 section 44 of the man who laughs by Victor Hugo this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the man who laughs by Victor Hugo part 2 book the first chapter 10 the flame which would be seen if man were transparent what this woman this extravagant thing this libidinous dreamer a virgin until the opportunity occurred this bit of flesh as yet unfreed this bold creature under a princess's coronet this Diana by pride as yet untaken by the first comer just because chance it's so wielded this bastard of a low-lived king who had not the intellect to keep his place this duchess by a lucky hit who being a fine lady played the goddess and who had she been poor would have been a prostitute this lady more or less this robber of a proscribed man's goods this overbearing strumpet because one day he Barcl Fadrow had not money enough to buy his dinner and to get a lodging she had had the impudence to seat him in her house at the corner of a table and to put him up in some hole in her intolerable palace where never mind where perhaps in the barn perhaps in the cellar what does it matter a little better than her valets a little worse than her horses she had abused his distress his Barcl Fadrow's and hastening to do him treacherous good a thing which the rich do in order to humiliate the poor and to tie them like curves led by a string besides what did the service she rendered him cost her a service is worth what it costs she had spare rooms in her house she came to Barcl Fadrow's aid a great thing indeed had she eaten a spoonful the less of turtle soup for it had she deprived herself of anything in the hateful overflowing of her superfluous luxuries no she had added to it a vanity a luxury a good action like a ring on her finger the relief of a man of wit the patronization of a clergyman she could give herself airs say I lavish kindness I feel the mouths of men of letters I am his benefactress how lucky the wretch was to find me out what a patroness of the arts I am all for having set up a truck of bed in a wretched garret on the roof as for the place in the Admiralty Barcl Fadrow owed it to Josiana by Joe a pretty appointment Josiana had made Barcl Fadrow what he was she had created him be it so yes created nothing less than nothing for in his absurd situation he felt borne down tongue tied disfigured what did he owe Josiana the thanks due from a hunchback to the mother who bore him deformed behold your privileged ones your folks overwhelmed with fortune your parvenous your favorites of that horrid step mother fortune and that man of talent Barcl Fadrow was obliged to sit on staircases to bow to footmen to climb to the top of the house at night to be courteous assiduous pleasant respectful and to have ever on his muzzle a respectful grimace was not it enough to make him mash his teeth with rage and all the while she was putting pearls around her neck and making amorous poses to her fool learned David Deereymore the Hussie never let anyone do you a service they will abuse the advantage it gives them never allow yourself to be taken in the act of an ignition they would relieve you because he was starving this woman had found it a sufficient pretext to give him bread from that moment he was her servant a craving of the stomach and there is a chain for life to be obliged is to be sold the happy the powerful make use of the moment you stretch out your hand to place a penny in it and at the crisis of your weakness make you a slave and a slave of the worst kind the slave of an act of charity a slave forced to love the enslaver what infamy what want of delicacy what an assault on yourself respect then all is over your sentence for life to consider this man good that woman beautiful to remain in the back rows to approve to applaud to admire to worship to prostrate yourself to blister your knees by long genuflections to sugar your words when you're nine your lips with anger when you are biting down your cries of fury and when you have within you more savage turbulence and more bitter foam than the ocean it is thus that the rich make prisoners of the poor this slime of a good action performed towards you be dobs and bespatters you with mud forever and alms is irredeemable gratitude is paralysis a benefit is a sticky and repugnant adherence which deprives you of free movement those odious opulent and spoiled creatures whose pity is thus injured you are well aware of this it is done you are their creature they have bought you and how by a bone taken from their dog and cast to you they have flung that bone at your head you have been stoned as much as benefited it is all one have you not the bone yes or no you have had your place in the dog kennel as well then be thankful be ever thankful adore your masters kneel on indefinitely a benefit implies an understood inferiority accepted by you it means that you feel them to be gods and yourself a poor devil your diminution augments them your bent form makes theirs more upright in the tones of their voices there is an impertinent inflection their family matters their marriages their baptisms their childbearing their progeny all concern a wolf cub is born to them well you have to compose aside you were a poet because you were low isn't it enough to make the stars fall a little more and they would make you wear their old shoes who have you got there my dear how ugly he is who is that man i do not know a sort of scholar who might feed thus converse the idiots without even lowering their voice you hear and remain mechanically amiable if you are ill your masters will send for the doctor not their own occasionally they may even inquire after you being of a different species from you ended an inaccessible height above you they are affable their height makes them easy they know that equality is impossible by force of disdain they are polite at table they give you a little nod sometimes they absolutely know how your name is felt they only show that they are your protectors by walking unconsciously over all the delicacy and susceptibility you possess they treat you with good nature is all this to be born no doubt he was eager to punish josiana he must teach her with whom she had to deal oh my rich gentry because you cannot eat up everything because opulence produces indigestion seeing that your stomachs are no bigger than ours because it is after all better to distribute the remainder than to throw it away you exalt a morsel flung to the poor into an act of magnificence oh you give us bread you give us shelter you give us clothes you give us employment and you push audacity folly cruelty stupidity and absurdity to the pitch of believing that we are grateful the bread is the bread of servitude the shelter is a footman's bedroom the clothes are a livery the employment is ridiculous paid for it is true but brutalizing oh you believe in the right to humiliate us with lodging and nourishment and you imagine that we are your debtors and you count on our gratitude very well we will eat up your substance we will devour you alive and gnaw your heartstrings with our tea this josiana was it not absurd what merit had she she had accomplished the wonderful work of coming into the world as the testimony of the folly of her father and the shame of her mother she had done us the favor to exist and for her kindness and becoming a public scandal they paid her millions she had estates and castles warrens parks lakes forests and i know not what decides and with all that she was making a fool of herself and verses were addressed to her and barcl Fadrow who had studied and labored and taken pains and stuffed his eyes and his brain with great books who had grown moldy in old works and in science who was full of wit who could command armies who could if he would write tragedies like Otway and Dryden who was made to be an emperor barcl Fadrow had been reduced to permit this nobody to prevent him from dying of hunger could the usurpation of the rich the hateful elective chance go further and they put on the semblance of being generous to us of protecting us and of smiling on us and we would drink their blood and lick our lips after it that this low woman of the court should have the odious power of being a benefactress and that a man so superior should be condemned to pick up such bribes falling from such a hand but a frightful iniquity and what social system is this which has for its base disproportion and injustice would it not be best to take it by the four corners and to throw pale mel to the ceiling the damask tablecloth and the festival and the orgies and the tippling and drunkenness and the guests and those with their elbows on the table and those with their paws under it and the insolent who give and the idiots who accept and to spit it all back again in the face of providence and fling all the earth to the heavens in the meantime let us stick our claws into Josiana thus dreamed barcl Fadrow such were the raging of his soul it is the habit of the envious man to absolve himself amalgamating with his personal grievance the public realms all the wild forms and hateful passions went and came in the intellect of this ferocious being at the corners of old maps of the world of the 15th century are great vague spaces without shape or name on which are written these three words pick suns leones such a dark corner is there also in man passions grow and growl somewhere within us and we may say of an obscure portion of our souls there are lions here is this the scaffolding of wild reasoning absolutely absurd does it lack a certain justice we must confess it does not it is fearful to think that judgment within us is not justice judgment is relative justice is absolute think of the difference between a judge and a just man wicked men lead conscience astray with authority there are gymnastics of untruth a sophist is a forger and this forger sometimes brutalizes good sense a certain logic very supple very implacable and very agile is at the service of evil and excels in stabbing truth in the dark these are blows struck by the devil at providence the worst of it was that barco federo had a presentiment he was undertaking the heavy task and he was afraid that after all the evil achieved might not be proportionate to the work to be corrosive as he was to have within himself a will of steel a hate of diamond a burning curiosity for the catastrophe and to burn nothing to decapitate nothing