On the heels of his dream, Madeleine makes the choice we expected him to make - he will go to Arras. What he’ll actually do there and how his interactions with Champmathieu are still open questions, but the journey is a sure thing.
A series of unexpected challenges befall Madeleine on the way:
- He takes damage from a postal cart and it’s worse than expected. He has two broken spokes and the hub is damaged as well. It will take at least a day to repair.
- He can’t find any replacement, nor can he find an alternate carriage or even a horse to ride.
- When he finally does find something, that new cart takes damage as well and he is forced to do a temporary repair in the dark.
- He realizes that he has no idea what time Champmathieu’s trial is actually set for and realizes they won’t arrive until after 8:00 PM.
As all of this unfolds Madeleine has several “maybe I should just turn back” moments but he persists. He’s done everything he can to make it to Arras as fast as possible, but it is entirely unclear what the outcome will be.
The fates of Champmathieu, Madeleine, and the “in two places at once” character of Jean Valjean hang in the balance.