Chapter 116 The Beginning of the Six Charades

Jean Valjean found himself in some kind of garden, which was quite large and strange in appearance, like a deserted garden to be watched on winter nights.The garden has a rectangular shape, with a path at the bottom, a row of big birch trees beside the road, and tall bushes at the corners. In the middle of the garden, there is a very tall tree isolated in a spacious open space, and there are several other fruit trees. The branches are curled and scattered, like a big thorn bush, and there are several vegetable fields, a melon field, the moon is shining under the glass melon cover, and there is a water storage pit.A few stone benches are scattered here and there, and there seem to be black moss marks on the benches.Small trees with colored dark branches are planted on both sides of the vertical and horizontal paths.The road was half weeds, half moss.

Next to Jean Valjean was the ruined house from which he had slipped, and a pile of sticks, behind which stood a figure carved in stone, against the wall, with a disfigured face, peeking out in the darkness. A shapeless face. The dilapidated house was dilapidated, the doors, windows and walls of several rooms had collapsed, and one of them was full of things, like a shed of waste. The big building facing Zhibi Street on one side and Piccubs Street on the other side faces the garden, and has two curved fronts.These two fronts facing inwards are more gloomy than the two facing outwards.All windows are fully ironed.Not a single light in sight.The windows on the upper floors were covered with ventilation hoods, just like the windows in prisons.The shadow of one facade was being cast on the other, and was covering the garden like a black cloth.

Besides, there were no more houses in sight.The end of the garden was lost in mist and night.However, some criss-crossing walls can still be seen in the mist, as if there are some gardens outside this garden, and some low roofs of Polonceau Street can also be seen. A wilder and more secluded place than this garden cannot be imagined.There was no one in the garden, simply because of the time of day, but the place, even at noon, did not look like a place for people to play. The first thing Jean Valjean had to do was to find the shoes and put them on, and then led Cosette into the shed.People who run away always think that their hiding place is not secluded enough.The child was also thinking about Madame Thenardier, and he curled up as instinctively as he did.

Cosette, trembling, pressed close to him.They heard the clamor of patrols searching the cul-de-sac and the street, the butts of their guns banging against stones, Javert shouting at the spies who were on guard, cursing and saying something, but not a word could be heard. . After a quarter of an hour, the storm-like roar gradually faded away.Jean Valjean held his breath. He kept his hand lightly on Cosette's mouth. Besides, the solitude in which he was then was so unnaturally peaceful that he was not disturbed in the slightest by the tumult so menacingly near at hand.It seemed as though the walls to his left and right were made of the dumb stones of which the Holy Book speaks.

Suddenly, in this quiet environment, a new sound sounded, a beautiful and indescribably fairy sound from the sky, which was in perfect contrast to the roaring sound heard earlier.It was a hymn from the dark and stillness of the night, a celestial music of harmony and prayer, the voices of women, but in which both The pure voices of the virgins, and the innocent voices of children, are heard, and it is not human music, but like a sound that the newborn continues to hear and the dying have heard.The singing came from the tallest building in the garden.Just as the roaring of the devils gradually faded away, it seemed that the chorus of angels flew in the night.

Cosette knelt down with Jean Valjean. They did not know what it was, they did not know where they were, and yet they both, old man and child, penitent and innocent, felt compelled to kneel. The sound also had this characteristic: in spite of its sound, it gave the impression that the building was empty.It seems to be a kind of extraterrestrial singing coming from an empty building. Jean Valjean listened to the singing, and thought of nothing more.What he saw was no longer the night, but a blue sky.He felt that his heart was fluttering and fluttering. The singing stopped.It may have lasted for a considerable period of time.But Jean Valjean could not tell.When people are in trance, they always feel that time passes quickly.

Everything fell silent again.There was no sound inside or outside the walls.The shuddering and reassuring voices fell silent.A few withered grasses on the wall made a slightly sad sound in the wind.