1784 Les Miserables
it. At that moment the dragoons and the crowd touched.
The women fled in terror. What took place during that fatal
minute? No one can say. It is the dark moment when two
clouds come together. Some declare that a blast of trumpets
sounding the charge was heard in the direction of the Ar-
senal others that a blow from a dagger was given by a child
to a dragoon. The fact is, that three shots were suddenly dis-
charged: the first killed Cholet, chief of the squadron, the
second killed an old deaf woman who was in the act of clos-
ing her window, the third singed the shoulder of an officer;
a woman screamed: ‘They are beginning too soon!’ and all
at once, a squadron of dragoons which had remained in the
barracks up to this time, was seen to debouch at a gallop
with bared swords, through the Rue Bassompierre and the
Boulevard Bourdon, sweeping all before them.
Then all is said, the tempest is loosed, stones rain down,
a fusillade breaks forth, many precipitate themselves to the
bottom of the bank, and pass the small arm of the Seine,
now filled in, the timber-yards of the Isle Louviers, that vast
citadel ready to hand, bristle with combatants, stakes are
torn up, pistol-shots fired, a barricade begun, the young
men who are thrust back pass the Austerlitz bridge with the
hearse at a run, and the municipal guard, the carabineers
rush up, the dragoons ply their swords, the crowd disperses
in all directions, a rumor of war flies to all four quarters of
Paris, men shout: ‘To arms!’ they run, tumble down, flee, re-
sist. Wrath spreads abroad the riot as wind spreads a fire.