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FROM THE RUE PLUMET TO THE QUARTIER SAINT-DENIS
The voice which had summoned Marius through the twilight to
the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, had produced on him
the effect of the voice of destiny.
He wished to die; the opportunity presented itself; he knocked
at the door of the tomb, a hand in the darkness offered him the
key.
These melancholy openings which take place in the gloom before
despair, are tempting. Marius thrust aside the bar which had so
often allowed him to pass, emerged from the garden, and said:
"I will go."
Mad with grief, no longer conscious of anything fixed or solid
in his brain, incapable of accepting anything thenceforth of fate
after those two months passed in the intoxication of youth and
love, overwhelmed at once by all the reveries of despair, he had
but one desire remaining, to make a speedy end of all.
He set out at rapid pace.
He found himself most opportunely armed, as he had Javert's
pistols with him.
The young man of whom he thought that he had caught a glimpse,
had vanished from his sight in the street.
Marius, who had emerged from the Rue Plumet by the boulevard,
traversed the Esplanade and the bridge of the Invalides, the Champs
Elysees, the Place Louis XV., and reached the Rue de Rivoli. The
shops were open there, the gas was burning under the arcades,
women were making their purchases in the stalls, people were eating
ices in the Cafe Laiter, and nibbling small cakes at the English
pastry-cook's shop.
Only a few posting-chaises were setting out at a gallop from
the Hotel des Princes and the Hotel Meurice.
Marius entered the Rue Saint-Honore through the Passage Delorme.
There the shops were closed, the merchants were chatting in front
of their half-open doors, people were walking about, the street
lanterns were lighted, beginning with the first floor, all the
windows were lighted as usual.
There was cavalry on the Place du Palais-Royal.
Marius followed the Rue Saint-Honore. In proportion as he
left the Palais-Royal behind him, there were fewer lighted windows,
the shops were fast shut, no one was chatting on the thresholds,
the street grew sombre, and, at the same time, the crowd increased
in density.
For the passers-by now amounted to a crowd.
No one could be seen to speak in this throng, and yet there
arose from it a dull, deep murmur.
Near the fountain of the Arbre-Sec, there were "assemblages",
motionless and gloomy groups which were to those who went and
came as stones in the midst of running water.
At the entrance to the Rue des Prouvaires, the crowd no longer
walked. It formed a resisting, massive, solid, compact, almost
impenetrable block of people who were huddled together, and conversing
in low tones.
There were hardly any black coats or round hats now, but smock
frocks, blouses, caps, and bristling and cadaverous heads. This
multitude undulated confusedly in the nocturnal gloom. Its whisperings
had the hoarse accent of a vibration.
Although not one of them was walking, a dull trampling was
audible in the mire. Beyond this dense portion of the throng,
in the Rue du Roule, in the Rue des Prouvaires, and in the extension
of the Rue Saint-Honore, there was no longer a single window in
which a candle was burning. Only the solitary and diminishing
rows of lanterns could be seen vanishing into the street in the
distance.
The lanterns of that date resembled large red stars, hanging
to ropes, and shed upon the pavement a shadow which had the form
of a huge spider. These streets were not deserted.
There could be descried piles of guns, moving bayonets, and
troops bivouacking.
No curious observer passed that limit.
There circulation ceased.
There the rabble ended and the army began.
Marius willed with the will of a man who hopes no more.
He had been summoned, he must go.
He found a means to traverse the throng and to pass the bivouac
of the troops, he shunned the patrols, he avoided the sentinels.
He made a circuit, reached the Rue de Bethisy, and directed
his course towards the Halles.
At the corner of the Rue des Bourdonnais, there were no longer
any lanterns.
After having passed the zone of the crowd, he had passed the
limits of the troops; he found himself in something startling.
There was no longer a passer-by, no longer a soldier, no longer
a light, there was no one; solitude, silence, night, I know not
what chill which seized hold upon one.
Entering a street was like entering a cellar.
He continued to advance.
He took a few steps.
Some one passed close to him at a run.
Was it a man?
Or a woman?
Were there many of them? he could not have told. It had passed
and vanished.
Proceeding from circuit to circuit, he reached a lane which
he judged to be the Rue de la Poterie; near the middle of this
street, he came in contact with an obstacle.
He extended his hands. It was an overturned wagon; his foot
recognized pools of water, gullies, and paving-stones scattered
and piled up. A barricade had been begun there and abandoned.
He climbed over the stones and found himself on the other
side of the barrier. He walked very near the street-posts, and
guided himself along the walls of the houses.
A little beyond the barricade, it seemed to him that he could
make out something white in front of him. He approached, it took
on a form.
It was two white horses; the horses of the omnibus harnessed
by Bossuet in the morning, who had been straying at random all
day from street to street, and had finally halted there, with
the weary patience of brutes who no more understand the actions
of men, than man understands the actions of Providence.
Marius left the horses behind him.
As he was approaching a street which seemed to him to be the
Rue du Contrat-Social, a shot coming no one knows whence, and
traversing the darkness at random, whistled close by him, and
the bullet pierced a brass shaving-dish suspended above his head
over a hairdresser's shop. This pierced shaving-dish was still
to be seen in 1848, in the Rue du Contrat-Social, at the corner
of the pillars of the market.
This shot still betokened life.
From that instant forth he encountered nothing more.
The whole of this itinerary resembled a descent of black steps.
Nevertheless, Marius pressed forward.
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