Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the one hundred forty-first chapter of Les Miserables.
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>> Brie Carlisle: Take a look, in the book and let's see
Speaker:what we can find.
Speaker:Take it chapter by chapter. One
Speaker:fight M at a time
Speaker:so many adventures and
Speaker:mountains we can climb
Speaker:to give word for word, line by
Speaker:line, one bite at a time.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to bite at a time books where we read you your
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Values today we'll be
Speaker:continuing les miserables by
Speaker:Victor Hugo, chapter
Speaker:four, in which Jean Valjean has
Speaker:quite the air of.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Having read Austin Castillo.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: The strides of a lame man are like the ogling glances
Speaker:of a one eyed man. They do not reach their goal very
Speaker:promptly.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Moreover, Fochle vers was in a dilemma.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: He took nearly a quarter of an hour to return to his cottage in the
Speaker:garden. Cosette, had waked up. Jean
Speaker:Valjean had placed her near the fire. At the moment
Speaker:when Fauchelevert entered, Jean Valjean was pointing out to her
Speaker:the venturous basket on the wall and saying.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: To her, listen attentively to me, my little
Speaker:Cosette. We must go away from this house. But we
Speaker:shall return to it, and we shall be very happy here.
Speaker:The good man who lives here is going to carry you off on his back. In
Speaker:that you will wait for me at a ladys house. I, shall
Speaker:come to fetch you. Obey and say nothing
Speaker:above all things, unless you want Madame thenardier to get you
Speaker:again. Cosette nodded
Speaker:gravely. Jean Valjean turned round at the
Speaker:noise.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Made by Fauchelevert opening the door.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Well, everything is arranged and nothing
Speaker:is, said Fauchelevert. I have
Speaker:permission to bring you in, but before bringing
Speaker:you in, you must be got out. Thats where the
Speaker:difficulty lies. It is easy enough with the
Speaker:child. You will carry her out and
Speaker:she will hold her tongue.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: I answer for that.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: But you, Father Madeleine.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: And after a silence fraught with anxiety.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchelevert exclaimed, why
Speaker:get out? As you came in, Jean
Speaker:Valjean, as.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: In the first instance, contented himself with saying
Speaker:impossible. Fauchelevert grumbled more to
Speaker:himself than to Jean Valjean.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: There is another thing which bothers me. I have said
Speaker:that I would put earth in it. When I come to think it over.
Speaker:The earth instead of the corpse will not seem like the real
Speaker:thing. It wont do. It will get
Speaker:displaced, it will move about. The men will bear it.
Speaker:You understand, Father Madeleine. The government will notice
Speaker:it.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean stared him straight in the.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Eye and thought that he was raving.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchele went on, how the d
Speaker:oos are you going to get out? It must all be done
Speaker:by tomorrow morning. It is tomorrow that im to bring you
Speaker:in. The pirus expects you.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Then he explained to Jean Valjean that this was his recompense
Speaker:for a service which he, Fauchelever, was to render to the
Speaker:community that it fell among his duties to take part
Speaker:in their burials that he nailed up the coffins and helped the
Speaker:gravedigger at the cemetery that the nun who had died
Speaker:that morning had requested to be buried in the coffin which had
Speaker:served her for a bed and interred in the vault under the
Speaker:altar of the chapel that the police regulators
Speaker:forbade this, but that she was one of those dead to whom
Speaker:nothing has refused that the prioress and the vocal
Speaker:mothers intended to fulfill the wish of the deceased that it
Speaker:was so much the worse for the government that he,
Speaker:Fauchelevert, was to nail up the coffin in the cell,
Speaker:raise the stone in the chapel, and lower the corpse into the
Speaker:vault and that by way of thanks, the prioress
Speaker:was to admit his brother to the house as a gardener and his niece as
Speaker:a pupil. That his brother was Monsieur Madeleine and that
Speaker:his niece was Cosette. The prioress had told him to
Speaker:bring his brother on the following evening, after the counterfeit
Speaker:interment in the cemetery, but that he could
Speaker:not bring Monster Madeleine in from the outside. If
Speaker:Monster Madeleine was not outside,
Speaker:that.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Was the first problem.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: And then that there was another. The empty
Speaker:coffin.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What is that empty coffin?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Asked Jean Valjean.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchelevert replied, the coffin of the
Speaker:administration.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What coffin? What administration?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: A, nun dies. The municipal doctor comes and
Speaker:says a, nun has died. The government sends a
Speaker:coffin. The next day it sends a hearse and
Speaker:undertakers men to get the coffin and carry it to the
Speaker:cemetery. The undertakers men will come and lift
Speaker:the coffin. Therell be nothing in it.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Put something in it.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: A corpse. I have none.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: No?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What then?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: A living person.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What person?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Me, said Jean Valjean.
