what weary wretched heart

Thénardier took the pistol and aimed at Javert. Only three paces away, Javert gazed steadily at him and merely said, “Now then, don't shoot. You'll miss.” Thénardier pulled the trigger. He missed. “Didn't I tell you!” said Javert.

Citizens, the nineteenth century is a great century, but the twentieth century will be a happy one. Nothing like the history of old – not any more. There'll be no reason then to fear, as we do today, conquest, invasion, usurpation, rivalry between armed nations, civilisation interrupted by a marriage of kings, a birth within the hereditary tyrannies, a partition of peoples by congress, dismemberment brought about by the collapse of a dynasty, a conflict between two religions coming up against each other, like two goats of darkness on the bridge of infinity. There'll be no reason to fear famine, exploitation, prostitution as a result of poverty, destitution as a result of unemployment, and the sword, and the scaffold, the battles, and all the banditry of chance in the forest of incidents. You might almost say there will be no more incidents. People will be happy.