Chapter 3 Cosette

Monsieur Madeleine is, of course, Jean Valjean. You knew that already. After Digne, he sells the bishop’s silver plates (but keeps the candlesticks). He comes to Montreuil, builds his factory, works hard, is kind to other people … He makes a new, good life, and is true to the Bishop of Digne.
But after Valjean left prison in Toulon, and before he came to Digne, he was hungry. And in a street in Toulon he stole some money from a boy. Just one franc … to buy bread. Because he did this, the law in France says that prisoner Valjean must go back to prison, and stay there for life. He can never be a free man again.
And so we meet Javert. Before Montreuil, he was a prison guard at Toulon. The law is his god, and he hates all criminals. He remembers Jean Valjean, that big strong man, very well. He wants to see him in prison again. And he, Inspector Javert, is going to put him there.
Jean Valjean remembers Javert now. He remembers the cold eyes, the hard voice, the cruel prison guard’s smile. He remembers … and is afraid. He knows that Javert is his enemy for life.
But he remembers Fantine too. He remembers her dying words – Please take care of Cosette, please … How can he leave this little girl, without a mother, without a friend in the world? He must find her – Javert, or no Javert.

Monsieur and Madame Thénardier lived in a village called Montfermeil near Paris. There was no water in the village, and the nearest water was a small river in a wood fifteen minutes’ walk away. People carried the water in buckets to their houses.
Cosette hated that wood. At night, the trees made noises. She was frightened of the noises, frightened of the dark, and with a heavy bucket of water, it was a long walk home.
One dark winter night in 1823, Madame Thénardier sent Cosette out to the river for water. Cosette ran to the river and then, with her heavy bucket of water, she began to walk home. The trees were noisy tonight, whispering and laughing at her, and the little girl began to cry.
‘Oh please God, help me! Please, dear God!’
And suddenly, the bucket was gone. A great hand came down and took it from her. She looked up and saw a big man in an old yellow coat.
Sometimes we know, without words, when something good is happening. The little girl knew that now, and she was not frightened of the big man, not a bit.

The man spoke to her. ‘Child, this is a very heavy bucket. Shall I carry it for you?’
‘Yes, Monsieur.’
‘How old are you?’
‘I’m eight years old, Monsieur.’
‘Where is your mother?’
‘I don’t know,’ said the child. ‘I haven’t got a mother.’
‘What’s your name?’
‘Cosette.’
The big man stopped. He put the bucket down and looked into Cosette’s face.
‘Why are you carrying a heavy bucket of water at this time of night? Who sent you?’
‘Madame Thénardier.’
‘I would like to talk to this Madame Thénardier. Shall we go and see her?’
‘Yes, Monsieur.’
Cosette was not afraid of the tree noises now. This big man, with his gentle voice, was a new and wonderful thing in her life. They walked to the Thénardiers’ house.
‘Please, Monsieur, can I carry the bucket now?’
‘But why?’

‘I can’t ask people for help, Madame says. She hits me when I do that,’ Cosette said. ‘She hits me all the time.’
He gave her the bucket.
The Thénardiers were very surprised to see Cosette’s new friend, this big man in the old yellow coat.
Inside the house, the big man looked at Cosette. He saw her thin clothes, her dirty hair, her big frightened eyes. She was small for her eight years. Her hands were red from kitchen work, and she had no shoes.
‘Why does this child have no shoes on her feet, on this cold winter night?’ he said to Madame Thénardier.
Madame Thénardier looked at Cosette angrily. ‘Go into the kitchen, Cosette. There is work to do. Go!’

‘And who are you?’ Monsieur Thénardier said.
‘I am here for Fantine, the child’s mother,’ said the big man. ‘You don’t need to know my name. Fantine is dead, so you can get no more money from her. Here’ – he put some money on the table – ‘is 1500 francs. Now call the child. I’m taking her away.’

When Jean Valjean and Cosette left Montfermeil, Cosette did not look back. She never wanted to see Madame Thénardier again.
She put her cold little hand into Valjean’s great hand, and looked up into his face. ‘Monsieur,’ she said, ‘can I … can I call you Father?’
Valjean looked down at her big round eyes. ‘Yes,’ he said. He did not know love, he did not understand love, but in that moment, suddenly, he felt a father’s love for this small child.
‘Yes,’ he said again. ‘Yes, you can call me Father. It’s a good name.’
Hand in hand, they walked away on the road to Paris.

In Paris Cosette learnt to laugh, and to sing like a bird, and to be happy. Jean Valjean learnt to be father and mother to this child, and he loved her dearly.
But they lived quietly, moved house often, and only went out at night. Because Javert, too, was in Paris. When Valjean escaped from Montreuil, Javert came to Paris to look for him. He was now an important inspector in the Paris police. Every criminal in Paris was afraid of Inspector Javert.
Once, Valjean saw Javert by the river, and the next day he looked for a new place to live. He found one, behind the high walls of a girls’ school. The school gave Valjean a job as a gardener, and he lived in a little house in the big gardens. Cosette lived in the school. But every day she came to the gardener’s little house for one hour. They talked, and they sang, and they read books. It was the happiest hour in the day for her and for Jean Valjean.
And so the years passed.