Part II, Book 1, Chapter 7
Napoleon in Good Humour
This guy Napoleon was so full of hubris that Hugo is positively vibrating at the divine smackdown coming his way. “Our joys are illusory. The supreme smile belongs to God.” Ominous!
Hugo is clear that Napoleon was fatally mistaken in his belief that fate was on his side, and had no business being as joyful as he was the morning of Waterloo. Despite the setback from the previous night’s rain, Napoleon cheerfully announced, “The chances are ninety per cent in our favour,” and was full of mischief and laughter. I’m getting big “unqualified manchild” vibes from this. Very triggering for all of us whose lives are being forcefully affected by various unqualified manchildren with too much power.
We’re treated to a description of how the battlefield looks “today” (as in 1863) and how it’s different from when the battle was actually fought, thanks to all the earth that was moved to build a monument on the battleground. Almost offhandedly, Hugo mentions a hidden trench around the battlefield’s plateau.
“What was this trench?” he asks innocently. “Let us explain.”
No, Hugo, please don’t explain about the trench. Please stop explaining about all of this. We’re on the 7th chapter of Waterloo and I don’t see what any of this has to do with Jean Valjean.
Of course, Hugo can’t hear me, and he explains about the trench anyway. The trench is very deep, it goes along a sunken road between two villages, and it’s very dangerous and has already caused several fatal accidents. The road and trench are more or less invisible the day of the battle. Okay I get it, this trench is very ominous and important.
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