eaking their line, with a sudden,
but regulated and inexorable movement, sprang into the street. The four
companies, in close order, and as though mingled and hardly visible,
seemed like a wave precipitating itself with a great noise from the
height of the barricade.

At the barricade of the Petit Carreau they noted the manoeuvre, and had
paused in their fire. "Present," cried Jeanty Sarre, "but do not fire;
wait for the order."

Each put his gun to his shoulder, then placed the barrels between the
paving-stones, ready to fire, and waited.

As soon as it had quitted the Mauconseil redoubt, the battalion rapidly
formed itself into an attacking column, and a moment afterwards they
heard the intermittent sound of an advance at the double. It was the
battalion which was coming upon them.

"Charpentier," said Jeanty Sarre, "you have good eyes. Are they midway?"

"Yes," said Charpentier.

"Fire," said Jeanty Sarre.

The barricade fired. The whole street was filled with smoke. Several
soldiers fell. They could hear the cries of the wounded. The battalion,
riddled with balls, halted and replied by platoon firing.

Seven or eight combatants whose bodies reached above the barricade,
which had been made hastily and was too low were hit. Three were killed
on the spot. One fell wounded by a ball in his stomach, between Jeanty
Sarre and Charpentier. He shrieked out with pain.

"Quick, to the ambulance:" said Jeanty Sarre.

"Where?"

"In the Rue du Cadran."

Jeanty Sarre and Charpentier picked up the wounded man, the one by the
feet, the other by the head, and carried him to the du Cadran
through the passage in the barricade.

During all this time there was continued file firing. There no longer
seemed anything in the street but smoke, the balls whistling and
crossing each other, the brief and repeated commands, some plaintive
cries, and the flash of the guns lighting up the darkness.

Suddenly a loud void died out, "Forwards!" The battalion resumed its
double-quick march and threw itself upon the barricade.

Then ensued a horrible scene. They fought hand to hand, four hundred on
the one side, fifty on the other. They seized each other by the collar,
by the throat, by the mouth, by the hair. There was no longer a
cartridge in the barricade, but there remained despair. A workman,
pierced through and through, snatched the bayonet from his belly, and
stabbed a soldier with it. They did not see each other, but they
dev