it was the best of times it was the worst of times it was the age of 
wisdom it was the age of foolishness it was the epoch of belief it was 
the epoch of incredulity it was the season of light it was the season 
of darkness it was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair we 
had everything before us we had nothing before us we were all going 
direct to heaven we were all going direct the other wayin short the 
period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest 
authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil in the 
superlative degree of comparison only there were a king with a large 
jaw and a queen with a plain face on the throne of england there were 
a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face on the throne of 
france in both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of 
the state preserves of loaves and fishes that things in general were 
settled for ever it was the year of our lord one thousand seven 
hundred and seventyfive spiritual revelations were conceded to england 
at that favoured period as at this mrs southcott had recently attained 
her fiveandtwentieth blessed birthday of whom a prophetic private in 
the life guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that 
arrangements were made for the swallowing up of london and westminster 
even the cocklane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years 
after rapping out its messages as the spirits of this very year last 
past supernaturally deficient in originality rapped out theirs mere 
messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the english 
crown and people from a congress of british subjects in america which 
strange to relate have proved more important to the human race than 
any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the 
cocklane brood france less favoured on the whole as to matters 
spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident rolled with 
exceeding smoothness down hill making paper money and spending it 
under the guidance of her christian pastors she entertained herself 
besides with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have 
his hands cut off his tongue torn out with pincers and his body burned 
alive because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a 
dirty procession of monks which passed within his view at a distance 
of some fifty or sixty yards it is likely enough that rooted in the 
woods of france and norway there were growing trees when that sufferer 
was put to death already marked by the woodman fate to come down and 
be sawn into boards to make a certain movable framework with a sack 
and a knife in it terrible in history it is likely enough that in the 
rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to paris 
there were sheltered from the weather that very day rude carts 
bespattered with rustic mire snuffed about by pigs and roosted in by 
poultry which the farmer death had already set apart to be his 
tumbrils of the revolution but that woodman and that farmer though 
they work unceasingly work silently and no one heard them as they went 
about with muffled tread the rather forasmuch as to entertain any 
suspicion that they were awake was to be atheistical and traitorous in 
england there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to 
justify much national boasting daring burglaries by armed men and 
highway robberies took place in the capital itself every night 
families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without 
removing their furniture to upholsterers warehouses for security the 
highwayman in the dark was a city tradesman in the light and being 
recognised and challenged by his fellow tradesman whom he stopped in 
his character of the captain gallantly shot him through the head and 
rode away the mail was waylaid by seven robbers and the guard shot 
three dead and then got shot dead himself by the other four in 
consequence of the failure of his ammunition after which the mail was 
robbed in peace that magnificent potentate the lord mayor of london 
was made to stand and deliver on turnham green by one highwayman who 
despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue 
prisoners in london gaols fought battles with their turnkeys and the 
majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them loaded with 
rounds of shot and ball thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the 
necks of noble lords at court drawingrooms musketeers went into st 
giless to search for contraband goods and the mob fired on the 
musketeers and the musketeers fired on the mob and nobody thought any 
of these occurrences much out of the common way in the midst of them 
the hangman ever busy and ever worse than useless was in constant 
requisition now stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals now 
hanging a housebreaker on saturday who had been taken on tuesday now 
burning people in the hand at newgate by the dozen and now burning 
pamphlets at the door of westminster hall today taking the life of an 
atrocious murderer and tomorrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed 
a farmers boy of sixpence all these things and a thousand like them 
came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven 
hundred and seventyfive environed by them while the woodman and the 
farmer worked unheeded those two of the large jaws and those other two 
of the plain and the fair faces trod with stir enough and carried 
their divine rights with a high hand thus did the year one thousand 
seven hundred and seventyfive conduct their greatnesses and myriads of 
small creaturesthe creatures of this chronicle among the restalong the 
roads that lay before them ii the mail it was the dover road that lay 
on a friday night late in november before the first of the persons 
with whom this history has business the dover road lay as to him 
beyond the dover mail as it lumbered up shooters hill he walked up 
hill in the mire by the side of the mail as the rest of the passengers 
did not because they had the least relish for walking exercise under 
the circumstances but because the hill and the harness and the mud and 
the mail were all so heavy that the horses had three times already 
come to a stop besides once drawing the coach across the road with the 
mutinous intent of taking it back to blackheath reins and whip and 
coachman and guard however in combination had read that article of war 
which forbade a purpose otherwise strongly in favour of the argument 
that some brute animals are endued with reason and the team had 
capitulated and returned to their duty with drooping heads and 
tremulous tails they mashed their way through the thick mud 
floundering and stumbling between whiles as if they were falling to 
pieces at the larger joints as often as the driver rested them and 
brought them to a stand with a wary woho sohothen the near leader 
violently shook his head and everything upon itlike an unusually 
emphatic horse denying that the coach could be got up the hill 
whenever the leader made this rattle the passenger started as a 
nervous passenger might and was disturbed in mind there was a steaming 
mist in all the hollows and it had roamed in its forlornness up the 
hill like an evil spirit seeking rest and finding none a clammy and 
intensely cold mist it made its slow way through the air in ripples 
that visibly followed and overspread one another as the waves of an 
unwholesome sea might do it was dense enough to shut out everything 
from the light of the coachlamps but these its own workings and a few 
yards of road and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it as 
if they had made it all two other passengers besides the one were 
plodding up the hill by the side of the mail all three were wrapped to 
the cheekbones and over the ears and wore jackboots not one of the 
three could have said from anything he saw what either of the other 
two was like and each was hidden under almost as many wrappers from 
the eyes of the mind as from the eyes of the body of his two 
companions in those days travellers were very shy of being 
confidential on a short notice for anybody on the road might be a 
robber or in league with robbers as to the latter when every 
postinghouse and alehouse could produce somebody in the captains pay 
ranging from the landlord to the lowest stable nondescript it was the 
likeliest thing upon the cards so the guard of the dover mail thought 
to himself that friday night in november one thousand seven hundred 
and seventyfive lumbering up shooters hill as he stood on his own 
particular perch behind the mail beating his feet and keeping an eye 
and a hand on the armchest before him where a loaded blunderbuss lay 
at the top of six or eight loaded horsepistols deposited on a 
substratum of cutlass the dover mail was in its usual genial position 
that the guard suspected the passengers the passengers suspected one 
another and the guard they all suspected everybody else and the 
coachman was sure of nothing but the horses as to which cattle he 
could with a clear conscience have taken his oath on the two 
testaments that they were not fit for the journey woho said the 
coachman so then one more pull and youre at the top and be damned to 
you for i have had trouble enough to get you to itjoe halloa the guard 
replied what oclock do you make it joe ten minutes good past eleven my 
blood ejaculated the vexed coachman and not atop of shooters yet tst 
yah get on with you the emphatic horse cut short by the whip in a most 
decided negative made a decided scramble for it and the three other 
horses followed suit once more the dover mail struggled on with the 
jackboots of its passengers squashing along by its side they had 
stopped when the coach stopped and they kept close company with it if 
any one of the three had had the hardihood to propose to another to 
walk on a little ahead into the mist and darkness he would have put 
himself in a fair way of getting shot instantly as a highwayman the 
last burst carried the mail to the summit of the hill the horses 
stopped to breathe again and the guard got down to skid the wheel for 
the descent and open the coachdoor to let the passengers in tst joe 
cried the coachman in a warning voice looking down from his box what 
do you say tom they both listened i say a horse at a canter coming up 
joe i say a horse at a gallop tom returned the guard leaving his hold 
of the door and mounting nimbly to his place gentlemen in the kings 
name all of you with this hurried adjuration he cocked his blunderbuss 
and stood on the offensive the passenger booked by this history was on 
the coachstep getting in the two other passengers were close behind 
him and about to follow he remained on the step half in the coach and 
half out of they remained in the road below him they all looked from 
the coachman to the guard and from the guard to the coachman and 
listened the coachman looked back and the guard looked back and even 
the emphatic leader pricked up his ears and looked back without 
contradicting the stillness consequent on the cessation of the 
rumbling and labouring of the coach added to the stillness of the 
night made it very quiet indeed the panting of the horses communicated 
a tremulous motion to the coach as if it were in a state of agitation 
the hearts of the passengers beat loud enough perhaps to be heard but 
at any rate the quiet pause was audibly expressive of people out of 
breath and holding the breath and having the pulses quickened by 
expectation the sound of a horse at a gallop came fast and furiously 
up the hill soho the guard sang out as loud as he could roar yo there 
stand i shall fire the pace was suddenly checked and with much 
splashing and floundering a mans voice called from the mist is that 
the dover mail never you mind what it is the guard retorted what are 
you is that the dover mail why do you want to know i want a passenger 
if it is what passenger mr jarvis lorry our booked passenger showed in 
a moment that it was his name the guard the coachman and the two other 
passengers eyed him distrustfully keep where you are the guard called 
to the voice in the mist because if i should make a mistake it could 
never be set right in your lifetime gentleman of the name of lorry 
answer straight what is the matter asked the passenger then with 
mildly quavering speech who wants me is it jerry i dont like jerrys 
voice if it is jerry growled the guard to himself hes hoarser than 
suits me is jerry yes mr lorry what is the matter a despatch sent 
after you from over yonder t and co i know this messenger guard said 
mr lorry getting down into the roadassisted from behind more swiftly 
than politely by the other two passengers who immediately scrambled 
into the coach shut the door and pulled up the window he may come 
close theres nothing wrong i hope there aint but i cant make so nation 
sure of that said the guard in gruff soliloquy hallo you well and 
hallo you said jerry more hoarsely than before come on at a footpace 
dye mind me and if youve got holsters to that saddle o yourn dont let 
me see your hand go nigh em for im a devil at a quick mistake and when 
i make one it takes the form of lead so now lets look at you the 
figures of a horse and rider came slowly through the eddying mist and 
came to the side of the mail where the passenger stood the rider 
stooped and casting up his eyes at the guard handed the passenger a 
small folded paper the riders horse was blown and both horse and rider 
were covered with mud from the hoofs of the horse to the hat of the 
man guard said the passenger in a tone of quiet business confidence 
the watchful guard with his right hand at the stock of his raised 
blunderbuss his left at the barrel and his eye on the horseman 
answered curtly sir there is nothing to apprehend i belong to tellsons 
bank you must know tellsons bank in london i am going to paris on 
business a crown to drink i may read this if so be as youre quick sir 
he opened it in the light of the coachlamp on that side and readfirst 
to himself and then aloud wait at dover for mamselle its not long you 
see guard jerry say that my answer was recalled to life jerry started 
in his saddle thats a blazing strange answer too said he at his 
hoarsest take that message back and they will know that i received 
this as well as if i wrote make the best of your way good night with 
those words the passenger opened the coachdoor and got in not at all 
assisted by his fellowpassengers who had expeditiously secreted their 
watches and purses in their boots and were now making a general 
pretence of being asleep with no more definite purpose than to escape 
the hazard of originating any other kind of action the coach lumbered 
on again with heavier wreaths of mist closing round it as it began the 
descent the guard soon replaced his blunderbuss in his armchest and 
having looked to the rest of its contents and having looked to the 
supplementary pistols that he wore in his belt looked to a smaller 
chest beneath his seat in which there were a few smiths tools a couple 
of torches and a tinderbox for he was furnished with that completeness 
that if the coachlamps had been blown and stormed out which did 
occasionally happen he had only to shut himself up inside keep the 
flint and steel sparks well off the straw and get a light with 
tolerable safety and ease if he were lucky in five minutes tom softly 
over the coach roof hallo joe did you hear the message i did joe what 
did you make of it tom nothing at all joe thats a coincidence too the 
guard mused for i made the same of it myself jerry left alone in the 
mist and darkness dismounted meanwhile not only to ease his spent 
horse but to wipe the mud from his face and shake the wet out of his 
hatbrim which might be capable of holding about half a gallon after 
standing with the bridle over his heavilysplashed arm until the wheels 
of the mail were no longer within hearing and the night was quite 
still again he turned to walk down the hill after that there gallop 
from temple bar old lady i wont trust your forelegs till i get you on 
the level said this hoarse messenger glancing at his mare recalled to 
life thats a blazing strange message much of that wouldnt do for you 
jerry i say jerry youd be in a blazing bad way if recalling to life 
was to come into fashion jerry iii the night shadows a wonderful fact 
to reflect upon that every human creature is constituted to be that 
profound secret and mystery to every other a solemn consideration when 
i enter a great city by night that every one of those darkly clustered 
houses encloses its own secret that every room in every one of them 
encloses its own secret that every beating heart in the hundreds of 
thousands of breasts there is in some of its imaginings a secret to 
the heart nearest it something of the awfulness even of death itself 
is referable to this no more can i turn the leaves of this dear book 
that i loved and vainly hope in time to read it all no more can i look 
into the depths of this unfathomable water wherein as momentary lights 
glanced into it i have had glimpses of buried treasure and other 
things submerged it was appointed that the book should shut with a 
spring for ever and for ever when i had read but a page it was 
appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost when the 
light was playing on its surface and i stood in ignorance on the shore 
my friend is dead my neighbour is dead my love the darling of my soul 
is dead it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the 
secret that was always in that individuality and which i shall carry 
in mine to my lifes end in any of the burialplaces of this city 
through which i pass is there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy 
inhabitants are in their innermost personality to me or than i am to 
them as to this his natural and not to be alienated inheritance the 
messenger on horseback had exactly the same possessions as the king 
the first minister of state or the richest merchant in london so with 
the three passengers shut up in the narrow compass of one lumbering 
old mail coach they were mysteries to one another as complete as if 
each had been in his own coach and six or his own coach and sixty with 
the breadth of a county between him and the next the messenger rode 
back at an easy trot stopping pretty often at alehouses by the way to 
drink but evincing a tendency to keep his own counsel and to keep his 
hat cocked over his eyes he had eyes that assorted very well with that 
decoration being of a surface black with no depth in the colour or 
form and much too near togetheras if they were afraid of being found 
out in something singly if they kept too far apart they had a sinister 
expression under an old cockedhat like a threecornered spittoon and 
over a great muffler for the chin and throat which descended nearly to 
the wearers knees when he stopped for drink he moved this muffler with 
his left hand only while he poured his liquor in with his right as 
soon as that was done he muffled again no jerry no said the messenger 
harping on one theme as he rode it wouldnt do for you jerry jerry you 
honest tradesman it wouldnt suit your line of business recalled bust 
me if i dont think hed been a drinking his message perplexed his mind 
to that degree that he was fain several times to take off his hat to 
scratch his head except on the crown which was raggedly bald he had 
stiff black hair standing jaggedly all over it and growing down hill 
almost to his broad blunt nose it was so like smiths work so much more 
like the top of a strongly spiked wall than a head of hair that the 
best of players at leapfrog might have declined him as the most 
dangerous man in the world to go over while he trotted back with the 
message he was to deliver to the night watchman in his box at the door 
of tellsons bank by temple bar who was to deliver it to greater 
authorities within the shadows of the night took such shapes to him as 
arose out of the message and took such shapes to the mare as arose out 
of her private topics of uneasiness they seemed to be numerous for she 
shied at every shadow on the road what time the mailcoach lumbered 
jolted rattled and bumped upon its tedious way with its three 
fellowinscrutables inside to whom likewise the shadows of the night 
revealed themselves in the forms their dozing eyes and wandering 
thoughts suggested tellsons bank had a run upon it in the mail as the 
bank passenger with an arm drawn through the leathern strap which did 
what lay in it to keep him from pounding against the next passenger 
and driving him into his corner whenever the coach got a special 
joltnodded in his place with halfshut eyes the little coachwindows and 
the coachlamp dimly gleaming through them and the bulky bundle of 
opposite passenger became the bank and did a great stroke of business 
the rattle of the harness was the chink of money and more drafts were 
honoured in five minutes than even tellsons with all its foreign and 
home connection ever paid in thrice the time then the strongrooms 
underground at tellsons with such of their valuable stores and secrets 
as were known to the passenger and it was not a little that he knew 
about them opened before him and he went in among them with the great 
keys and the feeblyburning candle and found them safe and strong and 
sound and still just as he had last seen them but though the bank was 
almost always with him and though the coach in a confused way like the 
presence of pain under an opiate was always with him there was another 
current of impression that never ceased to run all through the night 
he was on his way to dig some one out of a grave now which of the 
multitude of faces that showed themselves before him was the true face 
of the buried person the shadows of the night did not indicate but 
they were all the faces of a man of fiveand forty by years and they 
differed principally in the passions they expressed and in the 
ghastliness of their worn and wasted state pride contempt defiance 
stubbornness submission lamentation succeeded one another so did 
varieties of sunken cheek cadaverous colour emaciated hands and 
figures but the face was in the main one face and every head was 
prematurely white a hundred times the dozing passenger inquired of 
this spectre buried how long the answer was always the same almost 
eighteen years you had abandoned all hope of being dug out long ago 
you know that you are recalled to life they tell me so i hope you care 
to live i cant say shall i show her to you will you come and see her 
the answers to this question were various and contradictory sometimes 
the broken reply was wait it would kill me if i saw her too soon 
sometimes it was given in a tender rain of tears and then it was take 
me to her sometimes it was staring and bewildered and then it was i 
dont know her i dont understand after such imaginary discourse the 
passenger in his fancy would dig and dig dignow with a spade now with 
a great key now with his handsto dig this wretched creature out got 
out at last with earth hanging about his face and hair he would 
suddenly fan away to dust the passenger would then start to himself 
and lower the window to get the reality of mist and rain on his cheek 
yet even when his eyes were opened on the mist and rain on the moving 
patch of light from the lamps and the hedge at the roadside retreating 
by jerks the night shadows outside the coach would fall into the train 
of the night shadows within the real bankinghouse by temple bar the 
real business of the past day the real strong rooms the real express 
sent after him and the real message returned would all be there out of 
the midst of them the ghostly face would rise and he would accost it 
again buried how long almost eighteen years i hope you care to live i 
cant say digdigdiguntil an impatient movement from one of the two 
passengers would admonish him to pull up the window draw his arm 
securely through the leathern strap and speculate upon the two 
slumbering forms until his mind lost its hold of them and they again 
slid away into the bank and the grave buried how long almost eighteen 
years you had abandoned all hope of being dug out long ago the words 
were still in his hearing as just spokendistinctly in his hearing as 
ever spoken words had been in his lifewhen the weary passenger started 
to the consciousness of daylight and found that the shadows of the 
night were gone he lowered the window and looked out at the rising sun 
there was a ridge of ploughed land with a plough upon it where it had 
been left last night when the horses were unyoked beyond a quiet 
coppicewood in which many leaves of burning red and golden yellow 
still remained upon the trees though the earth was cold and wet the 
sky was clear and the sun rose bright placid and beautiful eighteen 
years said the passenger looking at the sun gracious creator of day to 
be buried alive for eighteen years iv the preparation when the mail 
got successfully to dover in the course of the forenoon the head 
drawer at the royal george hotel opened the coachdoor as his custom 
was he did it with some flourish of ceremony for a mail journey from 
london in winter was an achievement to congratulate an adventurous 
traveller upon by that time there was only one adventurous traveller 
left be congratulated for the two others had been set down at their 
respective roadside destinations the mildewy inside of the coach with 
its damp and dirty straw its disagreeable smell and its obscurity was 
rather like a larger dogkennel mr lorry the passenger shaking himself 
out of it in chains of straw a tangle of shaggy wrapper flapping hat 
and muddy legs was rather like a larger sort of dog there will be a 
packet to calais tomorrow drawer yes sir if the weather holds and the 
wind sets tolerable fair the tide will serve pretty nicely at about 
two in the afternoon sir bed sir i shall not go to bed till night but 
i want a bedroom and a barber and then breakfast sir yes sir that way 
sir if you please show concord gentlemans valise and hot water to 
concord pull off gentlemans boots in concord you will find a fine sea 
coal fire sir fetch barber to concord stir about there now for concord 
the concord bedchamber being always assigned to a passenger by the 
mail and passengers by the mail being always heavily wrapped up from 
head to foot the room had the odd interest for the establishment of 
the royal george that although but one kind of man was seen to go into 
it all kinds and varieties of men came out of it consequently another 
drawer and two porters and several maids and the landlady were all 
loitering by accident at various points of the road between the 
concord and the coffeeroom when a gentleman of sixty formally dressed 
in a brown suit of clothes pretty well worn but very well kept with 
large square cuffs and large flaps to the pockets passed along on his 
way to his breakfast the coffeeroom had no other occupant that 
forenoon than the gentleman in brown his breakfasttable was drawn 
before the fire and as he sat with its light shining on him waiting 
for the meal he sat so still that he might have been sitting for his 
portrait very orderly and methodical he looked with a hand on each 
knee and a loud watch ticking a sonorous sermon under his flapped 
waistcoat as though it pitted its gravity and longevity against the 
levity and evanescence of the brisk fire he had a good leg and was a 
little vain of it for his brown stockings fitted sleek and close and 
were of a fine texture his shoes and buckles too though plain were 
trim he wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen wig setting very close 
to his head which wig it is to be presumed was made of hair but which 
looked far more as though it were spun from filaments of silk or glass 
his linen though not of a fineness in accordance with his stockings 
was as white as the tops of the waves that broke upon the neighbouring 
beach or the specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea a 
face habitually suppressed and quieted was still lighted up under the 
quaint wig by a pair of moist bright eyes that it must have cost their 
owner in years gone by some pains to drill to the composed and 
reserved expression of tellsons bank he had a healthy colour in his 
cheeks and his face though lined bore few traces of anxiety but 
perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in tellsons bank were 
principally occupied with the cares of other people and perhaps 
secondhand cares like secondhand clothes come easily off and on 
completing his resemblance to a man who was sitting for his portrait 
mr lorry dropped off to sleep the arrival of his breakfast roused him 
and he said to the drawer as he moved his chair to it i wish 
accommodation prepared for a young lady who may come here at any time 
today she may ask for mr jarvis lorry or she may only ask for a 
gentleman from tellsons bank please to let me know yes sir tellsons 
bank in london sir yes yes sir we have oftentimes the honour to 
entertain your gentlemen in their travelling backwards and forwards 
betwixt london and paris sir a vast deal of travelling sir in tellson 
and companys house yes we are quite a french house as well as an 
english one yes sir not much in the habit of such travelling yourself 
i think sir not of late years it is fifteen years since wesince icame 
last from france indeed sir that was before my time here sir before 
our peoples time here sir the george was in other hands at that time 
sir i believe so but i would hold a pretty wager sir that a house like 
tellson and company was flourishing a matter of fifty not to speak of 
fifteen years ago you might treble that and say a hundred and fifty 
yet not be far from the truth indeed sir rounding his mouth and both 
his eyes as he stepped backward from the table the waiter shifted his 
napkin from his right arm to his left dropped into a comfortable 
attitude and stood surveying the guest while he ate and drank as from 
an observatory or watchtower according to the immemorial usage of 
waiters in all ages when mr lorry had finished his breakfast he went 
out for a stroll on the beach the little narrow crooked town of dover 
hid itself away from the beach and ran its head into the chalk cliffs 
like a marine ostrich the beach was a desert of heaps of sea and 
stones tumbling wildly about and the sea did what it liked and what it 
liked was destruction it thundered at the town and thundered at the 
cliffs and brought the coast down madly the air among the houses was 
of so strong a piscatory flavour that one might have supposed sick 
fish went up to be dipped in it as sick people went down to be dipped 
in the sea a little fishing was done in the port and a quantity of 
strolling about by night and looking seaward particularly at those 
times when the tide made and was near flood small tradesmen who did no 
business whatever sometimes unaccountably realised large fortunes and 
it was remarkable that nobody in the neighbourhood could endure a 
lamplighter as the day declined into the afternoon and the air which 
had been at intervals clear enough to allow the french coast to be 
seen became again charged with mist and vapour mr lorrys thoughts 
seemed to cloud too when it was dark and he sat before the coffeeroom 
fire awaiting his dinner as he had awaited his breakfast his mind was 
busily digging digging digging in the live red coals a bottle of good 
claret after dinner does a digger in the red coals no harm otherwise 
than as it has a tendency to throw him out of work mr lorry had been 
idle a long time and had just poured out his last glassful of wine 
with as complete an appearance of satisfaction as is ever to be found 
in an elderly gentleman of a fresh complexion who has got to the end 
of a bottle when a rattling of wheels came up the narrow street and 
rumbled into the innyard he set down his glass untouched this is 
mamselle said he in a very few minutes the waiter came in to announce 
that miss manette had arrived from london and would be happy to see 
the gentleman from tellsons so soon miss manette had taken some 
refreshment on the road and required none then and was extremely 
anxious to see the gentleman from tellsons immediately if it suited 
his pleasure and convenience the gentleman from tellsons had nothing 
left for it but to empty his glass with an air of stolid desperation 
settle his odd little flaxen wig at the ears and follow the waiter to 
miss manettes apartment it was a large dark room furnished in a 
funereal manner with black horsehair and loaded with heavy dark tables 
these had been oiled and oiled until the two tall candles on the table 
in the middle of the room were gloomily reflected on every leaf as if 
they were buried in deep graves of black mahogany and no light to 
speak of could be expected from them until they were dug out the 
obscurity was so difficult to penetrate that mr lorry picking his way 
over the wellworn turkey carpet supposed miss manette to be for the 
moment in some adjacent room until having got past the two tall 
candles he saw standing to receive him by the table between them and 
the fire a young lady of not more than seventeen in a ridingcloak and 
still holding her straw travelling hat by its ribbon in her hand as 
his eyes rested on a short slight pretty figure a quantity of golden 
hair a pair of blue eyes that met his own with an inquiring look and a 
forehead with a singular capacity remembering how young and smooth it 
was of rifting and knitting itself into an expression that was not 
quite one of perplexity or wonder or alarm or merely of a bright fixed 
attention though it included all the four expressionsas his eyes 
rested on these things a sudden vivid likeness passed before him of a 
child whom he had held in his arms on the passage across that very 
channel one cold time when the hail drifted heavily and the sea ran 
high the likeness passed away like a breath along the surface of the 
gaunt pierglass behind her on the frame of which a hospital procession 
of negro cupids several headless and all cripples were offering black 
baskets of dead sea fruit to black divinities of the feminine 
genderand he made his formal bow to miss manette pray take a seat sir 
in a very clear and pleasant young voice a little foreign in its 
accent but a very little indeed i kiss your hand miss said mr lorry 
with the manners of an earlier date as he made his formal bow again 
and took his seat i received a letter from the bank sir yesterday 
informing me that some intelligenceor discovery the word is not 
material miss either word will do respecting the small property of my 
poor father whom i never sawso long dead mr lorry moved in his chair 
and cast a troubled look towards the hospital procession of negro 
cupids as if they had any help for anybody in their absurd baskets 
rendered it necessary that i should go to paris there to communicate 
with a gentleman of the bank so good as to be despatched to paris for 
the purpose myself as i was prepared to hear sir she curtseyed to him 
young ladies made curtseys in those days with a pretty desire to 
convey to him that she felt how much older and wiser he was than she 
he made her another bow i replied to the bank sir that as it was 
considered necessary by those who know and who are so kind as to 
advise me that i should go to france and that as i am an orphan and 
have no friend who could go with me i should esteem it highly if i 
might be permitted to place myself during the journey under that 
worthy gentlemans protection the gentleman had left london but i think 
a messenger was sent after him to beg the favour of his waiting for me 
here i was happy said mr lorry to be entrusted with the charge i shall 
be more happy to execute it sir i thank you indeed i thank you very 
gratefully it was told me by the bank that the gentleman would explain 
to me the details of the business and that i must prepare myself to 
find them of a surprising nature i have done my best to prepare myself 
and i naturally have a strong and eager interest to know what they are 
naturally said mr lorry yesi after a pause he added again settling the 
crisp flaxen wig at the ears it is very difficult to begin he did not 
begin but in his indecision met her glance the young forehead lifted 
itself into that singular expressionbut it was pretty and 
characteristic besides being singularand she raised her hand as if 
with an involuntary action she caught at or stayed some passing shadow 
are you quite a stranger to me sir am i not mr lorry opened his hands 
and extended them outwards with an argumentative smile between the 
eyebrows and just over the little feminine nose the line of which was 
as delicate and fine as it was possible to be the expression deepened 
itself as she took her seat thoughtfully in the chair by which she had 
hitherto remained standing he watched her as she mused and the moment 
she raised her eyes again went on in your adopted country i presume i 
cannot do better than address you as a young english lady miss manette 
if you please sir miss manette i am a man of business i have a 
business charge to acquit myself of in your reception of it dont heed 
me any more than if i was a speaking machinetruly i am not much else i 
will with your leave relate to you miss the story of one of our 
customers story he seemed wilfully to mistake the word she had 
repeated when he added in a hurry yes customers in the banking 
business we usually call our connection our customers he was a french 
gentleman a scientific gentleman a man of great acquirementsa doctor 
not of beauvais why yes of beauvais like monsieur manette your father 
the gentleman was of beauvais like monsieur manette your father the 
gentleman was of repute in paris i had the honour of knowing him there 
our relations were business relations but confidential i was at that 
time in our french house and had beenoh twenty years at that timei may 
ask at what time sir i speak miss of twenty years ago he marriedan 
english ladyand i was one of the trustees his affairs like the affairs 
of many other french gentlemen and french families were entirely in 
tellsons hands in a similar way i am or i have been trustee of one 
kind or other for scores of our customers these are mere business 
relations miss there is no friendship in them no particular interest 
nothing like sentiment i have passed from one to another in the course 
of my business life just as i pass from one of our customers to 
another in the course of my business day in short i have no feelings i 
am a mere machine to go on but this is my fathers story sir and i 
begin to think the curiously roughened forehead was very intent upon 
himthat when i was left an orphan through my mothers surviving my 
father only two years it was you who brought me to england i am almost 
sure it was you mr lorry took the hesitating little hand that 
confidingly advanced to take his and he put it with some ceremony to 
his lips he then conducted the young lady straightway to her chair 
again and holding the chairback with his left hand and using his right 
by turns to rub his chin pull his wig at the ears or point what he 
said stood looking down into her face while she sat looking up into 
his miss manette it was i and you will see how truly i spoke of myself 
just now in saying i had no feelings and that all the relations i hold 
with my fellowcreatures are mere business relations when you reflect 
that i have never seen you since no you have been the ward of tellsons 
house since and i have been busy with the other business of tellsons 
house since feelings i have no time for them no chance of them i pass 
my whole life miss in turning an immense pecuniary mangle after this 
odd description of his daily routine of employment mr lorry flattened 
his flaxen wig upon his head with both hands which was most 
unnecessary for nothing could be flatter than its shining surface was 
before and resumed his former attitude so far miss as you have 
remarked this is the story of your regretted father now comes the 
difference if your father had not died when he diddont be frightened 
how you start she did indeed start and she caught his wrist with both 
her hands pray said mr lorry in a soothing tone bringing his left hand 
from the back of the chair to lay it on the supplicatory fingers that 
clasped him in so violent a tremble pray control your agitationa 
matter of business as i was saying her look so discomposed him that he 
stopped wandered and began anew as i was saying if monsieur manette 
had not died if he had suddenly and silently disappeared if he had 
been spirited away if it had not been difficult to guess to what 
dreadful place though no art could trace him if he had an enemy in 
some compatriot who could exercise a privilege that i in my own time 
have known the boldest people afraid to speak of in a whisper across 
the water there for instance the privilege of filling up blank forms 
for the consignment of any one to the oblivion of a prison for any 
length of time if his wife had implored the king the queen the court 
the clergy for any tidings of him and all quite in vainthen the 
history of your father would have been the history of this unfortunate 
gentleman the doctor of beauvais i entreat you to tell me more sir i 
will i am going to you can bear it i can bear anything but the 
uncertainty you leave me in at this moment you speak collectedly and 
youare collected thats good though his manner was less satisfied than 
his words a matter of business regard it as a matter of 
businessbusiness that must be done now if this doctors wife though a 
lady of great courage and spirit had suffered so intensely from this 
cause before her little child was born the little child was a daughter 
sir a daughter aamatter of businessdont be distressed miss if the poor 
lady had suffered so intensely before her little child was born that 
she came to the determination of sparing the poor child the 
inheritance of any part of the agony she had known the pains of by 
rearing her in the belief that her father was dead no dont kneel in 
heavens name why should you kneel to me for the truth o dear good 
compassionate sir for the truth aa matter of business you confuse me 
and how can i transact business if i am confused let us be clearheaded 
if you could kindly mention now for instance what nine times ninepence 
are or how many shillings in twenty guineas it would be so encouraging 
i should be so much more at my ease about your state of mind without 
directly answering to this appeal she sat so still when he had very 
gently raised her and the hands that had not ceased to clasp his 
wrists were so much more steady than they had been that she 
communicated some reassurance to mr jarvis lorry thats right thats 
right courage business you have business before you useful business 
miss manette your mother took this course with you and when she diedi 
believe brokenhearted having never slackened her unavailing search for 
your father she left you at two years old to grow to be blooming 
beautiful and happy without the dark cloud upon you of living in 
uncertainty whether your father soon wore his heart out in prison or 
wasted there through many lingering years as he said the words he 
looked down with an admiring pity on the flowing golden hair as if he 
pictured to himself that it might have been already tinged with grey 
you know that your parents had no great possession and that what they 
had was secured to your mother and to you there has been no new 
discovery of money or of any other property but he felt his wrist held 
closer and he stopped the expression in the forehead which had so 
particularly attracted his notice and which was now immovable had 
deepened into one of pain and horror but he has beenbeen found he is 
alive greatly changed it is too probable almost a wreck it is possible 
though we will hope the best still alive your father has been taken to 
the house of an old servant in paris and we are going there i to 
identify him if i can you to restore him to life love duty rest 
comfort a shiver ran through her frame and from it through his she 
said in a low distinct awestricken voice as if she were saying it in a 
dream i am going to see his ghost it will be his ghostnot him mr lorry 
quietly chafed the hands that held his arm there there there see now 
see now the best and the worst are known to you now you are well on 
your way to the poor wronged gentleman and with a fair sea voyage and 
a fair land journey you will be soon at his dear side she repeated in 
the same tone sunk to a whisper i have been free i have been happy yet 
his ghost has never haunted me only one thing more said mr lorry 
laying stress upon it as a wholesome means of enforcing her attention 
he has been found under another name his own long forgotten or long 
concealed it would be worse than useless now to inquire which worse 
than useless to seek to know whether he has been for years overlooked 
or always designedly held prisoner it would be worse than useless now 
to make any inquiries because it would be dangerous better not to 
mention the subject anywhere or in any way and to remove himfor a 
while at all events out of france even i safe as an englishman and 
even tellsons important as they are to french credit avoid all naming 
of the matter i carry about me not a scrap of writing openly referring 
to it this is a secret service altogether my credentials entries and 
memoranda are all comprehended in the one line recalled to life which 
may mean anything but what is the matter she doesnt notice a word miss 
manette perfectly still and silent and not even fallen back in her 
chair she sat under his hand utterly insensible with her eyes open and 
fixed upon him and with that last expression looking as if it were 
carved or branded into her forehead so close was her hold upon his arm 
that he feared to detach himself lest he should hurt her therefore he 
called out loudly for assistance without moving a wildlooking woman 
whom even in his agitation mr lorry observed to be all of a red colour 
and to have red hair and to be dressed in some extraordinary 
tightfitting fashion and to have on her head a most wonderful bonnet 
like a grenadier wooden measure and good measure too or a great 
stilton cheese came running into the room in advance of the inn 
servants and soon settled the question of his detachment from the poor 
young lady by laying a brawny hand upon his chest and sending him 
flying back against the nearest wall i really think this must be a man 
was mr lorrys breathless reflection simultaneously with his coming 
against the wall why look at you all bawled this figure addressing the 
inn servants why dont you go and fetch things instead of standing 
there staring at me i am not so much to look at am i why dont you go 
and fetch things ill let you know if you dont bring smellingsalts cold 
water and vinegar quick i will there was an immediate dispersal for 
these restoratives and she softly laid the patient on a sofa and 
tended her with great skill and gentleness calling her my precious and 
my bird and spreading her golden hair aside over her shoulders with 
great pride and care and you in brown she said indignantly turning to 
mr lorry couldnt you tell her what you had to tell her without 
frightening her to death look at her with her pretty pale face and her 
cold hands do you call that being a banker mr lorry was so exceedingly 
disconcerted by a question so hard to answer that he could only look 
on at a distance with much feebler sympathy and humility while the 
strong woman having banished the inn servants under the mysterious 
penalty of letting them know something not mentioned if they stayed 
there staring recovered her charge by a regular series of gradations 
and coaxed her to lay her drooping head upon her shoulder i hope she 
will do well now said mr lorry no thanks to you in brown if she does 
my darling pretty i hope said mr lorry after another pause of feeble 
sympathy and humility that you accompany miss manette to france a 
likely thing too replied the strong woman if it was ever intended that 
i should go across salt water do you suppose providence would have 
cast my lot in an island this being another question hard to answer mr 
jarvis lorry withdrew to consider it v the wineshop a large cask of 
wine had been dropped and broken in the street the accident had 
happened in getting it out of a cart the cask had tumbled out with a 
run the hoops had burst and it lay on the stones just outside the door 
of the wineshop shattered like a walnutshell all the people within 
reach had suspended their business or their idleness to run to the 
spot and drink the wine the rough irregular stones of the street 
pointing every way and designed one might have thought expressly to 
lame all living creatures that approached them had dammed it into 
little pools these were surrounded each by its own jostling group or 
crowd according to its size some men kneeled down made scoops of their 
two hands joined and sipped or tried to help women who bent over their 
shoulders to sip before the wine had all run out between their fingers 
others men and women dipped in the puddles with little mugs of 
mutilated earthenware or even with handkerchiefs from womens heads 
which were squeezed dry into infants mouths others made small mud 
embankments to stem the wine as it ran others directed by lookerson up 
at high windows darted here and there to cut off little streams of 
wine that started away in new directions others devoted themselves to 
the sodden and leedyed pieces of the cask licking and even champing 
the moister winerotted fragments with eager relish there was no 
drainage to carry off the wine and not only did it all get taken up 
but so much mud got taken up along with it that there might have been 
a scavenger in the street if anybody acquainted with it could have 
believed in such a miraculous presence a shrill sound of laughter and 
of amused voicesvoices of men women and childrenresounded in the 
street while this wine game lasted there was little roughness in the 
sport and much playfulness there was a special companionship in it an 
observable inclination on the part of every one to join some other one 
which led especially among the luckier or lighterhearted to frolicsome 
embraces drinking of healths shaking of hands and even joining of 
hands and dancing a dozen together when the wine was gone and the 
places where it had been most abundant were raked into a 
gridironpattern by fingers these demonstrations ceased as suddenly as 
they had broken out the man who had left his saw sticking in the 
firewood he was cutting set it in motion again the women who had left 
on a doorstep the little pot of hot ashes at which she had been trying 
to soften the pain in her own starved fingers and toes or in those of 
her child returned to it men with bare arms matted locks and 
cadaverous faces who had emerged into the winter light from cellars 
moved away to descend again and a gloom gathered on the scene that 
appeared more natural to it than sunshine the wine was red wine and 
had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of saint 
antoine in paris where it was spilled it had stained many hands too 
and many faces and many naked feet and many wooden shoes the hands of 
the man who sawed the wood left red marks on the billets and the 
forehead of the woman who nursed her baby was stained with the stain 
of the old rag she wound about her head again those who had been 
greedy with the staves of the cask had acquired a tigerish smear about 
the mouth and one tall joker so besmirched his head more out of a long 
