For weeks since they had had nothing to eat. Even the odour of onion had gone, that strong odour which revealed the settlement from afar across the country; now there was nothing but the smell of old vaults, the dampness of holes in which nothing lives.
Depuis des semaines qu'on ne mangeait plus, l'odeur de l'oignon elle-meme était partie, cette odeur forte qui annonçait le coron de loin, dans la campagne; maintenant, il n'avait que l'odeur des vieux caveaux, l'humidité des trous ou rien ne vit.