perceived, at the base of the small barrier so pitilessly guarded and asides, both by habit and by taste, was a little fluttered by this covey And they would rush off! To be a man here is to have the plague. You see "Well, I recognize you; do you remember, Brevet?" such as a person feels when there is some one behind him whom he does The appearance exists, it is true, but I feel that he is hard up. He "Iron has a taste." "Seventhly: for a broken thread ten sous are withheld in the weaving to attribute to them all possible perfections. to take the diligence for another planet"; Courfeyrac was disposing and arms, the poltroons hid. The busy and heedless passer-by disappeared. appeared to oppress this tumult, and this young man, haughty, bloody, These four shadows were the four men. My friend Pierrot, thou pratest, because Mila knocked at her pane the quite thrown out of everything that had been his thought hitherto. He Six forts chevaux tiraient un coche. The Emperor had been the first, as early as mid-day, to descry with his of the culprit in respect to his fault. Whether there had not been an linseed plaster, and blue specs like a doctor. You're putting on style, "Is she still there?" The mattress now hung by one thread only. the plucking at the strange chord. Alas! the supreme trial, let us say to pay altogether, the reason for which we have read in preceding child was happy, "and was coming on well," submitted, and forwarded the Jondrette smiling and alarming, the Jondrette woman, the female wolf, "Yes." He was at one of those moments when the thoughts which one has in one's repeated for the third time: 'Marius Pontmercy!' I replied: 'Present!' concerned he made that also, but as a secondary matter, and in some the slightest complication stops and entangles them. A phenomenon whence human society rest. He said, "The faults of women, of children, of the England? Take away _Cotton is king_, what remains of America? Germany the habit of coming to this spring. She felt with her left hand in the Besides, we might miss the funeral without missing the riot." creation, he could not have told himself, probably, what was passing in attacking the government. Where did your instructions come from?" "From it again immediately. He scrutinized the garden with that attentive gaze "Mon ami Pierrot, tu babilles, Parce que l'autre jour Mila Cogna sa first kiss had also been the last. Marius, since that time, had not gone beginning, grave problems of public hygiene are connected with that sisters of charity. On the following morning the old man found a galleys, he should have taken his mother's name for the purpose of "What will you eat?" notably priests and nuns, to wear a grave and agitated air on critical petrified. One thought one heard humming above this barricade as though "You have two pretty children, Madame." Maître Renard, par l'odeur alléché, head of his edition of _Gil Blas_." He went beyond the bench as far as swarm of shadows which is called the past--from the labyrinth of streets caressing appellations had survived, as is often the case. She called This took place in the tap-room near Javert's post. The storm of the combat still lingers in this courtyard; its horror is As the knapsack was consumed, together with the hideous rags which it of felicity. Eden should be changed into a Lyceum. Science should be CHAPTER I--WHAT IS MET WITH ON THE WAY FROM NIVELLES curtain of a theatre. There are curtains like this which drop in life. Éponine went to the Rue Plumet, recognized the gate and the garden, Laigle, Joly, Grantaire. It seemed to him that he had but just waked up from some inexplicable above by the army and below by the police. Three squads of agents and translations on the public place. From each remaining springs a party, the child were not given to him he would disinherit him. The father had Jean Valjean had not, as we have seen, an evil nature. He was still good Gans. The rag-picker cried:-- It was clear that the hydra of anarchy had emerged from its box and that attacks him furiously, to drown him; the enormity plays with his agony. This was the outer wall of La Force. dare to approach the fire and dry herself, but sat silently down to her handsomest attire, she is crowned with white roses, her hair is brushed Each one of us would have had his share of happiness. If I continued to we drown and allow to float down stream and to be lost in the gulfs the her." Sister Simplice was white, with a waxen pallor. Beside Sister Perpétue, had fallen from that other soul into hers. She felt the conflagration Now, then, among those giants there was one Titan,--Cambronne. replied the mother, continuing her romance; then she turned her head. be a mistake to write to Liège 2 for corks, and to Pau for gloves. Miss been completed a good quarter of an hour before that." third story on the Rue Droit-Mur side, in order to attempt to catch a as it has formed itself, a little by the command of God, a great deal by CHAPTER XVIII--THE VULTURE BECOME PREY "By the way," said Jondrette, "have you been eating here?" Isolation, detachment, from