Les Misérables Volume I Book 7 Chapter 8 - An Entrance by Favor

In which a man of esteemed local repute, bearing the heavy mantle of his many civic virtues and labours, finds himself summoned to the austere tribunal where justice weighs heavily and silently upon all who enter. There, in chambers lined with sombre tokens of history and justice, he wrestles with the dread that coils within, torn between flight and the inexorable path that draws him forth.