Page 760 - les-miserables

Javert, and then it might have been Javert, without Javert
knowing that he was Jean Valjean. Was not he disguised?
Was not he believed to be dead? Still, queer things had been
going on for several days. He wanted no more of them. He
was determined not to return to the Gorbeau house. Like
the wild animal chased from its lair, he was seeking a hole
in which he might hide until he could find one where he
might dwell.
Jean Valjean described many and varied labyrinths
in the Mouffetard quarter, which was already asleep, as
though the discipline of the Middle Ages and the yoke of
the curfew still existed; he combined in various manners,
with cunning strategy, the Rue Censier and the Rue Cope-
au, the Rue du Battoir-Saint-Victor and the Rue du Puits
l’Ermite. There are lodging houses in this locality, but he
did not even enter one, finding nothing which suited him.
He had no doubt that if any one had chanced to be upon his
track, they would have lost it.
As eleven o’clock struck from Saint-Etienne-du-Mont,
he was traversing the Rue de Pontoise, in front of the of-
fice of the commissary of police, situated at No. 14. A few
moments later, the instinct of which we have spoken above
made him turn round. At that moment he saw distinctly,
thanks to the commissary’s lantern, which betrayed them,
three men who were following him closely, pass, one after
the other, under that lantern, on the dark side of the street.
One of the three entered the alley leading to the commis-
sary’s house. The one who marched at their head struck him
as decidedly suspicious.

760 Les Miserables