Victor hugo

My dearest daughter, You must come at once. I need you urgently. The 
person who gives you this note will bring you to me. I shall be waiting. 
M. Leblanc signed his name Urbain Fabre, which seemed to satisfy 
Thénardier, and wrote an address on the envelope. Thénardier then 
took the letter and gave it to his wife. 
„There‟s a carriage outside. Don‟t be long.‟ 
Nearly half an hour passed. Thénardier seemed lost in his own dark 
thoughts. The prisoner did not move. Finally, there was the sound of 
horses in the street outside and, moments later, the door to the room 
was thrown open. 
„It‟s a false address,‟ Mme Thénardier cried. „There‟s no Urbain Fabre. 
The old man‟s been lying to us!‟ 
Thénardier sat on the corner of the table in silence for some moments, 
swinging his leg and gazing with a fierce satisfaction at the fire. Then he 
turned to the prisoner and said in a slow, threatening voice, „What did 
you hope to gain by giving me a false name and address?‟ 
„Time!‟ cried the prisoner in a loud voice, jumping from the bed, having 
secretly cut the ropes that tied him. Before the others in the room could 
react, M. Leblanc was standing by the fire, holding a metal bar above 
his head. 
„I‟m not afraid of you,‟ he said. „But neither should you fear me.‟ 
With those words he threw the metal bar out of the window into the 
street below. 
„Get him!‟ Thénardier shouted. „He‟s defenceless.‟ 
Two men grabbed him by the shoulders. 
„Now cut his throat!‟ Thénardier called. 
Marius stared, frozen with fear as Thénardier, knife in hand, stood 
hesitating a few steps away from the prisoner. The brave man was in 
terrible danger, but Marius still could not fire the gun. Then, in the 
moonlight, he saw the solution to his problem. On top of the cupboard, 
by his feet, he noticed the piece of paper that the elder daughter had 
written on: 
Be careful! The police are coming! 

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40 
He immediately saw what he had to do. He took a piece of brick from 
the wall, wrapped the piece of paper around it and threw it through the 
hole into the middle of Thénardier‟s room. 
He was just in time. Thénardier was advancing towards his prisoner, 
knife in hand, when his wife cried, „Something fell!‟ 
She picked up the piece of paper and handed it to her husband, who 
read it quickly. 
„It‟s Éponine‟s handwriting!‟ he cried a moment later. „Quick! Get the 
ladder. The police are coming and we‟ve got to go!‟ 
They threw the rope ladder from the open window but, before they could 
escape, the door opened and Inspector Javert walked in. 
„Relax,‟ he smiled. „You can‟t speak through the window. There are five 
of you, and fifteen of us. You have no chance. Why not come quietly?‟ 
The men put down their weapons and surrendered without a fight. 
When everybody had been arrested and taken from the room, Javert 
noticed the prisoner, who was standing, head bowed, by the window. He 
turned to speak to another policeman but, when he looked back, he saw 
that the prisoner had gone. Javert rushed to the open window and 
looked down. The rope ladder was swinging gently above the empty 
street. 
„He must have been the cleverest of them all,‟ Javert murmured angry to 
himself.