In the meantime Thénardier did not “let go of the child,” and gave a hundred insufficient reasons for it. Cosette was not quite well enough to take a journey in the winter. And then, there still remained some petty but pressing debts in the neighborhood, and they were collecting the bills for them, etc. , etc.

“I shall send someone to fetch Cosette!” said Father Madeleine. “If necessary, I will go myself.”

He wrote the following letter to Fantine’s dictation, and made her sign it:⁠—