squalid bag of a nightcap than in it scrawled upon a wall with his 
finger dipped in muddy wineleesblood the time was to come when that 
wine too would be spilled on the streetstones and when the stain of it 
would be red upon many there and now that the cloud settled on saint 
antoine which a momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance 
the darkness of it was heavycold dirt sickness ignorance and want were 
the lords in waiting on the saintly presencenobles of great power all 
of them but most especially the last samples of a people that had 
undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill and certainly 
not in the fabulous mill which ground old people young shivered at 
every corner passed in and out at every doorway looked from every 
window fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook the 
mill which had worked them down was the mill that grinds young people 
old the children had ancient faces and grave voices and upon them and 
upon the grown faces and ploughed into every furrow of age and coming 
up afresh was the sigh hunger it was prevalent everywhere hunger was 
pushed out of the tall houses in the wretched clothing that hung upon 
poles and lines hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and 
wood and paper hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small 
modicum of firewood that the man sawed off hunger stared down from the 
smokeless chimneys and started up from the filthy street that had no 
offal among its refuse of anything to eat hunger was the inscription 
on the bakers shelves written in every small loaf of his scanty stock 
of bad bread at the sausageshop in every deaddog preparation that was 
offered for sale hunger rattled its dry bones among the roasting 
chestnuts in the turned cylinder hunger was shred into atomics in 
every farthing porringer of husky chips of potato fried with some 
reluctant drops of oil its abiding place was in all things fitted to 
it a narrow winding street full of offence and stench with other 
narrow winding streets diverging all peopled by rags and nightcaps and 
all smelling of rags and nightcaps and all visible things with a 
brooding look upon them that looked ill in the hunted air of the 
people there was yet some wildbeast thought of the possibility of 
turning at bay depressed and slinking though they were eyes of fire 
were not wanting among them nor compressed lips white with what they 
suppressed nor foreheads knitted into the likeness of the gallowsrope 
they mused about enduring or inflicting the trade signs and they were 
almost as many as the shops were all grim illustrations of want the 
butcher and the porkman painted up only the leanest scrags of meat the 
baker the coarsest of meagre loaves the people rudely pictured as 
drinking in the wineshops croaked over their scanty measures of thin 
wine and beer and were gloweringly confidential together nothing was 
represented in a flourishing condition save tools and weapons but the 
cutlers knives and axes were sharp and bright the smiths hammers were 
heavy and the gunmakers stock was murderous the crippling stones of 
the pavement with their many little reservoirs of mud and water had no 
footways but broke off abruptly at the doors the kennel to make amends 
ran down the middle of the streetwhen it ran at all which was only 
after heavy rains and then it ran by many eccentric fits into the 
houses across the streets at wide intervals one clumsy lamp was slung 
by a rope and pulley at night when the lamplighter had let these down 
and lighted and hoisted them again a feeble grove of dim wicks swung 
in a sickly manner overhead as if they were at sea indeed they were at 
sea and the ship and crew were in peril of tempest for the time was to 
come when the gaunt scarecrows of that region should have watched the 
lamplighter in their idleness and hunger so long as to conceive the 
idea of improving on his method and hauling up men by those ropes and 
pulleys to flare upon the darkness of their condition but the time was 
not come yet and every wind that blew over france shook the rags of 
the scarecrows in vain for the birds fine of song and feather took no 
warning the wineshop was a corner shop better than most others in its 
appearance and degree and the master of the wineshop had stood outside 
it in a yellow waistcoat and green breeches looking on at the struggle 
for the lost wine its not my affair said he with a final shrug of the 
shoulders the people from the market did it let them bring another 
there his eyes happening to catch the tall joker writing up his joke 
he called to him across the way say then my gaspard what do you do 
there the fellow pointed to his joke with immense significance as is 
often the way with his tribe it missed its mark and completely failed 
as is often the way with his tribe too what now are you a subject for 
the mad hospital said the wineshop keeper crossing the road and 
obliterating the jest with a handful of mud picked up for the purpose 
and smeared over it why do you write in the public streets is 
theretell me thouis there no other place to write such words in in his 
expostulation he dropped his cleaner hand perhaps accidentally perhaps 
not upon the jokers heart the joker rapped it with his own took a 
nimble spring upward and came down in a fantastic dancing attitude 
with one of his stained shoes jerked off his foot into his hand and 
held out a joker of an extremely not to say wolfishly practical 
character he looked under those circumstances put it on put it on said 
the other call wine wine and finish there with that advice he wiped 
his soiled hand upon the jokers dress such as it wasquite deliberately 
as having dirtied the hand on his account and then recrossed the road 
and entered the wineshop this wineshop keeper was a bullnecked 
martiallooking man of thirty and he should have been of a hot 
temperament for although it was a bitter day he wore no coat but 
carried one slung over his shoulder his shirtsleeves were rolled up 
too and his brown arms were bare to the elbows neither did he wear 
anything more on his head than his own crisplycurling short dark hair 
he was a dark man altogether with good eyes and a good bold breadth 
between them goodhumoured looking on the whole but implacablelooking 
too evidently a man of a strong resolution and a set purpose a man not 
desirable to be met rushing down a narrow pass with a gulf on either 
side for nothing would turn the man madame defarge his wife sat in the 
shop behind the counter as he came in madame defarge was a stout woman 
of about his own age with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at 
anything a large hand heavily ringed a steady face strong features and 
great composure of manner there was a character about madame defarge 
from which one might have predicated that she did not often make 
mistakes against herself in any of the reckonings over which she 
presided madame defarge being sensitive to cold was wrapped in fur and 
had a quantity of bright shawl twined about her head though not to the 
concealment of her large earrings her knitting was before her but she 
had laid it down to pick her teeth with a toothpick thus engaged with 
her right elbow supported by her left hand madame defarge said nothing 
when her lord came in but coughed just one grain of cough this in 
combination with the lifting of her darkly defined eyebrows over her 
toothpick by the breadth of a line suggested to her husband that he 
would do well to look round the shop among the customers for any new 
customer who had dropped in while he stepped over the way the wineshop 
keeper accordingly rolled his eyes about until they rested upon an 
elderly gentleman and a young lady who were seated in a corner other 
company were there two playing cards two playing dominoes three 
standing by the counter lengthening out a short supply of wine as he 
passed behind the counter he took notice that the elderly gentleman 
said in a look to the young lady this is our man what the devil do you 
do in that galley there said monsieur defarge to himself i dont know 
you but he feigned not to notice the two strangers and fell into 
discourse with the triumvirate of customers who were drinking at the 
counter how goes it jacques said one of these three to monsieur 
defarge is all the spilt wine swallowed every drop jacques answered 
monsieur defarge when this interchange of christian name was effected 
madame defarge picking her teeth with her toothpick coughed another 
grain of cough and raised her eyebrows by the breadth of another line 
it is not often said the second of the three addressing monsieur 
defarge that many of these miserable beasts know the taste of wine or 
of anything but black bread and death is it not so jacques it is so 
jacques monsieur defarge returned at this second interchange of the 
christian name madame defarge still using her toothpick with profound 
composure coughed another grain of cough and raised her eyebrows by 
the breadth of another line the last of the three now said his say as 
he put down his empty drinking vessel and smacked his lips ah so much 
the worse a bitter taste it is that such poor cattle always have in 
their mouths and hard lives they live jacques am i right jacques you 
are right jacques was the response of monsieur defarge this third 
interchange of the christian name was completed at the moment when 
madame defarge put her toothpick by kept her eyebrows up and slightly 
rustled in her seat hold then true muttered her husband gentlemenmy 
wife the three customers pulled off their hats to madame defarge with 
three flourishes she acknowledged their homage by bending her head and 
giving them a quick look then she glanced in a casual manner round the 
wineshop took up her knitting with great apparent calmness and repose 
of spirit and became absorbed in it gentlemen said her husband who had 
kept his bright eye observantly upon her good day the chamber 
furnished bachelor fashion that you wished to see and were inquiring 
for when i stepped out is on the fifth floor the doorway of the 
staircase gives on the little courtyard close to the left here 
pointing with his hand near to the window of my establishment but now 
that i remember one of you has already been there and can show the way 
gentlemen adieu they paid for their wine and left the place the eyes 
of monsieur defarge were studying his wife at her knitting when the 
elderly gentleman advanced from his corner and begged the favour of a 
word willingly sir said monsieur defarge and quietly stepped with him 
to the door their conference was very short but very decided almost at 
the first word monsieur defarge started and became deeply attentive it 
had not lasted a minute when he nodded and went out the gentleman then 
beckoned to the young lady and they too went out madame defarge 
knitted with nimble fingers and steady eyebrows and saw nothing mr 
jarvis lorry and miss manette emerging from the wineshop thus joined 
monsieur defarge in the doorway to which he had directed his own 
company just before it opened from a stinking little black courtyard 
and was the general public entrance to a great pile of houses 
inhabited by a great number of people in the gloomy tile paved entry 
to the gloomy tilepaved staircase monsieur defarge bent down on one 
knee to the child of his old master and put her hand to his lips it 
was a gentle action but not at all gently done a very remarkable 
transformation had come over him in a few seconds he had no goodhumour 
in his face nor any openness of aspect left but had become a secret 
angry dangerous man it is very high it is a little difficult better to 
begin slowly thus monsieur defarge in a stern voice to mr lorry as 
they began ascending the stairs is he alone the latter whispered alone 
god help him who should be with him said the other in the same low 
voice is he always alone then yes of his own desire of his own 
necessity as he was when i first saw him after they found me and 
demanded to know if i would take him and at my peril be discreetas he 
was then so he is now he is greatly changed changed the keeper of the 
wineshop stopped to strike the wall with his hand and mutter a 
tremendous curse no direct answer could have been half so forcible mr 
lorrys spirits grew heavier and heavier as he and his two companions 
ascended higher and higher such a staircase with its accessories in 
the older and more crowded parts of paris would be bad enough now but 
at that time it was vile indeed to unaccustomed and unhardened senses 
every little habitation within the great foul nest of one high 
buildingthat is to say the room or rooms within every door that opened 
on the general staircaseleft its own heap of refuse on its own landing 
besides flinging other refuse from its own windows the uncontrollable 
and hopeless mass of decomposition so engendered would have polluted 
the air even if poverty and deprivation had not loaded it with their 
intangible impurities the two bad sources combined made it almost 
insupportable through such an atmosphere by a steep dark shaft of dirt 
and poison the way lay yielding to his own disturbance of mind and to 
his young companions agitation which became greater every instant mr 
jarvis lorry twice stopped to rest each of these stoppages was made at 
a doleful grating by which any languishing good airs that were left 
uncorrupted seemed to escape and all spoilt and sickly vapours seemed 
to crawl in through the rusted bars tastes rather than glimpses were 
caught of the jumbled neighbourhood and nothing within range nearer or 
lower than the summits of the two great towers of notredame had any 
promise on it of healthy life or wholesome aspirations at last the top 
of the staircase was gained and they stopped for the third time there 
was yet an upper staircase of a steeper inclination and of contracted 
dimensions to be ascended before the garret story was reached the 
keeper of the wineshop always going a little in advance and always 
going on the side which mr lorry took as though he dreaded to be asked 
any question by the young lady turned himself about here and carefully 
feeling in the pockets of the coat he carried over his shoulder took 
out a key the door is locked then my friend said mr lorry surprised ay 
yes was the grim reply of monsieur defarge you think it necessary to 
keep the unfortunate gentleman so retired i think it necessary to turn 
the key monsieur defarge whispered it closer in his ear and frowned 
heavily why why because he has lived so long locked up that he would 
be frightenedravetear himself to piecesdiecome to i know not what 
harmif his door was left open is it possible exclaimed mr lorry is it 
possible repeated defarge bitterly yes and a beautiful world we live 
in when it is possible and when many other such things are possible 
and not only possible but donedone see youunder that sky there every 
day long live the devil let us go on this dialogue had been held in so 
very low a whisper that not a word of it had reached the young ladys 
ears but by this time she trembled under such strong emotion and her 
face expressed such deep anxiety and above all such dread and terror 
that mr lorry felt it incumbent on him to speak a word or two of 
reassurance courage dear miss courage business the worst will be over 
in a moment it is but passing the roomdoor and the worst is over then 
all the good you bring to him all the relief all the happiness you 
bring to him begin let our good friend here assist you on that side 
thats well friend defarge come now business business they went up 
slowly and softly the staircase was short and they were soon at the 
top there as it had an abrupt turn in it they came all at once in 
sight of three men whose heads were bent down close together at the 
side of a door and who were intently looking into the room to which 
the door belonged through some chinks or holes in the wall on hearing 
footsteps close at hand these three turned and rose and showed 
themselves to be the three of one name who had been drinking in the 
wineshop i forgot them in the surprise of your visit explained 
monsieur defarge leave us good boys we have business here the three 
glided by and went silently down there appearing to be no other door 
on that floor and the keeper of the wineshop going straight to this 
one when they were left alone mr lorry asked him in a whisper with a 
little anger do you make a show of monsieur manette i show him in the 
way you have seen to a chosen few is that well i think it is well who 
are the few how do you choose them i choose them as real men of my 
namejacques is my nameto whom the sight is likely to do good enough 
you are english that is another thing stay there if you please a 
little moment with an admonitory gesture to keep them back he stooped 
and looked in through the crevice in the wall soon raising his head 
again he struck twice or thrice upon the doorevidently with no other 
object than to make a noise there with the same intention he drew the 
key across it three or four times before he put it clumsily into the 
lock and turned it as heavily as he could the door slowly opened 
inward under his hand and he looked into the room and said something a 
faint voice answered something little more than a single syllable 
could have been spoken on either side he looked back over his shoulder 
and beckoned them to enter mr lorry got his arm securely round the 
daughters waist and held her for he felt that she was sinking 
aaabusiness business he urged with a moisture that was not of business 
shining on his cheek come in come in i am afraid of it she answered 
shuddering of it what i mean of him of my father rendered in a manner 
desperate by her state and by the beckoning of their conductor he drew 
over his neck the arm that shook upon his shoulder lifted her a little 
and hurried her into the room he sat her down just within the door and 
held her clinging to him defarge drew out the key closed the door 
locked it on the inside took out the key again and held it in his hand 
all this he did methodically and with as loud and harsh an 
accompaniment of noise as he could make finally he walked across the 
room with a measured tread to where the window was he stopped there 
and faced round the garret built to be a depository for firewood and 
the like was dim and dark for the window of dormer shape was in truth 
a door in the roof with a little crane over it for the hoisting up of 
stores from the street unglazed and closing up the middle in two 
pieces like any other door of french construction to exclude the cold 
one half of this door was fast closed and the other was opened but a 
very little way such a scanty portion of light was admitted through 
these means that it was difficult on first coming in to see anything 
and long habit alone could have slowly formed in any one the ability 
to do any work requiring nicety in such obscurity yet work of that 
kind was being done in the garret for with his back towards the door 
and his face towards the window where the keeper of the wineshop stood 
looking at him a whitehaired man sat on a low bench stooping forward 
and very busy making shoes vi the shoemaker good day said monsieur 
defarge looking down at the white head that bent low over the 
shoemaking it was raised for a moment and a very faint voice responded 
to the salutation as if it were at a distance good day you are still 
hard at work i see after a long silence the head was lifted for 
another moment and the voice replied yesi am working this time a pair 
of haggard eyes had looked at the questioner before the face had 
dropped again the faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful it 
was not the faintness of physical weakness though confinement and hard 
fare no doubt had their part in it its deplorable peculiarity was that 
it was the faintness of solitude and disuse it was like the last 
feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago so entirely had it lost 
the life and resonance of the human voice that it affected the senses 
like a once beautiful colour faded away into a poor weak stain so 
sunken and suppressed it was that it was like a voice underground so 
expressive it was of a hopeless and lost creature that a famished 
traveller wearied out by lonely wandering in a wilderness would have 
remembered home and friends in such a tone before lying down to die 
some minutes of silent work had passed and the haggard eyes had looked 
up again not with any interest or curiosity but with a dull mechanical 
perception beforehand that the spot where the only visitor they were 
aware of had stood was not yet empty i want said defarge who had not 
removed his gaze from the shoemaker to let in a little more light here 
you can bear a little more the shoemaker stopped his work looked with 
a vacant air of listening at the floor on one side of him then 
similarly at the floor on the other side of him then upward at the 
speaker what did you say you can bear a little more light i must bear 
it if you let it in laying the palest shadow of a stress upon the 
second word the opened halfdoor was opened a little further and 
secured at that angle for the time a broad ray of light fell into the 
garret and showed the workman with an unfinished shoe upon his lap 
pausing in his labour his few common tools and various scraps of 
leather were at his feet and on his bench he had a white beard 
raggedly cut but not very long a hollow face and exceedingly bright 
eyes the hollowness and thinness of his face would have caused them to 
look large under his yet dark eyebrows and his confused white hair 
though they had been really otherwise but they were naturally large 
and looked unnaturally so his yellow rags of shirt lay open at the 
throat and showed his body to be withered and worn he and his old 
canvas frock and his loose stockings and all his poor tatters of 
clothes had in a long seclusion from direct light and air faded down 
to such a dull uniformity of parchmentyellow that it would have been 
hard to say which was which he had put up a hand between his eyes and 
the light and the very bones of it seemed transparent so he sat with a 
steadfastly vacant gaze pausing in his work he never looked at the 
figure before him without first looking down on this side of himself 
then on that as if he had lost the habit of associating place with 
sound he never spoke without first wandering in this manner and 
forgetting to speak are you going to finish that pair of shoes today 
asked defarge motioning to mr lorry to come forward what did you say 
do you mean to finish that pair of shoes today i cant say that i mean 
to i suppose so i dont know but the question reminded him of his work 
and he bent over it again mr lorry came silently forward leaving the 
daughter by the door when he had stood for a minute or two by the side 
of defarge the shoemaker looked up he showed no surprise at seeing 
another figure but the unsteady fingers of one of his hands strayed to 
his lips as he looked at it his lips and his nails were of the same 
pale lead colour and then the hand dropped to his work and he once 
more bent over the shoe the look and the action had occupied but an 
instant you have a visitor you see said monsieur defarge what did you 
say here is a visitor the shoemaker looked up as before but without 
removing a hand from his work come said defarge here is monsieur who 
knows a wellmade shoe when he sees one show him that shoe you are 
working at take it monsieur mr lorry took it in his hand tell monsieur 
what kind of shoe it is and the makers name there was a longer pause 
than usual before the shoemaker replied i forget what it was you asked 
me what did you say i said couldnt you describe the kind of shoe for 
monsieurs information it is a ladys shoe it is a young ladys 
walkingshoe it is in the present mode i never saw the mode i have had 
a pattern in my hand he glanced at the shoe with some little passing 
touch of pride and the makers name said defarge now that he had no 
work to hold he laid the knuckles of the right hand in the hollow of 
the left and then the knuckles of the left hand in the hollow of the 
right and then passed a hand across his bearded chin and so on in 
regular changes without a moments intermission the task of recalling 
him from the vagrancy into which he always sank when he had spoken was 
like recalling some very weak person from a swoon or endeavouring in 
the hope of some disclosure to stay the spirit of a fastdying man did 
you ask me for my name assuredly i did one hundred and five north 
tower is that all one hundred and five north tower with a weary sound 
that was not a sigh nor a groan he bent to work again until the 
silence was again broken you are not a shoemaker by trade said mr 
lorry looking steadfastly at him his haggard eyes turned to defarge as 
if he would have transferred the question to him but as no help came 
from that quarter they turned back on the questioner when they had 
sought the ground i am not a shoemaker by trade no i was not a 
shoemaker by trade ii learnt it here i taught myself i asked leave to 
he lapsed away even for minutes ringing those measured changes on his 
hands the whole time his eyes came slowly back at last to the face 
from which they had wandered when they rested on it he started and 
resumed in the manner of a sleeper that moment awake reverting to a 
subject of last night i asked leave to teach myself and i got it with 
much difficulty after a long while and i have made shoes ever since as 
he held out his hand for the shoe that had been taken from him mr 
lorry said still looking steadfastly in his face monsieur manette do 
you remember nothing of me the shoe dropped to the ground and he sat 
looking fixedly at the questioner monsieur manette mr lorry laid his 
hand upon defarges arm do you remember nothing of this man look at him 
look at me is there no old banker no old business no old servant no 
old time rising in your mind monsieur manette as the captive of many 
years sat looking fixedly by turns at mr lorry and at defarge some 
long obliterated marks of an actively intent intelligence in the 
middle of the forehead gradually forced themselves through the black 
mist that had fallen on him they were overclouded again they were 
fainter they were gone but they had been there and so exactly was the 
expression repeated on the fair young face of her who had crept along 
the wall to a point where she could see him and where she now stood 
looking at him with hands which at first had been only raised in 
frightened compassion if not even to keep him off and shut out the 
sight of him but which were now extending towards him trembling with 
eagerness to lay the spectral face upon her warm young breast and love 
it back to life and hopeso exactly was the expression repeated though 
in stronger characters on her fair young face that it looked as though 
it had passed like a moving light from him to her darkness had fallen 
on him in its place he looked at the two less and less attentively and 
his eyes in gloomy abstraction sought the ground and looked about him 
in the old way finally with a deep long sigh he took the shoe up and 
resumed his work have you recognised him monsieur asked defarge in a 
whisper yes for a moment at first i thought it quite hopeless but i 
have unquestionably seen for a single moment the face that i once knew 
so well hush let us draw further back hush she had moved from the wall 
of the garret very near to the bench on which he sat there was 
something awful in his unconsciousness of the figure that could have 
put out its hand and touched him as he stooped over his labour not a 
word was spoken not a sound was made she stood like a spirit beside 
him and he bent over his work it happened at length that he had 
occasion to change the instrument in his hand for his shoemakers knife 
it lay on that side of him which was not the side on which she stood 
he had taken it up and was stooping to work again when his eyes caught 
the skirt of her dress he raised them and saw her face the two 
spectators started forward but she stayed them with a motion of her 
hand she had no fear of his striking at her with the knife though they 
had he stared at her with a fearful look and after a while his lips 
began to form some words though no sound proceeded from them by 
degrees in the pauses of his quick and laboured breathing he was heard 
to say what is this with the tears streaming down her face she put her 
two hands to her lips and kissed them to him then clasped them on her 
breast as if she laid his ruined head there you are not the gaolers 
daughter she sighed no who are you not yet trusting the tones of her 
voice she sat down on the bench beside him he recoiled but she laid 
her hand upon his arm a strange thrill struck him when she did so and 
visibly passed over his frame he laid the knife down softly as he sat 
staring at her her golden hair which she wore in long curls had been 
hurriedly pushed aside and fell down over her neck advancing his hand 
by little and little he took it up and looked at it in the midst of 
the action he went astray and with another deep sigh fell to work at 
his shoemaking but not for long releasing his arm she laid her hand 
upon his shoulder after looking doubtfully at it two or three times as 
if to be sure that it was really there he laid down his work put his 
hand to his neck and took off a blackened string with a scrap of 
folded rag attached to it he opened this carefully on his knee and it 
contained a very little quantity of hair not more than one or two long 
golden hairs which he had in some old day wound off upon his finger he 
took her hair into his hand again and looked closely at it it is the 
same how can it be when was it how was it as the concentrated 
expression returned to his forehead he seemed to become conscious that 
it was in hers too he turned her full to the light and looked at her 
she had laid her head upon my shoulder that night when i was summoned 
outshe had a fear of my going though i had noneand when i was brought 
to the north tower they found these upon my sleeve you will leave me 
them they can never help me to escape in the body though they may in 
the spirit those were the words i said i remember them very well he 
formed this speech with his lips many times before he could utter it 
but when he did find spoken words for it they came to him coherently 
though slowly how was thiswas it you once more the two spectators 
started as he turned upon her with a frightful suddenness but she sat 
perfectly still in his grasp and only said in a low voice i entreat 
you good gentlemen do not come near us do not speak do not move hark 
he exclaimed whose voice was that his hands released her as he uttered 
this cry and went up to his white hair which they tore in a frenzy it 
died out as everything but his shoemaking did die out of him and he 
refolded his little packet and tried to secure it in his breast but he 
still looked at her and gloomily shook his head no no no you are too 
young too blooming it cant be see what the prisoner is these are not 
the hands she knew this is not the face she knew this is not a voice 
she ever heard no no she wasand he wasbefore the slow years of the 
north towerages ago what is your name my gentle angel hailing his 
softened tone and manner his daughter fell upon her knees before him 
with her appealing hands upon his breast o sir at another time you 
shall know my name and who my mother was and who my father and how i 
never knew their hard hard history but i cannot tell you at this time 
and i cannot tell you here all that i may tell you here and now is 
that i pray to you to touch me and to bless me kiss me kiss me o my 
dear my dear his cold white head mingled with her radiant hair which 
warmed and lighted it as though it were the light of freedom shining 
on him if you hear in my voicei dont know that it is so but i hope it 
isif you hear in my voice any resemblance to a voice that once was 
sweet music in your ears weep for it weep for it if you touch in 
touching my hair anything that recalls a beloved head that lay on your 
breast when you were young and free weep for it weep for it if when i 
hint to you of a home that is before us where i will be true to you 
with all my duty and with all my faithful service i bring back the 
remembrance of a home long desolate while your poor heart pined away 
weep for it weep for it she held him closer round the neck and rocked 
him on her breast like a child if when i tell you dearest dear that 
your agony is over and that i have come here to take you from it and 
that we go to england to be at peace and at rest i cause you to think 
of your useful life laid waste and of our native france so wicked to 
you weep for it weep for it and if when i shall tell you of my name 
and of my father who is living and of my mother who is dead you learn 
that i have to kneel to my honoured father and implore his pardon for 
having never for his sake striven all day and lain awake and wept all 
night because the love of my poor mother hid his torture from me weep 
for it weep for it weep for her then and for me good gentlemen thank 
god i feel his sacred tears upon my face and his sobs strike against 
my heart o see thank god for us thank god he had sunk in her arms and 
his face dropped on her breast a sight so touching yet so terrible in 
the tremendous wrong and suffering which had gone before it that the 
two beholders covered their faces when the quiet of the garret had 
been long undisturbed and his heaving breast and shaken form had long 
yielded to the calm that must follow all stormsemblem to humanity of 
the rest and silence into which the storm called life must hush at 
lastthey came forward to raise the father and daughter from the ground 
he had gradually dropped to the floor and lay there in a lethargy worn 
out she had nestled down with him that his head might lie upon her arm 
and her hair drooping over him curtained him from the light if without 
disturbing him she said raising her hand to mr lorry as he stooped 
over them after repeated blowings of his nose all could be arranged 
for our leaving paris at once so that from the very door he could be 
taken away but consider is he fit for the journey asked mr lorry more 
fit for that i think than to remain in this city so dreadful to him it 
is true said defarge who was kneeling to look on and hear more than 
that monsieur manette is for all reasons best out of france say shall 
i hire a carriage and posthorses thats business said mr lorry resuming 
on the shortest notice his methodical manners and if business is to be 
done i had better do it then be so kind urged miss manette as to leave 
us here you see how composed he has become and you cannot be afraid to 
leave him with me now why should you be if you will lock the door to 
secure us from interruption i do not doubt that you will find him when 
you come back as quiet as you leave him in any case i will take care 
of him until you return and then we will remove him straight both mr 
lorry and defarge were rather disinclined to this course and in favour 
of one of them remaining but as there were not only carriage and 
horses to be seen to but travelling papers and as time pressed for the 
day was drawing to an end it came at last to their hastily dividing 
the business that was necessary to be done and hurrying away to do it 
then as the darkness closed in the daughter laid her head down on the 
hard ground close at the fathers side and watched him the darkness 
deepened and deepened and they both lay quiet until a light gleamed 
through the chinks in the wall mr lorry and monsieur defarge had made 
all ready for the journey and had brought with them besides travelling 
cloaks and wrappers bread and meat wine and hot coffee monsieur 
defarge put this provender and the lamp he carried on the shoemakers 
bench there was nothing else in the garret but a pallet bed and he and 
mr lorry roused the captive and assisted him to his feet no human 
intelligence could have read the mysteries of his mind in the scared 
blank wonder of his face whether he knew what had happened whether he 
recollected what they had said to him whether he knew that he was free 
were questions which no sagacity could have solved they tried speaking 
to him but he was so confused and so very slow to answer that they 
took fright at his bewilderment and agreed for the time to tamper with 
him no more he had a wild lost manner of occasionally clasping his 
head in his hands that had not been seen in him before yet he had some 
pleasure in the mere sound of his daughters voice and invariably 
turned to it when she spoke in the submissive way of one long 
accustomed to obey under coercion he ate and drank what they gave him 
to eat and drink and put on the cloak and other wrappings that they 
gave him to wear he readily responded to his daughters drawing her arm 
through his and tookand kepther hand in both his own they began to 
descend monsieur defarge going first with the lamp mr lorry closing 
the little procession they had not traversed many steps of the long 
main staircase when he stopped and stared at the roof and round at the 
wails you remember the place my father you remember coming up here 
what did you say but before she could repeat the question he murmured 
an answer as if she had repeated it remember no i dont remember it was 
so very long ago that he had no recollection whatever of his having 
been brought from his prison to that house was apparent to them they 
heard him mutter one hundred and five north tower and when he looked 
about him it evidently was for the strong fortresswalls which had long 
encompassed him on their reaching the courtyard he instinctively 
altered his tread as being in expectation of a drawbridge and when 
there was no drawbridge and he saw the carriage waiting in the open 
street he dropped his daughters hand and clasped his head again no 
crowd was about the door no people were discernible at any of the many 
windows not even a chance passerby was in the street an unnatural 
silence and desertion reigned there only one soul was to be seen and 
that was madame defargewho leaned against the doorpost knitting and 
saw nothing the prisoner had got into a coach and his daughter had 
followed him when mr lorrys feet were arrested on the step by his 
asking miserably for his shoemaking tools and the unfinished shoes 
madame defarge immediately called to her husband that she would get 
them and went knitting out of the lamplight through the courtyard she 
quickly brought them down and handed them inand immediately afterwards 
leaned against the doorpost knitting and saw nothing defarge got upon 
the box and gave the word to the barrier the postilion cracked his 
whip and they clattered away under the feeble overswinging lamps under 
the overswinging lampsswinging ever brighter in the better streets and 
ever dimmer in the worse and by lighted shops gay crowds illuminated 
coffeehouses and theatredoors to one of the city gates soldiers with 
lanterns at the guardhouse there your papers travellers see here then 
monsieur the officer said defarge getting down and taking him gravely 
apart these are the papers of monsieur inside with the white head they 
were consigned to me with him at the he dropped his voice there was a 
flutter among the military lanterns and one of them being handed into 
the coach by an arm in uniform the eyes connected with the arm looked 
not an every day or an every night look at monsieur with the white 
head it is well forward from the uniform adieu from defarge and so 
under a short grove of feebler and feebler overswinging lamps out 
under the great grove of stars beneath that arch of unmoved and 
eternal lights some so remote from this little earth that the learned 
tell us it is doubtful whether their rays have even yet discovered it 
as a point in space where anything is suffered or done the shadows of 
the night were broad and black all through the cold and restless 
interval until dawn they once more whispered in the ears of mr jarvis 
lorrysitting opposite the buried man who had been dug out and 
wondering what subtle powers were for ever lost to him and what were 
capable of restorationthe old inquiry i hope you care to be recalled 
to life and the old answer i cant say the end of the first book book 
the secondthe golden thread i five years later tellsons bank by temple 
bar was an oldfashioned place even in the year one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty it was very small very dark very ugly very 
incommodious it was an oldfashioned place moreover in the moral 
attribute that the partners in the house were proud of its smallness 
proud of its darkness proud of its ugliness proud of its 
incommodiousness they were even boastful of its eminence in those 
particulars and were fired by an express conviction that if it were 
less objectionable it would be less respectable this was no passive 
belief but an active weapon which they flashed at more convenient 
places of business tellsons they said wanted no elbowroom tellsons 
wanted no light tellsons wanted no embellishment noakes and cos might 
or snooks brothers might but tellsons thank heaven any one of these 
partners would have disinherited his son on the question of rebuilding 
tellsons in this respect the house was much on a par with the country 
which did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements 
in laws and customs that had long been highly objectionable but were 
only the more respectable thus it had come to pass that tellsons was 
the triumphant perfection of inconvenience after bursting open a door 
of idiotic obstinacy with a weak rattle in its throat you fell into 
tellsons down two steps and came to your senses in a miserable little 
shop with two little counters where the oldest of men made your cheque 
shake as if the wind rustled it while they examined the signature by 
the dingiest of windows which were always under a showerbath of mud 
from fleetstreet and which were made the dingier by their own iron 
bars proper and the heavy shadow of temple bar if your business 
necessitated your seeing the house you were put into a species of 
condemned hold at the back where you meditated on a misspent life 
until the house came with its hands in its pockets and you could 
hardly blink at it in the dismal twilight your money came out of or 
went into wormy old wooden drawers particles of which flew up your 
nose and down your throat when they were opened and shut your 
banknotes had a musty odour as if they were fast decomposing into rags 
again your plate was stowed away among the neighbouring cesspools and 
evil communications corrupted its good polish in a day or two your 
deeds got into extemporised strongrooms made of kitchens and 
sculleries and fretted all the fat out of their parchments into the 
bankinghouse air your lighter boxes of family papers went upstairs 
into a barmecide room that always had a great diningtable in it and 
never had a dinner and where even in the year one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty the first letters written to you by your old love 
or by your little children were but newly released from the horror of 
being ogled through the windows by the heads exposed on temple bar 
with an insensate brutality and ferocity worthy of abyssinia or 
ashantee but indeed at that time putting to death was a recipe much in 
vogue with all trades and professions and not least of all with 
tellsons death is natures remedy for all things and why not 
legislations accordingly the forger was put to death the utterer of a 
bad note was put to death the unlawful opener of a letter was put to 
death the purloiner of forty shillings and sixpence was put to death 
the holder of a horse at tellsons door who made off with it was put to 
death the coiner of a bad shilling was put to death the sounders of 
threefourths of the notes in the whole gamut of crime were put to 
death not that it did the least good in the way of preventionit might 
almost have been worth remarking that the fact was exactly the 
reversebut it cleared off as to this world the trouble of each 
particular case and left nothing else connected with it to be looked 
after thus tellsons in its day like greater places of business its 
contemporaries had taken so many lives that if the heads laid low 
before it had been ranged on temple bar instead of being privately 
disposed of they would probably have excluded what little light the 
ground floor had in a rather significant manner cramped in all kinds 
of dun cupboards and hutches at tellsons the oldest of men carried on 
the business gravely when they took a young man into tellsons london 
house they hid him somewhere till he was old they kept him in a dark 
place like a cheese until he had the full tellson flavour and 
bluemould upon him then only was he permitted to be seen spectacularly 
poring over large books and casting his breeches and gaiters into the 
general weight of the establishment outside tellsonsnever by any means 
in it unless called inwas an oddjobman an occasional porter and 
messenger who served as the live sign of the house he was never absent 
during business hours unless upon an errand and then he was 
represented by his son a grisly urchin of twelve who was his express 
image people understood that tellsons in a stately way tolerated the 
oddjobman the house had always tolerated some person in that capacity 
and time and tide had drifted this person to the post his surname was 
cruncher and on the youthful occasion of his renouncing by proxy the 
works of darkness in the easterly parish church of hounsditch he had 
received the added appellation of jerry the scene was mr crunchers 
private lodging in hangingswordalley whitefriars the time halfpast 
seven of the clock on a windy march morning anno domini seventeen 
hundred and eighty mr cruncher himself always spoke of the year of our 
lord as anna dominoes apparently under the impression that the 
christian era dated from the invention of a popular game by a lady who 
had bestowed her name upon it mr crunchers apartments were not in a 
savoury neighbourhood and were but two in number even if a closet with 
a single pane of glass in it might be counted as one but they were 
very decently kept early as it was on the windy march morning the room 
in which he lay abed was already scrubbed throughout and between the 
cups and saucers arranged for breakfast and the lumbering deal table a 
very clean white cloth was spread mr cruncher reposed under a 
patchwork counterpane like a harlequin at home at first he slept 
heavily but by degrees began to roll and surge in bed until he rose 
above the surface with his spiky hair looking as if it must tear the 
sheets to ribbons at which juncture he exclaimed in a voice of dire 
exasperation bust me if she aint at it agin a woman of orderly and 
industrious appearance rose from her knees in a corner with sufficient 
haste and trepidation to show that she was the person referred to what 
said mr cruncher looking out of bed for a boot youre at it agin are 
you after hailing the mom with this second salutation he threw a boot 
at the woman as a third it was a very muddy boot and may introduce the 
odd circumstance connected with mr crunchers domestic economy that 
whereas he often came home after banking hours with clean boots he 
often got up next morning to find the same boots covered with clay 
what said mr cruncher varying his apostrophe after missing his 
markwhat are you up to aggerawayter i was only saying my prayers 
saying your prayers youre a nice woman what do you mean by flopping 
yourself down and praying agin me i was not praying against you i was 
praying for you you werent and if you were i wont be took the liberty 
with here your mothers a nice woman young jerry going a praying agin 
your fathers prosperity youve got a dutiful mother you have my son 
youve got a religious mother you have my boy going and flopping 
herself down and praying that the breadandbutter may be snatched out 
of the mouth of her only child master cruncher who was in his shirt 
took this very ill and turning to his mother strongly deprecated any 
praying away of his personal board and what do you suppose you 
conceited female said mr cruncher with unconscious inconsistency that 
the worth of your prayers may be name the price that you put your 
prayers at they only come from the heart jerry they are worth no more 
than that worth no more than that repeated mr cruncher they aint worth 
much then whether or no i wont be prayed agin i tell you i cant afford 
it im not a going to be made unlucky by your sneaking if you must go 
flopping yourself down flop in favour of your husband and child and 
not in opposition to em if i had had any but a unnatral wife and this 
poor boy had had any but a unnatral mother i might have made some 
money last week instead of being counterprayed and countermined and 
religiously circumwented into the worst of luck buuust me said mr 
cruncher who all this time had been putting on his clothes if i aint 
what with piety and one blowed thing and another been choused this 
last week into as bad luck as ever a poor devil of a honest tradesman 
met with young jerry dress yourself my boy and while i clean my boots 
keep a eye upon your mother now and then and if you see any signs of 
more flopping give me a call for i tell you here he addressed his wife 
once more i wont be gone agin in this manner i am as rickety as a 
hackneycoach im as sleepy as laudanum my lines is strained to that 
degree that i shouldnt know if it wasnt for the pain in em which was 
me and which somebody else yet im none the better for it in pocket and 
its my suspicion that youve been at it from morning to night to 
prevent me from being the better for it in pocket and i wont put up 
with it aggerawayter and what do you say now growling in addition such 
phrases as ah yes youre religious too you wouldnt put yourself in 
opposition to the interests of your husband and child would you not 
you and throwing off other sarcastic sparks from the whirling 
grindstone of his indignation mr cruncher betook himself to his 
bootcleaning and his general preparation for business in the meantime 
his son whose head was garnished with tenderer spikes and whose young 
eyes stood close by one another as his fathers did kept the required 
watch upon his mother he greatly disturbed that poor woman at 
intervals by darting out of his sleeping closet where he made his 
toilet with a suppressed cry of you are going to flop mother halloa 
father and after raising this fictitious alarm darting in again with 
an undutiful grin mr crunchers temper was not at all improved when he 
came to his breakfast he resented mrs crunchers saying grace with 
particular animosity now aggerawayter what are you up to at it again 
his wife explained that she had merely asked a blessing dont do it 
said mr crunches looking about as if he rather expected to see the 
loaf disappear under the efficacy of his wifes petitions i aint a 
going to be blest out of house and home i wont have my wittles blest 
off my table keep still exceedingly redeyed and grim as if he had been 
up all night at a party which had taken anything but a convivial turn 
jerry cruncher worried his breakfast rather than ate it growling over 
it like any fourfooted inmate of a menagerie towards nine oclock he 
smoothed his ruffled aspect and presenting as respectable and 
businesslike an exterior as he could overlay his natural self with 
issued forth to the occupation of the day it could scarcely be called 
