Page 1853 - les-miserables

sals made on her account. She was satisfied after the manner
of that Arab woman, who, having received a box on the ear
from her husband, went to complain to her father, and cried
for vengeance, saying: ‘Father, you owe my husband affront
for affront.’ The father asked: ‘On which cheek did you re-
ceive the blow?’ ‘On the left cheek.’ The father slapped her
right cheek and said: ‘Now you are satisfied. Go tell your
husband that he boxed my daughter’s ears, and that I have
accordingly boxed his wife’s.’
The rain had ceased. Recruits had arrived. Workmen
had brought under their blouses a barrel of powder, a basket
containing bottles of vitriol, two or three carnival torches,
and a basket filled with fire-pots, ‘left over from the King’s
festival.’ This festival was very recent, having taken place on
the 1st of May. It was said that these munitions came from
a grocer in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine named Pepin. They
smashed the only street lantern in the Rue de la Chanvrerie,
the lantern corresponding to one in the Rue Saint-Denis,
and all the lanterns in the surrounding streets, de Monde-
tour, du Cygne, des Precheurs, and de la Grande and de la
Petite-Truanderie.
Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac directed every-
thing. Two barricades were now in process of construction
at once, both of them resting on the Corinthe house and
forming a right angle; the larger shut off the Rue de la Chan-
vrerie, the other closed the Rue Mondetour, on the side of
the Rue de Cygne. This last barricade, which was very nar-
row, was constructed only of casks and paving-stones. There
were about fifty workers on it; thirty were armed with guns;

1853