Chapter 293 Four Powder Kegs

Marius, who had been hiding at the corner of the Rue de Mondour, had witnessed the first confrontation, and was terrified and lost his mind.But it did not take long for him to shake off that intense and unfounded fascination which might be called a blunder, and face the imminent danger, the enigmatic and tragic death of M. Mabeuf, the sacrifice of Bahoret, the ancient Feyrac's cry for help, the threats to the boy, and the many friends to be rescued or avenged for him, all his old doubts vanished, and he plunged into hand-to-hand combat with his two pistols in hand.He saved Gavroche with the first shot, Courfeyrac with the second.

Hearing the continuous gunfire and the howling of the security police, the attacking troops climbed up the barricades. At this time, a large group of security policemen, regular troops, and suburban National Guards appeared on the top of the barricades, holding rifles and showing most of their bodies.They had covered two-thirds of the rampart, but they did not jump into the barricade, as if they were still hesitating for fear of plotting.They looked at the dark barricades as if they were looking into a lion's den.The twilight of the torches revealed only their spikes, their high-feathered caps, and the upper half of their frightened and irritated faces.

Marius had no arms.He dropped the two empty pistols, but he saw the keg of powder by the hall door. Just as he turned his face to look in this direction, a soldier was also aiming at him.At this time, a person suddenly jumped up, grabbed the barrel of the gun with his hand, and blocked the muzzle of the gun.This was the boy worker in the corduroy trousers.The shot rang out, and the bullet passed through the workman's hand, and perhaps hit him, for he fell, and missed Marius.It all happened in the smoke, so it was hard to see.Marius was rushing into the hall, hardly knowing that he was passing.He only vaguely saw the barrel of the gun aimed at him and the hand blocking the muzzle, and heard the sound of the gun.But at that moment, what people see is changing rapidly, and the attention will not stay on a certain thing.People only feel in a trance that their experience is getting darker and darker, and all impressions are blurred.

The rebels were not a little surprised, but they were not afraid; they gathered together.Enjolras said loudly: "Wait! Don't shoot indiscriminately!" Indeed, they would hurt their own people when the chaos started.Most people have already gone upstairs, guarding the windows on the second floor and the top floor, condescending, facing the attackers.The most resolute, along with Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Jean Prouvel, and Combeferre, lined up majestically before the wall of the row of houses at the bottom of the street, facing the barricade. Go up to the layers of soldiers and troops.

All this was done without haste, with a seriousness and aggression rarely seen before the melee.Both sides have their guns pointed at each other, aimed and ready to fire, and the distance between each other is close enough to talk to each other.At this critical moment, an officer in high epaulets raised his saber and cried: "lay down your weapon!" "Let go!" said Enjolras. Gunshots erupted from both sides at the same time, and the smoke filled the air, and nothing could be seen. Amid the acrid and choking smoke, the faint moans of the dying and wounded were heard. After the smoke cleared, there were fewer soldiers on both sides, but they remained where they were, reloading silently.

Suddenly, a personal voice roared fiercely: "Go away, or I'll blow up this barricade!" Everyone looked towards the place where the sound came from. Marius rushed into the hall first, picked up the barrel of gunpowder, and taking advantage of the smoke of the gunpowder at that time and the dim mist that permeated the circle, he slipped along the barricade until he came to the stone cage surrounding the torch.He drew the torch, placed the powder-keg on a pile of stones, pressed it down, and the bottom of the keg burst open with astonishing ease, all when Marius stooped and stood together. completed within the time.At this time, the National Guards, security police, officers, and soldiers huddled together on the other side of the barricade all looked at Marius in horror. The countenance, lit by the flames with a determined will to die, stretched out the flames of the torch towards the monstrous mass beside the bottomed powder-keg, and uttered this dreadful cry:

"Go away, or I'll blow up this barricade!" Marius stood on the barricade after the eighty-year-old man, the image of the new revolution following the old one. "Blow up this barricade!" said a sergeant. "You will not live!" Marius replied: "Of course I can't live." At the same time he held the torch to the barrel of powder. But there was no one on the barricade.Leaving their wounded behind, the invading officers and soldiers fled towards the end of the street like a swarm of bees, and disappeared into the night again.A scene of each escaped in distress.

The barricades were broken.