a trade in spite of his favourite description of himself as a honest 
tradesman his stock consisted of a wooden stool made out of a 
brokenbacked chair cut down which stool young jerry walking at his 
fathers side carried every morning to beneath the bankinghouse window 
that was nearest temple bar where with the addition of the first 
handful of straw that could be gleaned from any passing vehicle to 
keep the cold and wet from the oddjobmans feet it formed the 
encampment for the day on this post of his mr cruncher was as well 
known to fleetstreet and the temple as the bar itselfand was almost as 
inlooking encamped at a quarter before nine in good time to touch his 
three cornered hat to the oldest of men as they passed in to tellsons 
jerry took up his station on this windy march morning with young jerry 
standing by him when not engaged in making forays through the bar to 
inflict bodily and mental injuries of an acute description on passing 
boys who were small enough for his amiable purpose father and son 
extremely like each other looking silently on at the morning traffic 
in fleetstreet with their two heads as near to one another as the two 
eyes of each were bore a considerable resemblance to a pair of monkeys 
the resemblance was not lessened by the accidental circumstance that 
the mature jerry bit and spat out straw while the twinkling eyes of 
the youthful jerry were as restlessly watchful of him as of everything 
else in fleetstreet the head of one of the regular indoor messengers 
attached to tellsons establishment was put through the door and the 
word was given porter wanted hooray father heres an early job to begin 
with having thus given his parent god speed young jerry seated himself 
on the stool entered on his reversionary interest in the straw his 
father had been chewing and cogitated always rusty his fingers is 
always rusty muttered young jerry where does my father get all that 
iron rust from he dont get no iron rust here ii a sight you know the 
old bailey well no doubt said one of the oldest of clerks to jerry the 
messenger yees sir returned jerry in something of a dogged manner i do 
know the bailey just so and you know mr lorry i know mr lorry sir much 
better than i know the bailey much better said jerry not unlike a 
reluctant witness at the establishment in question than i as a honest 
tradesman wish to know the bailey very well find the door where the 
witnesses go in and show the doorkeeper this note for mr lorry he will 
then let you in into the court sir into the court mr crunchers eyes 
seemed to get a little closer to one another and to interchange the 
inquiry what do you think of this am i to wait in the court sir he 
asked as the result of that conference i am going to tell you the 
doorkeeper will pass the note to mr lorry and do you make any gesture 
that will attract mr lorrys attention and show him where you stand 
then what you have to do is to remain there until he wants you is that 
all sir thats all he wishes to have a messenger at hand this is to 
tell him you are there as the ancient clerk deliberately folded and 
superscribed the note mr cruncher after surveying him in silence until 
he came to the blottingpaper stage remarked i suppose theyll be trying 
forgeries this morning treason thats quartering said jerry barbarous 
it is the law remarked the ancient clerk turning his surprised 
spectacles upon him it is the law its hard in the law to spile a man i 
think ifs hard enough to kill him but its wery hard to spile him sir 
not at all retained the ancient clerk speak well of the law take care 
of your chest and voice my good friend and leave the law to take care 
of itself i give you that advice its the damp sir what settles on my 
chest and voice said jerry i leave you to judge what a damp way of 
earning a living mine is well well said the old clerk we all have our 
various ways of gaining a livelihood some of us have damp ways and 
some of us have dry ways here is the letter go along jerry took the 
letter and remarking to himself with less internal deference than he 
made an outward show of you are a lean old one too made his bow 
informed his son in passing of his destination and went his way they 
hanged at tyburn in those days so the street outside newgate had not 
obtained one infamous notoriety that has since attached to it but the 
gaol was a vile place in which most kinds of debauchery and villainy 
were practised and where dire diseases were bred that came into court 
with the prisoners and sometimes rushed straight from the dock at my 
lord chief justice himself and pulled him off the bench it had more 
than once happened that the judge in the black cap pronounced his own 
doom as certainly as the prisoners and even died before him for the 
rest the old bailey was famous as a kind of deadly innyard from which 
pale travellers set out continually in carts and coaches on a violent 
passage into the other world traversing some two miles and a half of 
public street and road and shaming few good citizens if any so 
powerful is use and so desirable to be good use in the beginning it 
was famous too for the pillory a wise old institution that inflicted a 
punishment of which no one could foresee the extent also for the 
whippingpost another dear old institution very humanising and 
softening to behold in action also for extensive transactions in 
bloodmoney another fragment of ancestral wisdom systematically leading 
to the most frightful mercenary crimes that could be committed under 
heaven altogether the old bailey at that date was a choice 
illustration of the precept that whatever is is right an aphorism that 
would be as final as it is lazy did it not include the troublesome 
consequence that nothing that ever was was wrong making his way 
through the tainted crowd dispersed up and down this hideous scene of 
action with the skill of a man accustomed to make his way quietly the 
messenger found out the door he sought and handed in his letter 
through a trap in it for people then paid to see the play at the old 
bailey just as they paid to see the play in bedlamonly the former 
entertainment was much the dearer therefore all the old bailey doors 
were well guardedexcept indeed the social doors by which the criminals 
got there and those were always left wide open after some delay and 
demur the door grudgingly turned on its hinges a very little way and 
allowed mr jerry cruncher to squeeze himself into court whats on he 
asked in a whisper of the man he found himself next to nothing yet 
whats coming on the treason case the quartering one eh ah returned the 
man with a relish hell be drawn on a hurdle to be half hanged and then 
hell be taken down and sliced before his own face and then his inside 
will be taken out and burnt while he looks on and then his head will 
be chopped off and hell be cut into quarters thats the sentence if hes 
found guilty you mean to say jerry added by way of proviso oh theyll 
find him guilty said the other dont you be afraid of that mr crunchers 
attention was here diverted to the doorkeeper whom he saw making his 
way to mr lorry with the note in his hand mr lorry sat at a table 
among the gentlemen in wigs not far from a wigged gentleman the 
prisoners counsel who had a great bundle of papers before him and 
nearly opposite another wigged gentleman with his hands in his pockets 
whose whole attention when mr cruncher looked at him then or 
afterwards seemed to be concentrated on the ceiling of the court after 
some gruff coughing and rubbing of his chin and signing with his hand 
jerry attracted the notice of mr lorry who had stood up to look for 
him and who quietly nodded and sat down again whats he got to do with 
the case asked the man he had spoken with blest if i know said jerry 
what have you got to do with it then if a person may inquire blest if 
i know that either said jerry the entrance of the judge and a 
consequent great stir and settling down in the court stopped the 
dialogue presently the dock became the central point of interest two 
gaolers who had been standing there went out and the prisoner was 
brought in and put to the bar everybody present except the one wigged 
gentleman who looked at the ceiling stared at him all the human breath 
in the place rolled at him like a sea or a wind or a fire eager faces 
strained round pillars and corners to get a sight of him spectators in 
back rows stood up not to miss a hair of him people on the floor of 
the court laid their hands on the shoulders of the people before them 
to help themselves at anybodys cost to a view of himstood atiptoe got 
upon ledges stood upon next to nothing to see every inch of him 
conspicuous among these latter like an animated bit of the spiked wall 
of newgate jerry stood aiming at the prisoner the beery breath of a 
whet he had taken as he came along and discharging it to mingle with 
the waves of other beer and gin and tea and coffee and what not that 
flowed at him and already broke upon the great windows behind him in 
an impure mist and rain the object of all this staring and blaring was 
a young man of about fiveandtwenty wellgrown and welllooking with a 
sunburnt cheek and a dark eye his condition was that of a young 
gentleman he was plainly dressed in black or very dark grey and his 
hair which was long and dark was gathered in a ribbon at the back of 
his neck more to be out of his way than for ornament as an emotion of 
the mind will express itself through any covering of the body so the 
paleness which his situation engendered came through the brown upon 
his cheek showing the soul to be stronger than the sun he was 
otherwise quite selfpossessed bowed to the judge and stood quiet the 
sort of interest with which this man was stared and breathed at was 
not a sort that elevated humanity had he stood in peril of a less 
horrible sentencehad there been a chance of any one of its savage 
details being sparedby just so much would he have lost in his 
fascination the form that was to be doomed to be so shamefully mangled 
was the sight the immortal creature that was to be so butchered and 
torn asunder yielded the sensation whatever gloss the various 
spectators put upon the interest according to their several arts and 
powers of selfdeceit the interest was at the root of it ogreish 
silence in the court charles darnay had yesterday pleaded not guilty 
to an indictment denouncing him with infinite jingle and jangle for 
that he was a false traitor to our serene illustrious excellent and so 
forth prince our lord the king by reason of his having on divers 
occasions and by divers means and ways assisted lewis the french king 
in his wars against our said serene illustrious excellent and so forth 
that was to say by coming and going between the dominions of our said 
serene illustrious excellent and so forth and those of the said french 
lewis and wickedly falsely traitorously and otherwise eviladverbiously 
revealing to the said french lewis what forces our said serene 
illustrious excellent and so forth had in preparation to send to 
canada and north america this much jerry with his head becoming more 
and more spiky as the law terms bristled it made out with huge 
satisfaction and so arrived circuitously at the understanding that the 
aforesaid and over and over again aforesaid charles darnay stood there 
before him upon his trial that the jury were swearing in and that mr 
attorneygeneral was making ready to speak the accused who was and who 
knew he was being mentally hanged beheaded and quartered by everybody 
there neither flinched from the situation nor assumed any theatrical 
air in it he was quiet and attentive watched the opening proceedings 
with a grave interest and stood with his hands resting on the slab of 
wood before him so composedly that they had not displaced a leaf of 
the herbs with which it was strewn the court was all bestrewn with 
herbs and sprinkled with vinegar as a precaution against gaol air and 
gaol fever over the prisoners head there was a mirror to throw the 
light down upon him crowds of the wicked and the wretched had been 
reflected in it and had passed from its surface and this earths 
together haunted in a most ghastly manner that abominable place would 
have been if the glass could ever have rendered back its reflections 
as the ocean is one day to give up its dead some passing thought of 
the infamy and disgrace for which it had been reserved may have struck 
the prisoners mind be that as it may a change in his position making 
him conscious of a bar of light across his face he looked up and when 
he saw the glass his face flushed and his right hand pushed the herbs 
away it happened that the action turned his face to that side of the 
court which was on his left about on a level with his eyes there sat 
in that corner of the judges bench two persons upon whom his look 
immediately rested so immediately and so much to the changing of his 
aspect that all the eyes that were turned upon him turned to them the 
spectators saw in the two figures a young lady of little more than 
twenty and a gentleman who was evidently her father a man of a very 
remarkable appearance in respect of the absolute whiteness of his hair 
and a certain indescribable intensity of face not of an active kind 
but pondering and selfcommuning when this expression was upon him he 
looked as if he were old but when it was stirred and broken upas it 
was now in a moment on his speaking to his daughterhe became a 
handsome man not past the prime of life his daughter had one of her 
hands drawn through his arm as she sat by him and the other pressed 
upon it she had drawn close to him in her dread of the scene and in 
her pity for the prisoner her forehead had been strikingly expressive 
of an engrossing terror and compassion that saw nothing but the peril 
of the accused this had been so very noticeable so very powerfully and 
naturally shown that starers who had had no pity for him were touched 
by her and the whisper went about who are they jerry the messenger who 
had made his own observations in his own manner and who had been 
sucking the rust off his fingers in his absorption stretched his neck 
to hear who they were the crowd about him had pressed and passed the 
inquiry on to the nearest attendant and from him it had been more 
slowly pressed and passed back at last it got to jerry witnesses for 
which side against against what side the prisoners the judge whose 
eyes had gone in the general direction recalled them leaned back in 
his seat and looked steadily at the man whose life was in his hand as 
mr attorneygeneral rose to spin the rope grind the axe and hammer the 
nails into the scaffold iii a disappointment mr attorneygeneral had to 
inform the jury that the prisoner before them though young in years 
was old in the treasonable practices which claimed the forfeit of his 
life that this correspondence with the public enemy was not a 
correspondence of today or of yesterday or even of last year or of the 
year before that it was certain the prisoner had for longer than that 
been in the habit of passing and repassing between france and england 
on secret business of which he could give no honest account that if it 
were in the nature of traitorous ways to thrive which happily it never 
was the real wickedness and guilt of his business might have remained 
undiscovered that providence however had put it into the heart of a 
person who was beyond fear and beyond reproach to ferret out the 
nature of the prisoners schemes and struck with horror to disclose 
them to his majestys chief secretary of state and most honourable 
privy council that this patriot would be produced before them that his 
position and attitude were on the whole sublime that he had been the 
prisoners friend but at once in an auspicious and an evil hour 
detecting his infamy had resolved to immolate the traitor he could no 
longer cherish in his bosom on the sacred altar of his country that if 
statues were decreed in britain as in ancient greece and rome to 
public benefactors this shining citizen would assuredly have had one 
that as they were not so decreed he probably would not have one that 
virtue as had been observed by the poets in many passages which he 
well knew the jury would have word for word at the tips of their 
tongues whereat the jurys countenances displayed a guilty 
consciousness that they knew nothing about the passages was in a 
manner contagious more especially the bright virtue known as 
patriotism or love of country that the lofty example of this 
immaculate and unimpeachable witness for the crown to refer to whom 
however unworthily was an honour had communicated itself to the 
prisoners servant and had engendered in him a holy determination to 
examine his masters tabledrawers and pockets and secrete his papers 
that he mr attorneygeneral was prepared to hear some disparagement 
attempted of this admirable servant but that in a general way he 
preferred him to his mr attorneygenerals brothers and sisters and 
honoured him more than his mr attorneygenerals father and mother that 
he called with confidence on the jury to come and do likewise that the 
evidence of these two witnesses coupled with the documents of their 
discovering that would be produced would show the prisoner to have 
been furnished with lists of his majestys forces and of their 
disposition and preparation both by sea and land and would leave no 
doubt that he had habitually conveyed such information to a hostile 
power that these lists could not be proved to be in the prisoners 
handwriting but that it was all the same that indeed it was rather the 
better for the prosecution as showing the prisoner to be artful in his 
precautions that the proof would go back five years and would show the 
prisoner already engaged in these pernicious missions within a few 
weeks before the date of the very first action fought between the 
british troops and the americans that for these reasons the jury being 
a loyal jury as he knew they were and being a responsible jury as they 
knew they were must positively find the prisoner guilty and make an 
end of him whether they liked it or not that they never could lay 
their heads upon their pillows that they never could tolerate the idea 
of their wives laying their heads upon their pillows that they never 
could endure the notion of their children laying their heads upon 
their pillows in short that there never more could be for them or 
theirs any laying of heads upon pillows at all unless the prisoners 
head was taken off that head mr attorneygeneral concluded by demanding 
of them in the name of everything he could think of with a round turn 
in it and on the faith of his solemn asseveration that he already 
considered the prisoner as good as dead and gone when the 
attorneygeneral ceased a buzz arose in the court as if a cloud of 
great blueflies were swarming about the prisoner in anticipation of 
what he was soon to become when toned down again the unimpeachable 
patriot appeared in the witnessbox mr solicitorgeneral then following 
his leaders lead examined the patriot john barsad gentleman by name 
the story of his pure soul was exactly what mr attorneygeneral had 
described it to be perhaps if it had a fault a little too exactly 
having released his noble bosom of its burden he would have modestly 
withdrawn himself but that the wigged gentleman with the papers before 
him sitting not far from mr lorry begged to ask him a few questions 
the wigged gentleman sitting opposite still looking at the ceiling of 
the court had he ever been a spy himself no he scorned the base 
insinuation what did he live upon his property where was his property 
he didnt precisely remember where it was what was it no business of 
anybodys had he inherited it yes he had from whom distant relation 
very distant rather ever been in prison certainly not never in a 
debtors prison didnt see what that had to do with it never in a 
debtors prisoncome once again never yes how many times two or three 
times not five or six perhaps of what profession gentleman ever been 
kicked might have been frequently no ever kicked downstairs decidedly 
not once received a kick on the top of a staircase and fell downstairs 
of his own accord kicked on that occasion for cheating at dice 
something to that effect was said by the intoxicated liar who 
committed the assault but it was not true swear it was not true 
positively ever live by cheating at play never ever live by play not 
more than other gentlemen do ever borrow money of the prisoner yes 
ever pay him no was not this intimacy with the prisoner in reality a 
very slight one forced upon the prisoner in coaches inns and packets 
no sure he saw the prisoner with these lists certain knew no more 
about the lists no had not procured them himself for instance no 
expect to get anything by this evidence no not in regular government 
pay and employment to lay traps oh dear no or to do anything oh dear 
no swear that over and over again no motives but motives of sheer 
patriotism none whatever the virtuous servant roger cly swore his way 
through the case at a great rate he had taken service with the 
prisoner in good faith and simplicity four years ago he had asked the 
prisoner aboard the calais packet if he wanted a handy fellow and the 
prisoner had engaged him he had not asked the prisoner to take the 
handy fellow as an act of charitynever thought of such a thing he 
began to have suspicions of the prisoner and to keep an eye upon him 
soon afterwards in arranging his clothes while travelling he had seen 
similar lists to these in the prisoners pockets over and over again he 
had taken these lists from the drawer of the prisoners desk he had not 
put them there first he had seen the prisoner show these identical 
lists to french gentlemen at calais and similar lists to french 
gentlemen both at calais and boulogne he loved his country and couldnt 
bear it and had given information he had never been suspected of 
stealing a silver teapot he had been maligned respecting a mustardpot 
but it turned out to be only a plated one he had known the last 
witness seven or eight years that was merely a coincidence he didnt 
call it a particularly curious coincidence most coincidences were 
curious neither did he call it a curious coincidence that true 
patriotism was his only motive too he was a true briton and hoped 
there were many like him the blueflies buzzed again and mr 
attorneygeneral called mr jarvis lorry mr jarvis lorry are you a clerk 
in tellsons bank i am on a certain friday night in november one 
thousand seven hundred and seventyfive did business occasion you to 
travel between london and dover by the mail it did were there any 
other passengers in the mail two did they alight on the road in the 
course of the night they did mr lorry look upon the prisoner was he 
one of those two passengers i cannot undertake to say that he was does 
he resemble either of these two passengers both were so wrapped up and 
the night was so dark and we were all so reserved that i cannot 
undertake to say even that mr lorry look again upon the prisoner 
supposing him wrapped up as those two passengers were is there 
anything in his bulk and stature to render it unlikely that he was one 
of them no you will not swear mr lorry that he was not one of them no 
so at least you say he may have been one of them yes except that i 
remember them both to have beenlike myself timorous of highwaymen and 
the prisoner has not a timorous air did you ever see a counterfeit of 
timidity mr lorry i certainly have seen that mr lorry look once more 
upon the prisoner have you seen him to your certain knowledge before i 
have when i was returning from france a few days afterwards and at 
calais the prisoner came on board the packetship in which i returned 
and made the voyage with me at what hour did he come on board at a 
little after midnight in the dead of the night was he the only 
passenger who came on board at that untimely hour he happened to be 
the only one never mind about happening mr lorry he was the only 
passenger who came on board in the dead of the night he was were you 
travelling alone mr lorry or with any companion with two companions a 
gentleman and lady they are here they are here had you any 
conversation with the prisoner hardly any the weather was stormy and 
the passage long and rough and i lay on a sofa almost from shore to 
shore miss manette the young lady to whom all eyes had been turned 
before and were now turned again stood up where she had sat her father 
rose with her and kept her hand drawn through his arm miss manette 
look upon the prisoner to be confronted with such pity and such 
earnest youth and beauty was far more trying to the accused than to be 
confronted with all the crowd standing as it were apart with her on 
the edge of his grave not all the staring curiosity that looked on 
could for the moment nerve him to remain quite still his hurried right 
hand parcelled out the herbs before him into imaginary beds of flowers 
in a garden and his efforts to control and steady his breathing shook 
the lips from which the colour rushed to his heart the buzz of the 
great flies was loud again miss manette have you seen the prisoner 
before yes sir where on board of the packetship just now referred to 
sir and on the same occasion you are the young lady just now referred 
to o most unhappily i am the plaintive tone of her compassion merged 
into the less musical voice of the judge as he said something fiercely 
answer the questions put to you and make no remark upon them miss 
manette had you any conversation with the prisoner on that passage 
across the channel yes sir recall it in the midst of a profound 
stillness she faintly began when the gentleman came on board do you 
mean the prisoner inquired the judge knitting his brows yes my lord 
then say the prisoner when the prisoner came on board he noticed that 
my father turning her eyes lovingly to him as he stood beside her was 
much fatigued and in a very weak state of health my father was so 
reduced that i was afraid to take him out of the air and i had made a 
bed for him on the deck near the cabin steps and i sat on the deck at 
his side to take care of him there were no other passengers that night 
but we four the prisoner was so good as to beg permission to advise me 
how i could shelter my father from the wind and weather better than i 
had done i had not known how to do it well not understanding how the 
wind would set when we were out of the harbour he did it for me he 
expressed great gentleness and kindness for my fathers state and i am 
sure he felt it that was the manner of our beginning to speak together 
let me interrupt you for a moment had he come on board alone no how 
many were with him two french gentlemen had they conferred together 
they had conferred together until the last moment when it was 
necessary for the french gentlemen to be landed in their boat had any 
papers been handed about among them similar to these lists some papers 
had been handed about among them but i dont know what papers like 
these in shape and size possibly but indeed i dont know although they 
stood whispering very near to me because they stood at the top of the 
cabin steps to have the light of the lamp that was hanging there it 
was a dull lamp and they spoke very low and i did not hear what they 
said and saw only that they looked at papers now to the prisoners 
conversation miss manette the prisoner was as open in his confidence 
with mewhich arose out of my helpless situationas he was kind and good 
and useful to my father i hope bursting into tears i may not repay him 
by doing him harm today buzzing from the blueflies miss manette if the 
prisoner does not perfectly understand that you give the evidence 
which it is your duty to givewhich you must give and which you cannot 
escape from givingwith great unwillingness he is the only person 
present in that condition please to go on he told me that he was 
travelling on business of a delicate and difficult nature which might 
get people into trouble and that he was therefore travelling under an 
assumed name he said that this business had within a few days taken 
him to france and might at intervals take him backwards and forwards 
between france and england for a long time to come did he say anything 
about america miss manette be particular he tried to explain to me how 
that quarrel had arisen and he said that so far as he could judge it 
was a wrong and foolish one on englands part he added in a jesting way 
that perhaps george washington might gain almost as great a name in 
history as george the third but there was no harm in his way of saying 
this it was said laughingly and to beguile the time any strongly 
marked expression of face on the part of a chief actor in a scene of 
great interest to whom many eyes are directed will be unconsciously 
imitated by the spectators her forehead was painfully anxious and 
intent as she gave this evidence and in the pauses when she stopped 
for the judge to write it down watched its effect upon the counsel for 
and against among the lookerson there was the same expression in all 
quarters of the court insomuch that a great majority of the foreheads 
there might have been mirrors reflecting the witness when the judge 
looked up from his notes to glare at that tremendous heresy about 
george washington mr attorneygeneral now signified to my lord that he 
deemed it necessary as a matter of precaution and form to call the 
young ladys father doctor manette who was called accordingly doctor 
manette look upon the prisoner have you ever seen him before once when 
he called at my lodgings in london some three years or three years and 
a half ago can you identify him as your fellowpassenger on board the 
packet or speak to his conversation with your daughter sir i can do 
neither is there any particular and special reason for your being 
unable to do either he answered in a low voice there is has it been 
your misfortune to undergo a long imprisonment without trial or even 
accusation in your native country doctor manette he answered in a tone 
that went to every heart a long imprisonment were you newly released 
on the occasion in question they tell me so have you no remembrance of 
the occasion none my mind is a blank from some timei cannot even say 
what time when i employed myself in my captivity in making shoes to 
the time when i found myself living in london with my dear daughter 
here she had become familiar to me when a gracious god restored my 
faculties but i am quite unable even to say how she had become 
familiar i have no remembrance of the process mr attorneygeneral sat 
down and the father and daughter sat down together a singular 
circumstance then arose in the case the object in hand being to show 
that the prisoner went down with some fellowplotter untracked in the 
dover mail on that friday night in november five years ago and got out 
of the mail in the night as a blind at a place where he did not remain 
but from which he travelled back some dozen miles or more to a 
garrison and dockyard and there collected information a witness was 
called to identify him as having been at the precise time required in 
the coffeeroom of an hotel in that garrisonanddockyard town waiting 
for another person the prisoners counsel was crossexamining this 
witness with no result except that he had never seen the prisoner on 
any other occasion when the wigged gentleman who had all this time 
been looking at the ceiling of the court wrote a word or two on a 
little piece of paper screwed it up and tossed it to him opening this 
piece of paper in the next pause the counsel looked with great 
attention and curiosity at the prisoner you say again you are quite 
sure that it was the prisoner the witness was quite sure did you ever 
see anybody very like the prisoner not so like the witness said as 
that he could be mistaken look well upon that gentleman my learned 
friend there pointing to him who had tossed the paper over and then 
look well upon the prisoner how say you are they very like each other 
allowing for my learned friends appearance being careless and slovenly 
if not debauched they were sufficiently like each other to surprise 
not only the witness but everybody present when they were thus brought 
into comparison my lord being prayed to bid my learned friend lay 
aside his wig and giving no very gracious consent the likeness became 
much more remarkable my lord inquired of mr stryver the prisoners 
counsel whether they were next to try mr carton name of my learned 
friend for treason but mr stryver replied to my lord no but he would 
ask the witness to tell him whether what happened once might happen 
twice whether he would have been so confident if he had seen this 
illustration of his rashness sooner whether he would be so confident 
having seen it and more the upshot of which was to smash this witness 
like a crockery vessel and shiver his part of the case to useless 
lumber mr cruncher had by this time taken quite a lunch of rust off 
his fingers in his following of the evidence he had now to attend 
while mr stryver fitted the prisoners case on the jury like a compact 
suit of clothes showing them how the patriot barsad was a hired spy 
and traitor an unblushing trafficker in blood and one of the greatest 
scoundrels upon earth since accursed judaswhich he certainly did look 
rather like how the virtuous servant cly was his friend and partner 
and was worthy to be how the watchful eyes of those forgers and false 
swearers had rested on the prisoner as a victim because some family 
affairs in france he being of french extraction did require his making 
those passages across the channelthough what those affairs were a 
consideration for others who were near and dear to him forbade him 
even for his life to disclose how the evidence that had been warped 
and wrested from the young lady whose anguish in giving it they had 
witnessed came to nothing involving the mere little innocent 
gallantries and politenesses likely to pass between any young 
gentleman and young lady so thrown togetherwith the exception of that 
reference to george washington which was altogether too extravagant 
and impossible to be regarded in any other light than as a monstrous 
joke how it would be a weakness in the government to break down in 
this attempt to practise for popularity on the lowest national 
antipathies and fears and therefore mr attorneygeneral had made the 
most of it how nevertheless it rested upon nothing save that vile and 
infamous character of evidence too often disfiguring such cases and of 
which the state trials of this country were full but there my lord 
interposed with as grave a face as if it had not been true saying that 
he could not sit upon that bench and suffer those allusions mr stryver 
then called his few witnesses and mr cruncher had next to attend while 
mr attorneygeneral turned the whole suit of clothes mr stryver had 
fitted on the jury inside out showing how barsad and cly were even a 
hundred times better than he had thought them and the prisoner a 
hundred times worse lastly came my lord himself turning the suit of 
clothes now inside out now outside in but on the whole decidedly 
trimming and shaping them into graveclothes for the prisoner and now 
the jury turned to consider and the great flies swarmed again mr 
carton who had so long sat looking at the ceiling of the court changed 
neither his place nor his attitude even in this excitement while his 
teamed friend mr stryver massing his papers before him whispered with 
those who sat near and from time to time glanced anxiously at the jury 
while all the spectators moved more or less and grouped themselves 
anew while even my lord himself arose from his seat and slowly paced 
up and down his platform not unattended by a suspicion in the minds of 
the audience that his state was feverish this one man sat leaning back 
with his torn gown half off him his untidy wig put on just as it had 
happened to fight on his head after its removal his hands in his 
pockets and his eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day something 
especially reckless in his demeanour not only gave him a disreputable 
look but so diminished the strong resemblance he undoubtedly bore to 
the prisoner which his momentary earnestness when they were compared 
together had strengthened that many of the lookerson taking note of 
him now said to one another they would hardly have thought the two 
were so alike mr cruncher made the observation to his next neighbour 
and added id hold half a guinea that he dont get no lawwork to do dont 
look like the sort of one to get any do he yet this mr carton took in 
more of the details of the scene than he appeared to take in for now 
when miss manettes head dropped upon her fathers breast he was the 
first to see it and to say audibly officer look to that young lady 
help the gentleman to take her out dont you see she will fall there 
was much commiseration for her as she was removed and much sympathy 
with her father it had evidently been a great distress to him to have 
the days of his imprisonment recalled he had shown strong internal 
agitation when he was questioned and that pondering or brooding look 
which made him old had been upon him like a heavy cloud ever since as 
he passed out the jury who had turned back and paused a moment spoke 
through their foreman they were not agreed and wished to retire my 
lord perhaps with george washington on his mind showed some surprise 
that they were not agreed but signified his pleasure that they should 
retire under watch and ward and retired himself the trial had lasted 
all day and the lamps in the court were now being lighted it began to 
be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while the spectators 
dropped off to get refreshment and the prisoner withdrew to the back 
of the dock and sat down mr lorry who had gone out when the young lady 
and her father went out now reappeared and beckoned to jerry who in 
the slackened interest could easily get near him jerry if you wish to 
take something to eat you can but keep in the way you will be sure to 
hear when the jury come in dont be a moment behind them for i want you 
to take the verdict back to the bank you are the quickest messenger i 
know and will get to temple bar long before i can jerry had just 
enough forehead to knuckle and he knuckled it in acknowledgment of 
this communication and a shilling mr carton came up at the moment and 
touched mr lorry on the arm how is the young lady she is greatly 
distressed but her father is comforting her and she feels the better 
for being out of court ill tell the prisoner so it wont do for a 
respectable bank gentleman like you to be seen speaking to him 
publicly you know mr lorry reddened as if he were conscious of having 
debated the point in his mind and mr carton made his way to the 
outside of the bar the way out of court lay in that direction and 
jerry followed him all eyes ears and spikes mr darnay the prisoner 
came forward directly you will naturally be anxious to hear of the 
witness miss manette she will do very well you have seen the worst of 
her agitation i am deeply sorry to have been the cause of it could you 
tell her so for me with my fervent acknowledgments yes i could i will 
if you ask it mr cartons manner was so careless as to be almost 
insolent he stood half turned from the prisoner lounging with his 
elbow against the bar i do ask it accept my cordial thanks what said 
carton still only half turned towards him do you expect mr darnay the 
worst its the wisest thing to expect and the likeliest but i think 
their withdrawing is in your favour loitering on the way out of court 
not being allowed jerry heard no more but left themso like each other 
in feature so unlike each other in mannerstanding side by side both 
reflected in the glass above them an hour and a half limped heavily 
away in the thiefandrascal crowded passages below even though assisted 
off with mutton pies and ale the hoarse messenger uncomfortably seated 
on a form after taking that refection had dropped into a doze when a 
loud murmur and a rapid tide of people setting up the stairs that led 
to the court carried him along with them jerry jerry mr lorry was 
already calling at the door when he got there here sir its a fight to 
get back again here i am sir mr lorry handed him a paper through the 
throng quick have you got it yes sir hastily written on the paper was 
the word aquitted if you had sent the message recalled to life again 
muttered jerry as he turned i should have known what you meant this 
time he had no opportunity of saying or so much as thinking anything 
else until he was clear of the old bailey for the crowd came pouring 
out with a vehemence that nearly took him off his legs and a loud buzz 
swept into the street as if the baffled blueflies were dispersing in 
search of other carrion iv congratulatory from the dimlylighted 
passages of the court the last sediment of the human stew that had 
been boiling there all day was straining off when doctor manette lucie 
manette his daughter mr lorry the solicitor for the defence and its 
counsel mr stryver stood gathered round mr charles darnayjust 
releasedcongratulating him on his escape from death it would have been 
difficult by a far brighter light to recognise in doctor manette 
intellectual of face and upright of bearing the shoemaker of the 
garret in paris yet no one could have looked at him twice without 
looking again even though the opportunity of observation had not 
extended to the mournful cadence of his low grave voice and to the 
abstraction that overclouded him fitfully without any apparent reason 
while one external cause and that a reference to his long lingering 
agony would alwaysas on the trialevoke this condition from the depths 
of his soul it was also in its nature to arise of itself and to draw a 
gloom over him as incomprehensible to those unacquainted with his 
story as if they had seen the shadow of the actual bastille thrown 
upon him by a summer sun when the substance was three hundred miles 
away only his daughter had the power of charming this black brooding 
from his mind she was the golden thread that united him to a past 
beyond his misery and to a present beyond his misery and the sound of 
her voice the light of her face the touch of her hand had a strong 
beneficial influence with him almost always not absolutely always for 
she could recall some occasions on which her power had failed but they 
were few and slight and she believed them over mr darnay had kissed 
her hand fervently and gratefully and had turned to mr stryver whom he 
warmly thanked mr stryver a man of little more than thirty but looking 
twenty years older than he was stout loud red bluff and free from any 
drawback of delicacy had a pushing way of shouldering himself morally 
and physically into companies and conversations that argued well for 
his shouldering his way up in life he still had his wig and gown on 
and he said squaring himself at his late client to that degree that he 
squeezed the innocent mr lorry clean out of the group i am glad to 
have brought you off with honour mr darnay it was an infamous 
prosecution grossly infamous but not the less likely to succeed on 
that account you have laid me under an obligation to you for lifein 
two senses said his late client taking his hand i have done my best 
for you mr darnay and my best is as good as another mans i believe it 
clearly being incumbent on some one to say much better mr lorry said 
it perhaps not quite disinterestedly but with the interested object of 
squeezing himself back again you think so said mr stryver well you 
have been present all day and you ought to know you are a man of 
business too and as such quoth mr lorry whom the counsel learned in 
the law had now shouldered back into the group just as he had 
previously shouldered him out of itas such i will appeal to doctor 
manette to break up this conference and order us all to our homes miss 
lucie looks ill mr darnay has had a terrible day we are worn out speak 
for yourself mr lorry said stryver i have a nights work to do yet 
speak for yourself i speak for myself answered mr lorry and for mr 
darnay and for miss lucie andmiss lucie do you not think i may speak 
for us all he asked her the question pointedly and with a glance at 
her father his face had become frozen as it were in a very curious 
look at darnay an intent look deepening into a frown of dislike and 
distrust not even unmixed with fear with this strange expression on 
him his thoughts had wandered away my father said lucie softly laying 
her hand on his he slowly shook the shadow off and turned to her shall 
we go home my father with a long breath he answered yes the friends of 
the acquitted prisoner had dispersed under the impressionwhich he 
himself had originatedthat he would not be released that night the 
lights were nearly all extinguished in the passages the iron gates 
were being closed with a jar and a rattle and the dismal place was 
deserted until tomorrow mornings interest of gallows pillory 
whippingpost and brandingiron should repeople it walking between her 
father and mr darnay lucie manette passed into the open air a 
hackneycoach was called and the father and daughter departed in it mr 
stryver had left them in the passages to shoulder his way back to the 
robingroom another person who had not joined the group or interchanged 
a word with any one of them but who had been leaning against the wall 
where its shadow was darkest had silently strolled out after the rest 
and had looked on until the coach drove away he now stepped up to 
where mr lorry and mr darnay stood upon the pavement so mr lorry men 
of business may speak to mr darnay now nobody had made any 
acknowledgment of mr cartons part in the days proceedings nobody had 
known of it he was unrobed and was none the better for it in 
appearance if you knew what a conflict goes on in the business mind 
when the business mind is divided between goodnatured impulse and 
business appearances you would be amused mr darnay mr lorry reddened 
and said warmly you have mentioned that before sir we men of business 
who serve a house are not our own masters we have to think of the 
house more than ourselves i know i know rejoined mr carton carelessly 
dont be nettled mr lorry you are as good as another i have no doubt 
better i dare say and indeed sir pursued mr lorry not minding him i 
really dont know what you have to do with the matter if youll excuse 
me as very much your elder for saying so i really dont know that it is 
your business business bless you i have no business said mr carton it 
is a pity you have not sir i think so too if you had pursued mr lorry 
perhaps you would attend to it lord love you noi shouldnt said mr 
carton well sir cried mr lorry thoroughly heated by his indifference 
business is a very good thing and a very respectable thing and sir if 
business imposes its restraints and its silences and impediments mr 
darnay as a young gentleman of generosity knows how to make allowance 
for that circumstance mr darnay good night god bless you sir i hope 
you have been this day preserved for a prosperous and happy lifechair 
there perhaps a little angry with himself as well as with the 
barrister mr lorry bustled into the chair and was carried off to 
tellsons carton who smelt of port wine and did not appear to be quite 
sober laughed then and turned to darnay this is a strange chance that 
throws you and me together this must be a strange night to you 
standing alone here with your counterpart on these street stones i 
hardly seem yet returned charles darnay to belong to this world again 
i dont wonder at it its not so long since you were pretty far advanced 
on your way to another you speak faintly i begin to think i am faint 
then why the devil dont you dine i dined myself while those numskulls 
were deliberating which world you should belong tothis or some other 
let me show you the nearest tavern to dine well at drawing his arm 
through his own he took him down ludgatehill to fleetstreet and so up 
a covered way into a tavern here they were shown into a little room 
where charles darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good 
plain dinner and good wine while carton sat opposite to him at the 
same table with his separate bottle of port before him and his fully 
halfinsolent manner upon him do you feel yet that you belong to this 
terrestrial scheme again mr darnay i am frightfully confused regarding 
time and place but i am so far mended as to feel that it must be an 
immense satisfaction he said it bitterly and filled up his glass again 
which was a large one as to me the greatest desire i have is to forget 
that i belong to it it has no good in it for meexcept wine like 
thisnor i for it so we are not much alike in that particular indeed i 
begin to think we are not much alike in any particular you and i 
confused by the emotion of the day and feeling his being there with 
this double of coarse deportment to be like a dream charles darnay was 
at a loss how to answer finally answered not at all now your dinner is 
done carton presently said why dont you call a health mr darnay why 
dont you give your toast what health what toast why its on the tip of 
your tongue it ought to be it must be ill swear its there miss manette 
then miss manette then looking his companion full in the face while he 
drank the toast carton flung his glass over his shoulder against the 
wall where it shivered to pieces then rang the bell and ordered in 
another thats a fair young lady to hand to a coach in the dark mr 
darnay he said ruing his new goblet a slight frown and a laconic yes 
were the answer thats a fair young lady to be pitied by and wept for 
by how does it feel is it worth being tried for ones life to be the 
object of such sympathy and compassion mr darnay again darnay answered 
not a word she was mightily pleased to have your message when i gave 
it her not that she showed she was pleased but i suppose she was the 
allusion served as a timely reminder to darnay that this disagreeable 
companion had of his own free will assisted him in the strait of the 
day he turned the dialogue to that point and thanked him for it i 
neither want any thanks nor merit any was the careless rejoinder it 
was nothing to do in the first place and i dont know why i did it in 
the second mr darnay let me ask you a question willingly and a small 
return for your good offices do you think i particularly like you 
really mr carton returned the other oddly disconcerted i have not 
asked myself the question but ask yourself the question now you have 
acted as if you do but i dont think you do i dont think i do said 
carton i begin to have a very good opinion of your understanding 
nevertheless pursued darnay rising to ring the bell there is nothing 
in that i hope to prevent my calling the reckoning and our parting 
without illblood on either side carton rejoining nothing in life 
darnay rang do you call the whole reckoning said carton on his 
answering in the affirmative then bring me another pint of this same 
wine drawer and come and wake me at ten the bill being paid charles 
darnay rose and wished him good night without returning the wish 
carton rose too with something of a threat of defiance in his manner 
and said a last word mr darnay you think i am drunk i think you have 
been drinking mr carton think you know i have been drinking since i 
must say so i know it then you shall likewise know why i am a 
disappointed drudge sir i care for no man on earth and no man on earth 
cares for me much to be regretted you might have used your talents 
