Javert's Suicide Lyrics

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 power 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.
Vengeance was his,
and he gave me back my life.

Damned if I'll live in
the debt of a thief.
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 crimes 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 shadows.
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 that world,
from the world of Jean Valjean.
There is nowhere I can turn,
There is no way to go on.

(final line said in fading as Javert jumps from the bridge)

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