2418 Les Miserables
than that for sale. And, according to all appearances, if he
were to come and make to the Baron Pontmercy this reve-
lation—and without proof: ‘Your wife is a bastard,’ the only
result would be to attract the boot of the husband towards
the loins of the revealer.
From Thenardier’s point of view, the conversation with
Marius had not yet begun. He ought to have drawn back, to
have modified his strategy, to have abandoned his position,
to have changed his front; but nothing essential had been
compromised as yet, and he had five hundred francs in his
pocket. Moreover, he had something decisive to say, and,
even against this very well-informed and well-armed Baron
Pontmercy, he felt himself strong. For men of Thenardier’s
nature, every dialogue is a combat. In the one in which he
was about to engage, what was his situation? He did not
know to whom he was speaking, but he did know of what he
was speaking, he made this rapid review of his inner forces,
and after having said: ‘I am Thenardier,’ he waited.
Marius had become thoughtful. So he had hold of The-
nardier at last. That man whom he had so greatly desired to
find was before him. He could honor Colonel Pontmercy’s
recommendation.
He felt humiliated that that hero should have owned
anything to this villain, and that the letter of change drawn
from the depths of the tomb by his father upon him, Mari-
us, had been protested up to that day. It also seemed to him,
in the complex state of his mind towards Thenardier, that
there was occasion to avenge the Colonel for the misfortune
of having been saved by such a rascal. In any case, he was