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CHAPTER I
WHICH TREATS OF
THE MANNER OF
ENTERING A CONVENT
It was into this house that Jean Valjean had, as Fauchelev-
ent expressed it, ‘fallen from the sky.’
He had scaled the wall of the garden which formed the
angle of the Rue Polonceau. That hymn of the angels which
he had heard in the middle of the night, was the nuns chant-
ing matins; that hall, of which he had caught a glimpse in
the gloom, was the chapel. That phantom which he had seen
stretched on the ground was the sister who was making
reparation; that bell, the sound of which had so strangely
surprised him, was the gardener’s bell attached to the knee
of Father Fauchelevent.
Cosette once put to bed, Jean Valjean and Fauchelevent
had, as we have already seen, supped on a glass of wine and
a bit of cheese before a good, crackling fire; then, the only
bed in the hut being occupied by Cosette, each threw him-
self on a truss of straw.