The barricade insurgents expose and capture Javert

The barricade insurgents expose and capture Javert when Little Gavroche recognizes the police inspector in their midst and Enjolras turns that recognition into a coordinated arrest. In a rebellion marked by the disparity between a small band of defenders and the forces gathering against them, the episode makes the barricade’s vulnerability concrete: an agent of the authorities has entered its ranks, but a street child’s memory helps the insurgents uncover him.

Setting and Stakes

The arrest takes place during the uprising of June 5, 1832, as a popular revolt gathers force in Paris. Around Marius, the capital is in turmoil; his companions Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Combeferre, and their leader Enjolras are preparing to fight government soldiers with only a handful of men. Little Gavroche is among the defenders. The smallness of their group becomes especially stark during the long wait: the insurgents hear only distant, intermittent gunfire, and the apparent lull suggests that the government is taking time to assemble its strength. Fifty men are waiting against sixty thousand.

Inside the barricade’s lower room, the conditions of that wait are practical and precarious. Little Gavroche is making cartridges by the uncertain light of two candles set on a counter, while the insurgents keep the upper floors dark. Into this guarded space comes a man carrying a large service rifle. He has been watching the barricade and its defenders with unusual attention, but, once seated at the least-lit table, seems to withdraw into thought. His presence is not immediately challenged; the danger lies in the fact that an observer has been allowed among the men holding the position.

Recognition and Exposure

Little Gavroche notices the newcomer first because of his rifle. Then, as the man sits, the boy’s attention shifts from the weapon to the person carrying it. His reaction is one of dawning recognition and disbelief: he circles the seated man quietly, studying him before deciding that he knows who he is. The change in the boy’s attention interrupts the cartridge-making that had occupied the room and gives the scene its moment of suspense. Recognition precedes proof, but it is specific enough to matter.

Enjolras approaches Little Gavroche with a task of his own. Because the boy is small and less likely to be seen, Enjolras asks him to slip along the houses, make his way through the streets, and report what is happening. Little Gavroche agrees, but first warns him about the armed newcomer: he identifies the man as an informant. Asked how he can be certain, he recalls that less than a fortnight earlier the same man had pulled him by the ear from the cornice of Royal Bridge, where he had been taking the air. The identification rests not on a guess about the man’s appearance but on a remembered encounter with an officer who had already intervened against him.

The Seizure

Enjolras responds immediately, quietly summoning a worker from the Port aux Vins. The worker returns with three others. The four broad-shouldered porters place themselves behind the table where the stranger is sitting, taking positions that prepare them to act without drawing his attention. Their arrangement converts Little Gavroche’s recollection into a collective decision: rather than letting the suspected agent move freely or attempting a solitary confrontation, the insurgents place enough men within reach to overpower him.

Enjolras then asks the stranger who he is. The man starts at the abrupt question, looks into Enjolras’s face, and appears to understand what the leader suspects. He answers with resolute composure, first acknowledging the implication and then stating that he is an agent of the authorities. When Enjolras asks his name, he identifies himself as Javert. Enjolras signals the four porters. Before Javert can turn around, they seize him, bring him down, bind him, and search him. The progression is swift: the interrogation confirms what Little Gavroche has recognized, and the waiting men turn confirmation into physical control before Javert can resist.

Credentials and Immediate Outcome

The search produces official evidence of Javert’s position. He carries a small circular identification card mounted between two panes of glass. One side bears the engraved arms of France and the words indicating surveillance and vigilance; the other identifies him as a police inspector, gives his age as fifty-two, and bears the signature of the prefect of police, Gisquet. The card makes the arrest more than a seizure based on a boy’s accusation: it confirms Javert’s official identity to the insurgents.

The search also uncovers a folded paper hidden behind his watch at the bottom of his pocket. Written in the prefect’s own hand, it directs Javert, once his political mission is complete, to conduct special surveillance into reports of criminals operating along the right bank of the Seine near Pont d’Iéna. The order gives a particular destination and a second task, while connecting his presence at the barricade to official political work. The insurgents leave his watch and purse, which contains several gold pieces, untouched; their search is directed toward identifying his role, not taking his belongings.

After the search, the men raise Javert, tie his arms behind his back, and fasten him in the middle of the lower room. Little Gavroche has watched the whole operation and signals his approval with a silent nod before approaching the bound inspector. His description of the reversal—a mouse that has caught the cat—captures the immediate balance of power: the officer who had once seized the boy is now a prisoner among the insurgents. The scene joins two kinds of resistance, Enjolras’s organized command and Little Gavroche’s streetwise memory, at a moment when the defenders are vastly outnumbered and the authorities are gathering strength.