[Masterpiece Les Miserables] Paris Sparks

Earlier in the evening Marius, having made up his mind to die, had come to the corner of the barricade, but he did not go straight in.He sat down, leaning against the wall, with his head folded, his love for his father, his loyalty to his friends, and his own good nature and his distaste for the Civil War in constant conflict.He was caught in an inner struggle, unable to make up his mind to step in, not because he was afraid of death, but because he was still unable to determine whether such a death was right.

It was not until the fighting broke out on the main fort that his resolution was finally made.He couldn't sit back and watch his friends fight fiercely and do nothing.He rushed forward, and in the darkness, with one shot, drove back a policeman who had almost rushed to the top of the barricade, and with another shot freed Courfeyrac, who was almost pierced by a bayonet.Courfeyrac thanked him with a hug.

But the warmth brought by friendship cannot dilute the despair of losing Cosette.Marius was in a trance all day long, feeling that everything around him was like a thrilling nightmare, even bullets, gunpowder smoke and fighting could not make him feel the reality of the world.He wandered about the barricades as if sleepwalking, feeling alienated from everything around him.People were busy with their own responsibilities, and there was no job assigned to him, no one asked him to help, and he couldn't help the wounded.In a daze Marius approached slowly the end near the small barricade, when he heard a low voice calling to him in the darkness.

"Monsieur Marius!" cried the voice, "Monsieur Marius!"

He was taken aback because it was the same voice that had called to him on the deserted boulevard Saint-Germain two hours before to come to the barricade.He looked around and vaguely saw a thin figure standing behind the barricade, leaning against the base of the wall.It was the young worker who had called him to the barricades. "Monsieur Marius," the man called again.Marius approached him.

"You know me?" he asked.

"I'm Eponine."

The light of the paper lantern came to this corner, leaving only a faint shadow. Marius approached her very close, almost face to face, so that he could see the outline of the face. "It's you. Why are you here?"

"I have a letter for you."

She reached into her pocket and took out a letter, only the snow-white envelope could be seen in the darkness. "It was in my hands yesterday," she said, in a trancelike tone of a delirium patient. "I was told to drop it in the post, or to send it to you. I should have done that yesterday. I didn't Yes, I have withheld this letter, and I do not want you to receive it. But I do not want to deceive you, nor her! I will deliver this letter to you, but it is a day late. It is ready now, No one can get out of this barricade, I can give you the letter. Just blame me."

Marius looked at her, sorry for her, and very perplexed.

"I don't understand, why are you doing this?"

Éponine let out a short, strange laugh.

"You always thought me ugly, didn't you? Now you're stuck in the barricades like me. You can't win here, you're dying. So do I. That's all I can do. There was a policeman just now. Sneaked in here, maybe for a surprise attack, maybe for spying. They didn't see me, but I did. The outside passage will be blocked, and no one can get out. Believe here, Now you can take it."

She thrust the letter into Marius' hands.

Marius was taken aback.He absently stuffed the letter into his pocket, took two big strides to the one-person-wide gap in the small barricade, and peeped out.He could vaguely see a swaying shadow in the distance, but he suspected it was his own illusion.But for the sake of caution, he held his breath and crouched there, merging his own figure with the silhouette of the barricade.There he waited quietly, as if he heard small footsteps approaching, but the night was so dark that even a ray of moonlight could not penetrate due to the cloudy and rainy sky.That could be interpreted as footsteps or as the sound of a mouse approaching slowly, until there was a creak, evidently the sound of shoe soles rubbing gravel around the corner on the right.

It was very close to the small barricade.

"There are enemies!" cried Marius, firing in that direction.There was an empty click of the firing pin in the barrel: the two bullets Javert had given him had all been used up.The opponent was obviously taken aback, but instead of retreating, he rushed straight at him, perhaps because he saw that there were only two of them in the dark, and wanted to gain the upper hand.The man at the front fired a shot at them.

The two guns in Marius' hands had been useless, so he had to retreat hastily.Suddenly, Eponine rushed forward, pushed him, and threw herself into his arms.Marius heard only the sound of a shot across the way, her body trembled, and something warm brushed against his arm.He put his arms around her and dragged her behind the barricade.

