With his limp, it was close to fifteen minutes before Fauchelevent got back to the hut in the garden. Cosette was awake. Jean Valjean had sat her by the fire and was pointing to the gardener’s basket on the wall as he talked to her. We have to leave this house for a little while, but we’ll come back and be very happy here. The old man will carry you out in that, on his back, and you’ll wait for me at a lady’s house.
If you don’t want Madame Thénardier to take you back, do as you’re told and say nothing. Cosette nodded gravely.
When Fauchelevent pushed open the door, Jean Valjean turned round. Everything was arranged and nothing was, said the old man. He had leave to bring Monsieur Madeleine in, but to bring him in he had to get him out first. And something else was worrying him. Earth in a coffin would not weigh like a body; it would slide and shift. The men carrying it would feel it.