2022 Les Miserables
geant of artillery having exasperated the troop, the soldiers
had, for several minutes, been lying flat on their stomachs
behind the line of paving-stones which they had erected,
and, in order to supply the forced silence of the piece, which
was quiet while its service was in course of reorganization,
they had opened fire on the barricade. The insurgents did
not reply to this musketry, in order to spare their ammuni-
tion The fusillade broke against the barricade; but the street,
which it filled, was terrible.
Jean Valjean stepped out of the cut, entered the street,
traversed the storm of bullets, walked up to the mattress,
hoisted it upon his back, and returned to the barricade.
He placed the mattress in the cut with his own hands.
He fixed it there against the wall in such a manner that the
artillery-men should not see it.
That done, they awaited the next discharge of grape-
shot.
It was not long in coming.
The cannon vomited forth its package of buck-shot with
a roar. But there was no rebound. The effect which they had
foreseen had been attained. The barricade was saved.
‘Citizen,’ said Enjolras to Jean Valjean, ‘the Republic
thanks you.’
Bossuet admired and laughed. He exclaimed:
‘It is immoral that a mattress should have so much pow-
er. Triumph of that which yields over that which strikes
with lightning. But never mind, glory to the mattress which
annuls a cannon!’