diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 56b89dd49..9c8c00769 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@
       back to text fails. They now make it clearer what part of the tree
       was problematic, and what the tree should have looked like.
     * Fixed the pkg-config file, which should now be usable
+    * Fix handling of backslash-escaping in strings and regular expressions
+      in the lens language. We used to handle constructs like "\\" and
+      /\\\\/ incorrectly. (Issue #495)
   - API changes
     * add function aug_ns_attr to allow iterating through a nodeset
       quickly. See examples/dump.c for an example of how to use them
diff --git a/lenses/tests/test_httpd.aug b/lenses/tests/test_httpd.aug
index c860860fc..ce74b059e 100644
--- a/lenses/tests/test_httpd.aug
+++ b/lenses/tests/test_httpd.aug
@@ -156,10 +156,10 @@ test Httpd.lns get c5 =
     { "arg" = "agent" }
   }
 
-let c7 = "LogFormat \"%v:%p %h %l %u %t \\"%r\\" %>s %O \\"%{Referer}i\\" \\"%{User-Agent}i\\"\" vhost_combined\n"
+let c7 = "LogFormat \"%v:%p %h %l %u %t \\\"%r\\\" %>s %O \\\"%{Referer}i\\\" \\\"%{User-Agent}i\\\"\" vhost_combined\n"
 test Httpd.lns get c7 =
   { "directive" = "LogFormat"
-    { "arg" = "\"%v:%p %h %l %u %t \\"%r\\" %>s %O \\"%{Referer}i\\" \\"%{User-Agent}i\\"\"" }
+    { "arg" = "\"%v:%p %h %l %u %t \\\"%r\\\" %>s %O \\\"%{Referer}i\\\" \\\"%{User-Agent}i\\\"\"" }
     { "arg" = "vhost_combined" }
   }
 
diff --git a/lenses/tests/test_json.aug b/lenses/tests/test_json.aug
index d18b03b26..cb61cef10 100644
--- a/lenses/tests/test_json.aug
+++ b/lenses/tests/test_json.aug
@@ -489,8 +489,8 @@ test lns get s_commented =
 
 (* Test lns
      Allow escaped quotes, backslashes and tabs/newlines *)
-test lns get "{ \"filesystem\": \"ext3\\" \\\\ \t \r\n SEC_TYPE=\\"ext2\" }\n" =
+test lns get "{ \"filesystem\": \"ext3\\\" \\\\ \t \r\n SEC_TYPE=\\\"ext2\" }\n" =
   { "dict"
     { "entry" = "filesystem"
-      { "string" = "ext3\\" \\\\ \t \r\n SEC_TYPE=\\"ext2" } }
+      { "string" = "ext3\\\" \\\\ \t \r\n SEC_TYPE=\\\"ext2" } }
     {  } }
diff --git a/src/lexer.l b/src/lexer.l
index 519f01344..78d4a89a0 100644
--- a/src/lexer.l
+++ b/src/lexer.l
@@ -87,20 +87,20 @@ ARROW  ->
 
 <INITIAL>
 {
-  \"([^\"]|\\\")*\"   {
+  \"([^\\\"]|\\(.|\n))*\"   {
                loc_update(yylloc, yytext, yyleng);
                yylval->string = unescape(yytext+1, yyleng-2, STR_ESCAPES);
                return DQUOTED;
   }
 
-  \/([^/]|\\\/)*\/i {
+  \/([^\\\/]|\\(.|\n))*\/i {
                loc_update(yylloc, yytext, yyleng);
                yylval->regexp.nocase = 1;
                yylval->regexp.pattern = regexp_literal(yytext+1, yyleng-3);
                return REGEXP;
   }
 
-  \/([^/]|\\\/)*\/ {
+  \/([^\\\/]|\\(.|\n))*\/ {
                loc_update(yylloc, yytext, yyleng);
                yylval->regexp.nocase = 0;
                yylval->regexp.pattern = regexp_literal(yytext+1, yyleng-2);
diff --git a/tests/modules/pass_lexer.aug b/tests/modules/pass_lexer.aug
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..703f4e8eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/modules/pass_lexer.aug
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+module Pass_Lexer =
+
+  (* Some tests for corner cases for the lexer; they will all lead to
+   * syntax errors if we are not lexing correctly *)
+
+  let s1 = "\\"
+  let s2 = "\
+"
+
+  let r1 = /\\\\/
+
+  let slash = "/" (* Just here to cause trouble if the lexer does not
+                   * properly terminate the above expressions *)