Chapter Seven
Javert impassively sat in his cell while everything was in chaos around him. The guards did not particularly care as long as they were safe and sound inside their cells. If this went on for too long then they might be silenced but so far they were allowing it.
Javert had been the only one to get his way on the issue of parole. Madeleine had, to everyone's surprise, refused to grant anyone parole. Something in the way that he looked at Javert made him wonder just why he hadn't granted Javert parole. Was he ever going to give anyone parole? He had cited the rebellion as his main reason for turning down everyone's requests and that was certainly valid but he would have known about that before he interviewed anyone.
But he had made the right decision and so what did his reasons matter? The fact that even Madeleine agreed with him made him more convinced than ever that he was right about the problems with early release. After all, if a man who could decide to save a prostitute from prison simply because she had a sad life and was sick would not let these people out early then clearly it was a terrible idea.
The sound of everyone reacting to the fact that they would not be released less than halfway into their sentence was strange. A few days ago it would have been anger but now it was more hopelessness. Hopelessness was generally easier to deal with but it could also lead to some dangerous behavior from those who thought they had nothing left to lose. Javert had seen it before. They were wrong, though. There was always something else to lose.
"I really thought I'd get out," 50765 said sadly. Javert did not see how with his prominent participation in the overthrow of the prison.
"There's no hope. We're going to be here forever," 46663 said, even more irrationally.
It was actually not uncommon for people to give up the hope of ever leaving Toulon (Valjean, for instance, had never said anything but he had seen the look in the man's eye following one of his trial's after another failed escape) but usually it was after a few years into a particularly long sentence or after their sentence had been extended for some reason. This had been five days and their sentence was only two weeks. These men would not last a week in Toulon.
Eventually, one of the guards stepped forward and it was immediately quiet.
"46663," Motte said, frowning. "Come here."
46663 reluctantly stepped up to the bars off his cage. He had no reason to fear, though, for Motte was a terrible guard. He never punished anyone for anything.
"What do you think?" Motte asked, not turning around.
"Think about what?" Gautier asked.
"His skin. He's got a rash all over," Motte told him.
Gautier didn't move. "Oh, what does it matter? It will go away on its own and it's not our responsibility."
Perrin moved closer. "Maybe we should take this to Monsieur Madeleine."
"I'm sure he won't want to be bothered by this," Gautier said dismissively.
"I'm sure he will," Motte disagreed. "He's always very interested in the wellbeing of our prisoners."
Gautier scowled. "He's overly invested, if you ask me. All a prisoner has to do is complain that their head hurts or their stomach does and he wants to send them home! What is the point of a prison if we just let anybody go who wants to go? If we show him the rash he'll yank 46663 out, too."
"We should at least keep an eye on it," Perrin said reasonably. "Maybe bring some sort of salve."
"I'm not spending my money on it," Gautier said firmly.
"We'll work something out," Motte said. "You won't have to."
Perrin was one of the good guards. There were three types of guards that had emerged in this prison though there had only been two in Toulon. Some guards, like Motte, did little favors for prisoners. He probably would buy the salve himself and personally bring it in, maybe give 46663 a little extra food because he was sick. He never would have lasted in Toulon. He never would have been hired in Toulon in the first place. They were controlling men who could be far older and stronger than they were and more experienced in prison life. They had far more men under their control than there were guards and they were the worst scum France had. Well, the worst scum that had not been executed that was.
If any slight sympathy for prisoners was suspected in a person then they were not fit to be a guard. Even if nothing could be proven it was too much of a chance to take. Prisoners could and would take advantage of any sign of weakness and pity for their charges was most definitely a weakness and one of the easier ones to exploit.
The best guards were the fair guards, the ones who were not kind to the prisoners but also did not give in to their base impulses and be unnecessarily cruel. They followed the law and the prison regulation and did not deviate from it no matter what. He did not think that it made much of a difference to the prisoners if they were still being punished but it was certainly safer for them to be around a guard who would only discipline them when they needed to be disciplined.
