3.V.1.11. THE SHOT WHICH MISSES NOTHING AND KILLS NO ONE
THE assailants' fire continued. Musketry and grape-shot
alternated, but without committing great ravages, to tell the
truth. The top alone of the Corinthe facade suffered; the
window on the first floor, and the attic window in the roof,
riddled with buck-shot and biscaiens, were slowly losing their
shape. The combatants who had been posted there had been
obliged to withdraw. However, this is according to the tactics
of barricades; to fire for a long while, in order to exhaust
the insurgents' ammunition, if they commit the mistake of
replying. When it is perceived, from the slackening of their
fire, that they have no more powder and ball, the assault is
made. Enjolras had not fallen into this trap; the barricade
did not reply.
At every discharge by platoons, Gavroche puffed out his
cheek with his tongue, a sign of supreme disdain.
"Good for you," said he, "rip up the cloth. We want some
lint."
Courfeyrac called the grape-shot to order for the little
effect
which it produced, and said to the cannon:
"You are growing diffuse, my good fellow."
One gets puzzled in battle, as at a ball. It is probable
that
this silence on the part of the redoubt began to render the
besiegers uneasy, and to make them fear some unexpected
incident, and that they felt the necessity of getting a clear
view behind that heap of paving-stones, and of knowing what
was going on behind that impassable wall which received
blows without retorting. The insurgents suddenly perceived
a helmet glittering in the sun on a neighboring roof. A fireman
had placed his back against a tall chimney, and seemed
to be acting as sentinel. His glance fell directly down into
the barricade.
"There's an embarrassing watcher," said Enjolras.
Jean Valjean had returned Enjolras' rifle, but he had his
own gun.
Without saying a word, he took aim at the fireman, and, a
second later, the helmet, smashed by a bullet, rattled noisily
into the street. The terrified soldier made haste to disappear.
A second observer took his place. This one was an officer.
Jean Valjean, who had re-loaded his gun, took aim at the newcomer
and sent the officer's casque to join the soldier's. The
officer did not persist, and retired speedily. This time the
warning was understood. No one made his appearance thereafter
on that roof; and the idea of spying on the barricade
was abandoned.
"Why did you not kill the man?" Bossuet asked Jean
Valjean.
Jean Valjean made no reply.