to exterminate nothing to be what he was a force of devastation of eracious animosity a devourer of the happiness of others to have been created for there is a creator whether god or devil to have been created barco federo all over and to inflict perhaps after all but a philip of the finger could this be possible could it be that barco federo should miss his aim to be a lever powerful enough to heave great masses of rock and when sprung to the utmost power to succeed only in giving an affected woman a bump in the forehead to be a catapult dealing ruin on a pole kitten to accomplish the task of sisyphus to crush an ant to sweat all over with hate and for nothing at all would not this be humiliating when he felt himself a mechanism of hostility capable of reducing the world to powder to put into movement all the wheels within wheels to work in the darkness all the mechanism of a marley machine and to succeed perhaps in pinching the end of a little rosy finger he was to turn over and over blocks of marble for chance with the results of ruffling a little the smooth surface of the court providence has a way of thus expending forces grandly the movement of a mountain often only displaces a molehill besides this when the court is the dangerous arena nothing is more dangerous than to aim at your enemy and miss him in the first place it unmasks you and irritates him but besides and above all it displeases the master kings do not like the unskillful but us have no contusions no ugly gashes kill anybody but give no one a bloody nose he who kills is clever he who wounds awkward kings do not like to see their servants lamed they are displeased if you chip a porcelain jar on their chimney piece or a courtier in their courtage the court must be kept neat break and replace that does not matter besides all this agrees perfectly with the taste of princes for scandal speak evil do none or if you do let it be in grand style stab do not scratch and must the pin be poisoned this would be an extenuating circumstance and was we may remember the case with barco fadre every malicious pygmy is a file in which is enclosed the dragon of Solomon the vile is microscopic the dragon immense a formidable condensation awaiting the gigantic hour of dilation and we consoled by the pre-meditation of explosion the prisoner is larger than the prison a latent giant how wonderful a minnow in which is contained a hydra to be this fearful magical box to contain within him a leviathan is to the dwarf both a torture and a delight nor would anything have caused barco fadre to let go his hold he awaited his time was it to come what mattered that he watched for it self-love is mixed up in the malice of the very wicked man to make holes and gaps in a quart fortune higher than your own to undermine it at all risks and perils while encased and concealed yourself is we repeat exceedingly interesting the player at such a game becomes eager even to passion he throws himself into the work as if he were composing an epic to be very mean and to attack that which is great is in itself a brilliant action it is a fine thing to be a flea on the lion the noble beast feels the bite and expends his mighty anger against the atom an encounter with a tiger would weary him less see how the actors exchanged their parts the lion humiliated feels the sting of the insect and a flea can say i have in my veins the blood of a lion however these reflections but half a piece of the cravings of barco fadre's pride consolations palliations at most to vex is one thing to torment would be infinitely better barco fadre had a thought which returned to him without ceasing his success might not go beyond just irritating the epidermis of jociana what could he hope for more he so obscure against her so radiant a scratch is worth but little to him who longs to see the crimson blood of his flayed victim and to hear her cries as she lies before him more than naked without even that garment the skin with such a craving how sad to be powerless alas there is nothing perfect however he resigned himself not being able to do better he only dreamed half his dream to play a treacherous trick is an object after all what a man is he who revenges himself for a benefit received barco fadre was a giant among such men usually in gratitude is forgetfulness with this man patented in wickedness it was fury the vulgar ingrate is full of ashes what was it in barco fadre a furnace furnace walled round by hate silence and wrangler awaiting jociana for fuel never had a man abhorred a woman to such a point without reason how terrible she was his dream his preoccupation his ennui his rage perhaps he was a little in love with her end of section 44 recording by ecological humanist ecological humanist dot wordpress.com section 45 of the man who laughs by victor hugo this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by kirlen the man who laughs by victor hugo part two book the first chapter 11 Bucklefiedro in ambush gate to find the vulnerable spot in jociana and to strike her there was for all the causes we have just mentioned the imperturbable determination of Bucklefiedro the wish is sufficient the power is required how was he to set about it there was the question vulgar vagabonds set the scene of any wickedness they intend to commit with care they do not feel themselves strong enough to seize the opportunity as it passes to take possession of it by fair means or foul and to constrain it to serve them deep scoundrels disdain preliminary combinations they start from their villainies alone merely arming themselves all round prepared to avail themselves of various chances which may occur and then like Bucklefiedro await the opportunity they know that a ready-made scheme rums the risk of fitting ill into the event which may present itself it is not thus that a man makes himself master of possibilities and guides them as one pleases you can come to no previous arrangement with destiny tomorrow will not obey you there's a certain want of discipline and chance therefore they watch for it and summon it suddenly authoritatively on the spot no plan no sketch no rough model no ready-made shoe ill fitting the unexpected they plunge headlong into the dark to turn to immediate and rapid profit any circumstance that can aid him is the quality which distinguishes the able scoundrel and elevates the villain into the demon to strike suddenly at fortune that is true genius the true scoundrel strikes you from sling with the first stone he can pick up clever malefactors count on the unexpected that senseless accomplice of so many crimes they grasp the incident and leap on it there is no better arse poetica for this species of talent meanwhile be sure with whom you have to deal survey the ground with buckle feedrow the ground was queen an buckle feedrow approached the queen and so close that sometimes he found seat he heard the monologues of her majesty sometimes he was present unheeded at conversations between the sisters neither did they forbid his sliding in a word he profited by this to lessen himself a way of inspiring confidence thus one day in the garden at Hampton court being behind the duchess was behind the queen he heard Anne following the fashion awkwardly emanating sentiments animals are happy said the queen they run no risk of going to hell they are there already replied jossiana this answer which bluntly substituted philosophy for religion displays the queen if perchance there was depth in this observation and felt shocked my dear said she to jossiana we talk of hell like a couple of foals ask buckle feeder all about it he ought to know such things as a devil said jossiana as a beast replied buckle feedrow with a bow madam said the queen to jossiana he is cleverer than we for a man like buckle feedrow to approach the queen was to obtain a hold on her he could say I hold her now he wanted a means of taking advantage of his power for his own benefit he had his foothold in the court to be settled there was a fine thing no chance could now escape him more than once he had made the queen smile maliciously this was having a license to shoot but was there any preserved game did this license to shoot permit him to break the wing or the leg of one like the sister of her majesty the first point to make clear was did the queen offer sister one false step would lose all buckle feedrow watched before he plays the player looks at the cards what trumps has hey buckle feedrow began by examining the age of the two women jossiana 23 and 41 so far so good he held trumps the moment that a woman ceases to count by springs and begins to count by winters she becomes cross a dull rancor possesses her against the time of which she carries the proofs fresh blown beauties perfumes for others are to such a one but thorns of the roses she feels but the prick it seems as if all the freshness is stolen from her and that beauty decreases in her because it increases in others to profit by this secret ill humor to dive into the wrinkle of the face of this woman of forty who was a queen seemed a good game for buckle feedrow envy excels an exciting jealousy as a rat draws the crocodile from its hole buckle feedrow fixed his wise gaze on an he saw into the queen as one sees into a stagnant pool the marsh has its transparency in dirty water we see vices in muddy water we see stupidity and was muddy water embryos of sentiments and larvae of ideas moved in her thick brain they were not distinct they had scarcely any outline but they were realities however shapeless the queen thought this the queen desired that to decide what was the difficulty the confused transformations which work in stagnant water are difficult to study the queen habitually obscure sometimes made sudden and stupid revelations it was on these that it was necessary to seize he must take advantage of them on the moment how did the queen feel towards the duchess drosiana did she wish her good or evil here was the problem buckle feedrow set himself to solve it this problem solved he might go further diverse chances served buckle feedrow his tenacity at the watch above all an was on her husband's side slightly related to the new queen of prussia wife of the king with a hundred chamberlains she had her portrait painted on animal after the process of turkey of mayan this queen of prussia had also a younger illegitimate sister the baroness treaker one day in