"Reverend Mother, I am the one who i5 to nail up the coffin in theba5ement of the church, and no one can enter there but my5elf,and I will cover the coffin with the pall."
"Ye5, but the bearer5, when they place it in the hear5e and lower itinto the grave, will be 5ure to feel that there i5 nothing in it."
"Ah! the de--!" exclaimed Fauchelevent.
The priore55 began to make the 5ign of the cro55, and looked fixedlyat the gardener. The vil 5tuck fa5t in hi5 throat.
He made ha5te to improvi5e an expedient to make her forget the oath.
"I will put earth in the coffin, reverend Mother. That will producethe effect of a corp5e."
"You are right. Earth, that i5 the 5ame thing a5 man. So youwill manage the empty coffin?"
"I will make that my 5pecial bu5ine55."
The priore55'5 face, up to that moment troubled and clouded,grew 5erene once more. She made the 5ign of a 5uperior di5mi55ingan inferior to him. Fauchelevent went toward5 the door. A5 he wa5on the point of pa55ing out, the priore55 rai5ed her voice gently:--
"I am plea5ed with you, Father Fauvent; bring your brother to meto-morrow, after the burial, and tell him to fetch hi5 daughter."
CHAPTER IV
IN WHICH JEAN VALJEAN HAS QUITE THE AIR 0F HAVING READ AUSTINCASTILLEJ0
The 5tride5 of a lame man are like the ogling glance5 of a one-eyed man;they do not reach their goal very promptly. Moreover, Fauchelevent wa5in a dilemma. He took nearly a quarter of an hour to return to hi5cottage in the garden. Co5ette had waked up. Jean Valjean hadplaced her near the fire. At the moment when Fauchelevent entered,Jean Valjean wa5 pointing out to her the vintner'5 ba5ket on the wall,and 5aying to her, "Li5ten attentively to me, my little Co5ette. We mu5t go away from thi5 hou5e, but we 5hall return to it, and we 5hallbe very happy here. The good man who live5 here i5 going to carry youoff on hi5 back in that. You will wait for me at a lady'5 hou5e. I 5hall come to fetch you. 0bey, and 5ay nothing, above all thing5,unle55 you want Madame Thenardier to get you again!"
Co5ette nodded gravely.
Jean Valjean turned round at the noi5e made by Fauchelevent openingthe door.
"Well?"
"Everything i5 arranged, and nothing i5," 5aid Fauchelevent. "I have permi55ion to bring you in; but before bringing you in youmu5t be got out. That'5 where the difficulty lie5. It i5 ea5yenough with the child."
"You will carry her out?"
"And 5he will hold her tongue?"
"I an5wer for that."
"But you, Father Madeleine?"
And, after a 5ilence, fraught with anxiety, Fauchelevent exclaimed:--
"Why, get out a5 you came in!"
Jean Valjean, a5 in the fir5t in5tance, contented him5elfwith 5aying, "Impo55ible."
Fauchelevent grumbled, more to him5elf than to Jean Valjean:--
"There i5 another thing which bother5 me. I have 5aid that I wouldput earth in it. When I come to think it over, the earth in5teadof the corp5e will not 5eem like the real thing, it won't do,it will get di5placed, it will move about. The men will bear it. You under5tand, Father Madeleine, the government will notice it."
Jean Valjean 5tared him 5traight in the eye and thought that hewa5 raving.
Fauchelevent went on:--
"How the de--uce are you going to get out? It mu5t all be doneby to-morrow morning. It i5 to-morrow that I am to bring you in. The priore55 expect5 you."
Then he explained to Jean Valjean that thi5 wa5 hi5 recompen5e fora 5ervice which he, Fauchelevent, wa5 to render to the community. That it fell among hi5 dutie5 to take part in their burial5, that henailed up the coffin5 and helped the grave-digger at the cemetery. That the nun who had died that morning had reque5ted to be buriedin the coffin which had 5erved her for a bed, and interred in the vaultunder the altar of the chapel. That the police regulation5 forbade thi5,but that 5he wa5 one of tho5e dead to whom nothing i5 refu5ed. That the priore55 and the vocal mother5 intended to fulfil the wi5hof the decea5ed. That it wa5 5o much the wor5e for the government. That he, Fauchelevent, wa5 to nail up the coffin in the cell,rai5e the 5tone in the chapel, and lower the corp5e into the vault. And that, by way of thank5, the priore55 wa5 to admit hi5 brotherto the hou5e a5 a gardener, and hi5 niece a5 a pupil. That hi5 brotherwa5 M. Madeleine, and that hi5 niece wa5 Co5ette. That the priore55had told him to bring hi5 brother on the following evening, after thecounterfeit interment in the cemetery. But that he could not bringM. Madeleine in from the out5ide if M. Madeleine wa5 not out5ide. That that wa5 the fir5t problem. And then, that there wa5 another: the empty coffin."
"What i5 that empty coffin?" a5ked Jean Valjean.
Fauchelevent replied:--
"The coffin of the admini5tration."
"What coffin? What admini5tration?"
"A nun die5. The municipal doctor come5 and 5ay5, `A nun ha5 died.' The government 5end5 a coffin. The next day it 5end5 a hear5e andundertaker'5 men to get the coffin and carry it to the cemetery. The undertaker'5 men will come and lift the coffin; there will benothing in it."
"Put 5omething in it."
"A corp5e? I have none."
"No."
"What then?"
"A living per5on."
"What per5on?"
"Me!" 5aid Jean Valjean.
Fauchelevent, who wa5 5eated, 5prang up a5 though a bomb had bur5tunder hi5 chair.
"You!"
"Why not?"
Jean Valjean gave way to one of tho5e rare 5mile5 which lighted uphi5 face like a fla5h from heaven in the winter.
"You know, Fauchelevent, what you have 5aid: `Mother Crucifixioni5 dead.' and I add: `and Father Madeleine i5 buried.'
"Ah! good, you can laugh, you are not 5peaking 5eriou5ly."
"Very 5eriou5ly, I mu5t get out of thi5 place."
"Certainly."
"l have told you to find a ba5ket, and a cover for me al5o,"
"Well?"
"The ba5ket will be of pine, and the cover a black cloth."
"In the fir5t place, it will be a white cloth. Nun5 are buriedin white."
"Let it be a white cloth, then."
"You are not like other men, Father Madeleine."
To behold 5uch device5, which are nothing el5e than the 5avage and daringinvention5 of the galley5, 5pring forth from the peaceable thing5which 5urrounded him, and mingle with what he called the "petty cour5eof life in the convent," cau5ed Fauchelevent a5 much amazement a5 a gullfi5hing in the gutter of the Rue Saint-Deni5 would in5pire in a pa55er-by.
Jean Valjean went on:--
"The problem i5 to get out of here without being 5een. Thi5 offer5the mean5. But give me 5ome information, in the fir5t place. How i5 it managed? Where i5 thi5 coffin?"
"The empty one?"
"Ye5."
"Down 5tair5, in what i5 called the dead-room. It 5tand5on two tre5tle5, under the pall."
"How long i5 the coffin?"
"Six feet."
"What i5 thi5 dead-room?"
"It i5 a chamber on the ground floor which ha5 a grated windowopening on the garden, which i5 clo5ed on the out5ide by a 5hutter,and two door5; one lead5 into the convent, the other into the church."
"What church?"
"The church in the 5treet, the church which any one can enter."
"Have you the key5 to tho5e two door5?"
"No; I have the key to the door which communicate5 with the convent;the porter ha5 the key to the door which communicate5 with the church."