Javert had, of course, made it his mission to be a fair guard and he liked to think that he succeeded.
Then there were the guards like Gautier. The ones who not only did not care for the prisoners but were more disdainful of them than was necessary, the ones who were hostile, arbitrary, and inventive in their forms of punishment. Strictly speaking, it was necessary for the guards here to be inventive since none of the ways that Javert knew of to control and discipline prisoners was allowed or if it was allowed it was only allowed in such a pitifully reduced form that it was not nearly as effective.
Javert had often tried to figure out which type of guard was the worst (for clearly there was no 'best' when it came to bad guards) and he found that he could not choose. One went too far and failed to instill any sense of discipline or good behavior in the prisoners since no matter what they did or how well they listened they might still be beaten. The other – though these guards did not intervene – were too nice and were never going to get the prisoners to listen. They would make the prisoners think that all guards were as soft as that and give them dangerous ideas.
That night, 51170 did not touch his dinner.
"Come on, you need to eat," Despres said gently. He was another one. "Here, do you not like it? I can see about getting you some bread."
"It has nothing to do with the food," 51170 said stubbornly, sitting on the floor and crossing his arms.
"It's true," 50765 spoke up.
It was strange, given how defiant he had been during the rebellion, but he and a few others had evidently decided that their best chance was to obey the rules. That was true, though they had disapproved of Javert's choice to do so at first. He had wondered if this good behavior would last once the early parole was refused and was pleasantly surprised that he had.
"And that's not all," 50765 continued. "He hasn't eaten anything since he arrived."
"He has not eaten anything today," Javert clarified. "He did eat dinner last night, as you will recall."
"You have to eat, 51170," Despres insisted.
"What's going on?" Carton asked, coming over.
"It's nothing, I've got it," Despres claimed.
"50765, what's going on?" Carton asked, ignoring him.
"Prisoner 51170 is refusing to eat, sir, and he has not had anything else to eat all day," 50765 obediently answered.
"Is that so?" Carton asked, a strange note in his voice. "You really refuse to eat?"
"I really refuse to eat," 51170 confirmed, looking almost proud.
"Why?" Despres demanded, confused. "You are only hurting yourself."
"I agreed to stay in a prison for two weeks and ended up only being called on to do this four days in," 51170 declared. "I can't even take a piss without a guard telling me I can since there are no chamber pots here and I'm not about to just go here like some sort of an animal. I have to count off every time I have to turn around in case they can't keep track of nine people! And why does it take so damn long to do it? All these punishments and these games! Well I'm protesting. I do not want this and this is not what I agreed to do and so I'm just not going to eat."
"You can eat voluntarily or we can force you to eat," Carton growled.
"Carton," Despres said pointedly.
51170 laughed. "Oh yes, by all means. You're breaking all the other rules why not the 'do not hurt prisoners' one as well? Monsieur Madeleine seemed pretty serious about it yesterday."
Carton's eyes narrowed.
"Fine," he said coolly.
"There really is nothing we can do to convince you to eat?" Despres asked urgently.
"No."
"It wouldn't matter if there was. Enough is enough." Carton opened up the cell. "Come with me. You're going into solitary."
"Fine with me," 51170 said, doing his best to look indifferent. He had never been to solitary, however, and could not hide a faint trace of unease.
Carton said nothing further, just led the way to the closet and then shut it behind 51170.
They ate in silence, after that, and everyone made sure to completely finish their food just in case they might get in trouble for not eating as well.
None of them had any idea what time it was but Javert had always had a rather good idea of how long things took and it seemed to him that 51170 had been in there for an awfully long time.
"Shouldn't we…?" Despres finally asked uncertainly.
Bertrand glanced over at him. "Shouldn't we what?"
Despres shrugged awkwardly. "51170."
"Ah, right, him," Carton said, snapping his fingers, as if he only just remembered. "Prisoners, I offer you a choice. 51170 has been in solitary for awhile now. If you like I can let him out right now."
