Chapter 113 Three look at the map of Paris in 1727

After walking three hundred paces he came to a fork in the road.The street is divided into two here, one diagonally to the left and one to the right.What looked like a Y with two forks before Jean Valjean.Which one should I choose? Without hesitation, he walked to the right. Why? Because the left side goes to the outskirts of the city, that is to say, to the place where people live; the right side goes to the countryside, that is to say, to the wilderness. But he no longer walked as fast as before.Cosette's steps dragged Jean Valjean's. He picked her up again.Cosette leaned her head on the old man's shoulder and said nothing.

He looked back from time to time.He kept his eyes on the dark side of the street.The street behind him is straight.He looked back two or three times, saw nothing, heard nothing, and walked on, feeling a little relieved.Suddenly, when he looked back, he seemed to see something moving in the distance, in the shadows, on the section of the street he had just walked through. Instead of walking, he ran forward now, thinking only of a side alley from which he could escape and get out of danger again. He hit a wall. The wall did not block the way, and the street in which Jean Valjean was now walking led into a side lane, which was bordered by the wall.

When you get there, you have to make up your mind again, whether to go to the right or to the left. He looked to the right.There are some sheds and warehouses on both sides of the alley. It stretches out like a cecum, and there is no way to go through it.You can clearly see the bottom of the alley, and there is a high powder wall. He looks to the left.The alley here is connected, and at a distance of about two hundred steps, it is connected to another street.This side is the way of life. Jean Valjean was turning to the left, in order to flee to the street at the bottom of the alley which he had vaguely seen, when he suddenly noticed, at the corner where the entrance of the alley joined the street to which he was going, a dark figure, Stand still.

It was indeed a person, obviously sent to guard the alley just now to block the way. Jean Valjean drew back hastily. He was then located between the suburbs of Saint-Antoine and the district of La Baie, that part of Paris that had also been radically transformed by new constructions, a transformation that some call uglification, and others that it transforms.Gardens, workshops, and old buildings were all cancelled.Today in this area are brand new streets, arenas, circuses, racetracks, the starting point of the train, and a prison called Mazas, which shows that progress is inseparable from punishment.

The place where Jean Valjean arrived was called the Petit Piccubus half a century ago, and this name is entirely derived from the traditional national idiom, just as this idiom must call the Academy "Four Kingdoms" and the Comic Opera House "Fedo" same.Porte Saint-Jacques, Porte de Paris, Sergeant's Portal, Posheron, Garriott, Zelestin, Capuchin, Mayi, Bourbe, Krakow Tree, Lesser Poland, Lesser Picbus, these They are all names left over from the old Paris for the new Paris.The people have always been obsessed with these remnants. Little Piquebus has always been the prototype of a district, and it has not existed for a long time. It almost has the quaint appearance of a Spanish city.Most of the roads are not paved with stones, and most of the streets are not built with houses.Except for the two or three streets we are about to speak of, there are walls and fields everywhere.There was not a single shop, not a single car, only occasional candles came through the windows, and after ten o'clock all the lights were extinguished.There were gardens, abbeys, workshops, hollows, a few rare low houses, and walls as high as houses.

Such was the image of the district in the previous century.The revolution brought many disasters to it, and the construction bureau during the republic era destroyed it, pierced it, and punched holes.Broken bricks and tiles piled up everywhere.The district was overwhelmed with new buildings thirty years ago.It's been written off today. Little Picbus, there is no trace on the current urban map, but the Denis Thierry bookstore on the Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris, facing the plaster street, and the Needlework Street on the Prudence Square in Lyon The famous Jean Gillan bookstore is quite clearly marked on the city map published in 1727.Little Piccubs has the "Y" shaped street we just mentioned. The lower part of the "Y" is the St. Anthony's Green Lane Street. It is divided into left and right branches, and the left branch is Piccubs Small street, the right branch is Polonceau Street.The two points of the "Y" seem to be connected by a horizontal line.This cross is called Zhibi Street.The Rue Polonceau ends at the Rue Straight Wall, but the little Rue Biquebus passes through the Rue Straight Wall and goes uphill to the Lenoir Market.A man coming from the Seine, when he reaches the end of the Rue Polonceau, turns to his left a sharp ninety-degree turn, he arrives at the Rue d'Elegant, and in front of him is the wall along this street, on his right. The most important is the end of Zhibi Street, which is not connected to other places, and is called Jean-Lot's dead end.

It was at this place that Jean Valjean was at that time. As we said earlier, he saw a dark figure guarding the corner of Straight Wall Street and Piccubs Lane, and stepped back.There is no doubt that he has become the object of the phantom. what to do? It was too late to go back.It must have been Javert and his party that he first saw moving in the shadows at a distance behind him.Javert was probably at the head of this street, and Jean Valjean at the end of it.Judging from all known signs, Javert was familiar with the complex terrain of this small area, and he was prepared, and sent one of his men to guard the exit.This surmise, which was entirely in accordance with the facts, disturbed Jean Valjean like a handful of dust blown by a strong wind, in his tormented mind.He took a closer look at Jeanlot's dead end, where there was no way to go, and then at the side streets of Piquebus, where there were guards.He saw the dark figure appearing at the intersection of the moonlit street.Go forward, and it must fall into the hands of that person.Go back, and you will bump into Javert again.Jean Valjean felt himself caught in a net that was getting tighter and tighter.He looked at the sky with disappointment.