Explanation — Les Misérables

On the day of the sixth of June, a battue of the sewers had been ordered. It was feared that the vanquished might have taken to them for refuge. The prefect was to search occult Paris while a general swept public Paris. Three squads of agents and sewermen explored the subterranean drain: the first on the right bank, the second on the left bank, the third in the city. The agents of police were armed with carabines, with bludgeons, swords and daggers. That which was directed at Jean Valjean at that moment was the lantern of the patrol of the right bank.

This patrol had just visited the curving gallery and the three blind alleys which lie beneath a nearby street. While they were passing their lantern through those depths, Jean Valjean had encountered the entrance to the gallery, had perceived that it was narrower than the principal passage, and had not penetrated thither. He had passed on. The police, on emerging, had fancied that they heard the sound of footsteps in the direction of the belt sewer. They were, in fact, the steps of Jean Valjean. The sergeant had raised his lantern, and the squad had begun to gaze into the mist. This was an indescribable moment for Jean Valjean. Happily, if he saw the lantern well, the lantern saw him but ill. It was light and he was shadow. He hugged the wall and halted. The lack of sleep and food, and his emotions, had caused him also to pass into the state of a visionary. He beheld a gleam, and around that gleam, forms. What was it. He did not comprehend. Jean Valjean having paused, the sound ceased. The men of the patrol listened, and heard nothing. They looked and saw nothing. They held a consultation. Jean Valjean saw these spectres form a sort of circle. These bull-dogs' heads approached each other closely and whispered together.

The result of this council was that they had been mistaken, that there had been no noise, that it was useless to get entangled in the belt sewer, and that they ought to hasten towards another quarter. If there was anything to do, and any insurgent to track out, it was in that quarter. The sergeant gave orders to turn to the left, towards the watershed of the river. If it had occurred to them to separate into two squads, and to go in both directions, Jean Valjean would have been captured. All hung on that thread. It is probable that the instructions of the prefecture, foreseeing insurgents in force, had forbidden the patrol to part company. The patrol resumed its march, leaving Jean Valjean behind it. Of all this movement, Jean Valjean perceived nothing, except the eclipse of the lantern which suddenly wheeled round. Before taking his departure, the sergeant, in order to acquit his policeman's conscience, discharged his gun in the direction of Jean Valjean. A bit of plaster which fell into the stream and splashed up the water a few paces away warned him that the ball had struck the arch over his head. Slow and measured steps resounded for some time, gradually dying away. The group of black forms vanished. A glimmer of light oscillated and floated, then disappeared. The silence became profound once more. Jean Valjean, not daring to stir as yet, remained for a long time leaning with his back against the wall, with straining ears and dilated pupils, watching the disappearance of that phantom patrol.