One Way to Go On- A Les Miserables Story

A Matter of Sentencing

After finishing the story at the Gorbeau house, Eponine and Javert lapsed into momentary silence. Eponine finally followed Javert's gaze to the horizon, and the couple of stars peeking through the suffocating blanket of clouds. The moon was nowhere to be found. It may have already set. Neither of them would've known. It was like they had always been there, both of them, hopeless, on the bridge, their entire pasts nothing but some strange dream, and this their reality.

"Valjean at the barricade?" Eponine finally asked. Javert looked away, softened his brow, and nodded.

"You know I was a spy. I had a duty to the law, and thus to the government, you see, so..."

"I understand. Next?"

"Well, there wasn't much else that had happened. They tied me up in the back, the barricade was about to be taken, and so they ordered my execution. Who should volunteer to shoot me than Jean Valjean?"

"He was there?"

"Somehow. Maybe it was something to do with his Cosette, and your Marius. I don't know. It didn't matter, really. At that point I was prepared to die, ready to die, I would've done the same for the name of justice, so I had no doubt he would."

"But then..."

"He didn't."

At that point Javert took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and then turned his gaze from the stars to the river. Eponine watched him do so, patiently.

"He cut my bonds, he let me go free, and he went back to die. He even gave me his address, to arrest him later. I wandered here."

"So- where's the problem?" she asked tentatively, not wanting to offend him. He buried his face in his hands, pressing his fingers into his forehead like that would change anything.

"Don't you see?" he said, his voice somewhat shaky. "If I arrest him, I am in his debt, and violate it, I have done terrible wrong. If I don't, to see a convict lead a good life, to let a criminal go free, I have done almost worse. Either way, I had deserved to die at that barricade, I needed a punishment equal to what I had always given. To have that denied me in the name of kindness, to be spared by a convict who you've hunted to your last-"

He cut himself off, lowering his hands to the railing and looking back out over the Seine.

"You see, I must die. In the name of justice, I must die."

"Justice? What a terrible thing, to have to die in the name of something so cruel? What's stopping you from living?" Eponine said, much too fervently. Javert looked at her, the torment in his mind making itself clear on his face.

"Mademoiselle," he said, husky voice softened with defeat, "If a convict can truly become a good man, and even after a repeat offense, how many people have I dragged away from their good life and before that unfair judge called justice? Hundreds? More? I have been strict with everyone, the time has come to be strict with me."

And he put his foot on the top of the railing, as though climbing to stand on top.

"Monsieur, not yet!" Eponine said, pulling him back down by the hand. "Are you sure that was the end of your story?"

He stumbled backwards a step from the railing, having to use her hand to keep from falling down onto the bridge. His hat was blown off his head, and fell with a splash into the tumultuous water. He was bewildered for a half a moment, before allowing his face to fall back into its stern habit and looking pointedly at Eponine.

"What did you do that for?" He said, his voice half pleading, half a growl. She looked at him, just as confused with herself as he was.

"I- I'm not sure. I'm sorry. I suppose I just wanted your company a little while longer. I'd assume I was going to jump first, or we were going to jump together. I simply- I suppose your story seemed somewhat incomplete. I-"