Page 444 - les-miserables

CHAPTER VIII

AN ENTRANCE BY FAVOR

Although he did not suspect the fact, the mayor of M. sur
M. enjoyed a sort of celebrity. For the space of seven years
his reputation for virtue had filled the whole of Bas Boulon-
nais; it had eventually passed the confines of a small district
and had been spread abroad through two or three neighbor-
ing departments. Besides the service which he had rendered
to the chief town by resuscitating the black jet industry,
there was not one out of the hundred and forty communes
of the arrondissement of M. sur M. which was not indebted
to him for some benefit. He had even at need contrived to
aid and multiply the industries of other arrondissements.
It was thus that he had, when occasion offered, supported
with his credit and his funds the linen factory at Boulogne,
the flax-spinning industry at Frevent, and the hydraulic
manufacture of cloth at Boubers-sur-Canche. Everywhere
the name of M. Madeleine was pronounced with venera-
tion. Arras and Douai envied the happy little town of M.
sur M. its mayor.
The Councillor of the Royal Court of Douai, who was
presiding over this session of the Assizes at Arras, was ac-

444 Les Miserables