better may be so mr darnay may be not dont let your sober face elate 
you however you dont know what it may come to good night when he was 
left alone this strange being took up a candle went to a glass that 
hung against the wall and surveyed himself minutely in it do you 
particularly like the man he muttered at his own image why should you 
particularly like a man who resembles you there is nothing in you to 
like you know that ah confound you what a change you have made in 
yourself a good reason for taking to a man that he shows you what you 
have fallen away from and what you might have been change places with 
him and would you have been looked at by those blue eyes as he was and 
commiserated by that agitated face as he was come on and have it out 
in plain words you hate the fellow he resorted to his pint of wine for 
consolation drank it all in a few minutes and fell asleep on his arms 
with his hair straggling over the table and a long windingsheet in the 
candle dripping down upon him v the jackal those were drinking days 
and most men drank hard so very great is the improvement time has 
brought about in such habits that a moderate statement of the quantity 
of wine and punch which one man would swallow in the course of a night 
without any detriment to his reputation as a perfect gentleman would 
seem in these days a ridiculous exaggeration the learned profession of 
the law was certainly not behind any other learned profession in its 
bacchanalian propensities neither was mr stryver already fast 
shouldering his way to a large and lucrative practice behind his 
compeers in this particular any more than in the drier parts of the 
legal race a favourite at the old bailey and eke at the sessions mr 
stryver had begun cautiously to hew away the lower staves of the 
ladder on which he mounted sessions and old bailey had now to summon 
their favourite specially to their longing arms and shouldering itself 
towards the visage of the lord chief justice in the court of kings 
bench the florid countenance of mr stryver might be daily seen 
bursting out of the bed of wigs like a great sunflower pushing its way 
at the sun from among a rank gardenfull of flaring companions it had 
once been noted at the bar that while mr stryver was a glib man and an 
unscrupulous and a ready and a bold he had not that faculty of 
extracting the essence from a heap of statements which is among the 
most striking and necessary of the advocates accomplishments but a 
remarkable improvement came upon him as to this the more business he 
got the greater his power seemed to grow of getting at its pith and 
marrow and however late at night he sat carousing with sydney carton 
he always had his points at his fingers ends in the morning sydney 
carton idlest and most unpromising of men was stryvers great ally what 
the two drank together between hilary term and michaelmas might have 
floated a kings ship stryver never had a case in hand anywhere but 
carton was there with his hands in his pockets staring at the ceiling 
of the court they went the same circuit and even there they prolonged 
their usual orgies late into the night and carton was rumoured to be 
seen at broad day going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings 
like a dissipated cat at last it began to get about among such as were 
interested in the matter that although sydney carton would never be a 
lion he was an amazingly good jackal and that he rendered suit and 
service to stryver in that humble capacity ten oclock sir said the man 
at the tavern whom he had charged to wake himten oclock sir whats the 
matter ten oclock sir what do you mean ten oclock at night yes sir 
your honour told me to call you oh i remember very well very well 
after a few dull efforts to get to sleep again which the man 
dexterously combated by stirring the fire continuously for five 
minutes he got up tossed his hat on and walked out he turned into the 
temple and having revived himself by twice pacing the pavements of 
kings benchwalk and paperbuildings turned into the stryver chambers 
the stryver clerk who never assisted at these conferences had gone 
home and the stryver principal opened the door he had his slippers on 
and a loose bedgown and his throat was bare for his greater ease he 
had that rather wild strained seared marking about the eyes which may 
be observed in all free livers of his class from the portrait of 
jeffries downward and which can be traced under various disguises of 
art through the portraits of every drinking age you are a little late 
memory said stryver about the usual time it may be a quarter of an 
hour later they went into a dingy room lined with books and littered 
with papers where there was a blazing fire a kettle steamed upon the 
hob and in the midst of the wreck of papers a table shone with plenty 
of wine upon it and brandy and rum and sugar and lemons you have had 
your bottle i perceive sydney two tonight i think i have been dining 
with the days client or seeing him dineits all one that was a rare 
point sydney that you brought to bear upon the identification how did 
you come by it when did it strike you i thought he was rather a 
handsome fellow and i thought i should have been much the same sort of 
fellow if i had had any luck mr stryver laughed till he shook his 
precocious paunch you and your luck sydney get to work get to work 
sullenly enough the jackal loosened his dress went into an adjoining 
room and came back with a large jug of cold water a basin and a towel 
or two steeping the towels in the water and partially wringing them 
out he folded them on his head in a manner hideous to behold sat down 
at the table and said now i am ready not much boiling down to be done 
tonight memory said mr stryver gaily as he looked among his papers how 
much only two sets of them give me the worst first there they are 
sydney fire away the lion then composed himself on his back on a sofa 
on one side of the drinkingtable while the jackal sat at his own 
paperbestrewn table proper on the other side of it with the bottles 
and glasses ready to his hand both resorted to the drinkingtable 
without stint but each in a different way the lion for the most part 
reclining with his hands in his waistband looking at the fire or 
occasionally flirting with some lighter document the jackal with 
knitted brows and intent face so deep in his task that his eyes did 
not even follow the hand he stretched out for his glasswhich often 
groped about for a minute or more before it found the glass for his 
lips two or three times the matter in hand became so knotty that the 
jackal found it imperative on him to get up and steep his towels anew 
from these pilgrimages to the jug and basin he returned with such 
eccentricities of damp headgear as no words can describe which were 
made the more ludicrous by his anxious gravity at length the jackal 
had got together a compact repast for the lion and proceeded to offer 
it to him the lion took it with care and caution made his selections 
from it and his remarks upon it and the jackal assisted both when the 
repast was fully discussed the lion put his hands in his waistband 
again and lay down to mediate the jackal then invigorated himself with 
a bum for his throttle and a fresh application to his head and applied 
himself to the collection of a second meal this was administered to 
the lion in the same manner and was not disposed of until the clocks 
struck three in the morning and now we have done sydney fill a bumper 
of punch said mr stryver the jackal removed the towels from his head 
which had been steaming again shook himself yawned shivered and 
complied you were very sound sydney in the matter of those crown 
witnesses today every question told i always am sound am i not i dont 
gainsay it what has roughened your temper put some punch to it and 
smooth it again with a deprecatory grunt the jackal again complied the 
old sydney carton of old shrewsbury school said stryver nodding his 
head over him as he reviewed him in the present and the past the old 
seesaw sydney up one minute and down the next now in spirits and now 
in despondency ah returned the other sighing yes the same sydney with 
the same luck even then i did exercises for other boys and seldom did 
my own and why not god knows it was my way i suppose he sat with his 
hands in his pockets and his legs stretched out before him looking at 
the fire carton said his friend squaring himself at him with a 
bullying air as if the firegrate had been the furnace in which 
sustained endeavour was forged and the one delicate thing to be done 
for the old sydney carton of old shrewsbury school was to shoulder him 
into it your way is and always was a lame way you summon no energy and 
purpose look at me oh botheration returned sydney with a lighter and 
more good humoured laugh dont you be moral how have i done what i have 
done said stryver how do i do what i do partly through paying me to 
help you i suppose but its not worth your while to apostrophise me or 
the air about it what you want to do you do you were always in the 
front rank and i was always behind i had to get into the front rank i 
was not born there was i i was not present at the ceremony but my 
opinion is you were said carton at this he laughed again and they both 
laughed before shrewsbury and at shrewsbury and ever since shrewsbury 
pursued carton you have fallen into your rank and i have fallen into 
mine even when we were fellowstudents in the studentquarter of paris 
picking up french and french law and other french crumbs that we didnt 
get much good of you were always somewhere and i was always nowhere 
and whose fault was that upon my soul i am not sure that it was not 
yours you were always driving and riving and shouldering and passing 
to that restless degree that i had no chance for my life but in rust 
and repose its a gloomy thing however to talk about ones own past with 
the day breaking turn me in some other direction before i go well then 
pledge me to the pretty witness said stryver holding up his glass are 
you turned in a pleasant direction apparently not for he became gloomy 
again pretty witness he muttered looking down into his glass i have 
had enough of witnesses today and tonight whos your pretty witness the 
picturesque doctors daughter miss manette she pretty is she not no why 
man alive she was the admiration of the whole court rot the admiration 
of the whole court who made the old bailey a judge of beauty she was a 
goldenhaired doll do you know sydney said mr stryver looking at him 
with sharp eyes and slowly drawing a hand across his florid face do 
you know i rather thought at the time that you sympathised with the 
goldenhaired doll and were quick to see what happened to the 
goldenhaired doll quick to see what happened if a girl doll or no doll 
swoons within a yard or two of a mans nose he can see it without a 
perspectiveglass i pledge you but i deny the beauty and now ill have 
no more drink ill get to bed when his host followed him out on the 
staircase with a candle to light him down the stairs the day was 
coldly looking in through its grimy windows when he got out of the 
house the air was cold and sad the dull sky overcast the river dark 
and dim the whole scene like a lifeless desert and wreaths of dust 
were spinning round and round before the morning blast as if the 
desertsand had risen far away and the first spray of it in its advance 
had begun to overwhelm the city waste forces within him and a desert 
all around this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace and 
saw for a moment lying in the wilderness before him a mirage of 
honourable ambition selfdenial and perseverance in the fair city of 
this vision there were airy galleries from which the loves and graces 
looked upon him gardens in which the fruits of life hung ripening 
waters of hope that sparkled in his sight a moment and it was gone 
climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses he threw himself down 
in his clothes on a neglected bed and its pillow was wet with wasted 
tears sadly sadly the sun rose it rose upon no sadder sight than the 
man of good abilities and good emotions incapable of their directed 
exercise incapable of his own help and his own happiness sensible of 
the blight on him and resigning himself to let it eat him away vi 
hundreds of people the quiet lodgings of doctor manette were in a 
quiet streetcorner not far from sohosquare on the afternoon of a 
certain fine sunday when the waves of four months had roiled over the 
trial for treason and carried it as to the public interest and memory 
far out to sea mr jarvis lorry walked along the sunny streets from 
clerkenwell where he lived on his way to dine with the doctor after 
several relapses into businessabsorption mr lorry had become the 
doctors friend and the quiet streetcorner was the sunny part of his 
life on this certain fine sunday mr lorry walked towards soho early in 
the afternoon for three reasons of habit firstly because on fine 
sundays he often walked out before dinner with the doctor and lucie 
secondly because on unfavourable sundays he was accustomed to be with 
them as the family friend talking reading looking out of window and 
generally getting through the day thirdly because he happened to have 
his own little shrewd doubts to solve and knew how the ways of the 
doctors household pointed to that time as a likely time for solving 
them a quainter corner than the corner where the doctor lived was not 
to be found in london there was no way through it and the front 
windows of the doctors lodgings commanded a pleasant little vista of 
street that had a congenial air of retirement on it there were few 
buildings then north of the oxfordroad and foresttrees flourished and 
wild flowers grew and the hawthorn blossomed in the now vanished 
fields as a consequence country airs circulated in soho with vigorous 
freedom instead of languishing into the parish like stray paupers 
without a settlement and there was many a good south wall not far off 
on which the peaches ripened in their season the summer light struck 
into the corner brilliantly in the earlier part of the day but when 
the streets grew hot the corner was in shadow though not in shadow so 
remote but that you could see beyond it into a glare of brightness it 
was a cool spot staid but cheerful a wonderful place for echoes and a 
very harbour from the raging streets there ought to have been a 
tranquil bark in such an anchorage and there was the doctor occupied 
two floors of a large stiff house where several callings purported to 
be pursued by day but whereof little was audible any day and which was 
shunned by all of them at night in a building at the back attainable 
by a courtyard where a planetree rustled its green leaves churchorgans 
claimed to be made and silver to be chased and likewise gold to be 
beaten by some mysterious giant who had a golden arm starting out of 
the wall of the front hallas if he had beaten himself precious and 
menaced a similar conversion of all visitors very little of these 
trades or of a lonely lodger rumoured to live upstairs or of a dim 
coachtrimming maker asserted to have a countinghouse below was ever 
heard or seen occasionally a stray workman putting his coat on 
traversed the hall or a stranger peered about there or a distant clink 
was heard across the courtyard or a thump from the golden giant these 
however were only the exceptions required to prove the rule that the 
sparrows in the planetree behind the house and the echoes in the 
corner before it had their own way from sunday morning unto saturday 
night doctor manette received such patients here as his old reputation 
and its revival in the floating whispers of his story brought him his 
scientific knowledge and his vigilance and skill in conducting 
ingenious experiments brought him otherwise into moderate request and 
he earned as much as he wanted these things were within mr jarvis 
lorrys knowledge thoughts and notice when he rang the doorbell of the 
tranquil house in the corner on the fine sunday afternoon doctor 
manette at home expected home miss lucie at home expected home miss 
pross at home possibly at home but of a certainty impossible for 
handmaid to anticipate intentions of miss pross as to admission or 
denial of the fact as i am at home myself said mr lorry ill go 
upstairs although the doctors daughter had known nothing of the 
country of her birth she appeared to have innately derived from it 
that ability to make much of little means which is one of its most 
useful and most agreeable characteristics simple as the furniture was 
it was set off by so many little adornments of no value but for their 
taste and fancy that its effect was delightful the disposition of 
everything in the rooms from the largest object to the least the 
arrangement of colours the elegant variety and contrast obtained by 
thrift in trifles by delicate hands clear eyes and good sense were at 
once so pleasant in themselves and so expressive of their originator 
that as mr lorry stood looking about him the very chairs and tables 
seemed to ask him with something of that peculiar expression which he 
knew so well by this time whether he approved there were three rooms 
on a floor and the doors by which they communicated being put open 
that the air might pass freely through them all mr lorry smilingly 
observant of that fanciful resemblance which he detected all around 
him walked from one to another the first was the best room and in it 
were lucies birds and flowers and books and desk and worktable and box 
of watercolours the second was the doctors consultingroom used also as 
the diningroom the third changingly speckled by the rustle of the 
planetree in the yard was the doctors bedroom and there in a corner 
stood the disused shoemakers bench and tray of tools much as it had 
stood on the fifth floor of the dismal house by the wineshop in the 
suburb of saint antoine in paris i wonder said mr lorry pausing in his 
looking about that he keeps that reminder of his sufferings about him 
and why wonder at that was the abrupt inquiry that made him start it 
proceeded from miss pross the wild red woman strong of hand whose 
acquaintance he had first made at the royal george hotel at dover and 
had since improved i should have thought mr lorry began pooh youd have 
thought said miss pross and mr lorry left off how do you do inquired 
that lady thensharply and yet as if to express that she bore him no 
malice i am pretty well i thank you answered mr lorry with meekness 
how are you nothing to boast of said miss pross indeed ah indeed said 
miss pross i am very much put out about my ladybird indeed for 
gracious sake say something else besides indeed or youll fidget me to 
death said miss pross whose character dissociated from stature was 
shortness really then said mr lorry as an amendment really is bad 
enough returned miss pross but better yes i am very much put out may i 
ask the cause i dont want dozens of people who are not at all worthy 
of ladybird to come here looking after her said miss pross do dozens 
come for that purpose hundreds said miss pross it was characteristic 
of this lady as of some other people before her time and since that 
whenever her original proposition was questioned she exaggerated it 
dear me said mr lorry as the safest remark he could think of i have 
lived with the darlingor the darling has lived with me and paid me for 
it which she certainly should never have done you may take your 
affidavit if i could have afforded to keep either myself or her for 
nothingsince she was ten years old and its really very hard said miss 
pross not seeing with precision what was very hard mr lorry shook his 
head using that important part of himself as a sort of fairy cloak 
that would fit anything all sorts of people who are not in the least 
degree worthy of the pet are always turning up said miss pross when 
you began it i began it miss pross didnt you who brought her father to 
life oh if that was beginning it said mr lorry it wasnt ending it i 
suppose i say when you began it it was hard enough not that i have any 
fault to find with doctor manette except that he is not worthy of such 
a daughter which is no imputation on him for it was not to be expected 
that anybody should be under any circumstances but it really is doubly 
and trebly hard to have crowds and multitudes of people turning up 
after him i could have forgiven him to take ladybirds affections away 
from me mr lorry knew miss pross to be very jealous but he also knew 
her by this time to be beneath the service of her eccentricity one of 
those unselfish creaturesfound only among womenwho will for pure love 
and admiration bind themselves willing slaves to youth when they have 
lost it to beauty that they never had to accomplishments that they 
were never fortunate enough to gain to bright hopes that never shone 
upon their own sombre lives he knew enough of the world to know that 
there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart 
so rendered and so free from any mercenary taint he had such an 
exalted respect for it that in the retributive arrangements made by 
his own mindwe all make such arrangements more or less he stationed 
miss pross much nearer to the lower angels than many ladies 
immeasurably better got up both by nature and art who had balances at 
tellsons there never was nor will be but one man worthy of ladybird 
said miss pross and that was my brother solomon if he hadnt made a 
mistake in life here again mr lorrys inquiries into miss prosss 
personal history had established the fact that her brother solomon was 
a heartless scoundrel who had stripped her of everything she possessed 
as a stake to speculate with and had abandoned her in her poverty for 
evermore with no touch of compunction miss prosss fidelity of belief 
in solomon deducting a mere trifle for this slight mistake was quite a 
serious matter with mr lorry and had its weight in his good opinion of 
her as we happen to be alone for the moment and are both people of 
business he said when they had got back to the drawingroom and had sat 
down there in friendly relations let me ask youdoes the doctor in 
talking with lucie never refer to the shoemaking time yet never and 
yet keeps that bench and those tools beside him ah returned miss pross 
shaking her head but i dont say he dont refer to it within himself do 
you believe that he thinks of it much i do said miss pross do you 
imagine mr lorry had begun when miss pross took him up short with 
never imagine anything have no imagination at all i stand corrected do 
you supposeyou go so far as to suppose sometimes now and then said 
miss pross do you suppose mr lorry went on with a laughing twinkle in 
his bright eye as it looked kindly at her that doctor manette has any 
theory of his own preserved through all those years relative to the 
cause of his being so oppressed perhaps even to the name of his 
oppressor i dont suppose anything about it but what ladybird tells me 
and that is that she thinks he has now dont be angry at my asking all 
these questions because i am a mere dull man of business and you are a 
woman of business dull miss pross inquired with placidity rather 
wishing his modest adjective away mr lorry replied no no no surely not 
to return to businessis it not remarkable that doctor manette 
unquestionably innocent of any crime as we are all well assured he is 
should never touch upon that question i will not say with me though he 
had business relations with me many years ago and we are now intimate 
i will say with the fair daughter to whom he is so devotedly attached 
and who is so devotedly attached to him believe me miss pross i dont 
approach the topic with you out of curiosity but out of zealous 
interest well to the best of my understanding and bads the best youll 
tell me said miss pross softened by the tone of the apology he is 
afraid of the whole subject afraid its plain enough i should think why 
he may be its a dreadful remembrance besides that his loss of himself 
grew out of it not knowing how he lost himself or how he recovered 
himself he may never feel certain of not losing himself again that 
alone wouldnt make the subject pleasant i should think it was a 
profounder remark than mr lorry had looked for true said he and 
fearful to reflect upon yet a doubt lurks in my mind miss pross 
whether it is good for doctor manette to have that suppression always 
shut up within him indeed it is this doubt and the uneasiness it 
sometimes causes me that has led me to our present confidence cant be 
helped said miss pross shaking her head touch that string and he 
instantly changes for the worse better leave it alone in short must 
leave it alone like or no like sometimes he gets up in the dead of the 
night and will be heard by us overhead there walking up and down 
walking up and down in his room ladybird has learnt to know then that 
his mind is walking up and down walking up and down in his old prison 
she hurries to him and they go on together walking up and down walking 
up and down until he is composed but he never says a word of the true 
reason of his restlessness to her and she finds it best not to hint at 
it to him in silence they go walking up and down together walking up 
and down together till her love and company have brought him to 
himself notwithstanding miss prosss denial of her own imagination 
there was a perception of the pain of being monotonously haunted by 
one sad idea in her repetition of the phrase walking up and down which 
testified to her possessing such a thing the corner has been mentioned 
as a wonderful corner for echoes it had begun to echo so resoundingly 
to the tread of coming feet that it seemed as though the very mention 
of that weary pacing to and fro had set it going here they are said 
miss pross rising to break up the conference and now we shall have 
hundreds of people pretty soon it was such a curious corner in its 
acoustical properties such a peculiar ear of a place that as mr lorry 
stood at the open window looking for the father and daughter whose 
steps he heard he fancied they would never approach not only would the 
echoes die away as though the steps had gone but echoes of other steps 
that never came would be heard in their stead and would die away for 
good when they seemed close at hand however father and daughter did at 
last appear and miss pross was ready at the street door to receive 
them miss pross was a pleasant sight albeit wild and red and grim 
taking off her darlings bonnet when she came upstairs and touching it 
up with the ends of her handkerchief and blowing the dust off it and 
folding her mantle ready for laying by and smoothing her rich hair 
with as much pride as she could possibly have taken in her own hair if 
she had been the vainest and handsomest of women her darling was a 
pleasant sight too embracing her and thanking her and protesting 
against her taking so much trouble for herwhich last she only dared to 
do playfully or miss pross sorely hurt would have retired to her own 
chamber and cried the doctor was a pleasant sight too looking on at 
them and telling miss pross how she spoilt lucie in accents and with 
eyes that had as much spoiling in them as miss pross had and would 
have had more if it were possible mr lorry was a pleasant sight too 
beaming at all this in his little wig and thanking his bachelor stars 
for having lighted him in his declining years to a home but no 
hundreds of people came to see the sights and mr lorry looked in vain 
for the fulfilment of miss prosss prediction dinnertime and still no 
hundreds of people in the arrangements of the little household miss 
pross took charge of the lower regions and always acquitted herself 
marvellously her dinners of a very modest quality were so well cooked 
and so well served and so neat in their contrivances half english and 
half french that nothing could be better miss prosss friendship being 
of the thoroughly practical kind she had ravaged soho and the adjacent 
provinces in search of impoverished french who tempted by shillings 
and half crowns would impart culinary mysteries to her from these 
decayed sons and daughters of gaul she had acquired such wonderful 
arts that the woman and girl who formed the staff of domestics 
regarded her as quite a sorceress or cinderellas godmother who would 
send out for a fowl a rabbit a vegetable or two from the garden and 
change them into anything she pleased on sundays miss pross dined at 
the doctors table but on other days persisted in taking her meals at 
unknown periods either in the lower regions or in her own room on the 
second floora blue chamber to which no one but her ladybird ever 
gained admittance on this occasion miss pross responding to ladybirds 
pleasant face and pleasant efforts to please her unbent exceedingly so 
the dinner was very pleasant too it was an oppressive day and after 
dinner lucie proposed that the wine should be carried out under the 
planetree and they should sit there in the air as everything turned 
upon her and revolved about her they went out under the planetree and 
she carried the wine down for the special benefit of mr lorry she had 
installed herself some time before as mr lorrys cupbearer and while 
they sat under the planetree talking she kept his glass replenished 
mysterious backs and ends of houses peeped at them as they talked and 
the planetree whispered to them in its own way above their heads still 
the hundreds of people did not present themselves mr darnay presented 
himself while they were sitting under the planetree but he was only 
one doctor manette received him kindly and so did lucie but miss pross 
suddenly became afflicted with a twitching in the head and body and 
retired into the house she was not unfrequently the victim of this 
disorder and she called it in familiar conversation a fit of the jerks 
the doctor was in his best condition and looked specially young the 
resemblance between him and lucie was very strong at such times and as 
they sat side by side she leaning on his shoulder and he resting his 
arm on the back of her chair it was very agreeable to trace the 
likeness he had been talking all day on many subjects and with unusual 
vivacity pray doctor manette said mr darnay as they sat under the 
planetreeand he said it in the natural pursuit of the topic in hand 
which happened to be the old buildings of londonhave you seen much of 
the tower lucie and i have been there but only casually we have seen 
enough of it to know that it teems with interest little more i have 
been there as you remember said darnay with a smile though reddening a 
little angrily in another character and not in a character that gives 
facilities for seeing much of it they told me a curious thing when i 
was there what was that lucie asked in making some alterations the 
workmen came upon an old dungeon which had been for many years built 
up and forgotten every stone of its inner wall was covered by 
inscriptions which had been carved by prisonersdates names complaints 
and prayers upon a corner stone in an angle of the wall one prisoner 
who seemed to have gone to execution had cut as his last work three 
letters they were done with some very poor instrument and hurriedly 
with an unsteady hand at first they were read as d i c but on being 
more carefully examined the last letter was found to be g there was no 
record or legend of any prisoner with those initials and many 
fruitless guesses were made what the name could have been at length it 
was suggested that the letters were not initials but the complete word 
dig the floor was examined very carefully under the inscription and in 
the earth beneath a stone or tile or some fragment of paving were 
found the ashes of a paper mingled with the ashes of a small leathern 
case or bag what the unknown prisoner had written will never be read 
but he had written something and hidden it away to keep it from the 
gaoler my father exclaimed lucie you are ill he had suddenly started 
up with his hand to his head his manner and his look quite terrified 
them all no my dear not ill there are large drops of rain falling and 
they made me start we had better go in he recovered himself almost 
instantly rain was really falling in large drops and he showed the 
back of his hand with raindrops on it but he said not a single word in 
reference to the discovery that had been told of and as they went into 
the house the business eye of mr lorry either detected or fancied it 
detected on his face as it turned towards charles darnay the same 
singular look that had been upon it when it turned towards him in the 
passages of the court house he recovered himself so quickly however 
that mr lorry had doubts of his business eye the arm of the golden 
giant in the hall was not more steady than he was when he stopped 
under it to remark to them that he was not yet proof against slight 
surprises if he ever would be and that the rain had startled him 
teatime and miss pross making tea with another fit of the jerks upon 
her and yet no hundreds of people mr carton had lounged in but he made 
only two the night was so very sultry that although they sat with 
doors and windows open they were overpowered by heat when the teatable 
was done with they all moved to one of the windows and looked out into 
the heavy twilight lucie sat by her father darnay sat beside her 
carton leaned against a window the curtains were long and white and 
some of the thundergusts that whirled into the corner caught them up 
to the ceiling and waved them like spectral wings the raindrops are 
still falling large heavy and few said doctor manette it comes slowly 
it comes surely said carton they spoke low as people watching and 
waiting mostly do as people in a dark room watching and waiting for 
lightning always do there was a great hurry in the streets of people 
speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke the wonderful 
corner for echoes resounded with the echoes of footsteps coming and 
going yet not a footstep was there a multitude of people and yet a 
solitude said darnay when they had listened for a while is it not 
impressive mr darnay asked lucie sometimes i have sat here of an 
evening until i have fanciedbut even the shade of a foolish fancy 
makes me shudder tonight when all is so black and solemn let us 
shudder too we may know what it is it will seem nothing to you such 
whims are only impressive as we originate them i think they are not to 
be communicated i have sometimes sat alone here of an evening 
listening until i have made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the 
footsteps that are coming byandbye into our lives there is a great 
crowd coming one day into our lives if that be so sydney carton struck 
in in his moody way the footsteps were incessant and the hurry of them 
became more and more rapid the corner echoed and reechoed with the 
tread of feet some as it seemed under the windows some as it seemed in 
the room some coming some going some breaking off some stopping 
altogether all in the distant streets and not one within sight are all 
these footsteps destined to come to all of us miss manette or are we 
to divide them among us i dont know mr darnay i told you it was a 
foolish fancy but you asked for it when i have yielded myself to it i 
have been alone and then i have imagined them the footsteps of the 
people who are to come into my life and my fathers i take them into 
mine said carton i ask no questions and make no stipulations there is 
a great crowd bearing down upon us miss manette and i see themby the 
lightning he added the last words after there had been a vivid flash 
which had shown him lounging in the window and i hear them he added 
again after a peal of thunder here they come fast fierce and furious 
it was the rush and roar of rain that he typified and it stopped him 
for no voice could be heard in it a memorable storm of thunder and 
lightning broke with that sweep of water and there was not a moments 
interval in crash and fire and rain until after the moon rose at 
midnight the great bell of saint pauls was striking one in the cleared 
air when mr lorry escorted by jerry highbooted and bearing a lantern 
set forth on his returnpassage to clerkenwell there were solitary 
patches of road on the way between soho and clerkenwell and mr lorry 
mindful of footpads always retained jerry for this service though it 
was usually performed a good two hours earlier what a night it has 
been almost a night jerry said mr lorry to bring the dead out of their 
graves i never see the night myself masternor yet i dont expect towhat 
would do that answered jerry good night mr carton said the man of 
business good night mr darnay shall we ever see such a night again 
together perhaps perhaps see the great crowd of people with its rush 
and roar bearing down upon them too vii monseigneur in town 
monseigneur one of the great lords in power at the court held his 
fortnightly reception in his grand hotel in paris monseigneur was in 
his inner room his sanctuary of sanctuaries the holiest of holiests to 
the crowd of worshippers in the suite of rooms without monseigneur was 
about to take his chocolate monseigneur could swallow a great many 
things with ease and was by some few sullen minds supposed to be 
rather rapidly swallowing france but his mornings chocolate could not 
so much as get into the throat of monseigneur without the aid of four 
strong men besides the cook yes it took four men all four ablaze with 
gorgeous decoration and the chief of them unable to exist with fewer 
than two gold watches in his pocket emulative of the noble and chaste 
fashion set by monseigneur to conduct the happy chocolate to 
monseigneurs lips one lacquey carried the chocolatepot into the sacred 
presence a second milled and frothed the chocolate with the little 
instrument he bore for that function a third presented the favoured 
napkin a fourth he of the two gold watches poured the chocolate out it 
was impossible for monseigneur to dispense with one of these 
attendants on the chocolate and hold his high place under the admiring 
heavens deep would have been the blot upon his escutcheon if his 
chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only three men he must have 
died of two monseigneur had been out at a little supper last night 
where the comedy and the grand opera were charmingly represented 
monseigneur was out at a little supper most nights with fascinating 
company so polite and so impressible was monseigneur that the comedy 
and the grand opera had far more influence with him in the tiresome 
articles of state affairs and state secrets than the needs of all 
france a happy circumstance for france as the like always is for all 
countries similarly favouredalways was for england by way of example 
in the regretted days of the merry stuart who sold it monseigneur had 
one truly noble idea of general public business which was to let 
everything go on in its own way of particular public business 
monseigneur had the other truly noble idea that it must all go his 
waytend to his own power and pocket of his pleasures general and 
particular monseigneur had the other truly noble idea that the world 
was made for them the text of his order altered from the original by 
only a pronoun which is not much ran the earth and the fulness thereof 
are mine saith monseigneur yet monseigneur had slowly found that 
vulgar embarrassments crept into his affairs both private and public 
and he had as to both classes of affairs allied himself perforce with 
a farmergeneral as to finances public because monseigneur could not 
make anything at all of them and must consequently let them out to 
somebody who could as to finances private because farmergenerals were 
rich and monseigneur after generations of great luxury and expense was 
growing poor hence monseigneur had taken his sister from a convent 
while there was yet time to ward off the impending veil the cheapest 
garment she could wear and had bestowed her as a prize upon a very 
rich farmergeneral poor in family which farmergeneral carrying an 
appropriate cane with a golden apple on the top of it was now among 
the company in the outer rooms much prostrated before by mankindalways 
excepting superior mankind of the blood of monseigneur who his own 
wife included looked down upon him with the loftiest contempt a 
sumptuous man was the farmergeneral thirty horses stood in his stables 
twentyfour male domestics sat in his halls six bodywomen waited on his 
wife as one who pretended to do nothing but plunder and forage where 
he could the farmergeneralhowsoever his matrimonial relations conduced 
to social moralitywas at least the greatest reality among the 
personages who attended at the hotel of monseigneur that day for the 
rooms though a beautiful scene to look at and adorned with every 
device of decoration that the taste and skill of the time could 
achieve were in truth not a sound business considered with any 
reference to the scarecrows in the rags and nightcaps elsewhere and 
not so far off either but that the watching towers of notre dame 
almost equidistant from the two extremes could see them both they 
would have been an exceedingly uncomfortable businessif that could 
have been anybodys business at the house of monseigneur military 
officers destitute of military knowledge naval officers with no idea 
of a ship civil officers without a notion of affairs brazen 
ecclesiastics of the worst world worldly with sensual eyes loose 
tongues and looser lives all totally unfit for their several callings 
all lying horribly in pretending to belong to them but all nearly or 
remotely of the order of monseigneur and therefore foisted on all 
public employments from which anything was to be got these were to be 
told off by the score and the score people not immediately connected 
with monseigneur or the state yet equally unconnected with anything 
that was real or with lives passed in travelling by any straight road 
to any true earthly end were no less abundant doctors who made great 
fortunes out of dainty remedies for imaginary disorders that never 
existed smiled upon their courtly patients in the antechambers of 
monseigneur projectors who had discovered every kind of remedy for the 
little evils with which the state was touched except the remedy of 
setting to work in earnest to root out a single sin poured their 
distracting babble into any ears they could lay hold of at the 
reception of monseigneur unbelieving philosophers who were remodelling 
the world with words and making cardtowers of babel to scale the skies 
with talked with unbelieving chemists who had an eye on the 
transmutation of metals at this wonderful gathering accumulated by 
monseigneur exquisite gentlemen of the finest breeding which was at 
that remarkable timeand has been sinceto be known by its fruits of 
indifference to every natural subject of human interest were in the 
most exemplary state of exhaustion at the hotel of monseigneur such 
homes had these various notabilities left behind them in the fine 
world of paris that the spies among the assembled devotees of 
monseigneurforming a goodly half of the polite companywould have found 
it hard to discover among the angels of that sphere one solitary wife 
who in her manners and appearance owned to being a mother indeed 
except for the mere act of bringing a troublesome creature into this 
world which does not go far towards the realisation of the name of 
mother there was no such thing known to the fashion peasant women kept 
the unfashionable babies close and brought them up and charming 
grandmammas of sixty dressed and supped as at twenty the leprosy of 
unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance upon 
monseigneur in the outermost room were half a dozen exceptional people 
who had had for a few years some vague misgiving in them that things 
in general were going rather wrong as a promising way of setting them 
right half of the halfdozen had become members of a fantastic sect of 
convulsionists and were even then considering within themselves 
whether they should foam rage roar and turn cataleptic on the 
spotthereby setting up a highly intelligible fingerpost to the future 
for monseigneurs guidance besides these dervishes were other three who 
had rushed into another sect which mended matters with a jargon about 
the centre of truth holding that man had got out of the centre of 
truthwhich did not need much demonstrationbut had not got out of the 
circumference and that he was to be kept from flying out of the 
circumference and was even to be shoved back into the centre by 
fasting and seeing of spirits among these accordingly much discoursing 
with spirits went onand it did a world of good which never became 
manifest but the comfort was that all the company at the grand hotel 
of monseigneur were perfectly dressed if the day of judgment had only 
been ascertained to be a dress day everybody there would have been 
eternally correct such frizzling and powdering and sticking up of hair 
such delicate complexions artificially preserved and mended such 
gallant swords to look at and such delicate honour to the sense of 
smell would surely keep anything going for ever and ever the exquisite 
gentlemen of the finest breeding wore little pendent trinkets that 
chinked as they languidly moved these golden fetters rang like 
precious little bells and what with that ringing and with the rustle 
of silk and brocade and fine linen there was a flutter in the air that 
fanned saint antoine and his devouring hunger far away dress was the 
one unfailing talisman and charm used for keeping all things in their 
places everybody was dressed for a fancy ball that was never to leave 
off from the palace of the tuileries through monseigneur and the whole 
court through the chambers the tribunals of justice and all society 
except the scarecrows the fancy ball descended to the common 
executioner who in pursuance of the charm was required to officiate 
frizzled powdered in a goldlaced coat pumps and white silk stockings 
at the gallows and the wheelthe axe was a raritymonsieur paris as it 
was the episcopal mode among his brother professors of the provinces 
monsieur orleans and the rest to call him presided in this dainty 
dress and who among the company at monseigneurs reception in that 
seventeen hundred and eightieth year of our lord could possibly doubt 
that a system rooted in a frizzled hangman powdered goldlaced pumped 
and whitesilk stockinged would see the very stars out monseigneur 
having eased his four men of their burdens and taken his chocolate 
caused the doors of the holiest of holiests to be thrown open and 
issued forth then what submission what cringing and fawning what 
servility what abject humiliation as to bowing down in body and spirit 
nothing in that way was left for heavenwhich may have been one among 
other reasons why the worshippers of monseigneur never troubled it 
bestowing a word of promise here and a smile there a whisper on one 
happy slave and a wave of the hand on another monseigneur affably 
passed through his rooms to the remote region of the circumference of 
truth there monseigneur turned and came back again and so in due 
course of time got himself shut up in his sanctuary by the chocolate 
sprites and was seen no more the show being over the flutter in the 
air became quite a little storm and the precious little bells went 
ringing downstairs there was soon but one person left of all the crowd 
and he with his hat under his arm and his snuffbox in his hand slowly 
passed among the mirrors on his way out i devote you said this person 
stopping at the last door on his way and turning in the direction of 
the sanctuary to the devil with that he shook the snuff from his 
fingers as if he had shaken the dust from his feet and quietly walked 
downstairs he was a man of about sixty handsomely dressed haughty in 
manner and with a face like a fine mask a face of a transparent 
paleness every feature in it clearly defined one set expression on it 
the nose beautifully formed otherwise was very slightly pinched at the 
top of each nostril in those two compressions or dints the only little 
change that the face ever showed resided they persisted in changing 
colour sometimes and they would be occasionally dilated and contracted 
by something like a faint pulsation then they gave a look of treachery 
and cruelty to the whole countenance examined with attention its 
capacity of helping such a look was to be found in the line of the 
mouth and the lines of the orbits of the eyes being much too 
horizontal and thin still in the effect of the face made it was a 
handsome face and a remarkable one its owner went downstairs into the 
courtyard got into his carriage and drove away not many people had 
talked with him at the reception he had stood in a little space apart 
and monseigneur might have been warmer in his manner it appeared under 
the circumstances rather agreeable to him to see the common people 
dispersed before his horses and often barely escaping from being run 
down his man drove as if he were charging an enemy and the furious 
recklessness of the man brought no check into the face or to the lips 
of the master the complaint had sometimes made itself audible even in 
that deaf city and dumb age that in the narrow streets without 
footways the fierce patrician custom of hard driving endangered and 
maimed the mere vulgar in a barbarous manner but few cared enough for 
that to think of it a second time and in this matter as in all others 
the common wretches were left to get out of their difficulties as they 
could with a wild rattle and clatter and an inhuman abandonment of 
consideration not easy to be understood in these days the carriage 
dashed through streets and swept round corners with women screaming 
before it and men clutching each other and clutching children out of 
its way at last swooping at a street corner by a fountain one of its 
wheels came to a sickening little jolt and there was a loud cry from a 
number of voices and the horses reared and plunged but for the latter 
inconvenience the carriage probably would not have stopped carriages 
were often known to drive on and leave their wounded behind and why 
not but the frightened valet had got down in a hurry and there were 
twenty hands at the horses bridles what has gone wrong said monsieur 
calmly looking out a tall man in a nightcap had caught up a bundle 
from among the feet of the horses and had laid it on the basement of 
the fountain and was down in the mud and wet howling over it like a 
wild animal pardon monsieur the marquis said a ragged and submissive 
man it is a child why does he make that abominable noise is it his 
child excuse me monsieur the marquisit is a pityyes the fountain was a 
little removed for the street opened where it was into a space some 
ten or twelve yards square as the tall man suddenly got up from the 
ground and came running at the carriage monsieur the marquis clapped 
his hand for an instant on his swordhilt killed shrieked the man in 
wild desperation extending both arms at their length above his head 
and staring at him dead the people closed round and looked at monsieur 
the marquis there was nothing revealed by the many eyes that looked at 
him but watchfulness and eagerness there was no visible menacing or 
anger neither did the people say anything after the first cry they had 
been silent and they remained so the voice of the submissive man who 
had spoken was flat and tame in its extreme submission monsieur the 
marquis ran his eyes over them all as if they had been mere rats come 
out of their holes he took out his purse it is extraordinary to me 
