Volume V, Book Third Cjapter IX: Marius Produces on Someone Who is Judge of the Matter, The Effect of Being Dead
Jean Valjean went through the ultimate self-sacrifice, giving up everything he had in life, which was Cosette; he decided to give her to her lover Marius. Marius wanders the streets in despair after leaving his grandfather's house. He has exhausted all of his possibilities. He is going to lose the love of his life; Cosette will move to England and he will never see her again. Absentmindedly, he takes Javert's pistol (which the police officer gave him during the Thénardier affair) with him. All around him, the rumblings of a great uprising are beginning; people are rushing about, barricades are being constructed, slogans are being shouted. Marius is only dimly aware of all of this.
