Note 4 — Chapter X · WHAT FURTHER BEFEL LOUISE IN THE CATACOMBS OF THE BIÈVRE
Reading edition
‘The very air is redolent of mortality. The decay of ages, in some of the coffins, leaves but the food for that lamp which is now burning above us. Bras d’Acier is an economist; and many of the quiet inhabitants of the cemetery become more useful to mankind in death than they ever were in lifetime. They form his flambeaux.’4