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>> Speaker A: Take a look, in the book and let's see

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>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome.

>> Brie Carlisle: To bite at a time books where we read you your favorite

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>> Brie Carlisle: Some words have been changed to honor.

>> Brie Carlisle: The marginalized communities whove identified the words as

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at a time books brand.

>> Brie Carlisle: Values today well be

continuing.

Les Miserable by Victor Hugo

chapter 13 the solution of some

questions connected with the municipal

police, Javert thrust

aside the spectators, broke the circle, and

set out with long strides towards the police station,

which is situated at the extremity of the square.

Dragging the wretched woman after him, she

yielded mechanically. Neither he, nor

she uttered a word. The cloud of

spectators followed, jesting in a

paroxysm of delight. Supreme misery,

an occasion for obscenity. on arriving at the police

station, which was a low room warmed by

a stove with a glazed and grated door

opening on the street and guarded by a detachment,

Javert opened the door, entered with

Fantine, and shut the door behind him,

to the great disappointment of the curious, who raised

themselves on tiptoe, and craned their necks in front of

the thick glass of the station house in their effort to see

curiosity is a sort of gluttony.

To see is to devour. On

entering. Fantine fell down in a corner,

motionless and mute, crouching down like a

terrified dog. The sergeant of the guard brought a

lighted candle to the table. Javert seated

himself, drew a seat of stamped paper from his

pocket and began to write.

This class of women is consigned by our laws

entirely to the discretion of the police.

The latter do what they please. Punish them

as, seems good to them. And confiscate at their will those

two sorry things which they entitled their industry and

their liberty. Javert was impassive.

His grave face betrayed no emotion whatever.

Nevertheless, he was seriously and deeply

preoccupied. It was one of those

moments when he was exercising without control.

But subject to all the scruples of a severe

conscience. His redoubtable discretionary

power. At that moment he was conscious

that his police agent stool was a tribunal.

He was entering judgment, he judged

and condemned. He summoned all the ideas which

could possibly exist in his mind around the great thing which he

was doing. The more he examined the deed of

this woman, the more shocked he felt.

>> Brie Carlisle: It was evident that he had just.

>> Brie Carlisle: Witnessed the commission of a crime. He had just

beheld yonder in the street society, in the

person of a freeholder and an elector.

>> Brie Carlisle: Insulted and attacked by a creature who.

>> Brie Carlisle: Was outside all pales. A prostitute

had made an attempt on the life of a citizen. He

had seen that. He,

Javert, he wrote in silence.

when he had finished, he signed the paper, folded

it and said to the sergeant of the guard as he handed it to

him, take three men.

>> Brie Carlisle: And conduct this creature to jail.

>> Brie Carlisle: Then, turning to Fantine, youre to have.

>> Brie Carlisle: Six months of it.

>> Brie Carlisle: The unhappy woman shuddered.

>> Brie Carlisle: Six months.

>> Brie Carlisle: Six months of prison.

>> Brie Carlisle: She exclaimed.

>> Brie Carlisle: Six months in which to earn seven sous a day.

So what will become of Cosette? My daughter. My

daughter. But I still owe the thenardiers over 100

francs. Do you know that, Monsieur

inspector?

>> Brie Carlisle: She dragged herself across the damp floor among the

muddy boots of all those men without rising with

clasped hands and taking great strides on her knees.

>> Brie Carlisle: Monsieur Javert, said she, I beseech your

mercy. I assure you that I was not in the wrong.

If you had seen the beginning, you would have seen. I swear

to you by the good God, that I was not to blame. That

gentleman, the bourgeois, whom I do not know, put snow

in my back. Has anyone the right to put snow

down our backs when we are walking along peaceably and

doing no harm to anyone? I am rather ill, as

you see. And then he had been saying impertinent things to

me for a long time. You are ugly. You have no

teeth. I know well that I have no longer those

teeth. I did nothing. I said to myself, the

gentleman is amusing himself. I was honest with

him. I did not speak to him. It was at that moment

that he put the snow down my back. Monsieur Javert.

Good. Monsieur Inspector, is there not some person

here who saw it and can tell you that this is quite true?

