Page 1638 - les-miserables

wine with which the soldier had been drugged. The soldier’s
bayonet had disappeared.
At the moment when this discovery was made, it was as-
sumed that Thenardier was out of reach. The truth is, that
he was no longer in the New Building, but that he was still
in great danger.
Thenardier, on reaching the roof of the New Building,
had found the remains of Brujon’s rope hanging to the bars
of the upper trap of the chimney, but, as this broken frag-
ment was much too short, he had not been able to escape by
the outer wall, as Brujon and Guelemer had done.
When one turns from the Rue des Ballets into the Rue
du Roi-de-Sicile, one almost immediately encounters a re-
pulsive ruin. There stood on that spot, in the last century, a
house of which only the back wall now remains, a regular
wall of masonry, which rises to the height of the third story
between the adjoining buildings. This ruin can be recog-
nized by two large square windows which are still to be seen
there; the middle one, that nearest the right gable, is barred
with a worm-eaten beam adjusted like a prop. Through
these windows there was formerly visible a lofty and lugu-
brious wall, which was a fragment of the outer wall of La
Force.
The empty space on the street left by the demolished
house is half-filled by a fence of rotten boards, shored up by
five stone posts. In this recess lies concealed a little shanty
which leans against the portion of the ruin which has re-
mained standing. The fence has a gate, which, a few years
ago, was fastened only by a latch.

1638 Les Miserables