Par de rouges reflets de sacs et d'incendies.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Leurs ongles monstrueux, crispés sur des rapines,
Égratignent le pâle et triste continent.
In La Confiance du Marquis Fabrice the reality of the wine and the suggestion of the blood are very artfully mingled
Quelque chose de rouge entre les dalles fume,
Mais, si tiède que soit cette douteuse écume,
Assez de barils sont éventrés et crevés
Pour que ce soit du vin qui court les pavés.
Another remarkable feature of Hugo's literary art is the feeling for light and shade which it displays. He likes to wrap his poems in a physical atmosphere of brightness or gloom, corresponding to the sentiment which pervades them. How, for instance, in Les Orientales, that exquisite little gem, Sarah la Baigneuse, flashes and sparkles with light! How striking in La Fin de Satan is the contrast between the murky atmosphere in which the maker of crosses works and the bright sunshine in which Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem is bathed! With what consummate art the darkness of the Crucifixion is made to accentuate the horror of the event!