Jean Valjean seized the silver plate-basket which stood in the bishop's room, put the silver into his knapsack, and fled out of the house. In the morning, while the bishop was breakfasting, the gendarmes brought in Jean Valjean. The sergeant explained that they had met him running away, and had arrested him, because of the silver they found on him. "I gave you the candlesticks, too!" said the bishop; "they are silver. Why did not you take them with the rest of the plate?" Then, turning to the gendarmes, "It is a mistake." "We are to let him go?" said the sergeant. "Certainly," said the bishop. The gendarmes retired. "My friend," said the bishop to Jean Valjean, "here are your candlesticks. Take them with you." He added in a low voice, "Never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man. My brother, you belong no longer to evil, but to good." Jean Valjean never remembered having promised anything. He left the bishop's house and the town dazed and stupefied. It was a new world he had come into. He walked on for miles, and then sat down by the roadside to think. Presently a small Savoyard boy passed him, and as he passed dropped a two-franc piece on the ground. Jean Valjean placed his foot upon it. In vain the boy prayed him for the coin. Jean Valjean sat motionless, deep in thought. Only when the boy had gone on, in despair, did Jean Valjean wake from his reverie. He shouted out, "Little Gervais, little Gervais!" for the boy had told him his name. The lad was out of sight and hearing, and no answer came. The enormity of his crime came home to him, and Jean Valjean fell on the ground, and for the first time in nineteen years he wept. _II.--Father Madeleine_ On a certain December night in 1815 a stranger entered the town of M----, at the very time when a great fire had just broken out in the town hall. This man at once rushed into the flames, and at the risk of his own life saved the two children of the captain of gendarmes. In consequence of this act no one thought of asking for his passport. The stranger settled in the town; by a happy invention he improved the manufacture of the black beads, the chief industry of M----, and in three years, from a very small capital, he became a rich man, and brought prosperity to the place. In 1820, Father Madeleine, for so the stranger was called, was made Mayor of M---- by unanimous request, an honour he had declined the previous year. Before he came everything was languishing in the town, and now, a few years later, there was healthy life for all. Father Madeleine employed everybody who came to him. The only condition he made was--honesty. From the men he expected good-will, from the women, purity.