Perhaps I did wrong to get angry. you know that one is not

master of oneself. At the first moment, one gives way

to vivacity. And then when someone puts something cold

down your back. Just when you were not expecting it.

I did wrong to spoil that gentlemans hat. Why

did he go away? I would ask his pardon.

Oh, my God. It makes no difference to me whether I ask his

pardon.

Do me the favor today for this once, Monsieur

Javert, hold. You do not know that in

prison one can earn only seven sous a day. It is not

the governments fault, but seven sous is ones

earnings. And just fancy. I must pay 100

francs or my little girl will be sent to me. Oh, my

God. I cannot have her with me. what I do is so vile.

Oh, my cosette. Oh, my little angel of the holy

virgin. What will become of her, poor creature?

I will tell you. It is the thenardiers,

innkeepers, peasants and such people are

unreasonable. They want money. dont put me in

prison. You see, theres a little girl. Who will be turned out into

the street. To get along as best she may in the very heart of

the winter. And you must have pity on such a being, my good

monsieur Javert. If she were older, she might earn her

living. But it cannot be done at that age. I am not

a bad woman at bottom. It is not cowardliness and

gluttony that have made me what I am. If I have drunk

brandy, it was out of misery. I do not love it, but

it benumbs the senses. When I was happy,

it was only necessary to glance into my closets. And it would

have been evident that I was not a coquettish and untidy woman.

>> Brie Carlisle: I had linen.

>> Brie Carlisle: A great deal of linen. Have pity on me, Monsieur

Javert.

>> Brie Carlisle: She spoke thus. Renton twain,

shaken with sobs, blinded with tears, her

neck bare, wringing her hands and coughing with a dry,

short cough. Stammering softly with a voice of

agony. Great sorrow is a

divine and terrible ray. Which transfigures the

unhappy. at that moment, Fantine had become beautiful once

more. From time to time, she

paused and tenderly kissed the police

agents coat. She would have softened a heart of

granite. But a heart of wood cannot be softened.

Come, said Javert.

>> Brie Carlisle: I have heard you out. Have you entirely

finished? You will get six months.

>> Brie Carlisle: Now march. The eternal father in person could do

nothing more. At these solemn

words, the eternal father in person

could do nothing more. She understood that

her fate was sealed. She sank down,

murmuring mercy.

Javert turned his back. The soldiers seized

her by the arms. A few moments earlier, a

man had entered, but no one had paid any heed to

him. He shut the door,

leaned his back against it, and listened to fantines

despairing supplications. At the instant

when the soldiers laid their hands upon the unfortunate woman

who would not rise, he emerged from the

shadow and said, one moment, if

you please. Javert raised his

eyes and recognized Monsieur M. Madeleine.

He removed his hat and, saluting him

with a sort of aggrieved awkwardness.

>> Brie Carlisle: Excuse me, mister mayor.

>> Brie Carlisle: The words mister mayor produced a curious effect

upon fantine. She rose to her feet

with one bound, like a specter springing from the

earth, thrust aside the soldiers with both arms,

walked straight up to Monsieur Madeleine before anyone could

prevent her. And gazing intently at him with a

bewildered air, she cried, ah.

>> Brie Carlisle: So it is you who are Monsieur le Maire.

Then she burst into a laugh and spit in his

face. Monsieur Madeleine wiped his face and

said, Inspector Javert set this

woman at liberty.

>> Brie Carlisle: Javert felt that he was on the.

>> Brie Carlisle: Verge of going mad. He experienced at that

moment blow upon blow, and almost

simultaneously, the most violent emotions

which he had ever undergone in all his life. To see

a woman of the town spit in the mayor's face was a

thing so monstrous that in his most daring flights of

fancy. He would have regarded it as a sacrilege

to believe it possible. On the

other hand, at the very bottom of his thought,

he made a hideous comparison as to what this woman

was and as to what this mare might

be. And then he with horror

caught a glimpse of I know not what simple

explanation of this prodigious attack.

But when he beheld that Marethat

magistrate calmly wipe his face and say,

set this woman at liberty. He underwent a sort of

intoxication of amazement. Thought

and word failed him equally. The sum

total of possible astonishment had been exceeded in his

case. He remained mute.

