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Les Miserables - Volume 2 - Book 8 - Chapter 4
Episode 1412nd September 2024 • Bite at a Time Books • Bree Carlile
00:00:00 00:15:29

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Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the one hundred forty-first chapter of Les Miserables.

Come with us as we release one bite a day of one of your favorite classic novels, plays & short stories. Bree reads these classics like she reads to her daughter, one chapter a day. If you love books or audiobooks and want something to listen to as you're getting ready, driving to work, or as you're getting ready for bed, check out Bite at a Time Books!

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>> Brie Carlisle: Take a look, in the book and let's see

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what we can find.

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Take it chapter by chapter. One

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fight M at a time

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so many adventures and

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mountains we can climb

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to give word for word, line by

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line, one bite at a time.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to bite at a time books where we read you your

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favorite classics, one byte at a time. my name is

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while we try to keep the text as close to the original as

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possible, some words have been changed

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to honor the marginalized communities who've identified the

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with Byte at a time book's brand.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Values today we'll be

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continuing les miserables by

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Victor Hugo, chapter

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four, in which Jean Valjean has

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quite the air of.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Having read Austin Castillo.

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>> Brie Carlisle: The strides of a lame man are like the ogling glances

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of a one eyed man. They do not reach their goal very

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promptly.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Moreover, Fochle vers was in a dilemma.

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>> Brie Carlisle: He took nearly a quarter of an hour to return to his cottage in the

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garden. Cosette, had waked up. Jean

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Valjean had placed her near the fire. At the moment

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when Fauchelevert entered, Jean Valjean was pointing out to her

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the venturous basket on the wall and saying.

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>> Brie Carlisle: To her, listen attentively to me, my little

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Cosette. We must go away from this house. But we

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shall return to it, and we shall be very happy here.

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The good man who lives here is going to carry you off on his back. In

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that you will wait for me at a ladys house. I, shall

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come to fetch you. Obey and say nothing

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above all things, unless you want Madame thenardier to get you

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again. Cosette nodded

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gravely. Jean Valjean turned round at the

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noise.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Made by Fauchelevert opening the door.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Well, everything is arranged and nothing

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is, said Fauchelevert. I have

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permission to bring you in, but before bringing

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you in, you must be got out. Thats where the

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difficulty lies. It is easy enough with the

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child. You will carry her out and

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she will hold her tongue.

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>> Brie Carlisle: I answer for that.

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>> Brie Carlisle: But you, Father Madeleine.

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>> Brie Carlisle: And after a silence fraught with anxiety.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchelevert exclaimed, why

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get out? As you came in, Jean

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Valjean, as.

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>> Brie Carlisle: In the first instance, contented himself with saying

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impossible. Fauchelevert grumbled more to

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himself than to Jean Valjean.

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>> Brie Carlisle: There is another thing which bothers me. I have said

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that I would put earth in it. When I come to think it over.

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The earth instead of the corpse will not seem like the real

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thing. It wont do. It will get

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displaced, it will move about. The men will bear it.

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You understand, Father Madeleine. The government will notice

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it.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean stared him straight in the.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Eye and thought that he was raving.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchele went on, how the d

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oos are you going to get out? It must all be done

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by tomorrow morning. It is tomorrow that im to bring you

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in. The pirus expects you.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Then he explained to Jean Valjean that this was his recompense

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for a service which he, Fauchelever, was to render to the

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community that it fell among his duties to take part

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in their burials that he nailed up the coffins and helped the

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gravedigger at the cemetery that the nun who had died

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that morning had requested to be buried in the coffin which had

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served her for a bed and interred in the vault under the

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altar of the chapel that the police regulators

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forbade this, but that she was one of those dead to whom

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nothing has refused that the prioress and the vocal

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mothers intended to fulfill the wish of the deceased that it

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was so much the worse for the government that he,

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Fauchelevert, was to nail up the coffin in the cell,

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raise the stone in the chapel, and lower the corpse into the

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vault and that by way of thanks, the prioress

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was to admit his brother to the house as a gardener and his niece as

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a pupil. That his brother was Monsieur Madeleine and that

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his niece was Cosette. The prioress had told him to

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bring his brother on the following evening, after the counterfeit

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interment in the cemetery, but that he could

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not bring Monster Madeleine in from the outside. If

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Monster Madeleine was not outside,

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that.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Was the first problem.

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>> Brie Carlisle: And then that there was another. The empty

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coffin.

