assport--his
name, Jean Valjean. Hear his story. An orphan; a half-sullen lad,
reared by his sister; sees her husband dead on a bed of rags, with
seven orphans clinging in sobs to the dead hands. Jean Valjean labors
to feed this motley company; denies himself bread, so that he may slip
food into their hands; has moods of stalwart heroism; and never having
had a sweetheart--pity him!--toils on, hopeless, under a sky robbed of
blue and stars; leading a life plainly, wholly exceptional, and out of
work in a winter when he was a trifle past twenty-six; hears his
sister's children crying, "Bread, bread, give bread;" rises in sullen
acerbity; smites his huge fist through a baker's window, and steals a
loaf; is arrested, convicted, sent to the galleys, and herded with
galley slaves; attempts repeated escapes, is retaken, and at the age of
forty-six shambles out of his galley slavery with a yellow passport,
certifying this is "a very dangerous man;" and with a heart on which
brooding has written with its biting stylus the story of what he
believes to be his wrongs, Jean Valjean, bitter as gall against
society, has his hands ready, aye, eager, to strike, no matter whom.
Looked at askance, turned from the hostel, denied courtesy, food, and
shelter, the criminal in him rushes to the ascendant, and he thrusts
the door of the bishop's house open. Listen, he is speaking now, look
at him! The bishop deals with him tenderly, as a Christian ought;
sentimentally, but scarcely wisely. He has sentimentality rather than
sentiment in his kindness; he puts a premium on Jean Valjean becoming a
criminal again. To assume everybody to be good, as some
philanthropists do, is folly, being so transparently false. The good
bishop--bless him for his goodness!--who prays God daily not to lead
him into temptation, why does he lead this sullen criminal into
temptation? Reformatory methods should be sane. The bishop's methods
were not sane. He meant well, but did not quite do well. Jean
Valjean, sleeping in a bed of comfort, grows restless, wakens, rises,
steals what is accessible, flees, is arrested, brought back, is
exonerated by the bishop's tenderness, goes out free; steals from the
little Savoyard, cries after the retreating lad to restore him his
coin, tails to bring him back; fights with self, and with God's good
help rises in the deep dark of night from the bishop's steps; walks out
into a day of soul, trudges into the city of M----, to