BOOK FIFTH.--THE DESCENT
CHAPTER XI
CHRISTUS NOS LIBERAVIT
What is this history of Fantine?
It is society purchasing a slave.
From whom?
From misery.
From hunger, cold, isolation, destitution.
A dolorous bargain. A soul for a morsel of bread.
Misery offers; society accepts.
The sacred law of Jesus Christ governs our civilization, but it does not, as yet, permeate it; it is said that slavery has disappeared from European civilization.
This is a mistake.
It still exists; but it weighs only upon the woman, and it is called prostitution.
It weighs upon the woman, that is to say, upon grace, weakness, beauty, maternity.
This is not one of the least of man's disgraces.
At the point in this melancholy drama which we have now reached, nothing is left to Fantine of that which she had formerly been.
She has become marble in becoming mire.
Whoever touches her feels cold. She passes; she endures you; she ignores you; she is the severe and dishonored figure.
Life and the social order have said their last word for her.