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X . Marius In those years , in a fine old house in the Marais quarter of Paris , there lived a very old man called Monsieur Gillenormand . He was over ninety , but he still had all his teeth and all his opinions . He loved the king , hated the Revolution and Napoleon , and laughed at all new ideas . He lived with his unmarried daughter and with his grandson , Marius . He loved the boy more than anyone in the world , although he hardly ever showed it . Marius’s mother , the old man’s younger daughter , had died when he was a baby . His father , Georges Pontmercy , had been a colonel in Napoleon’s army . He had fought bravely in many battles , and on the evening of Waterloo , Napoleon had made him a baron . But after the return of the king , the old man thought of him as a bandit . He told him that if he wanted his son to inherit the family money , he must never see him again . Colonel Pontmercy loved his son , but he was poor , and he agreed for the boy’s sake . He lived alone in a small town near Paris and grew flowers . Every few months he came secretly to Paris and stood behind a pillar in the church where his son went to Mass with his aunt , just to look at him . Marius grew up believing that his father did not love him . In 1827 , when Marius was seventeen , a letter arrived to say that his father was very ill . Marius went to see him , but he arrived too late , and his father was dead . On a piece of paper the colonel had left a message for his son : “ For my son . The Emperor made me a baron on the field of Waterloo . Since the king does not recognise this title , which I paid for with my blood , my son will take it and carry it . At Waterloo a sergeant saved my life . His name is Thénardier . I believe he has recently kept a small inn in a village near Paris , at Chelles or Montfermeil . If my son meets him , he will do all the good he can for him . ” Marius did not feel much at first . But soon he learned from a priest about the colonel standing behind the pillar , and then he began to read all he could find about his father , about the battles of the Republic and the Empire , and about Napoleon . In a few months he was a new man . He loved the father he had never known , and he admired the Emperor . He had cards printed with the name “ Baron Marius Pontmercy ” . He went to look for the man in Montfermeil , but the inn had closed , and nobody knew where the family had gone . His grandfather found out the truth one day , by reading his father’s letter , and there was a terrible scene . The old man insulted the dead colonel , and Marius , white with anger , shouted , “ Down with the Bourbons ! ” That same evening he left the house with thirty francs , his watch and a few clothes , and for four years he did not come back .
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