The words had produced no less strange an effect on

Fantine. She raised her bare arm and clung to

the damper of the stove like a person who is reeling.

Nevertheless, she glanced about her and began to

speak in a low voice, as though talking to herself

at liberty.

>> Brie Carlisle: I am to be allowed to go. I am not to go to prison

for six months. Who said that?

It is not possible that anyone could have said that.

I did not hear right. It cannot have been that monster

of a mayor. Was it you, my good Monsieur

Javert, who said that I was to be set free?

Oh, see here.

I will tell you about it. And you will let me go. That

monster of a mayor. That old blackguard of a mayor is the cause

of all. Just imagine, Monsieur Javert.

He turned me out all because of a pack of rascally

women who gossip in the workroom. If that is

not horror, what is? To dismiss a poor

girl who is doing her work honestly? Then I could no

longer earn enough. And all this misery followed. In

the first place, there is one improvement which these gentlemen of

the police ought to make. And that is to prevent

prison contractors from wronging poor people.

I will explain it to you. You see, you are

earning twelve sous at shirtmaking. The price

falls to nine sous. And it is not enough to live on.

And one has to become whatever one can. As, For

me, I had my little cosette. And I was actually

forced to become a bad woman. Now you understand

how it is that that blackguard of a mayor caused all the

mischief after that. I stamped on that

gentlemans hat in front of the officers cafe. But he had

spoiled my whole dress with snow. We women have but

one silk dress for evening wear. You see that I did

not do wrong deliberately. Truly, Monsieur

Javert. And everywhere I behold women who are far

more wicked than I. And who are much happier. Oh,

Monsieur Javert. It was you who gave orders that I am to be set

free, was it not? Make inquiries. Speak to my

landlord. I am paying my rent now. They will tell you that I

am perfectly honest. Oh, my God. I beg

your pardon. I have unintentionally touched the damper of the

stove. And it has made it smoke.

>> Brie Carlisle: Monsieur Madeleine listened to her with profound attention.

While she was speaking, he fumbled in his

waistcoat, drew out his purse and opened

it. It was empty.

He put it back in his pocket. He said to

Fantine, how much did you say that you

owed? Fantine, who was looking at

Javert, only turned towards him. Was I

speaking to you then, addressing the

soldiers?

>> Brie Carlisle: Say, you fellows, did you see how I spit in his face?

You old wretch of a mayor. You came here to frighten me.

But I am not afraid of you. I am afraid of Monsieur

Javert. I am afraid of my good Monsieur

Javert.

>> Brie Carlisle: So saying, she turned to the inspector again.

>> Brie Carlisle: And yet, you see, mister inspector, it is necessary to be

just. I understand that you are just, Mister

Inspector. In fact, it is perfectly

simple. A man amuses himself by putting snow

down a womans back and that makes the officers

laugh.

>> Brie Carlisle: One must divert themselves in some way.

>> Brie Carlisle: And we we are here for.

>> Brie Carlisle: Them to amuse themselves with. Of course. And then

you, you come.

>> Brie Carlisle: You are certainly obliged to preserve order.

>> Brie Carlisle: You lead off the woman who is in the wrong.

>> Brie Carlisle: But on reflection, since you are a.

>> Brie Carlisle: Good man, you say that im to.

>> Brie Carlisle: Be set at liberty. It is for the sake of the little one.

For six months in prison would prevent my supporting my

child. Only dont do it again, you hussy.

Oh, I wont do it again, Monsieur Javert. They may do

whatever they please to me.

>> Brie Carlisle: Now.

>> Brie Carlisle: I will not stir. But today, you see, I cried

because it hurt me. I was not expecting that snow.

>> Brie Carlisle: From that gentleman at all.

>> Brie Carlisle: And then, as I told you, I am m not well. I have a

cough. I seem to have a burning ball in my stomach. And the

doctor tells me, take care of yourself. Here, feel.

Give me your hand.

>> Brie Carlisle: Dont be afraid.

>> Brie Carlisle: It is here.

>> Brie Carlisle: She no longer wept.

>> Brie Carlisle: Her voice was caressing.

>> Brie Carlisle: She placed chavers coarse hand on her delicate white

throat and looked smilingly at him.

