"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come round again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes." - Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
A retelling of part of Les Miserables, from about 1828-1832.
Élise was born i...
It was about eleven o'clock when we left for the Place de Louis XVI, where we were to meet the others, and where Courfeyrac had engaged one of the many coucous 'for the lot of us.' Having seen the size of the little, two wheeled coaches, I wasn't overly convinced about all of us fitting into one of them. As we passed through the flower market on the Isle de la Cite, I bought a few little posies from the girls selling there for Musichetta to arrange in both my and her hair later. Between the fine clothes and the money I now had to spend, I felt a world away from what I had been when I was one of the girls selling flowers. Rags and tatters were a thing of the past for me, and I could but hope the changes that Enjolras and so many others were planning for would happen sooner rather than later, so that such poverty would be a thing of the past for these others, too.
On arriving at the Place de Louis XVI, it didn't take overlong to find Courfeyrac. He was in discussion with a driver about the quantity of us: clearly the driver had been forewarned, since he had a second pony hitched up next to the horse, to help share the load. He was wearing a bottle-green velveteen waistcoat, with matching trousers, stout, hobnailed boots, a cap with a visor, and over the top a blue smock with bits of multicoloured embroidery to protect his clothes from the dust of the road. Courfeyrac had clearly noticed me looking somewhat sceptically at the coach: he turned to me, saying:
"It'll be more comfortable with more of us. With just six people inside, you rattle around like anything, but if you cram eight people in, there's no room to rattle. Nice dress, by the way."
I ignored his last remark, and raised an eyebrow. "No room to breathe, either. And by my counting, there may be more than eight of us."
"That's alright - there's space to fit in at the front, with the driver."
"So you're proposing that we can fit eleven of us on here."
"Twelve, if the driver sits on the footplate. And it's all the more money for him, since they all charge 5 sous per head per hour."
"Truthfully, miss, we can fit fifteen on at a push, if we have four as rabbits - that is to say, sat out front with me - and three up in the hen roost," the driver added. "Though anyone in the hen roost has to get down and walk through the towns and villages, so the gendarmes don't catch us out. But it sounds like there'll be few enough of you that it shan't merit that."
"Hen roost being up top?"
"Yes - where the packages go normally. You'll all be perfectly comfortable," he assured me.
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The driver removed (with some difficulty) the bar at the front of the coach to let us in as Musichetta arrived with Joly and Bossuet, and so they sat inside on one of the benches, while Enjolras and I sat down opposite them. The benches were covered with a very worn velvet of a bright yellow colour. I was somewhat surprised (but nevertheless glad) to see Marius arrive, greeted enthusiastically by Courfeyrac, and come and sit down next to me. Jehan was next, and squeezed in next to Joly, while Combeferre sat next to Marius. The driver replaced the bar behind us, which formed a sort of back rest. Courfeyrac, Grantaire, Bahorel, and Feuilly seemed quite content to be 'rabbits' out front, and some organisation had clearly gone on between them to this effect, since they all had overcoats to protect them from the worst of the dust. I suspected that Feuilly's had been lent to him by Courfeyrac, since it seemed unlikely that he had the money to own one of his own, and Courfeyrac was always free with lending out his clothes.
