Page 933 - les-miserables

CHAPTER V

IT IS NOT NECESSARY

TO BE DRUNK IN ORDER

TO BE IMMORTAL

On the following day, as the sun was declining, the very
rare passers-by on the Boulevard du Maine pulled off their
hats to an old-fashioned hearse, ornamented with skulls,
cross-bones, and tears. This hearse contained a coffin cov-
ered with a white cloth over which spread a large black
cross, like a huge corpse with drooping arms. A mourning-
coach, in which could be seen a priest in his surplice, and a
choir boy in his red cap, followed. Two undertaker’s men in
gray uniforms trimmed with black walked on the right and
the left of the hearse. Behind it came an old man in the gar-
ments of a laborer, who limped along. The procession was
going in the direction of the Vaugirard cemetery.
The handle of a hammer, the blade of a cold chisel, and
the antennae of a pair of pincers were visible, protruding
from the man’s pocket.
The Vaugirard cemetery formed an exception among the

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