Page 457 - les-miserables

the critics of the Quotidienne and the Oriflamme; he attrib-
uted, not without some probability, to the influence of this
perverse literature the crime of Champmathieu, or rather,
to speak more correctly, of Jean Valjean. Having exhausted
these considerations, he passed on to Jean Valjean himself.
Who was this Jean Valjean? Description of Jean Valjean: a
monster spewed forth, etc. The model for this sort of de-
scription is contained in the tale of Theramene, which is
not useful to tragedy, but which every day renders great
services to judicial eloquence. The audience and the jury
‘shuddered.’ The description finished, the district-attorney
resumed with an oratorical turn calculated to raise the en-
thusiasm of the journal of the prefecture to the highest pitch
on the following day: And it is such a man, etc., etc., etc.,
vagabond, beggar, without means of existence, etc., etc.,
inured by his past life to culpable deeds, and but little re-
formed by his sojourn in the galleys, as was proved by the
crime committed against Little Gervais, etc., etc.; it is such a
man, caught upon the highway in the very act of theft, a few
paces from a wall that had been scaled, still holding in his
hand the object stolen, who denies the crime, the theft, the
climbing the wall; denies everything; denies even his own
identity! In addition to a hundred other proofs, to which
we will not recur, four witnesses recognize him—Javert, the
upright inspector of police; Javert, and three of his former
companions in infamy, the convicts Brevet, Chenildieu,
and Cochepaille. What does he offer in opposition to this
overwhelming unanimity? His denial. What obduracy! You
will do justice, gentlemen of the jury, etc., etc. While the

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