The dark Saint Martin Canal, into which the footpad
pushes the passer-by with his elbow as he snatches his
victim's watch, traverses the Tender and empties itself into
the Lignon. Poulmann begs a ribbon bow; one is tempted
to present a shepherdess's crook to Papavoine. Through
the straw of the sabot one sees gossamer wings appearing
on horrible heels. The miracle of the roses is performed
for Goton. All fatalities combined have for result a flower.
A vague Rambouillet Palace is superposed upon the forbidding
silhouette of the Salpêtrière. The leprous wall of
evil, suddenly covered with blossoms, affords a pendant to
the wreath of Juliet. The sonnets of Petrarch, that flight
of the ideal which soars in the shadow of souls, venture
through the twilight towards this abjection and suffering,
attracted by one knows not what obscure affinity, even as
a swarm of bees is sometimes seen humming over a dungheap
from which arises, perceptible to the bees alone and
mingling with the miasms, the perfume of a hidden flower.
The gemoniae are Elysian. The chimerical thread of celestial
unions floats 'neath the darkest vault of the human
Erebus and binds despairing hearts to hearts that are
monstrous. Manon through the infinite sends to Cartouche a
smile ineffable as that with which Everallin entranced Fingal.
From one pole of misery to the other, from one gehenna to
another, from the galleys to the brothel, tenebrous
mouths wildly exchange the kiss of azure.

It is night. The monstrous ditch of Clamart opens.
From it arises a miasm, a phosphorescent glow. It shines
and flickers in two separate tarts; it takes shape, the