CHAPTER I--THE BEGINNING OF REPOSE

  M. Madeleine had Fantine removed to that infirmary which he hadestablished in his own house. He confided her to the sisters, who puther to bed. A burning fever had come on. She passed a part of the nightin delirium and raving. At length, however, she fell asleep.

  On the morrow, towards midday, Fantine awoke. She heard some onebreathing close to her bed; she drew aside the curtain and saw M.Madeleine standing there and looking at something over her head. Hisgaze was full of pity, anguish, and supplication. She followed itsdirection, and saw that it was fixed on a crucifix which was nailed tothe wall.

  Thenceforth, M. Madeleine was transfigured in Fantine's eyes. He seemedto her to be clothed in light. He was absorbed in a sort of prayer. Shegazed at him for a long time without daring to interrupt him. At lastshe said timidly:--

  "What are you doing?"

  M. Madeleine had been there for an hour. He had been waiting for Fantineto awake. He took her hand, felt of her pulse, and replied:--

  "How do you feel?"

  "Well, I have slept," she replied; "I think that I am better. It isnothing."

  He answered, responding to the first question which she had put to himas though he had just heard it:--

  "I was praying to the martyr there on high."

  And he added in his own mind, "For the martyr here below."

  M. Madeleine had passed the night and the morning in making inquiries.He knew all now. He knew Fantine's history in all its heart-rendingdetails. He went on:--

  "You have suffered much, poor mother. Oh! do not complain; you now havethe dowry of the elect. It is thus that men are transformed into angels.It is not their fault they do not know how to go to work otherwise.You see this hell from which you have just emerged is the first form ofheaven. It was necessary to begin there."

  He sighed deeply. But she smiled on him with that sublime smile in whichtwo teeth were lacking.

  That same night, Javert wrote a letter. The next morning be posted ithimself at the office of M. sur M. It was addressed to Paris, and thesuperscription ran: _To Monsieur Chabouillet, Secretary of Monsieur lePréfet of Police_. As the affair in the station-house had been bruitedabout, the post-mistress and some other persons who saw the letterbefore it was sent off, and who recognized Javert's handwriting on thecover, thought that he was sending in his resignation.

  M. Madeleine made haste to write to the Thénardiers. Fantine owedthem one hundred and twenty francs. He sent them three hundred francs,telling them to pay themselves from that sum, and to fetch the childinstantly to M. sur M., where her sick mother required her presence.

  This dazzled Thénardier. "The devil!" said the man to his wife; "don'tlet's allow the child to go. This lark is going to turn into a milchcow. I see through it. Some ninny has taken a fancy to the mother."

  He replied with a very well drawn-up bill for five hundred and some oddfrancs. In this memorandum two indisputable items figured up over threehundred francs,--one for the doctor, the other for the apothecarywho had attended and physicked Éponine and Azelma through two longillnesses. Cosette, as we have already said, had not been ill. It wasonly a question of a trifling substitution of names. At the foot ofthe memorandum Thénardier wrote, _Received on account, three hundredfrancs_.

  M. Madeleine immediately sent three hundred francs more, and wrote,"Make haste to bring Cosette."

  "Christi!" said Thénardier, "let's not give up the child."

  In the meantime, Fantine did not recover. She still remained in theinfirmary.

  The sisters had at first only received and nursed "that woman" withrepugnance. Those who have seen the bas-reliefs of Rheims will recallthe inflation of the lower lip of the wise virgins as they survey thefoolish virgins. The ancient scorn of the vestals for the ambubajæ isone of the most profound instincts of feminine dignity; the sistersfelt it with the double force contributed by religion. But in a few daysFantine disarmed them. She said all kinds of humble and gentle things,and the mother in her provoked tenderness. One day the sisters heardher say amid her fever: "I have been a sinner; but when I have my childbeside me, it will be a sign that God has pardoned me. While I wasleading a bad life, I should not have liked to have my Cosette with me;I could not have borne her sad, astonished eyes. It was for her sakethat I did evil, and that is why God pardons me. I shall feel thebenediction of the good God when Cosette is here. I shall gaze at her;it will do me good to see that innocent creature. She knows nothing atall. She is an angel, you see, my sisters. At that age the wings havenot fallen off."

  M. Madeleine went to see her twice a day, and each time she asked him:--

  "Shall I see my Cosette soon?"

  He answered:--

  "To-morrow, perhaps. She may arrive at any moment. I am expecting her."

  And the mother's pale face grew radiant.

  "Oh!" she said, "how happy I am going to be!"

  We have just said that she did not recover her health. On the contrary,her condition seemed to become more grave from week to week. Thathandful of snow applied to her bare skin between her shoulder-blades hadbrought about a sudden suppression of perspiration, as a consequence ofwhich the malady which had been smouldering within her for many yearswas violently developed at last. At that time people were beginning tofollow the fine Laënnec's fine suggestions in the study and treatment ofchest maladies. The doctor sounded Fantine's chest and shook his head.

  M. Madeleine said to the doctor:--

  "Well?"

  "Has she not a child which she desires to see?" said the doctor.

  "Yes."

  "Well! Make haste and get it here!"

  M. Madeleine shuddered.

  Fantine inquired:--

  "What did the doctor say?"

  M. Madeleine forced himself to smile.

  "He said that your child was to be brought speedily. That that wouldrestore your health."

  "Oh!" she rejoined, "he is right! But what do those Thénardiers meanby keeping my Cosette from me! Oh! she is coming. At last I beholdhappiness close beside me!"

  In the meantime Thénardier did not "let go of the child," and gave ahundred insufficient reasons for it. Cosette was not quite well enoughto take a journey in the winter. And then, there still remained somepetty but pressing debts in the neighborhood, and they were collectingthe bills for them, etc., etc.

  "I shall send some one to fetch Cosette!" said Father Madeleine. "Ifnecessary, I will go myself."

  He wrote the following letter to Fantine's dictation, and made her signit:--

  "MONSIEUR THÉNARDIER:-- You will deliver Cosette to this person. You will be paid for all the little things. I have the honor to salute you with respect. "FANTINE."

  In the meantime a serious incident occurred. Carve as we will themysterious block of which our life is made, the black vein of destinyconstantly reappears in it.