[Masterpiece Les Miserables] Paris Sparks

Meanwhile, Jean Valjean was busy with school affairs.

Because of the suffering caused by this revolution, there are more women workers and children in need than ever before.Some students are now unable to continue attending classes.Children lose their parents, parents lose their children, sisters lose their brothers.Because of Corona's absence, the literacy class stopped, but the number of female workers who needed help would not decrease.Anne, Fantine and Cosette were all so busy that they couldn't do anything, so they brought him in to help.Recently, Jean Valjean only spends very little time in school, and most of the time he always runs outside according to the information provided by Anne or Fantine, from one house to another, and each family gives them a little money for them to spend. difficulties.

On the night of June [-]th, he came out of one female worker's house and was on his way to another.He hurried across the Notre Dame Bridge, and when he reached the bridge, he stopped suddenly.

He saw a dark figure on the other side of the bridge, holding the railing with both hands, looking at the turbulent water under the bridge.He recognized the figure: it was Javert.

"She's a revolutionary," Javert insisted over and over again at the police station. "I can swear to you, sir, that I saw her with my own eyes on the barricades—she fought with the revolutionaries who were there, she They even shot and killed people."

This is already the third almost identical conversation in a week.The chief of police waved his hand impatiently: "You must be wrong. I have investigated their house, and there is no such thing."

The Commissioner knew Miss Evermond.A few years ago, when she first became famous, the bureau chief asked her to make a painting. The bureau chief’s wife also had some personal friends with her, and knew her reputation very well: even though she gradually faded out of the aristocratic social circle, she still had a relationship with several countesses, marquises, etc. The lady made friends, and the upper class still flocked to her paintings.On the other hand, he also knew very well that Miss Evermond had run literacy classes, opened a secondary school for girls, and was widely loved by the people.If you catch her, you will be attacked from two sides. Countess Morcerf will be dissatisfied with him in the first place, not to mention the passionate female workers.Not to mention that just a few days before, Gisquet's notice ordering the doctor to report the wounded had just irritated public opinion and the king, and the Commissioner heard that the king had made a lot of fuss about this notice.

It is not a big deal to have one more or one less revolutionist in the prison, but with one woman, what can be done!Why bother with this matter? "You can go down," he said.

But Javert stubbornly stood where he was. "The police who came to search didn't even come into her house, that's no good," he insisted. "She must have been wounded on the barricade, and if we break in, we can arrest her—"

"So what if you arrest her?" The director suddenly stood up and asked furiously. The recent complicated situation had already worn down his patience very thinly. Now he couldn't bear it anymore, and all his temper suddenly burst out at Javert. "Even if she is searched, even if she is injured, so what? Who can prove that she is a revolutionary? Break into the house of a famous painter without any evidence, grab a woman with a wound on her body, and put her Imprisoned - how dare you, do you know the public outrage that this would cause? Do you know how many people in the court pursued Evremonde's paintings, and even the emperor praised her portraits ?”

"I can prove it," said Javert calmly, seemingly completely unaffected by the chief's fury. "I saw her on the barricade, and she recognized me and talked to me."

"Listen to what nonsense you're talking about, you stupid pig!" growled the Commissioner. "She's a revolutionary, and she's spotted a police spy on the barricades and let him go—who would believe that? What kind of nonsense! If she is really a revolutionary, she should shoot you right away!"

"I really can't understand why she let me go," said Javert, "but it has nothing to do with her being a revolutionary—"

"It's okay to see your motherfucker!" the chief yelled, "I've had enough of your nonsense, get out, I don't want to hear these nonsense accusations again!"

Javert gave a slow and stiff salute to the director, and went out the door.He already knew the outcome of this matter very well in his heart: even if he really found Corona Efremond and arrested her, the chief of police would not accept this matter.It doesn't matter whether there is evidence or not: even if he does find other evidence, other witnesses, the chief will turn a blind eye and respectfully invite her out of the gate of the police station.

Just because she is a famous painter, just because she has friends with the nobles and is popular among the common people, she has the power above the law.

So, what about the real nobility?

Nobles have immunity in many cases, but only in a small number of special cases.Javert fully recognized and fully respected that part of their privileges recognized by the law.However, in the face of other crimes-such as murder, robbery, treason and treason, etc.-the title of nobility is of no help, and those who should be punished will still be punished.But now he has seen it with his own eyes: such punishments are often impossible to carry out.Evermond was one example, and there are countless others where he can't see.

