Valjean and Cosette take up residence in an old dilapidated house near the old quarter of the horse market in Paris. There the two become happily content and attached to each other, having contact with none other than the landlady who does their cooking, cleaning and marketing. Valjean goes out walking sometimes in the evening and is occasionally handed a coin by some passerby who takes him for a beggar. When this happens, he finds someone else who actually is a beggar and gives the money away; thus he becomes known as the beggar who gives alms.
The landlady discovers that there is much more to Valjean than she had
thought when he asks her to change a thousand franc bill for him. Later
in the day when Valjean is out sawing wood in his shirt-sleeves, the woman
has opportunity to examine his yellow coat. She finds that the linking
is padded with money and that the pockets are filled with a variety of
things that could be called survival tools. Apparently she betrays Valjean,
for a few days later another person takes up residence in the Gorbeau
house-a person who seems to be watching Valjean. Valjean becomes suspicious,
waits until nightfall and leaves the building with Cosette.
Unwittingly, Valjean's own generous nature has aroused the suspicions of those around him. He is so bent on giving a handout to those in need wherever he finds them, and yet he has the appearance of a beggar himself. The association with Cosette also awakens feelings of fatherly love within him. We are told that he had never loved anything and that for 25 years, he had been alone in the world. Valjean is 55 at this point while Cosette is 8. We are told that the vision of her was a second white vision. The bishop had provided the first and had been responsible for the awakening of virtue, but Cosette evoked the dawn of love. He teaches her to read and talks to her of her mother. She calls him Father and knows him by no other name.
It is interesting and perhaps a little irritating that the narrator
seems to buy into the legal opinion of the day in referring to Valjean
as having had evil ways. He speculates that the entry of Cosette into
his life was necessary to keep him from reverting back to evil ways.
Valjean had been able to see the social miseries from a different perspective;
we are told the new waves of bitterness, once he had returned to the galleys,
had overwhelmed him, and that he might have fallen back onto evil. Yet
it is not truly clear that he had ever done anything that was actually
evil. Indeed, he had returned to prison for doing something good.
Valjean and Cosette work their way through the streets of London, turning and dodging as often as possible as Valjean attempts to elude his pursuers. At one point, he comes upon an open square and spots Javert with three other men. His suspicions that they are chasing him are confirmed. He crosses a bridge at Austerlitz, but the men are closing in on him. Even the darkest parts of the city have sentries posted. At last he finds a wall and some rope. He scales the wall, pulls Cosette up and drops to the ground behind it just in time to avoid the police.
Valjean has arrived at the Petit Picpus. He finds shelter with Fauchelevant, the old man he had rescued from the cart years before when he had been known as Father Madeleine. Fauchelevant recognizes him and the two catch up on old times, at least to the extent that Valjean is willing to reveal.
The narrator digresses a bit to explain how Javert lost track of Valjean. After escaping from the boat, Valjean had been pronounced dead and Javert forgot about him for a time. However, the name resurfaced when the Thenardiers caused a temporary stir with the report that Cosette, the daughter of Fantine, had been kidnapped. Later Thenardier thinks better of calling that much attention to himself and denies that he ever made the charge. Instead, he claims that the child's grandfather had come for her.
A few months later, Javert begins hearing things about a strange man
and child who live in the Gorbeau House. Even when he sees Valjean, he
isn't at first convinced. When he finally makes sure of his unwilling
challenger's identity, he pulls in several other police with whom he discusses
the case under the broad light of the moon. He loses Valjean because he
thinks he has the whole area covered, and therefore takes plenty of time.
It is as if he is making a game of poking into every open doorway and
narrow alley, assuming that Valjean ultimately has no place to escape.
Thus Valjean escapes into the garden of the convent.
None needed
The story of the Convent. It is an ancient order known as the Benardines of the Obedience of Martin Vega. The order of nuns was known as the most severe, second only to the Carmelites. They dressed in severe and extremely uncomfortable haircloth chemises that caused blisters and fevers. They denied themselves all meat, any association with men-including their own priest, and performed extreme prayer rituals.
In spite of the self-imposed restrictions of the nuns, they maintain
a school for girls which seems quite tolerant in spite of the rules. The
girls find ways to have little pleasures for themselves, while the nuns
appear to look the other way. The hope of the sisters is that the girls
will eventually join the order.
None needed
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
>.