One December evening in 1815, a man dressed like a labourer, with a pack on his back and a thorn stick in his hand, walks into the little seaside town of Montreuil-sur-Mer. He is the man who, one October dawn that same year, knelt in the dark at the door of the bishop’s house in Digne. He is Jean Valjean. But the name he gives in this town is Madeleine.
On the very day he arrives, a great fire breaks out at the town hall. He throws himself into the flames and brings out two children, who happen to be the children of the captain of the gendarmerie. And so no one asks to see his papers.
For a long time the town has made jewellery imitating English jet and German black glass beads. He changes the method a little, using shellac in place of resin and making bracelet clasps from bent sheet metal instead of soldering them. The cost of materials falls sharply, so wages can go up while prices come down, and a man who started with a few hundred francs is rich in under three years. His workers call him Old Madeleine.