CHAPTER I.
NO. 24,601 BECOMES NO. 9430.
Jean Valjean was recaptured. As our readers will probably thank usfor passing rapidly over painful details, we confine ourselves to thequotation of two paragraphs published by the newspapers of the day,a few months after the occurrence of the surprising events at M----.These articles are rather summary, but it must be remembered that no_Gazette des Tribunaux_ existed at that period. The first we take fromthe _Drapeau Blanc_, dated July 25, 1823.
"A bailiwick of the Pas de Calais has just been the scene of anuncommon event. A man, who was a stranger to the department and calledM. Madeleine, had some years previously revived by a new process an oldlocal trade,--the manufacture of jet and black beads. He made his ownfortune, and, let us add, that of the bailiwick, and in acknowledgmentof his services he was appointed Mayor. The police discovered thatM. Madeleine was no other than an ex-convict, who had broken his ban,condemned in 1796 for robbery, of the name of Jean Valjean. He hasbeen sent back to the Bagne. It appears that prior to his arrest hesucceeded in withdrawing from M. Lafitte's a sum of more than half amillion, which he had banked there, and which it is said that he hadhonestly acquired by his trade. Since his return to Toulon futileefforts have been made to discover where this amount is concealed."
The second article, which is rather more detailed, is extracted fromthe _Journal de Paris_ of the same date:--
"An ex-convict of the name of Jean Valjean has just been tried at theVar assizes, under circumstances which attract attention. This villainhad succeeded in deceiving the vigilance of the police, and had behavedso cleverly as to be made Mayor of one of our small towns in the north,where he established a rather considerable trade. He was at lengthunmasked, and arrested through the indefatigable zeal of the publicauthorities. He had, as his concubine, a girl of the town, who died ofa fit at the moment of his arrest. This scoundrel, who is endowed withHerculean strength, managed to escape but three or four days later thepolice again captured him in Paris, at the moment when he was enteringone of those small coaches which run from the capital to the villageof Montfermeil (Seine et Oise). It is said that he took advantage ofthese three or four days of liberty to withdraw from one of our chiefbankers an amount estimated at six or seven hundred thousand francs.According to the indictment he buried it at some spot only known tohimself, and it has not been found; but however this may be, thisJean Valjean has just been tried at Var assizes for a highway robberycommitted with violence some eight years ago upon one of those honestlads, who, as the patriarch of Ferney has said in immortal verse,--
'De Savoie arrivent tous les ans Et dont la main légèrement essuie Ces longs canaux engorgés par la suie.'
This bandit made no defence, but it was proved by the skilful andeloquent organ of public justice that Jean Valjean was a member of aband of robbers in the south. Consequently Valjean was found guiltyand sentenced to death. The criminal refused to appeal to the Courtof Cassation, but the King, in his inexhaustible mercy, deigned tocommute his sentence into penal servitude for life. Jean Valjean wasimmediately removed to the galleys at Toulon."
It will not be forgotten that Jean Valjean had displayed religioustendencies at M----, and some of the papers, among them the_Constitutionnel_, regarded this commutation as a triumph of the Priestparty. Jean Valjean changed his number at Toulon, and was known as9430. Let us state here once and for all that with M. Madeleine theprosperity of M---- disappeared: all he had foreseen in his nightof hesitation and fever was realized; his absence was in truth theabsence of the soul. After his fall there took place at M---- thatselfish division of great fallen existences, that fatal break-up offlourishing things, which is daily accomplished obscurely in the humancommunity, and which history has only noticed once because it occurredafter the death of Alexander. Lieutenants crown themselves kings;overseers suddenly became manufacturers, and envious rivalries sprangup. M. Madeleine's large work-shops were shut up; the buildings fellinto a ruinous condition, and the artisans dispersed, some leavingthe town, others the trade. All was henceforth done on a small scaleinstead of a large one, for lucre instead of the public welfare. Therewas no centre, but on all sides violent competition. M. Madeleine hadcommanded and directed everything. When he fell, a spirit of contestsucceeded that of organization, bitterness succeeded cordiality, andmutual hatred the good-will of the common founder. The threads tiedby M. Madeleine became knotted and broken; the process was falsified,the articles became worse, and confidence was destroyed; the outletsdiminished, and there were fewer orders; wages fell, there werestoppages, and lastly came bankruptcy.
The State itself perceived that some one had been crushed somewhere,for less than four years after the sentence of the court identifyingM. Madeleine and Jean Valjean, to the profit of the galleys, the costof collecting the taxes was doubled in the bailiwick of M----. M. deVillèle made a remark to that effect in the House in February, 1827.