CHAPTER VIII THE ARTILLERY-MEN COMPEL PEOPLE TO TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY





Thet flocked round Gavroche. But he had no time to tell anything. Marius drew him aside with a shudder.



"What are you doing here?"



"Hullo!" said the child, "what are you doing here yourself?"



And he stared at Marius intently with his epic effrontery. His eyes grew larger with the proud light within them.



It was with an accent of severity that Marius continued:



"Who told you to come back? Did you deliver my letter at the address?"



Gavroche was not without some compunctions in the matter of that letter. In his haste to return to the barricade, he had got rid of it rather than delivered it. He was forced to acknowledge to himself that he had confided it rather lightly to that stranger whose face he had not been able to make out. It is true that the man was bareheaded, but that was not sufficient. In short, he had been administering to himself little inward remonstrances and he feared Marius' reproaches. In order to extricate himself from the predicament, he took the simplest course; he lied abominably.



"Citizen, I delivered the letter to the porter. The lady was asleep. She will have the letter when she wakes up.



Marius had had two objects in sending that letter: to bid farewell to Cosette and to save Gavroche. He was obliged to content himself with the half of his desire.



The despatch of his letter and the presence of M. Fauchelevent in the barricade, was a coincidence which occurred to him. He pointed out M. Fauchelevent to Gavroche.



"Do you know that man?"



"No," said Gavroche.



Gavroche had, in fact, as we have just mentioned, seen Jean Valjean only at night.



The troubled and unhealthy conjectures which had outlined themselves in Marius' mind were dissipated. Did he know M. Fauchelevent's opinions? Perhaps M. Fauchelevent was a republican. Hence his very natural presence in this combat.



In the meanwhile, Gavroche was shouting, at the other end of the barricade: "My gun!"



Courfeyrac had it returned to him.



Gavroche warned "his comrades" as he called them, that the barricade was blocked. He had had great difficulty in reaching it. A battalion of the line whose arms were piled in the Rue de la Petite Truanderie was on the watch on the side of the Rue du Cygne; on the opposite side, the municipal guard occupied the Rue des Precheurs. The bulk of the army was facing them in front.



This information given, Gavroche added:



"I authorize you to hit 'em a tremendous whack."



Meanwhile, Enjolras was straining his ears and watching at his embrasure.



The assailants, dissatisfied, no doubt, with their shot, had not repeated it.



A company of infantry of the line had come up and occupied the end of the street behind the piece of ordnance. The soldiers were tearing up the pavement and constructing with the stones a small, low wall, a sort of side-work not more than eighteen inches high, and facing the barricade. In the angle at the left of this epaulement,there was visible the head of the column of a battalion from the suburbs massed in the Rue Saint-Denis.



Enjolras, on the watch, thought he distinguished the peculiar sound which is produced when the shells of grape-shot are drawn from the caissons, and he saw the commander of the piece change the elevation and incline the mouth of the cannon slightly to the left. Then the cannoneers began to load the piece. The chief seized the lint-stock himself and lowered it to the vent.



"Down with your heads, hug the wall!" shouted Enjolras, "and all on your knees along the barricade!"



The insurgents who were straggling in front of the wine-shop, and who had quitted their posts of combat on Gavroche's arrival, rushed pell-mell towards the barricade; but before Enjolras' order could be executed, the discharge took place with the terrifying rattle of a round of grape-shot.This is what it was, in fact.



The charge had been aimed at the cut in the redoubt, and had there rebounded from the wall; and this terrible rebound had produced two dead and three wounded.



If this were continued, the barricade was no longer tenable. The grape-shot made its way in.



A murmur of consternation arose.



"Let us prevent the second discharge," said Enjolras.



And, lowering his rifle, he took aim at the captain of the gun, who, at that moment, was bearing down on the breach of his gun and rectifying and definitely fixing its pointing.



The captain of the piece was a handsome sergeant of artillery, very young, blond, with a very gentle face, and the intelligent air peculiar to that predestined and redoubtable weapon which, by dint of perfecting itself in horror, must end in killing war.



Combeferre, who was standing beside Enjolras, scrutinized this young man.



"What a pity!" said Combeferre. "What hideous things these butcheries are! Come, when there are no more kings, there will be no more war. Enjolras, you are taking aim at that sergeant, you are not looking at him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident that he is thoughtful; those young artillery-men are very well educated; he has a father, a mother, a family; he is probably in love; he is not more than five and twenty at the most; he might be your brother."



"He is," said Enjolras.



"Yes," replied Combeferre, "he is mine too. Well, let us not kill him."



"Let me alone. It must be done."



And a tear trickled slowly down Enjolras' marble cheek.



At the same moment, he pressed the trigger of his rifle. The flame leaped forth. The artillery-man turned round twice, his arms extended in front of him, his head uplifted, as though for breath, then he fell with his side on the gun, and lay there motionless. They could see his back, from the centre of which there flowed directly a stream of blood. The ball had traversed his breast from side to side. He was dead.



