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One morning the mayor was walking down a muddy street when he saw a crowd round an old man called Fauchelevent , who was lying in the mud under his own cart . The horse had fallen and broken both its legs , and the heavy cart had come down on the old man’s chest . The old man had once been rich , and he did not like the mayor , because he was jealous of his success . Now he was crying out with pain , and the cart was slowly sinking deeper into the mud , so that in a few minutes it would break his ribs . “ Is there no jack to lift the cart ? ” cried the mayor . “ Someone has gone to get one , ” said a man . “ But it will take a quarter of an hour . ” “ That is too long ! Listen . There is still room under the cart for a man to crawl in and lift it with his back . Who will do it ? I will give five louis ! ” Nobody moved . Javert , who had arrived a few moments earlier , spoke in his cold voice . “ Monsieur Mayor , I have only known one man who was strong enough to do what you are asking . He was a convict in the galleys at Toulon . ” The mayor turned pale and looked at Javert , who was watching him , and then at the old man in the mud . “ It is crushing me ! ” screamed the old man . “ My chest is breaking ! ” The mayor looked round at the crowd again , and then , without a word , he fell to his knees and crawled under the cart . For a terrible moment nothing happened . Then , slowly , the great wheels began to rise out of the mud . The cart went up and up , and the men rushed forward and pulled the old man out . The mayor came out after him , covered in mud and sweat , and knelt beside him , and the old man kissed his hands and called him his saviour . Fauchelevent’s knee had been broken , and he could no longer work as a carter , so the mayor paid for his hospital , bought the dead horse and the cart , and later found him work as a gardener with some nuns in a convent in Paris . Javert said nothing more . But from that day he watched the mayor more closely than ever . V . Fantine When Fantine came back to Montreuil - sur - Mer , nobody remembered her . She went to the mayor’s factory and got work in the women’s workshop . For the first time in her life she was earning money by her own work , and she was proud of it . She rented a small room and bought a mirror . She did not tell anyone that she had a child , but she wrote to the Thénardiers often , and she paid them every month . She could not write well , so she asked a public letter writer to write her letters for her , and this was her mistake . The other women in the workshop began to whisper : why did Fantine send so many letters to the same village , and why was she so happy ? One of them , a jealous and curious woman , went all the way to Montfermeil herself , spoke to the Thénardiers and came back with the whole story . Fantine had a child , and she had never been married .
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