CHAPTER XXI--ONE SHOULD ALWAYS BEGIN BY ARRESTING THE VICTIMS

  At nightfall, Javert had posted his men and had gone into ambush himselfbetween the trees of the Rue de la Barrière-des-Gobelins which facedthe Gorbeau house, on the other side of the boulevard. He had begunoperations by opening "his pockets," and dropping into it the two younggirls who were charged with keeping a watch on the approaches to theden. But he had only "caged" Azelma. As for Éponine, she was not at herpost, she had disappeared, and he had not been able to seize her. ThenJavert had made a point and had bent his ear to waiting for the signalagreed upon. The comings and goings of the fiacres had greatly agitatedhim. At last, he had grown impatient, and, _sure that there was a nestthere_, sure of being in "luck," having recognized many of the ruffianswho had entered, he had finally decided to go upstairs without waitingfor the pistol-shot.

  It will be remembered that he had Marius' pass-key.

  He had arrived just in the nick of time.

  The terrified ruffians flung themselves on the arms which they hadabandoned in all the corners at the moment of flight. In less than asecond, these seven men, horrible to behold, had grouped themselves inan attitude of defence, one with his meat-axe, another with his key,another with his bludgeon, the rest with shears, pincers, and hammers.Thénardier had his knife in his fist. The Thénardier woman snatched upan enormous paving-stone which lay in the angle of the window and servedher daughters as an ottoman.

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  Javert put on his hat again, and advanced a couple of paces into theroom, with arms folded, his cane under one arm, his sword in its sheath.

  "Halt there," said he. "You shall not go out by the window, you shall gothrough the door. It's less unhealthy. There are seven of you, thereare fifteen of us. Don't let's fall to collaring each other like men ofAuvergne."

  Bigrenaille drew out a pistol which he had kept concealed under hisblouse, and put it in Thénardier's hand, whispering in the latter'sear:--

  "It's Javert. I don't dare fire at that man. Do you dare?"

  "Parbleu!" replied Thénardier.

  "Well, then, fire."

  Thénardier took the pistol and aimed at Javert.

  Javert, who was only three paces from him, stared intently at him andcontented himself with saying:--

  "Come now, don't fire. You'll miss fire."

  Thénardier pulled the trigger. The pistol missed fire.

  "Didn't I tell you so!" ejaculated Javert.

  Bigrenaille flung his bludgeon at Javert's feet.

  "You're the emperor of the fiends! I surrender."

  "And you?" Javert asked the rest of the ruffians.

  They replied:--

  "So do we."

  Javert began again calmly:--

  "That's right, that's good, I said so, you are nice fellows."

  "I only ask one thing," said Bigrenaille, "and that is, that I may notbe denied tobacco while I am in confinement."

  "Granted," said Javert.

  And turning round and calling behind him:--

  "Come in now!"

  A squad of policemen, sword in hand, and agents armed with bludgeons andcudgels, rushed in at Javert's summons. They pinioned the ruffians.

  This throng of men, sparely lighted by the single candle, filled the denwith shadows.

  "Handcuff them all!" shouted Javert.

  "Come on!" cried a voice which was not the voice of a man, but of whichno one would ever have said: "It is a woman's voice."

  The Thénardier woman had entrenched herself in one of the angles of thewindow, and it was she who had just given vent to this roar.

  The policemen and agents recoiled.

  She had thrown off her shawl, but retained her bonnet; her husband, whowas crouching behind her, was almost hidden under the discardedshawl, and she was shielding him with her body, as she elevated thepaving-stone above her head with the gesture of a giantess on the pointof hurling a rock.

  "Beware!" she shouted.

  All crowded back towards the corridor. A broad open space was cleared inthe middle of the garret.

  The Thénardier woman cast a glance at the ruffians who had allowedthemselves to be pinioned, and muttered in hoarse and gutturalaccents:--

  "The cowards!"

  Javert smiled, and advanced across the open space which the Thénardierwas devouring with her eyes.

  "Don't come near me," she cried, "or I'll crush you."

  "What a grenadier!" ejaculated Javert; "you've got a beard like a man,mother, but I have claws like a woman."

  And he continued to advance.

  The Thénardier, dishevelled and terrible, set her feet far apart, threwherself backwards, and hurled the paving-stone at Javert's head. Javertducked, the stone passed over him, struck the wall behind, knocked off ahuge piece of plastering, and, rebounding from angle to angle across thehovel, now luckily almost empty, rested at Javert's feet.

  At the same moment, Javert reached the Thénardier couple. One of hisbig hands descended on the woman's shoulder; the other on the husband'shead.

  "The handcuffs!" he shouted.

  The policemen trooped in in force, and in a few seconds Javert's orderhad been executed.

  The Thénardier female, overwhelmed, stared at her pinioned hands, andat those of her husband, who had dropped to the floor, and exclaimed,weeping:--

  "My daughters!"

  "They are in the jug," said Javert.

  In the meanwhile, the agents had caught sight of the drunken man asleepbehind the door, and were shaking him:--

  He awoke, stammering:--

  "Is it all over, Jondrette?"

  "Yes," replied Javert.

  The six pinioned ruffians were standing, and still preserved theirspectral mien; all three besmeared with black, all three masked.

  "Keep on your masks," said Javert.

  And passing them in review with a glance of a Frederick II. at a Potsdamparade, he said to the three "chimney-builders":--

  "Good day, Bigrenaille! good day, Brujon! good day, Deuxmilliards!"

  Then turning to the three masked men, he said to the man with themeat-axe:--

  "Good day, Gueulemer!"

  And to the man with the cudgel:--

  "Good day, Babet!"

  And to the ventriloquist:--

  "Your health, Claquesous."

  At that moment, he caught sight of the ruffians' prisoner, who, eversince the entrance of the police, had not uttered a word, and had heldhis head down.

  "Untie the gentleman!" said Javert, "and let no one go out!"

  That said, he seated himself with sovereign dignity before the table,where the candle and the writing-materials still remained, drew astamped paper from his pocket, and began to prepare his report.

  When he had written the first lines, which are formulas that never vary,he raised his eyes:--

  "Let the gentleman whom these gentlemen bound step forward."

  The policemen glanced round them.

  "Well," said Javert, "where is he?"

  The prisoner of the ruffians, M. Leblanc, M. Urbain Fabre, the father ofUrsule or the Lark, had disappeared.

  The door was guarded, but the window was not. As soon as he had foundhimself released from his bonds, and while Javert was drawing up hisreport, he had taken advantage of confusion, the crowd, the darkness,and of a moment when the general attention was diverted from him, todash out of the window.

  An agent sprang to the opening and looked out. He saw no one outside.

  The rope ladder was still shaking.

  "The devil!" ejaculated Javert between his teeth, "he must have been themost valuable of the lot."