The cannoneers rectify their aim and ricochet grapeshot off the wall. This time they are more successful: two insurgents are killed, three wounded. Enjolras carefully points his gun at the sergeant commanding the battery, squeezes the trigger, and kills him. But he feels no sense of triumph, only grief at the death of his enemy. The cannoneers, however, prepare to fire again. A mattress is needed to absorb the shots. Valjean spots one protecting a window and, with prodigious marksmanship, shoots at the ropes holding it and cuts it down. Unfortunately it falls outside the barricade. Coolly, Valjean steps out in range of enemy fire and retrieves it.
At dawn of this same day, Cosette wakes after a sweet dream of Marius. Believing he has received her letter and will soon come to see her, she rises and dresses quickly, and goes to her window to watch for Marius. Finding she cannot see the street from there, she cries for a short time, then hears the sound of cannons. Cosette does not recognize the sound and becomes absorbed in watching a family of martins nesting just below her window.
