Page 400 - les-miserables

There was some one; but the person who was there was of
those whom the human eye cannot see.
He placed the candlesticks on the chimney-piece.
Then he resumed his monotonous and lugubrious tramp,
which troubled the dreams of the sleeping man beneath
him, and awoke him with a start.
This tramping to and fro soothed and at the same time
intoxicated him. It sometimes seems, on supreme occasions,
as though people moved about for the purpose of asking
advice of everything that they may encounter by change of
place. After the lapse of a few minutes he no longer knew
his position.
He now recoiled in equal terror before both the resolu-
tions at which he had arrived in turn. The two ideas which
counselled him appeared to him equally fatal. What a fa-
tality! What conjunction that that Champmathieu should
have been taken for him; to be overwhelmed by precisely
the means which Providence seemed to have employed, at
first, to strengthen his position!
There was a moment when he reflected on the future.
Denounce himself, great God! Deliver himself up! With
immense despair he faced all that he should be obliged to
leave, all that he should be obliged to take up once more.
He should have to bid farewell to that existence which was
so good, so pure, so radiant, to the respect of all, to hon-
or, to liberty. He should never more stroll in the fields; he
should never more hear the birds sing in the month of May;
he should never more bestow alms on the little children;
he should never more experience the sweetness of having

400 Les Miserables