The drum beat the charge. Last night’s attack had crept up silently in the dark, but this time it was broad daylight, and the street was too wide to hide anything. A column of infantry, with National Guards and municipal guards set in among its ranks, came on at a run with drums beating and bugles blaring. Sappers led the way, and the column, bayonets levelled, came straight at the barricade without flinching under the hail of shot.
The wall held. A furious fire poured from the barricade, and the assault was so fierce that for a moment its top was covered with soldiers. But the barricade shook them off as a lion shakes off dogs. The column fell back and stood its ground in the open middle of the street, answering with a terrible musketry.
Enjolras held one end of the barricade and Marius the other. Enjolras, who held the entire barricade in his mind, kept himself covered and fired from behind a loophole. Marius fought with more than half his body exposed. He seemed like a man in a dream, a ghost firing a gun.