Page 2047 - les-miserables

than they. He played a fearful game of hide and seek with
death; every time that the flat-nosed face of the spectre ap-
proached, the urchin administered to it a fillip.
One bullet, however, better aimed or more treacherous
than the rest, finally struck the will-o’-the-wisp of a child.
Gavroche was seen to stagger, then he sank to the earth.
The whole barricade gave vent to a cry; but there was some-
thing of Antaeus in that pygmy; for the gamin to touch the
pavement is the same as for the giant to touch the earth;
Gavroche had fallen only to rise again; he remained in a
sitting posture, a long thread of blood streaked his face, he
raised both arms in the air, glanced in the direction whence
the shot had come, and began to sing:

“Je suis tombe par terre, “I have fallen to the earth,
C’est la faute a Voltaire; ’Tis the fault of Voltaire;
Le nez dans le ruisseau, With my nose in the gutter,
C’est la faute a ... ‘ ’Tis the fault of ... ‘

He did not finish. A second bullet from the same marks-
man stopped him short. This time he fell face downward on
the pavement, and moved no more. This grand little soul
had taken its flight.

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