The Sewer and Its Surprises — Les Misérables

It was in the sewers of Paris that Jean Valjean found himself. Still another resemblance between Paris and the sea. As in the ocean, the diver may disappear there. In the very heart of the city he had escaped from the city. In the time required to lift the cover and to replace it, he had passed from broad daylight to complete obscurity, from midday to midnight, from tumult to silence, from the most extreme peril to the most absolute obscurity. He remained for several seconds as though bewildered. The waste-trap of safety had suddenly yawned beneath him. Only, the wounded man did not stir, and Jean Valjean did not know whether that which he was carrying in that grave was a living being or a dead corpse. His first sensation was one of blindness. The frantic storm of murder a few feet above his head did not reach him except faintly, like a rumbling in the depths. He felt that the ground was solid under his feet. That was enough. He touched the walls on both sides and perceived that the passage was narrow. He slipped, and thus perceived that the pavement was wet. A gust of fetidness informed him of the place in which he stood. After a few minutes he was no longer blind. A little light fell through the man-hole. The passage was walled in behind him. In front of him there was another wall, a wall like night. Beyond, the opaqueness was massive. It occurred to him that the grating which he had caught sight of under the flag-stones might also catch the eye of the soldiery. There was not a minute to be lost. He picked Marius up again, placed him on his shoulders once more, and set out. He plunged resolutely into the gloom.

When he had advanced fifty paces he was obliged to halt. The passage terminated in another gut. Two ways presented themselves. Which should he take. This labyrinth has a clue, which is its slope. To follow the slope is to arrive at the river. Jean Valjean instantly comprehended. He said to himself that he was probably in the market sewer, and that if he chose the path to the left he would appear in broad daylight on the most densely peopled spot in Paris. Arrival of the police. It would be better to plunge into that labyrinth and to trust to Providence. He ascended the incline, and turned to the right. Marius's two arms were passed round his neck. A warm stream came from Marius and made its way under his clothes. But a humid warmth near his ear indicated respiration, and consequently life. He proceeded in the gloom. The pupil dilates in the dark, and the soul dilates in misfortune and ends by finding God there. Jean Valjean began by committing a blunder. He thought that he was beneath a straight old stone sewer. He was not. He was entangled in one of the most labyrinthine of the ancient network. Had he known the masonry he would have felt cheapness under his hand instead of antique stone. Of all this he knew nothing. He advanced with anxiety, but with calmness, buried in chance, that is to say, engulfed in providence.

By degrees a certain horror seized upon him. The gloom which enveloped him penetrated his spirit. He walked in an enigma. Every step that he risked might be his last. Would Marius die there of hemorrhage and he of hunger. He did not know. All at once he perceived that he was no longer ascending. The water of the rivulet was beating against his heels. The sewer was now descending. Was he about to arrive suddenly at the river. This danger was a great one, but the peril of retreating was still greater. He continued to advance. It was not towards the river that he was proceeding. He had reached the culminating point. He was directing his course towards the belt sewer. He was on the right path. But he did not know it. Every time that he encountered a narrower branch he did not enter. Thus he avoided the traps set for him in the darkness. At a certain moment he perceived that he was emerging from beneath the Paris which was petrified by the uprising, and that he was entering beneath the living and normal Paris. Overhead he suddenly heard a noise as of thunder. It was the rumbling of vehicles. He had been walking for about half an hour, and he had not yet thought of rest. All at once he saw his shadow in front of him, outlined on a faint reddish glow. Stupefied, he turned round. Behind him, piercing the dense obscurity, flamed a sort of horrible star which had the air of surveying him. It was the gloomy star of the police which was rising in the sewer. In the rear of that star eight or ten forms were moving about in a confused way, black, upright, indistinct, horrible.