fatherland, one flings in one's well-being, one flings
in one's repose, one flings in one's joy! More! more! more! Empty the
vase! tip the urn! One must finish by flinging in one's heart.

Somewhere in the fog of the ancient hells, there is a tun like that.

Is not one pardonable, if one at last refuses! Can the inexhaustible
have any right? Are not chains which are endless above human strength?
Who would blame Sisyphus and Jean Valjean for saying: "It is enough!"

The obedience of matter is limited by friction; is there no limit to the
obedience of the soul? If perpetual motion is impossible, can perpetual
self-sacrifice be exacted?

The first step is nothing, it is the last which is difficult. What was
the Champmathieu affair in comparison with Cosette's marriage and of
that which it entailed? What is a re-entrance into the galleys, compared
to entrance into the void?

Oh, first step that must be descended, how sombre art thou! Oh, second
step, how black art thou!

How could he refrain from turning aside his head this time?

Martyrdom is sublimation, corrosive sublimation. It is a torture which
consecrates. One can consent to it for the first hour; one seats oneself
on the throne of glowing iron, one places on one's head the crown of hot
iron, one accepts the globe of red hot iron, one takes the sceptre of
red hot iron, but the mantle of flame still remains to be donned, and
comes there not a moment when the miserable flesh revolts and when one
abdicates from suffering?

At length, Jean Valjean entered into the peace of exhaustion.

He weighed, he reflected, he considered the alternatives, the mysterious
balance of light and darkness.

Should he impose his galleys on those two dazzling children, or should
he consummate his irremediable engulfment by himself? On one side lay
the sacrifice of Cosette, on the other that of himself.

At what solution should he arrive? What decision did he come to?

What resolution did he take? What was his own inward definitive response
to the unbribable interrogatory of fatality? What door did he decide to
open? Which side of his life did he resolve upon closing and condemning?
Among all the unfathomable precipices which surrounded him, which was
his choice? What extremity did he accept? To which of the gulfs did he
nod his head?

His dizzy revery lasted all night long.

He remained there until daylight, in the same attitude, bent double over
that bed, prostrate beneath