the presence of buckle feedrow and asked the russian ambassador some questions about this treaker they say she is rich very rich she has palaces more magnificent than those of her sister the queen whom will she marry a great lord the count gormor pretty charming is she young very young as beautiful as the queen the ambassador lowered his voice and replied more beautiful that is insolent murmur buckle feedrow the queen was silent then she exclaimed those bastards buckle feedrow noticed the plural another time when the queen was leaving the chapel buckle feedrow kept close to her majesty behind the two gorms of the elmen rey lord david dermois crossing the ranks of women made a sensation by his handsome appearance as he passed there was an explosion of feminine exclamations how elegant how gallant what a noble air how handsome how disagreeable grumbled the queen buckle feedrow overheard this it decided him he could hurt the duchess without displeasing the queen the first problem was solved but now the second presented itself what could he do to harm the duchess what means that his wretched appointment offer to attain so difficult an object evidently none end of section 45 section 46 of the man who laughs by victor hugo this is a liberal box recording all the bravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberal box.org recording by ted garvin the man who laughs by victor hugo part two book the first chapter 12 scotland iran and england let us know the circumstance josiana had le too this is easy to understand when we reflect that she was although illegitimate the queen's sister that is to say a princely personage to have le too what does it mean by account st john otherwise bowling broke rotas follows to thomas lennard orl of sussex two things mark the great in england they have le too in france le pour when the king of france traveled the courier of the court stopped at the halting place in the evening and assigned lodging to his majesty suite among the gentlemen some had an immense privilege they have le pour c'est le journal issoïc for the year 1694 page six which means that the courier who marks the billets puts pour before their names as pour monsieur le prince de soupes instead of which when he marks the lodging of one who is not royal he does not put pour but simply the name as le duke de guesre le duke de ma saline this pour on a door indicated a prince or a favorite a favorite is worse than the prince the king granted le pour like a blue ribbon or a peerage of while le tour in england was less glorious but more real it was a sign of intimate communication with the sovereign whoever might be by birth or favor in a position to receive direct communications from majesty had in the wall of their bed chamber a shaft in which was adjusted to bell the bell sounded the shaft opened a royal missive appeared on a gold plate or on a cushion of velvet and the shaft closed this was intimate and solemn the mysterious and the familiar the shaft was used for no other purpose the sound of the bell announced a royal message no one saw who brought it it was of course merely the page of the king or the queen lester avaye le tour under elizabeth bucking him under james one josiana had it under an though not much in favor never was a privilege more envied this privilege entailed additional civility the recipient was more of a servant at court that which elevates degrades avaye le tour was said in french this circumstance of english etiquette having probably been borrowed from some old french folly lady josiana of virgin pierce as elizabeth had been a virgin queen led sometimes in the city and sometimes in the country according to the season and almost princely life and kept nearly a court at which lord david was courtier with many others not being married lord david and lady josiana could show themselves together in public without exciting ridicule and they did so frequently they often went to plays and race courses in the same carriage and sat together in the same box they were chilled by the impending marriage which was not only permitted to them but imposed upon them but they felt an attraction for each other society the privacy permitted to the engage has a frontier easily passed from this they abstained that which is easy is in bad taste the best pugilistic encounters then took place at lambeth a parish in which the lord archbishop of canterbury has a palace though the air there is unhealthy and a rich library opened to certain hours to decent people one evening in winter there was in a meadow there the gates of which were locked a fight at which josiana escorted by lord david was present she had asked are women admitted and david had responded some feminine magnetism liberal translation not shopkeepers literal translation great ladies exist a duchess goes everywhere this is why lady josiana saw a boxing match lady josiana made only this concession to propriety she dressed as a man a very common custom at that period women seldom traveled otherwise out of every six persons who traveled by the coach from winsor it was rare that there were not one or two amongst them who were women in male attire a certain sign of high birth lord david being in company with a woman could not take any part in the match himself and merely assisted as one of the audience lady josiana betrayed her quality in one way she had an opera glass then used by gentlemen only this encounter in the noble science was presided over by lord germain great grandfather or granduncle of that lord germain who towards the end of the 18th century was colonel ran away in a battle was afterwards made minister of war and only escaped from the bolts of the enemy to fall by worse fate shot through and through by the sarcasm of chariot many gentlemen were betting harry billy of carlton who had claims to the extinct period of bella aqua with henry lord hide member of parliament for the borough of gun hivitt which is also called launston the helmer roll peregrine burtee member for the borough of true row with sartamas call pepper member for maidstone the laird or lammer roll which is on the borders of lothian with same ultra fuses of the borough of pinred sir brotholomeu guest you of the borough of saint ives with the honorable charles bodville who was called lord robarty's and he was cus this wrote alarm of the county of cornwall besides many others of the two combatants one was an Irishman named after his native mountain in temporary philham gay madame and the other a scott named helmsgale they represented the national pride of each country ireland and scotland were about to set to air was going to fisticotheca jofo so the bets amounted to over 40 000 guineas besides the stakes the two champions were naked accepting short breaches buckled over the hips and spiked boots laced as high as the ankles helmsgale the scott was a youth scarcery of 19 but he had already his forehead sewn up for which reason they laid two and one third to one on him the month before he had broken the ribs and gouged up the eyes of a pugilist named six miles water this explained the enthusiasm he created he had won his backers 12 000 pounds besides having his forehead sewn up helmsgale's jaw had been broken he was neatly made and active he was about the height of a small woman upright thick set and of a stature low and threatening and nothing had been lost of the advantages given him by nature not a muscle which was not trained to his object pugilism his firm chest was compact and brown and shiny like brass he smiled and three teeth which he had lost added to his smile his adversary was tall and overgrown that is to say weak he was a man of 40 years of age six feet high with the chest of a hippopotamus and a mild expression of face the blow of his fist would break it in the deck of a vessel but he did not know how to use it the Irishman Phelan Guimadon was all surface and seemed to have entered the ring to receive rather than to give blows only it was felt that he would take a deal of punishment like underdone beef tough to chew and impossible to swallow he was what was termed in local slang raw meat he squinted he seemed resigned the two men had passed the pre-city night in the same bed and had slept together they had each drunk port wine from the same glass to the three-inch mark each had his group of seconds men of savage expression threatening the empires when it suited their aside among him scale supporters was to be seen John Gromain celebrated for having carried an ox on his back and one called John Bray who had once carried on his back 10 bushels of flower at 15 pecs to the bushel besides the miller himself and had walked over 200 paces under the weight on the side of Phelan Guimadon Lord Hyde had brought from Lonston a certain kilter who lived at Green Castle and could throw a stone weighing 20 miles to greater height than the highest tower of the castle these three men kilter Bray and Gromain were Cornishmen by birth and did honor to their county the other seconds were brutal fellows with broad backs bowed legs knotted fists dull faces ragged fearing nothing nearly all jailbirds many of them understood admirably how to make the police drunk each profession should have its peculiar talents the field chosen was farther off than the bear garden where they formerly baited bears bulls and dogs it was beyond the line of the farthest houses by the side of the ruins of prairie of st. Mary ovary dismantled by Henry VIII the wind was northerly and biting a small rain fell which was instantly frozen into ice some gentlemen present were evidently fathers of families recognized as such by the putting up their umbrellas on the side of Phelan Guimadon was Colonel Montrief as umpire and kilter as second to support him on his knee on the side of Helmsgale the honorable poot boy mary's was umpire with lord desertum from kill Kerry as bottle holder to support him on his knee the two combatants stood for a few seconds motionless in the ring whilst the watches were being compared they then approached each other and shook hands Phelan Guimadon said to Helmsgale I should prefer going home Helmsgale answered handsomely the gentleman must not be disappointed on any account naked as they were they felt the cold Phelan Guimadon shook his teeth chattered Dr. Eleanor Sharp nephew of the Archbishop of York cried out to them set two boys it will warm you those