ber in the galleys. He was called 9,430.

However, and we will mention it at once in order that we may not be
obliged to recur to the subject, the prosperity of M. sur M. vanished
with M. Madeleine; all that he had foreseen during his night of fever
and hesitation was realized; lacking him, there actually was a soul
lacking. After this fall, there took place at M. sur M. that egotistical
division of great existences which have fallen, that fatal dismemberment
of flourishing things which is accomplished every day, obscurely, in
the human community, and which history has noted only once, because it
occurred after the death of Alexander. Lieutenants are crowned kings;
superintendents improvise manufacturers out of themselves. Envious
rivalries arose. M. Madeleine's vast workshops were shut; his buildings
fell to ruin, his workmen were scattered. Some of them quitted the
country, others abandoned the trade. Thenceforth, everything was done
on a small scale, instead of on a grand scale; for lucre instead of
the general good. There was no longer a centre; everywhere there
was competition and animosity. M. Madeleine had reigned over all and
directed all. No sooner had he fallen, than each pulled things to
himself; the spirit of combat succeeded to the spirit of organization,
bitterness to cordiality, hatred of one another to the benevolence of
the founder towards all; the threads which M. Madeleine had set were
tangled and broken, the methods were adulterated, the products were
debased, confidence was killed; the market diminished, for lack of
orders; salaries were reduced, the workshops stood still, bankruptcy
arrived. And then there was nothing more for the poor. All had vanished.

The state itself perceived that some one had been crushed somewhere.
Less than four years after the judgment of the Court of Assizes
establishing the identity of Jean Valjean and M. Madeleine, for the
benefit of the galleys, the cost of collecting taxes had doubled in the
arrondissement of M. sur M.; and M. de Villele called attention to the
fact in the rostrum, in the month of February, 1827.

CHAPTER II--IN WHICH THE READER WILL PERUSE TWO VERSES, WHICH ARE OF THE
DEVIL'S COMPOSITION, POSSIBLY

Before proceeding further, it will be to the purpose to narrate in some
detail, a singular occurrence which took place at about the same epoch,
in Montfermeil, and which is not lacking in coincidence with certain
conjectures of the indictment.