However that may be, the said Jean Valjean has just been brought before the Assizes of the Department of the Var as accused of highway robbery accompanied with violence, about eight years ago, on the person of one of those honest children who, as the patriarch of Ferney has said, in immortal verse,

“… Arrive from Savoy every year,

And who, with gentle hands, do clear

Those long canals choked up with soot.”

“… Arrive from Savoy every year, And who, with gentle hands, do clear Those long canals choked up with soot.”