Chapter 6 Summary

The week following La Belle Lisa's visit to the authorities, the gossip in the Les Halles neighborhood has finally caught up with Florent. Everyone in the shops and the stalls turns against him. The chapter opens with Florent taking a walk through Paris, visualizing how the insurrection will take place. He begins at the Palais-Bourbon. Convinced that the time for action is drawing near, Florent sees in his imagination where the cannons would be positioned and in a notebook maps out various points of attack: "Already he could see the fighting, the groups of men clinging to those columns [...]" (250). On his way back to Les Halles, Florent meets up with Claude Lantier who convinces him to go in search of Marjolin. They find Marjolin and Cadine kissing in the poultry storeroom. Shortly thereafter, Florent and Claude Lantier watch as Marjolin sets about the...