There was a hesitation.
"He'll just cause problems if he's let out," 62284 said finally. "Look at all the problems he's already caused just by not eating properly."
"Yes," 24405 agreed. "He seems to have a problem with all of this and I don't even want to know what he'll do next."
Carton was openly smirking. Back when the rebellion had happened, 51170 would have been a hero. Now, a mere three days later, he was the hated troublemaker and they didn't even want to let him out of solitary even though his time had passed.
"You haven't heard the rest of it yet," Carton continued. "In order to let him out you must surrender your blankets tonight."
"I'm certainly not giving up my blanket," 50765 said firmly and there were murmurs of agreement.
"So what is it to be?" Carton asked, thoroughly enjoying himself. "Does anybody want to allow 51170 to come out?"
There was a silence before Javert spoke up. "I say that he should be let out."
Carton drew back, clearly shocked. "You? But 22972, you-"
"I do not approve of rebellion and the pointless starving of oneself is both petty and cannot be tolerated," Javert assured him. "But the rules say that he should only be there for one hour and so I cannot support anything that would involve him being there for longer than that one hour."
Bertrand shook his head. "22972, I do not think that I will ever understand you."
Valjean came back to the prison and looked around, puzzled. "I see only eight. Did something happen to the newest person?"
There was a strange look that passed between the guards before Bertrand offered, "51170 is in solitary."
"Is he?" Valjean asked, hoping that they would elaborate. When they said nothing, he turned to Javert. "What happened?"
"51170 refused to eat his food and he has not eaten anything all day," Javert answered promptly. "He is not happy with the conditions and refused to eat until things were…more to his liking."
Valjean's eyes widened. "He's been in there since you served them dinner?"
Despres nodded uncomfortably.
"Was dinner delayed for some reason?" Valjean asked hopefully.
"Ah, no," Despres replied.
"That was just over three hours ago!" Valjean exclaimed, horrified.
"We didn't put him in there immediately," Carton defended himself. "It took us awhile to realize that he was not eating and would not be persuaded to eat." He shot Despres an annoyed look at that.
"What was the rule about solitary confinement?" Valjean asked quietly, taking a deep and calming breath. That was an abuse right there. Was this the first time that had happened.
Reluctantly, Carton admitted, "No one may be in solitary for longer than one hour at a time and there must be at least one hour between times that someone may be put in solitary."
"And they cannot be punished twice for the same offence unless they repeat it," Valjean added. "So tell me why he has been in there for so long?"
"We thought…" Bertrand trailed off.
"Get him out of there now."
Despres quickly went over and opened the door.
The man who came out blinked rapidly at the sudden light in a move that was a painfully familiar sight to Valjean.
"Has something like this happened before?" Valjean asked, looking once more at Javert.
He knew that he could count on him for an honest answer in a way that he did not believe that he could count on the guards. He could only hope that he would not be getting Javert into any trouble by asking him to inform on the guards. Javert, at least, would not hold it against him and be rather appalled if he had thought to stay ignorant in order to protect Javert from doing what the other man thought was his duty.
Mercifully, Javert shook his head. "No. They were, however, planning to keep him there all night."
"And that is even less acceptable! See that a violation of the rules of solitary does not happen again." Valjean looked meaningfully at Javert. "I will know."
After a long night speaking with Father Michel, Valjean knew what he had to do. It was only six days into this when it was supposed to last two weeks but how could he let this go on? People were having such horrible reactions and after what he heard in the parole interviews yesterday…Javert might be disappointed but even he should be able to see that when the guards were breaking the rules they could no longer be trusted to watch the prisoners unsupervised. He did not know how long it would take before they began to break other rules as well.
And if Javert still disapproved then Javert still disapproved. It would not be the first time nor the last, he was sure, and there were worse things than Javert's disapproval.
Valjean walked into the cell where Fevre, Lavaud, and Dubos were on duty. He would need to send a message to the other six guards to let them know that they were not needed so they would not have to come all the way down here.
