Chapter One – Jean Valjean is Gone
Cosette quickly stood and ran to the priest and the nuns of the Convent. Marius kneeled beside Jean Valjean, whispering a prayer. He knows that he owe him a lot, for he saved his life in the Revolt. He ran his hands on Valjean's eyes to carefully close it.
A sudden later, Cosette returned and was sobbing beside a sea of nuns. There were gasps and low cries when they saw Valjean. Though they knew who Valjean was, they didn't forget how good he had become after years of changing. The nuns gathered around Valjean and like Marius, they each offered a prayer for his soul.
While the nuns were praying, Marius bowed down and stood away from the crowd. The figure at the door quickly caught Marius's attention, so he walked near the silhouette and noticed that the man was looking straight at him. The man appeared from the darkness: it was the priest.
The priest looked straight at Marius's eyes. The priest was the one who helped Jean years ago, and he wanted to tell Marius all he knew about Valjean. He wanted to tell about how a thief and prisoner like Valjean changed into a great person and personality. When he was about to tell Marius those things, all that went out from his vocals were "How is Cosette?" and Marius noticed the troubled tone in the priest's voice. He tried to pat the priest's back, but the priest prevented it by smiling sadly. Marius finally answered the question and he told the priest about how Cosette had a hard time breathing (as most of them can see) and moving on. Cosette have been weeping since midnight and it was already three o'clock in the morning. The priest made a coughing sound which Marius thought disturbing. The priest smiled at Marius and left him to join the prayer circle of the nuns.
Of course Cosette stopped weeping after the prayer circle. The nuns comforted her and one of them went inside to call the people from the morgue. They knew it was hard to die outside a hospital because they need to clean the place where the body lay and again make a circle of prayer for the holiness of the place to come back. Or so they've heard.
Jean Valjean's death spread throughout the town quickly – but most people knew Monsieur Madeleine was the one who died, not Valjean. The Thenardiers were rejoiced after hearing the news and told every person they meet on the streets about a man named Jean Valjean and how evil that man was. Mr. Thenardiers was not contented on what they did and also told them that the mayor, Monsieur Madeleine and Jean Valjean were one.
People must have thought that attending an evil man's burial was bad luck. At the first day of Jean's wake, the only people present were Marius, Cosette, and Marius' grandfather. The nuns were of course present, and they sat reverently on the empty chairs of the place.
That night, no one in town dared to stay up at night for they were afraid that Valjean's soul might do harm on them. Marius' grandfather received a note from one of his colleague about a man's burial named Jean Valjean is held by the same time as Monsieur Madeleine's burial and that they are one.
The note was scribbled in printed letters: "MONSIEUR MADELEINE IS DEAD; BURIAL RIGHT NOW. JEAN VALJEAN IS ALSO DEAD. HIS BURIAL IS ALSO TONIGHT. VALJEAN IS AN EVIL THIEF. MADELEINE AND VALJEAN ARE ONE. SOURCE FROM THE THENARDIERS."
The old man stood in rage and asked Marius if those words were true. Marius carefully told him all he knew. He expected his grandfather to walk out of the room madly, but instead, he placed his hand on his grandson's shoulder and told him that he should this tell to Cosette soon.
We can't explain how Marius reacted on his grandfather's words but at his face, he is showing that he never thought that hiding the secret from Cosette would not make her upset, or worse, mad. But this is the real world, and he knew that he should tell these things to her real soon, before any of the townspeople tell her about it. Marius was looking at the ceiling as if he could see the sky. Although he knew what would be done, he didn't know how. He didn't have the courage.