"I suppose he has to, to live and believe as he does." Combeferre has read what Hugo had to say of Javert. If one-tenth of it is accurate, and the barricade section certainly is, then the man has devoted his life to an authoritarian social order, to domination and control made manifest in church and state. Javert will not see when a bourgeois attacks a prostitute, or when a convict is a good man. Why would he consent to see when a group of friends interacts on the basis of equality and brotherhood, and not the tyrannical rule of Enjolras?

The very thought of that forces Combeferre to suppress a snicker. "You make a poor despot, Enjolras. Your subjects are obstreperous and unruly." This, with a nod at Bahorel.