On the following day the Toulon newspaper printed these lines:⁠—

“ Nov. 17, 1823. Yesterday, a convict belonging to the detachment on board of the Orion , on his return from rendering assistance to a sailor, fell into the sea and was drowned. The body has not yet been found; it is supposed that it is entangled among the piles of the Arsenal point: this man was committed under the number 9,430, and his name was Jean Valjean.”