ed atthe bottom on two poles for drying linen, was upheld at the topby two ropes, which, at that distance, looked like two threads,and which were attached to two nails planted in the window frames. These ropes were distinctly visible, like hairs, against the sky.
"Can some one lend me a double-barrelled rifle?" said Jean Valjean.
Enjolras, who had just re-loaded his, handed it to him.
Jean Valjean took aim at the attic window and fired.
One of the mattress ropes was cut.
The mattress now hung by one thread only.
Jean Valjean fired the second charge. The second rope lashedthe panes of the attic window. The mattress slipped betweenthe two poles and fell into the street.
The barricade applauded.
All voices cried:
"Here is a mattress!"
"Yes," said Combeferre, "but who will go and fetch it?"
The mattress had, in fact, fallen outside the barricade,between besiegers and besieged. Now, the death of the sergeantof artillery having exasperated the troop, the soldiers had,for several minutes, been lying flat on their stomachs behindthe line of paving-stones which they had erected, and, in orderto supply the forced silence of the piece, which was quiet whileits service was in course of reorganization, they had opened fireon the barricade. The insurgents did not reply to this musketry,in order to spare their ammunition The fusillade broke againstthe barricade; but the street, which it filled, was terrible.