Chapter 55 Volume VI Javert

M. Madeleine hired someone to carry Fantine to the convalescent room in his own factory.He gave her to the sisters, who put her in bed.She suddenly had a high fever.She yelled and babbled in a coma for most of the night, and then fell asleep. Towards noon the next day Fantine awoke, heard breathing near her bed, raised the curtain, and saw M. Madeleine standing looking at something near her head.His eyes were full of pity and pain, and he was praying with all his heart.She followed his gaze and saw him praying to a crucifix hanging on the wall. From then on M. Madeleine was another person in Fantine's heart.She felt that there was a light around him.He was completely immersed in prayer.She looked at him for a long time, not daring to disturb him.It was not until later that she whispered to him:

"What are you doing there?" M. Madeleine had been standing there for an hour.He waited for Fantine to wake up.He took her hand, felt her pulse, and said: "How do you feel?" "Hi, I've had a good night's sleep," she said, "I think I'm better, and I'll be fine soon." He answered her first question as if he could still hear her: "I pray for the martyr in heaven." In his heart, he added: "For this martyr underground." M. Madeleine investigated night after morning.Now he totally understands.He knew all the painful details of Fantine's life.

He went on to say: "You have suffered a lot, poor mother. Oh! You don't have to complain, now you have qualified to be the god of eternal bliss. This is the way for man to become an angel. This is not the fault of man. Man does not know that there is There is no other way. Do you understand? That hell you have come out of is the first form of heaven. You should start from there." He sighed deeply.As for her, she smiled at him with that beautiful smile with two missing teeth. Javert wrote a letter that evening.The next morning he delivered the letter himself to the post office in Montreuil-sur-Mer.The letter was sent to Paris, and it was written: "To Monsieur Chapuille, secretary to Monsieur the Prefect of Police."As the incident at the police station had been circulated, the postmaster and several others saw the letter before it was posted, and recognized Javert's handwriting from the address, and thought that he had sent it. letter of resignation.

M. Madeleine hastened to write a letter to the Thenardiers.Fantine owed them one hundred and twenty francs.He sent them three hundred francs, ordered them to withhold that amount, and sent the child at once to Montreuil-sur-Mer, since her mother was ill and wanted to see her. Thenardier was overjoyed. "Hitted a ghost!" he said to his wife. "Let's not let the baby go. This little lark is going to be a cow with a milk. I guessed it. There must be a bad bucket in love with her mother. " He sent back a bill of five hundred and a few francs, very carefully made.Attached to the bill were two unproblematic receipts totaling more than three hundred francs, one from the doctor and the other from the pharmacist who had treated the two long illnesses of Éponine and Azma.Cosette, we said, was not ill.It was just a little impostor.Thenardier wrote under the bill: "Three hundred francs charged."

M. Madeleine immediately sent another three hundred francs, and wrote: "Send Cosette quickly." "It's all right!" said Thenardier. "Let's not let the boy go." But Fantine's illness did not improve at all.She remained in that sick room all the time. When those sisters received and took care of "this girl", they felt a little disgusted in their hearts.Anyone who has seen the bas-reliefs at Reims remembers how the virgins puffed out their lower lips to look at the crazy virgins.The ancient contempt of virgins for sluts is one of the oldest instincts in womanly virtue; and that contempt in the hearts of the nuns is all the more intensified by religion.In a few days, however, Fantine conquered them.She has a variety of courteous words, and her motherly heart is more than enough to soften the heart.One day, the sisters heard her say in a fever: "I have been a sinner, but when I have my own children around, it will prove that God has forgiven my sins. When I live in sin Well, I don't want Cosette to be with me, I can't bear her surprised and sad eyes. But I have done evil things for her, let me be forgiven by God. When Cosette arrives here , I shall feel God's blessing. The child is innocent, and I look at her, and I am comforted. She knows nothing. She is an angel, see, my sisters, in her At such a young age, the wings will not fall off."

M. Madeleine visited her twice a day, and each time she asked him: "I shall soon see my Cosette?" He used to answer her: "Perhaps tomorrow morning. She can arrive any minute, and I'm waiting for her." Then the mother's pale face became brighter. "Oh!" she said, "I'm so happy." As we have just said, she was not improving, and seemed to be getting worse every week.The handful of snow was stuffed between her two shoulder blades, and the sudden coldness stopped her ability to sweat immediately, so the disease that had been lurking in her body for several years finally deteriorated sharply.The study and treatment of tuberculosis were just beginning to be carried out on the basis of Lauanneck's brilliant instructions.The doctor shook his head after hearing Fantine's lungs.

M. Madeleine asked the doctor: "how?" "Doesn't she have a baby she wants to see?" said the doctor. "yes." "Then hurry up and fetch her." M. Madeleine was taken aback. Fantine asked him: "What did the doctor say?" M. Madeleine smiled reluctantly. "He said to bring your child here quickly, and your body will be fine." "Oh!" she answered, "he is right! But what is the Thenardier's business to keep my Cosette? Oh! She will come. Now at last I see that happy days are at hand. It's in front of me."

But Thenardier refused to "let the boy go," and made all sorts of unreasonable excuses.Cosette was a little unwell, not for the winter, and there were some petty debts waiting to be settled in that place, and he was collecting invoices, etc. "I can send someone for Cosette," said Uncle Madeleine. "If necessary, I can go by myself." As Fantine dictated, he wrote the following letter, and got her to sign it: At this juncture, a great event happened.We try in vain to break through the obstacles in the journey of life, but the bad luck is always there.