Page 2284 - les-miserables

the fact that he had saved Colonel Pontmercy. Thenardier
was a ruffian in the eyes of all the world except Marius.
And Marius, ignorant of the real scene in the battle field
of Waterloo, was not aware of the peculiar detail, that his fa-
ther, so far as Thenardier was concerned was in the strange
position of being indebted to the latter for his life, without
being indebted to him for any gratitude.
None of the various agents whom Marius employed suc-
ceeded in discovering any trace of Thenardier. Obliteration
appeared to be complete in that quarter. Madame Thenar-
dier had died in prison pending the trial. Thenardier and
his daughter Azelma, the only two remaining of that lam-
entable group, had plunged back into the gloom. The gulf of
the social unknown had silently closed above those beings.
On the surface there was not visible so much as that quiver,
that trembling, those obscure concentric circles which an-
nounce that something has fallen in, and that the plummet
may be dropped.
Madame Thenardier being dead, Boulatruelle being
eliminated from the case, Claquesous having disappeared,
the principal persons accused having escaped from prison,
the trial connected with the ambush in the Gorbeau house
had come to nothing.
That affair had remained rather obscure. The bench of
Assizes had been obliged to content themselves with two
subordinates. Panchaud, alias Printanier, alias Bigrenaille,
and Demi-Liard, alias Deux-Milliards, who had been in-
consistently condemned, after a hearing of both sides of the
case, to ten years in the galleys. Hard labor for life had been

2284 Les Miserables