Page 1847 - les-miserables

CHAPTER III

NIGHT BEGINS TO

DESCEND UPON

GRANTAIRE

The spot was, in fact, admirably adapted, the entrance to
the street widened out, the other extremity narrowed togeth-
er into a pocket without exit. Corinthe created an obstacle,
the Rue Mondetour was easily barricaded on the right and
the left, no attack was possible except from the Rue Saint-
Denis, that is to say, in front, and in full sight. Bossuet had
the comprehensive glance of a fasting Hannibal.
Terror had seized on the whole street at the irruption of
the mob. There was not a passer-by who did not get out of
sight. In the space of a flash of lightning, in the rear, to right
and left, shops, stables, area-doors, windows, blinds, attic
skylights, shutters of every description were closed, from the
ground floor to the roof. A terrified old woman fixed a mat-
tress in front of her window on two clothes-poles for drying
linen, in order to deaden the effect of musketry. The wine-
shop alone remained open; and that for a very good reason,

1847