Chapter 235 Volume III A House in Rue Plumet

In the middle of the previous century, the abbot of the Parisian court had a mistress in private, because the great nobles showed their mistresses and the bourgeoisie wanted to hide them.He built a "little house" in the so-called "Colosseum" on the desolate Rue Blomme in the suburbs of Saint-Germain, which is today's Rue Blumet. This house is a two-storey building with two halls below and two main rooms above. In addition, there is a kitchen below, a sitting room above, and an attic under the roof. The whole house faces a garden and faces the street. An iron gate.The garden covered about one hectare, and that was all that passers-by could see.But behind the building there was a small yard, and at the bottom of the yard were two more bungalows with a cellar, where a child and a nurse could be hidden if necessary.At the back of the bungalow a disguised secret door led to a long and narrow alley: paved below, open to the air above, winding and winding between two high walls; Along the fence of some gardens and vegetable plots on both sides of the wall, it twists and turns, stretches forward, is covered all the way, and can be seen from the outside without any trace, so it goes straight to another village, half a quarter of a mile away. A secret door, open the door and go out, it is the end of Babylon Street with few pedestrians, which almost belongs to another urban area.

Mr. Dean often used this door to go in. Even if someone noticed that he went to a place secretly every day, and wanted to follow and reconnaissance, he would never think that going to Babylon Street would be to Bolome Street.This talented official, through ingenious land acquisition, was able to build this passage on privately owned land without restraint.Afterwards, he sold the land on both sides of the alley in sections and pieces, and the owners who bought these lands divided them on both sides of the alley, thinking that what stood before their eyes was a public bill. They never imagined that there would still be such a long cobblestone road stretching between their vegetable beds and orchards.Only birds can see this spectacle.The yellow birds and orchid sparrows of the last century must have chatted a lot about this Mr. Dean.

The building was built of strips of stone in the manner of Mansart, with frescoes inlaid and furnished in the manner of Watteau, natural scenery on the inside, ancient forms on the outside, and three aisles in all. The flower fence looks elegant, pretty, and solemn, which is appropriate for the temporary venting of the personal love between men and women and the high-ranking officials. The houses and alleys are no longer there today, but they still existed fifteen years ago.In 1993, a boiler factory owner bought this house and planned to demolish it, but because he couldn't pay the house price, the state declared him bankrupt.So instead it is the house that demolishes the factory owner.Since then, the house has been empty and no one lives in it, and like all the houses that do not get the warmth of the world, it has gradually become decadent.It is still furnished with the same old furniture, ready to be sold or rented, and the ten or twelve people who pass by the Rue Plumet every year, since 1810, have seen a yellow billboard with illegible writing. Hanging on the iron gate outside the garden.

At the end of the restoration of the dynasty, the passers-by suddenly found that the billboards were gone, and even the upper windows were opened.The house was indeed occupied.Small curtains were hung on the windows to show that there was a woman there. In October, 1829, a man of considerable age came forward and rented the house as it was, including, of course, the bungalow in the back yard and the alley leading to Babylon Street.He also hired people to repair the two hidden doors at both ends of the alley.The furnishings in the house, as we have just said, are roughly the old furniture of the abbot. The square tiles were laid, the steps on the stairs were repaired, the wooden strips on the floor, and the glass on the windows, and then I took a young girl and an old maid and moved in quietly, as if slipping in, I can't tell. Move into a new home.The neighbors never talked about it, because there were no neighbors in that place.

The silent lodger was Jean Valjean, and the young girl Cosette.The maid was an old girl named Toussaint, whom Jean Valjean had rescued from the hospital and from poverty. She was old, a provincial, and stuttering, and these three qualities made Jean Valjean decide to keep her with him.In the name of M. Fauchelevent, he rented the house as an annual dividend payer.With all the above descriptions, readers must know about Jean Valjean earlier than Thenardier. Why did Jean Valjean leave Petit Piquebus?What happened? Nothing happened. We remember that Jean Valjean was happy in the convent, even to the point of uneasiness.He can see Cosette every day, he feels a father's love in his heart, and it grows day by day, he guards the child with his whole soul, and he often says to himself: "She belongs to him, and nothing can be taken from her." He snatched her from there, and life would go on endlessly, where she would become a nun under the daily temptation, so that this convent would be his and her universe from now on, and he would be there This place grows old, she will grow here, she will grow old here, he will die here, in short, wonderful hope, no separation is possible." As he pondered these things, he felt himself Fell in confusion.he asked himself.He asked himself whether this happiness was entirely his, whether it also included the child's happiness that was usurped and lured by an old man like him, and whether this was an act of theft?He often said to himself: "This child has the right to know life before she gives up on it. If, before obtaining her consent, she uses the excuse of warding off all misfortunes for her and cuts off all her joys, taking advantage of her ignorance and To artificially force her to make a vow of escapism without relatives or reasons would be against nature, robbing people’s hearts, and lying to God.” And who can say that one day in the future, Cosette will understand all this and repent. Nun, wouldn't she turn to hate him?This last thought, almost selfish and less honorable than the others, was intolerable to him.He made up his mind to leave the monastery.

He decided to do it, and he realized with a wretched tinge that he had to.As for resistance, there is none.Five years of his disappearance within those four walls was enough to remove or drive away those worrying factors.He has been able to safely return to the crowd.He was old too, and everything had changed.Who would recognize him now?Besides, even in the worst case, the only person in danger could be himself, and the fact that he had been sentenced to hard labor could not be used as a reason to think that he had the right to sentence Cosette to a seminary.And what is danger compared to responsibility?In short, there was nothing to prevent him from proceeding cautiously and carefully.

As for Cosette's education, it was brought to an end, and nearly completed. After making up his mind, he waited for the opportunity.The opportunity presented itself before long.Old Fauchelevent was dead. Jean Valjean asked the abbot to see him, and told her that because of his brother's death, he had received a small inheritance. From now on, he could live without working. The daughter was taken away, but Cosette was raised and cared for, but she never made a wish. It would be unreasonable not to pay the fee.He carefully asked the abbot to allow him to donate 5,000 francs to the monastery as the cost of Cosette's five-year stay in the monastery.

Thus Jean Valjean left the Convent of the Perpetual Order. When he left the convent, he himself tucked the small suitcase under his arm, not allowing any clerk to take it for him, and he always carried the key with him.The suitcase always smelled of spices, which often puzzled Cosette. Let us make it clear now that this box will never leave him again from now on.He always keeps it in his house.Every time he moved, it was always the first thing he took with him, and sometimes the only thing.Cosette used to laugh at him for this, calling the box "an inseparable friend," and saying, "I'm going to be jealous."

Jean Valjean returned to the free air, but in fact he still had deep worries in his heart. He found the house in the Rue Blumet and crouched there.From then on he became the bearer of the name Uldim Fauchelevent. He also rented two other residences in Paris at the same time, so as not to be noticed that he was always staying in one urban area, and when he felt the first signs of danger, he could also have a place to move, so that he would not be like Javert last time. On the night of the murderous hand, I had nowhere to go.Those two residences were two rather simple and shabby-looking apartment houses, located in two urban areas far apart, one on West Street and the other on Wuren Street.

He often took Cosette, sometimes in the Rue des Warriors, sometimes in the West Street, for a month or six weeks, leaving Toussaint to stay at home.When he lived in an apartment, he asked the porter to do chores for him, saying only that he was a man with a fixed annual income in the suburbs and wanted a resting place in the city.The venerable man had three lodgings in Paris in order to avoid the police.