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Two barricades, enclosing in the same manner some forty yards of the Rue
Montorgueil, had just been constructed at the top of the Rue Mauconseil.
Three other barricades, extremely feebly constructed, again intersected
the Rue Montorgueil in the space which separates the Rue Mauconseil from
Saint Eustache.
Evening was closing in. The fusillade was ceasing upon the boulevard. A
surprise was possible. They established a sentry-post at the corner of
the Rue du Cadran, and sent a main-guard in the direction of the Rue
Montmartre. Their scouts came in to report some items of information. A
regiment seemed to be preparing to bivouac in the Place des Victoires.
Their position, to all appearance strong, was not so in reality. There
were too few in number to defend at the same time the two barricades on
the Rue de Cléry and the Rue Montorgueil, and the soldiers arriving in
the rear hidden by the second barricade would have been upon them
without being even noticed. This determined them to establish a post in
the Rue de Cléry. They put themselves in communication with the
barricades of the Rue du Cadran and with the two Mauconseil barricades.
These two last barricades were only separated from them by a space of
about 150 paces. They were about six feet high, fairly solid, but only
guarded by six workmen who had built them.
Towards half-past four, in the twilight--the twilight begins early in
December--Jeanty Sarre took four men with him and went out to
reconnoitre. He thought also of raising an advanced barricade in one of
the little neighboring streets. On the way they found one which had been
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