The History of a Progress in Black Glass Trinkets — Les Misérables

And in the meantime, what has become of that mother who, according to the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? After leaving Cosette with the Thénardiers she has continued her journey and reached her native town. This is 1818. Fantine quitted the province ten years before. The town has changed its aspect. While she has been slowly descending from wretchedness to wretchedness, her native town has prospered.

From time immemorial the special industry here has been the imitation of English jet and the black glass trinkets of Germany. The industry has always vegetated because the raw material was dear. Toward the close of 1815 a stranger established himself and was inspired to substitute gum-lac for resin, and, for bracelets, slides of sheet-iron simply laid together for slides of soldered sheet-iron. This very small change has effected a revolution. The cost of the raw material falls. Manufacture can be better paid; workmanship improved; the selling price lowered while the profit is trebled. Three results ensue from one idea. In less than three years the inventor of this process has become rich, which is good, and has made everyone about him rich, which is better. He is a stranger in the Department. Of his origin, nothing is known. Of the beginning of his career, very little. It is rumoured that he came with a few hundred francs at the most, the garments, the appearance, and the language of a workingman.

On the very day of his obscure entry, just at nightfall, on a December evening, knapsack on back and thorn club in hand, a large fire breaks out in the town-hall. This man rushes into the flames and saves, at the risk of his own life, two children who belong to the captain of the gendarmerie. This is why they forget to ask him for his passport. Afterwards they learn his name. He is called Father Madeleine.