It was no longer the meadows, the odour of the grass, the song of larks, the great yellow sun; it was the fallen, inundated mine, the stinking gloom, the melancholy dripping of this cellar where they had been groaning for so many days.
Ce n'étaient plus les blés, ni l'odeur des herbes, ni le chant des alouettes, ni le grand soleil jaune; c'étaient la mine éboulée, inondée, la nuit puante, l'égouttement funebre de ce caveau ou ils râlaient depuis tant de jours.