1642 Les Miserables
Pavee, halt in the recess above which Thenardier was, as it
were, suspended. Here this man was joined by a second,
who walked with the same caution, then by a third, then
by a fourth. When these men were re-united, one of them
lifted the latch of the gate in the fence, and all four entered
the enclosure in which the shanty stood. They halted direct-
ly under Thenardier. These men had evidently chosen this
vacant space in order that they might consult without be-
ing seen by the passers-by or by the sentinel who guards
the wicket of La Force a few paces distant. It must be added,
that the rain kept this sentinel blocked in his box. Thenar-
dier, not being able to distinguish their visages, lent an ear
to their words with the desperate attention of a wretch who
feels himself lost.
Thenardier saw something resembling a gleam of hope
flash before his eyes,—these men conversed in slang.
The first said in a low but distinct voice:—
‘Let’s cut. What are we up to here?’
The second replied: ‘It’s raining hard enough to put out
the very devil’s fire. And the bobbies will be along instan-
ter. There’s a soldier on guard yonder. We shall get nabbed
here.’
These two words, icigo and icicaille, both of which mean
ici, and which belong, the first to the slang of the barriers,
the second to the slang of the Temple, were flashes of light
for Thenardier. By the icigo he recognized Brujon, who was
a prowler of the barriers, by the icicaille he knew Babet,
who, among his other trades, had been an old-clothes bro-
ker at the Temple.