All at once she rapidly adjusted her disordered

garments, dropped the folds of her skirt which

had been pushed up. As she dragged herself along almost to

the height of her knee and stepped towards the door,

saying to the soldiers in a low voice and with a friendly

nod, children.

>> Brie Carlisle: Monsieur, inspector said that im to.

>> Brie Carlisle: Be released and im going.

She laid her hand on the latch of the door. One

step more and she would be in the street.

Javert, up to that moment had remained erect,

motionless, with his eyes fixed on the ground.

Cast athwart this scene like some displaced statue

which is waiting to be put away somewhere.

The sound of the latch roused him. He

raised his head with an expression of sovereign authority. an

expression all the more alarming in proportion as the authority

rests on a low level, ferocious in the wild

beast, atrocious in the man of no

estate.

>> Brie Carlisle: Sergeant.

>> Brie Carlisle: He cried, dont you see that that.

>> Brie Carlisle: Jade is walking off?

>> Brie Carlisle: Who bade you let her go? Aye,

said Madeleine. Fantine

trembled at the sound of Javerts voice and let go of

the latch as a thief relinquishes the article which he has

stolen. At the sound of Madelines

voice she turned around and from that

moment forth she uttered no word, nor

dared so much as to breathe freely. But

her glance strayed from Madeleine to Javert and from

Javert to Madeleine in turn, according to which was

speaking, it was evident that Javert must have

been exasperated beyond measure before he would permit himself

to apostrophize the sergeant, as he had done after

the mayors suggestion that Fantine should be

set at liberty, had he reached the point of

forgetting the mayors presence, had he finally declared

to himself that it was impossible that any authority should

have given such an order, and that the mayor must certainly

have said one thing by mistake for another, without

intending it, or in view of the

enormities of which he had been a witness for the past 2 hours,

did he say to himself that it was necessary to recur to

supreme resolutions, that it was

indispensable that the small should be made

great, that the police spy should transform

himself into a magistrate, that the policeman

should become a dispenser of justice, and that in this

prodigious extremity, order, law,

morality, government, society in its entirety was

personified in him. Javert,

however that may be. When Monsieur

Madeleine uttered that word, I, as we have

just heard, Police inspector Javert was seen

to turn toward the mayor, pale,

cold, with blue lips and a look of despair,

his whole body agitated by an imperceptible

quiver and an unprecedented occurrence,

and say to him with downcast eyes but a firm

voice, Monsieur.

>> Brie Carlisle: Mayor, that cannot be.

>> Brie Carlisle: Why not? Said Monsieur Madeleine.

>> Brie Carlisle: This miserable woman has insulted a

citizen.

>> Brie Carlisle: Inspector Javert, replied the mayor

in a calm and conciliating tone.

Listen, you are an honest

man, and I feel no hesitation in

explaining matters to you. Here is the true

state of the case. I was passing through the

square just as you were leading this woman away.

There were still groups of people standing about,

and I made inquiries and learned everything.

It was the townsman who was in the wrong and who should have

been arrested by properly conducted police.

Javert retorted.

>> Brie Carlisle: This wretch has just insulted Monsieur le Maire.

>> Brie Carlisle: That concerns me, said Monsieur

Madeleine. My own insult belongs to

me. I think I can do what I please about

it.

>> Brie Carlisle: I beg Monsieur Lemaires pardon. The

insult is not to him, but to the law.

>> Brie Carlisle: Inspector Javert replied Monsieur

Madeleine, the highest law is conscience.

I have heard this woman. I know what im

doing.

>> Brie Carlisle: And I, Monsieur mayor, do not know what I

see.

>> Brie Carlisle: Then content yourself with obeying.

>> Brie Carlisle: Im obeying my duty. My duty

demands that this woman shall serve six months in prison.

>> Brie Carlisle: Monsieur Madeleine replied gently, heed

this well. She will not serve a single

day. At this decisive

word, Javert ventured to fix a searching look on the

mare and say, but in a tone of voice

that was still profoundly respectful.

>> Brie Carlisle: Im sorry to oppose Monsieur le Maire.

>> Brie Carlisle: It is for the first time in.

