They heard the alarm bell of Saint-Merry, which had not been silent for an instant since the night before; a proof that the other barricade, the great one, Jeanne''s, still held out.
All these hopes were exchanged between the different groups in a sort of gay and formidable whisper which resembled the warlike hum of a hive of bees.
Enjolras reappeared.
He returned from his sombre eagle flight into outer darkness.
He listened for a moment to all this joy with folded arms, and one hand on his mouth.
Then, fresh and rosy in the growing whiteness of the dawn, he said:
"The whole army of Paris is to strike.
A third of the army is bearing down upon the barricades in which you now are.
There is the National Guard in addition.
I have picked out the shakos of the fifth of the line, and the standard-bearers of the sixth legion.
In one hour you will be attacked.
As for the populace, it was seething yesterday, to-day it is not stirring.
There is nothing to expect; nothing to hope for. Neither from a faubourg nor from a regiment.．本．作．品．由．思．兔．網．提．供．線．上．閱．讀．
You are abandoned."
These words fell upon the buzzing of the groups, and produced on them the effect caused on a swarm of bees by the first drops of a storm. A moment of indescribable silence ensued, in which death might have been heard flitting by.