Speaker:Fauchelevent, who was seated, sprang up as though a bomb
Speaker:had burst under his chair.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Ew.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Why not? Jean Valjean gave way
Speaker:to one of.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Those rare smiles which lighted up his face like a flash
Speaker:from heaven in the winter.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: You know, Fauchelevert, what you have said.
Speaker:Mother crucifixion is dead. And I add, and Father
Speaker:Madeleine is buried.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Ah, Good, you can laugh. Youre not speaking
Speaker:seriously?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Very seriously. I must get out of this place.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Certainly.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Ive told you to find a basket and a cover for me
Speaker:also.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Well, the basket will be of pine.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: And the COVID a black cloth.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: In the first place, it will be a white cloth.
Speaker:Nuns are buried in white.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Let it be a white cloth, then.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: You are not like otherman, father madeline.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: To behold such devices, which are nothing
Speaker:else than the savage and daring inventions of the
Speaker:galleys, spring forth from the peaceable things which
Speaker:surround them and mingle with what he called the petty
Speaker:course of life in the convent, caused Fauchelevert
Speaker:as much amazement as a gull fishing in the gutter of the rue Saint
Speaker:Denis would inspire in a passerby.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean went on, the problem is
Speaker:to get out of here without being seen. This offers
Speaker:the means.
Speaker:But give me some information. In the first place, how
Speaker:is it managed? Where is this coffin?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: The empty one? Yes,
Speaker:downstairs in what is called the dead room.
Speaker:It stands on two trestles under the pall.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: How long is the coffin?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: 6Ft.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What is this dead room?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: It is a chamber on the ground floor, which has a grated
Speaker:window opening on the garden, which is closed on the
Speaker:outside by a shutter and two doors. One
Speaker:leads into the convent, the other into the church.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What church?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: The church in the street. The church which anyone
Speaker:can enter.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Have you the keys to those two doors?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: No. I have the key to the door which communicates with the
Speaker:convent. The porter has the key to the door which
Speaker:communicates with the church.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: When does the porter open that door?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Only to allow the undertakers men to enter when they come to get
Speaker:the coffin. When the coffin has been taken out, the
Speaker:door is closed again.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Who nails up the coffin?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: I do.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Who spreads the pall over it?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: I do.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Are you alone?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Not another man, except the police doctor, can enter the dead
Speaker:room. It is even written on the wall.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Could you hide me in that room tonight when everyone is
Speaker:asleep?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: No, but I could hide you in a small, dark nook which
Speaker:opens on the dead room where I keep my tools to use
Speaker:for burials and of which I have the key.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: At what time will the hearse come.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: For the coffin tomorrow, about 03:00 in the
Speaker:afternoon. The burial will take place at the vaudgerard
Speaker:cemetery a little before nightfall. It is not
Speaker:very near.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: I will remain concealed in your tool closet all night
Speaker:and all morning. And how about food? I, shall be
Speaker:hungry.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: I will bring you something.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: You can come and nail me up in the coffin.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: At 02:00 pashlovre recoiled
Speaker:and cracked his finger joints.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: But that is impossible.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Bah. Impossible to take a hammer and drive some nails
Speaker:in a plank.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: What seemed unprecedented to Fauchelevert was,
Speaker:we repeat, a simple matter to Jean Valjean.
Speaker:Jean Valjean had been in worse straits than this.
