Les Miserables Revolution

Chapter 17

{Éponine}

"General Lamarque is dead. We have to tell the others," Gabrielle says. Immediately we take off running. We reach the café in a matter of minutes.

"Gavroche! Go upstairs and tell them! We'll be here!" I shout at him. He doesn't argue. He runs up the stairs obediently to tell the other gents.

"When's the funeral?" I asked Gabrielle urgently.

"The day after tomorrow," she said. Her face was pale. She was terrified. I was too. What would I do as the love of my life was fighting? What would I do if Marius died? Who cares if he loved Cosette? I'm in love with him! I'd have to fight. I'd try and save him.

"I have to talk to Marius," I say. I start looking up at the café window. I should go. I know I should. I can't though.

"I have to talk to Courfeyrac, and Enjolras," she said. I nod. Neither of us try to move.

"We'll wait for Gavroche to tell them, then we'll go," I say. She nods. We wait there longer than we should. Our thoughts worried. The revolution was coming. It was coming soon. Were we even prepared?

{Courfeyrac}

I walked back to the café and immediately saw it full of life. Everyone was planning. I knew the revolution was soon, but how soon?

"The time is near! So near it's stirring the blood in their veins! And yet beware!" Enjolras said. He looked over at Grantaire. "Don't let the wine go to your brain! For the army we fight is a dangerous foe, with the men and the arms we never can match! We'll need a sign! To rally the people! To call them to arms! To bring them in line!" Marius walked in then. "Marius your late," Enjolras said before he got back to looking at maps and plans, and talking to the others. Joly, Grantaire, and I looked over to Marius. He looked like a mess.

"Marius what's wrong today? You look as if you've seen a ghost," Joly said.

"Some wine and say what's going on!" Grantaire said again.

"A ghost you say, a ghost maybe! She was just like a ghost to me, one minute there then she was gone!" he said. He had to have been talking about Cosette. He had gotten to see her today, but she was still leaving.

"I am agog, I am aghast! Is Marius in love at last? I've never heard him oh and ah!" Grantaire said. He got up from his chair and faced Enjolras on the other side of the room. "You talk of battle to be won! And here he comes like Don Ju'an!" he said. Marius had been looking at Grantaire as he spoke, but slowly looked down to the table. Everyone was laughing. Then Grantaire finished by singing "It is better than an opera!" He had exaggerated the "opera" part. Marius looked down at the table and was probably embarrassed, but said nothing.

Enjolras walked over to there table, and sat down beside them. Grantaire flinched slightly. He looked up to Enjolras and took another swig of wine.

"It is time for us all to decide who we are! Do we fight for a night to the opera now? Have you asked of yourself what's the price you might pay? Is this simply a game for a rich young boy to play?" Enjolras said. Another speech was coming on. I could feel it. Somehow this one seemed just as urgent as the ones they gave in the square today.

"The colors of the world are changing! Day by day! Red, the blood of angry men! Black, the dark of ages past. Red, a world about to dawn. Black, the night that ends at last," he said. He looked at Marius then got up to rejoin the gents where they were mapping out everything. Marius stood too.

"Had you ever fallen in love you might know how it feels. To be struck to the bone in a moment of breathless desire. How your world can be changed in one burst of light and what was right seems wrong and was wrong seems right!" Marius challenged him. He didn't know that Enjolras had fallen in love. He didn't know how he felt for Gabrielle.