Page 1633 - les-miserables

crepit thing to be seen anywhere in the world, was the weak
point in the prison. The walls were eaten by saltpetre to such
an extent that the authorities had been obliged to line the
vaults of the dormitories with a sheathing of wood, because
stones were in the habit of becoming detached and falling
on the prisoners in their beds. In spite of this antiquity, the
authorities committed the error of confining in the New
Building the most troublesome prisoners, of placing there
‘the hard cases,’ as they say in prison parlance.
The New Building contained four dormitories, one
above the other, and a top story which was called the Bel-
Air (FineAir). A large chimney-flue, probably from some
ancient kitchen of the Dukes de la Force, started from the
groundfloor, traversed all four stories, cut the dormitories,
where it figured as a flattened pillar, into two portions, and
finally pierced the roof.
Guelemer and Brujon were in the same dormitory. They
had been placed, by way of precaution, on the lower story.
Chance ordained that the heads of their beds should rest
against the chimney.
Thenardier was directly over their heads in the top story
known as Fine-Air. The pedestrian who halts on the Rue
Culture-Sainte-Catherine, after passing the barracks of the
firemen, in front of the porte-cochere of the bathing es-
tablishment, beholds a yard full of flowers and shrubs in
wooden boxes, at the extremity of which spreads out a little
white rotunda with two wings, brightened up with green
shutters, the bucolic dream of Jean Jacques.
Not more than ten years ago, there rose above that ro-

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