The journals of the day which said that that nearly impregnable structure, of the barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, as they call it, reached to the level of the first floor, were mistaken. The fact is, that it did not exceed an average height of six or seven feet. It was built in such a manner that the combatants could, at their will, either disappear behind it or dominate the barrier and even scale its crest by means of a quadruple row of paving-stones placed on top of each other and arranged as steps in the interior. On the outside, the front of the barricade, composed of piles of paving-stones and casks bound together by beams and planks, which were entangled in the wheels of Anceau's dray and of the overturned omnibus, had a bristling and inextricable aspect.
An aperture large enough to allow a man to pass through had been made between the wall of the houses and the extremity of the barricade which was furthest from the wine-shop, so that an exit was possible at this point. The pole of the omnibus was placed upright and held up with ropes, and a red flag, fastened to this pole, floated over the barricade.
The little Mondetour barricade, hidden behind the wine-shop building, was not visible. The two barricades united formed a veritable redoubt. Enjolras and Courfeyrac had not thought fit to barricade the other fragment of the Rue Mondetour which opens through the Rue des Precheurs an issue into the Halles, wishing, no doubt, to preserve a possible communication with the outside, and not entertaining much fear of an attack through the dangerous and difficult street of the Rue des Precheurs.
With the exception of this issue which was left free, and which constituted what Folard in his strategical style would have termed a branch and taking into account, also, the narrow cutting arranged on the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the interior of the barricade, where the wine-shop formed a salient angle, presented an irregular square, closed on all sides. There existed an interval of twenty paces between the grand barrier and the lofty houses which formed the background of the street, so that one might say that the barricade rested on these houses, all inhabited, but closed from top to bottom.
All this work was performed without any hindrance, in less than an hour, and without this handful of bold men seeing a single bear-skin cap or a single bayonet make their appearance. The very bourgeois who still ventured at this hour of riot to enterthe Rue Saint-Denis cast a glance at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, caught sight of the barricade, and redoubled their pace.
The two barricades being finished, and the flag run up, a table was dragged out of the wine-shop; and Courfeyrac mounted on the table. Enjolras brought the square coffer, and Courfeyrac opened it. This coffer was filled with cartridges. When the mob saw the cartridges, a tremor ran through the bravest, and a momentary silence ensued.
Courfeyrac distributed them with a smile.
Each one received thirty cartridges. Many had powder, and set about making others with the bullets which they had run. As for the barrel of powder, it stood on a table on one side, near the door, and was held in reserve.
The alarm beat which ran through all Paris, did not cease, but it had finally come to be nothing more than a monotonous noise to which they no longer paid any attention. This noise retreated at times, and again drew near, with melancholy undulations.
They loaded the guns and carbines, all together, without haste, with solemn gravity. Enjolras went and stationed three sentinels outside the barricades, one in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, the second in the Rue des Precheurs, the third at the corner of the Rue de la Petite Truanderie.
Then, the barricades having been built, the posts assigned, the guns loaded, the sentinels stationed, they waited, alone in those redoubtable streets through which no one passed any longer, surrounded by those dumb houses which seemed dead and in which no human movement palpitated, enveloped in the deepening shades of twilight which was drawing on, in the midst of that silence through which something could be felt advancing, and which had about it something tragic and terrifying, isolated, armed, determined, and tranquil.
当时的一些报纸曾报导麻厂街的街垒是一座“无法攻下的建筑”，他们的描绘是这样的。他们说它有一幢楼房那么高，这种说法错了。事实是它的平均高度没有超出六尺或七尺。它的建造设计是让战士能随意隐蔽在垒墙后面或在它上面居高临下，并可由一道砌在内部的四级石块阶梯登上墙脊，跨越出去。街垒的正面是由石块和木桶堆筑起来的，又用一些木柱和木板以及安索的那辆小马车和翻倒了的公共马车的*，纵横交错，连成一个整体，从外面看去，那形象是杈桠歧生、紊乱错杂的。街垒的一头紧接酒店，在另外那一头和对面房屋的墙壁之间，留了一个能容一人通过的缺口作为出路。公共马车的辕杆已用绳索绑扎，让它竖起来，杆端系了一面红旗，飘扬在街垒的上空。
蒙德都街的那座小街垒，隐在酒店房屋的背后，是瞧不见的。这两处街垒连在一道便构成一座真正的犄角堡。安灼拉和古费拉克曾认为不宜在布道修士街通往菜市场那一段蒙德都街上建造街垒，他们显然是要留一条可以通向外面的路，也不大怕敌人从那条危险和艰难的布道修士街攻进来。
这条未经阻塞留作通道的出路，也许就是福拉尔①兵法中所说的那种交通小道；如果这条小道和麻厂街的那条狭窄的缺口都不计算在内，这座街垒内部除了酒店所构成的突角以外，便象一个全部封闭了的不规则四边形。这座大街垒和街底的那排高房子，相隔不过二十来步，因此我们可以说，街垒是背靠着那排房子的。那几座房子全有人住，但从上到下全关上了门窗。
①福拉尔（Folard，1669?752），法国军事学家。
这一切工程是在不到一小时之内顺利完成了的，那一小伙胆大气壮的人没有见到一顶毛皮帽①或一把枪刺。偶尔也有几个资产阶级仍在这暴动时刻走过圣德尼街时，向麻厂街望了一眼，见了这街垒便加快了脚步。
①十九世纪初，法国近*头戴高大的毛皮帽，此处泛指*军。
两个街垒都已完成，红旗已经竖起，他们便从酒店里拖出一张桌子，古费拉克立在桌子上。安灼拉搬来了方匣子，古费拉克打开匣盖，里面盛满了枪弹。枪弹出现时最勇敢的人也起了一阵战栗，大家全静了下来。
古费拉克面带笑容，把枪弹分给大家。
每人得到三十发枪弹。好些人有火药，便开始用熔好的子弹头做更多的枪弹。至于那整桶火药，他们把它放在店门旁的另一张桌子上，保存起来。
集合军队的鼓角声响彻巴黎，迄今未止，但已成一种单调的声音，他们不再注意了。那种声音，时而由近及远，时而由远及近，来回飘荡，惨不忍闻。
后来街垒建成了，各人的岗位都指定了，枪弹进了膛，哨兵上了岗，行人已绝迹，四周房屋全是静悄悄的，死了似的，绝无一点人的声息，暮色开始加深，逐渐进入黑夜，他们孤孤单单地留在这种触目惊心的街巷中，黑暗和死寂的环境中，感到自己已和外面隔绝，向着他们逼来的是种说不出有多悲惨和骇人的事物，他们紧握手中武器，坚定，安闲，等待着。
