This humiliation had been worth five hundred francs to him, and, taking it all in all, he accepted it; but he was none the less bewildered.
He beheld this Baron Pontmercy for the first time, and, in spite of his disguise, this Baron Pontmercy recognized him, and recognized him thoroughly.
And not only was this Baron perfectly informed as to Thenardier, but he seemed well posted as to Jean Valjean.
Who was this almost beardless young man, who was so glacial and so generous, who knew people's names, who knew all their names, and who opened his purse to them, who bullied rascals like a judge, and who paid them like a dupe?
Thenardier, the reader will remember, although he had been Marius' neighbor, had never seen him, which is not unusual in Paris; he had formerly, in a vague way, heard his daughters talk of a very poor young man named Marius who lived in the house.
He had written to him, without knowing him, the letter with which the reader is acquainted.
No connection between that Marius and M. le Baron Pontmercy was possible in his mind.
As for the name Pontmercy, it will be recalled that, on the battlefield of Waterloo, he had only heard the last two syllables, for which he always entertained the legitimate scorn which one owes to what is merely an expression of thanks.
However, through his daughter Azelma, who had started on the scent of the married pair on the 16th of February, and through his own personal researches, he had succeeded in learning many things, and, from the depths of his own gloom, he had contrived to grasp more than one mysterious clew.
He had discovered, by dint of industry, or, at least, by dint of induction, he had guessed who the man was whom he had encountered on a certain day in the Grand Sewer.
From the man he had easily reached the name.
He knew that Madame la Baronne Pontmercy was Cosette.
But he meant to be discreet in that quarter.
Who was Cosette?
He did not know exactly himself.
He did, indeed, catch an inkling of illegitimacy, the history of Fantine had always seemed to him equivocal; but what was the use of talking about that? in order to cause himself to be paid for his silence?
He had, or thought he had, better wares than that for sale.
And, according to all appearances, if he were to come and make to the Baron Pontmercy this revelation--and without proof:
"Your wife is a bastard," the only result would be to attract the boot of the husband towards the loins of the revealer.
From Thenardier's point of view, the conversation with Marius had not yet begun.
He ought to have drawn back, to have modified his strategy, to have abandoned his position, to have changed his front; but nothing essential had been compromised as yet, and he had five hundred francs in his pocket.
Moreover, he had something decisive to say, and, even against this very well-informed and well-armed Baron Pontmercy, he felt himself strong.
For men of Thenardier's nature, every dialogue is a combat.
In the one in which he was about to engage, what was his situation?
He did not know to whom he was speaking, but he did know of what he was speaking, he made this rapid review of his inner forces, and after having said:
"I am Thenardier," he waited.
Marius had become thoughtful.
So he had hold of Thenardier at last.
That man whom he had so greatly desired to find was before him.
He could honor Colonel Pontmercy's recommendation.
He felt humiliated that that hero should have owned anything to this villain, and that the letter of change drawn from the depths of the tomb by his father upon him, Marius, had been protested up to that day.
It also seemed to him, in the complex state of his mind towards Thenardier, that there was occasion to avenge the Colonel for the misfortune of having been saved by such a rascal.
In any case, he was content.
He was about to deliver the Colonel's shade from this unworthy creditor at last, and it seemed to him that he was on the point of rescuing his father's memory from the debtors' prison.
By the side of this duty there was another-- to elucidate, if possible, the source of Cosette's fortune.
The opportunity appeared to present itself.
Perhaps Thenardier knew something.
It might prove useful to see the bottom of this man.
He commenced with this.
Thenardier had caused the "honest rustler" to disappear in his fob, and was gazing at Marius with a gentleness that was almost tender.
Marius broke the silence.
"Thenardier, I have told you your name.
Now, would you like to have me tell you your secret--the one that you came here to reveal to me?
I have information of my own, also.
You shall see that I know more about it than you do.
Jean Valjean, as you have said, is an assassin and a thief.
A thief, because he robbed a wealthy manufacturer, whose ruin he brought about.
