Page 2165 - les-miserables

tigue began to gain on him; and as his strength decreased,
it made the weight of his burden increase. Marius, who was,
perhaps, dead, weighed him down as inert bodies weigh.
Jean Valjean held him in such a manner that his chest was
not oppressed, and so that respiration could proceed as well
as possible. Between his legs he felt the rapid gliding of the
rats. One of them was frightened to such a degree that he bit
him. From time to time, a breath of fresh air reached him
through the vent-holes of the mouths of the sewer, and re-
animated him.
It might have been three hours past midday when he
reached the belt-sewer.
He was, at first, astonished at this sudden widening.
He found himself, all at once, in a gallery where his out-
stretched hands could not reach the two walls, and beneath
a vault which his head did not touch. The Grand Sewer is, in
fact, eight feet wide and seven feet high.
At the point where the Montmartre sewer joins the
Grand Sewer, two other subterranean galleries, that of the
Rue de Provence, and that of the Abattoir, form a square.
Between these four ways, a less sagacious man would have
remained undecided. Jean Valjean selected the broadest,
that is to say, the belt-sewer. But here the question again
came up—should he descend or ascend? He thought that
the situation required haste, and that he must now gain
the Seine at any risk. In other terms, he must descend. He
turned to the left.
It was well that he did so, for it is an error to suppose
that the belt-sewer has two outlets, the one in the direction

2165