Chapter 54 Solving some problems in Thirteen City Police Station

Javert separated the audience, stood out from the crowd, dragged the poor man behind him, and strode towards the police station on the other side of the square.She is at the mercy of others.Neither he nor she spoke a word.A large crowd of spectators, maddened with joy and gibberish, followed.The worst misfortune was that she heard a lot of dirty words. The office of the police station was a low hall, with a fire in it, guarded by a watchman, and a barred glass door facing the street. Javert went there, opened it, and entered with Fantine, and then Closing the door disappointed those curious people. They still huddled in front of the glass at the entrance of the police station, which was blocked by the security police, and stretched their necks, wanting to see what happened.Curiosity is an appetite.Behold, it is devoured.

Fantine, having entered, went and sat in a corner, motionless and silent, huddled like a frightened bitch. The sergeant at the police station brought a lighted candle and put it on the table.Javert sat down, took a piece of paper from his pocket, and began to write. Such women have been given the full power of our laws to the police.The police can punish these women as they please, do whatever they want, and deprive them of their so-called career and freedom, two unfortunate things.Javert was ruthless, and his stern face never showed a hint of panic.He was simply exercising his mind deeply.This was the time when he was alone, exercising his monstrous dictatorship, with that hard-hearted sternness with which he always approached everything.At this time, he felt that his small police stool was the court.He considered and considered, and then made a verdict.He searched, as best he could, all the thoughts in his head round the great business he had undertaken.The more he thought about what the whore had done, the angrier he felt.What he had just seen was clearly a heinous crime.He had just seen, there, in the street, a society represented by property and voting citizens insulted and offended by a brute who tolerated nothing.How dare a whore offend a gentleman.He, Javert, he witnessed such a thing, he kept silent and wrote.

When he had finished, he signed his name, folded the paper, gave it to the sergeant, and said to him, "Take three men, and take this bitch to prison." Then turning to Fantine, he said: " I sentence you to six months in prison." The distressed woman was taken aback. "Six months! Six months in prison!" she howled. "Six months, seven sous a day! What will Cosette do then? My doll! My doll! And I owe the Thénardiers more than a hundred francs, Monsieur scout, do you know that?" " Kneeling on the stone slab, in the mud left by the boots of the crowd, she clasped her hands and dragged forward on her knees.

"Monsieur Javert!" she said, "I beg your mercy. I assure you that I was not wrong. If you had seen this at the beginning, you would have understood. I swear before the good God that I was not wrong." It's the boss, I don't know him, he stuffed the snow on my back. Could it be that we were walking like that and didn't provoke anyone at all, so they have a reason to stuff the snow on our backs? I was taken aback. I'm a little sick, you know? And he babbled at me for a while. 'You're ugly!' 'You don't have teeth!' I knew I didn't have teeth. I didn't do anything about it.' I thought to myself: 'This gentleman is having fun.' I behaved well to him, I didn't speak to him. He shoved the snow on my back for a split second. Mr. Javert, my good Mr. Scout! Could it be? Is there no one here who saw what happened to tell you the truth? I got mad and maybe I shouldn't. You know it's not easy to control yourself when you start this kind of business. I was too reckless And, a handful of that cold, stuffed on your back when you're unaware! I shouldn't have broken that gentleman's hat. Why did he go? If he's here, I'll beg his forgiveness Oh, my God, please forgive me, I don't care. Please be kind to me this time, Monsieur Javert. Oh, you don't know that, in prison, you can only earn seven sous a day, isn't that true? The fault of the government, but it's only seven sous a day, and please think, I have a hundred francs to pay, and if I don't pay, my little girl will be sent back. Oh, my God, I can't take her What a disgrace to what I have done! My Cosette, oh, my little angel of Our Lady of Mercy, what will she do? Poor little darling! shopkeepers, country folks, there's no reason. They want money. Please don't put me in jail! Just think, that's a little baby, and they will Leave her on the road, and let her go; my good Monsieur Javert, you should have pity on such things. If she had been older, she might have made a living, but at her age she cannot. Honestly, I'm not a bad woman. It's not that I'm lazy. I drink because I'm sick. I'm not a drinker, but wine can confuse people. I used to be more When I am happy, people have only to look at my wardrobe to see that I am not a filthy woman. I have had a change of clothes, a lot of changes. Have pity on me, Monsieur Javert!"