friendly words thawed them they said two but neither one nor the other was angry there were three ineffectual rounds the Reverend Dr. Gumdreth one of the 40 fellows of All Souls College cried spirit them up with Jen but the two umpires and the two seconds adhered to the rule yet it was exceedingly cold first blood was claimed they were again set face to face they looked at each other approached stretched their arms touched each other's fist and then drew back all at once Helmsgale the little man sprang forward the real fight had begun Phelan Guimadon was struck in the face between the rise his whole face streamed with blood the crowd cried Helmsgale has tapped his cleric there was applause Phelan Guimadon turned to his arms like the sails of a windmill struck out at random the honorable Peregrine Bertie said blinded but he was not blind yet then Helmsgale heard on all sides these encouraging words bung up his peepers on the whole the two champions were really well matched and not with sending in favorable weather it was seen that the fight would be a success the great giant Phelan Guimadon had to bear the inconveniences of his advantages he moved heavily his arms were massive as clubs but his chest was a mass his little opponent ran struck sprang gnashed his teeth redoubling vigor by quickness from knowledge of the science on the one side was the primitive blow of the fists savage uncultivated in a state of ignorance on the other side the civilized blow of the fist Helmsgale fought as much with these nerves as with these muscles and with as much intention as force Phelan Guimadon was a kind of sluggish mauler somewhat mauled himself to begin with it was art against nature it was cultivated ferocity against barbarism it was clear that the barbarian would be beaten but not very quickly hence the interest a little man against a big one and the chances are in favor of the little one the cat has the best of it with a dog goliaths are always vanquished by davids a hill of exclamations followed the combatants bravo Helmsgale good well done Highlander now Phelan and the friends of Helmsgale repeated their bent elbow at exhortation bung up his peepers Helmsgale did better rapidly bending down and back again with the undulation of a serpent he struck Phelan Guimadon in the sternum the colossus staggered foul blow cried Viscount Barnard Phelan Guimadon sank down on the knee of his second saying I am beginning to get warm Lord Dessertum consulted the umpires and said five minutes before time is called Phelan Guimadon was becoming weaker Kilter wipes the blood from his face and the sweat from his body with a flannel and placed the neck of a bottle to his mouth they had come to the 11th round Phelan besides the scar on his forehead had his breast disfigured by the blows his belly swollen and the four part of the head scarified Helmsgale was untouched a kind of tumult rose among the gentlemen Lord Barnard repeated foul blow Vets Voight said the lord the lair of Lamarabal I claimed my stake replied Sir Thomas Sculpepper and the honorable member for the borough of St. I's Sir Bartholomew Gristew added give me back my 500 guineas and I will go stop the fight Phelan arose staggering like a drunken man and said let us go on fighting on one condition that I also shall have the right to give one foul blow they cried agreed from all parts of the ring Helmsgale shrugged his shoulders five minutes elapsed and they set to again the fighting which was agony to Phelan was played to Helmsgale such are the triumphs of science the little man found means of putting the big one into chancery that is to say Helmsgale suddenly took under his left arm which was bent like a steel crescent the huge head of Phelan Gimodolin and held it there under his armpits the neck bent and twisted while Helmsgale's right fist fell again and again like a hammer on a nail only from below and striking upwards thus smashing his opponent's face at his ease when Phelan released at length lifted his head he no longer had a face that which had been a nose eyes and a mouth now looked only like a black sponge soaked in blood he spat and on the ground lay four of his teeth then he fell Kilter received him on his knee Helmsgale was hardly touched he had some insignificant bruises and a scratch on his collarbone no one was cold now they laid 16 and a quarter to one on Helmsgale Harry Carlton cried out it is all over with Phelan Gimodolin I will lay my peerage of Belegakwa and my title of Lord Belew against the Archbishop of Canterbury's old wig on Helmsgale give me your muzzle said Kilter to Phelan Gimodolin and stuffing the bloody flannel into the bottle he washed him all over with Jen the mouth reappeared and he opened one eyelid his temples seemed fractured one around more my friend said Kilter and he added for the honor of the low town the Welsh and the Irish understood each other still Phelan made no sign of having any power of understanding left Phelan arose supported by Kilter it was the 25th round from the way in which the Cyclops for he had but one eye placed himself in position it was evident that this was the last round for no one doubted his defeat he placed his guard below his chin with the awkwardness of a failing man Helmsgale with a skin hardly sweating cried out I'll back myself a thousand to one Helmsgale rising his arm struck out and what was strange both fell a ghastly chuckle was heard it was Phelan Gimodolin's expression of delight while receiving the terrible blow given him by Helmsgale on the skull he had given him a foul blow on the navel Helmsgale lying on his back rattled in his throat the spectators looked at him as he lay on the ground and said paid back all clapped their hands even those who had lost Phelan Gimodolin had given foul blow for foul blow and only asserted his right they carried Helmsgale off on a handbarrow the opinion was that he would not recover Lord Robartes exclaimed I win 1200 guineas Phelan Gimodolin was evidently main for life as she left Josiana took the arm of Lord David an act which was tolerated amongst people engaged she said to him is very fine but but what I thought it would have driven away my spleen it is not Lord David stopped looked at Josiana shut his mouth and inflated his cheeks while seen on his head which signified attention and said to the Duchess for spleen there is but one remedy what is it Gwynne Plain the Duchess asked and who is Gwynne Plain end of chapter 12 section 47 of the man who laughs by Victor Hugo this is a LibriVox recording a LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Irma Martin the man who laughs by Victor Hugo part two book the second chapter one wherein we see the face of him of whom we have hitherto seen only the acts nature had been prodigal of her kindness to Gwynne Plain she had bestowed on him a mouth opening to his ears ears folding over to his eyes a shapeless nose to support the spectacles of the grimace maker and a face that no one could look upon without laughing we have just said that nature had loaded Gwynne Plain with her gifts but was it nature had she not been assisted two slits for eyes a hiatus for a mouth a snub protuberance with two holes for nostrils a flattened face all having for the result an appearance of laughter it is certain that nature never produces such perfection single-handed but is laughter a synonym of joy if in the presence of this mount to bank for he was one the first impression of gaiety were off and the man were observed with attention traces of art were to be recognized such a face could never have been created by chance it must have resulted from intention such perfect completeness is not in nature man can do nothing to create beauty but everything to produce ugliness a hot and taut profile cannot be changed into a roman outline but out of a grecian nose you may make a kalmux it only requires to obliterate the root of the nose and to flatten the nostrils the dog Latin of the middle ages had a reason for its creation of the verb deniser had Gwynne Plain when a child been so worthy of attention that his face had been subjected to transmutation why not needed there a greater motive than the speculation of his future exhibition according to all appearance industrious manipulators of children had worked upon his face it seemed evident that a mysterious and probably a cult science which was to surgery what alchemy was to chemistry had chiseled his flesh evidently at a very tender age and manufactured his countenance with premeditation that science clever with the knife skilled in obtusions and ligatures had enlarged the mouth cut away the lips laid bare the gums distended the ears cut the cartilages displace the eyelids and the cheeks enlarge the zygomatic muscle press the scars and cicatrixes to a level turn back the skin over the lesions whilst the face was thus stretched from which all which resulted that powerful and profound piece of sculpture the mask Gwynne Plain man is not born thus however it may have been the manipulation of Gwynne Plain had succeeded admirably Gwynne Plain was a gift of providence to dispel the sadness of man of what providence is there a providence of demons as well as of God we put the question without answering it Gwynne Plain was a mount a bank he showed himself on the platform no such effect had ever before been produced hypochondriacs were cured by the sight of him alone he was avoided by folks in mourning because they were compelled to laugh when they saw him without regard to their decent gravity one day the executioner came and Gwynne Plain made him laugh everyone who saw Gwynne Plain held his sides he spoke and they rolled on the ground he was removed from sadness as his pole from pole spleen at the one Gwynne Plain at the other thus he rose rapidly in the fairground and at the crossroads to the very satisfactory renown of a horrible man it was Gwynne Plain's laugh which created the laughter of others yet he did not laugh himself his face laughed his thoughts did not the extraordinary face which chance or a special and weird industry had fashioned for him laughed alone Gwynne Plain had nothing to do with it the outside did not depend on the interior the laugh which he had not placed himself on his brow on his eyelids on his mouth he could not remove it had been stamped forever on his face it was automatic and the more irresistible because it seemed petrified no one