CHAPTER III
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 in- habited 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 shoul- der 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 to- wards 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 Rapee, is one of those which recent im- provements have transformed from top to bottom,—resulting in disfigure- ment 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 com- pounded of traditions, which persists in calling the Institut les Quatre–Na- tions, and the Opera–Comique Feydeau, the precise spot whither Jean Val- jean had arrived was called le Petit Picpus. The Porte Saint–Jacques, the Porte Paris, the Barriere des Sergents, the Porcherons, la Galiote, les Ce- lestins, 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 ve- hicle, hardly a candle lighted here and there in the windows; all lights extin- guished after ten o'clock. Gardens, convents, timber–yards, marshes; occa- sional 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. Rub- bish shoots were established there. Thirty years ago, this quarter was disap- pearing under the erasing process of new buildings. To–day, it has been ut- terly 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 Platre; and at Lyons, by Jean Girin, Rue Merciere, 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 send- ing one of his men to guard the exit. These surmises, which so closely re- sembled proofs, whirled suddenly, like a handful of dust caught up by an unexpected gust of wind, through Jean Valjean's mournful brain. He exam- ined the Cul–de–Sac Genrot; there he was cut off. He examined the Rue Pe- tit–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 con- tracting; he gazed heavenward in despair.
