Chapter 92 Volume 2 Battleship "Orion"

Jean Valjean was arrested again. We don't plan to talk about those painful experiences in detail one by one. I hope everyone can forgive me.We have transcribed only two tidbits which appeared in the newspapers at that time a few months after the astonishing event at Montreuil-sur-Mer. Those two verses are quite brief.We recall that there were no District Court Gazettes at that time. The first stanza is taped from the White Flag of July 25, 1823: A rare thing happened in a certain county.A certain M. Madeleine from another province has, during the last few years, revived, by a new method, an old local industry, that of burning fines.He became extremely rich in the area, and, it should be said, the county as a result of it.In order to repay his achievements, everyone recommended him to be the mayor.Unexpectedly, the police found that Mr. Madeleine, formerly named Jean Valjean, was a hard labor prisoner. He was imprisoned for robbery in 1796. After serving his sentence, he was forbidden to move privately.Jean Valjean has now returned to prison.It is said that, before his arrest, he had withdrawn from Lafayette's Bank a deposit of half a million dollars, which was generally regarded as a very legitimate profit in his business.Now that Jean Valjean had returned to Toulon prison, no one knew where the money was hidden.

The second stanza, which is more detailed, is an excerpt from the Paris Journal of the same day: The High Court heard the case on a noteworthy note.The thug once deceived the police, changed his name and surname, and stole the post of mayor of a small city in northern my country.He runs a business in the city of considerable size.Due to the high service enthusiasm of the public security personnel, the truth was finally revealed and he was arrested and brought to justice.His concubine, a public prostitute, died of terror when he was arrested.The prisoner was physically strong and had escaped from prison. Three or four days after his escape, he was captured by the police again, and he was in Paris. car between.It is said that he once took advantage of the three or four days of freedom to withdraw a large amount of deposits from a large bank.It is estimated that the sum amounted to six to seven million francs.The indictment stated that he had hidden the money somewhere and that no one but himself knew about it, so it was not discovered.In short, Jean Valjean was tried before the Superior Court of the Var department, accused of having robbed, some eight years ago, with a weapon in his hand, a man of the honesty, as the Senator Ferney mentions in his immortal lines. child:

Come, We do not forget that Jean Valjean had always observed the canon at Montreuil-sur-Mer.Several newspapers, such as the Constitutionalist, therefore attributed the commutation of the sentence to religious circles. Jean Valjean changed his number in the prison.His name is 9430. Besides, let us say once, and never again, that the prosperity of Montreuil-sur-Mer has disappeared with M. Madeleine, and that all that he foresaw on that night of anxiety and hesitation has become a fact and is lost. He really lost his soul.Since his downfall, Montreuil-sur-Mer has been surrounded by the selfishness and disintegration that is so common after the failure of a master of great undertakings, where people live and die, and people fall apart, that tragic end. , is going on secretly every day in human society, but it only appeared once in history after Alexander's death.The generals proclaimed themselves kings, and the foremen called themselves owners.Competitive suspicion arises.The great factory of M. Madeleine was closed, the houses fell, and the workers scattered.Some left their hometown, and some changed their careers.Since then, everything has been done on a small scale, not on a large scale; it's all about self-interest, not others.The center is lost, and there is competition everywhere, stubborn competition.M. Madeleine presides over everything, directs from it.He fell, and each man thought for himself; the spirit of discord replaced the spirit of association, brutality replaced sincerity, mutual enmity replaced the founder's concern for the public; ;Everyone cut corners, reduced quality, lost credibility; sales were blocked, orders were reduced; wages were reduced, factories were shut down, and the result was bankruptcy.From now on the poor have nothing.Everything dissipated like a cloud of smoke.

Even the government feels that a pillar has been broken somewhere.In the less than four years since the judgment of the Superior Court established, for the benefit of the prison, that M. Madeleine and Jean Valjean were the same person, the tax collection in the canton of Montreuil-sur-Mer had doubled, and M. Villers had also done so. The case was brought up in Parliament in February, 1827.