"I have nothing the matter with my hand," he said. Marius looked at the thumb. "There was never anything the matter with it," Jean Valjean added. There was, in fact, no sign of a wound. Jean Valjean continued,-- "It was proper that I should be absent from your marriage, and I was so as far as I could be. I feigned this wound in order not to commit a forgery, and render the marriage-deeds null and void." Marius stammered,-- "What does this mean?" "It means," Jean Valjean replied, "that I have been to the galleys." "You are driving me mad!" said the horrified Marius. "Monsieur Pontmercy," said Jean Valjean, "I was nineteen years at the galleys for robbery. Then I was sentenced to them for life; for robbery and a second offence. At the present moment I am an escaped convict." Although Marius recoiled before the reality, refused the facts, and resisted the evidence, he was obliged to yield to it. He was beginning to understand, and as always happens in such a case, he understood too much. He had the shudder of a hideous internal flash, and an idea that made him shudder crossed his mind. He foresaw a frightful destiny for himself in the future. "Say all, say all," he exclaimed; "you are Cosette's father!" And he fell back two steps, with a movement of indescribable horror. Jean Valjean threw up his head with such a majestic attitude that he seemed to rise to the ceiling. "It is necessary that you should believe me here, sir, although the oath of men like us is not taken in a court of justice---" Here there was a silence, and then with a sort of sovereign and sepulchral authority he added, speaking slowly and laying a stress on the syllables,-- "You will believe me. I, Cosette's father! Before Heaven, no, Monsieur le Baron Pontmercy. I am a peasant of Faverolles, and earned my livelihood by pruning trees. My name is not Fauchelevent, but Jean Valjean. I am nothing to Cosette, so reassure yourself." Marius stammered,-- "Who proves it to me?" "I do, since I say it." Marius looked at this man: he was mournful and calm, and no falsehood could issue from such calmness. What is frozen is sincere, and the truth could be felt in this coldness of the tomb. "I do believe you," said Marius. Jean Valjean bowed his head, as if to note the fact, and continued,--