An assassin, because he assassinated police-agent Javert."
"I don't understand, sir," ejaculated Thenardier.
"I will make myself intelligible.
In a certain arrondissement of the Pas de Calais, there was, in 1822, a man who had fallen out with justice, and who, under the name of M. Madeleine, had regained his status and rehabilitated himself.
This man had become a just man in the full force of the term.
In a trade, the manufacture of black glass goods, he made the fortune of an entire city.
As far as his personal fortune was concerned he made that also, but as a secondary matter, and in some sort, by accident.
He was the foster-father of the poor.
He founded hospitals, opened schools, visited the sick, dowered young girls, supported widows, and adopted orphans; he was like the guardian angel of the country.
He refused the cross, he was appointed Mayor.
A liberated convict knew the secret of a penalty incurred by this man in former days; he denounced him, and had him arrested, and profited by the arrest to come to Paris and cause the banker Laffitte,--I have the fact from the cashier himself,--by means of a false signature, to hand over to him the sum of over half a million which belonged to M. Madeleine.
This convict who robbed M. Madeleine was Jean Valjean.
As for the other fact, you have nothing to tell me about it either.
Jean Valjean killed the agent Javert; he shot him with a pistol.
I, the person who is speaking to you, was present."
Thenardier cast upon Marius the sovereign glance of a conquered man who lays his hand once more upon the victory, and who has just regained, in one instant, all the ground which he has lost.
But the smile returned instantly.
The inferior's triumph in the presence of his superior must be wheedling.
Thenardier contented himself with saying to Marius:
"Monsieur le Baron, we are on the wrong track."
And he emphasized this phrase by making his bunch of seals execute an expressive whirl.
"What!" broke forth Marius, "do you dispute that?
These are facts."
"They are chimeras.
The confidence with which Monsieur le Baron honors me renders it my duty to tell him so.
Truth and justice before all things.
I do not like to see folks accused unjustly.
Monsieur le Baron, Jean Valjean did not rob M. Madeleine and Jean Valjean did not kill Javert."
"This is too much!
How is this?"
"For two reasons."
"What are they?
Speak."
"This is the first:
he did not rob M. Madeleine, because it is Jean Valjean himself who was M. Madeleine."
"What tale are you telling me?"
"And this is the second:
he did not assassinate Javert, because the person who killed Javert was Javert."
"What do you mean to say?"
"That Javert committed suicide."
"Prove it! prove it!" cried Marius beside himself.
Thenardier resumed, scanning his phrase after the manner of the ancient Alexandrine measure:
"Police-agent-Ja-vert-was-found-drowned-un-der-a-boat-of-the-Pont-au-Change."
"But prove it!"
Thenardier drew from his pocket a large envelope of gray paper, which seemed to contain sheets folded in different sizes.
"I have my papers," he said calmly.
And he added:
"Monsieur le Baron, in your interests I desired to know Jean Valjean thoroughly.
I say that Jean Valjean and M. Madeleine are one and the same man, and I say that Javert had no other assassin than Javert.
If I speak, it is because I have proofs.
Not manuscript proofs-- writing is suspicious, handwriting is complaisant,--but printed proofs."
As he spoke, Thenardier extracted from the envelope two copies of newspapers, yellow, faded, and strongly saturated with tobacco.
One of these two newspapers, broken at every fold and falling into rags, seemed much older than the other.
"Two facts, two proofs," remarked Thenardier.
And he offered the two newspapers, unfolded, to Marius,
The reader is acquainted with these two papers.
One, the most ancient, a number of the Drapeau Blanc of the 25th of July, 1823, the text of which can be seen in the first volume, established the identity of M. Madeleine and Jean Valjean.
The other, a Moniteur of the 15th of June, 1832, announced the suicide of Javert, adding that it appeared from a verbal report of Javert to the prefect that, having been taken prisoner in the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, he had owed his life to the magnanimity of an insurgent who, holding him under his pistol, had fired into the air, instead of blowing out his brains.
