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Marius on high, and with an unheard-of expenditure of
force, he advanced still; but he was sinking. He had only
his head above the water now and his two arms holding up
Marius. In the old paintings of the deluge there is a mother
holding her child thus.
He sank still deeper, he turned his face to the rear, to es-
cape the water, and in order that he might be able to breathe;
anyone who had seen him in that gloom would have thought
that what he beheld was a mask floating on the shadows;
he caught a faint glimpse above him of the drooping head
and livid face of Marius; he made a desperate effort and
launched his foot forward; his foot struck something solid;
a point of support. It was high time.
He straightened himself up, and rooted himself upon
that point of support with a sort of fury. This produced
upon him the effect of the first step in a staircase leading
back to life.
The point of support, thus encountered in the mire at
the supreme moment, was the beginning of the other water-
shed of the pavement, which had bent but had not given way,
and which had curved under the water like a plank and in a
single piece. Well built pavements form a vault and possess
this sort of firmness. This fragment of the vaulting, partly
submerged, but solid, was a veritable inclined plane, and,
once on this plane, he was safe. Jean Valjean mounted this
inclined plane and reached the other side of the quagmire.
As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a
stone and fell upon his knees. He reflected that this was but
just, and he remained there for some time, with his soul ab-