Page 798 - les-miserables

CHAPTER X

WHICH EXPLAINS HOW

JAVERT GOT ON THE SCENT

The events of which we have just beheld the reverse side,
so to speak, had come about in the simplest possible man-
ner.
When Jean Valjean, on the evening of the very day when
Javert had arrested him beside Fantine’s death-bed, had
escaped from the town jail of M. sur M., the police had
supposed that he had betaken himself to Paris. Paris is a
maelstrom where everything is lost, and everything disap-
pears in this belly of the world, as in the belly of the sea. No
forest hides a man as does that crowd. Fugitives of every
sort know this. They go to Paris as to an abyss; there are
gulfs which save. The police know it also, and it is in Paris
that they seek what they have lost elsewhere. They sought
the ex-mayor of M. sur M. Javert was summoned to Paris to
throw light on their researches. Javert had, in fact, rendered
powerful assistance in the recapture of Jean Valjean. Javert’s
zeal and intelligence on that occasion had been remarked
by M. Chabouillet, secretary of the Prefecture under Comte

798 Les Miserables