Page 2106 - les-miserables

CHAPTER XXIV

PRISONER

Marius was, in fact, a prisoner.
The hand which had seized him from behind and whose
grasp he had felt at the moment of his fall and his loss of
consciousness was that of Jean Valjean.
Jean Valjean had taken no other part in the combat
than to expose himself in it. Had it not been for him, no
one, in that supreme phase of agony, would have thought
of the wounded. Thanks to him, everywhere present in the
carnage, like a providence, those who fell were picked up,
transported to the tap-room, and cared for. In the intervals,
he reappeared on the barricade. But nothing which could
resemble a blow, an attack or even personal defence pro-
ceeded from his hands. He held his peace and lent succor.
Moreover he had received only a few scratches. The bullets
would have none of him. If suicide formed part of what he
had meditated on coming to this sepulchre, to that spot, he
had not succeeded. But we doubt whether he had thought of
suicide, an irreligious act.
Jean Valjean, in the thick cloud of the combat, did not ap-
pear to see Marius; the truth is, that he never took his eyes

2106 Les Miserables