Speaker:Any man who has been a prisoner understands how to contract
Speaker:himself to fit the diameter of the escape. The prisoner
Speaker:is subject to flight as the sick man is subject to a
Speaker:crisis which saves or kills him. An
Speaker:escape is a cure. What does not
Speaker:a man undergo for the sake of a cure?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: To have himself nailed up in a.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Case and carried off like a bale of goods? To live
Speaker:for a long time in a box, to find air where there is
Speaker:none, to economize his breath for hours, to
Speaker:know how to stifle without dying. This was one of
Speaker:Jean Valjeans gloomy talents. Moreover,
Speaker:a coffin containing a living being that
Speaker:convicts expedient is also an imperial
Speaker:expedient. If we are to credit the monk Austin
Speaker:Castello, this was the means employed by Charles
Speaker:V. Desirous of seeing the plumes for the last
Speaker:time after his abdication. He had her brought
Speaker:into and carried out of the monastery of St. Just.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: In this manner.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchelevert, who had recovered himself a little.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Exclaimed, but m, how will you manage to
Speaker:breathe? I will breathe in that
Speaker:box. The mere thought of it suffocates
Speaker:me.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: You surely must have a gimletan. Youll make a few
Speaker:holes here and.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: There around my mouth, and you will.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Nail the top plank on loosely.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Good. And what if you should happen to cough or
Speaker:to sneeze?
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: A man who is making his escape does not cough or
Speaker:sneeze. And Jean Valjean added,
Speaker:Father Fauchelevert, we must come to a decision.
Speaker:I must either be caught here or accept this escape through the
Speaker:hearse.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Everyone has noticed the taste which cats have for pausing
Speaker:and lounging between the two leaves of a half shut door.
Speaker:Who is there? Who has not said to a cat, do come in.
Speaker:There are men who, when an incident stands half open before
Speaker:them, have the same tendency to halt an indecision
Speaker:between two resolutions, at the risk of getting
Speaker:crushed through the abrupt closing of the adventure by fate.
Speaker:The over prudent cats as they are,
Speaker:and because they are cats,
Speaker:sometimes incur more danger than the audacious
Speaker:Fauchelevert was of this hesitating nature.
Speaker:But Jean Valjeans coolness prevailed over him. In spite of
Speaker:himself, he grumbled well.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Since there is no other means.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean resumed, the only thing which
Speaker:troubles me is what will take place at the cemetery.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: That is the very point that is not troublesome,
Speaker:exclaimed Fauchelevert. If you are sure of coming out of
Speaker:the coffin, all right. I am sure of getting you out of the
Speaker:grave. A gravedigger is a drunkard and a
Speaker:friend of mine. He is father Mestine, an
Speaker:old fellow of the old school. The gravedigger
Speaker:puts the corpses in the grave, and I put the gravedigger in my
Speaker:pocket. I will tell you what will take place.
Speaker:They will arrive a little before dusk, three quarters of an
Speaker:hour before the gates of the cemetery are closed. The
Speaker:hearse will drive directly up to the grave. I shall
Speaker:follow. That is my business. I shall
Speaker:have a hammer, a chisel, and some pincers in my
Speaker:pocket. The hearse halts. The undertakers men
Speaker:gnaw a rope around your coffin and lower you down. The
Speaker:priest says the prayers, makes a sign of the cross,
Speaker:sprinkles the holy water, and takes his departure.
Speaker:I am left alone with Father mestien.
Speaker:He is my friend, I tell you one of two things will
Speaker:happen. He will either be sober or he will not be
Speaker:sober. If he is not drunk, I shall say to him,
Speaker:come and drink about. While the ban kuing, the good
Speaker:quince, is open, I carry him off, I
Speaker:get him drunk. It does not take long to make Father Messiaen
Speaker:drunk. He always has the beginning of it about him.
Speaker:I lay him under the table, I take his card so that I can get
Speaker:into the cemetery again, and I return without
Speaker:him. Then you have no longer anyone but me to deal
Speaker:with. If he is drunk, I shall say to him, be
Speaker:off. I will do your work for you. Off he goes
Speaker:and I drag you out of the hole.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean held out his hand and Fauchelevert
Speaker:precipitated himself upon it with the touching effusion of a
Speaker:peasant.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: That is settled, father fochle vert.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: All will go well provided nothing goes
Speaker:wrong, thought Fauchelevert. In that case,
Speaker:it would be terrible.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Thank you for joining bite at a.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Time books today while we read a.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Bite of one of your favorite classics.
Speaker:Again, my name is Brie Carlisle
Speaker:and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next
Speaker:bite of Le Miserable.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our
Speaker:newsletter@byteoutimebooks.com and
Speaker:check out the shop. You can check out the show notes
Speaker:or our website, byteadatimebooks.com
Speaker:for the rest of the links for our show. Wed love
Speaker:to hear from you on social media as well.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Many adventures and
Speaker:mountains we can climb
Speaker:take your word forward, line by
Speaker:line, one bite at a time.