said he that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your 
children one or the other of you is for ever in the way how do i know 
what injury you have done my horses see give him that he threw out a 
gold coin for the valet to pick up and all the heads craned forward 
that all the eyes might look down at it as it fell the tall man called 
out again with a most unearthly cry dead he was arrested by the quick 
arrival of another man for whom the rest made way on seeing him the 
miserable creature fell upon his shoulder sobbing and crying and 
pointing to the fountain where some women were stooping over the 
motionless bundle and moving gently about it they were as silent 
however as the men i know all i know all said the last comer be a 
brave man my gaspard it is better for the poor little plaything to die 
so than to live it has died in a moment without pain could it have 
lived an hour as happily you are a philosopher you there said the 
marquis smiling how do they call you they call me defarge of what 
trade monsieur the marquis vendor of wine pick up that philosopher and 
vendor of wine said the marquis throwing him another gold coin and 
spend it as you will the horses there are they right without deigning 
to look at the assemblage a second time monsieur the marquis leaned 
back in his seat and was just being driven away with the air of a 
gentleman who had accidentally broke some common thing and had paid 
for it and could afford to pay for it when his ease was suddenly 
disturbed by a coin flying into his carriage and ringing on its floor 
hold said monsieur the marquis hold the horses who threw that he 
looked to the spot where defarge the vendor of wine had stood a moment 
before but the wretched father was grovelling on his face on the 
pavement in that spot and the figure that stood beside him was the 
figure of a dark stout woman knitting you dogs said the marquis but 
smoothly and with an unchanged front except as to the spots on his 
nose i would ride over any of you very willingly and exterminate you 
from the earth if i knew which rascal threw at the carriage and if 
that brigand were sufficiently near it he should be crushed under the 
wheels so cowed was their condition and so long and hard their 
experience of what such a man could do to them within the law and 
beyond it that not a voice or a hand or even an eye was raised among 
the men not one but the woman who stood knitting looked up steadily 
and looked the marquis in the face it was not for his dignity to 
notice it his contemptuous eyes passed over her and over all the other 
rats and he leaned back in his seat again and gave the word go on he 
was driven on and other carriages came whirling by in quick succession 
the minister the stateprojector the farmergeneral the doctor the 
lawyer the ecclesiastic the grand opera the comedy the whole fancy 
ball in a bright continuous flow came whirling by the rats had crept 
out of their holes to look on and they remained looking on for hours 
soldiers and police often passing between them and the spectacle and 
making a barrier behind which they slunk and through which they peeped 
the father had long ago taken up his bundle and bidden himself away 
with it when the women who had tended the bundle while it lay on the 
base of the fountain sat there watching the running of the water and 
the rolling of the fancy ballwhen the one woman who had stood 
conspicuous knitting still knitted on with the steadfastness of fate 
the water of the fountain ran the swift river ran the day ran into 
evening so much life in the city ran into death according to rule time 
and tide waited for no man the rats were sleeping close together in 
their dark holes again the fancy ball was lighted up at supper all 
things ran their course viii monseigneur in the country a beautiful 
landscape with the corn bright in it but not abundant patches of poor 
rye where corn should have been patches of poor peas and beans patches 
of most coarse vegetable substitutes for wheat on inanimate nature as 
on the men and women who cultivated it a prevalent tendency towards an 
appearance of vegetating unwillinglya dejected disposition to give up 
and wither away monsieur the marquis in his travelling carriage which 
might have been lighter conducted by four posthorses and two 
postilions fagged up a steep hill a blush on the countenance of 
monsieur the marquis was no impeachment of his high breeding it was 
not from within it was occasioned by an external circumstance beyond 
his controlthe setting sun the sunset struck so brilliantly into the 
travelling carriage when it gained the hilltop that its occupant was 
steeped in crimson it will die out said monsieur the marquis glancing 
at his hands directly in effect the sun was so low that it dipped at 
the moment when the heavy drag had been adjusted to the wheel and the 
carriage slid down hill with a cinderous smell in a cloud of dust the 
red glow departed quickly the sun and the marquis going down together 
there was no glow left when the drag was taken off but there remained 
a broken country bold and open a little village at the bottom of the 
hill a broad sweep and rise beyond it a church tower a windmill a 
forest for the chase and a crag with a fortress on it used as a prison 
round upon all these darkening objects as the night drew on the 
marquis looked with the air of one who was coming near home the 
village had its one poor street with its poor brewery poor tannery 
poor tavern poor stableyard for relays of posthorses poor fountain all 
usual poor appointments it had its poor people too all its people were 
poor and many of them were sitting at their doors shredding spare 
onions and the like for supper while many were at the fountain washing 
leaves and grasses and any such small yieldings of the earth that 
could be eaten expressive sips of what made them poor were not wanting 
the tax for the state the tax for the church the tax for the lord tax 
local and tax general were to be paid here and to be paid there 
according to solemn inscription in the little village until the wonder 
was that there was any village left unswallowed few children were to 
be seen and no dogs as to the men and women their choice on earth was 
stated in the prospectlife on the lowest terms that could sustain it 
down in the little village under the mill or captivity and death in 
the dominant prison on the crag heralded by a courier in advance and 
by the cracking of his postilions whips which twined snakelike about 
their heads in the evening air as if he came attended by the furies 
monsieur the marquis drew up in his travelling carriage at the 
postinghouse gate it was hard by the fountain and the peasants 
suspended their operations to look at him he looked at them and saw in 
them without knowing it the slow sure filing down of miseryworn face 
and figure that was to make the meagreness of frenchmen an english 
superstition which should survive the truth through the best part of a 
hundred years monsieur the marquis cast his eyes over the submissive 
faces that drooped before him as the like of himself had drooped 
before monseigneur of the courtonly the difference was that these 
faces drooped merely to suffer and not to propitiatewhen a grizzled 
mender of the roads joined the group bring me hither that fellow said 
the marquis to the courier the fellow was brought cap in hand and the 
other fellows closed round to look and listen in the manner of the 
people at the paris fountain i passed you on the road monseigneur it 
is true i had the honour of being passed on the road coming up the 
hill and at the top of the hill both monseigneur it is true what did 
you look at so fixedly monseigneur i looked at the man he stooped a 
little and with his tattered blue cap pointed under the carriage all 
his fellows stooped to look under the carriage what man pig and why 
look there pardon monseigneur he swung by the chain of the shoethe 
drag who demanded the traveller monseigneur the man may the devil 
carry away these idiots how do you call the man you know all the men 
of this part of the country who was he your clemency monseigneur he 
was not of this part of the country of all the days of my life i never 
saw him swinging by the chain to be suffocated with your gracious 
permission that was the wonder of it monseigneur his head hanging 
overlike this he turned himself sideways to the carriage and leaned 
back with his face thrown up to the sky and his head hanging down then 
recovered himself fumbled with his cap and made a bow what was he like 
monseigneur he was whiter than the miller all covered with dust white 
as a spectre tall as a spectre the picture produced an immense 
sensation in the little crowd but all eyes without comparing notes 
with other eyes looked at monsieur the marquis perhaps to observe 
whether he had any spectre on his conscience truly you did well said 
the marquis felicitously sensible that such vermin were not to ruffle 
him to see a thief accompanying my carriage and not open that great 
mouth of yours bah put him aside monsieur gabelle monsieur gabelle was 
the postmaster and some other taxing functionary united he had come 
out with great obsequiousness to assist at this examination and had 
held the examined by the drapery of his arm in an official manner bah 
go aside said monsieur gabelle lay hands on this stranger if he seeks 
to lodge in your village tonight and be sure that his business is 
honest gabelle monseigneur i am flattered to devote myself to your 
orders did he run away fellowwhere is that accursed the accursed was 
already under the carriage with some halfdozen particular friends 
pointing out the chain with his blue cap some halfdozen other 
particular friends promptly hauled him out and presented him 
breathless to monsieur the marquis did the man run away dolt when we 
stopped for the drag monseigneur he precipitated himself over the 
hillside head first as a person plunges into the river see to it 
gabelle go on the halfdozen who were peering at the chain were still 
among the wheels like sheep the wheels turned so suddenly that they 
were lucky to save their skins and bones they had very little else to 
save or they might not have been so fortunate the burst with which the 
carriage started out of the village and up the rise beyond was soon 
checked by the steepness of the hill gradually it subsided to a foot 
pace swinging and lumbering upward among the many sweet scents of a 
summer night the postilions with a thousand gossamer gnats circling 
about them in lieu of the furies quietly mended the points to the 
lashes of their whips the valet walked by the horses the courier was 
audible trotting on ahead into the dun distance at the steepest point 
of the hill there was a little burialground with a cross and a new 
large figure of our saviour on it it was a poor figure in wood done by 
some inexperienced rustic carver but he had studied the figure from 
the lifehis own life maybefor it was dreadfully spare and thin to this 
distressful emblem of a great distress that had long been growing 
worse and was not at its worst a woman was kneeling she turned her 
head as the carriage came up to her rose quickly and presented herself 
at the carriagedoor it is you monseigneur monseigneur a petition with 
an exclamation of impatience but with his unchangeable face 
monseigneur looked out how then what is it always petitions 
monseigneur for the love of the great god my husband the forester what 
of your husband the forester always the same with you people he cannot 
pay something he has paid all monseigneur he is dead well he is quiet 
can i restore him to you alas no monseigneur but he lies yonder under 
a little heap of poor grass well monseigneur there are so many little 
heaps of poor grass again well she looked an old woman but was young 
her manner was one of passionate grief by turns she clasped her 
veinous and knotted hands together with wild energy and laid one of 
them on the carriagedoor tenderly caressingly as if it had been a 
human breast and could be expected to feel the appealing touch 
monseigneur hear me monseigneur hear my petition my husband died of 
want so many die of want so many more will die of want again well can 
i feed them monseigneur the good god knows but i dont ask it my 
petition is that a morsel of stone or wood with my husbands name may 
be placed over him to show where he lies otherwise the place will be 
quickly forgotten it will never be found when i am dead of the same 
malady i shall be laid under some other heap of poor grass monseigneur 
they are so many they increase so fast there is so much want 
monseigneur monseigneur the valet had put her away from the door the 
carriage had broken into a brisk trot the postilions had quickened the 
pace she was left far behind and monseigneur again escorted by the 
furies was rapidly diminishing the league or two of distance that 
remained between him and his chateau the sweet scents of the summer 
night rose all around him and rose as the rain falls impartially on 
the dusty ragged and toilworn group at the fountain not far away to 
whom the mender of roads with the aid of the blue cap without which he 
was nothing still enlarged upon his man like a spectre as long as they 
could bear it by degrees as they could bear no more they dropped off 
one by one and lights twinkled in little casements which lights as the 
casements darkened and more stars came out seemed to have shot up into 
the sky instead of having been extinguished the shadow of a large 
highroofed house and of many overhanging trees was upon monsieur the 
marquis by that time and the shadow was exchanged for the light of a 
flambeau as his carriage stopped and the great door of his chateau was 
opened to him monsieur charles whom i expect is he arrived from 
england monseigneur not yet ix the gorgons head it was a heavy mass of 
building that chateau of monsieur the marquis with a large stone 
courtyard before it and two stone sweeps of staircase meeting in a 
stone terrace before the principal door a stony business altogether 
with heavy stone balustrades and stone urns and stone flowers and 
stone faces of men and stone heads of lions in all directions as if 
the gorgons head had surveyed it when it was finished two centuries 
ago up the broad flight of shallow steps monsieur the marquis flambeau 
preceded went from his carriage sufficiently disturbing the darkness 
to elicit loud remonstrance from an owl in the roof of the great pile 
of stable building away among the trees all else was so quiet that the 
flambeau carried up the steps and the other flambeau held at the great 
door burnt as if they were in a close room of state instead of being 
in the open nightair other sound than the owls voice there was none 
save the failing of a fountain into its stone basin for it was one of 
those dark nights that hold their breath by the hour together and then 
heave a long low sigh and hold their breath again the great door 
clanged behind him and monsieur the marquis crossed a hall grim with 
certain old boarspears swords and knives of the chase grimmer with 
certain heavy ridingrods and ridingwhips of which many a peasant gone 
to his benefactor death had felt the weight when his lord was angry 
avoiding the larger rooms which were dark and made fast for the night 
monsieur the marquis with his flambeaubearer going on before went up 
the staircase to a door in a corridor this thrown open admitted him to 
his own private apartment of three rooms his bedchamber and two others 
high vaulted rooms with cool uncarpeted floors great dogs upon the 
hearths for the burning of wood in winter time and all luxuries 
befitting the state of a marquis in a luxurious age and country the 
fashion of the last louis but one of the line that was never to break 
the fourteenth louiswas conspicuous in their rich furniture but it was 
diversified by many objects that were illustrations of old pages in 
the history of france a suppertable was laid for two in the third of 
the rooms a round room in one of the chateaus four extinguishertopped 
towers a small lofty room with its window wide open and the wooden 
jalousieblinds closed so that the dark night only showed in slight 
horizontal lines of black alternating with their broad lines of stone 
colour my nephew said the marquis glancing at the supper preparation 
they said he was not arrived nor was he but he had been expected with 
monseigneur ah it is not probable he will arrive tonight nevertheless 
leave the table as it is i shall be ready in a quarter of an hour in a 
quarter of an hour monseigneur was ready and sat down alone to his 
sumptuous and choice supper his chair was opposite to the window and 
he had taken his soup and was raising his glass of bordeaux to his 
lips when he put it down what is that he calmly asked looking with 
attention at the horizontal lines of black and stone colour 
monseigneur that outside the blinds open the blinds it was done well 
monseigneur it is nothing the trees and the night are all that are 
here the servant who spoke had thrown the blinds wide had looked out 
into the vacant darkness and stood with that blank behind him looking 
round for instructions good said the imperturbable master close them 
again that was done too and the marquis went on with his supper he was 
half way through it when he again stopped with his glass in his hand 
hearing the sound of wheels it came on briskly and came up to the 
front of the chateau ask who is arrived it was the nephew of 
monseigneur he had been some few leagues behind monseigneur early in 
the afternoon he had diminished the distance rapidly but not so 
rapidly as to come up with monseigneur on the road he had heard of 
monseigneur at the postinghouses as being before him he was to be told 
said monseigneur that supper awaited him then and there and that he 
was prayed to come to it in a little while he came he had been known 
in england as charles darnay monseigneur received him in a courtly 
manner but they did not shake hands you left paris yesterday sir he 
said to monseigneur as he took his seat at table yesterday and you i 
come direct from london yes you have been a long time coming said the 
marquis with a smile on the contrary i come direct pardon me i mean 
not a long time on the journey a long time intending the journey i 
have been detained bythe nephew stopped a moment in his answervarious 
business without doubt said the polished uncle so long as a servant 
was present no other words passed between them when coffee had been 
served and they were alone together the nephew looking at the uncle 
and meeting the eyes of the face that was like a fine mask opened a 
conversation i have come back sir as you anticipate pursuing the 
object that took me away it carried me into great and unexpected peril 
but it is a sacred object and if it had carried me to death i hope it 
would have sustained me not to death said the uncle it is not 
necessary to say to death i doubt sir returned the nephew whether if 
it had carried me to the utmost brink of death you would have cared to 
stop me there the deepened marks in the nose and the lengthening of 
the fine straight lines in the cruel face looked ominous as to that 
the uncle made a graceful gesture of protest which was so clearly a 
slight form of good breeding that it was not reassuring indeed sir 
pursued the nephew for anything i know you may have expressly worked 
to give a more suspicious appearance to the suspicious circumstances 
that surrounded me no no no said the uncle pleasantly but however that 
may be resumed the nephew glancing at him with deep distrust i know 
that your diplomacy would stop me by any means and would know no 
scruple as to means my friend i told you so said the uncle with a fine 
pulsation in the two marks do me the favour to recall that i told you 
so long ago i recall it thank you said the marquisevery sweetly indeed 
his tone lingered in the air almost like the tone of a musical 
instrument in effect sir pursued the nephew i believe it to be at once 
your bad fortune and my good fortune that has kept me out of a prison 
in france here i do not quite understand returned the uncle sipping 
his coffee dare i ask you to explain i believe that if you were not in 
disgrace with the court and had not been overshadowed by that cloud 
for years past a letter de cachet would have sent me to some fortress 
indefinitely it is possible said the uncle with great calmness for the 
honour of the family i could even resolve to incommode you to that 
extent pray excuse me i perceive that happily for me the reception of 
the day before yesterday was as usual a cold one observed the nephew i 
would not say happily my friend returned the uncle with refined 
politeness i would not be sure of that a good opportunity for 
consideration surrounded by the advantages of solitude might influence 
your destiny to far greater advantage than you influence it for 
yourself but it is useless to discuss the question i am as you say at 
a disadvantage these little instruments of correction these gentle 
aids to the power and honour of families these slight favours that 
might so incommode you are only to be obtained now by interest and 
importunity they are sought by so many and they are granted 
comparatively to so few it used not to be so but france in all such 
things is changed for the worse our not remote ancestors held the 
right of life and death over the surrounding vulgar from this room 
many such dogs have been taken out to be hanged in the next room my 
bedroom one fellow to our knowledge was poniarded on the spot for 
professing some insolent delicacy respecting his daughterhis daughter 
we have lost many privileges a new philosophy has become the mode and 
the assertion of our station in these days might i do not go so far as 
to say would but might cause us real inconvenience all very bad very 
bad the marquis took a gentle little pinch of snuff and shook his head 
as elegantly despondent as he could becomingly be of a country still 
containing himself that great means of regeneration we have so 
asserted our station both in the old time and in the modern time also 
said the nephew gloomily that i believe our name to be more detested 
than any name in france let us hope so said the uncle detestation of 
the high is the involuntary homage of the low there is not pursued the 
nephew in his former tone a face i can look at in all this country 
round about us which looks at me with any deference on it but the dark 
deference of fear and slavery a compliment said the marquis to the 
grandeur of the family merited by the manner in which the family has 
sustained its grandeur hah and he took another gentle little pinch of 
snuff and lightly crossed his legs but when his nephew leaning an 
elbow on the table covered his eyes thoughtfully and dejectedly with 
his hand the fine mask looked at him sideways with a stronger 
concentration of keenness closeness and dislike than was comportable 
with its wearers assumption of indifference repression is the only 
lasting philosophy the dark deference of fear and slavery my friend 
observed the marquis will keep the dogs obedient to the whip as long 
as this roof looking up to it shuts out the sky that might not be so 
long as the marquis supposed if a picture of the chateau as it was to 
be a very few years hence and of fifty like it as they too were to be 
a very few years hence could have been shown to him that night he 
might have been at a loss to claim his own from the ghastly 
firecharred plunderwrecked rains as for the roof he vaunted he might 
have found that shutting out the sky in a new wayto wit for ever from 
the eyes of the bodies into which its lead was fired out of the 
barrels of a hundred thousand muskets meanwhile said the marquis i 
will preserve the honour and repose of the family if you will not but 
you must be fatigued shall we terminate our conference for the night a 
moment more an hour if you please sir said the nephew we have done 
wrong and are reaping the fruits of wrong we have done wrong repeated 
the marquis with an inquiring smile and delicately pointing first to 
his nephew then to himself our family our honourable family whose 
honour is of so much account to both of us in such different ways even 
in my fathers time we did a world of wrong injuring every human 
creature who came between us and our pleasure whatever it was why need 
i speak of my fathers time when it is equally yours can i separate my 
fathers twinbrother joint inheritor and next successor from himself 
death has done that said the marquis and has left me answered the 
nephew bound to a system that is frightful to me responsible for it 
but powerless in it seeking to execute the last request of my dear 
mothers lips and obey the last look of my dear mothers eyes which 
implored me to have mercy and to redress and tortured by seeking 
assistance and power in vain seeking them from me my nephew said the 
marquis touching him on the breast with his forefingerthey were now 
standing by the hearthyou will for ever seek them in vain be assured 
every fine straight line in the clear whiteness of his face was 
cruelly craftily and closely compressed while he stood looking quietly 
at his nephew with his snuffbox in his hand once again he touched him 
on the breast as though his finger were the fine point of a small 
sword with which in delicate finesse he ran him through the body and 
said my friend i will die perpetuating the system under which i have 
lived when he had said it he took a culminating pinch of snuff and put 
his box in his pocket better to be a rational creature he added then 
after ringing a small bell on the table and accept your natural 
destiny but you are lost monsieur charles i see this property and 
france are lost to me said the nephew sadly i renounce them are they 
both yours to renounce france may be but is the property it is 
scarcely worth mentioning but is it yet i had no intention in the 
words i used to claim it yet if it passed to me from you tomorrow 
which i have the vanity to hope is not probable or twenty years hence 
you do me too much honour said the marquis still i prefer that 
supposition i would abandon it and live otherwise and elsewhere it is 
little to relinquish what is it but a wilderness of misery and ruin 
hah said the marquis glancing round the luxurious room to the eye it 
is fair enough here but seen in its integrity under the sky and by the 
daylight it is a crumbling tower of waste mismanagement extortion debt 
mortgage oppression hunger nakedness and suffering hah said the 
marquis again in a wellsatisfied manner if it ever becomes mine it 
shall be put into some hands better qualified to free it slowly if 
such a thing is possible from the weight that drags it down so that 
the miserable people who cannot leave it and who have been long wrung 
to the last point of endurance may in another generation suffer less 
but it is not for me there is a curse on it and on all this land and 
you said the uncle forgive my curiosity do you under your new 
philosophy graciously intend to live i must do to live what others of 
my countrymen even with nobility at their backs may have to do some 
daywork in england for example yes the family honour sir is safe from 
me in this country the family name can suffer from me in no other for 
i bear it in no other the ringing of the bell had caused the adjoining 
bedchamber to be lighted it now shone brightly through the door of 
communication the marquis looked that way and listened for the 
retreating step of his valet england is very attractive to you seeing 
how indifferently you have prospered there he observed then turning 
his calm face to his nephew with a smile i have already said that for 
my prospering there i am sensible i may be indebted to you sir for the 
rest it is my refuge they say those boastful english that it is the 
refuge of many you know a compatriot who has found a refuge there a 
doctor yes with a daughter yes yes said the marquis you are fatigued 
good night as he bent his head in his most courtly manner there was a 
secrecy in his smiling face and he conveyed an air of mystery to those 
words which struck the eyes and ears of his nephew forcibly at the 
same time the thin straight lines of the setting of the eyes and the 
thin straight lips and the markings in the nose curved with a sarcasm 
that looked handsomely diabolic yes repeated the marquis a doctor with 
a daughter yes so commences the new philosophy you are fatigued good 
night it would have been of as much avail to interrogate any stone 
face outside the chateau as to interrogate that face of his the nephew 
looked at him in vain in passing on to the door good night said the 
uncle i look to the pleasure of seeing you again in the morning good 
repose light monsieur my nephew to his chamber thereand burn monsieur 
my nephew in his bed if you will he added to himself before he rang 
his little bell again and summoned his valet to his own bedroom the 
valet come and gone monsieur the marquis walked to and fro in his 
loose chamberrobe to prepare himself gently for sleep that hot still 
night rustling about the room his softlyslippered feet making no noise 
on the floor he moved like a refined tigerlooked like some enchanted 
marquis of the impenitently wicked sort in story whose periodical 
change into tiger form was either just going off or just coming on he 
moved from end to end of his voluptuous bedroom looking again at the 
scraps of the days journey that came unbidden into his mind the slow 
toil up the hill at sunset the setting sun the descent the mill the 
prison on the crag the little village in the hollow the peasants at 
the fountain and the mender of roads with his blue cap pointing out 
the chain under the carriage that fountain suggested the paris 
fountain the little bundle lying on the step the women bending over it 
and the tall man with his arms up crying dead i am cool now said 
monsieur the marquis and may go to bed so leaving only one light 
burning on the large hearth he let his thin gauze curtains fall around 
him and heard the night break its silence with a long sigh as he 
composed himself to sleep the stone faces on the outer walls stared 
blindly at the black night for three heavy hours for three heavy hours 
the horses in the stables rattled at their racks the dogs barked and 
the owl made a noise with very little resemblance in it to the noise 
conventionally assigned to the owl by menpoets but it is the obstinate 
custom of such creatures hardly ever to say what is set down for them 
for three heavy hours the stone faces of the chateau lion and human 
stared blindly at the night dead darkness lay on all the landscape 
dead darkness added its own hush to the hushing dust on all the roads 
the burialplace had got to the pass that its little heaps of poor 
grass were undistinguishable from one another the figure on the cross 
might have come down for anything that could be seen of it in the 
village taxers and taxed were fast asleep dreaming perhaps of banquets 
as the starved usually do and of ease and rest as the driven slave and 
the yoked ox may its lean inhabitants slept soundly and were fed and 
freed the fountain in the village flowed unseen and unheard and the 
fountain at the chateau dropped unseen and unheardboth melting away 
like the minutes that were falling from the spring of time through 
three dark hours then the grey water of both began to be ghostly in 
the light and the eyes of the stone faces of the chateau were opened 
lighter and lighter until at last the sun touched the tops of the 
still trees and poured its radiance over the hill in the glow the 
water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood and the stone 
faces crimsoned the carol of the birds was loud and high and on the 
weatherbeaten sill of the great window of the bed chamber of monsieur 
the marquis one little bird sang its sweetest song with all its might 
at this the nearest stone face seemed to stare amazed and with open 
mouth and dropped underjaw looked awestricken now the sun was full up 
and movement began in the village casement windows opened crazy doors 
were unbarred and people came forth shiveringchilled as yet by the new 
sweet air then began the rarely lightened toil of the day among the 
village population some to the fountain some to the fields men and 
women here to dig and delve men and women there to see to the poor 
live stock and lead the bony cows out to such pasture as could be 
found by the roadside in the church and at the cross a kneeling figure 
or two attendant on the latter prayers the led cow trying for a 
breakfast among the weeds at its foot the chateau awoke later as 
became its quality but awoke gradually and surely first the lonely 
boarspears and knives of the chase had been reddened as of old then 
had gleamed trenchant in the morning sunshine now doors and windows 
were thrown open horses in their stables looked round over their 
shoulders at the light and freshness pouring in at doorways leaves 
sparkled and rustled at irongrated windows dogs pulled hard at their 
chains and reared impatient to be loosed all these trivial incidents 
belonged to the routine of life and the return of morning surely not 
so the ringing of the great bell of the chateau nor the running up and 
down the stairs nor the hurried figures on the terrace nor the booting 
and tramping here and there and everywhere nor the quick saddling of 
horses and riding away what winds conveyed this hurry to the grizzled 
mender of roads already at work on the hilltop beyond the village with 
his days dinner not much to carry lying in a bundle that it was worth 
no crows while to peck at on a heap of stones had the birds carrying 
some grains of it to a distance dropped one over him as they sow 
chance seeds whether or no the mender of roads ran on the sultry 
morning as if for his life down the hill kneehigh in dust and never 
stopped till he got to the fountain all the people of the village were 
at the fountain standing about in their depressed manner and 
whispering low but showing no other emotions than grim curiosity and 
surprise the led cows hastily brought in and tethered to anything that 
would hold them were looking stupidly on or lying down chewing the cud 
of nothing particularly repaying their trouble which they had picked 
up in their interrupted saunter some of the people of the chateau and 
some of those of the postinghouse and all the taxing authorities were 
armed more or less and were crowded on the other side of the little 
street in a purposeless way that was highly fraught with nothing 
already the mender of roads had penetrated into the midst of a group 
of fifty particular friends and was smiting himself in the breast with 
his blue cap what did all this portend and what portended the swift 
hoistingup of monsieur gabelle behind a servant on horseback and the 
conveying away of the said gabelle doubleladen though the horse was at 
a gallop like a new version of the german ballad of leonora it 
portended that there was one stone face too many up at the chateau the 
gorgon had surveyed the building again in the night and had added the 
one stone face wanting the stone face for which it had waited through 
about two hundred years it lay back on the pillow of monsieur the 
marquis it was like a fine mask suddenly startled made angry and 
petrified driven home into the heart of the stone figure attached to 
it was a knife round its hilt was a frill of paper on which was 
scrawled drive him fast to his tomb this from jacques x two promises 
more months to the number of twelve had come and gone and mr charles 
darnay was established in england as a higher teacher of the french 
language who was conversant with french literature in this age he 
would have been a professor in that age he was a tutor he read with 
young men who could find any leisure and interest for the study of a 
living tongue spoken all over the world and he cultivated a taste for 
its stores of knowledge and fancy he could write of them besides in 
sound english and render them into sound english such masters were not 
at that time easily found princes that had been and kings that were to 
be were not yet of the teacher class and no ruined nobility had 
dropped out of tellsons ledgers to turn cooks and carpenters as a 
tutor whose attainments made the students way unusually pleasant and 
profitable and as an elegant translator who brought something to his 
work besides mere dictionary knowledge young mr darnay soon became 
known and encouraged he was well acquainted moreover with the 
circumstances of his country and those were of evergrowing interest so 
with great perseverance and untiring industry he prospered in london 
he had expected neither to walk on pavements of gold nor to lie on 
beds of roses if he had had any such exalted expectation he would not 
have prospered he had expected labour and he found it and did it and 
made the best of it in this his prosperity consisted a certain portion 
of his time was passed at cambridge where he read with undergraduates 
as a sort of tolerated smuggler who drove a contraband trade in 
european languages instead of conveying greek and latin through the 
customhouse the rest of his time he passed in london now from the days 
when it was always summer in eden to these days when it is mostly 
winter in fallen latitudes the world of a man has invariably gone one 
waycharles darnays waythe way of the love of a woman he had loved 
lucie manette from the hour of his danger he had never heard a sound 
so sweet and dear as the sound of her compassionate voice he had never 
seen a face so tenderly beautiful as hers when it was confronted with 
his own on the edge of the grave that had been dug for him but he had 
not yet spoken to her on the subject the assassination at the deserted 
chateau far away beyond the heaving water and the long long dusty 
roadsthe solid stone chateau which had itself become the mere mist of 
a dreamhad been done a year and he had never yet by so much as a 
single spoken word disclosed to her the state of his heart that he had 
his reasons for this he knew full well it was again a summer day when 
lately arrived in london from his college occupation he turned into 
the quiet corner in soho bent on seeking an opportunity of opening his 
mind to doctor manette it was the close of the summer day and he knew 
lucie to be out with miss pross he found the doctor reading in his 
armchair at a window the energy which had at once supported him under 
his old sufferings and aggravated their sharpness had been gradually 
restored to him he was now a very energetic man indeed with great 
firmness of purpose strength of resolution and vigour of action in his 
recovered energy he was sometimes a little fitful and sudden as he had 
at first been in the exercise of his other recovered faculties but 
this had never been frequently observable and had grown more and more 
rare he studied much slept little sustained a great deal of fatigue 
with ease and was equably cheerful to him now entered charles darnay 
at sight of whom he laid aside his book and held out his hand charles 
darnay i rejoice to see you we have been counting on your return these 
three or four days past mr stryver and sydney carton were both here 
yesterday and both made you out to be more than due i am obliged to 
them for their interest in the matter he answered a little coldly as 
to them though very warmly as to the doctor miss manette is well said 
the doctor as he stopped short and your return will delight us all she 
has gone out on some household matters but will soon be home doctor 
manette i knew she was from home i took the opportunity of her being 
from home to beg to speak to you there was a blank silence yes said 
the doctor with evident constraint bring your chair here and speak on 
he complied as to the chair but appeared to find the speaking on less 
easy i have had the happiness doctor manette of being so intimate here 
so he at length began for some year and a half that i hope the topic 
on which i am about to touch may not he was stayed by the doctors 
putting out his hand to stop him when he had kept it so a little while 
he said drawing it back is lucie the topic she is it is hard for me to 
speak of her at any time it is very hard for me to hear her spoken of 
in that tone of yours charles darnay it is a tone of fervent 
admiration true homage and deep love doctor manette he said 
deferentially there was another blank silence before her father 
rejoined i believe it i do you justice i believe it his constraint was 
so manifest and it was so manifest too that it originated in an 
unwillingness to approach the subject that charles darnay hesitated 
shall i go on sir another blank yes go on you anticipate what i would 
say though you cannot know how earnestly i say it how earnestly i feel 
it without knowing my secret heart and the hopes and fears and 
anxieties with which it has long been laden dear doctor manette i love 
your daughter fondly dearly disinterestedly devotedly if ever there 
were love in the world i love her you have loved yourself let your old 
love speak for me the doctor sat with his face turned away and his 
eyes bent on the ground at the last words he stretched out his hand 
again hurriedly and cried not that sir let that be i adjure you do not 
recall that his cry was so like a cry of actual pain that it rang in 
charles darnays ears long after he had ceased he motioned with the 
hand he had extended and it seemed to be an appeal to darnay to pause 
the latter so received it and remained silent i ask your pardon said 
the doctor in a subdued tone after some moments i do not doubt your 
loving lucie you may be satisfied of it he turned towards him in his 
chair but did not look at him or raise his eyes his chin dropped upon 
his hand and his white hair overshadowed his face have you spoken to 
lucie no nor written never it would be ungenerous to affect not to 
know that your selfdenial is to be referred to your consideration for 
her father her father thanks you he offered his hand but his eyes did 
not go with it i know said darnay respectfully how can i fail to know 
doctor manette i who have seen you together from day to day that 
between you and miss manette there is an affection so unusual so 
touching so belonging to the circumstances in which it has been 
nurtured that it can have few parallels even in the tenderness between 
a father and child i know doctor manettehow can i fail to knowthat 
mingled with the affection and duty of a daughter who has become a 
woman there is in her heart towards you all the love and reliance of 
infancy itself i know that as in her childhood she had no parent so 
she is now devoted to you with all the constancy and fervour of her 
present years and character united to the trustfulness and attachment 
of the early days in which you were lost to her i know perfectly well 
that if you had been restored to her from the world beyond this life 
you could hardly be invested in her sight with a more sacred character 
than that in which you are always with her i know that when she is 
clinging to you the hands of baby girl and woman all in one are round 
your neck i know that in loving you she sees and loves her mother at 
her own age sees and loves you at my age loves her mother 
brokenhearted loves you through your dreadful trial and in your 
blessed restoration i have known this night and day since i have known 
you in your home her father sat silent with his face bent down his 
breathing was a little quickened but he repressed all other signs of 
agitation dear doctor manette always knowing this always seeing her 
and you with this hallowed light about you i have forborne and 
forborne as long as it was in the nature of man to do it i have felt 
and do even now feel that to bring my loveeven minebetween you is to 
touch your history with something not quite so good as itself but i 
love her heaven is my witness that i love her i believe it answered 
her father mournfully i have thought so before now i believe it but do 
not believe said darnay upon whose ear the mournful voice struck with 
a reproachful sound that if my fortune were so cast as that being one 
day so happy as to make her my wife i must at any time put any 
separation between her and you i could or would breathe a word of what 
i now say besides that i should know it to be hopeless i should know 
it to be a baseness if i had any such possibility even at a remote 
distance of years harboured in my thoughts and hidden in my heartif it 
ever had been thereif it ever could be therei could not now touch this 
honoured hand he laid his own upon it as he spoke no dear doctor 
manette like you a voluntary exile from france like you driven from it 
by its distractions oppressions and miseries like you striving to live 
away from it by my own exertions and trusting in a happier future i 
look only to sharing your fortunes sharing your life and home and 
being faithful to you to the death not to divide with lucie her 
privilege as your child companion and friend but to come in aid of it 
and bind her closer to you if such a thing can be his touch still 
lingered on her fathers hand answering the touch for a moment but not 
coldly her father rested his hands upon the arms of his chair and 
looked up for the first time since the beginning of the conference a 
struggle was evidently in his face a struggle with that occasional 
look which had a tendency in it to dark doubt and dread you speak so 
feelingly and so manfully charles darnay that i thank you with all my 
heart and will open all my heartor nearly so have you any reason to 
believe that lucie loves you none as yet none is it the immediate 
object of this confidence that you may at once ascertain that with my 
knowledge not even so i might not have the hopefulness to do it for 
weeks i might mistaken or not mistaken have that hopefulness tomorrow 
do you seek any guidance from me i ask none sir but i have thought it 
possible that you might have it in your power if you should deem it 
right to give me some do you seek any promise from me i do seek that 
what is it i well understand that without you i could have no hope i 
well understand that even if miss manette held me at this moment in 
her innocent heartdo not think i have the presumption to assume so 
much i could retain no place in it against her love for her father if 
that be so do you see what on the other hand is involved in it i 
understand equally well that a word from her father in any suitors 
favour would outweigh herself and all the world for which reason 
doctor manette said darnay modestly but firmly i would not ask that 
word to save my life i am sure of it charles darnay mysteries arise 
out of close love as well as out of wide division in the former case 
they are subtle and delicate and difficult to penetrate my daughter 
lucie is in this one respect such a mystery to me i can make no guess 
at the state of her heart may i ask sir if you think she is as he 
hesitated her father supplied the rest is sought by any other suitor 
it is what i meant to say her father considered a little before he 
answered you have seen mr carton here yourself mr stryver is here too 
occasionally if it be at all it can only be by one of these or both 
said darnay i had not thought of both i should not think either likely 
you want a promise from me tell me what it is it is that if miss 
manette should bring to you at any time on her own part such a 
confidence as i have ventured to lay before you you will bear 
testimony to what i have said and to your belief in it i hope you may 
be able to think so well of me as to urge no influence against me i 
say nothing more of my stake in this this is what i ask the condition 
on which i ask it and which you have an undoubted right to require i 
will observe immediately i give the promise said the doctor without 
any condition i believe your object to be purely and truthfully as you 
have stated it i believe your intention is to perpetuate and not to 
weaken the ties between me and my other and far dearer self if she 
should ever tell me that you are essential to her perfect happiness i 
will give her to you if there werecharles darnay if there were the 
young man had taken his hand gratefully their hands were joined as the 
doctor spoke any fancies any reasons any apprehensions anything 
whatsoever new or old against the man she really lovedthe direct 
responsibility thereof not lying on his headthey should all be 
obliterated for her sake she is everything to me more to me than 
suffering more to me than wrong more to mewell this is idle talk so 
strange was the way in which he faded into silence and so strange his 
fixed look when he had ceased to speak that darnay felt his own hand 
turn cold in the hand that slowly released and dropped it you said 
something to me said doctor manette breaking into a smile what was it 
you said to me he was at a loss how to answer until he remembered 
having spoken of a condition relieved as his mind reverted to that he 
answered your confidence in me ought to be returned with full 
confidence on my part my present name though but slightly changed from 
my mothers is not as you will remember my own i wish to tell you what 
that is and why i am in england stop said the doctor of beauvais i 
wish it that i may the better deserve your confidence and have no 
secret from you stop for an instant the doctor even had his two hands 
at his ears for another instant even had his two hands laid on darnays 
lips tell me when i ask you not now if your suit should prosper if 
lucie should love you you shall tell me on your marriage morning do 
you promise willingly give me your hand she will be home directly and 
it is better she should not see us together tonight go god bless you 
it was dark when charles darnay left him and it was an hour later and 
darker when lucie came home she hurried into the room alone for miss 
pross had gone straight upstairsand was surprised to find his 
readingchair empty my father she called to him father dear nothing was 
said in answer but she heard a low hammering sound in his bedroom 
passing lightly across the intermediate room she looked in at his door 
and came running back frightened crying to herself with her blood all 
chilled what shall i do what shall i do her uncertainty lasted but a 
moment she hurried back and tapped at his door and softly called to 
him the noise ceased at the sound of her voice and he presently came 
out to her and they walked up and down together for a long time she 
came down from her bed to look at him in his sleep that night he slept 
heavily and his tray of shoemaking tools and his old unfinished work 
were all as usual xi a companion picture sydney said mr stryver on 
that selfsame night or morning to his jackal mix another bowl of punch 
i have something to say to you sydney had been working double tides 
that night and the night before and the night before that and a good 
many nights in succession making a grand clearance among mr stryvers 
papers before the setting in of the long vacation the clearance was 
effected at last the stryver arrears were handsomely fetched up 
everything was got rid of until november should come with its fogs 
atmospheric and fogs legal and bring grist to the mill again sydney 
was none the livelier and none the soberer for so much application it 
had taken a deal of extra wettowelling to pull him through the night a 
correspondingly extra quantity of wine had preceded the towelling and 
he was in a very damaged condition as he now pulled his turban off and 