could escape from this rictus two convulsions of the face are infectious laughing and yawning by virtue of the mysterious operation to which Gwynne Plain had probably been subjected in his infancy every part of his face contributed to that rictus his whole physiognomy led to that result as a wheel centers in the nave all his emotions whatever they might have been augmented his strange face of joy or to speak more correctly aggravated it any astonishment which might seize him any suffering which he might feel any anger which might take possession of him any pity which might move him would only increase this hilarity of his muscles if he wept he left and whatever Gwynne Plain was whatever he wished to be whatever he thought the moment that he raised his head the crowd if crowd there was had before them one impersonation an overwhelming burst of laughter it was like ahead of Medusa but Medusa hilarious all feeling or thought in the mind of the spectator was suddenly put to flight by the unexpected apparition and laughter was inevitable antique art formally placed on the outsides of the Greek theater a joyous brazen face called comedy it laughed an occasioned laughter but remained pensive all parody which borders on folly all irony which borders on wisdom were condensed and amalgamated in that face the burden of care of disillusion anxiety and grief were expressed in its impassive countenance and resulted in the legubrious sum of mirth one corner of the mouth was raised in mockery of the human race the other side in blasphemy of the gods men confronted that model of the ideal sarcasm and exemplification of the irony which each one possesses within him and the crowd continually renewed round its fixed laugh died away with delight before its sepulchral immobility of mirth one might almost have said that when plain was that dark dead mask of ancient comedy adjusted to the body of a living man that infernal head of implacable hilarity he supported on his neck what a wait for the shoulders of a man an ever-lasting laugh let us understand each other we will explain the manicheans believed the absolute occasionally gives way and that God himself sometimes abdicates for a time so also of the will we do not admit that it can ever be utterly powerless the whole of existence resembles a letter modified in the post script for Gwynn plain the post script was this by the force of his will and by concentrating all his attention and on condition that no emotion should come to distract and turn away the fixedness of his effort he could manage to suspend the everlasting rictus of his face and to throw over it a kind of tragic veil and then the spectator laugh no longer he shuttered this exertion when plain scarcely ever made it was a terrible effort and an insupportable tension moreover it happened that on the slightest distraction or the slightest emotion the laugh driven back for a moment returned like a tide with an impulse which was irresistible in proportion to the force of the adverse emotion with this exception when planes laugh was ever lasting on seeing when plain all laughed when they had laughed they turned away their heads and then had laughed they turned away their heads women especially shrunk from him with horror the man was frightful the joyous convulsion of laughter was as a tribute paid they submitted to it gladly but almost mechanically besides when once the novelty of the laugh had passed over when plain was intolerable for a woman to see and impossible to contemplate but he was tall well made and agile and no way deformed accepting in his face this led to the presumption that when plain was rather a creation of art than a work of nature when plain beautiful in figure had probably been beautiful in face at his birth he no doubt resembled other infants they had left the body intact and retouched only the face when plain had been made to order at least that was probable they had left him his teeth teeth are necessary to a laugh the death's head retains them the operation performed on him must have been frightful that he had no remembrance of it was no proof that had not taken place surgical sculpture of the kind could never have succeeded except on a very young child and consequently on one having little consciousness of what happened to him and who might easily take a wound for a sickness besides we must remember that they had in those times means of putting patients to sleep and of suppressing all suffering only then it was called magic while now it is called anesthesia besides this face those who had brought him up had given him the resources of a gymnast and an athlete his articulations usefully displaced and fashioned to bending the wrong way had received the education of a clown and could like the hinges of a door move backwards and forwards in appropriating him to the profession of mount a bank nothing had been neglected his hair had been died with ochre once for all a secret which has been rediscovered at the present day pretty women use it and that which was formerly considered ugly is now considered an embellishment when plain had yellow hair his hair having probably been died with some corrosive preparation had left it woolly and rough to the touch its yellow bristles rather a main than a head of hair covered and concealed a lofty brow evidently made to contain thought the operation whatever it had been which had deprived his features of harmony and put all their flesh into disorder had had no effect on the bony structure of his head the facial angle was powerful and surprisingly grand behind his lap there was a soul dreaming as all our souls dream however his laugh was to Gwyn plane quite a talent he could do nothing with it so he turned it to account by means of it he gained his living Gwyn plane as you have doubtless already guessed was the child abandoned one winter evening on the coast of Portland and received into a poor caravan of waymouth end of section forty seven section forty eight of the man who laughs by Victor Hugo this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Irma Martin the man who laughs by Victor Hugo part two book the second chapter two Dia that boy was at this time a man fifteen years had elapsed it was in 1705 Gwyn plane was in his twenty fifth year Ursus had kept the two children with him they were a group of wanderers Ursus and Homo had aged Ursus had become quite bald the wolf was growing gray the age of wolves is not ascertained like that of dogs according to Moliere there are wolves which live to 80 amongst others the little copara and the rank wolf the Canis Nubulus of Sey the little girl found on the dead woman was now a tall creature of sixteen with brown hair slight fragile almost trembling from delicacy and almost inspiring fear lest she should break admirably beautiful her eyes full of light yet blind that fatal winter night which threw down the beggar woman and her infant in the snow had struck a double blow it had killed the mother and blinded the child Guta Serena had forever paralyzed the eyes of the girl now become woman in her turn on her face through which the light of day never passed the depressed corners of the mouth indicated the bitterness of the privation her eyes large and clear had a strange quality extinguished forever to her to others they were brilliant they were mysterious torches lighting only the outside they gave light but possessed it not these sightless eyes were resplendent a captive of shadow she lighted up the dull place she inhabited from the depth of her incurable darkness from behind the black wall called blindness she flung her rays she saw not the sun without but her soul was perceptible from within in her dead look there was a celestial earnestness she was the night and from the irremediable darkness with which she was amalgamated she came out a star ursus with his mania for latin names had christened her dia he had taken his wolf into consultation he had said to him you represent man i represent the beasts we are of the lower world this little one shall represent the world on high such feebleness is all powerful in this manner the universe shall be complete in our hut in its three orders human animal and divine the wolf made no objection therefore the foundling was called dia as to gwen plain ursus had not had the trouble of inventing a name for him the morning of the day on which he had realized the disfigurement of the little boy and the blindness of the infant he had asked him boy what is your name and the boy had answered they call me gwen plain be gwen plain then said ursus dia assisted gwen plain in his performances if human misery could be summed up it might have been summed up in gwen plain and dia each seemed born in a compartment of the sepulcher gwen plain in the horrible dia in the darkness their existences were shadowed by two different kinds of darkness taken from the two formidable sides of night dia had that shadow in her gwen plain had it on him there was a phantom in dia a specter in gwen plain dia was sunk in the mournful gwen plain in something worse there was for gwen plain who could see a heart rendering possibility that existed not for dia who was blind he could compare himself with other men now in a situation such as that of gwen plain admitting that he should seek to examine it to compare himself with others was to understand himself no more to have like dia empty site from which the world is absent is a supreme distress yet less than to be an enigma to oneself to feel that something is wanting here as well and that something oneself to see the universe and not to see oneself dia had a veil over her the night gwen plain a mask his face inexpressible fact it was by his own flesh that gwen plain was masked what his visage had been he knew not his face had vanished they had affixed to him a false self he had for a face a disappearance his head lived his face was dead he never remembered to have seen it mankind was for gwen plain as for dia an exterior fact it was far off she was alone he was alone the isolation of dia was funeral she saw nothing that of gwen plain sinister he saw all things for dia creation never passed the bounds of touch and hearing reality was bounded limited short immediately lost nothing was infinite to her but darkness for gwen plain to live was to have the crowd forever before him and outside him dia was the proscribed from light gwen plain