Page 1644 - les-miserables

You have to be knowing. He’s only a greenhorn. He must
have let himself be taken in by a bobby, perhaps even by a
sheep who played it on him as his pal. Listen, Montparnasse,
do you hear those shouts in the prison? You have seen all
those lights. He’s recaptured, there! He’ll get off with twenty
years. I ain’t afraid, I ain’t a coward, but there ain’t anything
more to do, or otherwise they’d lead us a dance. Don’t get
mad, come with us, let’s go drink a bottle of old wine to-
gether.’
‘One doesn’t desert one’s friends in a scrape,’ grumbled
Montparnasse.
‘I tell you he’s nabbed!’ retorted Brujon. ‘At the present
moment, the inn-keeper ain’t worth a ha’penny. We can’t do
nothing for him. Let’s be off. Every minute I think a bobby
has got me in his fist.’
Montparnasse no longer offered more than a feeble re-
sistance; the fact is, that these four men, with the fidelity
of ruffians who never abandon each other, had prowled all
night long about La Force, great as was their peril, in the
hope of seeing Thenardier make his appearance on the
top of some wall. But the night, which was really growing
too fine,—for the downpour was such as to render all the
streets deserted,—the cold which was overpowering them,
their soaked garments, their hole-ridden shoes, the alarm-
ing noise which had just burst forth in the prison, the hours
which had elapsed, the patrol which they had encountered,
the hope which was vanishing, all urged them to beat a re-
treat. Montparnasse himself, who was, perhaps, almost
Thenardier’s son-in-law, yielded. A moment more, and they

1644 Les Miserables