"Monsieur le Maire!" Fevre exclaimed, spotting him first. "Is there something we can do for you?"
Valjean glanced over at the prisoners. They seemed a little bored but otherwise alright.
"How has everything been since I left?" Valjean asked, addressing himself once more to Javert. He wondered what Javert thought of a prisoner being believed over the guards as to what was going on.
"Things have been fine," Javert answered curtly.
"I know that we are only six days into our proposed experiment and it was supposed to run for two weeks," Valjean said, ignoring the stunned reactions his mentioning that this was not a real prison earned him, "but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to end this right now."
There was silence for a moment.
"What?" Lavaud asked politely. "End what, Monsieur Madeleine?"
"This whole situation, the prison," Valjean said, waving a hand vaguely. "If one of you could be so kind as to release these poor people? I assure you, you will still receive the full amount I promised you even though we ended early."
There was another silence before one of them fell to his knees and began thanking God.
That seemed to break everyone out of their stupor and Dubos went forward to open the cages.
There were several cries of thanks he received from the people who were locked up on his orders in the first place, none of them seemed to see him as anything but their deliverer. It made him uncomfortable and so as soon as he led them back into the light he fled.
He could only hope that he had not done irreparable harm to those innocent people.
He could only hope that Javert would give at least a little and this had not all been for naught.
The very first thing that Javert had done was go home and clean himself up so he could report for duty more than a week earlier than he was supposed to. They were all quite surprised to see him back so soon but they were not about to try and keep him away. One man had been halfway through an offer to let Javert just have the rest of the time allotted to him to be absent when he stopped, having realized what a foolish offer that truly was and how little Javert would ever have considered it.
He wanted, of course, to go and see Madeleine immediately and discuss their little test as well as the reasons why it had ended. He refrained and did his duty. His men were competent but there was still a lot he had missed out on in the near-week he was absent. When at last he had finished what he concluded was a satisfactory amount, he went to the mayor's office hoping he would still be there.
Luck was with him and he was.
Madeleine looked up as he neared and he had a carefully neutral expression.
"Yes, Javert?"
Javert smiled wanly. "Do you know that today is the first time I've heard my name said in nearly a week? Perhaps that is not so long in the grand scheme of things but it has given me a strange satisfaction to hear my name spoken since we were released today."
Madeleine seemed to hesitate. "Is that so? Javert, I know that you were against anyone being released early only yesterday but I really must stand behind my decision here."
But Javert shook his head. "I was against the notion of people not serving out their full sentence because they were pretending to be good. Or, who knows, maybe they had decided to live as law-abiding citizens once their time was up. Some do, as it happens, though not enough. In the end it changes nothing and the sentences still need to be fulfilled. But this was not a true prison and we were not true prisoners so if you wished to end things early then that was your choice."
"I do not remember if I offered the people involved, the guards and the prisoners, whatever help they might need after this," Madeleine murmured. "I do not know what, precisely, they might need but this was an ordeal and I would like to do what I can."
Javert shook his head in disbelief. If there was one thing he knew about Madeleine then it was that if he ever came across a situation that looked like it might need fixing then he was there trying ardently to fix it single-handedly even if he was the only one who thought it needed to be fixed. His motives for doing so were still suspect but his behavior, at least, was predictable by now. "You already offered that to them and I think that some will take you up on that. Do you really not remember?"
Madeleine colored. "I was…not as focused as perhaps I could have been," he said delicately. "At least not then. I was upset at being forced to end things so early. Not because I was resentful at having to do what was best for everyone there! I was just upset that things had to come to a point where I would need to stop everything so soon."
"I can assure you that the other prisoners were quite relieved to be so unexpectedly pardoned," Javert said.
"The guards weren't," Madeleine replied. "Or at least the six guards who were not there when I ended things expressed their discontent when they came to see me later and I explained what had happened to them."
"All of them?" Javert asked, surprised.
