Part II, Book 5, Chapter 5
Something Gas Lighting Would Make Impossible
Man, I love these cheeky chapter names.
Cornered in an extensively described dead end, Valjean hears a sound and peeks around the corner to see a group of soldiers, led by Javert, coming his way. They are slowed down checking every alley and doorway, but they are minutes away from being right on top of him.
I think it is nuts that Javert has requisitioned A GROUP OF SOLDIERS to hunt down Valjean, a guy who has not actually committed any serious crime! Are there not, you know, murderers in France to hunt down? Is this what public resources are being wasted on?
Valjean, unlike some people, has what it takes to handle these trying circumstances. Hugo writes, “It was a characteristic of Jean Valjean that he might have been said to carry two bags: in one he kept his saintly thoughts, in the other the formidable talents of a convict. He dug into one or the other, depending on circumstances.”
I really love this evaluation of Valjean’s dual nature—these two sides seem like they’d be at odds, but he’s someone who has both ideals and pragmatism! I can relate!
Hugo then reminds us that Valjean is a cat and is able to climb walls. Valjean sizes up the EIGHTEEN-FOOT wall and knows he can climb it no problem, but the issue is that Cosette cannot climb.
The man needs a rope. “Certainly at that moment Jean Valjean, if he had had one, would have given his kingdom for a rope.” Love the Shakespeare reference, and I think it’s very funny that Hugo references a line originally written in a language that I’m now reading as a translated version.
Then Valjean sees a lamp post. “All dire situations are electrifying, sometimes blindingly so, sometimes to illuminating effect.” (Bolding is mine.) Ha, I see what you did there, Victor!!!
Hugo explains to us, the reader, that this story takes place in a time before gaslights, and that street lamps at the time were lit by a lamp-lighter lowering the lantern via a rope, which they locked in a box affixed to the post.
So Valjean promptly picks the lock of said lamppost box and steals the rope. This man is so resourceful!
Meanwhile, Cosette, who doesn’t know what’s going on but can hear the soldiers and can tell something is up, is frightened and asks “Father” who is approaching. I had to take a moment to go “awww” at Cosette calling Valjean “Father”!!
Valjean swiftly tells Cosette that the sound is Madame Thénardier coming to take Cosette back, and to be quiet. This is somewhat cruel—Valjean has obviously picked up on the fact that Madame is the thing Cosette is most scared of—but is also so brilliantly effective that I have to appreciate it. Valjean really is a parent! It has the same energy as Katie telling Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn that if she scratches her newly vaccinated arm, it’ll fall off.
With a rope unlocking the wall puzzle (can you imagine a Les Misérables video game), Valjean pulls off a fantastic escape. He uses his scarf to create a harness that he wraps around Cosette, ties the rope to said scarf-harness, puts the other end of the rope in his teeth, and climbs the wall. Which, again, is eighteen freaking feet high. Once he’s on top of the wall, Valjean uses the rope and pulls Cosette up. Easy-peasy!
The two of them get down to the ground on the other side of the wall just as the soldiers burst onto the scene. Javert loudly orders a search of every corner of the alley.
Whew, that was close! These two got out just in the nick of time—real Indiana Jones status here.
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