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EXPLANATION
On the day of the sixth of June, a battue of the sewers had
been ordered. It was feared that the vanquished might have taken
to them for refuge, and Prefect Gisquet was to search occult Paris
while General Bugeaud swept public Paris; a double and connected
operation which exacted a double strategy on the part of the public
force, represented above by the army and below by the police.
Three squads of agents and sewermen explored the subterranean
drain of Paris, the first on the right bank, the second on the
left bank, the third in the city.
The agents of police were armed with carabines, with bludgeons,
swords and poignards.
That which was directed at Jean Valjean at that moment, was
the lantern of the patrol of the right bank.
This patrol had just visited the curving gallery and the three
blind alleys which lie beneath the Rue du Cadran.
While they were passing their lantern through the depths of
these blind alleys, Jean Valjean had encountered on his path the
entrance to the gallery, had perceived that it was narrower than
the principal passage and had not penetrated thither.
He had passed on.
The police, on emerging from the 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 proceeded.
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 Montmartre
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 would
only be a waste of time, but that they ought to hasten towards
Saint-Merry; that if there was anything to do, and any "bousingot"
to track out, it was in that quarter.
From time to time, parties re-sole their old insults.
In 1832, the word bousingot formed the interim between the
word jacobin, which had become obsolete, and the word demagogue
which has since rendered such excellent service.
The sergeant gave orders to turn to the left, towards the
watershed of the Seine.
If it had occurred to them to separate into two squads, and
to go in both directions, Jean Valjean would have been captured.
All hung on that thread.
It is probable that the instructions of the prefecture, foreseeing
a possibility of combat and insurgents in force, had forbidden
the patrol to part company. The patrol resumed its march, leaving
Jean Valjean behind it. Of all this movement, Jean Valjean perceived
nothing, except the eclipse of the lantern which suddenly wheeled
round.
Before taking his departure, the Sergeant, in order to acquit
his policeman's conscience, discharged his gun in the direction
of Jean Valjean.
The detonation rolled from echo to echo in the crypt, like
the rumbling of that titanic entrail.
A bit of plaster which fell into the stream and splashed up
the water a few paces away from Jean Valjean, warned him that
the ball had struck the arch over his head.
Slow and measured steps resounded for some time on the timber
work, gradually dying away as they retreated to a greater distance;
the group of black forms vanished, a glimmer of light oscillated
and floated, communicating to the vault a reddish glow which grew
fainter, then disappeared; the silence became profound once more,
the obscurity became complete, blindness and deafness resumed
possession of the shadows; and Jean Valjean, not daring to stir
as yet, remained for a long time leaning with his back against
the wall, with straining ears, and dilated pupils, watching the
disappearance of that phantom patrol.
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