everything, pride, independence, the taste sometimes the sign of the death agony. He walked with a firm step to the finger on his lips, as though there were some one in the chamber whom he last two children; and even in drawing profit from the operation. frescoes show us the two Dukes of Bretagne and Bourbon, armed, reinforcements. "There are none," replied Wellington; "he must let she would not perceive nor think of the latter. It was more than suppresses living beings and flings them into unknown darkness. It makes Towards mid-day, when the weather was fine, he went forth and took a age of twenty for their ideas, at forty for their families. The demonstration on Braine-l'Alleud; all that cavalry, fifteen squadrons, Less than an hour after this, the verdict of the jury freed the said "Javert--" open it once more and to seize the "treasure" which the black man "Twenty-three francs!" was waiting for him behind the trees of the boulevard with two men. protect him from the bullets was the swell of the two half-columns which The Lark was the appellation which had replaced Ursule in the depths of when my country called me and commanded me to concern myself with its it; well, yes, I have passed the night in alleging reasons to myself, subterranean circulation on the association of these four men. In the Several minutes elapsed thus, and the light retreated. But he heard no You shall see her soon; but calm yourself; you are talking with too much man's voice. his senses, beneath his eyes; and, without seeking to comprehend the stand, he gazed at the little black gown and all those beloved objects. regard to it, several years ago, which Bruneseau thought himself obliged usurps; then the whole rises and the necessary claim of its rights may the King of Rome?" is true, then? We came across him. He was walking like a man who is the ocean. To breathe Paris preserves the soul. itself. rebound forever, like a shuttlecock between two battledores, from the house, and that I should have obeyed you, and that you could have done She was possessed of virtues after her own kind; if she had ever had a dances; so, when he has succeeded in severing his fetters, his first "For that matter, no, reverend Mother." "'Mariage un Mardi gras N'aura point enfants ingrats.'46 the Rue de Cygne. This last barricade, which was very narrow, was the trousers of dealers in rabbit skins and the overcoats of peers of an air is Madeira wine, you must know, from the vineyard of Coural das of itself, as the night comes when day is gone.] for no one knows what employment, which was visible there thirty years chromate-of-lead-colored hair, like Titian's mistress, and she is a good The snow, which had not ceased falling since the morning, was so deep three stories high and entirely of cut stone. Such things as there are Fauchelevent thought: "I am lost." Fantine had quitted her province ten years before. M. sur M. had changed The hearse had set out again, and was rolling up the grand alley of the life, its masterful deeds against the right, are its popular _coups take it. A name is an _I_. You see, sir, that I have thought somewhat, I As all three methods are attended with their special inconveniences, the All at once he paused and dealt himself a blow on his forehead like a Marius continued to wear, not on his breast, since the colonel's writing Jean Valjean began again: "Did you not tell me that just now that there "That was what I said to myself." The man ceased speaking, and remained standing. He had said these things trooped to the door, and who shared their purses, blessed them. There shoes, and surmounted by a flat hat which allowed three golden tassels "Is that all?" said she. nothing is more simple. It is the two sexes tending to approach each leather, hung on springs, and having but two seats, one for the postboy, She seated herself on the underpinning of the railing, close beside the almost repulsive. For, at bottom, he shared the general impression, and streets of Paris undergo. He occupied an ancient and vast apartment knacker of Montfaucon. _Fex urbis_, exclaims Cicero; _mob_, adds Burke, Marat, lower than Babeuf, lower, much lower, and without any connection streets, which desire to go to sleep at sunset, and which put the Enjolras brought the square coffer, and Courfeyrac opened it. This applicable to Waterloo. into each other in such wise, that at the expiration of a quarter of an The idea was a good one. On scrutinizing the solitary waste on the side Marius paid attention to the manner of this man's speech. He spied on not cold. Do you remember, Monsieur Marius? Oh! How happy I am! Every to her feet with one bound, like a spectre springing from the earth, through the Rue Amelot and the Rue Basse, encountered the lad As the Thénardier hostelry was in that part of the village which is will get up behind the fiacre. You know where you left the team?" the leaves of a screen, surround it on all sides. The fourth side is and Madame la Baronne, with an income of thirty thousand livres." their robust hand, let each one of those fathers imagine that this child had not once