Part II, Book 1, Chapter 19
The Battlefield at Night
Finally! We have returned to something with some semblance of connection to the main plot! Hallelujah!
The sun has set on the bloodied fields of Waterloo, and Hugo brings up one of the ugly realities of war (not that there aren’t plenty already), which is that after battles have ended and dead soldiers are left strewn where they fell, scavengers will rustle through the bodies stripping the corpses of valuables. Yeesh.
Hugo calls these camp followers “every type of flying rat” (savage), and they present as “non-combatant wearers of uniform, fake invalids, intimidating cripples, unlicensed victuallers, […] beggars, hangers-on, mauraders.” Like in any other battle, these looters appeared on the scene after the Battle of Waterloo, despite Wellington’s orders that any such looters be shot.
Our focus is directed to one such prowler, “jittery and bold,” who is creeping around, poking through piles of corpses with a woman seated on a wagon some distance away. (You know this guy, and the associated woman, are nasty pieces of work because the horse pulling said wagon is a “half-starved nag.” Good people don’t starve their horses!!!!!!)
Said prowler sees a hand with a gold ring sticking out from under a pile of dead men and horses (“Here’s a tasty ring / Pretty little thing / Wouldn’t want to waste it, that would really be a crime”) and takes it. In a complete horror movie moment, as the looter gets up to go, the hand grabs his coat.
I would have been freaked out, though I wouldn’t be rummaging through dead bodies stealing their possessions in the first place, so. Our depraved prowler, who obviously has no such compunctions, is not freaked at all. “An honest man would have been frightened. This one began to laugh.”
Curious to see if the reanimated corpse is actually alive or not, the prowler hauls the body out of the heap, to discover that said body is a high-ranking officer with a saber slash across his face. (Again, yeesh!) Without first checking if he’s alive or not (again! clearly not a good dude!) the prowler proceeds to rip off the Legion of Honour cross on the officer’s chest and divest him of the valuables in his pockets (a watch and a purse of money).
The officer finally opens his eyes, says “Thanks”—clearly under the impression that he has just been rescued (which I guess he sort of has, if you squint) and not robbed—then asks his savior who won the battle and offers him the watch and purse that he was just relieved of.
A patrol approaches, so the prowler makes to leave, but the officer asks him what his name is.
The prowler says his name is Thénardier. The officer says he won’t forget it, and offers up his own name, which is Pontmercy.
First of all, OOOOOOH! Intrigue! The musical does not remotely touch the Pontmercy-Thénardier connection!
Second of all, though? My reaction to this reveal is: ARE YOU KIDDING ME. You mean to tell me that I slogged through nineteen chapters of Waterloo history and editorializing just to be introduced to fkn Thénardier?!?!?
This is so upsetting. Who do I speak to about this???
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