Page 2151 - les-miserables

itself was smaller than the passage in which he was, he did
not enter but continued his route, rightly judging that every
narrower way must needs terminate in a blind alley, and
could only lead him further from his goal, that is to say, the
outlet. Thus he avoided the quadruple trap which was set for
him in the darkness by the four labyrinths which we have
just enumerated.
At a certain moment, he perceived that he was emerging
from beneath the Paris which was petrified by the uprising,
where the barricades had suppressed circulation, and that
he was entering beneath the living and normal Paris. Over-
head he suddenly heard a noise as of thunder, distant but
continuous. It was the rumbling of vehicles.
He had been walking for about half an hour, at least ac-
cording to the calculation which he made in his own mind,
and he had not yet thought of rest; he had merely changed
the hand with which he was holding Marius. The darkness
was more profound than ever, but its very depth reassured
him.
All at once, he saw his shadow in front of him. It was
outlined on a faint, almost indistinct reddish glow, which
vaguely empurpled the flooring vault underfoot, and the
vault overhead, and gilded to his right and to his left the two
viscous walls of the passage. Stupefied, he turned round.
Behind him, in the portion of the passage which he had
just passed through, at a distance which appeared to him
immense, piercing the dense obscurity, flamed a sort of hor-
rible star which had the air of surveying him.
It was the gloomy star of the police which was rising in

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