Describe the theme of the passage.
be sure to use details from the passage to support your answer. write your answer
on the lines provided.

at the moment when the ray of moonlight superposed itself, so to speak, upon that
inward radiance, the sleeping bishop seemed as in a glory. it remained, however,
gentle and veiled in an ineffable half-light. that moon in the sky, that slumbering
nature, that garden without a quiver, that house which was so calm, the hour,
the moment, the silence, added some solemn and unspeakable quality to the
venerable repose of this man, and enveloped in a sort of serene and majestic
aureole that white hair, those closed eyes, that face in which all was hope and all
was confidence, that head of an old man, and that slumber of an infant.
there was something almost divine in this man, who was thus august, without
being himself aware of it.
jean valjean was in the shadow, and stood motionless, with his iron candlestick
in his hand, frightened by this luminous old man. never had he beheld anything
like this. this confidence terrified him. the moral world has no grander spectacle
than this: a troubled and uneasy conscience, which has arrived on the brink of an
evil action, contemplating the slumber of the just. that slumber in that isolation,
and with a neighbor like himself, had about it something sublime, of which he was
vaguely but imperiously conscious.
no one could have told what was passing within him, not even himself. in order
to attempt to form an idea of it, it is necessary to think of the most violent of
things in the presence of the most gentle. even on his visage it would have
been impossible to distinguish anything with certainty. it was a sort of haggard
astonishment. he gazed at it, and that was all. but what was his thought? it would
have been impossible to divine it. what was evident was, that he was touched and
astounded. but what was the nature of this emotion?
the gleam of the moon rendered confusedly visible the crucifix over the
chimney-piece, which seemed to be extending its arms to both of them, with
a benediction for one and pardon for the other.
suddenly jean valjean replaced his cap on his brow; then stepped rapidly past
the bed, without glancing at the bishop, straight to the cupboard, which he saw
near the head; he raised his iron candlestick as though to force the lock; the
key was there; he opened it; the first thing which presented itself to him was the
basket of silverware; he seized it, traversed the chamber with long strides, without
taking any precautions and without troubling himself about the noise, gained the
door, re-entered the oratory, opened the window, seized his cudgel, bestrode the
window-sill of the ground-floor, put the silver into his knapsack, threw away the
basket, crossed the garden, leaped over the wall like a tiger, and fled.