# Recruits explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

The revolutionary band grows as they march through the streets, gathering recruits including a tall, gray-haired stranger. Courfeyrac briefly leaves to retrieve his purse and hat, encountering a young artisan who asks for Marius and then decides to follow the group to the barricades.

## Themes in this chapter

### Revolution and Social Upheaval

The band of insurgents grows as they march, symbolizing the spontaneous and collective nature of revolutionary action.

## Character check-ins

### Courfeyrac

Leaves the mob to retrieve his purse and hat, encounters a young artisan asking for Marius, and allows the stranger to follow them to the barricades.

### Enjolras

Notices the tall, gray-haired stranger joining the band but does not know him.

### Combeferre

Also observes the unknown tall man joining the group.

### Gavroche

Occupied with singing and running ahead, pays no attention to the new recruit.

## Key lines

> The band augmented every moment. Near the Rue des Billettes, a man of lofty stature, whose hair was turning gray, and whose bold and daring mien was remarked by Courfeyrac, Enjolras, and Combeferre, but whom none of them knew, joined them.

The group kept growing as they moved, and near Rue des Billettes, a tall, gray-haired man with a bold look joined them, noticed but unrecognized by Courfeyrac, Enjolras, and Combeferre.

_Introduces a mysterious new recruit to the revolutionary band._

> When he had rejoined them, he gave the coffer to one of them to carry. It was only a quarter of an hour after this that he saw the young man, who had actually followed them.

After Courfeyrac returned to the group, he handed the coffer to someone else, and within fifteen minutes he noticed that the young artisan had indeed followed them.

_The young artisan's decision to follow Courfeyrac shows his commitment to joining the uprising._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/vi-recruits
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters