Page 1987 - les-miserables

CHAPTER III

LIGHT AND SHADOW

Enjolras had been to make a reconnaissance. He had
made his way out through Mondetour lane, gliding along
close to the houses.
The insurgents, we will remark, were full of hope. The
manner in which they had repulsed the attack of the pre-
ceding night had caused them to almost disdain in advance
the attack at dawn. They waited for it with a smile. They had
no more doubt as to their success than as to their cause.
Moreover, succor was, evidently, on the way to them. They
reckoned on it. With that facility of triumphant prophecy
which is one of the sources of strength in the French com-
batant, they divided the day which was at hand into three
distinct phases. At six o’clock in the morning a regiment
‘which had been labored with,’ would turn; at noon, the in-
surrection of all Paris; at sunset, revolution.
They heard the alarm bell of Saint-Merry, which had not
been silent for an instant since the night before; a proof that
the other barricade, the great one, Jeanne’s, still held out.
All these hopes were exchanged between the different
groups in a sort of gay and formidable whisper which re-

1987