Les Misérables, Book 15: Rue De L’Homme Armé, Chapter 4 summary

What happens

1. Gavroche sings through the streets, discovers a drunk asleep in a handcart, and decides to take it for the barricade.
2. He pulls the sleeper onto the pavement, leaves a signed note in his pocket, and pushes the cart away noisily.
3. A sergeant investigates the disturbance, confronts Gavroche, and lowers his bayonet when the boy answers with insults and evasions.
4. Gavroche launches the cart into the sergeant’s stomach and escapes while the guards fire without a clear target.
5. Worried about reaching the barricade in time, Gavroche resumes running and singing.
6. The guards seize the cart and arrest the drunk, whom military courts treat as an accomplice.

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What to notice

The sentence marks Gavroche’s immediate change of tactics. He abandons his plan for the barricade’s supplies and uses the cart to escape an armed threat.

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