In fact, this was not the first day he knew about it.Javert is not an idealist who immerses himself in his own world. He has already seen all kinds of ills in the current law enforcement process.But this time, the conversation between Miss Evermond and him on the barricades that day flashed through his mind.

"Do you really believe that such laws are the divine will of God?" she asked.

After going back that day, Javert looked for the old law code by accident.He read about the laws of the past—the Napoleonic ones, the Revolutionary ones, the Louis XVI ones.Every law is very different, even diametrically opposite.The more he read, the more it confirmed Miss Evermond's words: in many cases, criminals and nobles are just a matter of overnight, just a change after a new law takes effect.Even during the Revolution, many times, people were killed first, crimes tried first, and then the law came late.

In the past few days, his heart has been extremely confused. This head was very clear when it was blindly obeying orders, but now it has lost its clarity, and clouds and mist have appeared in this crystal.The only hope he had now in this confusion was to arrest Evremonde and condemn her, so that all her words would be but the ramblings of a sinner whose words were not believable.

But the chief turned him down, and in doing so proved that some of what Evermond had said was true.

He was in terribly pain.He gradually realized vaguely that there seemed to be another road behind the cover of clouds and mists.Maybe not as clear-cut as the path he's been on, but it's there.He is forced to admit that there are exceptions, that power can become embarrassing, that regulations can be overwhelmed by facts, that not everything can be framed in regulations, that honor and humbleness can be transformed overnight. Inverting each other, people in the world can justly commit crimes with impunity, and there may be some people who are originally innocent but suffer unfair punishment.

So what should he do?he does not know.All his life he had followed a straight path, but now a fork suddenly appeared before him.He doesn't know what to do, and cracks appear in his calm and stable world.He felt the ground under his feet collapsed, and he fell into a black vortex.

Javert was looking down at the most rapid part of the Seine's rapids when Jean Valjean saw him.The sky was already very dark, and a large black vortex roared and surged under his feet, but his mood was no more calm than this vortex.

Jean Valjean was startled.He has known Javert for a long time, and it can be said that he understands him, but he has never seen him do anything that has nothing to do with his duties, let alone standing on a bridge in a daze.He even looked suspiciously at the flowing water under the bridge, wondering if there was a criminal hiding there—but at that section, it was impossible for any living person to approach.

This abnormal behavior disturbed Jean Valjean.He walked quickly across the Notre-Dame Bridge, and Javert seemed to be lost in thought, completely oblivious to his approaching.Jean Valjean wanted to leave quietly, but something he couldn't say made him feel uneasy: if it hadn't been for Javert, if someone else stood here, he might feel that this person was going to commit suicide.

He slowed down and approached the bridge slowly.Javert stood very close to the bridge, because the maelstrom was just under the bridge.Jean Valjean was only two steps away from him when he reached the other end of the bridge.At this time a gust of wind came and blew Javert's hat off.Without thinking about it, Jean Valjean stretched out his hand subconsciously, and caught the hat in the air, lest it fall into the river.Javert turned his head and saw him now.Jean Valjean handed over his hat, and Javert took it politely, nodding at him: "Thank you."

Jean Valjean also greeted him frankly. "What are you doing here?" he even asked extra.

"It's none of your business," replied Javert politely but coldly.

"It looks like it's going to rain soon," said Jean Valjean.While the two of them were talking, the wind was blowing faster and faster, and it looked like a storm was coming, "Do you know where I can temporarily take shelter from the rain around here?"

This can be regarded as citizens asking for help, and this is the scope of Javert's responsibility.No matter how chaotic he is in his heart, when he encounters a job, he will still subconsciously do it well, which has almost become his instinct. "You can come with me," said he, putting on his hat, and leading Jean Valjean diagonally across the Place Châtelet.There was a post at one corner of the square, and a policeman was on duty inside.Javert opened the door, went in, showed the papers to the policeman, explained the reason, and the two stayed in the house.

When they were still a few steps away from the outpost, raindrops the size of soybeans were already falling.No sooner had Jean Valjean entered the house after him than the rain began to pour down.Seeing the weather, the policeman understood very well, so he left the two of them in the house and went about their own business.The post was divided into two rooms, the front and the back, the policeman on duty in the front, and Javert and Jean Valjean in the rear.There was only one chair, so the two of them did nothing but stood against the wall.There was an awkward silence in the room.After a while, Jean Valjean had nothing to say: "What were you doing by the river just now?"

