When it was rejected by his publisher in 1857, Hugo tried to integrate it into Petites Epopées (later La Légende des siècles), eventually announcing that it would form a companion work, along with Dieu.
His intention, apparently, was to invest the storming of the Bastille with a religious significance; after making various efforts, he ceased work on it in 1862 and returned to novels.
Satan is defeated and thrown into the Abyss ("Depuis quatre mille ans il tombait dans l'abîme"),[1] but Evil is communicated to Man through the agency of Lilith-Isis.
[2] He struck him first with a brazen nail, Then with a stave, then with a stone; Then he hid his complices three 'neath the earth Where my hand, opened in the dark, picked them up.
In "Tenebres" (II:XXI), Barabbas curses this impure world which liberated him instead of Christ, and claims that we would have chosen to die if offered the choice.