by Victor Hugo
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE VULTURE BECOMES PREY.
We must lay a stress upon a psychological fact peculiar to barricades,for nothing which characterizes this surprising war of streets oughtto be omitted. Whatever the internal tranquillity to which we havejust referred may be, the barricade does not the less remain a visionfor those who are inside it There is an apocalypse in a civil war, allthe darkness of the unknown world is mingled with these stern flashes,revolutions are sphinxes, and any one who has stood behind a barricadebelieves that he has gone through a dream. What is felt at these spots,as we have shown in the matter of Marius, and whose consequences weshall see, is more and less than life. On leaving a barricade, a manno longer knows what he has seen; he may have been terrible, but he isignorant of the fact. He has been surrounded there by combating ideaswhich possessed human faces, and had his head in the light of futurity.There were corpses laid low and phantoms standing upright; and thehours were colossal, and seemed hours of eternity. A man has lived indeath, and shadows have passed. What was it? He has seen hands on whichwas blood; it was a deafening din, but at the same time a startlingsilence: there were open mouths that cried, and other open mouths whichwere silent, and men were in smoke, perhaps in night. A man fancies hehas touched the sinister dripping of unknown depths, and he looks atsomething red which he has in his nails, but he no longer recollectsanything.
Let us return to the Rue de la Chanvrerie. Suddenly, between twodischarges, the distant sound of a clock striking was heard.
"It is midday," said Combeferre.
The twelve strokes had not died out ere Enjolras drew himself up to hisfull height and hurled the loud cry from the top of the barricade,--
"Take up the paving-stones into the house, and line the windows withthem. One half of you to the stones, the other half to the muskets.There is not a moment to lose."
A party of sappers, with their axes on their shoulders, had justappeared in battle-array at the end of the street. This could onlybe the head of a column; and of what column? Evidently the columnof attack; for the sappers ordered to demolish the barricade alwaysprecede the troops appointed to escalade it. It was plain that themoment was at hand which M. Clermont Tonnerre called in 1822 "a strongpull."
Enjolras's order was carried out with that correct speed peculiar toships and barricades, the only two battle-fields whence escape isimpossible. In less than a minute two thirds of the paving-stones whichEnjolras had ordered to be piled up against the door of Corinth werecarried to the first-floor and attic, and before a second minute hadpassed these paving-stones, artistically laid on one another, walledup one half of the window. A few spaces carefully arranged by Feuilly,the chief constructor, allowed the gun-barrels to pass through. Thisarmament of the windows was the more easily effected because thegrape-shot had ceased. The two cannon were now firing solid shot at thecentre of the barricade, in order to make a hole, and if possible abreach, for the assault. When the stones intended for the final assaultwere in their places, Enjolras carried to the first-floor the bottleshe had placed under the table on which Mabœuf lay.
"Who will drink that?" Bossuet asked him.
"They will," Enjolras answered.
Then the ground-floor window was also barricaded, and the iron barswhich closed the door at night were held in readiness. The fortresswas complete; the barricade was the rampart, and the wine-shop thekeep. With the paving-stones left over the gap was stopped up. As thedefenders of a barricade are always obliged to save their ammunition,and the besiegers are aware of the fact, the latter combine theirarrangements with a sort of irritating leisure, expose themselvesbefore the time to the fire, though more apparently than in reality,and take their ease. The preparations for the attack are always madewith a certain methodical slowness, and after that comes the thunder.This slowness enabled Enjolras to revise and render everything perfect.He felt that since such men were about to die, their death must be amasterpiece. He said to Marius,--
"We are the two chiefs. I am going to give the final orders inside,while you remain outside and watch."
Marius posted himself in observation on the crest of the barricade,while Enjolras had the door of the kitchen, which it will be rememberedserved as ambulance, nailed up.
"No splashing on the wounded," he said.
He gave his final instructions in the ground-floor room in a sharp butwonderfully calm voice, and Feuilly listened and answered in the nameof all.
"At the first-floor hold axes ready to cut down the stairs. Have youthem?"
"Yes," Feuilly answered.
"How many?"
"Two axes and a crowbar."
"Very good. In all, twenty-six fighting men left. How many guns arethere?"
"Thirty-four."
"Eight too many. Keep those guns loaded like the others, and withinreach. Place your sabres and pistols in your belts. Twenty men tothe barricade. Six will ambush themselves in the garret and at thefirst-floor window, to fire on the assailants through the loop-holes inthe paving-stones. There must not be an idle workman here. Presently,when the drummer sounds the charge, the twenty men below will rush tothe barricade, and the first to arrive will be the best placed."
These arrangements made, he turned to Javert, and said to him,--
"I have not forgotten you."
And laying a pistol on the table he added,--
"The last man to leave here will blow out this spy's brains."
"Here?" a voice answered.
"No, let us not have this corpse near ours. It is easy to stride overthe small barricade in Mondétour Lane, as it is only four feet high.This man is securely bound, so lead him there and execute him."
Some one was at this moment even more stoical than Enjolras; it wasJavert. Here Jean Valjean appeared; he was mixed up with the group ofinsurgents, but stepped forward and said to Enjolras,--
"Are you the commander?"
"Yes."
"You thanked me just now."
"In the name of the Republic. The barricade has two saviors,--MariusPontmercy and yourself."
"Do you think that I deserve a reward?"
"Certainly."
"Well, then, I ask one."
"What is it?"
"To let me blow out that man's brains myself."
Javert raised his head, saw Jean Valjean, gave an imperceptible start,and said, "It is fair."
As for Enjolras, he was reloading his gun. He looked around him.
"Is there no objection?"
And he turned to Jean Valjean.
"Take the spy."
Jean Valjean took possession of Javert by seating himself on the end ofthe table. He seized the pistol, and a faint clink showed that he hadcocked it. Almost at the same moment the bugle-call was heard.
"Mind yourselves!" Marius shouted from the top of the barricade.
Javert began laughing that noiseless laugh peculiar to him, and,looking intently at the insurgents, said to them,--
"You are no healthier than I am."
"All outside," Enjolras cried.
The insurgents rushed tumultuously forth, and as they passed, Javertsmote them on the back, so to speak, with the expression, "We shallmeet again soon."