1626 Les Miserables
‘Shut your peepers!’
And he snuffed out his tiny light.
Hardly had the light been extinguished, when a peculiar
trembling began to affect the netting under which the three
children lay.
It consisted of a multitude of dull scratches which pro-
duced a metallic sound, as if claws and teeth were gnawing
at the copper wire. This was accompanied by all sorts of lit-
tle piercing cries.
The little five-year-old boy, on hearing this hubbub over-
head, and chilled with terror, jogged his brother’s elbow; but
the elder brother had already shut his peepers, as Gavroche
had ordered. Then the little one, who could no longer con-
trol his terror, questioned Gavroche, but in a very low tone,
and with bated breath:—
‘Sir?’
‘Hey?’ said Gavroche, who had just closed his eyes.
‘What is that?’
‘It’s the rats,’ replied Gavroche.
And he laid his head down on the mat again.
The rats, in fact, who swarmed by thousands in the car-
cass of the elephant, and who were the living black spots
which we have already mentioned, had been held in awe by
the flame of the candle, so long as it had been lighted; but
as soon as the cavern, which was the same as their city, had
returned to darkness, scenting what the good story-teller
Perrault calls ‘fresh meat,’ they had hurled themselves in
throngs on Gavroche’s tent, had climbed to the top of it, and
had begun to bite the meshes as though seeking to pierce