t on the attack, which was imminent, had their
backs turned to these two.

Marius alone, stationed on one side, at the extreme left of the
barricade, saw them pass. This group of victim and executioner was
illuminated by the sepulchral light which he bore in his own soul.

Jean Valjean with some difficulty, but without relaxing his hold for
a single instant, made Javert, pinioned as he was, scale the little
entrenchment in the Mondetour lane.

When they had crossed this barrier, they found themselves alone in the
lane. No one saw them. Among the heap they could distinguish a livid
face, streaming hair, a pierced hand and the half nude breast of a
woman. It was Eponine. The corner of the houses hid them from the
insurgents. The corpses carried away from the barricade formed a
terrible pile a few paces distant.

Javert gazed askance at this body, and, profoundly calm, said in a low
tone:

"It strikes me that I know that girl."

Then he turned to Jean Valjean.

Jean Valjean thrust the pistol under his arm and fixed on Javert a look
which it required no words to interpret: "Javert, it is I."

Javert replied:

"Take your revenge."

Jean Valjean drew from his pocket a knife, and opened it.

"A clasp-knife!" exclaimed Javert, "you are right. That suits you
better."

Jean Valjean cut the martingale which Javert had about his neck, then he
cut the cords on his wrists, then, stooping down, he cut the cord on his
feet; and, straightening himself up, he said to him:

"You are free."

Javert was not easily astonished. Still, master of himself though
he was, he could not repress a start. He remained open-mouthed and
motionless.

Jean Valjean continued:

"I do not think that I shall escape from this place. But if, by chance,
I do, I live, under the name of Fauchelevent, in the Rue de l'Homme
Arme, No. 7."

Javert snarled like a tiger, which made him half open one corner of his
mouth, and he muttered between his teeth:

"Have a care."

"Go," said Jean Valjean.

Javert began again:

"Thou saidst Fauchelevent, Rue de l'Homme Arme?"

"Number 7."

Javert repeated in a low voice:--"Number 7."

He buttoned up his coat once more, resumed the military stiffness
between his shoulders, made a half turn, folded his arms and, supporting
his chin on one of his hands, he set out in the direction of the Halles.
Jean Valjean followed him with his eyes:

A few minutes later, Javert turned round and shouted to Jean Va