Les Amis de l'ABC (“The Friends of the ABC”; pronounced ah-bae-sae, a clever homonym to the french word ‘abesse’ – ‘the wretched’) were the cradle of the student insurrection, an anti-monarchist rebellion in June of 1832 in Paris. In this song, Enjolras, the general-apparent, pitches conviction into his followers. Marius is distracted, thinking of Cosette, who he met on the street that day and immediately fell in love with. Enjolras disavows this infatuation, encouraging focus on the task at hand. Gavroche divulges to the Amis that Lamarque, the only member of the Parliament who vouched for the starving peasants of the streets, has died. Enjolras concocts a plan to make the best of this.