518 | 519 | 520 | 521 | 522 |
1 | 171 | 343 | 514 | 685 |
cemetery, and thirty-seven to Montmartre.
Jeanty Sarre escaped by a miracle, as well as Charpentier, and a third
whose name we have not been able to ascertain. They glided along the
houses and reached the Passage du Saumon. The grated doors which closed
the Passage during the night only reached to the centre of the archway.
They climbed it and got over the spikes, at the risk of tearing
themselves. Jeanty Sarre was the first to climb it; having reached the
summit, one of the spikes pierced his trousers, hooked them, and Jeanty
Sarre fell headforemost upon the pavement. He got up again, he was only
stunned. The other two followed him, and gliding along the bars, all
three found themselves in the Passage. It was dimly lighted by a lamp
which shone at one end. In the meanwhile, they heard the soldiers, who
were pursuing them, coming up. In order to escape by the Rue Montmartre,
they would have to climb the grated gateway at the other end of the
Passage; their hands were grazed, their knees were bleeding; they were
dying of weariness; they were in no condition to recommence a similar
ascent.
Jeanty Sarre knew where the keeper of the Passage lived. He knocked at
his window, and begged him to open. The keeper refused.
At this moment the detachment which had been sent in pursuit of them
reached the grated gateway which they had just climbed. The soldiers,
hearing a noise in the Passage, passed the barrels of their guns through
the bars. Jeanty Sarre squeezed himself against the wall behind one of
those projecting columns which decorate the Passage; but the column was
very thin, and only half covered him. The soldiers fired, and smoke
520
Page
Quick Jump
|