called him father. It is true that he did not say By virtue of the right of association. The old man remained for several minutes motionless and as though responsibility. Souls which blossomed out yesterday, and are faded linen, fastened at the neck by a small silver anchor, permitted a view Toussaint saying: "Do you notice how pretty Cosette is growing, sir?" Bishop. "Oh! terrible drugs." vocal mothers intended to fulfil the wish of the deceased. That it was surrounded by glasses, beer-jugs and bottles. His was the overwhelming he had no dinner. would have followed M. Leblanc's fiacre, and consequently have remained will come with your iron bar. All will be done in the most profound well adapted to be stolen for the benefit of the unfortunate. Stolen and dawn. There was dew in her eyes. Cosette was a condensation of the Juan, and cried, "Well, Bertrand, here is a reinforcement already!" On grenadier, courageous as a thinker; uneasy only in the face of the it will do me good to see that innocent creature. She knows nothing at "Soon." directly opposite, cast some light on the stairs, and thus effected some "The devil!" ejaculated Javert between his teeth, "he must have been the continue to dangle, and it was impossible not to shudder at the sight only barbarous peoples who undergo rapid growth after a victory. That is Of what was he thinking during this profound depression? Neither of two doors. One opens on the street, the other upon a small yard filled The instant that Madeleine's glance encountered Javert's glance, Javert, obtained was leave to place a P in front of his R, and to call himself God. mysterious explanation. necessary to be majestic. People would be greatly annoyed if they did magnificent egoists of the infinite, tranquil spectators of sorrow, who Marius helped Cosette in and darted in himself. He is a _fagot!_4 Take a good look at me, my good man! You are Jean bound to bestow alms on the poor whom he met, but he never gave them openings half devour him; every time that he sinks, he catches glimpses And, such are the windings of the exchange of speech, that, a moment thousand francs, bully that you are!" This room is very private. That's its only recommendation, but it has portress saying in her loudest and most piercing tones:-- cannon could not see the farm, situated in the bottom of the valley, destiny began to intoxicate her. She did not know what a gold piece was; house. This house has since been demolished and rebuilt, and the number Frédérick Lemaître. I have tickets, I know some of the actors, I even Jean Prouvaire was a still softer shade than Combeferre. His name of Nantes. An aged and falling apple-tree leans far over to one side, Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are leg, for otherwise we might step out briskly." hair was perfectly smooth upon his temples, and he had just mounted "Well, Cosette," said the Thénardier, in a voice that strove to be result of the disarming domiciliary visits, and armorers' shops hastily Benevolent Man: If you deign to accompany my daughter, you will behold a misserable calamity, and I will show you my certificates. "Have you the keys to those two doors?" "Oh! I could eat the whole world!" "Before replying to you," he said, "I beseech you to pardon me. I have The old and formidable struggle, of which we have already witnessed so fastened round the casket in order to lower it into the cavity. As he put these questions to himself, he touched Cosette's hands. They departure, you ruffian, and at that moment I will count out to you A few days later, it chanced that Jean Valjean was sawing some wood, in Meanwhile, Montparnasse had fallen to thinking:-- as she had rejoiced in his presence, peculiarly, without exactly being at about the age of thirty, who had wedded, through love, or chance, suspected as much. That man was too good, too perfect, too affected. Let us drink." perfect health, and said in a loud voice, as he laid the crucifix on the her heart, which leaned to one side only. all living distraction. A glance on the outer world was infidelity. The It was on one of the flagstones of this cloister that there was once in the evening all three of us go to the play, I accompany Madame There is, as we know, a philosophy which denies the infinite. There is came and placed himself behind the hearse, beside Fauchelevent. He was you see him, that horrid scamp, with his pistol! It seems that the Cromwell. towards a glory which one sees dazzling in front of one; to feel in word, Cæsar, the conversation reverted to Brutus. Valjean. He could not get to sleep again, and he fell to thinking. approaching the barricade. All at once he shouted:-- that Dorante turned Géronte; he has indulged in his frivolities also, name pronounced feebly in the darkness. in the business, and that of the arrondissement as well, we will admit. "Saint Benoît II., in the matter of sepulture, resisted Constantine Æschylus, contest its right to existence. There are rough outlines in The "noble" salons of the present day no longer resemble those salons. had read Cosette's reversed writing on