Madeleine nodded. "All of them. They said that they had enjoyed the challenge and were sorry to see that it was over."
"That's interesting," Javert remarked. "I would have expected that from some, the ones that abused their power and people who abuse power always enjoy it or they would not do it. Perhaps even the truly good guards would have an understandable pride in their work. But some of the guards, the ones who would never punish anyone, did not seem like they really liked being guards."
Back in Toulon it was possible to weed out the ones who would be too lenient but no one ever knew whether the ones that remained would be good guards or not. And they had certainly changed over the course of time as they became more comfortable with their roles and came to properly appreciate the necessity of treating the convicts like the beasts they were for all that the people of Toulon did not always understand.
Madeleine shook his head. "I do not know. I was not there most of the time. But perhaps…"
"Yes?"
"Perhaps they enjoyed the power that it gave them over the others, even if they would not use it and tried very hard not to abuse it," Madeleine suggested.
Javert looked consideringly at Madeleine. Was that how it was for him? "That's certainly a possibility."
Madeleine swallowed and looked away but that could mean any number of things. "I wonder why it was that none of the prisoners came out and quit. Perhaps you could offer some insight on the matter. Only two prisoners left at all."
"23344 did quit," Javert pointed out.
"That is true," Madeleine conceded. "But he only did that after he developed some truly alarming behavior. Or perhaps he tried to quit and they did not let him so he developed the behavior then."
"I think that was it," Javert said, thinking back. "It only started after he came back and told us that there was no way out."
"Everyone was very eager to leave. Aside from you, they all begged me at their early parole interview to let them go and would have happily paid all the money back just to leave. And yet I asked people if they wanted to quit and no one would. No one even asked meeven though they knew that I had released others." Madeleine sounded so confused it was almost frustration.
"It is…difficult for me to say since I had never had any intention of leaving or any delusions that I could not end the whole thing just by letting you know I wished to leave," Javert said slowly.
"But you must have some idea."
"I can only offer speculation," Javert protested.
"I would hear it, please," Madeleine said and there was a command in that voice despite the request of the words.
"It was like I said with that man who said there was no way out. Perhaps he asked to leave and was not allowed to," Javert said. "The only time someone was released was when you ordered it. The guards always suspected people were trying to escape their sentence as though they were real guards who had to worry about that and not guarding over volunteers who were legally free to leave at any time. People seemed to forget that they were not actually prisoners very quickly."
"But not you."
"How could I?" Javert asked rhetorically. "I who had been there when the idea was had and helped plan a great deal of it? This was all for my benefit if you will remember."
Madeleine nodded. "I do. And the prisoners? I really should have paid more attention to them, there is no excuse for my negligence there, but I will try to make it up to them and see how they are tomorrow."
Javert shrugged. He had not spent a great deal of time with them but he had walked part of the way back to his rooms with those that lived the same way and they had begun to discuss what had happened. "They seemed to find it pleasantly strange to be called by their true names once more as well. Everyone was insisting on using their names during the rebellion but ceased afterwards. They felt like numbers and were marveling about the sights they see every day. It was as though they had been removed from their life and needed to get used to it again even though it had been less than a week."
"And you?" Madeleine pressed. "Did you feel anything like this? Did you think of yourself as a number? Did you think of them as a number?"
"The rules stated that we were to only refer to each other by number and so I decided that would be easier if I thought of them as numbers as well. It was more of an effort at first because I did know their names but after awhile it became easier. It was not quite the same as it was at Toulon but it was something like it," Javert replied. "What else did you ask me? If I thought of myself as a number? I found that I could not though I did not resist others referring to me as my number. Perhaps if more time had passed then that would have changed the way it changed with the others. I could not say. I did not feel any different than them except that I truly suspected at times that they forgot that none of that was real whilst I never did. I tried to make myself not think of the fact that it was not a true prison but that proved…difficult."
Madeleine nodded. "I almost fear to see how you will react to this offer but I cannot in good conscience make it to everyone else and not to you. Please let me know if you need anything, even just to talk, as a result of this experience."
