A Strange Mixture of Sorts
Before Cosette could grab hold of Montparnasse again, the young man had slipped away elsewhere into the throng.
"Oh where do you go now?" Cosette sighed, exasperated. The park was now full of people, mostly students and working men from nearby establishments. As the girl wove her way through the crowd in seach of Joly and Musichetta, she caught sight of two familiar faces.
"That's Monsieur Courfeyrac and Monsieur Enjolras... she realized. Much to her astonishment, the two students were moving towards the front of the crowd. Cosette could only watch as Enjolras climbed up onto a bench that now served as a sort of platform.
"He's going to make a speech? What about?" Cosette wondered. She tried to move forward in order to hear Enjolras' voice better, but found it was nigh impossible. However, she could make out the words 'liberty', 'rights', 'the people', and 'the monarchy as opposed to a certain ideal...'
A shout started from the left of the crowd. "Let go! We were just passing here!" a man yelled at some police officers who'd suddenly arrived, and were now collaring him and some other bystanders.
A scuffle broke out at this side of the crowd, even as some of the listeners fled to the relative safety of the streets. Enjolras stopped in mid-speech, but he stood his ground even as the gendarmes neared the makeshift platform.
In the meantime, Cosette tried to get away, but found herself quite trapped in the crowd. "Joly! Musichetta!" she shrieked, terrified now that she was quite unaware where her friends were. Unexpectedly, someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her out towards the edge of the crowd.
"You are under arrest for disturbing the peace," one inspector said firmly even as Enjolras was being put into handcuffs. This inspector stood out among the others since he was particularly somber in demeanor. He had a hat that failed to conceal his sideburns.
"So I see," Enjolras said dispassionately.
"And that's all?" Courfeyrac quipped from nearby. Like Enjolras and some of the other men, he was also in handcuffs. It was then at this point that two of the policemen returned, half-dragging Cosette with them.
"What in the---" Enjolras started when he saw the girl.
"I didn't do anything!" Cosette said, now on the point of tears.
"For God's sake, let her go. She's just a child," Courfeyrac tried to reason with the police.
"You're in no position to bargain now, young man," said the inspector with sideburns. He turned to one of his companions. "Where are the others?"
"We only found three more, Javert. The student with a cane gave us quite a hard time. The woman with him got away though," another inspector reported, rubbing a newly-acquired bruise on his arm.
"That leaves someone to post bail for him then," Javert said even as Enjolras, Courfeyrac, and Cosette were being ushered towards a waiting wagon.