Page 275 - les-miserables

an ingenious idea, developed by method and thought, that
he had drawn his own fortune, and the fortune of the whole
countryside.
On his arrival at M. sur M. he had only the garments, the
appearance, and the language of a workingman.
It appears that on the very day when he made his ob-
scure entry into the little town of M. sur M., just at nightfall,
on a December evening, knapsack on back and thorn club
in hand, a large fire had broken out in the town-hall. This
man had rushed into the flames and saved, at the risk of his
own life, two children who belonged to the captain of the
gendarmerie; this is why they had forgotten to ask him for
his passport. Afterwards they had learned his name. He was
called Father Madeleine.

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