Page 2088 - les-miserables

CHAPTER XXI

THE HEROES

All at once, the drum beat the charge.
The attack was a hurricane. On the evening before, in
the darkness, the barricade had been approached silently,
as by a boa. Now, in broad daylight, in that widening street,
surprise was decidedly impossible, rude force had, more-
over, been unmasked, the cannon had begun the roar, the
army hurled itself on the barricade. Fury now became skill.
A powerful detachment of infantry of the line, broken at
regular intervals, by the National Guard and the Munici-
pal Guard on foot, and supported by serried masses which
could be heard though not seen, debauched into the street at
a run, with drums beating, trumpets braying, bayonets lev-
elled, the sappers at their head, and, imperturbable under
the projectiles, charged straight for the barricade with the
weight of a brazen beam against a wall.
The wall held firm.
The insurgents fired impetuously. The barricade once
scaled had a mane of lightning flashes. The assault was so
furious, that for one moment, it was inundated with assail-
ants; but it shook off the soldiers as the lion shakes off the

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