A tumultuous crowd accompanied them,--students, artists, young men
affiliated to the Cougourde of Aix, artisans, and lightermen, armed
with sticks and bayonets, and some, like Combeferre, with pistols
passed through their trouser-belt. An old man, who appeared very aged,
marched in this band; he had no weapon, and hurried on, that he might
not be left behind, though he looked thoughtful. Gavroche perceived him.
"Keksekça?" said he to Courfeyrac.
"That is an antique."
It was M. Mabœuf.
CHAPTER V.
THE OLD MAN.
We will tell what had occurred. Enjolras and his friends were on the
Bourdon Boulevard near the granaries at the moment when the dragoons
charged, and Enjolras, Courfeyrac, and Combeferre were among those
who turned into the Rue Bassompierre shouting, "To the barricades!"
In the Rue Lesdiguières they met an old man walking along, and what
attracted their attention was, that he was moving very irregularly,
as if intoxicated. Moreover, he had his hat in his hand, although it
had rained the whole morning, and was raining rather hard at that
very moment. Courfeyrac recognized Father Mabœuf, whom he knew
through having accompanied Marius sometimes as far as his door.
Knowing the peaceful and more than timid habits of the churchwarden
and bibliomaniac, and stupefied at seeing him in the midst of the
tumult, within two yards of cavalry charges, almost in the midst of the
musketry fire, bareheaded in the rain, and walking about among bullets,
he accosted him, and the rebel of five-and-twenty and the octogenarian
exchanged this dialogue:--
"Monsieur Mabœuf, you had better go home."
"Why so?"
"There is going to be a row."
"Very good."
"Sabre-cuts and shots, Monsieur Mabœuf."
"Very good."
"Cannon-shots."
"Very good. Where are you gentlemen going?"
"To upset the Government."
"Very good."
And he began following them, but since that moment had not said a word.
His step had become suddenly firm, and when workmen offered him an arm,
he declined it with a shake of the head. He walked almost at the head
of the column, having at once the command of a man who is marching and
the face of a man who is asleep.
"What a determined old fellow!" the students muttered; and the rumor
ran along the party that he was an ex-conventionalist, an old regicide.
The band turn into the Rue de la Verrerie, and little Gavroche marched
at the head, singing at the top of his voice, which made him resemble a
bugler. He sang:--
"Voici la lune qui paraît,
Quand irons-nous dans la forêt?
Demandait Charlot à Charlotte.
"Tou tou tou
Pour Chatou.
Je n'ai qu'un Dieu, qu'un roi, qu'un liard et qu'une botte.
"Pour avoir bu de grand matin
La rosée à même le thym,
Deux moineaux étaient en ribotte.
"Zi zi zi
Pour Passy.
Je n'ai qu'un Dieu, qu'un roi, qu'un liard et qu'une botte.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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