the band of life they were beyond the pale of hope and had reached the depth of possible calamity they had sunk into it both of them an observer who had watched them would have felt his reverie melt into immeasurable pity what must they not have suffered the degree of misfortune weighed visibly on these human creatures and never had fate encompassed two beings who had done nothing to deserve it and more clearly turned destiny into torture and life into hell they were in a paradise they were in love gwen plain adored dia dia idolized gwen plain how beautiful you are she would say to him end of section 48 section 49 of the man who laughs by victor hugo this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by ermah martin the man who laughs by victor hugo part two book the second chapter three oculus non habit et vedette only one woman on earth saw gwen plain it was the blind girl she had learned what gwen plain had done for her from ursis to whom he had related his rough journey from portland to weymouth and the many sufferings which he had endured when deserted by the gang she knew that when an infant dying upon her dead mother suckling a corpse a being scarcely bigger than herself had taken her up that this being exiled and as it were buried under the refusal of the universe to aid him had heard her cry that all the world being deaf to him he had not been deaf to her that the child alone weak cast off without resting place here below dragging himself over the waist exhausted by fatigue crushed had accepted from the hands of night a burden another child that he who had nothing to expect in that obscure distribution which we call fate had charged himself with the destiny that naked in anguish and distress he had made himself a providence that when heaven had closed he had opened his heart that himself lost he had saved that having neither roof tree nor shelter he had been an asylum that he had made himself mother and nurse that he who was alone in the world had responded to desertion by adoption that lost in the darkness he had given an example that as if not already sufficiently burdened he had added to his load another's misery that in this world would seem to contain nothing for him he had found a duty that where everyone else would have hesitated he had advanced that where everyone else would have drawn back he consented that he had put his hand into the jaws of the grave and drawn her out day that himself half naked he had given her his rags because she was cold that famished he had thought of giving her food and drink that for one little creature another little creature had combated death that he had fought it under every form under the form of winter and snow under the form of solitude under the form of terror under the form of cold hunger and thirst under the form of world wind and that for her dare this titan of ten had given battle to the immensity of night she knew that as a child he had done this and that now as a man he was strength to her weakness riches to her poverty healing to her sickness and sight to her blindness through the mist of the unknown by which she felt herself encompassed she distinguished clearly his devotion his abnegation his courage heroism in immaterial regions has an outline she distinguished this sublime outline in the inexpressible abstraction in which thought lives unlighted by the sun dare perceived this mysterious lineament of virtue in the surrounding of dark things put in motion which was the only impression made on her by reality in the uneasy stagnation of a creature always passive yet always on the watch for possible evil in the sensation of being ever defenseless which is the life of the blind she felt when plain above her when plain never cold never absent never obscured when plain sympathetic helpful and sweet-tempered dare quivered with certainty and gratitude her anxiety changed into ecstasy and with her shadowy eyes she contemplated on the zenith from the depth of her abyss the rich light of his goodness in the ideal kindness is the sun and when plain dazzled dare to the crowd which has too many heads to have a thought and too many eyes to have a sight to the crowd who superficial themselves judge only of the surface when plain was a clown a mary andrew a mount a bank a creature grotesque a little more and a little less than a beast the crowd knew only the face for dare when plain was the savior who had gathered her into his arms in the tomb and born her out of it the consoler who made life tolerable the liberator whose hand holding her own guided her through that labyrinth called blindness gwen plain was her brother friend guide support the personification of heavenly power the husband winged and resplendent where the multitude saw the monster dare recognize the archangel it was that dare blind perceived his soul and of section 49 section 50 of The Man Who Loves by Victor Hugo this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Maxim Babich from Desnogorsk The Man Who Loves by Victor Hugo part two book the second gwen plain and dia chapter four well matched lovers Ursus being a philosopher understood he approved of the fascination of dia he said the blind see the invisible he said conscience is vision then looking at gwen plain he murmured semi-monster but demigod gwen plain on the other hand was madly in love with dia there is the invisible eye the spirit and the visible eye the pupil he saw her with the visible eye dia was dazzled by the ideal gwen plain by the real gwen plain was not ugly he was frightful he saw his contrast before him in proportion as he was terrible dia was sweet he was horror she was grace dia was his dream she seemed a vision scarcely embodied there was in her whole person in her grecian form in her fine and supple figure swaying like a reed in her shoulders on which might have been invisible wings in the modest curves which indicated her sex to the soul rather than to the senses in her fairness which amounted almost to transparency in the august and reserved serenity of her look divinely shut out from earth in the sacred innocence of her smile she was almost an angel and yet just a woman gwen plain we have said compared himself and compared dia his existence such as it was was the result of a double and unheard of choice it was the point of intersection of two rays one from below and one from above a black and white ray to the same crumb perhaps pecked at at once by the beaks of evil and good one gave the bite the other the kiss gwen plain was this crumb an atom wounded and caressed gwen plain was the product of fatality combined with providence misfortune has placed its finger on him happiness as well to extreme destinies composed his strange lot he had on him an anathema and a benediction he was the elect cursed who was he he knew not when he looked at himself he saw one he knew not but this unknown was a monster gwen plain lived as it were beheaded with a face which did not belong to him this face was frightful so frightful that it was absurd it caused as much fear as laughter it was a hell concocted absurdity it was the shipwreck of a human face into the mask of an animal never had been seen so total an eclipse of humanity in a human face never parody more complete never had apparition more frightful greened in nightmare never had everything repulsive to woman been more hideously amalgamated in a man the unfortunate heart masked and culminated by the face seemed forever condemned to solitude under it as under a tombstone yet no where unknown malice had done its worst invisible goodness had lent its aid in the poor fallen one suddenly raised up by the side of the repulsive it had placed the attractive on the barren shore it had set the lodestone it had caused the soul to fly with swift wings towards the deserted one it had sent the dove to console the creature whom the thunderbolt had overwhelmed and had made beauty a door deformity for this to be possible it was necessary that beauty should not see the disfigurement for this good fortune misfortune was required providence had made dea blind green plane vaguely felt himself the object of a redemption why had he been persecuted he knew not why redeemed he knew not all he knew was that a halo had encircled his brand when green plane had been old enough to understand ursus had read and explained to him the text of doctor conquest dea dana satis and in another folio yugo plegan the passage never have been smooth till us but ursus had prudently abstained from hypothesis and had been reserved in his opinion of what it might mean suppositions were possible the probability of violence inflicted on green plane when an infant was hinted at but for green plane the result was the only evidence his destiny was to live under a stigma why this stigma there was no answer silence and solitude were around green plane all was uncertain in the conjectures which could be fitted to that radical reality accepting the terrible fact nothing was certain in his discouragement dea intervened the sort of celestial interposition between him and despair he perceived melted and inspired by the sweetness of the beautiful girl who turned to him that horrible as he was a beautified wonder affected his monster's visage having been fashioned to create dread he was the object of a miraculous exception that it was admired and adored in the ideal by the light and monster that he was he felt himself the contemplation of a star green plane and dea were united and these two suffering hearts adored each other one nest and two birds that was their story they had begun to feel a universal law to please to seek and to find each other thus hatred had made a mistake the persecutors of green plane however they might have been the deadly enigma from wherever it came had missed their aim they had intended to drive him to desperation they had succeeded in driving him into enchantment they had affianced him beforehand to a healing wound they had predestined him for consolation by an inflection the pincers of the executioner had softly changed into the delicately molded hand over girl green plane was horrible artificially horrible made horrible by the hand of men they had hoped to exile him forever first from his family if his family existed and then from humanity when an infant they had made him a ruin of this ruin nature had repossessed herself as she does of all ruins this solitude