1Who was in the coffin? The reader knows. Jean Valjean.

2Jean Valjean had arranged things so that he could exist there, and he could almost breathe.

3It is a strange thing to what a degree security of conscience confers security of the rest. Every combination thought out by Jean Valjean had been progressing, and progressing favorably, since the preceding day. He, like Fauchelevent, counted on Father Mestienne. He had no doubt as to the end. Never was there a more critical situation, never more complete composure.

4The four planks of the coffin breathe out a kind of terrible peace. It seemed as though something of the repose of the dead entered into Jean Valjean’s tranquillity.

5From the depths of that coffin he had been able to follow, and he had followed, all the phases of the terrible drama which he was playing with death.

6Shortly after Fauchelevent had finished nailing on the upper plank, Jean Valjean had felt himself carried out, then driven off. He knew, from the diminution in the jolting, when they left the pavements and reached the earth road. He had divined, from a dull noise, that they were crossing the bridge of Austerlitz. At the first halt, he had understood that they were entering the cemetery; at the second halt, he said to himself:—

7“Here is the grave.”

8Suddenly, he felt hands seize the coffin, then a harsh grating against the planks; he explained it to himself as the rope which was being fastened round the casket in order to lower it into the cavity.

9Then he experienced a giddiness.

10The undertaker’s man and the grave-digger had probably allowed the coffin to lose its balance, and had lowered the head before the foot. He recovered himself fully when he felt himself horizontal and motionless. He had just touched the bottom.

11He had a certain sensation of cold.

12A voice rose above him, glacial and solemn. He heard Latin words, which he did not understand, pass over him, so slowly that he was able to catch them one by one:—

13“Qui dormiunt in terræ pulvere, evigilabunt; alii in vitam æternam, et alii in approbrium, ut videant semper.”

14A child’s voice said:—

15“De profundis.”

16The grave voice began again:—

17“Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine.”

18The child’s voice responded:—

19“Et lux perpetua luceat ei.”

20He heard something like the gentle patter of several drops of rain on the plank which covered him. It was probably the holy water.

21He thought: “This will be over soon now. Patience for a little while longer. The priest will take his departure. Fauchelevent will take Mestienne off to drink. I shall be left. Then Fauchelevent will return alone, and I shall get out. That will be the work of a good hour.”

22The grave voice resumed

23“Requiescat in pace.”

24And the child’s voice said:—

25“Amen.”

26Jean Valjean strained his ears, and heard something like retreating footsteps.

27“There, they are going now,” thought he. “I am alone.”

28All at once, he heard over his head a sound which seemed to him to be a clap of thunder.

29It was a shovelful of earth falling on the coffin.

30A second shovelful fell.

31One of the holes through which he breathed had just been stopped up.

32A third shovelful of earth fell.

33Then a fourth.

34There are things which are too strong for the strongest man. Jean Valjean lost consciousness.