CHAPTER IV.
AN ENDEAVOR TO CONSOLE THE WIDOW HUCHELOUP.
Bahorel, delighted with the barricade, exclaimed, "How well the streetlooks décolleté!"
Courfeyrac, while gradually demolishing the public-house, tried toconsole the widowed landlady.
"Mother Hucheloup, were you not complaining the other day that you hadbeen summoned by the police, because Gibelotte shook a counterpane outof the window?"
"Yes, my good Monsieur Courfeyrac. Ah! good gracious! are you goingto put that table too in your horror? Yes, and the Government alsocondemned me to a fine of one hundred francs on account of a flower-potthat fell out of the garret into the street. Is that not abominable?"
"Well, Mother Hucheloup, we are going to avenge you."
Mother Hucheloup did not exactly see the advantage accruing to her fromthe reparation made her. She was satisfied after the fashion of theArab woman who, having received a box on the ears from her husband,went to complain to her father, crying vengeance, and saying, "Father,you owe my husband affront for affront." The father asked, "On whichcheek did you receive the blow?" "On the left cheek." The father boxedher right cheek, and said, "Now you must be satisfied. Go and tell yourhusband that he buffeted my daughter, but I have buffeted his wife."The rain had ceased, and recruits began to arrive. Artisans broughtunder their blouses a barrel of gunpowder, a hamper containing carboysof vitriol, two or three carnival torches, and a basket full of lamps,"remaining from the king's birthday," which was quite recent, as itwas celebrated on May 1. It was said that this ammunition was sent bya grocer in the Faubourg St. Antoine named Pépin. The only lantern inthe Rue de la Chanvrerie, and all those in the surrounding streets,were broken. Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac directed everything,and now two barricades were erected simultaneously, both of which weresupported by Corinth and formed a square; the larger one closed the Ruede la Chanvrerie, and the smaller the Rue Mondétour on the side of theRue du Cygne. This latter barricade, which was very narrow, was merelymade of barrels and paving-stones. There were about fifty workmenthere, of whom three were armed with guns, for on the road they hadborrowed a gunsmith's entire stock.
Nothing could be stranger or more motley than this group: one had asleeved waistcoat, a cavalry sabre, and a pair of holster pistols;another was in shirt-sleeves, with a round hat, and a powder-flaskhung at his side; while a third was cuirassed with nine sheets of graypaper, and was armed with a saddler's awl. There was one who shouted,"Let us exterminate to the last, and die on the point of our bayonet!"This man had no bayonet. Another displayed over his coat the belts andpouch of a National Guard, with these words sewn in red worsted on thecover, "Public order." There were many muskets, bearing the numbersof legions, few hats, no neckties, a great many bare arms, and a fewpikes; add to this all ages, all faces, short pale youths, and bronzedlaborers at the docks. All were in a hurry, and while assisting eachother, talked about the possible chances,--that they were sure of oneregiment, and Paris would rise. There were terrible remarks, with whicha sort of cordial joviality was mingled; they might have been taken forbrothers, though they did not know one another's names. Great dangershave this beauty about them, that they throw light on the fraternity ofstrangers.
A fire was lighted in the kitchen, and men were melting in abullet-mould, bowls, spoons, forks, and all the pewter articles ofthe public-house. They drank while doing this, and caps and slugs laypell-mell on the table with glasses of wine. In the billiard-room MameHucheloup, Matelote, and Gibelotte, variously affected by terror,--asone was brutalized by it, another had her breath stopped, while thethird was awakened,--were tearing up old sheets and making lint; threeinsurgents helped them,--three hairy, bearded, and moustached fellows,who pulled the linen asunder with the fingers of a sempstress and madethem tremble. The tall man, whom Courfeyrac, Combeferre, and Enjolrashad noticed as he joined the band at the corner of the Rue desBilletes, was working at the small barricade and making himself useful;Gavroche was working at the large one; and as for the young man who hadwaited for Courfeyrac at his lodgings and asked after M. Marius, hedisappeared just about the time when the omnibus was overthrown.
Gavroche, who was perfectly radiant, had taken the arrangements onhimself; he came, went, ascended, descended, went up again, rustledand sparkled. He seemed to be there for the encouragement of all. Hadhe a spur? Certainly, in his misery. Had he wings? Certainly, in hisjoy. Gavroche was a whirlwind; he was seen incessantly, and constantlyheard, and he filled the air, being everywhere at once. He was a sortof almost irritating ubiquity, and it was impossible to stop with him.The enormous barricade felt him on its crupper; he annoyed the idlers,excited the slothful, reanimated the fatigued, vexed the thoughtful,rendered some gay and gave others time to breathe, set some in apassion and all in motion; he piqued a student and stung a workman;he halted, then started again, flew over the turmoil and the efforts,leaped from one to the other, murmured, buzzed, and harassed the wholeteam; he was the fly of the immense revolutionary coach. Perpetualmovement was in his little arms, and perpetual clamor in his littlelungs.
"Push ahead; more paving-stones, more barrels, more vehicles! Whereare there any? We want a hodload of plaster to stop up this hole. Yourbarricade is very small, and must mount. Put everything into it; smashup the house; a barricade is Mother Gibou's tea. Hilloh! there's aglass door."
This made the workmen exclaim,--
"A glass door! What would you have us do with that, tubercule?"
"Hercules yourselves," Gavroche retorted; "a glass door in a barricadeis excellent, for though it does not prevent the attack, it makes itawkward to take it. Have you never boned apples over a wall on whichthere was broken glass? A glass door cuts the corns of the NationalGuards when they try to climb up the barricade. By Job! glass istreacherous. Well, you fellows have no very bright imagination."
He was furious with his useless pistol, and went from one to the other,saying, "A gun! I want a gun! Why don't you give me a gun?"
"A gun for you?" said Combeferre.
"Well, why not?" Gavroche answered; "I had one in 1830, when wequarrelled with Charles X."
Enjolras shrugged his shoulders.
"When all the men have guns we will give them to boys."
Gavroche turned firmly, and answered him,--
"If you are killed before me I will take yours."
"Gamin!" said Enjolras.
"Puppy!" said Gavroche.
A dandy lounging past the end of the street created a diversion;Gavroche shouted to him,--
"Come to us, young man! What, will you do nothing for your old country?"
The dandy fled.