One winter's evening, a toothless woman with a grey face and flowers in her hair was arrested for attacking a man in the street. She was taken to the police station, where Inspector Javert, the chief of police, sent her to prison for six months.

'Please, M. Javert.' The woman fell to her knees. 'I owe a hundred francs. If I don't pay, my little girl will lose her home and be thrown out on to the streets. Please don't send me to prison.'

Javert listened to her coldly, then ordered a policeman to take her away. While the policeman was trying to drag her to her feet, however, a voice from the shadows said, 'One moment please.'

Javert looked up and saw Monsieur Madeleine, one of the most important people in the town.

M. Madeleine had arrived mysteriously in Montreuil one December evening in 1815. He had no money but he had a revolutionary idea: he knew a cheap and efficient method of manufacturing glass. Within a few months of his arrival, thanks to his new idea, the glass-making factory in Montreuil was making enormous profits. With the money he made, M. Madeleine built two new factories, which provided the town with hundreds of new jobs. He became a very wealthy man but lived a simple life, using most of his money to build new hospitals and schools. He was so popular that, in 1820, the townspeople elected him mayor of Montreuil.

There was one man, however, who did not like M. Madeleine. This was the chief of police, Inspector Javert.

He had always been suspicious of M. Madeleine, and was sure that he had seen him somewhere before, many years earlier. But he kept his suspicions to himself, not daring to say what he really believed: that M. Madeleine was, in fact, a dangerous criminal with a terrible past.

Now, years later, M. Madeleine was in the police station, trying to save Fantine from prison. Fantine, however, was not grateful. In fact, when she saw who it was, she spat at him.

'You own the factory where I used to work!' she shouted at him. 'I lost my job because of you. Now I've become a bad woman, but what choice did I have? I'll never get my daughter back if I don't make money.'

The mayor turned to Inspector Javert and said, in a soft, firm voice, 'This woman must be released.'

'That's impossible,' Javert replied. 'She attacked a man in the street, a respectable citizen. And now I've just seen her spit at you, the mayor of our town. A woman like this deserves to be punished.'