In a flash, the houses and streets are stripped. Soon a rampart higher than a man blocks the street. Everyone participates feverishly except Grantaire, who merely looks on and blathers incoherently. Enjolras, irritated, dismisses him with a cutting remark. But Grantaire refuses to leave, promises to sacrifice his life, and collapses in a drunken stupor. Under Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac's energetic direction, the fortifications are rapidly completed. To the original barricade has been added another one, closing one side of the Rue Mondétour.
The barricade is now manned by about fifty defenders. They are a motley aggregation, including every age, all kinds of faces, an indescribable combination of arms and costumes. Among these disparate strangers reigns a spirit of perfect fraternity. Gavroche is the life of the party. A perpetual motion machine, he is everywhere. He encourages a worker, goads a student, stings everybody. Only one shadow mars his enthusiasm: he is unhappy with his useless gun.
At dusk the barricade is finished. The men are ready, the sentinels posted, and in the deepening silence the rebels wait calmly. So remarkable is their sang-froid that the younger men recite love poems. Gavroche alone is preoccupied. The man from the Rue les Billettes has a disturbing familiarity. Finally, dumbfounded, the young boy finds the key to the mystery. When Enjolras approaches him to send him on a reconnaissance mission, Gavroche gives him a stunning piece of information: "Do you see the tall man?" "Well?" "He's a spy."
