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CHAPTER XI
CONCUSSION IN
THE ABSOLUTE
They did not open their lips again during the whole space
of their ride.
What did Jean Valjean want? To finish what he had be-
gun; to warn Cosette, to tell her where Marius was, to give
her, possibly, some other useful information, to take, if he
could, certain final measures. As for himself, so far as he
was personally concerned, all was over; he had been seized
by Javert and had not resisted; any other man than him-
self in like situation would, perhaps, have had some vague
thoughts connected with the rope which Thenardier had
given him, and of the bars of the first cell that he should
enter; but, let us impress it upon the reader, after the Bish-
op, there had existed in Jean Valjean a profound hesitation
in the presence of any violence, even when directed against
himself.
Suicide, that mysterious act of violence against the un-
known which may contain, in a measure, the death of the
soul, was impossible to Jean Valjean.