Page 801 - les-miserables

had very quickly comprehended that it is never advisable
to stir up the prosecutor of the Crown, and that his com-
plaints with regard to the abduction of Cosette would have
as their first result to fix upon himself, and upon many dark
affairs which he had on hand, the glittering eye of justice.
The last thing that owls desire is to have a candle brought
to them. And in the first place, how explain the fifteen hun-
dred francs which he had received? He turned squarely
round, put a gag on his wife’s mouth, and feigned aston-
ishment when the stolen child was mentioned to him. He
understood nothing about it; no doubt he had grumbled for
awhile at having that dear little creature ‘taken from him’ so
hastily; he should have liked to keep her two or three days
longer, out of tenderness; but her ‘grandfather’ had come
for her in the most natural way in the world. He added the
‘grandfather,’ which produced a good effect. This was the
story that Javert hit upon when he arrived at Montfermeil.
The grandfather caused Jean Valjean to vanish.
Nevertheless, Javert dropped a few questions, like plum-
mets, into Thenardier’s history. ‘Who was that grandfather?
and what was his name?’ Thenardier replied with simplic-
ity: ‘He is a wealthy farmer. I saw his passport. I think his
name was M. Guillaume Lambert.’
Lambert is a respectable and extremely reassuring name.
Thereupon Javert returned to Paris.
‘Jean Valjean is certainly dead,’ said he, ‘and I am a nin-
ny.’
He had again begun to forget this history, when, in the
course of March, 1824, he heard of a singular personage

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