threw it into the basin in which he had steeped it at intervals for 
the last six hours are you mixing that other bowl of punch said 
stryver the portly with his hands in his waistband glancing round from 
the sofa where he lay on his back i am now look here i am going to 
tell you something that will rather surprise you and that perhaps will 
make you think me not quite as shrewd as you usually do think me i 
intend to marry do you yes and not for money what do you say now i 
dont feel disposed to say much who is she guess do i know her guess i 
am not going to guess at five oclock in the morning with my brains 
frying and sputtering in my head if you want me to guess you must ask 
me to dinner well then ill tell you said stryver coming slowly into a 
sitting posture sydney i rather despair of making myself intelligible 
to you because you are such an insensible dog and you returned sydney 
busy concocting the punch are such a sensitive and poetical spirit 
come rejoined stryver laughing boastfully though i dont prefer any 
claim to being the soul of romance for i hope i know better still i am 
a tenderer sort of fellow than you you are a luckier if you mean that 
i dont mean that i mean i am a man of moremore say gallantry while you 
are about it suggested carton well ill say gallantry my meaning is 
that i am a man said stryver inflating himself at his friend as he 
made the punch who cares more to be agreeable who takes more pains to 
be agreeable who knows better how to be agreeable in a womans society 
than you do go on said sydney carton no but before i go on said 
stryver shaking his head in his bullying way ill have this out with 
you youve been at doctor manettes house as much as i have or more than 
i have why i have been ashamed of your moroseness there your manners 
have been of that silent and sullen and hangdog kind that upon my life 
and soul i have been ashamed of you sydney it should be very 
beneficial to a man in your practice at the bar to be ashamed of 
anything returned sydney you ought to be much obliged to me you shall 
not get off in that way rejoined stryver shouldering the rejoinder at 
him no sydney its my duty to tell youand i tell you to your face to do 
you goodthat you are a devilish illconditioned fellow in that sort of 
society you are a disagreeable fellow sydney drank a bumper of the 
punch he had made and laughed look at me said stryver squaring himself 
i have less need to make myself agreeable than you have being more 
independent in circumstances why do i do it i never saw you do it yet 
muttered carton i do it because its politic i do it on principle and 
look at me i get on you dont get on with your account of your 
matrimonial intentions answered carton with a careless air i wish you 
would keep to that as to mewill you never understand that i am 
incorrigible he asked the question with some appearance of scorn you 
have no business to be incorrigible was his friends answer delivered 
in no very soothing tone i have no business to be at all that i know 
of said sydney carton who is the lady now dont let my announcement of 
the name make you uncomfortable sydney said mr stryver preparing him 
with ostentatious friendliness for the disclosure he was about to make 
because i know you dont mean half you say and if you meant it all it 
would be of no importance i make this little preface because you once 
mentioned the young lady to me in slighting terms i did certainly and 
in these chambers sydney carton looked at his punch and looked at his 
complacent friend drank his punch and looked at his complacent friend 
you made mention of the young lady as a goldenhaired doll the young 
lady is miss manette if you had been a fellow of any sensitiveness or 
delicacy of feeling in that kind of way sydney i might have been a 
little resentful of your employing such a designation but you are not 
you want that sense altogether therefore i am no more annoyed when i 
think of the expression than i should be annoyed by a mans opinion of 
a picture of mine who had no eye for pictures or of a piece of music 
of mine who had no ear for music sydney carton drank the punch at a 
great rate drank it by bumpers looking at his friend now you know all 
about it syd said mr stryver i dont care about fortune she is a 
charming creature and i have made up my mind to please myself on the 
whole i think i can afford to please myself she will have in me a man 
already pretty well off and a rapidly rising man and a man of some 
distinction it is a piece of good fortune for her but she is worthy of 
good fortune are you astonished carton still drinking the punch 
rejoined why should i be astonished you approve carton still drinking 
the punch rejoined why should i not approve well said his friend 
stryver you take it more easily than i fancied you would and are less 
mercenary on my behalf than i thought you would be though to be sure 
you know well enough by this time that your ancient chum is a man of a 
pretty strong will yes sydney i have had enough of this style of life 
with no other as a change from it i feel that it is a pleasant thing 
for a man to have a home when he feels inclined to go to it when he 
doesnt he can stay away and i feel that miss manette will tell well in 
any station and will always do me credit so i have made up my mind and 
now sydney old boy i want to say a word to you about your prospects 
you are in a bad way you know you really are in a bad way you dont 
know the value of money you live hard youll knock up one of these days 
and be ill and poor you really ought to think about a nurse the 
prosperous patronage with which he said it made him look twice as big 
as he was and four times as offensive now let me recommend you pursued 
stryver to look it in the face i have looked it in the face in my 
different way look it in the face you in your different way marry 
provide somebody to take care of you never mind your having no 
enjoyment of womens society nor understanding of it nor tact for it 
find out somebody find out some respectable woman with a little 
propertysomebody in the landlady way or lodgingletting wayand marry 
her against a rainy day thats the kind of thing for you now think of 
it sydney ill think of it said sydney xii the fellow of delicacy mr 
stryver having made up his mind to that magnanimous bestowal of good 
fortune on the doctors daughter resolved to make her happiness known 
to her before he left town for the long vacation after some mental 
debating of the point he came to the conclusion that it would be as 
well to get all the preliminaries done with and they could then 
arrange at their leisure whether he should give her his hand a week or 
two before michaelmas term or in the little christmas vacation between 
it and hilary as to the strength of his case he had not a doubt about 
it but clearly saw his way to the verdict argued with the jury on 
substantial worldly groundsthe only grounds ever worth taking into 
account it was a plain case and had not a weak spot in it he called 
himself for the plaintiff there was no getting over his evidence the 
counsel for the defendant threw up his brief and the jury did not even 
turn to consider after trying it stryver c j was satisfied that no 
plainer case could be accordingly mr stryver inaugurated the long 
vacation with a formal proposal to take miss manette to vauxhall 
gardens that failing to ranelagh that unaccountably failing too it 
behoved him to present himself in soho and there declare his noble 
mind towards soho therefore mr stryver shouldered his way from the 
temple while the bloom of the long vacations infancy was still upon it 
anybody who had seen him projecting himself into soho while he was yet 
on saint dunstans side of temple bar bursting in his fullblown way 
along the pavement to the jostlement of all weaker people might have 
seen how safe and strong he was his way taking him past tellsons and 
he both banking at tellsons and knowing mr lorry as the intimate 
friend of the manettes it entered mr stryvers mind to enter the bank 
and reveal to mr lorry the brightness of the soho horizon so he pushed 
open the door with the weak rattle in its throat stumbled down the two 
steps got past the two ancient cashiers and shouldered himself into 
the musty back closet where mr lorry sat at great books ruled for 
figures with perpendicular iron bars to his window as if that were 
ruled for figures too and everything under the clouds were a sum 
halloa said mr stryver how do you do i hope you are well it was 
stryvers grand peculiarity that he always seemed too big for any place 
or space he was so much too big for tellsons that old clerks in 
distant corners looked up with looks of remonstrance as though he 
squeezed them against the wall the house itself magnificently reading 
the paper quite in the faroff perspective lowered displeased as if the 
stryver head had been butted into its responsible waistcoat the 
discreet mr lorry said in a sample tone of the voice he would 
recommend under the circumstances how do you do mr stryver how do you 
do sir and shook hands there was a peculiarity in his manner of 
shaking hands always to be seen in any clerk at tellsons who shook 
hands with a customer when the house pervaded the air he shook in a 
selfabnegating way as one who shook for tellson and co can i do 
anything for you mr stryver asked mr lorry in his business character 
why no thank you this is a private visit to yourself mr lorry i have 
come for a private word oh indeed said mr lorry bending down his ear 
while his eye strayed to the house afar off i am going said mr stryver 
leaning his arms confidentially on the desk whereupon although it was 
a large double one there appeared to be not half desk enough for him i 
am going to make an offer of myself in marriage to your agreeable 
little friend miss manette mr lorry oh dear me cried mr lorry rubbing 
his chin and looking at his visitor dubiously oh dear me sir repeated 
stryver drawing back oh dear you sir what may your meaning be mr lorry 
my meaning answered the man of business is of course friendly and 
appreciative and that it does you the greatest credit and in short my 
meaning is everything you could desire butreally you know mr stryver 
mr lorry paused and shook his head at him in the oddest manner as if 
he were compelled against his will to add internally you know there 
really is so much too much of you well said stryver slapping the desk 
with his contentious hand opening his eyes wider and taking a long 
breath if i understand you mr lorry ill be hanged mr lorry adjusted 
his little wig at both ears as a means towards that end and bit the 
feather of a pen dn it all sir said stryver staring at him am i not 
eligible oh dear yes yes oh yes youre eligible said mr lorry if you 
say eligible you are eligible am i not prosperous asked stryver oh if 
you come to prosperous you are prosperous said mr lorry and advancing 
if you come to advancing you know said mr lorry delighted to be able 
to make another admission nobody can doubt that then what on earth is 
your meaning mr lorry demanded stryver perceptibly crestfallen well 
iwere you going there now asked mr lorry straight said stryver with a 
plump of his fist on the desk then i think i wouldnt if i was you why 
said stryver now ill put you in a corner forensically shaking a 
forefinger at him you are a man of business and bound to have a reason 
state your reason why wouldnt you go because said mr lorry i wouldnt 
go on such an object without having some cause to believe that i 
should succeed dn me cried stryver but this beats everything mr lorry 
glanced at the distant house and glanced at the angry stryver heres a 
man of businessa man of yearsa man of experience in a bank said 
stryver and having summed up three leading reasons for complete 
success he says theres no reason at all says it with his head on mr 
stryver remarked upon the peculiarity as if it would have been 
infinitely less remarkable if he had said it with his head off when i 
speak of success i speak of success with the young lady and when i 
speak of causes and reasons to make success probable i speak of causes 
and reasons that will tell as such with the young lady the young lady 
my good sir said mr lorry mildly tapping the stryver arm the young 
lady the young lady goes before all then you mean to tell me mr lorry 
said stryver squaring his elbows that it is your deliberate opinion 
that the young lady at present in question is a mincing fool not 
exactly so i mean to tell you mr stryver said mr lorry reddening that 
i will hear no disrespectful word of that young lady from any lips and 
that if i knew any manwhich i hope i do not whose taste was so coarse 
and whose temper was so overbearing that he could not restrain himself 
from speaking disrespectfully of that young lady at this desk not even 
tellsons should prevent my giving him a piece of my mind the necessity 
of being angry in a suppressed tone had put mr stryvers bloodvessels 
into a dangerous state when it was his turn to be angry mr lorrys 
veins methodical as their courses could usually be were in no better 
state now it was his turn that is what i mean to tell you sir said mr 
lorry pray let there be no mistake about it mr stryver sucked the end 
of a ruler for a little while and then stood hitting a tune out of his 
teeth with it which probably gave him the toothache he broke the 
awkward silence by saying this is something new to me mr lorry you 
deliberately advise me not to go up to soho and offer myselfmyself 
stryver of the kings bench bar do you ask me for my advice mr stryver 
yes i do very good then i give it and you have repeated it correctly 
and all i can say of it is laughed stryver with a vexed laugh that 
thisha habeats everything past present and to come now understand me 
pursued mr lorry as a man of business i am not justified in saying 
anything about this matter for as a man of business i know nothing of 
it but as an old fellow who has carried miss manette in his arms who 
is the trusted friend of miss manette and of her father too and who 
has a great affection for them both i have spoken the confidence is 
not of my seeking recollect now you think i may not be right not i 
said stryver whistling i cant undertake to find third parties in 
common sense i can only find it for myself i suppose sense in certain 
quarters you suppose mincing breadandbutter nonsense its new to me but 
you are right i dare say what i suppose mr stryver i claim to 
characterise for myselfand understand me sir said mr lorry quickly 
flushing again i will notnot even at tellsonshave it characterised for 
me by any gentleman breathing there i beg your pardon said stryver 
granted thank you well mr stryver i was about to sayit might be 
painful to you to find yourself mistaken it might be painful to doctor 
manette to have the task of being explicit with you it might be very 
painful to miss manette to have the task of being explicit with you 
you know the terms upon which i have the honour and happiness to stand 
with the family if you please committing you in no way representing 
you in no way i will undertake to correct my advice by the exercise of 
a little new observation and judgment expressly brought to bear upon 
it if you should then be dissatisfied with it you can but test its 
soundness for yourself if on the other hand you should be satisfied 
with it and it should be what it now is it may spare all sides what is 
best spared what do you say how long would you keep me in town oh it 
is only a question of a few hours i could go to soho in the evening 
and come to your chambers afterwards then i say yes said stryver i 
wont go up there now i am not so hot upon it as that comes to i say 
yes and i shall expect you to look in tonight good morning then mr 
stryver turned and burst out of the bank causing such a concussion of 
air on his passage through that to stand up against it bowing behind 
the two counters required the utmost remaining strength of the two 
ancient clerks those venerable and feeble persons were always seen by 
the public in the act of bowing and were popularly believed when they 
had bowed a customer out still to keep on bowing in the empty office 
until they bowed another customer in the barrister was keen enough to 
divine that the banker would not have gone so far in his expression of 
opinion on any less solid ground than moral certainty unprepared as he 
was for the large pill he had to swallow he got it down and now said 
mr stryver shaking his forensic forefinger at the temple in general 
when it was down my way out of this is to put you all in the wrong it 
was a bit of the art of an old bailey tactician in which he found 
great relief you shall not put me in the wrong young lady said mr 
stryver ill do that for you accordingly when mr lorry called that 
night as late as ten oclock mr stryver among a quantity of books and 
papers littered out for the purpose seemed to have nothing less on his 
mind than the subject of the morning he even showed surprise when he 
saw mr lorry and was altogether in an absent and preoccupied state 
well said that goodnatured emissary after a full halfhour of bootless 
attempts to bring him round to the question i have been to soho to 
soho repeated mr stryver coldly oh to be sure what am i thinking of 
and i have no doubt said mr lorry that i was right in the conversation 
we had my opinion is confirmed and i reiterate my advice i assure you 
returned mr stryver in the friendliest way that i am sorry for it on 
your account and sorry for it on the poor fathers account i know this 
must always be a sore subject with the family let us say no more about 
it i dont understand you said mr lorry i dare say not rejoined stryver 
nodding his head in a smoothing and final way no matter no matter but 
it does matter mr lorry urged no it doesnt i assure you it doesnt 
having supposed that there was sense where there is no sense and a 
laudable ambition where there is not a laudable ambition i am well out 
of my mistake and no harm is done young women have committed similar 
follies often before and have repented them in poverty and obscurity 
often before in an unselfish aspect i am sorry that the thing is 
dropped because it would have been a bad thing for me in a worldly 
point of view in a selfish aspect i am glad that the thing has dropped 
because it would have been a bad thing for me in a worldly point of 
view it is hardly necessary to say i could have gained nothing by it 
there is no harm at all done i have not proposed to the young lady and 
between ourselves i am by no means certain on reflection that i ever 
should have committed myself to that extent mr lorry you cannot 
control the mincing vanities and giddinesses of emptyheaded girls you 
must not expect to do it or you will always be disappointed now pray 
say no more about it i tell you i regret it on account of others but i 
am satisfied on my own account and i am really very much obliged to 
you for allowing me to sound you and for giving me your advice you 
know the young lady better than i do you were right it never would 
have done mr lorry was so taken aback that he looked quite stupidly at 
mr stryver shouldering him towards the door with an appearance of 
showering generosity forbearance and goodwill on his erring head make 
the best of it my dear sir said stryver say no more about it thank you 
again for allowing me to sound you good night mr lorry was out in the 
night before he knew where he was mr stryver was lying back on his 
sofa winking at his ceiling xiii the fellow of no delicacy if sydney 
carton ever shone anywhere he certainly never shone in the house of 
doctor manette he had been there often during a whole year and had 
always been the same moody and morose lounger there when he cared to 
talk he talked well but the cloud of caring for nothing which 
overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness was very rarely pierced by 
the light within him and yet he did care something for the streets 
that environed that house and for the senseless stones that made their 
pavements many a night he vaguely and unhappily wandered there when 
wine had brought no transitory gladness to him many a dreary daybreak 
revealed his solitary figure lingering there and still lingering there 
when the first beams of the sun brought into strong relief removed 
beauties of architecture in spires of churches and lofty buildings as 
perhaps the quiet time brought some sense of better things else 
forgotten and unattainable into his mind of late the neglected bed in 
the temple court had known him more scantily than ever and often when 
he had thrown himself upon it no longer than a few minutes he had got 
up again and haunted that neighbourhood on a day in august when mr 
stryver after notifying to his jackal that he had thought better of 
that marrying matter had carried his delicacy into devonshire and when 
the sight and scent of flowers in the city streets had some waifs of 
goodness in them for the worst of health for the sickliest and of 
youth for the oldest sydneys feet still trod those stones from being 
irresolute and purposeless his feet became animated by an intention 
and in the working out of that intention they took him to the doctors 
door he was shown upstairs and found lucie at her work alone she had 
never been quite at her ease with him and received him with some 
little embarrassment as he seated himself near her table but looking 
up at his face in the interchange of the first few commonplaces she 
observed a change in it i fear you are not well mr carton no but the 
life i lead miss manette is not conducive to health what is to be 
expected of or by such profligates is it notforgive me i have begun 
the question on my lipsa pity to live no better life god knows it is a 
shame then why not change it looking gently at him again she was 
surprised and saddened to see that there were tears in his eyes there 
were tears in his voice too as he answered it is too late for that i 
shall never be better than i am i shall sink lower and be worse he 
leaned an elbow on her table and covered his eyes with his hand the 
table trembled in the silence that followed she had never seen him 
softened and was much distressed he knew her to be so without looking 
at her and said pray forgive me miss manette i break down before the 
knowledge of what i want to say to you will you hear me if it will do 
you any good mr carton if it would make you happier it would make me 
very glad god bless you for your sweet compassion he unshaded his face 
after a little while and spoke steadily dont be afraid to hear me dont 
shrink from anything i say i am like one who died young all my life 
might have been no mr carton i am sure that the best part of it might 
still be i am sure that you might be much much worthier of yourself 
say of you miss manette and although i know betteralthough in the 
mystery of my own wretched heart i know betteri shall never forget it 
she was pale and trembling he came to her relief with a fixed despair 
of himself which made the interview unlike any other that could have 
been holden if it had been possible miss manette that you could have 
returned the love of the man you see before yourselfflung away wasted 
drunken poor creature of misuse as you know him to behe would have 
been conscious this day and hour in spite of his happiness that he 
would bring you to misery bring you to sorrow and repentance blight 
you disgrace you pull you down with him i know very well that you can 
have no tenderness for me i ask for none i am even thankful that it 
cannot be without it can i not save you mr carton can i not recall you 
forgive me againto a better course can i in no way repay your 
confidence i know this is a confidence she modestly said after a 
little hesitation and in earnest tears i know you would say this to no 
one else can i turn it to no good account for yourself mr carton he 
shook his head to none no miss manette to none if you will hear me 
through a very little more all you can ever do for me is done i wish 
you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul in my 
degradation i have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with 
your father and of this home made such a home by you has stirred old 
shadows that i thought had died out of me since i knew you i have been 
troubled by a remorse that i thought would never reproach me again and 
have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward that i thought 
were silent for ever i have had unformed ideas of striving afresh 
beginning anew shaking off sloth and sensuality and fighting out the 
abandoned fight a dream all a dream that ends in nothing and leaves 
the sleeper where he lay down but i wish you to know that you inspired 
it will nothing of it remain o mr carton think again try again no miss 
manette all through it i have known myself to be quite undeserving and 
yet i have had the weakness and have still the weakness to wish you to 
know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me heap of ashes that i am 
into firea fire however inseparable in its nature from myself 
quickening nothing lighting nothing doing no service idly burning away 
since it is my misfortune mr carton to have made you more unhappy than 
you were before you knew me dont say that miss manette for you would 
have reclaimed me if anything could you will not be the cause of my 
becoming worse since the state of your mind that you describe is at 
all events attributable to some influence of minethis is what i mean 
if i can make it plaincan i use no influence to serve you have i no 
power for good with you at all the utmost good that i am capable of 
now miss manette i have come here to realise let me carry through the 
rest of my misdirected life the remembrance that i opened my heart to 
you last of all the world and that there was something left in me at 
this time which you could deplore and pity which i entreated you to 
believe again and again most fervently with all my heart was capable 
of better things mr carton entreat me to believe it no more miss 
manette i have proved myself and i know better i distress you i draw 
fast to an end will you let me believe when i recall this day that the 
last confidence of my life was reposed in your pure and innocent 
breast and that it lies there alone and will be shared by no one if 
that will be a consolation to you yes not even by the dearest one ever 
to be known to you mr carton she answered after an agitated pause the 
secret is yours not mine and i promise to respect it thank you and 
again god bless you he put her hand to his lips and moved towards the 
door be under no apprehension miss manette of my ever resuming this 
conversation by so much as a passing word i will never refer to it 
again if i were dead that could not be surer than it is henceforth in 
the hour of my death i shall hold sacred the one good remembrance and 
shall thank and bless you for itthat my last avowal of myself was made 
to you and that my name and faults and miseries were gently carried in 
your heart may it otherwise be light and happy he was so unlike what 
he had ever shown himself to be and it was so sad to think how much he 
had thrown away and how much he every day kept down and perverted that 
lucie manette wept mournfully for him as he stood looking back at her 
be comforted he said i am not worth such feeling miss manette an hour 
or two hence and the low companions and low habits that i scorn but 
yield to will render me less worth such tears as those than any wretch 
who creeps along the streets be comforted but within myself i shall 
always be towards you what i am now though outwardly i shall be what 
you have heretofore seen me the last supplication but one i make to 
you is that you will believe this of me i will mr carton my last 
supplication of all is this and with it i will relieve you of a 
visitor with whom i well know you have nothing in unison and between 
whom and you there is an impassable space it is useless to say it i 
know but it rises out of my soul for you and for any dear to you i 
would do anything if my career were of that better kind that there was 
any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it i would embrace any 
sacrifice for you and for those dear to you try to hold me in your 
mind at some quiet times as ardent and sincere in this one thing the 
time will come the time will not be long in coming when new ties will 
be formed about youties that will bind you yet more tenderly and 
strongly to the home you so adornthe dearest ties that will ever grace 
and gladden you o miss manette when the little picture of a happy 
fathers face looks up in yours when you see your own bright beauty 
springing up anew at your feet think now and then that there is a man 
who would give his life to keep a life you love beside you he said 
farewell said a last god bless you and left her xiv the honest 
tradesman to the eyes of mr jeremiah cruncher sitting on his stool in 
fleetstreet with his grisly urchin beside him a vast number and 
variety of objects in movement were every day presented who could sit 
upon anything in fleetstreet during the busy hours of the day and not 
be dazed and deafened by two immense processions one ever tending 
westward with the sun the other ever tending eastward from the sun 
both ever tending to the plains beyond the range of red and purple 
where the sun goes down with his straw in his mouth mr cruncher sat 
watching the two streams like the heathen rustic who has for several 
centuries been on duty watching one streamsaving that jerry had no 
expectation of their ever running dry nor would it have been an 
expectation of a hopeful kind since a small part of his income was 
derived from the pilotage of timid women mostly of a full habit and 
past the middle term of life from tellsons side of the tides to the 
opposite shore brief as such companionship was in every separate 
instance mr cruncher never failed to become so interested in the lady 
as to express a strong desire to have the honour of drinking her very 
good health and it was from the gifts bestowed upon him towards the 
execution of this benevolent purpose that he recruited his finances as 
just now observed time was when a poet sat upon a stool in a public 
place and mused in the sight of men mr cruncher sitting on a stool in 
a public place but not being a poet mused as little as possible and 
looked about him it fell out that he was thus engaged in a season when 
crowds were few and belated women few and when his affairs in general 
were so unprosperous as to awaken a strong suspicion in his breast 
that mrs cruncher must have been flopping in some pointed manner when 
an unusual concourse pouring down fleetstreet westward attracted his 
attention looking that way mr cruncher made out that some kind of 
funeral was coming along and that there was popular objection to this 
funeral which engendered uproar young jerry said mr cruncher turning 
to his offspring its a buryin hooroar father cried young jerry the 
young gentleman uttered this exultant sound with mysterious 
significance the elder gentleman took the cry so ill that he watched 
his opportunity and smote the young gentleman on the ear what dye mean 
what are you hooroaring at what do you want to conwey to your own 
father you young rip this boy is a getting too many for me said mr 
cruncher surveying him him and his hooroars dont let me hear no more 
of you or you shall feel some more of me dye hear i warnt doing no 
harm young jerry protested rubbing his cheek drop it then said mr 
cruncher i wont have none of your no harms get a top of that there 
seat and look at the crowd his son obeyed and the crowd approached 
they were bawling and hissing round a dingy hearse and dingy mourning 
coach in which mourning coach there was only one mourner dressed in 
the dingy trappings that were considered essential to the dignity of 
the position the position appeared by no means to please him however 
with an increasing rabble surrounding the coach deriding him making 
grimaces at him and incessantly groaning and calling out yah spies tst 
yaha spies with many compliments too numerous and forcible to repeat 
funerals had at all times a remarkable attraction for mr cruncher he 
always pricked up his senses and became excited when a funeral passed 
tellsons naturally therefore a funeral with this uncommon attendance 
excited him greatly and he asked of the first man who ran against him 
what is it brother whats it about i dont know said the man spies yaha 
tst spies he asked another man who is it i dont know returned the man 
clapping his hands to his mouth nevertheless and vociferating in a 
surprising heat and with the greatest ardour spies yaha tst tst spiies 
at length a person better informed on the merits of the case tumbled 
against him and from this person he learned that the funeral was the 
funeral of one roger cly was he a spy asked mr cruncher old bailey spy 
returned his informant yaha tst yah old bailey spiiies why to be sure 
exclaimed jerry recalling the trial at which he had assisted ive seen 
him dead is he dead as mutton returned the other and cant be too dead 
have em out there spies pull em out there spies the idea was so 
acceptable in the prevalent absence of any idea that the crowd caught 
it up with eagerness and loudly repeating the suggestion to have em 
out and to pull em out mobbed the two vehicles so closely that they 
came to a stop on the crowds opening the coach doors the one mourner 
scuffled out of himself and was in their hands for a moment but he was 
so alert and made such good use of his time that in another moment he 
was scouring away up a byestreet after shedding his cloak hat long 
hatband white pockethandkerchief and other symbolical tears these the 
people tore to pieces and scattered far and wide with great enjoyment 
while the tradesmen hurriedly shut up their shops for a crowd in those 
times stopped at nothing and was a monster much dreaded they had 
already got the length of opening the hearse to take the coffin out 
when some brighter genius proposed instead its being escorted to its 
destination amidst general rejoicing practical suggestions being much 
needed this suggestion too was received with acclamation and the coach 
was immediately filled with eight inside and a dozen out while as many 
people got on the roof of the hearse as could by any exercise of 
ingenuity stick upon it among the first of these volunteers was jerry 
cruncher himself who modestly concealed his spiky head from the 
observation of tellsons in the further corner of the mourning coach 
the officiating undertakers made some protest against these changes in 
the ceremonies but the river being alarmingly near and several voices 
remarking on the efficacy of cold immersion in bringing refractory 
members of the profession to reason the protest was faint and brief 
the remodelled procession started with a chimneysweep driving the 
hearse advised by the regular driver who was perched beside him under 
close inspection for the purpose and with a pieman also attended by 
his cabinet minister driving the mourning coach a bearleader a popular 
street character of the time was impressed as an additional ornament 
before the cavalcade had gone far down the strand and his bear who was 
black and very mangy gave quite an undertaking air to that part of the 
procession in which he walked thus with beerdrinking pipesmoking 
songroaring and infinite caricaturing of woe the disorderly procession 
went its way recruiting at every step and all the shops shutting up 
before it its destination was the old church of saint pancras far off 
in the fields it got there in course of time insisted on pouring into 
the burialground finally accomplished the interment of the deceased 
roger cly in its own way and highly to its own satisfaction the dead 
man disposed of and the crowd being under the necessity of providing 
some other entertainment for itself another brighter genius or perhaps 
the same conceived the humour of impeaching casual passersby as old 
bailey spies and wreaking vengeance on them chase was given to some 
scores of inoffensive persons who had never been near the old bailey 
in their lives in the realisation of this fancy and they were roughly 
hustled and maltreated the transition to the sport of windowbreaking 
and thence to the plundering of publichouses was easy and natural at 
last after several hours when sundry summerhouses had been pulled down 
and some arearailings had been torn up to arm the more belligerent 
spirits a rumour got about that the guards were coming before this 
rumour the crowd gradually melted away and perhaps the guards came and 
perhaps they never came and this was the usual progress of a mob mr 
cruncher did not assist at the closing sports but had remained behind 
in the churchyard to confer and condole with the undertakers the place 
had a soothing influence on him he procured a pipe from a neighbouring 
publichouse and smoked it looking in at the railings and maturely 
considering the spot jerry said mr cruncher apostrophising himself in 
his usual way you see that there cly that day and you see with your 
own eyes that he was a young un and a straight made un having smoked 
his pipe out and ruminated a little longer he turned himself about 
that he might appear before the hour of closing on his station at 
tellsons whether his meditations on mortality had touched his liver or 
whether his general health had been previously at all amiss or whether 
he desired to show a little attention to an eminent man is not so much 
to the purpose as that he made a short call upon his medical advisera 
distinguished surgeonon his way back young jerry relieved his father 
with dutiful interest and reported no job in his absence the bank 
closed the ancient clerks came out the usual watch was set and mr 
cruncher and his son went home to tea now i tell you where it is said 
mr cruncher to his wife on entering if as a honest tradesman my 
wenturs goes wrong tonight i shall make sure that youve been praying 
again me and i shall work you for it just the same as if i seen you do 
it the dejected mrs cruncher shook her head why youre at it afore my 
face said mr cruncher with signs of angry apprehension i am saying 
nothing well then dont meditate nothing you might as well flop as 
meditate you may as well go again me one way as another drop it 
altogether yes jerry yes jerry repeated mr cruncher sitting down to 
tea ah it is yes jerry thats about it you may say yes jerry mr 
cruncher had no particular meaning in these sulky corroborations but 
made use of them as people not unfrequently do to express general 
ironical dissatisfaction you and your yes jerry said mr cruncher 
taking a bite out of his breadandbutter and seeming to help it down 
with a large invisible oyster out of his saucer ah i think so i 
believe you you are going out tonight asked his decent wife when he 
took another bite yes i am may i go with you father asked his son 
briskly no you maynt im a goingas your mother knowsa fishing thats 
where im going to going a fishing your fishingrod gets rayther rusty 
dont it father never you mind shall you bring any fish home father if 
i dont youll have short commons tomorrow returned that gentleman 
shaking his head thats questions enough for you i aint a going out 
till youve been long abed he devoted himself during the remainder of 
the evening to keeping a most vigilant watch on mrs cruncher and 
sullenly holding her in conversation that she might be prevented from 
meditating any petitions to his disadvantage with this view he urged 
his son to hold her in conversation also and led the unfortunate woman 
a hard life by dwelling on any causes of complaint he could bring 
against her rather than he would leave her for a moment to her own 
reflections the devoutest person could have rendered no greater homage 
to the efficacy of an honest prayer than he did in this distrust of 
his wife it was as if a professed unbeliever in ghosts should be 
frightened by a ghost story and mind you said mr cruncher no games 
tomorrow if i as a honest tradesman succeed in providing a jinte of 
meat or two none of your not touching of it and sticking to bread if i 
as a honest tradesman am able to provide a little beer none of your 
declaring on water when you go to rome do as rome does rome will be a 
ugly customer to you if you dont im your rome you know then he began 
grumbling again with your flying into the face of your own wittles and 
drink i dont know how scarce you maynt make the wittles and drink here 
by your flopping tricks and your unfeeling conduct look at your boy he 
is yourn aint he hes as thin as a lath do you call yourself a mother 
and not know that a mothers first duty is to blow her boy out this 
touched young jerry on a tender place who adjured his mother to 
perform her first duty and whatever else she did or neglected above 
all things to lay especial stress on the discharge of that maternal 
function so affectingly and delicately indicated by his other parent 
thus the evening wore away with the cruncher family until young jerry 
was ordered to bed and his mother laid under similar injunctions 
obeyed them mr cruncher beguiled the earlier watches of the night with 
solitary pipes and did not start upon his excursion until nearly one 
oclock towards that small and ghostly hour he rose up from his chair 
took a key out of his pocket opened a locked cupboard and brought 
forth a sack a crowbar of convenient size a rope and chain and other 
fishing tackle of that nature disposing these articles about him in 
skilful manner he bestowed a parting defiance on mrs cruncher 
extinguished the light and went out young jerry who had only made a 
feint of undressing when he went to bed was not long after his father 
under cover of the darkness he followed out of the room followed down 
the stairs followed down the court followed out into the streets he 
was in no uneasiness concerning his getting into the house again for 
it was full of lodgers and the door stood ajar all night impelled by a 
laudable ambition to study the art and mystery of his fathers honest 
calling young jerry keeping as close to house fronts walls and 
doorways as his eyes were close to one another held his honoured 
parent in view the honoured parent steering northward had not gone far 
when he was joined by another disciple of izaak walton and the two 
trudged on together within half an hour from the first starting they 
were beyond the winking lamps and the more than winking watchmen and 
were out upon a lonely road another fisherman was picked up hereand 
that so silently that if young jerry had been superstitious he might 
have supposed the second follower of the gentle craft to have all of a 
sudden split himself into two the three went on and young jerry went 
on until the three stopped under a bank overhanging the road upon the 
top of the bank was a low brick wall surmounted by an iron railing in 
the shadow of bank and wall the three turned out of the road and up a 
blind lane of which the wallthere risen to some eight or ten feet 
highformed one side crouching down in a corner peeping up the lane the 
next object that young jerry saw was the form of his honoured parent 
pretty well defined against a watery and clouded moon nimbly scaling 
an iron gate he was soon over and then the second fisherman got over 
and then the third they all dropped softly on the ground within the 
gate and lay there a littlelistening perhaps then they moved away on 
their hands and knees it was now young jerrys turn to approach the 
gate which he did holding his breath crouching down again in a corner 
there and looking in he made out the three fishermen creeping through 
some rank grass and all the gravestones in the churchyardit was a 
large churchyard that they were inlooking on like ghosts in white 
while the church tower itself looked on like the ghost of a monstrous 
giant they did not creep far before they stopped and stood upright and 
then they began to fish they fished with a spade at first presently 
the honoured parent appeared to be adjusting some instrument like a 
great corkscrew whatever tools they worked with they worked hard until 
the awful striking of the church clock so terrified young jerry that 
he made off with his hair as stiff as his fathers but his 
longcherished desire to know more about these matters not only stopped 
him in his running away but lured him back again they were still 
fishing perseveringly when he peeped in at the gate for the second 
time but now they seemed to have got a bite there was a screwing and 
complaining sound down below and their bent figures were strained as 
if by a weight by slow degrees the weight broke away the earth upon it 
and came to the surface young jerry very well knew what it would be 
but when he saw it and saw his honoured parent about to wrench it open 
he was so frightened being new to the sight that he made off again and 
never stopped until he had run a mile or more he would not have 
stopped then for anything less necessary than breath it being a 
spectral sort of race that he ran and one highly desirable to get to 
the end of he had a strong idea that the coffin he had seen was 
running after him and pictured as hopping on behind him bolt upright 
upon its narrow end always on the point of overtaking him and hopping 
on at his sideperhaps taking his armit was a pursuer to shun it was an 
inconsistent and ubiquitous fiend too for while it was making the 
whole night behind him dreadful he darted out into the roadway to 
avoid dark alleys fearful of its coming hopping out of them like a 
dropsical boyskite without tail and wings it hid in doorways too 
rubbing its horrible shoulders against doors and drawing them up to 
its ears as if it were laughing it got into shadows on the road and 
lay cunningly on its back to trip him up all this time it was 
incessantly hopping on behind and gaining on him so that when the boy 
got to his own door he had reason for being half dead and even then it 
would not leave him but followed him upstairs with a bump on every 
stair scrambled into bed with him and bumped down dead and heavy on 
his breast when he fell asleep from his oppressed slumber young jerry 
in his closet was awakened after daybreak and before sunrise by the 
presence of his father in the family room something had gone wrong 
with him at least so young jerry inferred from the circumstance of his 
holding mrs cruncher by the ears and knocking the back of her head 
against the headboard of the bed i told you i would said mr cruncher 
and i did jerry jerry jerry his wife implored you oppose yourself to 
the profit of the business said jerry and me and my partners suffer 
you was to honour and obey why the devil dont you i try to be a good 
wife jerry the poor woman protested with tears is it being a good wife 
to oppose your husbands business is it honouring your husband to 
dishonour his business is it obeying your husband to disobey him on 
the wital subject of his business you hadnt taken to the dreadful 
business then jerry its enough for you retorted mr cruncher to be the 
wife of a honest tradesman and not to occupy your female mind with 
calculations when he took to his trade or when he didnt a honouring 
and obeying wife would let his trade alone altogether call yourself a 
religious woman if youre a religious woman give me a irreligious one 
you have no more natral sense of duty than the bed of this here thames 
river has of a pile and similarly it must be knocked into you the 
altercation was conducted in a low tone of voice and terminated in the 
honest tradesmans kicking off his claysoiled boots and lying down at 
his length on the floor after taking a timid peep at him lying on his 
back with his rusty hands under his head for a pillow his son lay down 
too and fell asleep again there was no fish for breakfast and not much 
of anything else mr cruncher was out of spirits and out of temper and 
kept an iron potlid by him as a projectile for the correction of mrs 
cruncher in case he should observe any symptoms of her saying grace he 
was brushed and washed at the usual hour and set off with his son to 
pursue his ostensible calling young jerry walking with the stool under 
his arm at his fathers side along sunny and crowded fleetstreet was a 
very different young jerry from him of the previous night running home 
through darkness and solitude from his grim pursuer his cunning was 
fresh with the day and his qualms were gone with the nightin which 
particulars it is not improbable that he had compeers in fleetstreet 
and the city of london that fine morning father said young jerry as 
they walked along taking care to keep at arms length and to have the 
stool well between them whats a resurrectionman mr cruncher came to a 
stop on the pavement before he answered how should i know i thought 
you knowed everything father said the artless boy hem well returned mr 
cruncher going on again and lifting off his hat to give his spikes 
free play hes a tradesman whats his goods father asked the brisk young 
jerry his goods said mr cruncher after turning it over in his mind is 
a branch of scientific goods persons bodies aint it father asked the 
lively boy i believe it is something of that sort said mr cruncher oh 
father i should so like to be a resurrectionman when im quite growed 
up mr cruncher was soothed but shook his head in a dubious and moral 
way it depends upon how you dewelop your talents be careful to dewelop 
your talents and never to say no more than you can help to nobody and 
theres no telling at the present time what you may not come to be fit 
for as young jerry thus encouraged went on a few yards in advance to 
plant the stool in the shadow of the bar mr cruncher added to himself 
jerry you honest tradesman theres hopes wot that boy will yet be a 
blessing to you and a recompense to you for his mother xv knitting 
there had been earlier drinking than usual in the wineshop of monsieur 
defarge as early as six oclock in the morning sallow faces peeping 
through its barred windows had descried other faces within bending 
over measures of wine monsieur defarge sold a very thin wine at the 
best of times but it would seem to have been an unusually thin wine 
that he sold at this time a sour wine moreover or a souring for its 
influence on the mood of those who drank it was to make them gloomy no 
vivacious bacchanalian flame leaped out of the pressed grape of 
monsieur defarge but a smouldering fire that burnt in the dark lay 
hidden in the dregs of it this had been the third morning in 
succession on which there had been early drinking at the wineshop of 
monsieur defarge it had begun on monday and here was wednesday come 
there had been more of early brooding than drinking for many men had 
listened and whispered and slunk about there from the time of the 
opening of the door who could not have laid a piece of money on the 
counter to save their souls these were to the full as interested in 
the place however as if they could have commanded whole barrels of 
wine and they glided from seat to seat and from corner to corner 
swallowing talk in lieu of drink with greedy looks notwithstanding an 
unusual flow of company the master of the wineshop was not visible he 
was not missed for nobody who crossed the threshold looked for him 
nobody asked for him nobody wondered to see only madame defarge in her 
seat presiding over the distribution of wine with a bowl of battered 
small coins before her as much defaced and beaten out of their 
original impress as the small coinage of humanity from whose ragged 
