Page 2043 - les-miserables
P. 2043

CHAPTER XV



         GAVROCHE OUTSIDE






         Courfeyrac suddenly caught sight of some one at the
         base of the barricade, outside in the street, amid the bul-
         lets.
            Gavroche had taken a bottle basket from the wine-shop,
         had made his way out through the cut, and was quietly en-
         gaged in emptying the full cartridge-boxes of the National
         Guardsmen  who  had  been  killed  on  the  slope  of  the  re-
         doubt, into his basket.
            ‘What are you doing there?’ asked Courfeyrac.
            Gavroche raised his face:—
            ‘I’m filling my basket, citizen.’
            ‘Don’t you see the grape-shot?’
            Gavroche replied:
            ‘Well, it is raining. What then?’
            Courfeyrac shouted:—‘Come in!’
            ‘Instanter,’ said Gavroche.
            And with a single bound he plunged into the street.
            It will be remembered that Fannicot’s company had left
         behind it a trail of bodies. Twenty corpses lay scattered here
         and there on the pavement, through the whole length of the

                                                      2043
   2038   2039   2040   2041   2042   2043   2044   2045   2046   2047   2048