Page 448 - les-miserables

Then, there alone in the darkness, trembling with cold
and with something else, too, perchance, he meditated.
He had meditated all night long; he had meditated all the
day: he heard within him but one voice, which said, ‘Alas!’
A quarter of an hour passed thus. At length he bowed his
head, sighed with agony, dropped his arms, and retraced his
steps. He walked slowly, and as though crushed. It seemed
as though some one had overtaken him in his flight and was
leading him back.
He re-entered the council-chamber. The first thing he
caught sight of was the knob of the door. This knob, which
was round and of polished brass, shone like a terrible star
for him. He gazed at it as a lamb might gaze into the eye of
a tiger.
He could not take his eyes from it. From time to time he
advanced a step and approached the door.
Had he listened, he would have heard the sound of the
adjoining hall like a sort of confused murmur; but he did
not listen, and he did not hear.
Suddenly, without himself knowing how it happened, he
found himself near the door; he grasped the knob convul-
sively; the door opened.
He was in the court-room.

448 Les Miserables