2068 Les Miserables
rest and at hand. Swords and pistols in your belts. Twenty
men to the barricade. Six ambushed in the attic windows,
and at the window on the first floor to fire on the assailants
through the loop-holes in the stones. Let not a single worker
remain inactive here. Presently, when the drum beats the
assault, let the twenty below stairs rush to the barricade.
The first to arrive will have the best places.’
These arrangements made, he turned to Javert and said:
‘I am not forgetting you.’
And, laying a pistol on the table, he added:
‘The last man to leave this room will smash the skull of
this spy.’
‘Here?’ inquired a voice.
‘No, let us not mix their corpses with our own. The little
barricade of the Mondetour lane can be scaled. It is only
four feet high. The man is well pinioned. He shall be taken
thither and put to death.’
There was some one who was more impassive at that mo-
ment than Enjolras, it was Javert. Here Jean Valjean made
his appearance.
He had been lost among the group of insurgents. He
stepped forth and said to Enjolras:
‘You are the commander?’
‘ Ye s .’
‘You thanked me a while ago.’
‘In the name of the Republic. The barricade has two sav-
iors, Marius Pontmercy and yourself.’
‘Do you think that I deserve a recompense?’
‘Certainly.’