13 4 8 Les Miserables
‘ Ye s .’
‘Is the team harnessed?’
‘ Ye s .’
‘With two good horses?’
‘Excel lent.’
‘Is it waiting where I ordered?’
‘ Ye s .’
‘Good,’ said Jondrette.
M. Leblanc was very pale. He was scrutinizing every-
thing around him in the den, like a man who understands
what he has fallen into, and his head, directed in turn to-
ward all the heads which surrounded him, moved on his
neck with an astonished and attentive slowness, but there
was nothing in his air which resembled fear. He had impro-
vised an intrenchment out of the table; and the man, who
but an instant previously, had borne merely the appearance
of a kindly old man, had suddenly become a sort of athlete,
and placed his robust fist on the back of his chair, with a for-
midable and surprising gesture.
This old man, who was so firm and so brave in the
presence of such a danger, seemed to possess one of those
natures which are as courageous as they are kind, both eas-
ily and simply. The father of a woman whom we love is never
a stranger to us. Marius felt proud of that unknown man.
Three of the men, of whom Jondrette had said: ‘They are
chimney-builders,’ had armed themselves from the pile of
old iron, one with a heavy pair of shears, the second with
weighing-tongs, the third with a hammer, and had placed
themselves across the entrance without uttering a sylla-