第二百八十一章 五 准备
五 准备
当时各家报纸所说，那“几乎无法攻克的”麻厂街街垒，是他们那样称呼的，事实上只达到一栋二层楼房的楼板那样高。它的平均高度至多不过六七尺。它的设计是让战斗人员可以随意隐身在街垒后面，或凭一道四级叠砌的踏级翻越墙头，甚至从它的顶上跨过去。街垒的外面是一道由铺路石块和酒桶垒成的护壁，中间有木桶和厚木板支撑着，还缠着昂索的货车和那辆倾覆了的公共马车的辕木和车轮，这一切错综地堆砌在一起，外观上显得杂乱而森严。
从酒馆对面的那排房子的墙上到街垒的另一端，相距很远，中间有一条可以容一个人通过的缺口，这样就便于从缺口出去。公共马车的辕木已被用绳索竖立起来，一面红旗，被系在这根辕木上，飘扬在街垒的上方。
在蒙德都巷子里的那个小街垒，隐在酒馆的背后，瞧不见。这两个街垒连接起来，便成了一道真正的堡垒。安灼拉和古费拉克认为不必在穿过布道者街通往菜市场的那一段蒙德都巷子里设防，他们大概是要留一条可以通到外面的路，不愿意把这条艰险的、难攻易守的布道者街给堵死。
且不说这条留下的通道，算它福拉尔①在兵法上所说的那种交通支线吧，但它却是一条狭路，并且麻厂街的那个缺口也已被堵上，因此，那个内部见棱见角的酒馆便形成一个封闭式的四方形。那高大的正街后市形成屏障，所有的门都从顶到踵紧闭着，中间便只留下二十步宽的间隔，街垒就筑在这一段街上。这一排房子，全部有人居住，但它们都是从顶楼到楼底都是关着门的。
这一切工程，没有受到任何干扰，不到一小时就完成了。在这段时间里，这伙胆大无畏的人没有见到一顶熊皮帽②或一根枪刺。那些在这暴动时刻还常到圣德尼街来溜达的少数几个中产者，望了一眼麻厂街的街垒，便各自加快脚步走过去了。
两个街垒都已完成，旗杆也已竖起，大家便从酒馆里拖出一张桌子，古费拉克站到桌子上去。安灼拉把那只方匣子搬了来，古费拉克才把它打开。匣子里装满了子弹。当大家看到那些子弹时，最勇敢的人也难免发抖，大家全都沉默了一刹那。
古费拉克微笑着把子弹分给大家。
每人得到三十发。很多人还自备了火药，正用自己找到的弹头加紧制造更多的子弹。至于那一整桶火药，便留在店堂里的一张桌子旁边，以备不时之需。
集合号声响遍巴黎，始终不停，但已变为一种单调的声音，他们早已置若罔闻了。这声音，时而近，时而远，随着风的强弱，参差起落。
枪和大炮都装好弹药。大家从容不迫，郑重严肃地完成全部准备工作。安灼拉派人放了三张凳子到大门外边，让三个哨兵分别在麻厂街、布道者街和小丐头街的转角处站岗。
街垒已经筑好，岗位已经指定，枪支已经装好，哨兵已经派出，那时，他们便独自在这令人望而生畏的街道上等着，街上空无一人，每栋房子都死气沉沉，不见一点动静，毫无人间气息。四周一片沉寂，使人感到有什么东西在向他们逼近，带着几分阴森恐怖的意味。他们孤单单地，全都武装好，严阵以待，显得那么镇定。
The journals of the day which said that that _nearly impregnable
structure_, of the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, as they call
it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact
is, that it did not exceed an average height of six or seven feet. It
was built in such a manner that the combatants could, at their will,
either disappear behind it or dominate the barrier and even scale its
crest by means of a quadruple row of paving-stones placed on top of
each other and arranged as steps in the interior. On the outside, the
front of the barricade, composed of piles of paving-stones and casks
bound together by beams and planks, which were entangled in the wheels
of Anceau’s dray and of the overturned omnibus, had a bristling and
inextricable aspect.
An aperture large enough to allow a man to pass through had been made
between the wall of the houses and the extremity of the barricade which
was furthest from the wine-shop, so that an exit was possible at this
point. The pole of the omnibus was placed upright and held up with
ropes, and a red flag, fastened to this pole, floated over the
barricade.
The little Mondétour barricade, hidden behind the wine-shop building,
was not visible. The two barricades united formed a veritable redoubt.
Enjolras and Courfeyrac had not thought fit to barricade the other
fragment of the Rue Mondétour which opens through the Rue des Prêcheurs
an issue into the Halles, wishing, no doubt, to preserve a possible
communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear of an
attack through the dangerous and difficult street of the Rue des
Prêcheurs.
With the exception of this issue which was left free, and which
constituted what Folard in his strategical style would have termed a
branch and taking into account, also, the narrow cutting arranged on
the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the interior of the barricade, where the
wine-shop formed a salient angle, presented an irregular square, closed
on all sides. There existed an interval of twenty paces between the
grand barrier and the lofty houses which formed the background of the
street, so that one might say that the barricade rested on these
houses, all inhabited, but closed from top to bottom.
All this work was performed without any hindrance, in less than an
hour, and without this handful of bold men seeing a single bear-skin
cap or a single bayonet make their appearance. The very bourgeois who
still ventured at this hour of riot to enter the Rue Saint-Denis cast a
glance at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught sight of the barricade, and
redoubled their pace.
The two barricades being finished, and the flag run up, a table was
dragged out of the wine-shop; and Courfeyrac mounted on the table.
Enjolras brought the square coffer, and Courfeyrac opened it. This
coffer was filled with cartridges. When the mob saw the cartridges, a
tremor ran through the bravest, and a momentary silence ensued.
Courfeyrac distributed them with a smile.
Each one received thirty cartridges. Many had powder, and set about
making others with the bullets which they had run. As for the barrel of
powder, it stood on a table on one side, near the door, and was held in
reserve.
The alarm beat which ran through all Paris, did not cease, but it had
finally come to be nothing more than a monotonous noise to which they
no longer paid any attention. This noise retreated at times, and again
drew near, with melancholy undulations.
They loaded the guns and carbines, all together, without haste, with
solemn gravity. Enjolras went and stationed three sentinels outside the
barricades, one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des
Prêcheurs, the third at the corner of the Rue de la Petite Truanderie.
Then, the barricades having been built, the posts assigned, the guns
loaded, the sentinels stationed, they waited, alone in those
redoubtable streets through which no one passed any longer, surrounded
by those dumb houses which seemed dead and in which no human movement
palpitated, enveloped in the deepening shades of twilight which was
drawing on, in the midst of that silence through which something could
be felt advancing, and which had about it something tragic and
terrifying, isolated, armed, determined, and tranquil.