>> Brie Carlisle: My life, but he will permit me to remark that im within the

bounds of my authority. I confine

myself, since Monsieur le Maire

desires it, to the question of the gentleman

I was present. This woman flung herself on

Monsieur Belmontebois, who was an elector

and the proprietor of that handsome house with a balcony, which

forms the corner of the esplanade, three stories

high and entirely of cut stone.

Such things as there are in the world. In

any case, Monsieur le Maire, this is a question of

police regulations in the streets and

concerns me, and I shall detain this woman.

Fantine.

>> Brie Carlisle: Then Monsieur Madeleine folded his arms

and said in a severe voice, which no one in the town had

heard hitherto, the matter to which you

refer is one connected with the municipal police.

According to the terms of articles 911,

15 and 66 of the code of criminal

examination.

>> Brie Carlisle: I am the judge.

>> Brie Carlisle: I order that this woman shall be set at liberty.

Javert ventured to make a final effort. But,

mister mayor, I refer you to article 81 of the

law of the 13 December 1799

in regard to arbitrary detention.

>> Brie Carlisle: Monsieur le Maire, permit me not another.

>> Brie Carlisle: Word, but leave the room, said

Monsieur Madeleine. Javert received

the blow erect, full in the face, in his

breast, like a russian soldier.

>> Brie Carlisle: He bowed to the very earth before.

>> Brie Carlisle: The mayor and left the room.

Famtine stood aside from the door and stared at him

in amazement as he passed.

Nevertheless, she also was the prey to a strange

confusion. She had just seen herself as a

subject of dispute between two opposing powers.

She had seen two men who held in their hands her

liberty, her life, her soul, her child

in combat before her very eyes.

One of these men was drawing her towards darkness.

The other was leading her back towards the light.

In this conflict, viewed through the

exaggerations of terror, these two men

had appeared to her like two giants. The

one spoke like her demon, the other like her

good angel. The angel had conquered the

demon. And strange to say, that which made her

shudder from head to foot was the fact that this

angel, this liberator, was the very man

whom she abhorred. That mare whom she had

so long regarded as the author of all her woes.

That Madeleine. And at the very

moment when she had insulted him in so hideous a

fashion, he had saved her.

Had she then been mistaken? Must

she change her whole soul? She did not

know. She trembled. She

listened in bewilderment. She looked on in

affright, and at every word uttered by Monsieur

Madeleine. She felt the frightful shades of hatred

crumble and melt within her.

And something warm and

ineffable, indescribable,

which was both joy, confidence and

love, dawn in her heart.

When Javert had taken his departure, Monsieur

Madeleine turned to her and said to her in a deliberate

voice, like a serious man who does not wish to

weep and who finds some difficulty in speaking,

I have heard you. I, knew nothing about what you have

mentioned. I believe that it is true, and I

feel that it is true. I was even ignorant of the

fact that you had left my shop. Why did you not apply

to me? But here I will pay your debts.

I will send for your child, or you shall go to her.

You shall live here in Paris or where you please.

I undertake the care of your child and yourself.

You shall not work any longer if you do not like. I will

give all the money you require. You shall be honest

and happy once more. And listen. I declare to you

that if all is as you say, and I do

not doubt it, you have never ceased to be virtuous

and holy in the sight of God.

>> Brie Carlisle: Oh.

>> Brie Carlisle: poor woman. This was more

than Fantine could bear. To have

cosette to leave this life of infamy.

To live free, rich, happy, respectable. With

Cosette to see all these realities of

paradise blossom of a sudden. In the midst of her

misery, she stared stupidly at

this man who was talking to her. And could only

give vent to two or three sobs.

>> Brie Carlisle: Oh. Oh. Oh.

>> Brie Carlisle: Her limbs gave way beneath her. She knelt in

front of Monsieur Madeleine, and before he could prevent

her, he felt her grasp his hand and press her lips to

it. Then she fainted.

>> Brie Carlisle: Thank you for joining bite at a.

>> Brie Carlisle: Time books today, while we read a bite of one of your favorite

classics. Again, my name is Brie

carlisle, and I hope you come back tomorrow, for the

next bite of le Miserable.

>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our

newsletter@byteadatimebooks.com, and check

out the shop. You can check out the show notes or

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>> Speaker A: Take it chapter by chapter. One.