On his arrival at Montreuil-sur-Mer he had only the garments, the appearance, and the language of a workingman.

It appears that on the very day when he made his obscure entry into the little town of Montreuil-sur-Mer, just at nightfall, on a December evening, knapsack on back and thorn club in hand, a large fire had broken out in the town-hall. This man had rushed into the flames and saved, at the risk of his own life, two children who belonged to the captain of the gendarmerie; this is why they had forgotten to ask him for his passport. Afterwards they had learned his name. He was called Father Madeleine.

Madeleine

He was a man about fifty years of age, who had a preoccupied air, and who was good. That was all that could be said about him.