"It seemed as though he had just awakened from some strange sleep and found himself sliding down a slope in the middle of the night, on his feet, shivering, recoiling in vain, on the very brink of an abyss. In the gloom he distinctly saw an unknown man, a stranger, whom fate had mistaken for him and was shoving into the gulf in his place. For the gulf to be closed, someone had to fall in, he or the other. All he had to do was leave things alone."

 

Victor Hugo
Les Misérables