1872 Les Miserables
is true that the malefactors have instituted intrigues on the
right bank of the Seine, near the Jena bridge.’
The search ended, they lifted Javert to his feet, bound his
arms behind his back, and fastened him to that celebrated
post in the middle of the room which had formerly given
the wine-shop its name.
Gavroche, who had looked on at the whole of this scene
and had approved of everything with a silent toss of his
head, stepped up to Javert and said to him:—
‘It’s the mouse who has caught the cat.’
All this was so rapidly executed, that it was all over when
those about the wine-shop noticed it.
Javert had not uttered a single cry.
At the sight of Javert bound to the post, Courfeyrac,
Bossuet, Joly, Combeferre, and the men scattered over the
two barricades came running up.
Javert, with his back to the post, and so surrounded with
ropes that he could not make a movement, raised his head
with the intrepid serenity of the man who has never lied.
‘He is a police spy,’ said Enjolras.
And turning to Javert: ‘You will be shot ten minutes be-
fore the barricade is taken.’
Javert replied in his most imperious tone:—
‘Why not at once?’
‘We are saving our powder.’
‘Then finish the business with a blow from a knife.’
‘Spy,’ said the handsome Enjolras, ‘we are judges and not
assassins.’
Then he called Gavroche:—