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THE SHOT WHICH MISSES NOTHING AND KILLS NO ONE
The assailants' fire continued.
Musketry and grape-shot alternated, but without committing
great ravages, to tell the truth.
The top alone of the Corinthe facade suffered; the window
on the first floor, and the attic window in the roof, riddled
with buck-shot and biscaiens, were slowly losing their shape.
The combatants who had been posted there had been obliged
to withdraw.
However, this is according to the tactics of barricades; to
fire for a long while, in order to exhaust the insurgents' ammunition,
if they commit the mistake of replying.
When it is perceived, from the slackening of their fire, that
they have no more powder and ball, the assault is made. Enjolras
had not fallen into this trap; the barricade did not reply.
At every discharge by platoons, Gavroche puffed out his cheek
with his tongue, a sign of supreme disdain.
"Good for you," said he, "rip up the cloth.
We want some lint."
Courfeyrac called the grape-shot to order for the little effect
which it produced, and said to the cannon:
"You are growing diffuse, my good fellow."
One gets puzzled in battle, as at a ball.
It is probable that this silence on the part of the redoubt
began to render the besiegers uneasy, and to make them fear some
unexpected incident, and that they felt the necessity of getting
a clear view behind that heap of paving-stones, and of knowing
what was going on behind that impassable wall which received blows
without retorting.
The insurgents suddenly perceived a helmet glittering in the
sun on a neighboring roof. A fireman had placed his back against
a tall chimney, and seemed to be acting as sentinel.
His glance fell directly down into the barricade.
"There's an embarrassing watcher," said Enjolras.
Jean Valjean had returned Enjolras' rifle, but he had his
own gun.
Without saying a word, he took aim at the fireman, and, a
second later, the helmet, smashed by a bullet, rattled noisily
into the street. The terrified soldier made haste to disappear.
A second observer took his place.
This one was an officer.
Jean Valjean, who had re-loaded his gun, took aim at the newcomer
and sent the officer's casque to join the soldier's. The officer
did not persist, and retired speedily.
This time the warning was understood. No one made his appearance
thereafter on that roof; and the idea of spying on the barricade
was abandoned.
"Why did you not kill the man?"
Bossuet asked Jean Valjean.
Jean Valjean made no reply.
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