Page 2108 - les-miserables

only by a dead man leaning out of his window; he had on
his right the rather low barricade, which shut off the Rue de
la Petite Truanderie; to pass this obstacle seemed easy, but
beyond the crest of the barrier a line of bayonets was vis-
ible. The troops of the line were posted on the watch behind
that barricade. It was evident, that to pass the barricade was
to go in quest of the fire of the platoon, and that any head
which should run the risk of lifting itself above the top of
that wall of stones would serve as a target for sixty shots.
On his left he had the field of battle. Death lurked round the
corner of that wall.
What was to be done?
Only a bird could have extricated itself from this pre-
dicament.
And it was necessary to decide on the instant, to devise
some expedient, to come to some decision. Fighting was go-
ing on a few paces away; fortunately, all were raging around
a single point, the door of the wine-shop; but if it should oc-
cur to one soldier, to one single soldier, to turn the corner of
the house, or to attack him on the flank, all was over.
Jean Valjean gazed at the house facing him, he gazed
at the barricade at one side of him, then he looked at the
ground, with the violence of the last extremity, bewildered,
and as though he would have liked to pierce a hole there
with his eyes.
By dint of staring, something vaguely striking in such
an agony began to assume form and outline at his feet, as
though it had been a power of glance which made the thing
desired unfold. A few paces distant he perceived, at the base

2108 Les Miserables