He went up the incline and turned to the right; when he had gone round
the corner of the gallery the distant light from the trap disappeared,
the curtain of darkness fell on him again, and he became blind once
more. For all that he advanced as rapidly as he could; Marius's arms
were passed round life neck, and his feet hung down behind. He held
the two arms with one hand and felt the wall with the other. Marius's
cheek touched his and was glued to it, as it was bloody, and he felt
a warm stream which came from Marius drip on him and penetrate his
clothing. Still, a warm breath in his ear, which touched the wounded
man's mouth, indicated respiration, and consequently life. The passage
in which Jean Valjean was now walking was not so narrow as the former,
and he advanced with some difficulty. The rain of the previous night
had not yet passed off, and formed a small torrent in the centre,
and he was forced to hug the wall in order not to lave his feet in
the water. He went on thus darkly, like a creature of the night
groping in the invisible, and subterraneously lost in the veins of
gloom. Still, by degrees, either that a distant grating sent a little
floating light into this opaque mist, or that his eyes grew accustomed
to the obscurity, he regained some vague vision, and began to notice
confusedly, at one moment the wall he was touching, at another the
vault under which he was passing. The pupil is dilated at night and
eventually finds daylight in it, in the same way as the soul is dilated
in misfortune and eventually finds God in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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