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Co-cocorico!My nose is in tears, my friend Bugeaud, lend me thy
gendarmes that I may say a word to them. With a blue capote
and a chicken in his shako, here’s the banlieue, co-cocorico.They pressed each other’s hands.
‘That is Gavroche,’ said Enjolras.
‘He is warning us,’ said Combeferre.
A hasty rush troubled the deserted street; they beheld
a being more agile than a clown climb over the omnibus,
and Gavroche bounded into the barricade, all breathless,
saying:—
‘My gun! Here they are!’
An electric quiver shot through the whole barricade, and
the sound of hands seeking their guns became audible.
‘Would you like my carbine?’ said Enjolras to the lad.
‘I want a big gun,’ replied Gavroche.
And he seized Javert’s gun.
Two sentinels had fallen back, and had come in almost
at the same moment as Gavroche. They were the sentinels
from the end of the street, and the vidette of the Rue de
la Petite-Truanderie. The vidette of the Lane des Precheurs
had remained at his post, which indicated that nothing was
approaching from the direction of the bridges and Halles.
The Rue de la Chanvrerie, of which a few paving-stones
alone were dimly visible in the reflection of the light pro-
jected on the flag, offered to the insurgents the aspect of a
vast black door vaguely opened into a smoke.