utpost had fallen back upon the barricades. The advanced posts of
the Rue de Clery and the Rue du Cadran had come back. They called over
the roll. Not one of those of the morning was missing.

They were, as we have said, about sixty combatants, and not a hundred,
as the Magnan report has stated.

From the upper extremity of the street where they were stationed it was
difficult to ascertain what was happening. They did not exactly know how
many barricades they were in the Rue Montorgueil between them and Saint
Eustache, whence the troops were coming. They only knew that their
nearest point of resistance was the double Mauconseil barricade, and
that, when all was at an end there, it would be their turn.

Denis had posted himself on the inner side of the barricade in such a
manner that half his body was above the top, and from there he watched.
The glimmer which came from the doorway of the wine-shop rendered his
gestures visible.

Suddenly he made a sign. The attack on the Mauconseil redoubt was
beginning.

The soldiers, in fact, after having some time hesitated before this
double wall of paving-stones, lofty, well-built, and which they supposed
was well defended, had ended by rushing upon it, and attacking it with
blows of their guns.

They were not mistaken. It was well defended. We have already said that
there were only six men in this barricade, the six workmen who had built
it. Of the six one only had three cartridges, the others had only two
shots to fire. These six men heard the regiment advancing and the roll
of the battery which was followed on it, and did not stir. Each remained
silent at his post of battle, the barrel of his gun between two
paving-stones. When the soldiers were within range they fired, and the
battalion replied.

"That is right. Rage away, Red Breeches," said, laughingly, the man who
had three shots to fire.

Behind them, the men of the Petit Carreau were crowded round Denis and
Jeanty Sarre, and leaning on the crest of their barricade, stretching
their necks towards the Mauconseil redoubt, they watched them like the
gladiators of the next combat.

The six men of this Mauconseil redoubt resisted the onslaught of the
battalion for nearly a quarter of an hour. They did not fire together,
"in order," one of them said, "to make the pleasure last the longer."
The pleasure of being killed for duty; a noble sentence in this
workman's mouth. They did not fall back into the adjoining streets