Page 945 - les-miserables

ably the holy water.
He thought: ‘This will be over soon now. Patience for a
little while longer. The priest will take his departure. Fau-
chelevent will take Mestienne off to drink. I shall be left.
Then Fauchelevent will return alone, and I shall get out.
That will be the work of a good hour.’
The grave voice resumed
‘Requiescat in pace.’
And the child’s voice said:—
‘Amen.’
Jean Valjean strained his ears, and heard something like
retreating footsteps.
‘There, they are going now,’ thought he. ‘I am alone.’
All at once, he heard over his head a sound which seemed
to him to be a clap of thunder.
It was a shovelful of earth falling on the coffin.
A second shovelful fell.
One of the holes through which he breathed had just
been stopped up.
A third shovelful of earth fell.
Then a fourth.
There are things which are too strong for the strongest
man. Jean Valjean lost consciousness.

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