Excerpt from Les Miserables, Vol. 4: The Idyll and the Epic This remarkable epoch is so circumscribed, and is beginning to become so remote from us, that we are able to seize its principal outlines. We will make the attempt. The Restoration was one of those inter mediate phases which are so difficult to define, in which are fatigue, buzzing, murmurs, sleep, and tumult, and which, after all, are nought but the arrival of a great nation at a halting-place. These epochs are peculiar, and deceive the politician who tries to take advantage of them. At the outset the nation only demands repose there is but one thirst, for peace, and only one ambition, to be small, which is the translation of keeping quiet. Great events, great accidents, great adventures, great men, - O Lord! We have had enough of these, and more than enough. Caesar would be given for Prusias, and Napoleon for the Roi d'yvet, who was such a merry little king. Folk have been marching since daybreak and arrive at the evening of a long and rough journey they made their first halt with Mira beau, the second with Robespierre, and the third with Napoleon, and they are exhausted. Everybody insists on a bed. Worn-out devotions, crying heroisms, gorged am bitions, and made fortunes, seek, claim, implore, and solicit, - what? A resting-place, and they have it. They take possession of peace, tranquillity, and lei sure, and feel satisfied. Still, at the same time certain facts arise, demand recognition, and knock at doors on their Side. These facts have emerged from revo lutions and wars they exist, they live, and have the right, - the right of installing themselves in society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.