Enjolras Allows

'And turning gently to Enjolras, he said to him:

"Will you allow it?"

Enjolras pressed his hand with a smile.

This smile was not ended when the report resounded.'

- Victor Hugo, 'Les Miserables'

The final act of Enjolras' life, and the last thing Grantaire sees.

I don't think that Grantaire was an 11th hour convert to the Republican cause, and I don't think Enjolras believed that he was. He smiled and reached out to Grantaire for other reasons - in an affirmation of love and friendship.

Until this moment, Enjolras' death has almost been to a script he wrote. Extraordinarily powerful, and in accordance with his decision that their deaths would be worthy of their convictions. It's almost over...and then Grantaire intervenes. And rather than reject him and his intrusion, Enjolras grasps his hand with a smile.

So much must have been there, underneath that over-arching serenity. An almost beatific expression, perhaps...but can he have been so unconscious of the fact that there were a dozen guns trained on him, and his death is seconds away? I've tried to go with an open, welcoming, human expression, with a touch of the transcendent.