2448 Les Miserables
enough to cover a man.
No name is to be read there.
Only, many years ago, a hand wrote upon it in pencil
these four lines, which have become gradually illegible be-
neath the rain and the dust, and which are, to-day, probably
effaced:Il dort. Quoique le sort fut pour lui bien etrange,
Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n’eut plus son ange.
La chose simplement d’elle-meme arriva,
Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s’en va.He sleeps. Although his fate was very strange, he lived. He
died when he had no longer his angel. The thing came to pass
simply, of itself, as the night comes when day is gone.LETTER TO M. DAELLI
Publisher of the Italian translation of Les Miserables in
Milan.
HAUTEVILLE-HOUSE, October 18, 1862.
You are right, sir, when you tell me that Les Miserables
is written for all nations. I do not know whether it will be
read by all, but I wrote it for all. It is addressed to England as
well as to Spain, to Italy as well as to France, to Germany as
well as to Ireland, to Republics which have slaves as well as
to Empires which have serfs. Social problems overstep fron-
tiers. The sores of the human race, those great sores which
cover the globe, do not halt at the red or blue lines traced
upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and