“During the day a battue of the sewers had been ordered. Three platoons of officers and sewer-men explored the subterranean streets of Paris; the first, the right bank, the second, the left bank, the third, in the city.
“The officers were armed with carbines, clubs, swords, and daggers.
“That which was at this moment directed upon Jean Valjean was the lantern of the patrol of the right bank.
“This patrol had just visited the crooked gallery and the three blind alleys which are beneath the Rue du Cadran. While they were taking their candle to the bottom of these blind alleys, Jean Valjean had come to the entrance of the gallery upon his way, had found it narrower than the principal passage, and had not entered it. He had passed beyond. The policemen, on coming out from the Cadran gallery, had thought they heard the sound of steps in the direction of the belt sewer. It was, in fact, Jean Valjean’s steps. The sergeant in command of the patrol lifted his lantern, and the squad began to look into the mist in the direction whence the sound came.
“Jean Valjean saw these goblins form a kind of circle. These mastiffs’ heads drew near each other and whispered.
“The result of this council held by the watch-dogs was, that they had been mistaken, that there had been no noise, that there was nobody there, that it was needless to trouble themselves with the belt sewer.
NARROW ESCAPE FROM CAPTURE.
“The sergeant gave the order to file left towards the descent to the Seine. If they had conceived the idea of dividing into two squads and going in both directions, Jean Valjean would have been caught. That hung by this thread. It is probable that the instructions from the prefecture, foreseeing the possibility of a combat and that the insurgents might be numerous, forbade the patrol to separate. The patrol resumed its march, leaving Jean Valjean behind. Of all these movements Jean Valjean perceived nothing except the eclipse of the lantern, which suddenly turned back.
“Slow and measured steps resounded upon the floor for some time, more and more deadened by the progressive increase of the distance; the group of black forms sank away; a glimmer oscillated and floated, making a ruddy circle in the vault, which decreased, then disappeared; the silence became deep again; the obscurity became again complete; blindness and deafness resumed possession of the darkness; and Jean Valjean, not yet daring to stir, stood for a long time with his back to the wall, his ear intent and eye dilated, watching the vanishing of that phantom patrol.
“He resumed his march, and after a time felt that he was entering water, and that he had under his feet pavement no longer, but mud.