Here Thénardier took a step towards the men who stood near the door, and added with a shudder:⁠—

“When I think that he has dared to come here and talk to me like a cobbler!”

Then addressing M. Leblanc with a fresh outburst of frenzy:⁠—

“And listen to this also, Mister philanthropist! I’m not a suspicious character, not a bit of it! I’m not a man whose name nobody knows, and who comes and abducts children from houses! I’m an old French soldier, I ought to have been decorated! I was at Waterloo, so I was! And in the battle I saved a general called the Comte of I don’t know what. He told me his name, but his beastly voice was so weak that I didn’t hear. All I caught was Merci. 47