الفصل الفصل 112 · TO WIT, THE PLAN OF PARIS IN 1727

Three hundred paces further on, he arrived at a point where the street

forked. It separated into two streets, which ran in a slanting line,

one to the right, and the other to the left.

Jean Valjean had before him what resembled the two branches of a Y.

Which should he choose? He did not hesitate, but took the one on the

right.

Why?

Because that to the left ran towards a suburb, that is to say, towards

inhabited regions, and the right branch towards the open country, that

is to say, towards deserted regions.

However, they no longer walked very fast. Cosette’s pace retarded Jean

Valjean’s.

He took her up and carried her again. Cosette laid her head on the

shoulder of the good man and said not a word.

He turned round from time to time and looked behind him. He took care

to keep always on the dark side of the street. The street was straight

in his rear. The first two or three times that he turned round he saw

nothing; the silence was profound, and he continued his march somewhat

reassured. All at once, on turning round, he thought he perceived in

the portion of the street which he had just passed through, far off in

the obscurity, something which was moving.

He rushed forward precipitately rather than walked, hoping to find some

side-street, to make his escape through it, and thus to break his scent

once more.

He arrived at a wall.

This wall, however, did not absolutely prevent further progress; it was

a wall which bordered a transverse street, in which the one he had

taken ended.

Here again, he was obliged to come to a decision; should he go to the

right or to the left.

He glanced to the right. The fragmentary lane was prolonged between

buildings which were either sheds or barns, then ended at a blind

alley. The extremity of the cul-de-sac was distinctly visible,—a lofty

white wall.

He glanced to the left. On that side the lane was open, and about two

hundred paces further on, ran into a street of which it was the

affluent. On that side lay safety.

At the moment when Jean Valjean was meditating a turn to the left, in

an effort to reach the street which he saw at the end of the lane, he

perceived a sort of motionless, black statue at the corner of the lane

and the street towards which he was on the point of directing his

steps.

It was some one, a man, who had evidently just been posted there, and

who was barring the passage and waiting.

Jean Valjean recoiled.

The point of Paris where Jean Valjean found himself, situated between

the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and la Râpée, is one of those which recent

improvements have transformed from top to bottom,—resulting in

disfigurement according to some, and in a transfiguration according to

others. The market-gardens, the timber-yards, and the old buildings

have been effaced. To-day, there are brand-new, wide streets, arenas,

circuses, hippodromes, railway stations, and a prison, Mazas, there;

progress, as the reader sees, with its antidote.

Half a century ago, in that ordinary, popular tongue, which is all

compounded of traditions, which persists in calling the Institut _les

Quatre-Nations_, and the Opera-Comique _Feydeau_, the precise spot

whither Jean Valjean had arrived was called _le Petit-Picpus_. The

Porte Saint-Jacques, the Porte Paris, the Barrière des Sergents, the

Porcherons, la Galiote, les Célestins, les Capucins, le Mail, la

Bourbe, l’Arbre de Cracovie, la Petite-Pologne—these are the names of

old Paris which survive amid the new. The memory of the populace hovers

over these relics of the past.

Le Petit-Picpus, which, moreover, hardly ever had any existence, and

never was more than the outline of a quarter, had nearly the monkish

aspect of a Spanish town. The roads were not much paved; the streets

were not much built up. With the exception of the two or three streets,

of which we shall presently speak, all was wall and solitude there. Not

a shop, not a vehicle, hardly a candle lighted here and there in the

windows; all lights extinguished after ten o’clock. Gardens, convents,

timber-yards, marshes; occasional lowly dwellings and great walls as

high as the houses.

Such was this quarter in the last century. The Revolution snubbed it

soundly. The republican government demolished and cut through it.

Rubbish shoots were established there. Thirty years ago, this quarter

was disappearing under the erasing process of new buildings. To-day, it

has been utterly blotted out. The Petit-Picpus, of which no existing

plan has preserved a trace, is indicated with sufficient clearness in

the plan of 1727, published at Paris by Denis Thierry, Rue

Saint-Jacques, opposite the Rue du Plâtre; and at Lyons, by Jean Girin,

Rue Mercière, at the sign of Prudence. Petit-Picpus had, as we have

just mentioned, a Y of streets, formed by the Rue du

Chemin-Vert-Saint-Antoine, which spread out in two branches, taking on

the left the name of Little Picpus Street, and on the right the name of

the Rue Polonceau. The two limbs of the Y were connected at the apex as

by a bar; this bar was called Rue Droit-Mur. The Rue Polonceau ended

there; Rue Petit-Picpus passed on, and ascended towards the Lenoir

market. A person coming from the Seine reached the extremity of the Rue

Polonceau, and had on his right the Rue Droit-Mur, turning abruptly at

a right angle, in front of him the wall of that street, and on his

right a truncated prolongation of the Rue Droit-Mur, which had no issue

and was called the Cul-de-Sac Genrot.

It was here that Jean Valjean stood.

As we have just said, on catching sight of that black silhouette

standing on guard at the angle of the Rue Droit-Mur and the Rue

Petit-Picpus, he recoiled. There could be no doubt of it. That phantom

was lying in wait for him.

What was he to do?

The time for retreating was passed. That which he had perceived in

movement an instant before, in the distant darkness, was Javert and his

squad without a doubt. Javert was probably already at the commencement

of the street at whose end Jean Valjean stood. Javert, to all

appearances, was acquainted with this little labyrinth, and had taken

his precautions by sending one of his men to guard the exit. These

surmises, which so closely resembled proofs, whirled suddenly, like a

handful of dust caught up by an unexpected gust of wind, through Jean

Valjean’s mournful brain. He examined the Cul-de-Sac Genrot; there he

was cut off. He examined the Rue Petit-Picpus; there stood a sentinel.

He saw that black form standing out in relief against the white

pavement, illuminated by the moon; to advance was to fall into this

man’s hands; to retreat was to fling himself into Javert’s arms. Jean

Valjean felt himself caught, as in a net, which was slowly contracting;

he gazed heavenward in despair.