Explore "Les Miserables, Wilbour Translation" by Victor Hugo on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
WHEN the time for leaving the galleys came, and when there were sounded in the ear of Jean Valjean the strange words: You are free! the moment seemed improbable and unreal; a ray of living light, a ray of the true light of living men, suddenly penetrated his soul. But this ray quickly faded away. Jean Valjean had been dazzled with the idea of liberty. He had believed in a new life. He soon saw what sort of liberty that is which has a yellow passport.
And along with that there were many bitter experiences. He had calculated that his savings, during his stay at the galleys, would amount to a hundred and seventy-one francs. It is proper to say that he had forgotten to take into account the compulsory rest on Sundays and holydays, which, in nineteen years, required a deduction of about twenty-four francs. However that might be, his savings had been reduced, by various local charges, to the sum of a hundred and nine francs and 1 fifteen sous, which was counted out to him on his departure.