215 4 Les Miserables
gallery du Cadran, had fancied that they heard the sound
of footsteps in the direction of the belt sewer. They were, in
fact, the steps of Jean Valjean. The sergeant in command of
the patrol had raised his lantern, and the squad had begun
to gaze into the mist in the direction whence the sound pro-
ceeded.
This was an indescribable moment for Jean Valjean.
Happily, if he saw the lantern well, the lantern saw him
but ill. It was light and he was shadow. He was very far off,
and mingled with the darkness of the place. He hugged the
wall and halted. Moreover, he did not understand what it
was that was moving behind him. The lack of sleep and
food, and his emotions had caused him also to pass into
the state of a visionary. He beheld a gleam, and around that
gleam, forms. What was it? He did not comprehend.
Jean Valjean having paused, the sound ceased.
The men of the patrol listened, and heard nothing, they
looked and saw nothing. They held a consultation.
There existed at that epoch at this point of the Montmar-
tre sewer a sort of cross-roads called de service, which was
afterwards suppressed, on account of the little interior lake
which formed there, swallowing up the torrent of rain in
heavy storms. The patrol could form a cluster in this open
space. Jean Valjean saw these spectres form a sort of circle.
These bull-dogs’ heads approached each other closely and
whispered together.
The result of this council held by the watch dogs was,
that they had been mistaken, that there had been no noise,
that it was useless to get entangled in the belt sewer, that it