When Fauchelevent tells Jean Valjean what has just taken place, the ex-convict has a hair-raising idea. He himself will occupy the false casket, and at the cemetery Fauchelevent can get his friend Mestiennes, the gravedigger, drunk and free Valjean. As for Cosette, she will simply be carried out by Fauchelevent in a basket on his back.
The next day at sunset, Fauchelevent confidently follows the funeral procession to the Vaugirard cemetery. Everything is going well and Valjean's confident courage has reassured him. At the gate, an unexpected contretemps strikes him like a thunderbolt. He is greeted not by the alcoholic Mestienne but by a replacement, Gribier; Mestienne has just died. In his bewilderment, Fauchelevent can think of nothing better than to continue with the original plan, but the new gravedigger is a teetotaler and virtuously refuses Fauchelevent's repeated urgings to come and have a drink with him.
Valjean has weathered his ordeal well, has suffered stoically through the long procession, the descent into the grave, and finally the lugubrious funeral services. But when he hears the earth falling on the casket and understands its implications, he faints.