"Or at all, I'm sure," Javert said dryly. "You made the offer to our whole group and I was a part of that group so you have already made that offer to me. It is kindly meant, I know, but I shall have to pass."
Madeleine nodded like he had expected that answer. "What of our disagreement, Javert? Obviously the conditions you and the others faced were far different and more mild than what I know of actual prison conditions but we did our best to be a little humane while still having a workable system. The prisoners certainly…reacted."
"What would you have me say?" Javert asked after a moment.
"Has your view changed at all?" Madeleine asked him. "
This was a question that Javert did not wish to answer though the whole point of the past few days was to address this and he would not lie to a superior.
"Though I cannot be entirely sure that some were not faking, I did see a change take place. It was not enough to turn any of them into animals but they were certainly very different when they left compared to how they had started," Javert admitted.
"And this was only six days of far more mild conditions than anything our prisons have to offer," Madeleine said, pleased. "Imagine what longer in worse conditions could have led to."
"I never argued that there were not certain ways in which a man who had not been to prison was not distinguishable from a man who had even if they were physically the same," Javert insisted.
Madeleine nodded at him to continue.
"Still, being in such close proximity to the same eight people for several days was not what I had experienced before. I had seen change back in Toulon but I had not had the opportunity to study it up close. I just saw defiant men broken or weeping wrecks grow silent," Javert continued.
Madeleine looked pained, no doubt wasting his pity on those who did not deserve it yet again.
"I do think that, perhaps, it is possible that prison can really change a person," Javert finally conceded.
Madeleine's eyes lit up and it looked like he was going to say something but Javert held up his hands to forestall any self-congratulation (or even praise of Javert for finally coming around to Madeleine's viewpoint).
"It is not such a radical notion, perhaps. A man who does not know much about being a criminal and was put in prison for forging or theft may learn a great deal more about criminality from a murderer. You cannot possibly say that a man who has it in him to kill did not always have it in him to kill even if, had things been different, he might have never killed. It does not matter what someone has inside of them if it is never let loose but once that man shows his evil nature to the world and forges or thieves or kills then that is that. And those with evil natures are always revealed in time," Javert said firmly.
"But what if that forger or that thief is not placed with a killer and never learns to kill?" Madeleine persisted. "As you said, what difference does it make if he is capable if he never does it? Would not society be safer without turning a man into a killer?"
"I would not go so far as to say that he would be turned into a killer," Javert disagreed. "But what do you suggest? Merely spending time with a killer does not turn one into one themselves. I have spent a great deal of time around the worst criminals France has to offer and yet you do not see me going around committing crimes! And what would you suggest, building separate prisons for those who commit different crimes?"
"No," Madeleine replied. "But perhaps we could at least try to keep the worst criminals from the lesser ones."
"They are all the worst ones and that is how they ended up in Toulon in the first place," Javert said stubbornly. "We already keep them away from the lesser criminals by sending them away to toil."
"It is different, being a guard, than being a prisoner. You must have seen that," Madeleine tried again. "You just had to witness it but the prisoners had to live with such severity and harshness as to be unimaginable to those who have not seen it."
"Those like you," Javert said pointedly.
"Tell me, did the guards here change as much as the prisoners?"
"No," Javert conceded. "Though they, too, were changed in a way. But the people here did not become criminals because they do not have it in them to be like that. They were just broken a little and all that that proves to me is that prison is terrible for any man to be in and so it is of great importance that no innocent man suffers it. That was something I already knew."
Madeleine looked at him for a long moment in silence and it seemed to Javert that he was being pitied which was an intolerable state of affairs.
"Monsieur le Maire?" he asked stiffly.
"I wish that you understood, Javert," Madeleine said sorrowfully.
"There is not understanding and not agreeing and I comprehend your viewpoint perfectly," Javert said. "Was there anything else you wished of me?"
Madeleine stared at him for another moment before shutting his eyes. "No, there was not."
