Fauchelevent had dislocated his kneepan in his fall. Father Madeleine
had him conveyed to an infirmary which he had established for his
workmen in the factory building itself, and which was served by two
sisters of charity. On the following morning the old man found a
thousand-franc bank-note on his night-stand, with these words in Father
Madeleine’s writing: _“I purchase your horse and cart.”_ The cart was
broken, and the horse was dead. Fauchelevent recovered, but his knee
remained stiff. M. Madeleine, on the recommendation of the sisters of
charity and of his priest, got the good man a place as gardener in a
female convent in the Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris.
Some time afterwards, M. Madeleine was appointed mayor. The first time
that Javert beheld M. Madeleine clothed in the scarf which gave him
authority over the town, he felt the sort of shudder which a watch-dog
might experience on smelling a wolf in his master’s clothes. From that
time forth he avoided him as much as he possibly could. When the
requirements of the service imperatively demanded it, and he could not
do otherwise than meet the mayor, he addressed him with profound
respect.
This prosperity created at M. sur M. by Father Madeleine had, besides
the visible signs which we have mentioned, another symptom which was
nonetheless significant for not being visible. This never deceives.
When the population suffers, when work is lacking, when there is no
commerce, the tax-payer resists imposts through penury, he exhausts and
oversteps his respite, and the state expends a great deal of money in
the charges for compelling and collection. When work is abundant, when
the country is rich and happy, the taxes are paid easily and cost the
state nothing. It may be said, that there is one infallible thermometer
of the public misery and riches,—the cost of collecting the taxes. In
the course of seven years the expense of collecting the taxes had
diminished three-fourths in the arrondissement of M. sur M., and this
led to this arrondissement being frequently cited from all the rest by
M. de Villèle, then Minister of Finance.
Such was the condition of the country when Fantine returned thither. No
one remembered her. Fortunately, the door of M. Madeleine’s factory was
like the face of a friend. She presented herself there, and was
admitted to the women’s workroom. The trade was entirely new to
Fantine; she could not be very skilful at it, and she therefore earned
but little by her day’s work; but it was sufficient; the problem was
solved; she was earning her living.