Les Misérables, Book 7: The Champmathieu Affair, Chapter 5 summary

What happens

1. A mail wagon strikes the traveler’s tilbury, but he continues toward Arras without resolving his struggle of conscience.
2. At Hesdin, a damaged wheel prevents departure, and failed alternatives make him welcome the delay as divine intervention.
3. An old woman supplies a cart, so he resumes the journey and angrily refuses to reward the boy who finds it.
4. After slow travel to Saint-Pol, he tries to eat breakfast but cannot continue eating.
5. Near Tinques, road repairs force a detour; he obtains another horse and a guide, then repairs a broken whiffletree himself.
6. At seven, still three leagues from Arras, he worries that his journey is useless because the trial may already have ended.

What to notice

Physical movement and inward resistance run in opposite directions. The line captures why each practical obstacle also becomes a possible excuse to stop.

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