but staring eyes and sympathizing
hearts.
No one recalled any longer the part that each might be called
upon to play; the district-attorney forgot he was there for the
purpose of prosecuting, the President that he was there to preside,
the counsel for the defence that he was there to defend. It was
a striking circumstance that no question was put, that no authority
intervened.
The peculiarity of sublime spectacles is, that they capture
all souls and turn witnesses into spectators. No one, probably,
could have explained what he felt; no one, probably, said to himself
that he was witnessing the splendid outburst of a grand light:
all felt themselves inwardly dazzled.
It was evident that they had Jean Valjean before their eyes.
That was clear.
The appearance of this man had sufficed to suffuse with light
that matter which had been so obscure but a moment previously,
without any further explanation:
the whole crowd, as by a sort of electric revelation, understood
instantly and at a single glance the simple and magnificent history
of a man who was delivering himself up so that another man might
not be condemned in his stead. The details, the hesitations, little
possible oppositions, were swallowed up in that vast and luminous
fact.
It was an impression which vanished speedily, but which was
irresistible at the moment.
"I do not wish to disturb the court further," resumed
Jean Valjean. "I shall withdraw, since you do not arrest
me.
I have many things to do. The district-attorney knows who
I am; he knows whither I am going; he can have me arrested when
he likes."
He directed his steps towards the door.
Not a voice was raised, not an arm extended to hinder him.
All stood aside.
At that moment there was about him that divine something which
causes multitudes to stand aside and make way for a man.
He traversed the crowd slowly. It was never known who opened
the door, but it is certain that he found the door open when he
reached it.
On arriving there he turned round and said:--
"I am at your command, Mr. District-Attorney."
Then he addressed the audience:--
"All of you, all who are present--consider me worthy
of pity, do you not?
Good God!
When I think of what I was on the point of doing, I consider
that I am to be envied.
Nevertheless, I should have preferred not to have had this
occur."
He withdrew, and the door closed behind him as it had opened,
for those who do certain sovereign things are always sure of being
served by some one in the crowd.
Less than an hour after this, the verdict of the jury freed
the said Champmathieu from all accusations; and Champmathieu,
being at once released, went off in a state of stupefaction, thinking
that all men were fools, and comprehending nothing of this vision.
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