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PREPARATIONS
The journals of the day which said that that nearly impregnable
structure, of the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, as they
call it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken.
The fact is, that it did not exceed an average height of six
or seven feet. It was built in such a manner that the combatants
could, at their will, either disappear behind it or dominate the
barrier and even scale its crest by means of a quadruple row of
paving-stones placed on top of each other and arranged as steps
in the interior.
On the outside, the front of the barricade, composed of piles
of paving-stones and casks bound together by beams and planks,
which were entangled in the wheels of Anceau's dray and of the
overturned omnibus, had a bristling and inextricable aspect.
An aperture large enough to allow a man to pass through had
been made between the wall of the houses and the extremity of
the barricade which was furthest from the wine-shop, so that an
exit was possible at this point.
The pole of the omnibus was placed upright and held up with
ropes, and a red flag, fastened to this pole, floated over the
barricade.
The little Mondetour barricade, hidden behind the wine-shop
building, was not visible.
The two barricades united formed a veritable redoubt. Enjolras
and Courfeyrac had not thought fit to barricade the other fragment
of the Rue Mondetour which opens through the Rue des Precheurs
an issue into the Halles, wishing, no doubt, to preserve a possible
communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear
of an attack through the dangerous and difficult street of the
Rue des Precheurs.
With the exception of this issue which was left free, and
which constituted what Folard in his strategical style would have
termed a branch and taking into account, also, the narrow cutting
arranged on the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the interior of the barricade,
where the wine-shop formed a salient angle, presented an irregular
square, closed on all sides.
There existed an interval of twenty paces between the grand
barrier and the lofty houses which formed the background of the
street, so that one might say that the barricade rested on these
houses, all inhabited, but closed from top to bottom.
All this work was performed without any hindrance, in less
than an hour, and without this handful of bold men seeing a single
bear-skin cap or a single bayonet make their appearance. The very
bourgeois who still ventured at this hour of riot to enter the
Rue Saint-Denis cast a glance at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught
sight of the barricade, and redoubled their pace.
The two barricades being finished, and the flag run up, a
table was dragged out of the wine-shop; and Courfeyrac mounted
on the table. Enjolras brought the square coffer, and Courfeyrac
opened it. This coffer was filled with cartridges.
When the mob saw the cartridges, a tremor ran through the
bravest, and a momentary silence ensued.
Courfeyrac distributed them with a smile.
Each one received thirty cartridges.
Many had powder, and set about making others with the bullets
which they had run. As for the barrel of powder, it stood on a
table on one side, near the door, and was held in reserve.
The alarm beat which ran through all Paris, did not cease,
but it had finally come to be nothing more than a monotonous noise
to which they no longer paid any attention.
This noise retreated at times, and again drew near, with melancholy
undulations.
They loaded the guns and carbines, all together, without haste,
with solemn gravity.
Enjolras went and stationed three sentinels outside the barricades,
one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des Precheurs,
the third at the corner of the Rue de la Petite Truanderie.
Then, the barricades having been built, the posts assigned,
the guns loaded, the sentinels stationed, they waited, alone in
those redoubtable streets through which no one passed any longer,
surrounded by those dumb houses which seemed dead and in which
no human movement palpitated, enveloped in the deepening shades
of twilight which was drawing on, in the midst of that silence
through which something could be felt advancing, and which had
about it something tragic and terrifying, isolated, armed, determined,
and tranquil.
PREPARATIONS
The journals of the day which said that that nearly impregnable
structure, of the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, as they
call it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken.
The fact is, that it did not exceed an average height of six
or seven feet. It was built in such a manner that the combatants
could, at their will, either disappear behind it or dominate the
barrier and even scale its crest by means of a quadruple row of
paving-stones placed on top of each other and arranged as steps
in the interior.
On the outside, the front of the barricade, composed of piles
of paving-stones and casks bound together by beams and planks,
which were entangled in the wheels of Anceau's dray and of the
overturned omnibus, had a bristling and inextricable aspect.
An aperture large enough to allow a man to pass through had
been made between the wall of the houses and the extremity of
the barricade which was furthest from the wine-shop, so that an
exit was possible at this point.
The pole of the omnibus was placed upright and held up with
ropes, and a red flag, fastened to this pole, floated over the
barricade.
The little Mondetour barricade, hidden behind the wine-shop
building, was not visible.
The two barricades united formed a veritable redoubt. Enjolras
and Courfeyrac had not thought fit to barricade the other fragment
of the Rue Mondetour which opens through the Rue des Precheurs
an issue into the Halles, wishing, no doubt, to preserve a possible
communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear
of an attack through the dangerous and difficult street of the
Rue des Precheurs.
With the exception of this issue which was left free, and
which constituted what Folard in his strategical style would have
termed a branch and taking into account, also, the narrow cutting
arranged on the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the interior of the barricade,
where the wine-shop formed a salient angle, presented an irregular
square, closed on all sides.
There existed an interval of twenty paces between the grand
barrier and the lofty houses which formed the background of the
street, so that one might say that the barricade rested on these
houses, all inhabited, but closed from top to bottom.
All this work was performed without any hindrance, in less
than an hour, and without this handful of bold men seeing a single
bear-skin cap or a single bayonet make their appearance. The very
bourgeois who still ventured at this hour of riot to enter the
Rue Saint-Denis cast a glance at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught
sight of the barricade, and redoubled their pace.
The two barricades being finished, and the flag run up, a
table was dragged out of the wine-shop; and Courfeyrac mounted
on the table. Enjolras brought the square coffer, and Courfeyrac
opened it. This coffer was filled with cartridges.
When the mob saw the cartridges, a tremor ran through the
bravest, and a momentary silence ensued.
Courfeyrac distributed them with a smile.
Each one received thirty cartridges.
Many had powder, and set about making others with the bullets
which they had run. As for the barrel of powder, it stood on a
table on one side, near the door, and was held in reserve.
The alarm beat which ran through all Paris, did not cease,
but it had finally come to be nothing more than a monotonous noise
to which they no longer paid any attention.
This noise retreated at times, and again drew near, with melancholy
undulations.
They loaded the guns and carbines, all together, without haste,
with solemn gravity.
Enjolras went and stationed three sentinels outside the barricades,
one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des Precheurs,
the third at the corner of the Rue de la Petite Truanderie.
Then, the barricades having been built, the posts assigned,
the guns loaded, the sentinels stationed, they waited, alone in
those redoubtable streets through which no one passed any longer,
surrounded by those dumb houses which seemed dead and in which
no human movement palpitated, enveloped in the deepening shades
of twilight which was drawing on, in the midst of that silence
through which something could be felt advancing, and which had
about it something tragic and terrifying, isolated, armed, determined,
and tranquil.
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