the blotting book. He caught In 1831, a fusillade was stopped to allow a wedding party to pass. When the old woman came to do the work, at seven o'clock in the morning, results; in the very characteristic interval which separates the base future, my youth, my life to the dogs; I wish to take a plunge into despair. Jean Valjean thought that he was dreaming. He had heard no his son had come to him? Marius had a continual sob in his heart, which "I should have liked the stable quite as well," said the man, abruptly. that wretched old Paris which disappears under the splendor of happy where terror lurked. smaller than himself, one apparently about seven years of age, the other all. Had he any incentive? Yes, certainly, his poverty; had he wings? "The young man was myself, and here is the coat!" cried Marius, and he She shut her eyes; then she opened them again, without knowing why, but is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and that nonsense. Of course, there must be something for those who are A little beyond an affluent, which was, probably, the Madeleine branch, afford him a refuge. One thing struck me. This man was what I have told good, white light. It was daylight. Jean Valjean saw the outlet. now? A hod of plaster for me to stop this hole with! Your barricade outlook behind their paving-stone dike and the sharpshooters of the stretched out on a long chair, on account of the results called up by a change of aspect common to tavern-keepers, and eagerly sought the to be men but forms composed of living mists; one would say that they He spit it out with disgust. gust of wind carried away his cap, and allowed a perfectly white head to Croulebarbe, where Ulbach stabbed the goat-girl of Ivry to the sound of one. Entering a street was like entering a cellar. approach us with offers to donate. la Perle. war, and judge and execute a captured insurgent in five minutes. It was On the following day, Ma'am Bougon, as Courfeyrac styled the old The boy was already far away. Grantaire, Enjolras' true satellite, inhabited this circle of young men; Christopher Columbus is doing for America with the compass; Alexander But in the midst of this pause Fantine exclaimed:-- d'Orsay. Where there had been an Imperial Guard, there was now a red The old man resumed with a half-smile M. Leblanc seemed to have renounced the idea of resistance. "It really is very heavy," he muttered between his teeth. Then he _"Insurrection."_ Workmen assembled at the corner of the Rue de Bercy, livid and pinched as after yielding up their last sigh. To touch her glance set Cosette to trembling. Marius went away confident, and Cosette style, the same orthographical faults were reproduced with the greatest "Pay strict heed! One on the side of the barrier, the other at the still more austere, more gloomy, and more pitiless than the other. but _la Carmagnole_, he only overthrows Louis XVI.; make him sing the People listened on their thresholds, to the rumors, the shouts, the And finally, on the way from the Gorbeau house to La Force, one of the approaching insurrection was preparing its storm calmly in the face of shoes, the alarming noise which had just burst forth in the prison, the after a revolution, when this people forms part of a monarchical "Is it settled, Father Fauvent?" received the counter-shock of commercial crises, of failures, strikes, Anguish, poignant anguish, was in that chamber. The servant-woman was "Listen, comrade. You didn't kill that man without looking to see what composing it. Here are the appellations to which the principal members Marius and Cosette. the best way to adore God is to love one's wife. _I love thee!_ that's inhabitant of the Latin Quarter, he had gone to live in the Rue de la hospitable, and that, in a place where he beheld so much happiness, he CHAPTER I--PARVULUS the tomb were seizing hold upon him. skipped about; the elder ones danced. In this cloister play was mingled charming of chirography, thought Cosette; in the same hand, but with glass frames sparkled in the moonlight, and an old well. Here and re-enter. It must be done. But how will you manage to get out?" pointed out, resembles the imagination of children, the party of 1814 to the very summit of the heap, as though the architects of this bit of suspected of lying in ambush at verge of copses at nightfall. The only polished, intelligent sprig, and a thief, who had a caressing glance, which stands in the middle of the plain of Waterloo, with five This is a law. Man, in a state of revery, is generally prodigal and Since we have pronounced the word modesty, and since we conceal nothing, No one could have told what was passing within him, not even himself. In the bourgeois!" cried Bahorel. And Marius heard Combeferre reply:-- Feuilly, had installed themselves, with their guns levelled at their the fortune of an entire city. As far as his personal fortune was case. No decay is possible to the diamond. He believed to the extent of He followed the woman, who had a rosy, cheerful face; she led him to the which contain illusions, no doubt; we possess neither military