Marius rushes into the fighting and saves Gavroche and Courfeyrac

Marius’s charge at the Chanvrerie Street Barricade turns his divided presence in the uprising into decisive action. He leaves cover with two pistols, saves Gavroche and Courfeyrac, and helps force the attackers to flee; in the same confused advance, an unknown young worker takes a bullet while preventing a soldier from shooting Marius.

Setting and Stakes

The action belongs to the popular uprising of June 5, 1832. Marius’s friends Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Combeferre, and their leader Enjolras are among the small band preparing to fight government troops, with Gavroche also at the barricade. The insurgents’ numbers make the imbalance stark: as night falls, fifty men wait while the government gathers its forces, described as sixty thousand.

The pause before the attack does not mean safety. Gunfire is heard only at intervals, distant and sparse, and the prolonged quiet suggests that the government is taking time to assemble its strength. The insurgents wait under pressure, with the prospect of a much larger force bearing down on them.

Marius Enters the Fight

Marius initially watches the first phase of the combat from the bend of Rue Mondétour, concealed and trembling with indecision. But the imminence of danger breaks his hesitation. Overcome by a powerful vertigo likened to a call of the abyss, he rushes into the melee with both pistols in hand.

His first shot saves Gavroche; his second frees Courfeyrac. These are separate acts of rescue within the same sudden advance, and they mark Marius’s transition from watching the battle to directly shaping it. He then helps drive the attackers away from the barricade. The success of this exploit identifies him as the insurgents’ leader, and he leaves to inspect the surrounding area.

The Shot That Misses Marius

As Marius turns partly to look back, a soldier takes aim at him. An unknown young worker in velvet trousers springs forward and places a hand over the rifle’s muzzle. The gun fires through the hand and perhaps through the worker’s body as well; the worker falls, but the bullet does not hit Marius.

The rescue takes place amid smoke and confusion. Marius sees the rifle pointed at him, the hand blocking it, and hears the shot, but he barely registers what has happened as he enters the lower room. The intervention therefore saves his life without becoming a fully understood event for him in that moment; the worker’s fall occurs at the edge of his perception while the fighting continues.

Consequence and Narrative Role

The episode gives Marius a concrete role in the defense of the barricade: his intervention protects two companions and helps scatter the attackers. It also places his survival beside the young worker’s apparent sacrifice, making the advance a scene of rescue that carries an immediate cost. The worker’s action is not presented as a planned maneuver but as a sudden response to the danger facing Marius.

The later state of the barricade sharpens the danger surrounding this burst of success. The insurgents are still facing a seemingly certain death, and stolen National Guard uniforms are being used to help married men and fathers cross enemy lines and escape. There are only four uniforms for five men. Marius’s emergence as a leader thus comes within a struggle whose resources are painfully limited and whose temporary victories do not remove the larger threat.