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CHAPTER II
WHAT IS TO BE DONE
IN THE ABYSS IF ONE
DOES NOT CONVERSE
Sixteen years count in the subterranean education of in-
surrection, and June, 1848, knew a great deal more about it
than June, 1832. So the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvre-
rie was only an outline, and an embryo compared to the two
colossal barricades which we have just sketched; but it was
formidable for that epoch.
The insurgents under the eye of Enjolras, for Marius no
longer looked after anything, had made good use of the
night. The barricade had been not only repaired, but aug-
mented. They had raised it two feet. Bars of iron planted in
the pavement resembled lances in rest. All sorts of rubbish
brought and added from all directions complicated the ex-
ternal confusion. The redoubt had been cleverly made over,
into a wall on the inside and a thicket on the outside.
The staircase of paving-stones which permitted one to
mount it like the wall of a citadel had been reconstructed.