pockets they had come a suspended interest and a prevalent absence of 
mind were perhaps observed by the spies who looked in at the wineshop 
as they looked in at every place high and low from the kings palace to 
the criminals gaol games at cards languished players at dominoes 
musingly built towers with them drinkers drew figures on the tables 
with spilt drops of wine madame defarge herself picked out the pattern 
on her sleeve with her toothpick and saw and heard something inaudible 
and invisible a long way off thus saint antoine in this vinous feature 
of his until midday it was high noontide when two dusty men passed 
through his streets and under his swinging lamps of whom one was 
monsieur defarge the other a mender of roads in a blue cap all adust 
and athirst the two entered the wineshop their arrival had lighted a 
kind of fire in the breast of saint antoine fast spreading as they 
came along which stirred and flickered in flames of faces at most 
doors and windows yet no one had followed them and no man spoke when 
they entered the wineshop though the eyes of every man there were 
turned upon them good day gentlemen said monsieur defarge it may have 
been a signal for loosening the general tongue it elicited an 
answering chorus of good day it is bad weather gentlemen said defarge 
shaking his head upon which every man looked at his neighbour and then 
all cast down their eyes and sat silent except one man who got up and 
went out my wife said defarge aloud addressing madame defarge i have 
travelled certain leagues with this good mender of roads called 
jacques i met himby accidenta day and halfs journey out of paris he is 
a good child this mender of roads called jacques give him to drink my 
wife a second man got up and went out madame defarge set wine before 
the mender of roads called jacques who doffed his blue cap to the 
company and drank in the breast of his blouse he carried some coarse 
dark bread he ate of this between whiles and sat munching and drinking 
near madame defarges counter a third man got up and went out defarge 
refreshed himself with a draught of winebut he took less than was 
given to the stranger as being himself a man to whom it was no 
rarityand stood waiting until the countryman had made his breakfast he 
looked at no one present and no one now looked at him not even madame 
defarge who had taken up her knitting and was at work have you 
finished your repast friend he asked in due season yes thank you come 
then you shall see the apartment that i told you you could occupy it 
will suit you to a marvel out of the wineshop into the street out of 
the street into a courtyard out of the courtyard up a steep staircase 
out of the staircase into a garretformerly the garret where a 
whitehaired man sat on a low bench stooping forward and very busy 
making shoes no whitehaired man was there now but the three men were 
there who had gone out of the wineshop singly and between them and the 
whitehaired man afar off was the one small link that they had once 
looked in at him through the chinks in the wall defarge closed the 
door carefully and spoke in a subdued voice jacques one jacques two 
jacques three this is the witness encountered by appointment by me 
jacques four he will tell you all speak jacques five the mender of 
roads blue cap in hand wiped his swarthy forehead with it and said 
where shall i commence monsieur commence was monsieur defarges not 
unreasonable reply at the commencement i saw him then messieurs began 
the mender of roads a year ago this running summer underneath the 
carriage of the marquis hanging by the chain behold the manner of it i 
leaving my work on the road the sun going to bed the carriage of the 
marquis slowly ascending the hill he hanging by the chainlike this 
again the mender of roads went through the whole performance in which 
he ought to have been perfect by that time seeing that it had been the 
infallible resource and indispensable entertainment of his village 
during a whole year jacques one struck in and asked if he had ever 
seen the man before never answered the mender of roads recovering his 
perpendicular jacques three demanded how he afterwards recognised him 
then by his tall figure said the mender of roads softly and with his 
finger at his nose when monsieur the marquis demands that evening say 
what is he like i make response tall as a spectre you should have said 
short as a dwarf returned jacques two but what did i know the deed was 
not then accomplished neither did he confide in me observe under those 
circumstances even i do not offer my testimony monsieur the marquis 
indicates me with his finger standing near our little fountain and 
says to me bring that rascal my faith messieurs i offer nothing he is 
right there jacques murmured defarge to him who had interrupted go on 
good said the mender of roads with an air of mystery the tall man is 
lost and he is soughthow many months nine ten eleven no matter the 
number said defarge he is well hidden but at last he is unluckily 
found go on i am again at work upon the hillside and the sun is again 
about to go to bed i am collecting my tools to descend to my cottage 
down in the village below where it is already dark when i raise my 
eyes and see coming over the hill six soldiers in the midst of them is 
a tall man with his arms boundtied to his sideslike this with the aid 
of his indispensable cap he represented a man with his elbows bound 
fast at his hips with cords that were knotted behind him i stand aside 
messieurs by my heap of stones to see the soldiers and their prisoner 
pass for it is a solitary road that where any spectacle is well worth 
looking at and at first as they approach i see no more than that they 
are six soldiers with a tall man bound and that they are almost black 
to my sightexcept on the side of the sun going to bed where they have 
a red edge messieurs also i see that their long shadows are on the 
hollow ridge on the opposite side of the road and are on the hill 
above it and are like the shadows of giants also i see that they are 
covered with dust and that the dust moves with them as they come tramp 
tramp but when they advance quite near to me i recognise the tall man 
and he recognises me ah but he would be well content to precipitate 
himself over the hillside once again as on the evening when he and i 
first encountered close to the same spot he described it as if he were 
there and it was evident that he saw it vividly perhaps he had not 
seen much in his life i do not show the soldiers that i recognise the 
tall man he does not show the soldiers that he recognises me we do it 
and we know it with our eyes come on says the chief of that company 
pointing to the village bring him fast to his tomb and they bring him 
faster i follow his arms are swelled because of being bound so tight 
his wooden shoes are large and clumsy and he is lame because he is 
lame and consequently slow they drive him with their gunslike this he 
imitated the action of a mans being impelled forward by the buttends 
of muskets as they descend the hill like madmen running a race he 
falls they laugh and pick him up again his face is bleeding and 
covered with dust but he cannot touch it thereupon they laugh again 
they bring him into the village all the village runs to look they take 
him past the mill and up to the prison all the village sees the prison 
gate open in the darkness of the night and swallow himlike this he 
opened his mouth as wide as he could and shut it with a sounding snap 
of his teeth observant of his unwillingness to mar the effect by 
opening it again defarge said go on jacques all the village pursued 
the mender of roads on tiptoe and in a low voice withdraws all the 
village whispers by the fountain all the village sleeps all the 
village dreams of that unhappy one within the locks and bars of the 
prison on the crag and never to come out of it except to perish in the 
morning with my tools upon my shoulder eating my morsel of black bread 
as i go i make a circuit by the prison on my way to my work there i 
see him high up behind the bars of a lofty iron cage bloody and dusty 
as last night looking through he has no hand free to wave to me i dare 
not call to him he regards me like a dead man defarge and the three 
glanced darkly at one another the looks of all of them were dark 
repressed and revengeful as they listened to the countrymans story the 
manner of all of them while it was secret was authoritative too they 
had the air of a rough tribunal jacques one and two sitting on the old 
palletbed each with his chin resting on his hand and his eyes intent 
on the roadmender jacques three equally intent on one knee behind them 
with his agitated hand always gliding over the network of fine nerves 
about his mouth and nose defarge standing between them and the 
narrator whom he had stationed in the light of the window by turns 
looking from him to them and from them to him go on jacques said 
defarge he remains up there in his iron cage some days the village 
looks at him by stealth for it is afraid but it always looks up from a 
distance at the prison on the crag and in the evening when the work of 
the day is achieved and it assembles to gossip at the fountain all 
faces are turned towards the prison formerly they were turned towards 
the postinghouse now they are turned towards the prison they whisper 
at the fountain that although condemned to death he will not be 
executed they say that petitions have been presented in paris showing 
that he was enraged and made mad by the death of his child they say 
that a petition has been presented to the king himself what do i know 
it is possible perhaps yes perhaps no listen then jacques number one 
of that name sternly interposed know that a petition was presented to 
the king and queen all here yourself excepted saw the king take it in 
his carriage in the street sitting beside the queen it is defarge whom 
you see here who at the hazard of his life darted out before the 
horses with the petition in his hand and once again listen jacques 
said the kneeling number three his fingers ever wandering over and 
over those fine nerves with a strikingly greedy air as if he hungered 
for somethingthat was neither food nor drink the guard horse and foot 
surrounded the petitioner and struck him blows you hear i hear 
messieurs go on then said defarge again on the other hand they whisper 
at the fountain resumed the countryman that he is brought down into 
our country to be executed on the spot and that he will very certainly 
be executed they even whisper that because he has slain monseigneur 
and because monseigneur was the father of his tenantsserfswhat you 
willhe will be executed as a parricide one old man says at the 
fountain that his right hand armed with the knife will be burnt off 
before his face that into wounds which will be made in his arms his 
breast and his legs there will be poured boiling oil melted lead hot 
resin wax and sulphur finally that he will be torn limb from limb by 
four strong horses that old man says all this was actually done to a 
prisoner who made an attempt on the life of the late king louis 
fifteen but how do i know if he lies i am not a scholar listen once 
again then jacques said the man with the restless hand and the craving 
air the name of that prisoner was damiens and it was all done in open 
day in the open streets of this city of paris and nothing was more 
noticed in the vast concourse that saw it done than the crowd of 
ladies of quality and fashion who were full of eager attention to the 
lastto the last jacques prolonged until nightfall when he had lost two 
legs and an arm and still breathed and it was donewhy how old are you 
thirtyfive said the mender of roads who looked sixty it was done when 
you were more than ten years old you might have seen it enough said 
defarge with grim impatience long live the devil go on well some 
whisper this some whisper that they speak of nothing else even the 
fountain appears to fall to that tune at length on sunday night when 
all the village is asleep come soldiers winding down from the prison 
and their guns ring on the stones of the little street workmen dig 
workmen hammer soldiers laugh and sing in the morning by the fountain 
there is raised a gallows forty feet high poisoning the water the 
mender of roads looked through rather than at the low ceiling and 
pointed as if he saw the gallows somewhere in the sky all work is 
stopped all assemble there nobody leads the cows out the cows are 
there with the rest at midday the roll of drums soldiers have marched 
into the prison in the night and he is in the midst of many soldiers 
he is bound as before and in his mouth there is a gagtied so with a 
tight string making him look almost as if he laughed he suggested it 
by creasing his face with his two thumbs from the corners of his mouth 
to his ears on the top of the gallows is fixed the knife blade upwards 
with its point in the air he is hanged there forty feet highand is 
left hanging poisoning the water they looked at one another as he used 
his blue cap to wipe his face on which the perspiration had started 
afresh while he recalled the spectacle it is frightful messieurs how 
can the women and the children draw water who can gossip of an evening 
under that shadow under it have i said when i left the village monday 
evening as the sun was going to bed and looked back from the hill the 
shadow struck across the church across the mill across the 
prisonseemed to strike across the earth messieurs to where the sky 
rests upon it the hungry man gnawed one of his fingers as he looked at 
the other three and his finger quivered with the craving that was on 
him thats all messieurs i left at sunset as i had been warned to do 
and i walked on that night and half next day until i met as i was 
warned i should this comrade with him i came on now riding and now 
walking through the rest of yesterday and through last night and here 
you see me after a gloomy silence the first jacques said good you have 
acted and recounted faithfully will you wait for us a little outside 
the door very willingly said the mender of roads whom defarge escorted 
to the top of the stairs and leaving seated there returned the three 
had risen and their heads were together when he came back to the 
garret how say you jacques demanded number one to be registered to be 
registered as doomed to destruction returned defarge magnificent 
croaked the man with the craving the chateau and all the race inquired 
the first the chateau and all the race returned defarge extermination 
the hungry man repeated in a rapturous croak magnificent and began 
gnawing another finger are you sure asked jacques two of defarge that 
no embarrassment can arise from our manner of keeping the register 
without doubt it is safe for no one beyond ourselves can decipher it 
but shall we always be able to decipher itor i ought to say will she 
jacques returned defarge drawing himself up if madame my wife 
undertook to keep the register in her memory alone she would not lose 
a word of itnot a syllable of it knitted in her own stitches and her 
own symbols it will always be as plain to her as the sun confide in 
madame defarge it would be easier for the weakest poltroon that lives 
to erase himself from existence than to erase one letter of his name 
or crimes from the knitted register of madame defarge there was a 
murmur of confidence and approval and then the man who hungered asked 
is this rustic to be sent back soon i hope so he is very simple is he 
not a little dangerous he knows nothing said defarge at least nothing 
more than would easily elevate himself to a gallows of the same height 
i charge myself with him let him remain with me i will take care of 
him and set him on his road he wishes to see the fine worldthe king 
the queen and court let him see them on sunday what exclaimed the 
hungry man staring is it a good sign that he wishes to see royalty and 
nobility jacques said defarge judiciously show a cat milk if you wish 
her to thirst for it judiciously show a dog his natural prey if you 
wish him to bring it down one day nothing more was said and the mender 
of roads being found already dozing on the topmost stair was advised 
to lay himself down on the palletbed and take some rest he needed no 
persuasion and was soon asleep worse quarters than defarges wineshop 
could easily have been found in paris for a provincial slave of that 
degree saving for a mysterious dread of madame by which he was 
constantly haunted his life was very new and agreeable but madame sat 
all day at her counter so expressly unconscious of him and so 
particularly determined not to perceive that his being there had any 
connection with anything below the surface that he shook in his wooden 
shoes whenever his eye lighted on her for he contended with himself 
that it was impossible to foresee what that lady might pretend next 
and he felt assured that if she should take it into her brightly 
ornamented head to pretend that she had seen him do a murder and 
afterwards flay the victim she would infallibly go through with it 
until the play was played out therefore when sunday came the mender of 
roads was not enchanted though he said he was to find that madame was 
to accompany monsieur and himself to versailles it was additionally 
disconcerting to have madame knitting all the way there in a public 
conveyance it was additionally disconcerting yet to have madame in the 
crowd in the afternoon still with her knitting in her hands as the 
crowd waited to see the carriage of the king and queen you work hard 
madame said a man near her yes answered madame defarge i have a good 
deal to do what do you make madame many things for instance for 
instance returned madame defarge composedly shrouds the man moved a 
little further away as soon as he could and the mender of roads fanned 
himself with his blue cap feeling it mightily close and oppressive if 
he needed a king and queen to restore him he was fortunate in having 
his remedy at hand for soon the largefaced king and the fairfaced 
queen came in their golden coach attended by the shining bulls eye of 
their court a glittering multitude of laughing ladies and fine lords 
and in jewels and silks and powder and splendour and elegantly 
spurning figures and handsomely disdainful faces of both sexes the 
mender of roads bathed himself so much to his temporary intoxication 
that he cried long live the king long live the queen long live 
everybody and everything as if he had never heard of ubiquitous 
jacques in his time then there were gardens courtyards terraces 
fountains green banks more king and queen more bulls eye more lords 
and ladies more long live they all until he absolutely wept with 
sentiment during the whole of this scene which lasted some three hours 
he had plenty of shouting and weeping and sentimental company and 
throughout defarge held him by the collar as if to restrain him from 
flying at the objects of his brief devotion and tearing them to pieces 
bravo said defarge clapping him on the back when it was over like a 
patron you are a good boy the mender of roads was now coming to 
himself and was mistrustful of having made a mistake in his late 
demonstrations but no you are the fellow we want said defarge in his 
ear you make these fools believe that it will last for ever then they 
are the more insolent and it is the nearer ended hey cried the mender 
of roads reflectively thats true these fools know nothing while they 
despise your breath and would stop it for ever and ever in you or in a 
hundred like you rather than in one of their own horses or dogs they 
only know what your breath tells them let it deceive them then a 
little longer it cannot deceive them too much madame defarge looked 
superciliously at the client and nodded in confirmation as to you said 
she you would shout and shed tears for anything if it made a show and 
a noise say would you not truly madame i think so for the moment if 
you were shown a great heap of dolls and were set upon them to pluck 
them to pieces and despoil them for your own advantage you would pick 
out the richest and gayest say would you not truly yes madame yes and 
if you were shown a flock of birds unable to fly and were set upon 
them to strip them of their feathers for your own advantage you would 
set upon the birds of the finest feathers would you not it is true 
madame you have seen both dolls and birds today said madame defarge 
with a wave of her hand towards the place where they had last been 
apparent now go home xvi still knitting madame defarge and monsieur 
her husband returned amicably to the bosom of saint antoine while a 
speck in a blue cap toiled through the darkness and through the dust 
and down the weary miles of avenue by the wayside slowly tending 
towards that point of the compass where the chateau of monsieur the 
marquis now in his grave listened to the whispering trees such ample 
leisure had the stone faces now for listening to the trees and to the 
fountain that the few village scarecrows who in their quest for herbs 
to eat and fragments of dead stick to burn strayed within sight of the 
great stone courtyard and terrace staircase had it borne in upon their 
starved fancy that the expression of the faces was altered a rumour 
just lived in the villagehad a faint and bare existence there as its 
people hadthat when the knife struck home the faces changed from faces 
of pride to faces of anger and pain also that when that dangling 
figure was hauled up forty feet above the fountain they changed again 
and bore a cruel look of being avenged which they would henceforth 
bear for ever in the stone face over the great window of the 
bedchamber where the murder was done two fine dints were pointed out 
in the sculptured nose which everybody recognised and which nobody had 
seen of old and on the scarce occasions when two or three ragged 
peasants emerged from the crowd to take a hurried peep at monsieur the 
marquis petrified a skinny finger would not have pointed to it for a 
minute before they all started away among the moss and leaves like the 
more fortunate hares who could find a living there chateau and hut 
stone face and dangling figure the red stain on the stone floor and 
the pure water in the village wellthousands of acres of landa whole 
province of franceall france itselflay under the night sky 
concentrated into a faint hairbreadth line so does a whole world with 
all its greatnesses and littlenesses lie in a twinkling star and as 
mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner 
of its composition so sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble 
shining of this earth of ours every thought and act every vice and 
virtue of every responsible creature on it the defarges husband and 
wife came lumbering under the starlight in their public vehicle to 
that gate of paris whereunto their journey naturally tended there was 
the usual stoppage at the barrier guardhouse and the usual lanterns 
came glancing forth for the usual examination and inquiry monsieur 
defarge alighted knowing one or two of the soldiery there and one of 
the police the latter he was intimate with and affectionately embraced 
when saint antoine had again enfolded the defarges in his dusky wings 
and they having finally alighted near the saints boundaries were 
picking their way on foot through the black mud and offal of his 
streets madame defarge spoke to her husband say then my friend what 
did jacques of the police tell thee very little tonight but all he 
knows there is another spy commissioned for our quarter there may be 
many more for all that he can say but he knows of one eh well said 
madame defarge raising her eyebrows with a cool business air it is 
necessary to register him how do they call that man he is english so 
much the better his name barsad said defarge making it french by 
pronunciation but he had been so careful to get it accurately that he 
then spelt it with perfect correctness barsad repeated madame good 
christian name john john barsad repeated madame after murmuring it 
once to herself good his appearance is it known age about forty years 
height about five feet nine black hair complexion dark generally 
rather handsome visage eyes dark face thin long and sallow nose 
aquiline but not straight having a peculiar inclination towards the 
left cheek expression therefore sinister eh my faith it is a portrait 
said madame laughing he shall be registered tomorrow they turned into 
the wineshop which was closed for it was midnight and where madame 
defarge immediately took her post at her desk counted the small moneys 
that had been taken during her absence examined the stock went through 
the entries in the book made other entries of her own checked the 
serving man in every possible way and finally dismissed him to bed 
then she turned out the contents of the bowl of money for the second 
time and began knotting them up in her handkerchief in a chain of 
separate knots for safe keeping through the night all this while 
defarge with his pipe in his mouth walked up and down complacently 
admiring but never interfering in which condition indeed as to the 
business and his domestic affairs he walked up and down through life 
the night was hot and the shop close shut and surrounded by so foul a 
neighbourhood was illsmelling monsieur defarges olfactory sense was by 
no means delicate but the stock of wine smelt much stronger than it 
ever tasted and so did the stock of rum and brandy and aniseed he 
whiffed the compound of scents away as he put down his smokedout pipe 
you are fatigued said madame raising her glance as she knotted the 
money there are only the usual odours i am a little tired her husband 
acknowledged you are a little depressed too said madame whose quick 
eyes had never been so intent on the accounts but they had had a ray 
or two for him oh the men the men but my dear began defarge but my 
dear repeated madame nodding firmly but my dear you are faint of heart 
tonight my dear well then said defarge as if a thought were wrung out 
of his breast it is a long time it is a long time repeated his wife 
and when is it not a long time vengeance and retribution require a 
long time it is the rule it does not take a long time to strike a man 
with lightning said defarge how long demanded madame composedly does 
it take to make and store the lightning tell me defarge raised his 
head thoughtfully as if there were something in that too it does not 
take a long time said madame for an earthquake to swallow a town eh 
well tell me how long it takes to prepare the earthquake a long time i 
suppose said defarge but when it is ready it takes place and grinds to 
pieces everything before it in the meantime it is always preparing 
though it is not seen or heard that is your consolation keep it she 
tied a knot with flashing eyes as if it throttled a foe i tell thee 
said madame extending her right hand for emphasis that although it is 
a long time on the road it is on the road and coming i tell thee it 
never retreats and never stops i tell thee it is always advancing look 
around and consider the lives of all the world that we know consider 
the faces of all the world that we know consider the rage and 
discontent to which the jacquerie addresses itself with more and more 
of certainty every hour can such things last bah i mock you my brave 
wife returned defarge standing before her with his head a little bent 
and his hands clasped at his back like a docile and attentive pupil 
before his catechist i do not question all this but it has lasted a 
long time and it is possibleyou know well my wife it is possiblethat 
it may not come during our lives eh well how then demanded madame 
tying another knot as if there were another enemy strangled well said 
defarge with a half complaining and half apologetic shrug we shall not 
see the triumph we shall have helped it returned madame with her 
extended hand in strong action nothing that we do is done in vain i 
believe with all my soul that we shall see the triumph but even if not 
even if i knew certainly not show me the neck of an aristocrat and 
tyrant and still i would then madame with her teeth set tied a very 
terrible knot indeed hold cried defarge reddening a little as if he 
felt charged with cowardice i too my dear will stop at nothing yes but 
it is your weakness that you sometimes need to see your victim and 
your opportunity to sustain you sustain yourself without that when the 
time comes let loose a tiger and a devil but wait for the time with 
the tiger and the devil chainednot shownyet always ready madame 
enforced the conclusion of this piece of advice by striking her little 
counter with her chain of money as if she knocked its brains out and 
then gathering the heavy handkerchief under her arm in a serene manner 
and observing that it was time to go to bed next noontide saw the 
admirable woman in her usual place in the wineshop knitting away 
assiduously a rose lay beside her and if she now and then glanced at 
the flower it was with no infraction of her usual preoccupied air 
there were a few customers drinking or not drinking standing or seated 
sprinkled about the day was very hot and heaps of flies who were 
extending their inquisitive and adventurous perquisitions into all the 
glutinous little glasses near madame fell dead at the bottom their 
decease made no impression on the other flies out promenading who 
looked at them in the coolest manner as if they themselves were 
elephants or something as far removed until they met the same fate 
curious to consider how heedless flies areperhaps they thought as much 
at court that sunny summer day a figure entering at the door threw a 
shadow on madame defarge which she felt to be a new one she laid down 
her knitting and began to pin her rose in her headdress before she 
looked at the figure it was curious the moment madame defarge took up 
the rose the customers ceased talking and began gradually to drop out 
of the wineshop good day madame said the newcomer good day monsieur 
she said it aloud but added to herself as she resumed her knitting hah 
good day age about forty height about five feet nine black hair 
generally rather handsome visage complexion dark eyes dark thin long 
and sallow face aquiline nose but not straight having a peculiar 
inclination towards the left cheek which imparts a sinister expression 
good day one and all have the goodness to give me a little glass of 
old cognac and a mouthful of cool fresh water madame madame complied 
with a polite air marvellous cognac this madame it was the first time 
it had ever been so complemented and madame defarge knew enough of its 
antecedents to know better she said however that the cognac was 
flattered and took up her knitting the visitor watched her fingers for 
a few moments and took the opportunity of observing the place in 
general you knit with great skill madame i am accustomed to it a 
pretty pattern too you think so said madame looking at him with a 
smile decidedly may one ask what it is for pastime said madame still 
looking at him with a smile while her fingers moved nimbly not for use 
that depends i may find a use for it one day if i dowell said madame 
drawing a breath and nodding her head with a stern kind of coquetry 
ill use it it was remarkable but the taste of saint antoine seemed to 
be decidedly opposed to a rose on the headdress of madame defarge two 
men had entered separately and had been about to order drink when 
catching sight of that novelty they faltered made a pretence of 
looking about as if for some friend who was not there and went away 
nor of those who had been there when this visitor entered was there 
one left they had all dropped off the spy had kept his eyes open but 
had been able to detect no sign they had lounged away in a 
povertystricken purposeless accidental manner quite natural and 
unimpeachable john thought madame checking off her work as her fingers 
knitted and her eyes looked at the stranger stay long enough and i 
shall knit barsad before you go you have a husband madame i have 
children no children business seems bad business is very bad the 
people are so poor ah the unfortunate miserable people so oppressed 
tooas you say as you say madame retorted correcting him and deftly 
knitting an extra something into his name that boded him no good 
pardon me certainly it was i who said so but you naturally think so of 
course i think returned madame in a high voice i and my husband have 
enough to do to keep this wineshop open without thinking all we think 
here is how to live that is the subject we think of and it gives us 
from morning to night enough to think about without embarrassing our 
heads concerning others i think for others no no the spy who was there 
to pick up any crumbs he could find or make did not allow his baffled 
state to express itself in his sinister face but stood with an air of 
gossiping gallantry leaning his elbow on madame defarges little 
counter and occasionally sipping his cognac a bad business this madame 
of gaspards execution ah the poor gaspard with a sigh of great 
compassion my faith returned madame coolly and lightly if people use 
knives for such purposes they have to pay for it he knew beforehand 
what the price of his luxury was he has paid the price i believe said 
the spy dropping his soft voice to a tone that invited confidence and 
expressing an injured revolutionary susceptibility in every muscle of 
his wicked face i believe there is much compassion and anger in this 
neighbourhood touching the poor fellow between ourselves is there 
asked madame vacantly is there not here is my husband said madame 
defarge as the keeper of the wineshop entered at the door the spy 
saluted him by touching his hat and saying with an engaging smile good 
day jacques defarge stopped short and stared at him good day jacques 
the spy repeated with not quite so much confidence or quite so easy a 
smile under the stare you deceive yourself monsieur returned the 
keeper of the wineshop you mistake me for another that is not my name 
i am ernest defarge it is all the same said the spy airily but 
discomfited too good day good day answered defarge drily i was saying 
to madame with whom i had the pleasure of chatting when you entered 
that they tell me there isand no wondermuch sympathy and anger in 
saint antoine touching the unhappy fate of poor gaspard no one has 
told me so said defarge shaking his head i know nothing of it having 
said it he passed behind the little counter and stood with his hand on 
the back of his wifes chair looking over that barrier at the person to 
whom they were both opposed and whom either of them would have shot 
with the greatest satisfaction the spy well used to his business did 
not change his unconscious attitude but drained his little glass of 
cognac took a sip of fresh water and asked for another glass of cognac 
madame defarge poured it out for him took to her knitting again and 
hummed a little song over it you seem to know this quarter well that 
is to say better than i do observed defarge not at all but i hope to 
know it better i am so profoundly interested in its miserable 
inhabitants hah muttered defarge the pleasure of conversing with you 
monsieur defarge recalls to me pursued the spy that i have the honour 
of cherishing some interesting associations with your name indeed said 
defarge with much indifference yes indeed when doctor manette was 
released you his old domestic had the charge of him i know he was 
delivered to you you see i am informed of the circumstances such is 
the fact certainly said defarge he had had it conveyed to him in an 
accidental touch of his wifes elbow as she knitted and warbled that he 
would do best to answer but always with brevity it was to you said the 
spy that his daughter came and it was from your care that his daughter 
took him accompanied by a neat brown monsieur how is he calledin a 
little wiglorryof the bank of tellson and companyover to england such 
is the fact repeated defarge very interesting remembrances said the 
spy i have known doctor manette and his daughter in england yes said 
defarge you dont hear much about them now said the spy no said defarge 
in effect madame struck in looking up from her work and her little 
song we never hear about them we received the news of their safe 
arrival and perhaps another letter or perhaps two but since then they 
have gradually taken their road in lifewe oursand we have held no 
correspondence perfectly so madame replied the spy she is going to be 
married going echoed madame she was pretty enough to have been married 
long ago you english are cold it seems to me oh you know i am english 
i perceive your tongue is returned madame and what the tongue is i 
suppose the man is he did not take the identification as a compliment 
but he made the best of it and turned it off with a laugh after 
sipping his cognac to the end he added yes miss manette is going to be 
married but not to an englishman to one who like herself is french by 
birth and speaking of gaspard ah poor gaspard it was cruel cruel it is 
a curious thing that she is going to marry the nephew of monsieur the 
marquis for whom gaspard was exalted to that height of so many feet in 
other words the present marquis but he lives unknown in england he is 
no marquis there he is mr charles darnay daulnais is the name of his 
mothers family madame defarge knitted steadily but the intelligence 
had a palpable effect upon her husband do what he would behind the 
little counter as to the striking of a light and the lighting of his 
pipe he was troubled and his hand was not trustworthy the spy would 
have been no spy if he had failed to see it or to record it in his 
mind having made at least this one hit whatever it might prove to be 
worth and no customers coming in to help him to any other mr barsad 
paid for what he had drunk and took his leave taking occasion to say 
in a genteel manner before he departed that he looked forward to the 
pleasure of seeing monsieur and madame defarge again for some minutes 
after he had emerged into the outer presence of saint antoine the 
husband and wife remained exactly as he had left them lest he should 
come back can it be true said defarge in a low voice looking down at 
his wife as he stood smoking with his hand on the back of her chair 
what he has said of maamselle manette as he has said it returned 
madame lifting her eyebrows a little it is probably false but it may 
be true if it is defarge began and stopped if it is repeated his wife 
and if it does come while we live to see it triumphi hope for her sake 
destiny will keep her husband out of france her husbands destiny said 
madame defarge with her usual composure will take him where he is to 
go and will lead him to the end that is to end him that is all i know 
but it is very strangenow at least is it not very strangesaid defarge 
rather pleading with his wife to induce her to admit it that after all 
our sympathy for monsieur her father and herself her husbands name 
should be proscribed under your hand at this moment by the side of 
that infernal dogs who has just left us stranger things than that will 
happen when it does come answered madame i have them both here of a 
certainty and they are both here for their merits that is enough she 
rolled up her knitting when she had said those words and presently 
took the rose out of the handkerchief that was wound about her head 
either saint antoine had an instinctive sense that the objectionable 
decoration was gone or saint antoine was on the watch for its 
disappearance howbeit the saint took courage to lounge in very shortly 
afterwards and the wineshop recovered its habitual aspect in the 
evening at which season of all others saint antoine turned himself 
inside out and sat on doorsteps and windowledges and came to the 
corners of vile streets and courts for a breath of air madame defarge 
with her work in her hand was accustomed to pass from place to place 
and from group to group a missionarythere were many like hersuch as 
the world will do well never to breed again all the women knitted they 
knitted worthless things but the mechanical work was a mechanical 
substitute for eating and drinking the hands moved for the jaws and 
the digestive apparatus if the bony fingers had been still the 
stomachs would have been more faminepinched but as the fingers went 
the eyes went and the thoughts and as madame defarge moved on from 
group to group all three went quicker and fiercer among every little 
knot of women that she had spoken with and left behind her husband 
smoked at his door looking after her with admiration a great woman 
said he a strong woman a grand woman a frightfully grand woman 
darkness closed around and then came the ringing of church bells and 
the distant beating of the military drums in the palace courtyard as 
the women sat knitting knitting darkness encompassed them another 
darkness was closing in as surely when the church bells then ringing 
pleasantly in many an airy steeple over france should be melted into 
thundering cannon when the military drums should be beating to drown a 
wretched voice that night all potent as the voice of power and plenty 
freedom and life so much was closing in about the women who sat 
knitting knitting that they their very selves were closing in around a 
structure yet unbuilt where they were to sit knitting knitting 
counting dropping heads xvii one night never did the sun go down with 
a brighter glory on the quiet corner in soho than one memorable 
evening when the doctor and his daughter sat under the planetree 
together never did the moon rise with a milder radiance over great 
london than on that night when it found them still seated under the 
tree and shone upon their faces through its leaves lucie was to be 
married tomorrow she had reserved this last evening for her father and 
they sat alone under the planetree you are happy my dear father quite 
my child they had said little though they had been there a long time 
when it was yet light enough to work and read she had neither engaged 
herself in her usual work nor had she read to him she had employed 
herself in both ways at his side under the tree many and many a time 
but this time was not quite like any other and nothing could make it 
so and i am very happy tonight dear father i am deeply happy in the 
love that heaven has so blessedmy love for charles and charless love 
for me but if my life were not to be still consecrated to you or if my 
marriage were so arranged as that it would part us even by the length 
of a few of these streets i should be more unhappy and selfreproachful 
now than i can tell you even as it is even as it was she could not 
command her voice in the sad moonlight she clasped him by the neck and 
laid her face upon his breast in the moonlight which is always sad as 
the light of the sun itself isas the light called human life isat its 
coming and its going dearest dear can you tell me this last time that 
you feel quite quite sure no new affections of mine and no new duties 
of mine will ever interpose between us i know it well but do you know 
it in your own heart do you feel quite certain her father answered 
with a cheerful firmness of conviction he could scarcely have assumed 
quite sure my darling more than that he added as he tenderly kissed 
her my future is far brighter lucie seen through your marriage than it 
could have beennay than it ever waswithout it if i could hope that my 
father believe it love indeed it is so consider how natural and how 
plain it is my dear that it should be so you devoted and young cannot 
fully appreciate the anxiety i have felt that your life should not be 
wasted she moved her hand towards his lips but he took it in his and 
repeated the word wasted my childshould not be wasted struck aside 
from the natural order of thingsfor my sake your unselfishness cannot 
entirely comprehend how much my mind has gone on this but only ask 
yourself how could my happiness be perfect while yours was incomplete 
if i had never seen charles my father i should have been quite happy 
with you he smiled at her unconscious admission that she would have 
been unhappy without charles having seen him and replied my child you 
did see him and it is charles if it had not been charles it would have 
been another or if it had been no other i should have been the cause 
and then the dark part of my life would have cast its shadow beyond 
myself and would have fallen on you it was the first time except at 
the trial of her ever hearing him refer to the period of his suffering 
it gave her a strange and new sensation while his words were in her 
ears and she remembered it long afterwards see said the doctor of 
beauvais raising his hand towards the moon i have looked at her from 
my prisonwindow when i could not bear her light i have looked at her 
when it has been such torture to me to think of her shining upon what 
i had lost that i have beaten my head against my prisonwalls i have 
looked at her in a state so dun and lethargic that i have thought of 
nothing but the number of horizontal lines i could draw across her at 
the full and the number of perpendicular lines with which i could 
intersect them he added in his inward and pondering manner as he 
looked at the moon it was twenty either way i remember and the 
twentieth was difficult to squeeze in the strange thrill with which 
she heard him go back to that time deepened as he dwelt upon it but 
there was nothing to shock her in the manner of his reference he only 
seemed to contrast his present cheerfulness and felicity with the dire 
endurance that was over i have looked at her speculating thousands of 
times upon the unborn child from whom i had been rent whether it was 
alive whether it had been born alive or the poor mothers shock had 
killed it whether it was a son who would some day avenge his father 
there was a time in my imprisonment when my desire for vengeance was 
unbearable whether it was a son who would never know his fathers story 
who might even live to weigh the possibility of his fathers having 
disappeared of his own will and act whether it was a daughter who 
would grow to be a woman she drew closer to him and kissed his cheek 
and his hand i have pictured my daughter to myself as perfectly 
forgetful of me rather altogether ignorant of me and unconscious of me 
i have cast up the years of her age year after year i have seen her 
married to a man who knew nothing of my fate i have altogether 
perished from the remembrance of the living and in the next generation 
my place was a blank my father even to hear that you had such thoughts 
of a daughter who never existed strikes to my heart as if i had been 
that child you lucie it is out of the consolation and restoration you 
have brought to me that these remembrances arise and pass between us 
and the moon on this last nightwhat did i say just now she knew 
nothing of you she cared nothing for you so but on other moonlight 
nights when the sadness and the silence have touched me in a different 
wayhave affected me with something as like a sorrowful sense of peace 
as any emotion that had pain for its foundations couldi have imagined 
her as coming to me in my cell and leading me out into the freedom 
beyond the fortress i have seen her image in the moonlight often as i 
now see you except that i never held her in my arms it stood between 
the little grated window and the door but you understand that that was 
not the child i am speaking of the figure was not thetheimage the 
fancy no that was another thing it stood before my disturbed sense of 
sight but it never moved the phantom that my mind pursued was another 
and more real child of her outward appearance i know no more than that 
she was like her mother the other had that likeness too as you havebut 
was not the same can you follow me lucie hardly i think i doubt you 
must have been a solitary prisoner to understand these perplexed 
distinctions his collected and calm manner could not prevent her blood 
from running cold as he thus tried to anatomise his old condition in 
that more peaceful state i have imagined her in the moonlight coming 
to me and taking me out to show me that the home of her married life 
was full of her loving remembrance of her lost father my picture was 
in her room and i was in her prayers her life was active cheerful 
useful but my poor history pervaded it all i was that child my father 
i was not half so good but in my love that was i and she showed me her 
children said the doctor of beauvais and they had heard of me and had 
been taught to pity me when they passed a prison of the state they 
kept far from its frowning walls and looked up at its bars and spoke 
in whispers she could never deliver me i imagined that she always 
brought me back after showing me such things but then blessed with the 
relief of tears i fell upon my knees and blessed her i am that child i 
hope my father o my dear my dear will you bless me as fervently 
tomorrow lucie i recall these old troubles in the reason that i have 
tonight for loving you better than words can tell and thanking god for 
my great happiness my thoughts when they were wildest never rose near 
the happiness that i have known with you and that we have before us he 
embraced her solemnly commended her to heaven and humbly thanked 
heaven for having bestowed her on him byandbye they went into the 
house there was no one bidden to the marriage but mr lorry there was 
even to be no bridesmaid but the gaunt miss pross the marriage was to 
make no change in their place of residence they had been able to 
extend it by taking to themselves the upper rooms formerly belonging 
to the apocryphal invisible lodger and they desired nothing more 
doctor manette was very cheerful at the little supper they were only 
three at table and miss pross made the third he regretted that charles 
was not there was more than half disposed to object to the loving 
little plot that kept him away and drank to him affectionately so the 
time came for him to bid lucie good night and they separated but in 
the stillness of the third hour of the morning lucie came downstairs 
again and stole into his room not free from unshaped fears beforehand 
all things however were in their places all was quiet and he lay 
asleep his white hair picturesque on the untroubled pillow and his 
hands lying quiet on the coverlet she put her needless candle in the 
shadow at a distance crept up to his bed and put her lips to his then 
leaned over him and looked at him into his handsome face the bitter 
waters of captivity had worn but he covered up their tracks with a 
determination so strong that he held the mastery of them even in his 
sleep a more remarkable face in its quiet resolute and guarded 
struggle with an unseen assailant was not to be beheld in all the wide 
dominions of sleep that night she timidly laid her hand on his dear 
breast and put up a prayer that she might ever be as true to him as 
her love aspired to be and as his sorrows deserved then she withdrew 
her hand and kissed his lips once more and went away so the sunrise 
came and the shadows of the leaves of the planetree moved upon his 
face as softly as her lips had moved in praying for him xviii nine 
days the marriageday was shining brightly and they were ready outside 
the closed door of the doctors room where he was speaking with charles 
darnay they were ready to go to church the beautiful bride mr lorry 
and miss prossto whom the event through a gradual process of 
reconcilement to the inevitable would have been one of absolute bliss 
but for the yet lingering consideration that her brother solomon 