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>> Brie Carlisle: What is that empty coffin?

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>> Brie Carlisle: Asked Jean Valjean.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchelevert replied, the coffin of the

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administration.

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>> Brie Carlisle: What coffin? What administration?

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>> Brie Carlisle: A, nun dies. The municipal doctor comes and

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says a, nun has died. The government sends a

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coffin. The next day it sends a hearse and

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undertakers men to get the coffin and carry it to the

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cemetery. The undertakers men will come and lift

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the coffin. Therell be nothing in it.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Put something in it.

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>> Brie Carlisle: A corpse. I have none.

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>> Brie Carlisle: No?

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>> Brie Carlisle: What then?

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>> Brie Carlisle: A living person.

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>> Brie Carlisle: What person?

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>> Brie Carlisle: Me, said Jean Valjean.

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Fauchelevent, who was seated, sprang up as though a bomb

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had burst under his chair.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Ew.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Why not? Jean Valjean gave way

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to one of.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Those rare smiles which lighted up his face like a flash

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from heaven in the winter.

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>> Brie Carlisle: You know, Fauchelevert, what you have said.

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Mother crucifixion is dead. And I add, and Father

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Madeleine is buried.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Ah, Good, you can laugh. Youre not speaking

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seriously?

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>> Brie Carlisle: Very seriously. I must get out of this place.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Certainly.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Ive told you to find a basket and a cover for me

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also.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Well, the basket will be of pine.

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>> Brie Carlisle: And the COVID a black cloth.

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>> Brie Carlisle: In the first place, it will be a white cloth.

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Nuns are buried in white.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Let it be a white cloth, then.

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>> Brie Carlisle: You are not like otherman, father madeline.

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>> Brie Carlisle: To behold such devices, which are nothing

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else than the savage and daring inventions of the

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galleys, spring forth from the peaceable things which

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surround them and mingle with what he called the petty

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course of life in the convent, caused Fauchelevert

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as much amazement as a gull fishing in the gutter of the rue Saint

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Denis would inspire in a passerby.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean went on, the problem is

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to get out of here without being seen. This offers

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the means.

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But give me some information. In the first place, how

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is it managed? Where is this coffin?

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>> Brie Carlisle: The empty one? Yes,

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downstairs in what is called the dead room.

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It stands on two trestles under the pall.

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>> Brie Carlisle: How long is the coffin?

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>> Brie Carlisle: 6Ft.

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>> Brie Carlisle: What is this dead room?

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>> Brie Carlisle: It is a chamber on the ground floor, which has a grated

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window opening on the garden, which is closed on the

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outside by a shutter and two doors. One

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leads into the convent, the other into the church.

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>> Brie Carlisle: What church?

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>> Brie Carlisle: The church in the street. The church which anyone

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can enter.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Have you the keys to those two doors?

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>> Brie Carlisle: No. I have the key to the door which communicates with the

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convent. The porter has the key to the door which

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communicates with the church.

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>> Brie Carlisle: When does the porter open that door?

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>> Brie Carlisle: Only to allow the undertakers men to enter when they come to get

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the coffin. When the coffin has been taken out, the

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door is closed again.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Who nails up the coffin?

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>> Brie Carlisle: I do.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Who spreads the pall over it?

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>> Brie Carlisle: I do.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Are you alone?

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>> Brie Carlisle: Not another man, except the police doctor, can enter the dead

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room. It is even written on the wall.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Could you hide me in that room tonight when everyone is

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asleep?

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>> Brie Carlisle: No, but I could hide you in a small, dark nook which

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opens on the dead room where I keep my tools to use

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for burials and of which I have the key.

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>> Brie Carlisle: At what time will the hearse come.

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>> Brie Carlisle: For the coffin tomorrow, about 03:00 in the

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afternoon. The burial will take place at the vaudgerard

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cemetery a little before nightfall. It is not

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very near.

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>> Brie Carlisle: I will remain concealed in your tool closet all night

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and all morning. And how about food? I, shall be

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hungry.

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>> Brie Carlisle: I will bring you something.

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>> Brie Carlisle: You can come and nail me up in the coffin.

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>> Brie Carlisle: At 02:00 pashlovre recoiled

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and cracked his finger joints.

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>> Brie Carlisle: But that is impossible.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Bah. Impossible to take a hammer and drive some nails

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in a plank.

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>> Brie Carlisle: What seemed unprecedented to Fauchelevert was,

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we repeat, a simple matter to Jean Valjean.