She bends over to narrate her sufferings, her eyes are dim with tears, her chest is open, her hands are twisted, she coughs dryly and breathes in a low voice, just like a dying person.Deep pain is a mighty light that transforms the countenance of the poor.Fantine was suddenly beautiful then.For a moment she paused and kissed lightly the hem of the spy's gown.A heart of stone can be softened by her, but a heart of wood cannot be softened. "Well!" said Javert, "I have heard what you said. Have you finished? Come, now. You have your six months, and there is nothing the Eternal Father can do since he comes."

When she heard the majestic sentence "There is no way for the eternal Father since he comes", she knew that this sentence was irreversible.She hung her head and said hoarsely: "Thank you!" Javert turned his back to her. Soldiers grabbed her by the arms. A few minutes before, a man had entered insensibly, closed the door, leaned against it, and heard Fantine's entreaties. Just as the soldiers were putting their hands on the unfortunate woman who refused to stand up, he stepped forward, came out from the shadows and said, "Please wait for a while!" Javert raised his eyes, and saw M. Madeleine.He took off his hat and saluted him with an uncomfortably scowl:

"Excuse me, Mr. Mayor..." The words Monsieur Mayor gave Fantine a strange feeling.Like a zombie jumping up from the ground, she stood up suddenly, opened her arms, and pushed the soldiers to the sides. Before they could stop her, she went straight to M. Madeleine, like a madman, stared at him and shouted: "Ha! Mr. Mayor, so it's you!" Then, she laughed out loud and spit in his face. M. Madeleine wiped his face, and said: "Scout Javert, release this woman." Javert felt then that he was going mad.At this moment, he felt a strong impulse that he had never felt in his life one after another, and almost all at once.Seeing a public prostitute spit on the mayor's face, this kind of thing has indeed reached an unimaginable level of absurdity in his imagination, even if he only occasionally thinks that it may happen, that would be regarded as a gross disrespect crime.On the other hand, in the back of his mind, he had connected the woman's identity with the mayor's personality in a terrible way, so that the source of that grotesque crime seemed to him again. It's very simple, he thought of this place and hated it.At the same time he saw the mayor, the magistrate, calmly wiping his face, and saying, "Release this woman," and he was a little dizzy with fright; The horror was more than he could possibly accept, and he stood without a word.

Fantine was equally horrified at the words.She raised her bare arms, and clenched the knob of the stove, like one about to faint.At the same time, she looked around and began to speak in a low voice as if to herself. "Release! Let me go! I'm not going to jail for six months! Who said that? It's impossible to say such a thing. I heard it wrong. It must not be the devil's mayor! Yes You, my good Monsieur Javert, are you going to let me go? Oh! Look! Let me tell you, and you'll let me go. The ghost mayor, the old rascal mayor is everything. Bane. Come to think of it, Monsieur Javert, he kicked me out on hearing some nonsense whores in that factory. That's not a bastard! Throw out a poor woman who's doing a good job! From there From now on, I won't earn enough money, and all the troubles will come. There is one thing that the gentlemen in the police station should improve, that is, they should ban the laborers in the prisons who make the poor suffer. I come to you to explain this to you. Let me be clear, listen. You made twelve sous a day for making shirts, and suddenly you are down to nine, and there is no way you can live any more. We must find a way, I, I have my little Cosey. Tet, I was driven too hard to be a whore. You know now that the murderer is the murderer, the mayor of the bastard. I will also say that I trampled on the gentleman's foot in front of the officer's cafe. Hat. But he, he took the snow and ruined all my clothes. Our kind of people have only one silk dress, which is specially worn at night. You see, I never intentionally hurt anyone, it is true. Javert, and everywhere I see women who are worse than I am, and happier than I am. Oh, Monsieur Javert, you told me to let me out, didn't you? Go and find out, go! Ask my landlady, now that I've paid my rent, they'll tell you I'm honest. Oh, my God. I beg your pardon, I touched the stove knob by accident, and got smoke. "

