That’s so interesting! Your translation makes sense.

The literal translation of those words would be something like "save who can." I interpreted it as equivalent to "every man for himself."

Agreed! “Let us punish, for we are history!” 
Plus the ending and referring to God as”One who is unanswerable.” The language flowed really well. 

My translation doesn’t give English for “sauve qui peut” which I didn’t bother to look up yesterday. It means general stampede, chaos and disorder.

For such a short chapter, there were so many good lines in it, including the imagery of an army thawing and breaking apart, and
>Lions become calves.

>The disappearance of the great man was necessary for the coming of the great century.

I like how both his longer sentences as well as his shorter staccato sentences throughout this section make me feel the flow of the action (chaotic).

Not knowing too much about the overall context and aftermath of Waterloo, I'm assuming that Hugo's using it as a sort of story point lynchpin and that the France before and after Waterloo will be important (even if just in context).

2). I guess this pretty determined what a lot of our political boundaries look like today. Maybe this had implications with the whole Alsace-Lorraine thing later in the century, when areas that had been part of France became Germany. We also saw in a previous chapter that Ney insisted he was French, though the part of France he was born in is now Germany.

3). Anyone else trying to look for some of these locations on google maps/street view?

Note that spoiler markings don't appear on mobile, so please use the weekly spoiler topic, which will be posted every Saturday, if you would like to discuss later events.

[Link to chapter](https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables/Volume_2/Book_First/Chapter_13) 

Discussion prompts: 

1. Napoleon's forces are now fleeing, and Napoleon is left alone still wanting to advance.
2. "That day, the perspective of the human race shifted. Waterloo is the event the nineteenth century hinges on." Why do you think is Hugo giving so much emphasis to this historical event? What is its relevance?
3. Other points of discussion? Lines that stood out to you? 

Final line: 

&gt;It was Napoleon, the immense somnambulist of this dream which had crumbled, essaying once more to advance. 

[Link to the previous chapter](https://www.reddit.com/r/AYearOfLesMiserables/comments/mb1lch/2112_chapter_discussion_spoilers_up_to_2112/?utm_medium=android_app&amp;utm_source=share) 

[Link to the 2020 discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/AYearOfLesMiserables/comments/fnn6is/2113_chapter_discussion_spoilers_up_to_2113/?utm_medium=android_app&amp;utm_source=share)

2.1.13 Chapter Discussion (Spoilers up to 2.1.13)