Page 2178 - les-miserables

half of rain, and three floods of the Seine.
The fontis which Jean Valjean had encountered was
caused by the downpour of the preceding day. The pave-
ment, badly sustained by the subjacent sand, had given way
and had produced a stoppage of the water. Infiltration had
taken place, a slip had followed. The dislocated bottom had
sunk into the ooze. To what extent? Impossible to say. The
obscurity was more dense there than elsewhere. It was a pit
of mire in a cavern of night.
Jean Valjean felt the pavement vanishing beneath his
feet. He entered this slime. There was water on the surface,
slime at the bottom. He must pass it. To retrace his steps was
impossible. Marius was dying, and Jean Valjean exhausted.
Besides, where was he to go? Jean Valjean advanced. More-
over, the pit seemed, for the first few steps, not to be very
deep. But in proportion as he advanced, his feet plunged
deeper. Soon he had the slime up to his calves and water
above his knees. He walked on, raising Marius in his arms,
as far above the water as he could. The mire now reached
to his knees, and the water to his waist. He could no lon-
ger retreat. This mud, dense enough for one man, could
not, obviously, uphold two. Marius and Jean Valjean would
have stood a chance of extricating themselves singly. Jean
Valjean continued to advance, supporting the dying man,
who was, perhaps, a corpse.
The water came up to his arm-pits; he felt that he was
sinking; it was only with difficulty that he could move in
the depth of ooze which he had now reached. The density,
which was his support, was also an obstacle. He still held

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