M. Madeleine listened intently to her words, and while she was speaking he searched his waistcoat, took out his purse, and opened it.It was empty, and he put it in his pocket again, and said to Fantine: "How much do you say you owe someone?" Fantine, who had been looking only at Javert, turned to him: "Am I talking to you?" Then she said to the policemen: "Hey, you people see how I spit in his face? Hey! Old rascal mayor, you come here to frighten me, but I'm not afraid of you. I'm only afraid of Mr. Javert. I'm only afraid of my good Mister Javert!"

Saying this, she turned to the scout again. "In that case, you see, Mr. Scout, it must be fair. I know you are fair, Mr. Scout. To be honest, it is very simple. A man's joke, put a little snow on a woman back, so that the officers can laugh, people should find something to amuse themselves, our things are meant to make people happy, what's so strange! Then, you, you are here, you should of course maintain order, You took that errant woman away, but, come to think of it, how kind you are, you say you let me go, it must be because of the little girl, because I can't support my child because of six months in prison. But Oh, don't make trouble anymore, bitch! Oh! I won't make trouble again, Mr. Javert! From now on, people can play with me as they like, and I will never move. Only today, you know, my name is I groaned, because the thing was too much for me, and I was not at all wary of that gentleman's snow, and, as I told you, I was not well, I coughed, and there seemed to be something hot in my stomach , the doctor ordered 'take good care of it'. Look, you touch, stretch out your hand, don't be afraid, it's here."

