"Enough, Javert; after all, these details interest me but very slightly; we are losing our time, and have a deal of work before us. Javert, you will go at one to Mother Busaupied, who sells vegetables at the corner of the Rue St. Saulve, and tell her to take out a summons against Pierre the carter; he is a brutal fellow, who almost drove over this woman and her child, and he must be punished. You will then go to M. Charcillay in the Rue Champigny; he complains that there is a gutter next door which leaks, and is shaking the foundation of his house. But I am giving you a deal to do, and I think you said you were going away. Did you not state you were going to Arras on this matter in a week or ten days?" "Sooner than that, sir." "On what day, then?" "I fancied I told you that the trial comes off to-morrow, and that I should start by to-night's coach." "And how long will the trial last?" "A day at the most, and sentence will be passed to-morrow night at the latest. But I shall not wait for that, but return so soon as I have given my evidence." "Very good," said M. Madeleine; and he dismissed Javert with a wave of his hand. But he did not go. "I beg your pardon, M. le Maire," he said. "What's the matter now?" M. Madeleine asked. "I have one thing to remind you of, sir." "What is it?" "That I must be discharged." M. Madeleine rose. "Javert, you are a man of honor, and I esteem you; you exaggerate your fault, and besides, it is another insult which concerns me. Javert, you are worthy of rising, not of sinking, and I insist on your keeping your situation." Javert looked at M. Madeleine with his bright eyes, in which it seemed as if his unenlightened but rigid and chaste conscience could be seen, and he said quietly,-- "M. le Maire, I cannot allow it." "I repeat," M. Madeleine replied, "that the affair concerns myself." But Javert, only attending to his own thoughts, continued,--