Notes on Javert
After Fantine's arrest and M. Madeleine's intervention:
Javert trembled. He, the man of authority, ending up being wrong before this woman of disorder! humiliated and turned away before her! It was the last drop in the chalice. Javert had two speculations on M. Madeleine: whether he was, as everyone believed him to be, the most excellent and respectable of men, or whether he was something else. In the first case, to to be publically broken in his consideration and authority, by such a man and by such a magistrate, was so fatal that he felt himself overcome and that he was ready to weep. In the second case, that was so horrible that he sprang up in rage at the mere thought. Even so, he did not testify, and received the blow...
—
From Hugo's notes, additional articles from Javert's suicide note.
The two windows of the parlor of les Madelonettes are spaced six feet apart, which prevents the prisoners and the visitors from being able to talk. It would be fair to bring these two windows back to the regulated distance of two feet, which in all the other prisons suffices for surveillance.
Do not permit the linen maid and the watchwoman to cross the exercise yard in any men's prison.
The architect of la Force asks that we remove the rows of trees from the Saint-Madeleine courtyard. These trees are useful to the morale of the prison. It would be wise to keep them.
Convicts of the chain gang hold out their wooden bowls to the curious. They are begging.
It is an abuse that there is a tattoo artist in prisons, and so tolerated that he his nearly official.