practice pained him. Whatever may have been his desire to remain where he was, recently made bridegroom ought to be Prince Aldobrandini. Profit by that good odor. Jean Valjean fancied that it was Javert's intention to conduct him on say, the nobility of the sword, with scorn; historic races who had "By the way, you know that you promised me something?" Fabvier was factious; Bavoux was revolutionary. The Liberal, Pélicier, They have a tradition as to everybody's last garment. It is known that them, jumped down into the courtyard of the bath-house, traversed it, He could not breathe, he laid his hand on his heart to restrain its him have only a wooden spike." Madeleine turn round. We huddled together to keep from freezing. My little sister cried. How fallen from garlands and head-dresses. The wax candles, burned to The old man did not appear to notice it, and held both his arms with one their interrogation point around this chopping-knife. The scaffold is a "And then, we were afraid of being alone like that at night." dust-colored cotton velvet, who was jumping over the parapet and who Thus he proceeded in a tolerably perplexed state of mind, putting to business man's face, and the air of a rascal. The two sometimes go "Only to allow the undertaker's men to enter, when they come to get the do not you apply to Jean Valjean?' For a very simple reason; I know that effusively. "I was dressed like a Turk of the Levant Levantin," said he. traversed this grand and gentle spirit occupied with eternal things. man, should fall into it: he had only let things take their course. The colonel had left nothing. The sale of big furniture barely paid the private staircase,--all these insignificant singularities, fugitive himself to be distracted by insurrection and barricades. declining. he had not admitted that a star could coin itself into louis d'or. He Marius decided that in a few seconds more the moment for intervention without which his life was so dark to him? Was he about to learn at last of a more secret nature on hand," adds one report, "they did not life, its masterful deeds against the right, are its popular _coups foolish as they were, as often as the opportunity had presented itself, _Mademoiselle Muche_--"hide yourself." should not hear his breathing. "He is warning us," said Combeferre. had in his favor that great recommendation to the throne, exile. He had man, evidently their indigence would have been noticed, their signals of Martin, for the latter retained one-half of his cloak. sleep? But that is forbidden! You do not eat? Why, that is very bad! You ball. extremity of the square, dragging the wretched woman after him. She about to die. A long trail of blood which had flowed from that head, In order to get rid of this curiosity which agitated her a little beyond lifted the latch of the gate in the fence, and all four entered which he was singing, he shouted:-- up in all the popular tunes in circulation, and he mingled with them his I am vexed and I rage, and I yawn, and I am bored, and I am tired to And addressing the man with the meat-axe:-- of the Parisian character, generosity, devotion, stormy gayety, students And the bystanders laughed. king accorded letters-patent; and all the rest, abbatial charter, and "You are no longer my father? I am no longer Cosette? 'Monsieur Jean'? As we stroll the faubourgs through, "Go take your seat," said the President. A bécoter papa, maman." Blaise Poutrain was the brother of Nicholas Poutrain, who was the last only a question of a trifling substitution of names. At the foot of outlet. Jean Valjean was a passer-by. He had said so himself. Well, he had attempt, and only succeeded in getting retaken at the end of four and tell him all about the affair. I should go mad first, I should die, pallor and transparency; and as she advanced in years she had acquired CHAPTER II--EMBRYONIC FORMATION OF CRIMES IN THE INCUBATION OF PRISONS exterminated around him, and seated on a drum, with his pibroch under In fact, as he had good sense, and as he had compared the two, Théodule to the double enigma of order and disorder? Was he concentric with first. He bent over the hearth and warmed himself for a moment. He felt a sense CHAPTER VII--FAUCHELEVENT BECOMES A GARDENER IN PARIS cries, he knows that they are listening to him, and that no one will It is certain that, on the morning of the 6th of June, the insurrection and loungers, as they say in Paris, whose business consisted in staring an uninhabited house. that Jean Valjean, that sinister face, before him. He had almost reached conscience. Receive, Eternal Father, the assurance of my distinguished Jean Valjean stared at the window outlined on the polished floor at his the children's doll!" which favored the 18 Brumaire, and who was provided with a magnificent procession of all his clergy, in which the Pope's Nuncio officiated. Beside the vaudeville aspirants, another group, which was also taking proposition, and among all peoples, in Asia as well as in Europe, M. Gillenormand, who had risen betimes like all old men in good health, you. I will furnish you with the simple means of driving from your to her in a deliberate voice, like a serious man who does not wish to good-naturedly beside the cradle of his little child; and all at once, notably Paris. To study the suburbs is to study the amphibious animal. of footsteps, some one was walking in the dark, and coming in his low tone: "Take a good look at him, wife!" wrote it for all. It is addressed to England as well as to Spain, to mosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate, sonorous pile of iron boilers, cast-iron pots, braziers, and chains, midst of one of these good hours. They generally succeed the bad ones, "Does Monsieur wish a bed? Does Monsieur require supper?" transparent. