Thanks for the advice! This chapter seems awkward to me…maybe because I stuck closer to the real book text than usual. Also, I'm bad at fights/battles.

Meh. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own the lullaby or the direct quotes from the book.

Eponine came back into the wine shop to find Gavroche on the floor. He seemed to be daydreaming about something.

"Gavroche, what are you doing here?" Eponine asked, kneeling by her brother.

"Gettin' ready to fight, 'Ponine," he said.

"You're too little. Why don't you run home?"

"We don't have an 'ome, remember? I got nothin' but this barricade."

"But-"

Enjolras chose that moment to come up and accost Gavroche.

"You are small," he said, "you will not be seen. Go out of the barricade, slip along close to the houses, skirmish about a bit in the streets, and come back and tell me what is going on."

Gavroche sprang up,

"So little fellows are good for something!" he rejoiced. Eponine grabbed him by the shoulders.

"You will not go out there, Gavroche!"

"Lay off, 'Ponine! Oh, and Enjolras," Gavroche went on, "That big man over there, do you see him?"

"Yes," said Enjolras.

"He's a police spy."

"Are you sure of it?"

"Yes."

Enjolras approached the man, and soon the spy was a prisoner, and Gavroche had left the barricade. Eponine found Feuilly, and the pair sat together, holding each other and not speaking. Eponine leaned on Feuilly's shoulder and was nearly asleep when an old song pierced the air, cut off by a noise that sounded like a rooster crowing.

"That's Gavroche!" she cried, "He's trying to warn us of something!"

A second later, Gavroche bounded through the barricade, breathing hard.

"My gun! Here they are!"

Everyone made to grab their guns, and Feuilly handed Eponine her pistol. The revolutionaries took their places on the barricades, most of them outside the wine shop with their guns through loopholes in the barricade. A few stayed behind, commanded by Feuilly and were positioned, guns at the ready, inside the shop.

A voice rang through the night,

"Who goes there?"

"The French Revolution!" Enjolras cried.

"Fire!" said the voice, and several things happened at once. Bullets flew through the barricade and wounded several, lighting the night up with an odd purplish hue. The big scarlet flag which had flown so gallantly was knocked down. An old man who Eponine didn't know attempted to raise it again, and was shot through with many bullets.

When Feuilly was sure that the firing had ceased, at least temporarily, he sent Eponine out to help with the wounded. Gavroche was still on the barricade, and suddenly called out,

"Look out!"

A group of soldiers had tried to force their way through the barricade. The men came charging out of the wine shop, and a skirmish ensued. The revolutionaries were victorious, thanks to a man who Eponine didn't know who had just entered the barricade. She brought a man who had been shot through the calf inside, leaning on her shoulder.

"Come on, it's just a bit further," she encouraged, getting him to a chair and settling him there, washing his wound and bandaging it.

"Be off with you, or I'll blow up the barricade!" a familiar voice cried. It was Marius. Eponine finished her bandaging and ran outside just in time to hear a manly voice call out,

"Vive la France! Long live France! Long live the future!" A gunshot followed.

"They have killed him," Combeferre said.

"Who?" Eponine asked.

"Jean Prouvaire," he replied sadly. Eponine got a lump in her throat and tears sprang to her eyes. Gentle, sweet Jehan! The poet, who had grown the prettiest flowers she had ever seen. She dashed inside to find Feuilly.

"Oh Feuilly!" she said when she found him, tears trickling down her cheeks.

"What is it?" he asked, worried.

"It's J-Jehan," she sobbed, "They've killed him! Oh, I hate this barricade!"

Feuilly took her into his arms and hushed her.

"It's so unfair!" Eponine cried out, almost angry now.

"I know it is, chère," he replied gently, stroking her hair. But he had little time to comfort her, for there were still men who needed to be tended, and the barricade needed repairs. After these things were taken care of, Enjolras suggested that everyone get some sleep.

Only three or four people actually took advantage of this. Feuilly used his time to carve an inscription on the wall of the tavern –

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES!

Eponine sat close, tending to a young man who was no older than she, singing a soft lullaby.

Dodo, l'enfant do,
L'enfant dormira bien vite
Dodo, l'enfant do
L'enfant dormira bientôt.

Une poule blanche
Est là dans la grange.
Qui va faire un petit coco*
Pour l'enfant qui va fair' dodo.

Dodo, l'enfant do,
L'enfant dormira bien vite
Dodo, l'enfant do
L'enfant dormira bientôt.

Tout le monde est sage
Dans le voisinage
Il est l'heure d'aller dormir
Le sommeil va bientôt venir.

Enjolras disappeared into the night, with the grim news that the army of Paris, along with the National Guard, was going to strike them. There was little hope, he said. Feuilly gathered Eponine in his arms and held her warm little body close as the insurgents quieted. Suddenly, someone called out,

"So be it. Let us raise the barricade to a height of twenty feet, and let us all remain in it. Citizens, let us offer the protests of corpses. Let us show that, if the people abandon the republicans, the republicans do not abandon the people."

This rallied the revolutionaries, and was met with great enthusiasm. Enjolras spoke up again, and Marius, encouraging any man who wished to leave, and providing four uniforms for them to escape in.

A man brought a fifth, and donated it to the cause, but Eponine barely noticed. She was clinging almost desperately to Feuilly, head on his chest, listening to his heart beat. Time passed in a haze, and Eponine sat close at the men tore up more paving-stones to reinforce the barricade. The man for whom she had sung the lullaby had expired, and she wept as she covered him.

The day passed too quickly, and toward evening, the sounds of the oncoming army became painfully apparent. The revolutionaries positioned themselves on the barricade, as a cannon made its appearance. Eponine refused to leave Feuilly's side and go into the safety of the wine-shop as they readied for battle.

"Fire!" Enjolras shouted, and smoke covered the barricade. When it had cleared, they could see that no one had been hit, and the order was given to reload. A cannon spattered the barricade with grapeshot, and a flying chip of stone cut Eponine's cheek. The captain who had ordered the cannon fire paid for it with his life. One bullet from Enjolras ended it.

They continued to skirmish throughout the night, the French Army firing grapeshot, and the revolutionaries replying with musket fire.

Gavroche was killed gathering cartridges, and Marius bore him back into the barricade. Eponine wordlessly took her younger brother's body and laid it tenderly on the ground, wiping the dirt off his face with a damp rag and her tears. She was singing her lullaby again. Feuilly knelt and put his arms around her.

"I used to sing that to him when he was a baby," she said softly, "he was ever so fussy. You know, I don't think that I ever…told him I loved him."

"Shhh," Feuilly said, tenderly stroking her hair, "I'm sure he knew it."

Eponine cried herself into an exhausted sleep, and Feuilly kept still.

It was now midday, and the insurgents were preparing for their final battle.

English translation of Eponine's lullaby:

Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,/The child will sleep very soon/Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,/The child will sleep oh, so soon.

A white hen/Is in the barn./It'll make a small egg/For the child who goes to sleep.

Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,/The child will sleep very soon/Sleepy time, the young one sleeps,/The child will sleep oh, so soon.

Everyone is calm/All around/It's the time for all to sleep/Sleep will come soon.