I should be good for nothing but to chastise others, and not myself!
Why, I should be a blackguard!
Those who say, `That blackguard of a Javert!' would be in the right.
Mr. Mayor, I do not desire that you should treat me kindly; your kindness roused sufficient bad blood in me when it was directed to others.
I want none of it for myself. The kindness which consists in upholding a woman of the town against a citizen, the police agent against the mayor, the man who is down against the man who is up in the world, is what I call false kindness. That is the sort of kindness which disorganizes society.
Good God! it is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just. Come! if you had been what I thought you, I should not have been kind to you, not I!
You would have seen!
Mr. Mayor, I must treat myself as I would treat any other man.
When I have subdued malefactors, when I have proceeded with vigor against rascals, I have often said to myself, `If you flinch, if I ever catch you in fault, you may rest at your ease!'
I have flinched, I have caught myself in a fault. So much the worse!
Come, discharged, cashiered, expelled!
That is well. I have arms.
I will till the soil; it makes no difference to me. Mr. Mayor, the good of the service demands an example.
I simply require the discharge of Inspector Javert."
All this was uttered in a proud, humble, despairing, yet convinced tone, which lent indescribable grandeur to this singular, honest man.
"We shall see," said M. Madeleine.
And he offered him his hand.
Javert recoiled, and said in a wild voice:--
"Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, but this must not be.
A mayor does not offer his hand to a police spy."