Page 1430 - les-miserables

CHAPTER V

FACTS WHENCE HISTORY

SPRINGS AND WHICH

HISTORY IGNORES

Towards the end of April, everything had become aggra-
vated. The fermentation entered the boiling state. Ever since
1830, petty partial revolts had been going on here and there,
which were quickly suppressed, but ever bursting forth
afresh, the sign of a vast underlying conflagration. Some-
thing terrible was in preparation. Glimpses could be caught
of the features still indistinct and imperfectly lighted, of a
possible revolution. France kept an eye on Paris; Paris kept
an eye on the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
The Faubourg Saint-Antoine, which was in a dull glow,
was beginning its ebullition.
The wine-shops of the Rue de Charonne were, although
the union of the two epithets seems singular when applied
to wine-shops, grave and stormy.
The government was there purely and simply called in
question. There people publicly discussed the question of

1430 Les Miserables