Page 2176 - les-miserables

external scar, and in that case, woe to the sewermen. When
they entered without precaution into the sewer, they were
liable to be lost. Ancient registers make mention of several
scavengers who were buried in fontis in this manner. They
give many names; among others, that of the sewerman who
was swallowed up in a quagmire under the man-hole of the
Rue Careme-Prenant, a certain Blaise Poutrain; this Blaise
Poutrain was the brother of Nicholas Poutrain, who was the
last grave-digger of the cemetery called the Charnier des
Innocents, in 1785, the epoch when that cemetery expired.
There was also that young and charming Vicomte
d’Escoubleau, of whom we have just spoken, one of the he-
roes of the siege of Lerida, where they delivered the assault
in silk stockings, with violins at their head. D’Escoubleau,
surprised one night at his cousin’s, the Duchess de Sour-
dis’, was drowned in a quagmire of the Beautreillis sewer,
in which he had taken refuge in order to escape from the
Duke. Madame de Sourdis, when informed of his death, de-
manded her smelling-bottle, and forgot to weep, through
sniffling at her salts. In such cases, there is no love which
holds fast; the sewer extinguishes it. Hero refuses to wash
the body of Leander. Thisbe stops her nose in the presence
of Pyramus and says: ‘Phew!’

2176 Les Miserables