In every small city, there are young men with too much money and too little to do. Monsieur Bamatabois was one of these idle young men. One evening that winter he stood outside a cafe, smoking and watching a poor young woman walk up and down the street. He was wrapped warmly in a cloak while she wore only a dress. Every time she passed, he called out insults.
"How ugly you are! Do you know you’ve lost your teeth?"
The woman ignored him and continued to pace the sidewalk. Her failure to respond annoyed Bamatabois. So the next time she passed, he grabbed a handful of snow and tossed it down the back of her dress.
"Why, you . . ." The woman swore at Bamatabois and rushed to attack him.
A crowd began to gather. Bamatabois defended himself as the woman scratched his face and kicked his shins. The woman was Fantine.
Suddenly a tall man advanced from the crowd, seized her by the waist, and said, "You’re under arrest for assault."
Fantine looked up and stopped screaming at once. She shuddered with terror because she knew that he was a policeman. It was Javert. Meanwhile Bamatabois used that moment to slip away. Javert quickly broke up the crowd and walked toward the police station, dragging Fantine behind him.
At the station Javert wrote out the charges against her. When he finished writing, he said to the guard, "Take this woman to jail. She has attacked an honest citizen." Then, turning to Fantine, he said, "You’re sentenced to six months."
"No!" screamed Fantine. "What will happen to my child? Cosette will be thrown into the street. I was wrong to attack the gentleman and ruin his hat. Where is he? I want to beg his pardon. Oh, please have pity on me!"
"It’s too late for that," said Javert. "Take her away!"
"Just a moment!" A man had entered the room while Fantine was pleading with Javert.
Javert turned around. "Yes, Mayor Madeleine?"
"So you are the mayor!" hissed Fantine, and she spat in his face.
The mayor wiped his face and said to Javert, "Set this woman free."
Javert could not believe what he was hearing, and neither could Fantine.
"This is the same mayor who had me fired from his factory!" cried Fantine. "And all because he listened to the gossip of old women."
"I can’t let her go," said Javert. "She has insulted you and attacked a citizen."
"I was passing down the street when you arrested her," said the mayor. "I talked to some people in the crowd. She didn’t do anything wrong. It was Bamatabois who attacked her."
Javert was not moved. "I have the authority here, and I say she goes to jail."
"Perhaps you should check the law regarding illegal imprisonment," said Madeleine.
Javert glared at him, but the mayor stared right back.
"Get out!" said the mayor to Javert.
Javert looked startled, but recovered quickly. He bowed to the mayor and left the police station. Later that night Javert sat down and wrote a letter to the chief of police in Paris.
Meanwhile Fantine had stood by the door and watched Javert leave. She did not know what to think. The man who had saved her was none other than Mayor Madeleine, the person she blamed for all her woes. At the very moment when she had insulted him, he had rescued her. She quickly felt her hatred melting away, replaced by feelings of warmth toward him.
Madeleine turned to her and said, "I had no idea that you had left my factory. Why didn’t you come to me for help?"
"Because the supervisor told me that you were the one who wanted me fired."
"Oh, you poor woman!" Madeleine’s eyes filled with tears. "I’ll have your child brought here, or pay for you to go to her. You shall live here, or in Paris, or wherever you like. You shall do no more work unless you want to. I’ll give you all the money you need, and I’ll pay all your debts. I’ll be responsible for you and your child from now on."
This was more than Fantine could bear. To have Cosette by her side! To live free from debt and worry! She was unable to say anything to Mayor Madeleine and could only sob. Her legs gave way, and she sank to her knees before the mayor. She reached out to kiss his hand, and then she fainted.
The mayor had Fantine taken to the infirmary in his house. A violent fever came over her, and she spent part of the night in delirious ravings. Finally she fell asleep. When she awoke the next morning, the mayor was praying by her bedside.
That day he wrote to the Thenardiers. Fantine owed them more than one hundred francs; Madeleine sent three hundred. He told them to bring Cosette to Fantine, who was sick and desperately wanted her child. His letter astonished Monsieur Thenardier.
"Look at this!" Thenardier said to his wife. "Some silly fellow must have fallen in love with Fantine."
Monsieur Thenardier replied to the mayor with a request for more money. He included bills from the doctor and the pharmacy. The bills were real, but they were for Eponine and Azelma. Thenardier merely substituted Cosette’s name for theirs.
The mayor immediately sent the money and wrote, "Bring Cosette quickly."
"We aren’t letting go of this girl," said Thenardier to his wife when he read that note. "She’s a gold mine."
Meanwhile Fantine had not recovered and was still in the infirmary. The mayor visited her twice a day, and each time she asked, "Shall I see Cosette soon?"
He replied, "Perhaps tomorrow. I expect her at any moment."
And Fantine’s pale face brightened. "Oh, how happy I’ll be!"
But her condition was growing worse from week to week. One day the doctor listened to her lungs. He shook his head and then took the mayor aside for a private conversation.
"Doesn’t Fantine have a daughter that she’s eager to see?" asked the doctor.
"Yes," replied the mayor.
"Then you’d better get the child here soon because Fantine is going to die."
Madeleine shuddered and went back into Fantine’s room.
"What did the doctor say?" asked Fantine.
The mayor tried to smile. "He told us to bring Cosette at once because that will make you well."
"Oh, he’s right!" she cried. "But what’s the matter with the Thenardiers? Why are they keeping her from me?"
The mayor did not tell her that they were full of excuses. They said that Cosette was too fragile to travel in the winter, and that they were still adding up the amount of money they had spent on her.
"I will send someone for Cosette," said the mayor to Fantine. "If necessary, I will go myself."
He wrote out a letter for Fantine, which she signed:
Dear Monsieur Thenardier: You will deliver Cosette to the bearer of this letter. He will pay all the money that I owe you. Sincerely, Fantine