Page 425 - les-miserables

night!
He was stiff with cold; he had eaten nothing since the
night before; he vaguely recalled his other nocturnal trip
in the vast plain in the neighborhood of D——, eight years
previously, and it seemed but yesterday.
The hour struck from a distant tower; he asked the
boy:—
‘What time is it?’
‘Seven o’clock, sir; we shall reach Arras at eight; we have
but three leagues still to go.’
At that moment, he for the first time indulged in this re-
flection, thinking it odd the while that it had not occurred
to him sooner: that all this trouble which he was taking was,
perhaps, useless; that he did not know so much as the hour
of the trial; that he should, at least, have informed himself
of that; that he was foolish to go thus straight ahead without
knowing whether he would be of any service or not; then he
sketched out some calculations in his mind: that, ordinarily,
the sittings of the Court of Assizes began at nine o’clock in
the morning; that it could not be a long affair; that the theft
of the apples would be very brief; that there would then re-
main only a question of identity, four or five depositions,
and very little for the lawyers to say; that he should arrive
after all was over.
The postilion whipped up the horses; they had crossed
the river and left Mont-Saint-Eloy behind them.
The night grew more profound.

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