1990 Les Miserables
CHAPTER IV
MINUS FIVE, PLUS ONE
After the man who decreed the ‘protest of corpses’ had
spoken, and had given this formula of their common soul,
there issued from all mouths a strangely satisfied and ter-
rible cry, funereal in sense and triumphant in tone:
‘Long live death! Let us all remain here!’
‘Why all?’ said Enjolras.
‘All! All!’
Enjolras resumed:
‘The position is good; the barricade is fine. Thirty men
are enough. Why sacrifice forty?’
They replied:
‘Because not one will go away.’
‘Citizens,’ cried Enjolras, and there was an almost irritat-
ed vibration in his voice, ‘this republic is not rich enough in
men to indulge in useless expenditure of them. Vain-glory
is waste. If the duty of some is to depart, that duty should be
fulfilled like any other.’
Enjolras, the man-principle, had over his co-religionists
that sort of omnipotent power which emanates from the ab-
solute. Still, great as was this omnipotence, a murmur arose.