2198 Les Miserables
He seized Marius’ hand and felt his pulse.
‘He is wounded,’ said Jean Valjean.
‘He is a dead man,’ said Javert.
Jean Valjean replied:
‘No. Not yet.’
‘So you have brought him thither from the barricade?’
remarked Javert.
His preoccupation must indeed have been very profound
for him not to insist on this alarming rescue through the
sewer, and for him not to even notice Jean Valjean’s silence
after his question.
Jean Valjean, on his side, seemed to have but one thought.
He resumed:
‘He lives in the Marais, Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, with
his grandfather. I do not recollect his name.’
Jean Valjean fumbled in Marius’ coat, pulled out his
pocket-book, opened it at the page which Marius had pen-
cilled, and held it out to Javert.
There was still sufficient light to admit of reading.
Besides this, Javert possessed in his eye the feline phospho-
rescence of night birds. He deciphered the few lines written
by Marius, and muttered: ‘Gillenormand, Rue des Filles-
duCalvaire, No. 6.’
Then he exclaimed: ‘Coachman!’
The reader will remember that the hackney-coach was
waiting in case of need.
Javert kept Marius’ pocket-book.
A moment later, the carriage, which had descended by
the inclined plane of the watering-place, was on the shore.