2440 Les Miserables
A silence ensued.
All breasts were oppressed.
Jean Valjean turned to Cosette. He began to gaze at her
as though he wished to retain her features for eternity.
In the depths of the shadow into which he had already
descended, ecstasy was still possible to him when gazing at
Cosette. The reflection of that sweet face lighted up his pale
visage.
The doctor felt of his pulse.
‘Ah! it was you that he wanted!’ he murmured, looking at
Cosette and Marius.
And bending down to Marius’ ear, he added in a very
low voice:
‘Too late.’
Jean Valjean surveyed the doctor and Marius serenely,
almost without ceasing to gaze at Cosette.
These barely articulate words were heard to issue from
his mouth:
‘It is nothing to die; it is dreadful not to live.’
All at once he rose to his feet. These accesses of strength
are sometimes the sign of the death agony. He walked with
a firm step to the wall, thrusting aside Marius and the doc-
tor who tried to help him, detached from the wall a little
copper crucifix which was suspended there, and returned to
his seat with all the freedom of movement of perfect health,
and said in a loud voice, as he laid the crucifix on the table:
‘Behold the great martyr.’
Then his chest sank in, his head wavered, as though the
intoxication of the tomb were seizing hold upon him.