Corinthe Cabaret was the occupied interior of the Chanvrerie barricade during the June 5, 1832 uprising in Paris. Transformed from a cabaret into part of a defensive position, it concentrated the insurgents’ work and armed presence; its torch also marked the barricade for Marius as he approached through the surrounding darkness.

Setting and Defensive Role

The uprising brought Marius’s friends to the barricade to fight government soldiers. At Corinthe Cabaret, the insurgents waited through a lull broken only by distant, intermittent gunfire. The narrative sets their small force of fifty men against the sixty thousand whom they expected the government to assemble, making the cabaret’s defended interior a point of resistance under overwhelming pressure.

The building’s rooms were adapted to the danger of the work underway. In the lower room, Gavroche made cartridges by the uncertain light of two candles placed on the counter. Because powder lay scattered across the tables, the candles were kept there as a precaution; they cast no light outside, and the insurgents had left the upper floors unlit. The arrangement served both practical safety and concealment, keeping the work area dim while preventing the building from advertising its position.

A Landmark in the Night

As Marius neared the barricade, Corinthe Cabaret was not immediately visible as a whole. From the Paris Markets, he followed the reddish glow reflected on the rooftops by the torch burning at the barricade. The light guided him through the Marché-aux-Poirées and into the Rue des Prêcheurs, toward a short stretch of Mondétour alley that Enjolras had left as the barricade’s sole connection with the outside.

From the alley’s dark corner, Marius saw only fragments: a little light on the paving stones, part of the cabaret, and a flickering lantern behind what appeared to be an irregular wall. Armed men crouched with their rifles across their knees. The neighboring houses blocked his view of the rest of the cabaret, the main barricade, and its flag. The approach therefore revealed the defended position piece by piece, with the cabaret’s light both guiding an approaching ally and exposing how little could be seen from outside.

Witness to the Barricade’s Crisis

The cabaret and its barricade also frame the unfolding confrontation among the insurgents. After Inspector Javert identified himself, Enjolras signaled four men, who seized, searched, and bound him before he could turn around. The search found his police identification card, while his watch and purse were left with him. The episode shows the barricade’s interior functioning not merely as a shelter or firing position but as a place where the insurgents tried to identify and control an enemy within their ranks.

Later, Marius watched from the barricade’s left end as Jean Valjean led the bound Inspector Javert across the inner barrier and into Mondétour alley. The cabaret’s position within the barricade made it part of the scene from which Marius witnessed this passage. In the surrounding battle, its rooms, dim lights, and blocked sightlines join practical defense to the uncertainty of the insurgents’ increasingly perilous position.