istically
moulded, which is sent into Ireland, that is to say, over the roofs of a
prison, from one courtyard to another. Etymology: over England; from one
land to another; into Ireland. This little pellet falls in the yard. The
man who picks it up opens it and finds in it a note addressed to some
prisoner in that yard. If it is a prisoner who finds the treasure, he
forwards the note to its destination; if it is a keeper, or one of the
prisoners secretly sold who are called sheep in prisons and foxes in the
galleys, the note is taken to the office and handed over to the police.

On this occasion, the postilion reached its address, although the person
to whom it was addressed was, at that moment, in solitary confinement.
This person was no other than Babet, one of the four heads of Patron
Minette.

The postilion contained a roll of paper on which only these two lines
were written:--

"Babet. There is an affair in the Rue Plumet. A gate on a garden."

This is what Brujon had written the night before.

In spite of male and female searchers, Babet managed to pass the note on
from La Force to the Salpetriere, to a "good friend" whom he had and who
was shut up there. This woman in turn transmitted the note to another
woman of her acquaintance, a certain Magnon, who was strongly suspected
by the police, though not yet arrested. This Magnon, whose name the
reader has already seen, had relations with the Thenardier, which will
be described in detail later on, and she could, by going to see Eponine,
serve as a bridge between the Salpetriere and Les Madelonettes.

It happened, that at precisely that moment, as proofs were wanting
in the investigation directed against Thenardier in the matter of his
daughters, Eponine and Azelma were released. When Eponine came out,
Magnon, who was watching the gate of the Madelonettes, handed her
Brujon's note to Babet, charging her to look into the matter.

Eponine went to the Rue Plumet, recognized the gate and the garden,
observed the house, spied, lurked, and, a few days later, brought to
Magnon, who delivers in the Rue Clocheperce, a biscuit, which Magnon
transmitted to Babet's mistress in the Salpetriere. A biscuit, in the
shady symbolism of prisons, signifies: Nothing to be done.

So that in less than a week from that time, as Brujon and Babet met in
the circle of La Force, the one on his way to the examination, the other
on his way from it:--

"Well?" asked Brujon, "the Rue P.?"