He had to be carried away and replaced by another. Several minutes were thus gained, in fact.







八　炮兵们认真起来了



大家围住了伽弗洛什。



但他没有时间讲什么话。马吕斯颤抖着把他拉到了一边。



"你来这儿干什么？"



"咦！"孩子回答说，"那您呢？"



他那勇敢而调皮的眼睛直盯着马吕斯。他内心骄傲的光芒使他的眼睛大而有神。



马吕斯用严肃的声调继续说：



"谁叫你回来的？你究竟有没有把我的信送到那地点呢？"



对于这封信的传递情况，伽弗洛什不无遗憾。由于他急忙要回街垒，他没有把信送到收信人手中，而匆匆脱了手。他心里不得不承认自己把信随便交给一个他连面孔都没有看清的陌生人是轻率的。这人确实没有戴帽子，但这一点不能说明问题。总之，他对这件事多少有些内疚，并且又怕马吕斯责怪。为了摆脱窘境，他采取了最简单的方法，撒了一个弥天大谎。



"公民，我把那封信交给了看门的。那位夫人还睡着，她醒来就会见到的。"



马吕斯当初送信有两个目的：向珂赛特诀别并且救出伽弗洛什。他的愿望只满足了一半。



送信和割风先生在街垒中出现，这两件事在他头脑里联系起来了。他指着割风先生问伽弗洛什：



"你认识这个人吗？"



"不认识。"伽弗洛什回答。



确实，我们刚才提到过，伽弗洛什是在夜间见到冉阿让的。



马吕斯心中的混乱和病态的猜测消失了。他知道割风先生的政见吗？割风先生可能是一个共和派，他来参加战斗就不足为奇了。



此时伽弗洛什已在街垒的那一头嚷道：



"我的枪呢！"



古费拉克让人把枪还给了他。



伽弗洛什警告"同志们"（这是他对大家的称呼），街垒被包围了。他是费了很大的劲才进来的。一营作战的军队，枪架在小化子窝斜巷，把守住天鹅街那一边。另一面是保安警察队守着布道修士街，正面是主力军。



讲了这些情况之后，伽弗洛什接着说：



"我授权你们，向他们放一排狠毒的排枪。"



这时安灼拉一边听着，一边仍在枪眼口仔细窥伺。



进攻的军队，肯定对那发炮弹不太满意，没有再放。



一连作战的步兵来占领街的尽头，在大炮的后面。步兵们挖起铺路石，堆成一道类似胸墙的矮墙，大约有十八寸高，正对街垒。在胸墙左角，我们可以看到集合在圣德尼街上的一营郊区军队前面几排的士兵。



正在了望的安灼拉，觉得听到了一种从子弹箱中取出散装子弹盒的特殊声响。他还看到那个炮长，把炮转向左边一点，调整目标瞄准。接着炮兵开始装炮弹。那炮长亲自凑近炮筒点火。



"低下头，集合到墙边，"安灼拉喊道，"大家沿着街垒跪下！"



那些起义者，在伽弗洛什来到时，离开了各自的作战岗位，分散在小酒店前面，这时都乱哄哄地冲向街垒；可是还没有来得及执行安灼拉的命令，炮已打出，声音很可怕，象连珠弹，这的确是一发连珠弹。



大炮瞄准棱堡的缺口，从那儿的墙上弹回来，弹跳回来的碎片打死了两人，伤了三人。



如果这样继续下去，街垒就支持不住了，连珠弹会直接打进来。



出现了一阵惊慌杂乱的声音。



"先防止第二炮。"安灼拉说。



于是他放低他的卡宾枪，瞄准那个正俯身在炮膛口校正方位的炮长。



这炮长是一个长得很英俊的炮兵中士，年轻，金黄色的头发，脸很温和，带着这种命定的可怕武器所要求的聪明样子。这种武器在威慑方面得到不断改进，结果必将消灭战争本身。



公白飞站在安灼拉旁边注视着这个青年。



"多可惜！"公白飞说，"杀戮是何等丑恶的行为！算了，没有帝王就不会再有战争。安灼拉，你瞄准这个中士，你都不看他一眼。你想象一下，他是一个可爱的青年，勇敢有为，看得出他会动脑筋，这些炮兵营的人都有学问。他有父亲，母亲，有一个家，可能还在谈恋爱呢，他至多不过二十五岁，可以做你的兄弟！"



"他就是。"安灼拉说。



"是呀，"公白飞回答说，"他也是我的兄弟，算了，不要打死他吧。"



"不要管我。该做的还是要做。"



一滴眼泪慢慢流到安灼拉那云石般的面颊上。



同时他扳动卡宾枪的扳机，喷出了一道闪光。那炮手身子转了两下，两臂前伸，脸仰着，好象要吸点空气，然后身子侧倒在炮上不动了。大家可以看到从他的后背中心流出一股鲜血。



子弹穿透了他的胸膛。他死了。



要把他搬走，再换上一个人，这样就争取到了几分钟。
关键字:Les Miserables,悲惨世界Volume 5 Jean Valjean
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