The first policemen had reached the gap in the barricade, but the crowd who heard the shouts also rushed out of Collins.Baare, who was in the front, knocked down the policeman with a head-on shot, and then another bullet passed through his chest.Combeferre and Courfeyrac, who were behind, fired repeatedly at the gap, and they heard the heavy sound of a man falling to the ground on the opposite side.The last few people did not rush forward, they retreated towards the alley.

People didn't give chase.Combeferre hastened to his knees to check on Bahore, but his life was gone the moment the bullet struck his heart.Jolly hurried to examine Éponine, and Marius laid her on his knees: the bullet had pierced a hole in her shoulder, from which blood flowed.She was pale, but with a smile on her face.

"Don't let me go, Monsieur Marius!" she said faintly, when Marius was about to get up to make room for Joly, reaching for his coat, "it's very good that you are here. I'm pain free."

"I will carry you into the hall," said Marius to her. "They will bandage your wounds. You will be all right."

Eponine didn't seem to be listening to him, she was content to just lean in his arms.Marius picked her up carefully, and moved her into the hall, so that the doctor could examine her wounds in a brighter light.Corona and Enjolras crossed the barricades together to examine the uniforms of the two fallen policemen.

"There are only four of them, no more than five," Enjolras said. "That number is by no means enough to launch an attack. I think they are only here to investigate."

"Maybe it's my fault." Corona replied heavily, "I shouldn't let Javert go. He is a very responsible person. Since he knows the way, he will try to come back once to find out more about the situation." ’” She said, carefully identifying the faces of the two policemen, but Javert was not among the two dead.

"It will not be your fault. The offensive tactics of the police and the army cannot be easily changed by one person." Enjolras denied, "The Javert scout you mentioned should only gather a small team to attack Scouting, but even if they got any information, there was nothing they could do with the barricades, it was so narrow that the enemy army would have given up their greatest advantage by entering."

"Of course, it's not Marius' fault. Sounding the warning is indeed the most correct choice. No one would have thought that these two people would rush forward." After a pause, he added.

"Javert must have assembled his own manpower to investigate. It's not surprising that the police who will participate in such a dangerous mission are reckless and aggressive." Corona sighed.

Enjolras shook his head: "Forget it, things have already happened. ——You can go find some people and take off the uniforms of these two policemen, maybe they will be useful."

Corona nodded and stood up.But just at this moment, as if she had been fiddled with by the hand of God, the movement of her getting up pulled the skirt, and the pockets on the skirt turned out somehow.The scattered coins inside jingled and scattered all over the ground, rolling into the boundless darkness.

The sudden noise made both of them startled, Coronna hurriedly tidied up her pockets.She looked at the coins on the ground, but didn't pick them up—at this moment, why do they need money?But Enjolras, who was still squatting beside the corpse, raised his hand and handed her a small string of tinkling metal. "I think it should be collected," he said.

Corona took it and found that it was a bunch of keys.

Does she have such a bunch of keys in her pocket?She herself felt at a loss, because she knew that she didn't bring the house key with her when she went out.She herself is determined to participate in the revolution, and Jean Valjean will take Fantine and Cosette to the girls' high school in the morning to hide, and decide whether to leave for England according to the situation.The house is empty and there is no need to bring the keys.So where did this bunch of keys come from?She rubbed the shape of the key in confusion, and brought it closer to her eyes for a closer look.Then, she suddenly let out a soft "ah".

"What?" Enjolras asked.

"It's nothing, I remember it. This is an old key that hasn't been used for many years." Corona said, she stuffed the key into her pocket, and went to the front to report Enjolras' order.Soon several male workers rushed to the back of the small barricade to strip off the police uniform, while Corona went into the tavern to check on the wounded.

She saw a body inside which had been covered with a long black scarf, and the night of death took away forever a close friend of hers.There was a stabbing pain in her heart, and she turned her eyes away from the body and looked at the floor on the other side.There, the wounded and thin young man was still lying in Marius' arms, and Joly was busy pressing the bleeding wound with a bandage beside him.Corona quickly approached them and found that the wounded had lost consciousness.Marius was anxious to ask Joly: "How is she?"

