Page 1431 - les-miserables

fighting or of keeping quiet. There were back shops where
workingmen were made to swear that they would hasten
into the street at the first cry of alarm, and ‘that they would
fight without counting the number of the enemy.’ This en-
gagement once entered into, a man seated in the corner of
the wine-shop ‘assumed a sonorous tone,’ and said, ‘You
understand! You have sworn!’
Sometimes they went up stairs, to a private room on the
first floor, and there scenes that were almost masonic were
enacted. They made the initiated take oaths to render ser-
vice to himself as well as to the fathers of families. That was
the formula.
In the tap-rooms, ‘subversive’ pamphlets were read. They
treated the government with contempt, says a secret report
of that time.
Words like the following could be heard there:—
‘I don’t know the names of the leaders. We folks shall
not know the day until two hours beforehand.’ One work-
man said: ‘There are three hundred of us, let each contribute
ten sous, that will make one hundred and fifty francs with
which to procure powder and shot.’
Another said: ‘I don’t ask for six months, I don’t ask for
even two. In less than a fortnight we shall be parallel with
the government. With twenty-five thousand men we can face
them.’ Another said: ‘I don’t sleep at night, because I make
cartridges all night.’ From time to time, men ‘of bourgeois
appearance, and in good coats’ came and ‘caused embar-
rassment,’ and with the air of ‘command,’ shook hands with
the most important, and then went away. They never stayed

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