Marius read.
He had evidence, a certain date, irrefragable proof, these two newspapers had not been printed expressly for the purpose of backing up Thenardier's statements; the note printed in the Moniteur had been an administrative communication from the Prefecture of Police.
Marius could not doubt.
The information of the cashier-clerk had been false, and he himself had been deceived.
Jean Valjean, who had suddenly grown grand, emerged from his cloud.
Marius could not repress a cry of joy.
"Well, then this unhappy wretch is an admirable man! the whole of that fortune really belonged to him! he is Madeleine, the providence of a whole countryside! he is Jean Valjean, Javert's savior! he is a hero! he is a saint!"
"He's not a saint, and he's not a hero!" said Thenardier.
"He's an assassin and a robber."
And he added, in the tone of a man who begins to feel that he possesses some authority:
"Let us be calm."
Robber, assassin--those words which Marius thought had disappeared and which returned, fell upon him like an ice-cold shower-bath.
"Again!" said he.
"Always," ejaculated Thenardier.
"Jean Valjean did not rob Madeleine, but he is a thief.
He did not kill Javert, but he is a murderer."
"Will you speak," retorted Marius, "of that miserable theft, committed forty years ago, and expiated, as your own newspapers prove, by a whole life of repentance, of self-abnegation and of virtue?"
"I say assassination and theft, Monsieur le Baron, and I repeat that I am speaking of actual facts.
What I have to reveal to you is absolutely unknown.
It belongs to unpublished matter.
And perhaps you will find in it the source of the fortune so skilfully presented to Madame la Baronne by Jean Valjean.
I say skilfully, because, by a gift of that nature it would not be so very unskilful to slip into an honorable house whose comforts one would then share, and, at the same stroke, to conceal one's crime, and to enjoy one's theft, to bury one's name and to create for oneself a family."
"I might interrupt you at this point," said Marius, "but go on."
"Monsieur le Baron, I will tell you all, leaving the recompense to your generosity.
This secret is worth massive gold.
You will say to me:
`Why do not you apply to Jean Valjean?'
For a very simple reason; I know that he has stripped himself, and stripped himself in your favor, and I consider the combination ingenious; but he has no longer a son, he would show me his empty hands, and, since I am in need of some money for my trip to la Joya, I prefer you, you who have it all, to him who has nothing.
I am a little fatigued, permit me to take a chair."
Marius seated himself and motioned to him to do the same.
Thenardier installed himself on a tufted chair, picked up his two newspapers, thrust them back into their envelope, and murmured as he pecked at the Drapeau Blanc with his nail:
"It cost me a good deal of trouble to get this one."
That done he crossed his legs and stretched himself out on the back of the chair, an attitude characteristic of people who are sure of what they are saying, then he entered upon his subject gravely, emphasizing his words:
"Monsieur le Baron, on the 6th of June, 1832, about a year ago, on the day of the insurrection, a man was in the Grand Sewer of Paris, at the point where the sewer enters the Seine, between the Pont des Invalides and the Pont de Jena."
Marius abruptly drew his chair closer to that of Thenardier.
Thenardier noticed this movement and continued with the deliberation of an orator who holds his interlocutor and who feels his adversary palpitating under his words:
"This man, forced to conceal himself, and for reasons, moreover, which are foreign to politics, had adopted the sewer as his domicile and had a key to it.
It was, I repeat, on the 6th of June; it might have been eight o'clock in the evening.
The man hears a noise in the sewer.
Greatly surprised, he hides himself and lies in wait.
It was the sound of footsteps, some one was walking in the dark, and coming in his direction.
Strange to say, there was another man in the sewer besides himself.
The grating of the outlet from the sewer was not far off.
A little light which fell through it permitted him to recognize the newcomer, and to see that the man was carrying something on his back.
He was walking in a bent attitude.
The man who was walking in a bent attitude was an ex-convict, and what he was dragging on his shoulders was a corpse.
Assassination caught in the very act, if ever there was such a thing.