"she"?Coronna fixed herself and took a closer look, and found that the injured was indeed a girl, but poverty damaged her youth, making her unable to show the look that ordinary girls possess.Ruo Li sighed while tightening the bandage.

"She was shot and shattered her collarbone. There is no medicine, no scalpel, no tweezers, no needles and threads to suture the wound. I can do nothing but tighten the bandage." He said, gnashing his teeth in despair , "Give me a set of surgical tools, and I can save her!"

"So, if you're outside, you can save her?" Gavroche asked suddenly.Joly nodded, but Gavroche had already turned around and ran away before his chin touched the bottom.

"She told me not to tell her brother," sighed Marius; "but how could he not know?"

"Is she Gavroche's sister?" Corona asked in surprise, "I always thought Gavroche was an orphan."

"I thought so too," said Joly, "but she said it just before she fainted, and Gavroche admitted it—it was his sister Éponine."

"Eppaine?!" Corona asked in a voiceless voice, "——Eppaine? Thenardier?"

"No, her name is Jondrette," replied Marius.

That's one thing.That was her—the tavernkeeper's daughter, the robber who tried to rob their house! "How did she come to participate in the revolution?" Corona asked in amazement.

"She came for me," replied Marius, full of remorse and grief.

Corona just stood there stiffly, staring at the thin, withered face that had lost all color.She couldn't help but wondered if there was some kind of conspiracy in it - but the Thenardiers and their accomplices were in prison, and Coronne hired the best lawyers to make sure they wouldn't be out for 20 years Prison gate.Moreover, what can she do if she is so injured?If she had any plans, why did she take a shot for Marius?

She couldn't figure it out.After a while, when Joly had temporarily stopped the bleeding from the wound on Eponine's shoulder, Gavroche ran back panting, his head was covered with sweat, and his clothes were soaked. "I went out and looked around," he said breathlessly. "The road is blocked at both ends. They surrounded Swan Street and Mission Friar Street, and the front, with troops. But in the middle section, the opening from Xiaohuaziwo Street to the outside is open, they must think that no one can come through the middle. Just pass through there, to the vegetable market, and then from the vegetable market to the river , the road ahead is undefended.”

"But if you want to go to Xiaohuaziwo Street from here, you have to go through Swan Street. Can you go through that opening?" Bossuet, who was next to him, calculated the route in his mind and asked.

"There are troops deployed there, but they are only guarding the opposite intersection. It is so dark, you can sneak past them quickly while they are not paying attention."

Marius looked down at Éponine.She was completely in a coma, and it was impossible for a man to carry such a full-grown girl—no matter how dry and small she was—quickly across the street without attracting any attention from the army.Gavroche understood this too. "Or, as long as we have a way to pass through the opposite building, the street in front of it can go straight to Xiaohuaziwo Street, and go to the vegetable market-there are no troops there either!"

But they all still remember that before it was completely dark, a reckless mob in the revolutionary ranks shot and killed the concierge, and the murderer was tried and executed by Enjolras.The old man's gray hair and dripping blood were still hanging from the window on the fourth floor.No one answered.Gavroche's head sank slowly.

Corona never spoke.She stood silently on the spot for a long time without changing her posture. At this moment, she suddenly turned around and walked quickly outside.No one stopped her, and Bossuet just looked at her, then lowered his head and sighed again.Coronna walked to the door of the opposite building in the night without anyone noticing, groped for the keyhole with her fingers, took out the key in her pocket, and tried to stuff it in.

She once rented a room in the building opposite to spy on Enjolras.That was five years ago.As early as five years ago, she withdrew the rent of the room and moved all the things in it back to the residence. At that time, because she could not find the key, she also paid the landlord a few extra francs.Before the bunch of keys fell out, she didn't know it was hidden here.

She tried to turn.After not using it for five years, the key felt very jerky in the lock hole and could not be twisted no matter what.A thought arose in her heart, thinking that maybe the back door of the building had been locked in the past five years—this was a normal thing—

But with a harsh grinding sound, the key turned.There was a soft click of the latch, and the stone-walled silence of the building opened to her.

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