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Jean Valjean had been in worse straits than this.

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Any man who has been a prisoner understands how to contract

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himself to fit the diameter of the escape. The prisoner

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is subject to flight as the sick man is subject to a

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crisis which saves or kills him. An

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escape is a cure. What does not

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a man undergo for the sake of a cure?

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>> Brie Carlisle: To have himself nailed up in a.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Case and carried off like a bale of goods? To live

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for a long time in a box, to find air where there is

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none, to economize his breath for hours, to

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know how to stifle without dying. This was one of

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Jean Valjeans gloomy talents. Moreover,

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a coffin containing a living being that

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convicts expedient is also an imperial

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expedient. If we are to credit the monk Austin

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Castello, this was the means employed by Charles

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V. Desirous of seeing the plumes for the last

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time after his abdication. He had her brought

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into and carried out of the monastery of St. Just.

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>> Brie Carlisle: In this manner.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Fauchelevert, who had recovered himself a little.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Exclaimed, but m, how will you manage to

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breathe? I will breathe in that

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box. The mere thought of it suffocates

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me.

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>> Brie Carlisle: You surely must have a gimletan. Youll make a few

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holes here and.

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>> Brie Carlisle: There around my mouth, and you will.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Nail the top plank on loosely.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Good. And what if you should happen to cough or

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to sneeze?

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>> Brie Carlisle: A man who is making his escape does not cough or

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sneeze. And Jean Valjean added,

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Father Fauchelevert, we must come to a decision.

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I must either be caught here or accept this escape through the

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hearse.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Everyone has noticed the taste which cats have for pausing

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and lounging between the two leaves of a half shut door.

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Who is there? Who has not said to a cat, do come in.

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There are men who, when an incident stands half open before

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them, have the same tendency to halt an indecision

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between two resolutions, at the risk of getting

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crushed through the abrupt closing of the adventure by fate.

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The over prudent cats as they are,

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and because they are cats,

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sometimes incur more danger than the audacious

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Fauchelevert was of this hesitating nature.

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But Jean Valjeans coolness prevailed over him. In spite of

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himself, he grumbled well.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Since there is no other means.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean resumed, the only thing which

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troubles me is what will take place at the cemetery.

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>> Brie Carlisle: That is the very point that is not troublesome,

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exclaimed Fauchelevert. If you are sure of coming out of

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the coffin, all right. I am sure of getting you out of the

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grave. A gravedigger is a drunkard and a

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friend of mine. He is father Mestine, an

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old fellow of the old school. The gravedigger

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puts the corpses in the grave, and I put the gravedigger in my

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pocket. I will tell you what will take place.

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They will arrive a little before dusk, three quarters of an

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hour before the gates of the cemetery are closed. The

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hearse will drive directly up to the grave. I shall

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follow. That is my business. I shall

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have a hammer, a chisel, and some pincers in my

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pocket. The hearse halts. The undertakers men

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gnaw a rope around your coffin and lower you down. The

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priest says the prayers, makes a sign of the cross,

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sprinkles the holy water, and takes his departure.

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I am left alone with Father mestien.

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He is my friend, I tell you one of two things will

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happen. He will either be sober or he will not be

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sober. If he is not drunk, I shall say to him,

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come and drink about. While the ban kuing, the good

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quince, is open, I carry him off, I

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get him drunk. It does not take long to make Father Messiaen

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drunk. He always has the beginning of it about him.

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I lay him under the table, I take his card so that I can get

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into the cemetery again, and I return without

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him. Then you have no longer anyone but me to deal

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with. If he is drunk, I shall say to him, be

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off. I will do your work for you. Off he goes

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and I drag you out of the hole.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Jean Valjean held out his hand and Fauchelevert

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precipitated himself upon it with the touching effusion of a

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peasant.

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>> Brie Carlisle: That is settled, father fochle vert.

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>> Brie Carlisle: All will go well provided nothing goes

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wrong, thought Fauchelevert. In that case,

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it would be terrible.

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

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>> Brie Carlisle: Time books today while we read a.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Bite of one of your favorite classics.

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Again, my name is Brie Carlisle

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and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next

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bite of Le Miserable.

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

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newsletter@byteoutimebooks.com and

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

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or our website, byteadatimebooks.com

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for the rest of the links for our show. Wed love

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to hear from you on social media as well.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Many adventures and

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mountains we can climb

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take your word forward, line by

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line, one bite at a time.

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