Page 962 - les-miserables

The whole of this adventure increased the importance of
good, old Fauchelevent; he won a triple success; in the eyes
of Jean Valjean, whom he had saved and sheltered; in those
of grave-digger Gribier, who said to himself: ‘He spared me
that fine”; with the convent, which, being enabled, thanks
to him, to retain the coffin of Mother Crucifixion under the
altar, eluded Caesar and satisfied God. There was a coffin
containing a body in the Petit-Picpus, and a coffin without a
body in the Vaugirard cemetery, public order had no doubt
been deeply disturbed thereby, but no one was aware of it.
As for the convent, its gratitude to Fauchelevent was very
great. Fauchelevent became the best of servitors and the
most precious of gardeners. Upon the occasion of the arch-
bishop’s next visit, the prioress recounted the affair to his
Grace, making something of a confession at the same time,
and yet boasting of her deed. On leaving the convent, the
archbishop mentioned it with approval, and in a whisper to
M. de Latil, Monsieur’s confessor, afterwards Archbishop of
Reims and Cardinal. This admiration for Fauchelevent be-
came widespread, for it made its way to Rome. We have seen
a note addressed by the then reigning Pope, Leo XII., to one
of his relatives, a Monsignor in the Nuncio’s establishment in
Paris, and bearing, like himself, the name of Della Genga; it
contained these lines: ‘It appears that there is in a convent in
Paris an excellent gardener, who is also a holy man, named
Fauvent.’ Nothing of this triumph reached Fauchelevent in
his hut; he went on grafting, weeding, and covering up his
melon beds, without in the least suspecting his excellences
and his sanctity. Neither did he suspect his glory, any more

962 Les Miserables