120 Les Miserables
petty, lugubrious, and narrow.
There was nothing in the field or on the hill except a de-
formed tree, which writhed and shivered a few paces distant
from the wayfarer.
This man was evidently very far from having those
delicate habits of intelligence and spirit which render one
sensible to the mysterious aspects of things; nevertheless,
there was something in that sky, in that hill, in that plain,
in that tree, which was so profoundly desolate, that after a
moment of immobility and revery he turned back abruptly.
There are instants when nature seems hostile.
He retraced his steps; the gates of D—— were closed.
D——, which had sustained sieges during the wars of reli-
gion, was still surrounded in 1815 by ancient walls flanked
by square towers which have been demolished since. He
passed through a breach and entered the town again.
It might have been eight o’clock in the evening. As he was
not acquainted with the streets, he recommenced his walk
at random.
In this way he came to the prefecture, then to the semi-
nary. As he passed through the Cathedral Square, he shook
his fist at the church.
At the corner of this square there is a printing establish-
ment. It is there that the proclamations of the Emperor and
of the Imperial Guard to the army, brought from the Island
of Elba and dictated by Napoleon himself, were printed for
the first time.
Worn out with fatigue, and no longer entertaining any
hope, he lay down on a stone bench which stands at the