Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 2061
CHAPTER XVII
MORTUUS PATER FILIUM
MORITURUM EXPECTAT
Marius dashed out of the barricade, Combeferre followed
him. But he was too late. Gavroche was dead. Combeferre
brought back the basket of cartridges; Marius bore the
child.
‘Alas!’ he thought, ‘that which the father had done for
his father, he was requiting to the son; only, Thenardier had
brought back his father alive; he was bringing back the child
dead.’
When Marius re-entered the redoubt with Gavroche
in his arms, his face, like the child, was inundated with
blood.
At the moment when he had stooped to lift Gavroche, a
bullet had grazed his head; he had not noticed it.
Courfeyrac untied his cravat and with it bandaged Mar-
ius’ brow.
They laid Gavroche on the same table with Mabeuf, and
spread over the two corpses the black shawl. There was
enough of it for both the old man and the child.