She stopped crying, her voice was sweet, and she pressed Javert's big, thick hand on her white and tender breast, and looked at him with a smile. Suddenly she hastened to straighten out the rumples of her disheveled dress, which had been drawn almost to her knees as she walked on her knees.She walked towards the gate, nodded kindly to the soldiers, and said softly: "Boys, the scout has said, let me go, I'm going." She put her hand on the latch.One more step and she was in the street. Javert stood still, with his eyes fixed on the ground, in an inappropriate position for the occasion, like a statue that has been moved and is about to be installed. The sound of the latch woke him up.He raised his head with an inviolable expression, the more terrible the lower the position, the more ferocious on the face of a beast, and the more brutal on the face of a lowly man. "Sergeant," he growled, "you didn't see that slut go! Who told you to let her go?" "Me," said Madeleine. Fantine trembled at Javert's voice, and hastily dropped the bolt, as a captured thief drops his booty.Hearing Madeleine's voice, she turned around, and from then on she did not utter a word, did not even dare to breathe presumptuously, and looked from Madeleine to Javert, and from Javert to Madeleine. looking at who. Of course, Javert must, as we often say, be "in a rage" before he dared to attack the sergeant as he had just done after the mayor's instructions to release Fantine.Had he forgotten that the mayor was there?Did he think it impossible for a "leader" to give such an instruction?Does he think that Mr. Mayor's support for that woman is an insincere expression?Or, in the face of this great event which he had personally seen during these two hours, he thought it necessary to make a final decision to make the little man into the big man, the soldier into a magistrate, and the policeman into a judge, and in this very urgent On occasions where all order, law, morality, political power, and the entire society must be embodied by Javert alone? In short, after M. Madeleine said the word "I" that everyone heard just now, Scout Javert turned to M. the Mayor, his face was blue, his lips were purple, his expression was stern, his eyes were fierce, and he had an indescribable look about him. Feeling trembling, and strange to say, he lowered his eyes, but his tone was firm: "That won't work, Mr. Mayor." "Well?" said M. Madeleine. "This time the woman insulted a gentleman." "Scout Javert," replied M. Madeleine, in a subdued and peaceful accent, "listen to me. You are an honest man, and it will be easy to explain to you. The fact is that you took the woman away just now." I was walking across the square at the time, and there were crowds of people there, and I made an investigation, and I knew all about it, and it was the gentleman who was at fault, and it was in the spirit of police justice that he should be taken." Javert replied: "The bitch just insulted Mr. Mayor." "That is my business," said M. Madeleine. "I think my insults are mine, and I may deal with them as I see fit." "I ask the mayor's pardon. His insult is not his, but the law's." "Scout Javert," replied M. Madeleine, "the highest law is conscience. I have listened to this woman. I understand what I am doing." "But I, Monsieur Mayor, do not understand what I see." "Then you obey." "I obey my duty. My duty calls for this woman to be in prison for six months." M. Madeleine replied with a pleasing countenance: "Listen to this. She won't sit for a day." Javert dared to look intently at the mayor and argue with him after hearing that resolute statement, but his voice was always extremely respectful: "For the first time in my life, I have quarreled with the Mayor, and I am sincerely distressed, but I beg his permission to express this opinion: I am within the bounds of my duty. If the Mayor is willing, I will come to the matter again. Gentleman's business. I was there and this whore jumped up and beat Mr. Bamadabo, who is a voter and owner of that beautiful three-story stone slatted mansion with verandahs on the corner of the park. .In this world, there are some things that should be paid attention to! In short, Mr. Mayor, this matter concerns me. It involves a street policeman's job. I have decided to take the woman Fantine into custody." M. Madeleine folded his arms, and said in a stern voice that no one had heard in this town: "The question you have raised is that of the municipal police. I am the judge in this question under Articles 9, 11, 15 and 66 of the Penal Code. I order the release of the woman." Javert has yet to make a final effort: "But, Mr. Mayor..." "I draw your attention to Article 81 of the Law of December thirteenth, 1799, concerning unauthorized arrest." "Mr. Mayor, please allow me..." "There is no need to say a word." "But……" "Get out!" said M. Madeleine. Javert stood upright, like a Russian soldier, accepting the hard nail.He bowed deeply to the mayor, bent down to the ground, and went out. Fantine made way hastily, and watched him pass her with horror. At the same time she was possessed by a strange disturbed mood.She had just seen herself the object of two opposing forces.She saw two beings who had control over her freedom, her life, her soul, her child, struggling before her eyes, one of them dragging her into darkness, the other into light, and in this struggle she grew from enlarged Looking at them in horror, it seems that they are two giants, one talking like her demon, and the other talking like her auspicious angel.Angels defeated demons.But it was that angel, that saviour, who made her tremble from head to toe, and who happened to be that mayor, whom she hated so much, and who had always been the cause of all her misery, that Madeleine!Just after she insulted him severely, he rescued her!Did she make a mistake?Should she change her mind completely? ... She was inexplicable, she trembled, she watched, listened, dizzy, and every time M. Madeleine said a word, she felt that the black shadows of the original hatred melted and collapsed in her heart, and replaced them with melting Ineffable joy, confidence and love. After Javert had gone out, M. Madeleine turned to her, and said slowly to her, like an elder who swallowed his tears: "I heard what you said. I didn't know what you said before. I believed it to be true, and I thought it was true. I didn't even know that you left my workshop. Why didn't you come to find me?" What about me? Here it is: I will pay the debt for you, and I will fetch your child, or you will go to her. You will live here or in Paris, it is up to you. Your child and you are mine Responsibility. You don't have to work any more, if you like. I'll give you as much money as you need. You'll live happily and be an honest man. And, listen, I'm telling you right now, if you just It is all true (and I do not doubt it), and all your life you have been good and chaste before God. O poor woman!" This was more than poor Fantine could bear.Get Cosette!Get out of this vile life!Live freely, richly, happily and honestly with Cosette!She suddenly saw this real heavenly life appearing in front of her eyes in the midst of ups and downs. She looked at the person who was talking to her suspiciously, and she could only utter two or three times "Ha! Ha! Ha!" while crying bitterly. Her knees sank, and she knelt in front of M. Madeleine, and before he could be on his guard, he felt that she had taken his hand and pressed her lips to it. She fainted immediately.