s."

However, he was furious over his triggerless pistol. He went from one to
another, demanding: "A gun, I want a gun! Why don't you give me a gun?"

"Give you a gun!" said Combeferre.

"Come now!" said Gavroche, "why not? I had one in 1830 when we had a
dispute with Charles X."

Enjolras shrugged his shoulders.

"When there are enough for the men, we will give some to the children."

Gavroche wheeled round haughtily, and answered:--

"If you are killed before me, I shall take yours."

"Gamin!" said Enjolras.

"Greenhorn!" said Gavroche.

A dandy who had lost his way and who lounged past the end of the street
created a diversion! Gavroche shouted to him:--

"Come with us, young fellow! well now, don't we do anything for this old
country of ours?"

The dandy fled.

CHAPTER V--PREPARATIONS

The journals of the day which said that that nearly impregnable
structure, of the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, as they call
it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact is,
that it did not exceed an average height of six or seven feet. It was
built in such a manner that the combatants could, at their will, either
disappear behind it or dominate the barrier and even scale its crest by
means of a quadruple row of paving-stones placed on top of each other
and arranged as steps in the interior. On the outside, the front of the
barricade, composed of piles of paving-stones and casks bound together
by beams and planks, which were entangled in the wheels of Anceau's dray
and of the overturned omnibus, had a bristling and inextricable aspect.

An aperture large enough to allow a man to pass through had been made
between the wall of the houses and the extremity of the barricade which
was furthest from the wine-shop, so that an exit was possible at this
point. The pole of the omnibus was placed upright and held up with
ropes, and a red flag, fastened to this pole, floated over the
barricade.

The little Mondetour barricade, hidden behind the wine-shop building,
was not visible. The two barricades united formed a veritable redoubt.
Enjolras and Courfeyrac had not thought fit to barricade the other
fragment of the Rue Mondetour which opens through the Rue des Precheurs
an issue into the Halles, wishing, no doubt, to preserve a possible
communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear of
an attack through the dangerous and difficult street of the Rue des
Precheurs.

With