Les Misérables v. 4/5: The Idyll and the Epic Read online

  CHAPTER VI.

  ENJOLRAS AND HIS LIEUTENANTS.

  Shortly after this period, Enjolras made a sort of mysterious census,as if in the view of a possible event. All were assembled in council atthe Café Musain. Enjolras spoke, mingling a few half-enigmatical butsignificant metaphors with his words:

  "It behooves us to know where we are, and on whom we can count. Ifwe want combatants we must make them; and there is no harm in havingweapons to strike with. Passers-by always run a greater chance of beinggored when there are bulls in the road than when there are none. So,suppose we count the herd. How many are there of us? This task mustnot be deferred till to-morrow, for revolutionists must always be in ahurry, as progress has no time to lose. Let us distrust the unexpected,and not allow ourselves to be taken unawares; we have to go over allthe seams which we have sewn, and see whether they hold; and the jobmust be done to-day. Courfeyrac, you will see the Polytechnic students,for this is their day for going out. Feuilly, you will see those ofLa Glacière, and Combeferre has promised to go to the Picpus. Bahorelwill visit the Estrapade. Prouvaire, the masons are growing lukewarm,so you will obtain us news from the lodge in the Rue de Grenelle St.Honoré. Joly will go to Dupuytren's clinical lecture, and feel thepulse of the medical scholars, while Bossuet will stroll round thecourts and talk with the law students. I take the Cougourde myself."

  "That is all settled," said Courfeyrac.

  "No. There is another very important matter."

  "What is it?" Combeferre asked

  "The Barrière du Maine."

  Enjolras was absorbed in thought for a moment, and then continued,--

  "At the Barrière du Maine are stone-cutters and painters, anenthusiastic body, but subject to chills. I do not know what has beenthe matter with them for some time past, but they are thinking of otherthings. They are dying out, and they spend their time in playing atdominoes. It is urgent to go and talk to them rather seriously, andthey meet at Richefeu's, where they may be found between twelve and oneo'clock. Those ashes must be blown up, and I had intended to intrustthe task to that absent fellow Marius, who is all right, but no longercomes here. I need some one for the Barrière du Maine, and have no oneleft."

  "Why, I am here," said Grantaire.

  "You?"

  "I."

  "You indoctrinate republicans? you warm up chilled hearts in the nameof principles?"

  "Why not?"

  "Can you possibly be fit for anything?"

  "Well, I have a vague ambition to be so."

  "You believe in nothing."

  "I believe in you."

  "Grantaire, will you do a service?"

  "Any one; clean your boots."

  "Well, do not meddle in our affairs, sleep off your absinthe."

  "You are an ungrateful fellow, Enjolras!"

  "You be the man capable of going to the Barrière du Maine!"

  "I am capable of going down the Rue des Grès, crossing St. Michael'sSquare, cutting through the Rue Monsieur le Prince, taking the Ruede Vaugirard, passing the Carmelites, turning into the Rue d'Assas,arriving at the Rue Cherche Midi, leaving behind me the Council of War,stepping across the Rue des Vieilles-Tuileries, following the mainroad, going through the gate and entering Richefeu's. I am capable ofall that, and so are my shoes."

  "Do you know the men at Richefeu's?"

  "Not much."

  "What will you say to them?"

  "Talk to them about Robespierre, Danton, and principles."

  "You!"

  "I. You really do not do me justice, for when I make up my mind toit I am terrible. I have read Prudhomme, I know the social contract,and have by heart my constitution of the year II. 'The liberty of thecitizen ends where the liberty of another citizen begins.' Do you takeme for a brute? I have an old assignat in my draw,--The Rights of Man,the sovereignty of the people, sapristi! I am a bit of a Hébertistmyself. I can discourse splendid things for six hours at a stretch,watch in hand."

  "Be serious," said Enjolras.

  "I am stern," Grantaire answered.

  Enjolras reflected for a few seconds, and then seemed to have made uphis mind.

  "Grantaire," he said gravely, "I consent to try you. You shall go tothe Barrière du Maine.".

  Grantaire lodged in a furnished room close to the Café Musain. He wentaway and returned five minutes after--he had been home to put on awaistcoat of the Robespierre cut.

  "Red," he said on entering, and looked intently at Enjolras.

  Then he energetically turned back on his chest the two scarlet pointsof the waistcoat, and, walking up to Enjolras, whispered in his ear,"Never fear!" He boldly cocked his hat, and went out. A quarter of anhour after, the back-room of the Café Musain was deserted, and all theFriends of the A. B. C. were going in various directions about theirbusiness. Enjolras, who had reserved the Cougourde for himself, wasthe last to leave. The Members of the Aix Cougourde who were in Parisassembled at that period on the plain of Issy, in one of the abandonedquarries so numerous on that side of Paris.

  Enjolras, while walking toward the meeting-place, took a mental reviewof the situation. The gravity of the events was visible, for whenthe facts which are the forerunners of latent social disease moveheavily, the slightest complication checks and impedes their action. Itis a phenomenon from which collapse and regeneration issue. Enjolrascaught a glimpse of a luminous upheaving behind the dark clouds ofthe future. Who knew whether the moment might not be at hand when thepeople would seize their rights once again? What a splendid spectacle!the revolution majestically taking possession of France once more,and saying to the world, "To be continued to-morrow!" Enjolras wassatisfied, for the furnace was aglow, and he had at that self-samemoment a gunpowder train of friends scattered over Paris. He mentallycompared Combeferre's philosophic and penetrating eloquence, Feuilly'scosmopolitan enthusiasm, Courfeyrac's humor, Bahorel's laugh, JeanProuvaire's melancholy, Joly's learning, and Bossuet's sarcasms,to a species of electrical flash, which produced fire everywheresimultaneously. All were at work, and most certainly the resultwould respond to the effort. That was good, and it made him think ofGrantaire. "Ah," he said to himself, "the Barrière du Maine is hardlyat all out of my way, so suppose I go on to Richefeu's and see whatGrantaire is doing, and how far he has got."

  It was striking one by the Vaugirard church when Enjolras reachedRichefeu's. He pushed open the door, went in, folded his arms, andlooked about the room, which was full of tables, men, and tobaccosmoke. A voice was audible in this fog, sharply interrupted by anothervoice,--it was Grantaire talking with some opponent of his. Grantairewas seated opposite another man, at a marble table covered with sawdustand studded with dominoes. He smote the marble with his fist, and thisis what Enjolras heard:--

  "Double six."

  "A four."

  "The pig! I haven't any left."

  "You are dead. A two."

  "A six."

  "A three."

  "An ace."

  "My set."

  "Four points."

  "With difficulty."

  "It is yours."

  "I made an enormous mistake."

  "You are getting on all right."

  "Fifteen."

  "Seven more."

  "That makes me twenty-two [pensively]. Twenty-two!"

  "You did not expect the double six. Had I played it at first it wouldhave changed the whole game."

  "Double two."

  "An ace."

  "An ace! well, a five!"

  "I haven't one."

  "You played first, I believe?"

  "Yes."

  "A blank."

  "What luck he has! Ah! you have luck; [a long reverie] a two."

  "An ace."

  "I've neither a five nor an ace. It is stupid for you."

  "Domino!"

  "Oh, the deuce!"

  BOOK II.

  ÉPONINE.