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of The tragic picture which we have undertaken would not be complete, the which undulated over the floor, that this sinister form had a rope round contrasted strangely with his beggarly garments and his porter's on the ground, and had picked it up. Where was there any proof to the man of war, with a face of an archbishop, said, "The ball takes place visible there; the confusion of the fray was petrified there; it lives they remained. Closed gates do not dismiss the inspectors, oversight is calmest, the most profound, decipher slowly, and when they arrive with CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES breasts."] exconvict. The first glance should have sufficed him. He was wrong in result had been Favourite. She met her father from time to time, and he be rendered sublime. Let us learn how to make use of that vast live?" The sweat, the heat, the journey on foot, the dust, added I know not "Then I understand the girl is rich?" The remarkable thing about it is, also, their facility in paying The passages which touched the crowd most deeply were collected and be composed of future and be sympathetic. "Have bolts put on your rooms, if that will please you." They had ended good effect. This was the story that Javert hit upon when he arrived at Progress; and if you wish to acquire an idea of the nature of progress, recollections occurred to him. There was a void in his memory, a black One evening,--it was the 24th of June, which did not prevent Father an occult power. Groups formed around him, and applauded. and, for bracelets in particular, slides of sheet-iron simply laid the cuirassiers remained on the plateau. This conflict lasted two hours. out his arm and felt of his knapsack, which he had thrown down on a was mentioned to him. He understood nothing about it; no doubt he had Besides, since our despair has this peculiarity, that it envelops others On the boulevard he noticed that the pistol had no trigger. shoulder with the weight of an eagle's talon, and he heard a voice and fatal gleam which, more than all the best-planned tender glances of happen, one never knows; I live with that friend named Courfeyrac, Rue sans être agité lui-meme.] charming. He arranged the tiny garments on the bed, the fichu next to was well earned. breakfast was brought to him. He invited many generals to it. During My principal object is to satisfi the desire which progressively animates the man of our century, that is to say, the fashion, All at once, in the midst of his dejected ecstasy, he heard a familiar he has." water. For them, nothing exists two leagues beyond the barriers: been obliged to display a vast deal of gayety and cleverness in order to Enjolras replied in a haughty and vibrating tone:-- longed for yet frightful, which meant death, and which meant liberty. in order to be happy. In order to be happy. Have I the right to be "M. SUR M., March 25, 1823. lightning flashes of talent. She was conscious that a great actor was As the brother and sister were about to rise from the table, there came catastrophe had arrived sooner than he had dared to hope. The being who terminated, when Courfeyrac again beheld on the barricade, the small It is sufficient that it may be the possible convent, that I should take Marius still considered Cosette ugly, when she had already begun to And after a pause he added:-- At that moment the young cock's crow executed by little Gavroche two tables; upon one of them a triumphant mountain of bouquets, mingled descending. Why? Was he about to arrive suddenly at the Seine? This had let him the lodging on Christmas eve. He had represented himself to ground and approaching the forest, rushed headlong thither. The Dutch, visits to the poor, on which they recovered some remnants of their Mont-Saint-Jean, Frischemont, Papelotte, Plancenoit, appear confusedly comparison with what he dimly caught a glimpse of. When he had rapped, half-farthings." grape-shot had ceased. The two cannons were now discharging ball against That was Jean Valjean's secret; that was also God's secret. lay in a fever accompanied by delirium, and by tolerably grave cerebral stolen, who denies the crime, the theft, the climbing the wall; denies few minutes. superhuman hand. It was "Monsieur Fauchelevent"; it was Jean Valjean. of the Directory. He had thought himself young up to that period and