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nydus/Les MisérablesPublic

An escaped convict steals two candlesticks and uses the proceeds to redeem himself and become an honest man.

Page 1328 of 2242
Table of Contents

Book II

the hall-lamp. The guardian entered, Brujon was put in a solitary cell for a month, but they were not able to seize what he had written. The police learned nothing further about it.

What is certain is, that on the following morning, a “postilion” was flung from the Charlemagne yard into the Lions’ Ditch, over the five-story building which separated the two courtyards.

What prisoners call a “postilion” is a pallet of bread artistically moulded, which is sent “into Ireland,” that is to say, over the roofs of a prison, from one courtyard to another. Etymology: over England; from one land to another; “into Ireland.” This little pellet falls in the yard. The man who picks it up opens it and finds in it a note addressed to some prisoner in that yard. If it is a prisoner who finds the treasure, he forwards the note to its destination; if it is a keeper, or one of the prisoners secretly sold who are called “sheep” in prisons and “foxes” in the galleys, the note is taken to the office and handed over to the police.

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