Jehan doesn't wait for Javert's consent, on the principle that, while the spy is free to embrace his own chains, he may not impose them on others. (Really, it's verging on the poetic. Is this the work of a sorceror-poet?)

He opens the bolt cutter and clamps it round the chain between the cuffs.

No good. The cuffs are as firmly linked as ever.

Jehan gives Enjolras a sympathetic look. "How dismal." He considers using the watch to contact the others, but the spy is right there, and Jehan doesn't know if Javert knows about the watches.