Les Misérables, Book 1: The War Between Four Walls, Chapter 9 summary

What happens

1. Enjolras calls for a mattress to soften the cannon fire, but Combeferre says the available mattresses support the wounded.
2. Jean Valjean borrows Enjolras’s rifle and shoots through the two ropes holding a mattress outside an attic window.
3. The mattress falls between the opposing forces, where soldiers keep the street under fire.
4. Jean Valjean crosses the street, retrieves the mattress, and secures it inside the barricade’s gap.
5. The mattress prevents the next cannon blast from ricocheting, and Enjolras thanks Jean Valjean.
6. Bossuet celebrates the soft mattress’s power against the cannon.

In this chapter

What to notice

Bossuet’s remark captures the contrast between the mattress’s softness and the cannon’s violence. The improvised defense succeeds by absorbing the blast.

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