nature had consoled as she consoles all solitudes nature comes to the sucker of the deserted where all is lacking she gives back your whole self she flourishes and grows green amid ruins she has ivy for the stones and love for men profound generosity of the shadows end of section 50 of The Man Who Loves by Victor Hugo section 51 of The Man Who Loves by Victor Hugo this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Maxim Babich from Desnogorsk The Man Who Loves by Victor Hugo part two book the second green plane and dia chapter five the blue sky through the black cloud thus lived these unfortunate creatures together dia relying green plane accepted these orphans were all in all to each other the feeble and the deformed the widowed were betrothed an inexpressible thanksgiving arose out of their distress they were grateful to whom to the obscure immensity be grateful in your own hearts that suffices thanksgiving has wings and flies to its right destination your prayer knows its way better than you can how many men have believed that they prayed to Jupiter when they prayed to Jehovah how many believers in amulets are listened to by the Almighty how many atheists there are who know not that in the simple fact of being good and sad they pray to God green plane and dia were grateful deformity is expulsion blindness is a precipice the expelled one had been adopted the precipice was habitable green plane had seen a brilliant light descending on him in an arrangement of destiny which seemed to put in the perspective of a dream a white cloud of beauty having the form of a woman a radiant vision in which there was a heart and the phantom almost a cloud and yet a woman clasped him and the apparition embraced him and the heart desired him green plane was no longer deformed he was beloved the rose demanded the caterpillar in marriage feeling that within the caterpillar there was a divine butterfly green plane the rejected was chosen to have one's desire is everything green plane had his dear hers the objection of the disfigured man was exalted and dilated into intoxication into delight into belief and a hand was stretched out towards the melancholy hesitation of the blind girl to guide her in her darkness it was the penetration of two misfortunes into the ideal which absorbed them the rejected found a refuge in each other two blanks combining filled each other up they held together by what they lacked in that in which one was poor the other was rich the misfortune of the one made the treasure of the other had dea not been blind would she have chosen green plane had green plane not been disfigured would he have preferred dea she would probably have rejected the deformed as he would have passed by the infirm what happiness for dea that green plane was hideous what good fortune for green plane that dea was blind apart from their providential matching they were impossible to each other a mighty want of each other was at the bottom of their loves green plane saved dea dea saved green plane a position of misery produced adherence it was the embrace of those swallowed in the abyss none closer none more hopeless none more exquisite green plane had a thought what should i be without her dea had a thought what should i be without him the exile of which made a country for both the two incurable fatalities the stigmato of green plane and the blindness of dea joined them together in contentment they suffice to each other they imagined nothing beyond each other to speak to one another was a delight to approach was beatitude by force of reciprocal intuition they became united in the same reverie and thought the same thoughts in green plane's thread dea believed that she heard the step of one deified they tightened their mutual grasp in a sort of sidereal chiaroscuro full of perfumes of glimpse of music of the luminous architecture of dreams they belonged to each other they knew themselves to be forever united in the same joy and the same ecstasy and nothing could be stranger than this construction of an Eden by two of the damned they were inexpressibly happy in their hell they had created heaven such was the power oh love dea heard green plane's laugh green plane saw dea's smile thus ideal felicity was found the perfect joy of life was realized the mysterious problem of happiness was solved and by whom by two outcasts for green plane dea was splendor for dea green plane was presence presence is that profound mystery which renders the invisible world divine and from which results that other mystery confidence in religions this is the only thing which is irreducible but this irreducible thing suffices the great motive power is not seen it is felt green plane was the religion of dea sometimes lost in her sense of love towards him she nailed like a beautiful priestess before a gnome in a pagoda made happy by her adoration imagine to herself an abyss and in its center an oasis of light and in this oasis two creatures shut out of life dazzling each other no purity could be compared to their loves dea was ignorant what a kiss might be though perhaps she desired it because blindness especially in a woman has its dreams and though trembling at the approaches of their known does not fear them all as the green plane his sensitive youth made him pensive the more delirious he felt the more timid he became he might have dared anything with this companion of his early youth with this creature as innocent of fault as of the light with this blind girl who saw but one thing that she adored him but he would have thought it a theft to take what she might have given so he resigned himself with a melancholy satisfaction to love angelically and the conviction of his deformity resolved itself into a proud purity these happy creatures dwelt in the ideal they were spouses in it at distances as opposite as the spheres they exchanged in its firmament the deep effluvium which is in infinity attraction and on earth the sexes their kisses were the kisses of souls they had always lived a common life they knew themselves only in each other's society the infancy of dea had coincided with the youth of green plane they had grown upside by side for a long time they had slept in the same bed for the hut was not a large bed chamber they lay on the chest ursus on the floor that was the arrangement one fine day whilst dea was still very little green plane felt himself grown up and it was in the youth that shame arose he said to ursus i will also sleep on the floor and that night he stretched himself with the old man on the bare skin then dea wept she cried for her bed fellow but green plane become restless because he had begun to love decided to remain where he was from that time he always slept by the side of ursus on the planks in the summer when the nights were fine he slept outside with homo when 13 dea had not yet become resigned to the arrangement often in the evening she said green plane come close to me that will put me to sleep a man lying by her side was a necessity to her innocent slumbers nudity is to see that one is naked she ignored nudity it was the ingeniousness of arcadia or auto height dea untold made green plane wild sometimes it happened that dea when almost reaching youth combed her long hair as she sat on her bed her shemizan fastened and falling off revealed indications of a feminine outline and the vague commencement of eve and would call green plane green plane blushed lowered his eyes and knew not what to do in presence of this innocent creature stammering he turned his head feared and fled the deafness of darkness took flight before the clowy of shadow such was the idyll blooming in atragity ursus said to them old broods adore each other end of section 51 section 52 of the man who laughs by victor hugo this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org recording by irma martin the man who laughs by victor hugo part two book the second chapter six ursus is tutor and ursus is guardian ursus added some of these days i will play them a nasty trick i will marry them ursus taught gwen plain the theory of love he said to him do you know how the almighty lights the fire called love he places the woman underneath the devil between and the man at the top a match that is to say a look and behold it is all on fire a look is unnecessary answered gwen plain thinking of daa and ursus replied booby do souls require mortal eyes to see each other ursus was a good fellow at times gwen plain sometimes madly in love with daa became melancholy and made use of the presence of ursus as a guard on himself one day ursus said to him bah do not put yourself out when in love the cock shows himself but the eagle conceals himself replied gwen plain at other times ursus would say to himself apart it is wise to put spokes in the wheels of the sitharian car they love each other too much this may have its disadvantages let us avoid a fire let us moderate these hearts then ursus had recourse to warnings of this nature speaking to gwen plain when daa slept and to daa when gwen plain's back was turned daa you must not be so fond of gwen plain to live in the life of another is perilous egoism is a good root of happiness men escape from women and then gwen plain might end up by becoming infatuated with you his success is so great you have no idea how great his success is gwen plain disproportion's are no good so much ugliness on one side and so much beauty on another ought to compel reflection temper your ardor my boy do not become too enthusiastic about daa do you seriously consider that you are made for her just think of your deformity and her perfection see the distance between her and yourself she has everything this daya what a white skin what hair lips like strawberries and her foot her hand those shoulders with their exquisite curve her expression is sublime she walks diffusing light and in speaking the grave tone of her voice is charming but for all this to think that she is a woman she would not be such a fool as to be an angel she is absolute beauty repeat all this to yourself to calm your ardor these speeches redoubled the love of gwen plain and daa and ursus was astonished at his want of success just as one who would say it is singular that with all the oil i throw on fire i cannot extinguish it did he then desire to extinguish their love or to cool it even certainly not he would have been well punished had he succeeded