Part 220 (1/2)
”In the heel. At Ratisbon. I never saw him so well dressed as on that day. He was as neat as a new sou.”
”And you, Mr. Veteran, you must have been often wounded?”
”I?” said the soldier, ”ah! not to amount to anything. At Marengo, I received two sabre-blows on the back of my neck, a bullet in the right arm at Austerlitz, another in the left hip at Jena. At Friedland, a thrust from a bayonet, there,--at the Moskowa seven or eight lance-thrusts, no matter where, at Lutzen a splinter of a sh.e.l.l crushed one of my fingers. Ah! and then at Waterloo, a ball from a biscaien in the thigh, that's all.”
”How fine that is!” exclaimed the hair-dresser, in Pindaric accents, ”to die on the field of battle! On my word of honor, rather than die in bed, of an illness, slowly, a bit by bit each day, with drugs, cataplasms, syringes, medicines, I should prefer to receive a cannon-ball in my belly!”
”You're not over fastidious,” said the soldier.
He had hardly spoken when a fearful crash shook the shop. The show-window had suddenly been fractured.
The wig-maker turned pale.
”Ah, good G.o.d!” he exclaimed, ”it's one of them!”
”What?”
”A cannon-ball.”
”Here it is,” said the soldier.
And he picked up something that was rolling about the floor. It was a pebble.
The hair-dresser ran to the broken window and beheld Gavroche fleeing at the full speed, towards the Marche Saint-Jean. As he pa.s.sed the hair-dresser's shop Gavroche, who had the two brats still in his mind, had not been able to resist the impulse to say good day to him, and had flung a stone through his panes.
”You see!” shrieked the hair-dresser, who from white had turned blue, ”that fellow returns and does mischief for the pure pleasure of it. What has any one done to that gamin?”
CHAPTER IV--THE CHILD IS AMAZED AT THE OLD MAN
In the meantime, in the Marche Saint-Jean, where the post had already been disarmed, Gavroche had just ”effected a junction” with a band led by Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Combeferre, and Feuilly. They were armed after a fas.h.i.+on. Bah.o.r.el and Jean Prouvaire had found them and swelled the group. Enjolras had a double-barrelled hunting-gun, Combeferre the gun of a National Guard bearing the number of his legion, and in his belt, two pistols which his unb.u.t.toned coat allowed to be seen, Jean Prouvaire an old cavalry musket, Bah.o.r.el a rifle; Courfeyrac was brandis.h.i.+ng an unsheathed sword-cane. Feuilly, with a naked sword in his hand, marched at their head shouting: ”Long live Poland!”
They reached the Quai Morland. Cravatless, hatless, breathless, soaked by the rain, with lightning in their eyes. Gavroche accosted them calmly:--
”Where are we going?”
”Come along,” said Courfeyrac.
Behind Feuilly marched, or rather bounded, Bah.o.r.el, who was like a fish in water in a riot. He wore a scarlet waistcoat, and indulged in the sort of words which break everything. His waistcoat astounded a pa.s.ser-by, who cried in bewilderment:--
”Here are the reds!”
”The reds, the reds!” retorted Bah.o.r.el. ”A queer kind of fear, bourgeois. For my part I don't tremble before a poppy, the little red hat inspires me with no alarm. Take my advice, bourgeois, let's leave fear of the red to horned cattle.”
He caught sight of a corner of the wall on which was placarded the most peaceable sheet of paper in the world, a permission to eat eggs, a Lenten admonition addressed by the Archbishop of Paris to his ”flock.”
Bah.o.r.el exclaimed:--