Chapter 309 Nine using the poacher's skill and an infallible marksmanship that influenced the 1796 verdict

There was talk among the barricades.The cannon was about to start firing again.Under such a barrage of shells the barricade would collapse in a quarter of an hour, and it had to be weakened. Enjolras issued this order: "A mattress needs to be put in the gap." "There are no more mattresses," said Combeferre, "the wounded are lying on them." Jean Valjean, seated on a distant cornerstone, at the corner of the tavern, with his gun between his legs, had hitherto been quite indifferent to what had happened.He didn't seem to hear the soldiers around him saying, "Here's a gun that doesn't work."

At Enjolras' order, he rose to his feet. People remember that when they came to Machang Street to gather, they saw an old woman who put her mattress in front of the window to prevent stray bullets.It was an attic window on the roof of a seven-story building immediately outside the barricade.The mattress was placed horizontally, with its lower ends resting on two poles for drying clothes, and it was hung on two nails in the window frame of the attic by two ropes—it looked like two threads from a distance.The rope was clearly visible, as if two strands of hair were hanging in the air. "Who will lend me a double-action carbine?" said Jean Valjean.

Enjolras handed him his freshly loaded gun. Jean Valjean fired a shot at the attic. One of the two ropes hanging the cushions was broken. Now the mattress hangs from just one rope. Jean Valjean fired a second shot.The second rope struck the pane of the attic window, and the mattress slipped between the two poles and fell into the street. The whole barricade applauded. Everyone shouted: "There's a mattress." "Yes," said Combeferre, "but who will bring it in?" Indeed, the mattress fell on the outside of the barricade, between the attacker and the defender.By this time the death of the artillery sergeant had enraged the troops, and the soldiers had crouched behind the stone lines they had erected, and the guns had been silenced and needed to be rearranged, and they fired on the barricades.The insurgents ignored this platoon in order to save ammunition.The platoon of guns exploded on the barricade, and bullets flew across the street, which was very dangerous.

Jean Valjean went out through the gap, into the middle of the street, ran to the mattress under the rain of bullets, picked it up, and carried it back to the barricade. He himself put the mattress in the gap, against the wall, so that the artillerymen would not notice it. After finishing, everyone waited for the next bombardment. Not long to wait. There was a roar from the cannon, and a cloud of shot was fired, but there was no ricochet.The shells aborted on the mattresses, had the desired effect, and the barricades were saved. "Citizen," said Enjolras to Jean Valjean, "the Republic thanks you."

Bossuet laughed and praised: "It's outrageous that a mattress has so much power. It's humility over violence. Anyway, the glory should go to the mattress, which disables the cannon."