Javert's Suicide Lyrics

     [Javert walks the deserted streets until he comes to
     a bridge over the river Seine.]

Javert
     Who is this man?
     What sort of devil is he?
     To have me caught in a trap
     And choose to let me go free?
     It was his hour at last
     To put a seal on my fate
     Wipe out the past
     And wash me clean off the slate!
     All it would take
     Was a flick of his knife
     Vengence was his
     And he gave me back my life!
     Damned if I'll live in the debt of a theif!
     Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase.
     I am the Law and the Law is not mocked
     I'll spit his pity right back in his face
     There is nothing on earth that we share
     It is either Valjean or Javert!

     How can I now allow this man
     To hold dominion over me?
     This desperate man whom I have hunted
     He gave me my life, he gave me freedom.
     I should have perished by his hand!
     It was his right.
     It was my right to die as well
     Instead I live, but live in hell!
     And my thoughts fly apart
     Can this man be believed?
     Shall his sins be forgiven?
     Shall his crimes be reprieved?
     And must I now begin to doubt
     Who never doubted all these years?
     My heart is stone and still it trembles
     The world I have known is lost in shadow.
     Is he from heaven or from hell?
     And does he know
     That granting me my life today
     This man has killed me even so?
     I am reaching, but I fall
     And the stars are black and cold.
     As I stare into the void
     Of a world that cannot hold
     I'll escape now from the world
     From the world of Jean Valjean
     There is nowhere I can turn
     There is no way to go on.....

     [He throws himself into the swollen river.]