1376 Les Miserables
ple are perfectly right when they say that men are a deal
stupider than women! Nobody at No. 17. It’s nothing but a
big carriage gate! No Monsieur Fabre in the Rue Saint-Do-
minique! And after all that racing and fee to the coachman
and all! I spoke to both the porter and the portress, a fine,
stout woman, and they know nothing about him!’
Marius breathed freely once more.
She, Ursule or the Lark, he no longer knew what to call
her, was safe.
While his exasperated wife vociferated, Thenardier had
seated himself on the table.
For several minutes he uttered not a word, but swung his
right foot, which hung down, and stared at the brazier with
an air of savage revery.
Finally, he said to the prisoner, with a slow and singu-
larly ferocious tone:
‘A false address? What did you expect to gain by that?’
‘To gain time!’ cried the prisoner in a thundering voice,
and at the same instant he shook off his bonds; they were
cut. The prisoner was only attached to the bed now by one
leg.
Before the seven men had time to collect their sens-
es and dash forward, he had bent down into the fireplace,
had stretched out his hand to the brazier, and had then
straightened himself up again, and now Thenardier, the fe-
male Thenardier, and the ruffians, huddled in amazement
at the extremity of the hovel, stared at him in stupefaction,
as almost free and in a formidable attitude, he brandished
above his head the red-hot chisel, which emitted a threaten-