Chapter 117 Seven more charades

The evening wind picked up, which meant that it was around one or two o'clock in the morning.Poor Cosette said nothing.She was leaning against him, sitting on the ground, with her head on him, and Jean Valjean thought she was asleep.He looked down at her.Cosette's eyes were wide open, as if preoccupied, and Jean Valjean could not help feeling sad when he saw them. She was shaking all the time. "Do you want to sleep?" said Jean Valjean. "I'm cold." She replied. After a while, she said again: "Has she left yet?" "Who?" said Jean Valjean.

"Madame Thenardier." Jean Valjean had long since forgotten the method by which he had first silenced Cosette. "Ah!" he said, "she's gone. Don't be afraid." The child sighed, as if a stone had been lifted from her chest. The ground was damp, the sheds were all open, and the wind was getting colder.The old man took off his overcoat and wrapped it around Cosette. "So you're better off cold?" he said. "Much better, Dad!" "Wait a minute, then. I'll be right back." He got out of the broken shed and walked along the building, trying to find a safer place to hide.He saw several doors, but they were all closed.The windows downstairs are all iron bars.

He had just passed the corner at the inner end of the building when he saw before him some dome windows, still lighted.He stood in front of one such window and looked in on tiptoe.These windows opened into a rather large hall, with broad flagstones on the floor, pillars in the center, and vaulted ceilings, where little gleams of light and great shades of shadow interspersed.The light came from an oil lamp in the corner.There was no sound, no movement in the hall.However, looking carefully, he seemed to see something lying on the stone slab on the ground, which seemed to be a human body covered with a shroud.The thing lay straight on the ground, with its face facing the stone slab, and its arms stretched out to the left and right, forming a cross shape with its body. It didn't move at all, as if it was dead.The hideous thing seemed to have a rope around its neck, and it dragged along the stone slab like a snake.

The entire hall is looming in the dim lights, which is particularly frightening to look at. Jean Valjean often said afterwards that although he had seen the dead many times in his life, he had never seen a more chilling and terrible sight than this one. It is almost impossible to guess the mystery here.It was frightening enough if the thing was dead, and still more so if it might be alive. He had the guts to press his forehead against the windowpane to see if the thing was still moving.He looked at it for a while, and the more he looked, the more frightened he became, but the lying human figure didn't move at all.Suddenly, he felt that he was seized by an indescribable terror, and he had to flee.He fled back towards the shed, not daring to look back for a moment, he thought that as soon as he turned around, he would see the figure following him with big strides and claws.

He panicked and ran to the side of the broken house.Knees down, sweat dripping from the waist. Where is he?Who would have thought that such a ghostly place could exist in the center of Paris?What is that strange building?What a gloomy and mysterious building. Just now, the singing of angels was attracting people's souls in the dark. When people came, they suddenly showed this terrifying scene, promising to open the bright and splendid gate of heaven , but enjoy the shocking graves and graves!And it was indeed a building, a house with a street number on it!This is not a dream!He had to touch the stone bars on the wall to be confident.

The cold, anxiety, anxiety, and the night of terror really made him feverish, and thousands of thoughts lingered in his mind. He went up to Cosette, who had fallen asleep.