cked up the barrels and the dray with two massive heaps of blocks of rough stone.
Blocks which were improvised like the rest and procured no one knows where. The beams which served as props were torn from the neighboring house-fronts and laid on the casks.
When Bossuet and Courfeyrac turned round, half the street was already barred with a rampart higher than a man.
There is nothing like the hand of the populace for building everything that is built by demolishing.
Matelote and Gibelotte had mingled with the workers.
Gibelotte went and came loaded with rubbish.
Her lassitude helped on the barricade. She served the barricade as she would have served wine, with a sleepy air.
An omnibus with two white horses passed the end of the street.
Bossuet strode over the paving-stones, ran to it, stopped the driver, made the passengers alight, offered his hand to "the ladies,"
dismissed the conductor, and returned, leading the vehicle and the horses by the bridle.
"Omnibuses," said he, "do not pass the Corinthe.
Non licet omnibus adire Corinthum."
An instant later, the horses were unharnessed and went off at their will, through the Rue Mondetour, and the omnibus lying on its side completed the bar across the street.
Mame Hucheloup, quite upset, had taken refuge in the first story.
Her eyes were vague, and stared without seeing anything, and she cried in a low tone.