Les Misérables Volume III Book 7 Chapter 3-4

In which we are introduced to four notorious ruffians—Gueulemer, Babet, Claquesous, and Montparnasse—each a distinct embodiment of nocturnal villainy, united under the shadowy title of Patron-Minette, whose operations haunt the darker quarters of Paris. These men, like phantoms woven into the fabric of the city’s underworld, represent a persistent social malady that continuously rears its head beneath the veil of night, ever elusive and monstrous in their collective enterprise.