Page 1859 - les-miserables

The little Mondetour barricade, hidden behind the wine-
shop building, was not visible. The two barricades united
formed a veritable redoubt. Enjolras and Courfeyrac had
not thought fit to barricade the other fragment of the Rue
Mondetour which opens through the Rue des Precheurs an
issue into the Halles, wishing, no doubt, to preserve a pos-
sible communication with the outside, and not entertaining
much fear of an attack through the dangerous and difficult
street of the Rue des Precheurs.
With the exception of this issue which was left free, and
which constituted what Folard in his strategical style would
have termed a branch and taking into account, also, the
narrow cutting arranged on the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the
interior of the barricade, where the wine-shop formed a sa-
lient angle, presented an irregular square, closed on all sides.
There existed an interval of twenty paces between the grand
barrier and the lofty houses which formed the background
of the street, so that one might say that the barricade rested
on these houses, all inhabited, but closed from top to bot-
tom.
All this work was performed without any hindrance, in
less than an hour, and without this handful of bold men see-
ing a single bear-skin cap or a single bayonet make their
appearance. The very bourgeois who still ventured at this
hour of riot to enter the Rue Saint-Denis cast a glance at the
Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught sight of the barricade, and re-
doubled their pace.
The two barricades being finished, and the flag run up,
a table was dragged out of the wine-shop; and Courfeyrac

1859