Chapter 265 Volume 9 Where did they go?

On that same afternoon, near four o'clock, Jean Valjean was sitting alone on one of the quietest slopes in the Place de Mars.He now seldom went out into the streets with Cosette, perhaps out of prudence, perhaps out of a desire for confinement, or simply out of that gradual change of habit that everyone has.He wore a workman's coat, gray canvas trousers, and a cap with a protruding peak, which concealed his face.He was now calm, even happy, about Cosette's affairs; the misgivings which had haunted him a few days ago had vanished, but for the last week or two he had been troubled by anxieties of a different nature. .One day, when he was walking on the road, he suddenly saw Thénardier. Fortunately, he changed his disguise, Thénardier did not recognize him at first; but after that, Jean Valjean met him many times, and now he It is certain that Thenardier often wandered in that area.That was enough to make him decide to take it seriously.The appearance of Thenardier meant endless troubles.

In addition, Paris was not peaceful at the time, and the political turmoil brought such a trouble to those who concealed their origins, that the police had become very tense and suspicious, and they were looking for people like Pepin or Morey. When alone, it is quite possible to find a man like Jean Valjean. For these reasons, he was already preoccupied. Recently, another unexplainable incident happened, which shocked him once again when he was initially in shock, so he became more vigilant.On that same morning, when he was the first to get up and go for a walk in the garden, before the shutters of Cosette had been opened, he suddenly noticed that someone had carved on the wall, perhaps with nails:

This is what happened recently.The plaster on that wall has been blackened for a long time, but the handwriting carved on it is snow-white.A clump of nettle leaves at the foot of the wall was still covered with a layer of fine white powder recently fallen on it.This may have been engraved just last night.What exactly is this?Is it a mailing address?Is it a code for someone else?Was it a warning to him?In any case, the garden had apparently been sneaked in by persons of unknown origin.He recalled the strange events that had bewildered his family not long ago.His mind kept turning to these directions.He never told Cosette that he had found a line carved with nails on the wall, lest she should be frightened.

After thinking and weighing all this, Jean Valjean decided to leave Paris, or even France, and go to England for a while.He had already mentioned to Cosette that he would start in eight days.Now he was sitting on the slope of the Place de Mars, turning over these things in his mind: Thenardier, the police, the inscription on the wall, the journey, and the difficulty of obtaining a foreign passport. After he was thinking this way, he suddenly saw the sun cast the shadow of a person who had just come to the top of the slope and was right behind him, in front of his eyes.He was about to turn his head to look when a four-folded sheet of paper fell on his lap as if thrown from a hand stretched above his head.He picked up the piece of paper and unfolded it to see that there were several large characters written in thick pencil on it:

Jean Valjean stood up at once. There was no one on the slope. Looking around, he saw a man slightly older than a child and smaller than a man, wearing a gray cotton coat and a pair of earth-colored corduroys. Trousers, are stepping over the low wall, sliding down the ditch of Mars Square. Jean Valjean hurried home.With a heavy heart.