at the bottom of his heart this love which was flame for them and warmth for him was his delight but it is natural to great a little against that which charms us men call it wisdom ursus had been in his relations with win plain and daa almost a father and a mother grumbling all the while he had brought them up grumbling all the while he had nourished them his adoption of them had made the hut role more heavily and he had been often or compelled to harness himself by homo side to help to draw it we may observe however that after the first few years when when plain was nearly grown up and ursus had grown quite old when plain had taken his turn and drawn ursus ursus seeing that when plain was becoming a man had cast the horoscope of his deformity it has made your fortune he had told him this family of an old man and two children with a wolf had become as they wondered a group more and more intimately united their errant life had not hindered education to wonder is to grow ursus said when plain was evidently made to exhibit at fairs ursus had cultivated in him feats of dexterity and had encrusted him as much as possible with all he himself possessed of science and wisdom ursus contemplating the perplexing mast of when plain's face often growled he has begun well it was for this reason that he had perfected him with every ornament of philosophy and wisdom he repeated constantly to when plain be a philosopher to be wise is to be invulnerable you see what i am i have never shed a tear this is the result of my wisdom do you think that occasion for tears has been wanting had i felt disposed to weep ursus in one of his monologues in the hearing of the wolf said i have taught when plain everything latin included i have taught day and nothing music included he had taught them both to sing he had himself a pretty talent for playing on the out and read a little flute of that period he played on it agreeably as also on the chiffonny a sort of beggar's hurdy-gurdy mentioned in the chronicle of brutrand de gooselyn as the truant instrument which started the symphony these instruments attracted the crowd ursus would show them the chiffonny and say it is called organistrum in latin he had taught dea and when plain to sing according to the method of orpheus and of egety ben schwa frequently he interrupted the lessons with cries of enthusiasm such as orpheus musician of greece ben schwa musician of pigardy these branches of careful culture did not occupy the children so as to prevent their adoring each other they had mingled their hearts together as they grew up as two saplings planted near mingle their branches as they become trees no matter said ursus i will marry them then he grumbled to himself they are quite tiresome with their love the past their little past at least had no existence for dea and gwen plain they knew only what ursus had told them of it they called ursus father the only remembrance which gwen plain had of his infancy was as of a passage of demons over his cradle he had an impression of having been trodden in the darkness under deformed feet was this intentional or not he was ignorant on this point that which he remembered clearly and to the slightest detail were his tragical adventures when deserted at portland the finding of dea made that dismal night a radiant date for him the memory of dea even more than that of gwen plain was lost in clouds in so young a child all remembrances melts away she recollected her mother as something cold had she ever seen the sun perhaps so she made efforts to pierce into the blank which was her past life the sun what was it she had some vague memory of a thing luminous and warm of which gwen plain had taken the place they spoke to each other in low tones it is certain that cooing is the most important thing in the world dea often said to gwen plain light means that you are speaking once no longer containing himself as he saw through a muslin sleeve the arm of dea gwen plain brushed its transparency with his lips ideal kiss of a deformed mouth dea felt a deep delight she blushed like a rose this kiss from a monster made aurora gleam on that beautiful brow full of night however gwen plain sighed with the kind of terror and as the necrachiff of dea gaped he could not refrain from looking at the whiteness visible through that glimpse of paradise dea pulled up her sleeve and stretching towards gwen plain her naked arm said again gwen plain fled the next day the game was renewed with variations it was a heavenly subsidence into that sweet abyss called love at such things heaven smiles philosophically end of section 52 section 53 of the man who laughs by victor hugo this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org recording by irma martin the man who laughs by victor hugo part two book the second chapter seven blindness gives lessons in clairvoyance at times gwen plain reproached himself he made his happiness a case of conscience he fancied that to allow a woman who could not see him to love him was to deceive her what would she have said could she have suddenly obtained her sight how she would have felt repulsed by what had previously attracted her how she would have recoiled from her frightful lodestone what a cry what covering of her face what a flight a bitter scruple harassed him he told himself that such a monster as he had no right to love he was a hydra idolized by a star it was his duty to enlighten the blind star one day he said to daa you know that i am very ugly i know that you are sublime she answered he resumed when you hear all the world laugh they laugh at me because i am horrible i love you said daa after a silence she added i was in death you brought me to life when you were here heaven is by my side give me your hand that i may touch heaven their hands met and grasped each other they spoke no more but were silent in the plenitude of love ursus who was craved had overheard this the next day when the three were together he said for that matter daa is ugly also the word produced no effect daa and glen plain were not listening absorbed in each other they rarely heeded such exclamations of ursus their depth was a dead loss this time however the precaution of ursus daa is also ugly indicated in this learned man a certain knowledge of women it is certain that glen plain in his loyalty had been guilty of an imprudence to have said i am ugly to any other blind girl than daa might have been dangerous to be blind and in love is to be twofold blind in such a situation dreams are dreamt illusion is the food of dreams take illusion from love and you take from it its element it is compounded of every enthusiasm of both physical and moral admiration moreover you should never tell a woman a word difficult to understand she will dream about it and she often dreams falsely an enigma in a reverie spoils it the shock caused by the fall of a careless word displaces that against which it strikes at time it happens without our knowing why that because we have received the obscure blow of a chance word the heart empties itself insensibly of love he who loves perceives a decline in his happiness nothing is to be feared more than the slow exudation from the fissure in the vase happily daa was not formed of such clay the stuff of which other women are made had not been used in her construction she had a rare nature the frame but not the heart was fragile a divine perseverance and love was in the heart of her being the whole disturbance which the word used by Gwynn Plain had produced in her ended in her saying one day to be ugly what is it it is to do wrong Gwynn Plain only does good he is handsome then under the form of interrogation so familiar to children into the blind she resumed to see what is it that you call seeing for my own part I cannot see I know it seems that to see means to hide what do you mean said Gwynn Plain daa answered to see is the thing which conceals the true no said Gwynn Plain but yes replied daa since you say you are ugly she reflected a moment and then said story teller Gwynn Plain felt the joy of having confessed and of not being believed both his conscience and his love were consoled thus they had reached daa 16 Gwynn Plain nearly 25 they were not as it would now be expressed more advanced than the first day less even for it may be remembered that on their wedding night she was nine months and he ten years old a sort of holy childhood had continued in their love thus it sometimes happens that the belated nightingale prolongs her nocturnal song until dawn their caresses went no further than pressing hands or lips brushing a naked arm soft half articulate whispers sufficed them 24 and 16 so it happened that urses who did not lose sight of the ill turn he intended to do them said one of these days you must choose a religion where four inquired Gwynn Plain that you may marry that is already done said daa daa did not understand that they could be no more man and wife than they were already at bottom this chimerical and virginal content this innocent union of souls this celibacy taken for marriage was not displeasing to urses besides were they not already married if the indissoluble existed anywhere was it not in their union Gwynn Plain and daa they were creatures worthy of the love they mutually felt flung by misfortune into each other's arms and as if they were not enough in this first link love had served on misfortune and had attached them united and bound them together what power could ever break that iron chain bound with knots of flowers they were indeed bound together daa had beauty Gwynn Plain had sight each brought a dowry they were more than coupled they were paired separated solely by the sacred interposition of innocence though dream as Gwynn Plain would however and absorb all meaner passions as he could in the contemplation of daa and before the tribunal of conscience he was a man fatal laws are not to be alluded he underwent like everything else in nature the obscure fermentations willed by the creator at times therefore he looked at the women who were in the crowd but he immediately felt that the look was a sin and hastened to retire repentant into his own soul let us add that he met with no encouragement on the face of every woman who looked upon him he saw aversion antipathy repugnance and rejection it was clear that no other than daa was possible for him this aided his repentance end of section 53