Les Misérables Volume I Book 5 Chapter 13 - The Solution of Some Questions connected with the Municipal Police

In which a poor woman, dragged before the municipal police for a public scuffle, reveals the harshness of her plight and the fragile dignity beneath her sorrow, while the stern Inspector Javert wrestles with the weight of justice and duty. Into this sombre tribunal steps the benevolent mayor, whose unexpected intervention offers a glimmer of mercy and compassion amidst the stern laws and social cruelties of the day.