As she tossed herself about in insomnia, she had
seen the drowned man rise up before her; like Laurent she had writhed
in terror, and she had said as he had done, that she would no longer be
afraid, that she would no more experience such sufferings, when she had
her sweetheart in her arms.
This man and woman had experienced at the same hour, a sort of nervous
disorder which set them panting with terror. A consanguinity had become
established between them. They shuddered with the same shudder; their
hearts in a kind of poignant friendship, were wrung with the same
anguish. From that moment they had one body and one soul for enjoyment
and suffering.
This communion, this mutual penetration is a psychological and
physiological phenomenon which is often found to exist in beings who
have been brought into violent contact by great nervous shocks.
For over a year, Therese and Laurent lightly bore the chain riveted to
their limbs that united them. In the depression succeeding the acute
crisis of the murder, amidst the feelings of disgust, and the need for
calm and oblivion that had followed, these two convicts might fancy they
were free, that they were no longer shackled together by iron fetters.
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