"You should know that Miss Evermond is a criminal now." Javert didn't answer the question.

"I do not understand you," replied Jean Valjean calmly. "What crime has she committed?"

"She participated in the previous riots."

"You must have misidentified the wrong person. It's normal to see the wrong person in such a chaotic scene. She went to England long before the riots started, and I bought the ticket for her."

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I've even spoken/talked to her myself."

This was something Jean Valjean had never heard of, and he was startled and on guard.But no matter how guilty he was, he would never admit it in front of Javert. "There is no proof. You must have evidence, or witnesses?"

"I am the witness!" Javert said majestically.

"Mr. Javert, I have known you for many years in prison, and have worked with you for many years at Montreuil. I venture to say that I know something about you. If you are so sure, why am I not?" Heard of the arrests by the police?" Jean Valjean asked him.

"Because the Chief of Police won't allow it," said Javert grimly, staring at Jean Valjean like a wolf. "Congratulations! She escaped the law for a while, but not forever. Someday." Today I will arrest her and bring her to justice."

But when he said these words, he thought of Corona's short words and the materials he had read these days.He had to wait for Corona Efremond to lose power before he could arrest her, and that would definitely take a long time.What if, by then, the law has changed?What if, by then, too much time has passed and the law decides not to pursue it?

He didn't go on.Falling into the contemplation of being by the river again, wrestling with the chaotic fog in my mind.Jean Valjean stood face to face with him now, and observed the pain that almost burst out of his stern exterior.He thought about it and asked, "What do you think the law exists for?"

"To judge the order of the world."

"Then why should there be order in the world?" Jean Valjean asked again.Javert looked at him with an absurd look that thought him mad.

"I think that, in the final analysis, people always hope that this society will become better, and people's lives will be happier and more civilized." Jean Valjean said, "the reason why there is order in the world is also because of this: because of a mass Chaos will only make everyone fall into the abyss. Only when a stable order is established first can there be trade, security, and civilization. —— However, order is only a means. Suffering, isn't that putting the cart before the horse?"

Javert disagreed: "If you can't even implement the means, how can you talk about the result?"

"So, do you also agree that the law is only a means, not the ultimate goal?"

Only then did Javert realize that Jean Valjean had gone in.If it was the past, his goal was firm, and such sophistry could not shake him in the slightest.But now, he no longer had unshakable confidence in his own beliefs, and he could only snort coldly in the end. "You are disrespecting the law. Please be careful, otherwise I will also arrest you."

Jean Valjean then smiled, and said no more.The two listened to the deafening rain outside the window in silence.Fortunately, the torrential rain in summer came and went quickly, and after two quarters of an hour, the rain subsided quickly, so Jean Valjean took up his hat, thanked Javert and the policeman on duty, and bid them farewell.The policeman on duty said good-bye to him, and Javert nodded indifferently.Jean Valjean put on his hat to go, but stopped again on the threshold, and looked back at Javert. "Officer Javert, the river at the Notre Dame Bridge is very fast, please pay more attention to safety." He gently reminded.

Javert ignored him, and the policeman looked at them curiously and remained silent.Jean Valjean left.Javert also left the post after only a few minutes, looking in the direction of the Seine as he crossed the Place Châtelet.

For Javert, his inner wavering was an unforgivable weakness.But what is more unforgivable than this is to show such weakness in front of Jean Valjean, a former convict and a former enemy.He turned his head and walked in the other direction through the stagnant water, without taking a second look at the Seine.

The author has something to say: part of Javert's psychological description in this chapter comes from the original work.

God, Javert is too difficult to write. I will never complain about Enjolras’ difficulty in writing. Javert is a hundred times more difficult than him......

In short, I think the shock brought by Corona here is much milder than the shock brought by Jean Valjean in the original book.In the original book, Javert let Jean Valjean go with his own hands, which means that he voluntarily violated the law, which is completely contrary to his original belief.Here Corona is more pointing out the loopholes in his original beliefs, not denying them completely, so there is still room for relaxation.

This is probably the case. I think this plot is still a little hasty, but don’t pursue the finer details. I’m too difficult OTZ