Page 46 - les-miserables

CHAPTER VII

CRAVATTE

It is here that a fact falls naturally into place, which we
must not omit, because it is one of the sort which show us
best what sort of a man the Bishop of D—— was.
After the destruction of the band of Gaspard Bes, who
had infested the gorges of Ollioules, one of his lieutenants,
Cravatte, took refuge in the mountains. He concealed him-
self for some time with his bandits, the remnant of Gaspard
Bes’s troop, in the county of Nice; then he made his way to
Piedmont, and suddenly reappeared in France, in the vi-
cinity of Barcelonette. He was first seen at Jauziers, then at
Tuiles. He hid himself in the caverns of the Joug-de-l’Aigle,
and thence he descended towards the hamlets and villages
through the ravines of Ubaye and Ubayette.
He even pushed as far as Embrun, entered the cathedral
one night, and despoiled the sacristy. His highway robber-
ies laid waste the country-side. The gendarmes were set on
his track, but in vain. He always escaped; sometimes he re-
sisted by main force. He was a bold wretch. In the midst of
all this terror the Bishop arrived. He was making his circuit
to Chastelar. The mayor came to meet him, and urged him

46 Les Miserables