Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 2041
same time that the two guns were furiously attacking the
redoubt from the Rue de la Chanvrerie, two other cannons,
trained one from the Rue Saint-Denis, the other from the
Rue Aubry-le-Boucher, were riddling the Saint-Merry bar-
ricade. The four cannons echoed each other mournfully.
The barking of these sombre dogs of war replied to each
other.
One of the two pieces which was now battering the bar-
ricade on the Rue de la Chanvrerie was firing grape-shot,
the other balls.
The piece which was firing balls was pointed a little high,
and the aim was calculated so that the ball struck the ex-
treme edge of the upper crest of the barricade, and crumbled
the stone down upon the insurgents, mingled with bursts of
grape-shot.
The object of this mode of firing was to drive the insur-
gents from the summit of the redoubt, and to compel them
to gather close in the interior, that is to say, this announced
the assault.
The combatants once driven from the crest of the bar-
ricade by balls, and from the windows of the cabaret by
grape-shot, the attacking columns could venture into the
street without being picked off, perhaps, even, without be-
ing seen, could briskly and suddenly scale the redoubt, as
on the preceding evening, and, who knows? take it by sur-
prise.
‘It is absolutely necessary that the inconvenience of those
guns should be diminished,’ said Enjolras, and he shouted:
‘Fire on the artillery-men!’