should have been the bridegroom and so said mr lorry who could not 
sufficiently admire the bride and who had been moving round her to 
take in every point of her quiet pretty dress and so it was for this 
my sweet lucie that i brought you across the channel such a baby lord 
bless me how little i thought what i was doing how lightly i valued 
the obligation i was conferring on my friend mr charles you didnt mean 
it remarked the matteroffact miss pross and therefore how could you 
know it nonsense really well but dont cry said the gentle mr lorry i 
am not crying said miss pross you are i my pross by this time mr lorry 
dared to be pleasant with her on occasion you were just now i saw you 
do it and i dont wonder at it such a present of plate as you have made 
em is enough to bring tears into anybodys eyes theres not a fork or a 
spoon in the collection said miss pross that i didnt cry over last 
night after the box came till i couldnt see it i am highly gratified 
said mr lorry though upon my honour i had no intention of rendering 
those trifling articles of remembrance invisible to any one dear me 
this is an occasion that makes a man speculate on all he has lost dear 
dear dear to think that there might have been a mrs lorry any time 
these fifty years almost not at all from miss pross you think there 
never might have been a mrs lorry asked the gentleman of that name 
pooh rejoined miss pross you were a bachelor in your cradle well 
observed mr lorry beamingly adjusting his little wig that seems 
probable too and you were cut out for a bachelor pursued miss pross 
before you were put in your cradle then i think said mr lorry that i 
was very unhandsomely dealt with and that i ought to have had a voice 
in the selection of my pattern enough now my dear lucie drawing his 
arm soothingly round her waist i hear them moving in the next room and 
miss pross and i as two formal folks of business are anxious not to 
lose the final opportunity of saying something to you that you wish to 
hear you leave your good father my dear in hands as earnest and as 
loving as your own he shall be taken every conceivable care of during 
the next fortnight while you are in warwickshire and thereabouts even 
tellsons shall go to the wall comparatively speaking before him and 
when at the fortnights end he comes to join you and your beloved 
husband on your other fortnights trip in wales you shall say that we 
have sent him to you in the best health and in the happiest frame now 
i hear somebodys step coming to the door let me kiss my dear girl with 
an oldfashioned bachelor blessing before somebody comes to claim his 
own for a moment he held the fair face from him to look at the 
wellremembered expression on the forehead and then laid the bright 
golden hair against his little brown wig with a genuine tenderness and 
delicacy which if such things be oldfashioned were as old as adam the 
door of the doctors room opened and he came out with charles darnay he 
was so deadly palewhich had not been the case when they went in 
togetherthat no vestige of colour was to be seen in his face but in 
the composure of his manner he was unaltered except that to the shrewd 
glance of mr lorry it disclosed some shadowy indication that the old 
air of avoidance and dread had lately passed over him like a cold wind 
he gave his arm to his daughter and took her downstairs to the chariot 
which mr lorry had hired in honour of the day the rest followed in 
another carriage and soon in a neighbouring church where no strange 
eyes looked on charles darnay and lucie manette were happily married 
besides the glancing tears that shone among the smiles of the little 
group when it was done some diamonds very bright and sparkling glanced 
on the brides hand which were newly released from the dark obscurity 
of one of mr lorrys pockets they returned home to breakfast and all 
went well and in due course the golden hair that had mingled with the 
poor shoemakers white locks in the paris garret were mingled with them 
again in the morning sunlight on the threshold of the door at parting 
it was a hard parting though it was not for long but her father 
cheered her and said at last gently disengaging himself from her 
enfolding arms take her charles she is yours and her agitated hand 
waved to them from a chaise window and she was gone the corner being 
out of the way of the idle and curious and the preparations having 
been very simple and few the doctor mr lorry and miss pross were left 
quite alone it was when they turned into the welcome shade of the cool 
old hall that mr lorry observed a great change to have come over the 
doctor as if the golden arm uplifted there had struck him a poisoned 
blow he had naturally repressed much and some revulsion might have 
been expected in him when the occasion for repression was gone but it 
was the old scared lost look that troubled mr lorry and through his 
absent manner of clasping his head and drearily wandering away into 
his own room when they got upstairs mr lorry was reminded of defarge 
the wineshop keeper and the starlight ride i think he whispered to 
miss pross after anxious consideration i think we had best not speak 
to him just now or at all disturb him i must look in at tellsons so i 
will go there at once and come back presently then we will take him a 
ride into the country and dine there and all will be well it was 
easier for mr lorry to look in at tellsons than to look out of 
tellsons he was detained two hours when he came back he ascended the 
old staircase alone having asked no question of the servant going thus 
into the doctors rooms he was stopped by a low sound of knocking good 
god he said with a start whats that miss pross with a terrified face 
was at his ear o me o me all is lost cried she wringing her hands what 
is to be told to ladybird he doesnt know me and is making shoes mr 
lorry said what he could to calm her and went himself into the doctors 
room the bench was turned towards the light as it had been when he had 
seen the shoemaker at his work before and his head was bent down and 
he was very busy doctor manette my dear friend doctor manette the 
doctor looked at him for a momenthalf inquiringly half as if he were 
angry at being spoken toand bent over his work again he had laid aside 
his coat and waistcoat his shirt was open at the throat as it used to 
be when he did that work and even the old haggard faded surface of 
face had come back to him he worked hard impatientlyas if in some 
sense of having been interrupted mr lorry glanced at the work in his 
hand and observed that it was a shoe of the old size and shape he took 
up another that was lying by him and asked what it was a young ladys 
walking shoe he muttered without looking up it ought to have been 
finished long ago let it be but doctor manette look at me he obeyed in 
the old mechanically submissive manner without pausing in his work you 
know me my dear friend think again this is not your proper occupation 
think dear friend nothing would induce him to speak more he looked up 
for an instant at a time when he was requested to do so but no 
persuasion would extract a word from him he worked and worked and 
worked in silence and words fell on him as they would have fallen on 
an echoless wall or on the air the only ray of hope that mr lorry 
could discover was that he sometimes furtively looked up without being 
asked in that there seemed a faint expression of curiosity or 
perplexityas though he were trying to reconcile some doubts in his 
mind two things at once impressed themselves on mr lorry as important 
above all others the first that this must be kept secret from lucie 
the second that it must be kept secret from all who knew him in 
conjunction with miss pross he took immediate steps towards the latter 
precaution by giving out that the doctor was not well and required a 
few days of complete rest in aid of the kind deception to be practised 
on his daughter miss pross was to write describing his having been 
called away professionally and referring to an imaginary letter of two 
or three hurried lines in his own hand represented to have been 
addressed to her by the same post these measures advisable to be taken 
in any case mr lorry took in the hope of his coming to himself if that 
should happen soon he kept another course in reserve which was to have 
a certain opinion that he thought the best on the doctors case in the 
hope of his recovery and of resort to this third course being thereby 
rendered practicable mr lorry resolved to watch him attentively with 
as little appearance as possible of doing so he therefore made 
arrangements to absent himself from tellsons for the first time in his 
life and took his post by the window in the same room he was not long 
in discovering that it was worse than useless to speak to him since on 
being pressed he became worried he abandoned that attempt on the first 
day and resolved merely to keep himself always before him as a silent 
protest against the delusion into which he had fallen or was falling 
he remained therefore in his seat near the window reading and writing 
and expressing in as many pleasant and natural ways as he could think 
of that it was a free place doctor manette took what was given him to 
eat and drink and worked on that first day until it was too dark to 
seeworked on half an hour after mr lorry could not have seen for his 
life to read or write when he put his tools aside as useless until 
morning mr lorry rose and said to him will you go out he looked down 
at the floor on either side of him in the old manner looked up in the 
old manner and repeated in the old low voice out yes for a walk with 
me why not he made no effort to say why not and said not a word more 
but mr lorry thought he saw as he leaned forward on his bench in the 
dusk with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands that he 
was in some misty way asking himself why not the sagacity of the man 
of business perceived an advantage here and determined to hold it miss 
pross and he divided the night into two watches and observed him at 
intervals from the adjoining room he paced up and down for a long time 
before he lay down but when he did finally lay himself down he fell 
asleep in the morning he was up betimes and went straight to his bench 
and to work on this second day mr lorry saluted him cheerfully by his 
name and spoke to him on topics that had been of late familiar to them 
he returned no reply but it was evident that he heard what was said 
and that he thought about it however confusedly this encouraged mr 
lorry to have miss pross in with her work several times during the day 
at those times they quietly spoke of lucie and of her father then 
present precisely in the usual manner and as if there were nothing 
amiss this was done without any demonstrative accompaniment not long 
enough or often enough to harass him and it lightened mr lorrys 
friendly heart to believe that he looked up oftener and that he 
appeared to be stirred by some perception of inconsistencies 
surrounding him when it fell dark again mr lorry asked him as before 
dear doctor will you go out as before he repeated out yes for a walk 
with me why not this time mr lorry feigned to go out when he could 
extract no answer from him and after remaining absent for an hour 
returned in the meanwhile the doctor had removed to the seat in the 
window and had sat there looking down at the planetree but on mr 
lorrys return he slipped away to his bench the time went very slowly 
on and mr lorrys hope darkened and his heart grew heavier again and 
grew yet heavier and heavier every day the third day came and went the 
fourth the fifth five days six days seven days eight days nine days 
with a hope ever darkening and with a heart always growing heavier and 
heavier mr lorry passed through this anxious time the secret was well 
kept and lucie was unconscious and happy but he could not fail to 
observe that the shoemaker whose hand had been a little out at first 
was growing dreadfully skilful and that he had never been so intent on 
his work and that his hands had never been so nimble and expert as in 
the dusk of the ninth evening xix an opinion worn out by anxious 
watching mr lorry fell asleep at his post on the tenth morning of his 
suspense he was startled by the shining of the sun into the room where 
a heavy slumber had overtaken him when it was dark night he rubbed his 
eyes and roused himself but he doubted when he had done so whether he 
was not still asleep for going to the door of the doctors room and 
looking in he perceived that the shoemakers bench and tools were put 
aside again and that the doctor himself sat reading at the window he 
was in his usual morning dress and his face which mr lorry could 
distinctly see though still very pale was calmly studious and 
attentive even when he had satisfied himself that he was awake mr 
lorry felt giddily uncertain for some few moments whether the late 
shoemaking might not be a disturbed dream of his own for did not his 
eyes show him his friend before him in his accustomed clothing and 
aspect and employed as usual and was there any sign within their range 
that the change of which he had so strong an impression had actually 
happened it was but the inquiry of his first confusion and 
astonishment the answer being obvious if the impression were not 
produced by a real corresponding and sufficient cause how came he 
jarvis lorry there how came he to have fallen asleep in his clothes on 
the sofa in doctor manettes consultingroom and to be debating these 
points outside the doctors bedroom door in the early morning within a 
few minutes miss pross stood whispering at his side if he had had any 
particle of doubt left her talk would of necessity have resolved it 
but he was by that time clearheaded and had none he advised that they 
should let the time go by until the regular breakfasthour and should 
then meet the doctor as if nothing unusual had occurred if he appeared 
to be in his customary state of mind mr lorry would then cautiously 
proceed to seek direction and guidance from the opinion he had been in 
his anxiety so anxious to obtain miss pross submitting herself to his 
judgment the scheme was worked out with care having abundance of time 
for his usual methodical toilette mr lorry presented himself at the 
breakfasthour in his usual white linen and with his usual neat leg the 
doctor was summoned in the usual way and came to breakfast so far as 
it was possible to comprehend him without overstepping those delicate 
and gradual approaches which mr lorry felt to be the only safe advance 
he at first supposed that his daughters marriage had taken place 
yesterday an incidental allusion purposely thrown out to the day of 
the week and the day of the month set him thinking and counting and 
evidently made him uneasy in all other respects however he was so 
composedly himself that mr lorry determined to have the aid he sought 
and that aid was his own therefore when the breakfast was done and 
cleared away and he and the doctor were left together mr lorry said 
feelingly my dear manette i am anxious to have your opinion in 
confidence on a very curious case in which i am deeply interested that 
is to say it is very curious to me perhaps to your better information 
it may be less so glancing at his hands which were discoloured by his 
late work the doctor looked troubled and listened attentively he had 
already glanced at his hands more than once doctor manette said mr 
lorry touching him affectionately on the arm the case is the case of a 
particularly dear friend of mine pray give your mind to it and advise 
me well for his sakeand above all for his daughtershis daughters my 
dear manette if i understand said the doctor in a subdued tone some 
mental shock yes be explicit said the doctor spare no detail mr lorry 
saw that they understood one another and proceeded my dear manette it 
is the case of an old and a prolonged shock of great acuteness and 
severity to the affections the feelings thetheas you express itthe 
mind the mind it is the case of a shock under which the sufferer was 
borne down one cannot say for how long because i believe he cannot 
calculate the time himself and there are no other means of getting at 
it it is the case of a shock from which the sufferer recovered by a 
process that he cannot trace himselfas i once heard him publicly 
relate in a striking manner it is the case of a shock from which he 
has recovered so completely as to be a highly intelligent man capable 
of close application of mind and great exertion of body and of 
constantly making fresh additions to his stock of knowledge which was 
already very large but unfortunately there has been he paused and took 
a deep breatha slight relapse the doctor in a low voice asked of how 
long duration nine days and nights how did it show itself i infer 
glancing at his hands again in the resumption of some old pursuit 
connected with the shock that is the fact now did you ever see him 
asked the doctor distinctly and collectedly though in the same low 
voice engaged in that pursuit originally once and when the relapse 
fell on him was he in most respectsor in all respectsas he was then i 
think in all respects you spoke of his daughter does his daughter know 
of the relapse no it has been kept from her and i hope will always be 
kept from her it is known only to myself and to one other who may be 
trusted the doctor grasped his hand and murmured that was very kind 
that was very thoughtful mr lorry grasped his hand in return and 
neither of the two spoke for a little while now my dear manette said 
mr lorry at length in his most considerate and most affectionate way i 
am a mere man of business and unfit to cope with such intricate and 
difficult matters i do not possess the kind of information necessary i 
do not possess the kind of intelligence i want guiding there is no man 
in this world on whom i could so rely for right guidance as on you 
tell me how does this relapse come about is there danger of another 
could a repetition of it be prevented how should a repetition of it be 
treated how does it come about at all what can i do for my friend no 
man ever can have been more desirous in his heart to serve a friend 
than i am to serve mine if i knew how but i dont know how to originate 
in such a case if your sagacity knowledge and experience could put me 
on the right track i might be able to do so much unenlightened and 
undirected i can do so little pray discuss it with me pray enable me 
to see it a little more clearly and teach me how to be a little more 
useful doctor manette sat meditating after these earnest words were 
spoken and mr lorry did not press him i think it probable said the 
doctor breaking silence with an effort that the relapse you have 
described my dear friend was not quite unforeseen by its subject was 
it dreaded by him mr lorry ventured to ask very much he said it with 
an involuntary shudder you have no idea how such an apprehension 
weighs on the sufferers mind and how difficulthow almost impossibleit 
is for him to force himself to utter a word upon the topic that 
oppresses him would he asked mr lorry be sensibly relieved if he could 
prevail upon himself to impart that secret brooding to any one when it 
is on him i think so but it is as i have told you next to impossible i 
even believe itin some casesto be quite impossible now said mr lorry 
gently laying his hand on the doctors arm again after a short silence 
on both sides to what would you refer this attack i believe returned 
doctor manette that there had been a strong and extraordinary revival 
of the train of thought and remembrance that was the first cause of 
the malady some intense associations of a most distressing nature were 
vividly recalled i think it is probable that there had long been a 
dread lurking in his mind that those associations would be recalledsay 
under certain circumstancessay on a particular occasion he tried to 
prepare himself in vain perhaps the effort to prepare himself made him 
less able to bear it would he remember what took place in the relapse 
asked mr lorry with natural hesitation the doctor looked desolately 
round the room shook his head and answered in a low voice not at all 
now as to the future hinted mr lorry as to the future said the doctor 
recovering firmness i should have great hope as it pleased heaven in 
its mercy to restore him so soon i should have great hope he yielding 
under the pressure of a complicated something long dreaded and long 
vaguely foreseen and contended against and recovering after the cloud 
had burst and passed i should hope that the worst was over well well 
thats good comfort i am thankful said mr lorry i am thankful repeated 
the doctor bending his head with reverence there are two other points 
said mr lorry on which i am anxious to be instructed i may go on you 
cannot do your friend a better service the doctor gave him his hand to 
the first then he is of a studious habit and unusually energetic he 
applies himself with great ardour to the acquisition of professional 
knowledge to the conducting of experiments to many things now does he 
do too much i think not it may be the character of his mind to be 
always in singular need of occupation that may be in part natural to 
it in part the result of affliction the less it was occupied with 
healthy things the more it would be in danger of turning in the 
unhealthy direction he may have observed himself and made the 
discovery you are sure that he is not under too great a strain i think 
i am quite sure of it my dear manette if he were overworked now my 
dear lorry i doubt if that could easily be there has been a violent 
stress in one direction and it needs a counterweight excuse me as a 
persistent man of business assuming for a moment that he was 
overworked it would show itself in some renewal of this disorder i do 
not think so i do not think said doctor manette with the firmness of 
selfconviction that anything but the one train of association would 
renew it i think that henceforth nothing but some extraordinary 
jarring of that chord could renew it after what has happened and after 
his recovery i find it difficult to imagine any such violent sounding 
of that string again i trust and i almost believe that the 
circumstances likely to renew it are exhausted he spoke with the 
diffidence of a man who knew how slight a thing would overset the 
delicate organisation of the mind and yet with the confidence of a man 
who had slowly won his assurance out of personal endurance and 
distress it was not for his friend to abate that confidence he 
professed himself more relieved and encouraged than he really was and 
approached his second and last point he felt it to be the most 
difficult of all but remembering his old sunday morning conversation 
with miss pross and remembering what he had seen in the last nine days 
he knew that he must face it the occupation resumed under the 
influence of this passing affliction so happily recovered from said mr 
lorry clearing his throat we will callblacksmiths work blacksmiths 
work we will say to put a case and for the sake of illustration that 
he had been used in his bad time to work at a little forge we will say 
that he was unexpectedly found at his forge again is it not a pity 
that he should keep it by him the doctor shaded his forehead with his 
hand and beat his foot nervously on the ground he has always kept it 
by him said mr lorry with an anxious look at his friend now would it 
not be better that he should let it go still the doctor with shaded 
forehead beat his foot nervously on the ground you do not find it easy 
to advise me said mr lorry i quite understand it to be a nice question 
and yet i think and there he shook his head and stopped you see said 
doctor manette turning to him after an uneasy pause it is very hard to 
explain consistently the innermost workings of this poor mans mind he 
once yearned so frightfully for that occupation and it was so welcome 
when it came no doubt it relieved his pain so much by substituting the 
perplexity of the fingers for the perplexity of the brain and by 
substituting as he became more practised the ingenuity of the hands 
for the ingenuity of the mental torture that he has never been able to 
bear the thought of putting it quite out of his reach even now when i 
believe he is more hopeful of himself than he has ever been and even 
speaks of himself with a kind of confidence the idea that he might 
need that old employment and not find it gives him a sudden sense of 
terror like that which one may fancy strikes to the heart of a lost 
child he looked like his illustration as he raised his eyes to mr 
lorrys face but may notmind i ask for information as a plodding man of 
business who only deals with such material objects as guineas 
shillings and banknotesmay not the retention of the thing involve the 
retention of the idea if the thing were gone my dear manette might not 
the fear go with it in short is it not a concession to the misgiving 
to keep the forge there was another silence you see too said the 
doctor tremulously it is such an old companion i would not keep it 
said mr lorry shaking his head for he gained in firmness as he saw the 
doctor disquieted i would recommend him to sacrifice it i only want 
your authority i am sure it does no good come give me your authority 
like a dear good man for his daughters sake my dear manette very 
strange to see what a struggle there was within him in her name then 
let it be done i sanction it but i would not take it away while he was 
present let it be removed when he is not there let him miss his old 
companion after an absence mr lorry readily engaged for that and the 
conference was ended they passed the day in the country and the doctor 
was quite restored on the three following days he remained perfectly 
well and on the fourteenth day he went away to join lucie and her 
husband the precaution that had been taken to account for his silence 
mr lorry had previously explained to him and he had written to lucie 
in accordance with it and she had no suspicions on the night of the 
day on which he left the house mr lorry went into his room with a 
chopper saw chisel and hammer attended by miss pross carrying a light 
there with closed doors and in a mysterious and guilty manner mr lorry 
hacked the shoemakers bench to pieces while miss pross held the candle 
as if she were assisting at a murderfor which indeed in her grimness 
she was no unsuitable figure the burning of the body previously 
reduced to pieces convenient for the purpose was commenced without 
delay in the kitchen fire and the tools shoes and leather were buried 
in the garden so wicked do destruction and secrecy appear to honest 
minds that mr lorry and miss pross while engaged in the commission of 
their deed and in the removal of its traces almost felt and almost 
looked like accomplices in a horrible crime xx a plea when the 
newlymarried pair came home the first person who appeared to offer his 
congratulations was sydney carton they had not been at home many hours 
when he presented himself he was not improved in habits or in looks or 
in manner but there was a certain rugged air of fidelity about him 
which was new to the observation of charles darnay he watched his 
opportunity of taking darnay aside into a window and of speaking to 
him when no one overheard mr darnay said carton i wish we might be 
friends we are already friends i hope you are good enough to say so as 
a fashion of speech but i dont mean any fashion of speech indeed when 
i say i wish we might be friends i scarcely mean quite that either 
charles darnayas was naturalasked him in all goodhumour and 
goodfellowship what he did mean upon my life said carton smiling i 
find that easier to comprehend in my own mind than to convey to yours 
however let me try you remember a certain famous occasion when i was 
more drunk thanthan usual i remember a certain famous occasion when 
you forced me to confess that you had been drinking i remember it too 
the curse of those occasions is heavy upon me for i always remember 
them i hope it may be taken into account one day when all days are at 
an end for me dont be alarmed i am not going to preach i am not at all 
alarmed earnestness in you is anything but alarming to me ah said 
carton with a careless wave of his hand as if he waved that away on 
the drunken occasion in question one of a large number as you know i 
was insufferable about liking you and not liking you i wish you would 
forget it i forgot it long ago fashion of speech again but mr darnay 
oblivion is not so easy to me as you represent it to be to you i have 
by no means forgotten it and a light answer does not help me to forget 
it if it was a light answer returned darnay i beg your forgiveness for 
it i had no other object than to turn a slight thing which to my 
surprise seems to trouble you too much aside i declare to you on the 
faith of a gentleman that i have long dismissed it from my mind good 
heaven what was there to dismiss have i had nothing more important to 
remember in the great service you rendered me that day as to the great 
service said carton i am bound to avow to you when you speak of it in 
that way that it was mere professional claptrap i dont know that i 
cared what became of you when i rendered itmind i say when i rendered 
it i am speaking of the past you make light of the obligation returned 
darnay but i will not quarrel with your light answer genuine truth mr 
darnay trust me i have gone aside from my purpose i was speaking about 
our being friends now you know me you know i am incapable of all the 
higher and better flights of men if you doubt it ask stryver and hell 
tell you so i prefer to form my own opinion without the aid of his 
well at any rate you know me as a dissolute dog who has never done any 
good and never will i dont know that you never will but i do and you 
must take my word for it well if you could endure to have such a 
worthless fellow and a fellow of such indifferent reputation coming 
and going at odd times i should ask that i might be permitted to come 
and go as a privileged person here that i might be regarded as an 
useless and i would add if it were not for the resemblance i detected 
between you and me an unornamental piece of furniture tolerated for 
its old service and taken no notice of i doubt if i should abuse the 
permission it is a hundred to one if i should avail myself of it four 
times in a year it would satisfy me i dare say to know that i had it 
will you try that is another way of saying that i am placed on the 
footing i have indicated i thank you darnay i may use that freedom 
with your name i think so carton by this time they shook hands upon it 
and sydney turned away within a minute afterwards he was to all 
outward appearance as unsubstantial as ever when he was gone and in 
the course of an evening passed with miss pross the doctor and mr 
lorry charles darnay made some mention of this conversation in general 
terms and spoke of sydney carton as a problem of carelessness and 
recklessness he spoke of him in short not bitterly or meaning to bear 
hard upon him but as anybody might who saw him as he showed himself he 
had no idea that this could dwell in the thoughts of his fair young 
wife but when he afterwards joined her in their own rooms he found her 
waiting for him with the old pretty lifting of the forehead strongly 
marked we are thoughtful tonight said darnay drawing his arm about her 
yes dearest charles with her hands on his breast and the inquiring and 
attentive expression fixed upon him we are rather thoughtful tonight 
for we have something on our mind tonight what is it my lucie will you 
promise not to press one question on me if i beg you not to ask it 
will i promise what will i not promise to my love what indeed with his 
hand putting aside the golden hair from the cheek and his other hand 
against the heart that beat for him i think charles poor mr carton 
deserves more consideration and respect than you expressed for him 
tonight indeed my own why so that is what you are not to ask me but i 
thinki knowhe does if you know it it is enough what would you have me 
do my life i would ask you dearest to be very generous with him always 
and very lenient on his faults when he is not by i would ask you to 
believe that he has a heart he very very seldom reveals and that there 
are deep wounds in it my dear i have seen it bleeding it is a painful 
reflection to me said charles darnay quite astounded that i should 
have done him any wrong i never thought this of him my husband it is 
so i fear he is not to be reclaimed there is scarcely a hope that 
anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now but i am sure 
that he is capable of good things gentle things even magnanimous 
things she looked so beautiful in the purity of her faith in this lost 
man that her husband could have looked at her as she was for hours and 
o my dearest love she urged clinging nearer to him laying her head 
upon his breast and raising her eyes to his remember how strong we are 
in our happiness and how weak he is in his misery the supplication 
touched him home i will always remember it dear heart i will remember 
it as long as i live he bent over the golden head and put the rosy 
lips to his and folded her in his arms if one forlorn wanderer then 
pacing the dark streets could have heard her innocent disclosure and 
could have seen the drops of pity kissed away by her husband from the 
soft blue eyes so loving of that husband he might have cried to the 
nightand the words would not have parted from his lips for the first 
time god bless her for her sweet compassion xxi echoing footsteps a 
wonderful corner for echoes it has been remarked that corner where the 
doctor lived ever busily winding the golden thread which bound her 
husband and her father and herself and her old directress and 
companion in a life of quiet bliss lucie sat in the still house in the 
tranquilly resounding corner listening to the echoing footsteps of 
years at first there were times though she was a perfectly happy young 
wife when her work would slowly fall from her hands and her eyes would 
be dimmed for there was something coming in the echoes something light 
afar off and scarcely audible yet that stirred her heart too much 
fluttering hopes and doubtshopes of a love as yet unknown to her 
doubts of her remaining upon earth to enjoy that new delightdivided 
her breast among the echoes then there would arise the sound of 
footsteps at her own early grave and thoughts of the husband who would 
be left so desolate and who would mourn for her so much swelled to her 
eyes and broke like waves that time passed and her little lucie lay on 
her bosom then among the advancing echoes there was the tread of her 
tiny feet and the sound of her prattling words let greater echoes 
resound as they would the young mother at the cradle side could always 
hear those coming they came and the shady house was sunny with a 
childs laugh and the divine friend of children to whom in her trouble 
she had confided hers seemed to take her child in his arms as he took 
the child of old and made it a sacred joy to her ever busily winding 
the golden thread that bound them all together weaving the service of 
her happy influence through the tissue of all their lives and making 
it predominate nowhere lucie heard in the echoes of years none but 
friendly and soothing sounds her husbands step was strong and 
prosperous among them her fathers firm and equal lo miss pross in 
harness of string awakening the echoes as an unruly charger 
whipcorrected snorting and pawing the earth under the planetree in the 
garden even when there were sounds of sorrow among the rest they were 
not harsh nor cruel even when golden hair like her own lay in a halo 
on a pillow round the worn face of a little boy and he said with a 
radiant smile dear papa and mamma i am very sorry to leave you both 
and to leave my pretty sister but i am called and i must go those were 
not tears all of agony that wetted his young mothers cheek as the 
spirit departed from her embrace that had been entrusted to it suffer 
them and forbid them not they see my fathers face o father blessed 
words thus the rustling of an angels wings got blended with the other 
echoes and they were not wholly of earth but had in them that breath 
of heaven sighs of the winds that blew over a little gardentomb were 
mingled with them also and both were audible to lucie in a hushed 
murmurlike the breathing of a summer sea asleep upon a sandy shore as 
the little lucie comically studious at the task of the morning or 
dressing a doll at her mothers footstool chattered in the tongues of 
the two cities that were blended in her life the echoes rarely 
answered to the actual tread of sydney carton some halfdozen times a 
year at most he claimed his privilege of coming in uninvited and would 
sit among them through the evening as he had once done often he never 
came there heated with wine and one other thing regarding him was 
whispered in the echoes which has been whispered by all true echoes 
for ages and ages no man ever really loved a woman lost her and knew 
her with a blameless though an unchanged mind when she was a wife and 
a mother but her children had a strange sympathy with himan 
instinctive delicacy of pity for him what fine hidden sensibilities 
are touched in such a case no echoes tell but it is so and it was so 
here carton was the first stranger to whom little lucie held out her 
chubby arms and he kept his place with her as she grew the little boy 
had spoken of him almost at the last poor carton kiss him for me mr 
stryver shouldered his way through the law like some great engine 
forcing itself through turbid water and dragged his useful friend in 
his wake like a boat towed astern as the boat so favoured is usually 
in a rough plight and mostly under water so sydney had a swamped life 
of it but easy and strong custom unhappily so much easier and stronger 
in him than any stimulating sense of desert or disgrace made it the 
life he was to lead and he no more thought of emerging from his state 
of lions jackal than any real jackal may be supposed to think of 
rising to be a lion stryver was rich had married a florid widow with 
property and three boys who had nothing particularly shining about 
them but the straight hair of their dumpling heads these three young 
gentlemen mr stryver exuding patronage of the most offensive quality 
from every pore had walked before him like three sheep to the quiet 
corner in soho and had offered as pupils to lucies husband delicately 
saying halloa here are three lumps of breadand cheese towards your 
matrimonial picnic darnay the polite rejection of the three lumps of 
breadandcheese had quite bloated mr stryver with indignation which he 
afterwards turned to account in the training of the young gentlemen by 
directing them to beware of the pride of beggars like that tutorfellow 
he was also in the habit of declaiming to mrs stryver over his 
fullbodied wine on the arts mrs darnay had once put in practice to 
catch him and on the diamondcutdiamond arts in himself madam which had 
rendered him not to be caught some of his kings bench familiars who 
were occasionally parties to the fullbodied wine and the lie excused 
him for the latter by saying that he had told it so often that he 
believed it himselfwhich is surely such an incorrigible aggravation of 
an originally bad offence as to justify any such offenders being 
carried off to some suitably retired spot and there hanged out of the 
way these were among the echoes to which lucie sometimes pensive 
sometimes amused and laughing listened in the echoing corner until her 
little daughter was six years old how near to her heart the echoes of 
her childs tread came and those of her own dear fathers always active 
and selfpossessed and those of her dear husbands need not be told nor 
how the lightest echo of their united home directed by herself with 
such a wise and elegant thrift that it was more abundant than any 
waste was music to her nor how there were echoes all about her sweet 
in her ears of the many times her father had told her that he found 
her more devoted to him married if that could be than single and of 
the many times her husband had said to her that no cares and duties 
seemed to divide her love for him or her help to him and asked her 
what is the magic secret my darling of your being everything to all of 
us as if there were only one of us yet never seeming to be hurried or 
to have too much to do but there were other echoes from a distance 
that rumbled menacingly in the corner all through this space of time 
and it was now about little lucies sixth birthday that they began to 
have an awful sound as of a great storm in france with a dreadful sea 
rising on a night in midjuly one thousand seven hundred and eightynine 
mr lorry came in late from tellsons and sat himself down by lucie and 
her husband in the dark window it was a hot wild night and they were 
all three reminded of the old sunday night when they had looked at the 
lightning from the same place i began to think said mr lorry pushing 
his brown wig back that i should have to pass the night at tellsons we 
have been so full of business all day that we have not known what to 
do first or which way to turn there is such an uneasiness in paris 
that we have actually a run of confidence upon us our customers over 
there seem not to be able to confide their property to us fast enough 
there is positively a mania among some of them for sending it to 
england that has a bad look said darnay a bad look you say my dear 
darnay yes but we dont know what reason there is in it people are so 
unreasonable some of us at tellsons are getting old and we really cant 
be troubled out of the ordinary course without due occasion still said 
darnay you know how gloomy and threatening the sky is i know that to 
be sure assented mr lorry trying to persuade himself that his sweet 
temper was soured and that he grumbled but i am determined to be 
peevish after my long days botheration where is manette here he is 
said the doctor entering the dark room at the moment i am quite glad 
you are at home for these hurries and forebodings by which i have been 
surrounded all day long have made me nervous without reason you are 
not going out i hope no i am going to play backgammon with you if you 
like said the doctor i dont think i do like if i may speak my mind i 
am not fit to be pitted against you tonight is the teaboard still 
there lucie i cant see of course it has been kept for you thank ye my 
dear the precious child is safe in bed and sleeping soundly thats 
right all safe and well i dont know why anything should be otherwise 
than safe and well here thank god but i have been so put out all day 
and i am not as young as i was my tea my dear thank ye now come and 
take your place in the circle and let us sit quiet and hear the echoes 
about which you have your theory not a theory it was a fancy a fancy 
then my wise pet said mr lorry patting her hand they are very numerous 
and very loud though are they not only hear them headlong mad and 
dangerous footsteps to force their way into anybodys life footsteps 
not easily made clean again if once stained red the footsteps raging 
in saint antoine afar off as the little circle sat in the dark london 
window saint antoine had been that morning a vast dusky mass of 
scarecrows heaving to and fro with frequent gleams of light above the 
billowy heads where steel blades and bayonets shone in the sun a 
tremendous roar arose from the throat of saint antoine and a forest of 
naked arms struggled in the air like shrivelled branches of trees in a 
winter wind all the fingers convulsively clutching at every weapon or 
semblance of a weapon that was thrown up from the depths below no 
matter how far off who gave them out whence they last came where they 
began through what agency they crookedly quivered and jerked scores at 
a time over the heads of the crowd like a kind of lightning no eye in 
the throng could have told but muskets were being distributedso were 
cartridges powder and ball bars of iron and wood knives axes pikes 
every weapon that distracted ingenuity could discover or devise people 
who could lay hold of nothing else set themselves with bleeding hands 
to force stones and bricks out of their places in walls every pulse 
and heart in saint antoine was on highfever strain and at highfever 
heat every living creature there held life as of no account and was 
demented with a passionate readiness to sacrifice it as a whirlpool of 
boiling waters has a centre point so all this raging circled round 
defarges wineshop and every human drop in the caldron had a tendency 
to be sucked towards the vortex where defarge himself already begrimed 
with gunpowder and sweat issued orders issued arms thrust this man 
back dragged this man forward disarmed one to arm another laboured and 
strove in the thickest of the uproar keep near to me jacques three 
cried defarge and do you jacques one and two separate and put 
yourselves at the head of as many of these patriots as you can where 
is my wife eh well here you see me said madame composed as ever but 
not knitting today madames resolute right hand was occupied with an 
axe in place of the usual softer implements and in her girdle were a 
pistol and a cruel knife where do you go my wife i go said madame with 
you at present you shall see me at the head of women byandbye come 
then cried defarge in a resounding voice patriots and friends we are 
ready the bastille with a roar that sounded as if all the breath in 
france had been shaped into the detested word the living sea rose wave 
on wave depth on depth and overflowed the city to that point 
alarmbells ringing drums beating the sea raging and thundering on its 
new beach the attack began deep ditches double drawbridge massive 
stone walls eight great towers cannon muskets fire and smoke through 
the fire and through the smokein the fire and in the smoke for the sea 
cast him up against a cannon and on the instant he became a 
cannonierdefarge of the wineshop worked like a manful soldier two 
fierce hours deep ditch single drawbridge massive stone walls eight 
great towers cannon muskets fire and smoke one drawbridge down work 
comrades all work work jacques one jacques two jacques one thousand 
jacques two thousand jacques fiveandtwenty thousand in the name of all 
the angels or the devilswhich you preferwork thus defarge of the 
wineshop still at his gun which had long grown hot to me women cried 
madame his wife what we can kill as well as the men when the place is 
taken and to her with a shrill thirsty cry trooping women variously 
armed but all armed alike in hunger and revenge cannon muskets fire 
and smoke but still the deep ditch the single drawbridge the massive 
stone walls and the eight great towers slight displacements of the 
raging sea made by the falling wounded flashing weapons blazing 
torches smoking waggonloads of wet straw hard work at neighbouring 
barricades in all directions shrieks volleys execrations bravery 
without stint boom smash and rattle and the furious sounding of the 
living sea but still the deep ditch and the single drawbridge and the 
massive stone walls and the eight great towers and still defarge of 
the wineshop at his gun grown doubly hot by the service of four fierce 
hours a white flag from within the fortress and a parleythis dimly 
perceptible through the raging storm nothing audible in itsuddenly the 
sea rose immeasurably wider and higher and swept defarge of the 
wineshop over the lowered drawbridge past the massive stone outer 
walls in among the eight great towers surrendered so resistless was 
the force of the ocean bearing him on that even to draw his breath or 
turn his head was as impracticable as if he had been struggling in the 
surf at the south sea until he was landed in the outer courtyard of 
the bastille there against an angle of a wall he made a struggle to 
look about him jacques three was nearly at his side madame defarge 
still heading some of her women was visible in the inner distance and 
her knife was in her hand everywhere was tumult exultation deafening 
and maniacal bewilderment astounding noise yet furious dumbshow the 
prisoners the records the secret cells the instruments of torture the 
prisoners of all these cries and ten thousand incoherences the 
prisoners was the cry most taken up by the sea that rushed in as if 
there were an eternity of people as well as of time and space when the 
foremost billows rolled past bearing the prison officers with them and 
threatening them all with instant death if any secret nook remained 
undisclosed defarge laid his strong hand on the breast of one of these 
mena man with a grey head who had a lighted torch in his hand 
separated him from the rest and got him between himself and the wall 
show me the north tower said defarge quick i will faithfully replied 
the man if you will come with me but there is no one there what is the 
meaning of one hundred and five north tower asked defarge quick the 
meaning monsieur does it mean a captive or a place of captivity or do 
you mean that i shall strike you dead kill him croaked jacques three 
who had come close up monsieur it is a cell show it me pass this way 
then jacques three with his usual craving on him and evidently 
disappointed by the dialogue taking a turn that did not seem to 
promise bloodshed held by defarges arm as he held by the turnkeys 
their three heads had been close together during this brief discourse 
and it had been as much as they could do to hear one another even then 
so tremendous was the noise of the living ocean in its irruption into 
the fortress and its inundation of the courts and passages and 
staircases all around outside too it beat the walls with a deep hoarse 
roar from which occasionally some partial shouts of tumult broke and 
leaped into the air like spray through gloomy vaults where the light 
of day had never shone past hideous doors of dark dens and cages down 
cavernous flights of steps and again up steep rugged ascents of stone 
and brick more like dry waterfalls than staircases defarge the turnkey 
and jacques three linked hand and arm went with all the speed they 
could make here and there especially at first the inundation started 
on them and swept by but when they had done descending and were 
winding and climbing up a tower they were alone hemmed in here by the 
massive thickness of walls and arches the storm within the fortress 
and without was only audible to them in a dull subdued way as if the 
noise out of which they had come had almost destroyed their sense of 
hearing the turnkey stopped at a low door put a key in a clashing lock 
swung the door slowly open and said as they all bent their heads and 
passed in one hundred and five north tower there was a small 
heavilygrated unglazed window high in the wall with a stone screen 
before it so that the sky could be only seen by stooping low and 
looking up there was a small chimney heavily barred across a few feet 
within there was a heap of old feathery woodashes on the hearth there 
was a stool and table and a straw bed there were the four blackened 
walls and a rusted iron ring in one of them pass that torch slowly 
along these walls that i may see them said defarge to the turnkey the 
man obeyed and defarge followed the light closely with his eyes 
stoplook here jacques a m croaked jacques three as he read greedily 
alexandre manette said defarge in his ear following the letters with 
his swart forefinger deeply engrained with gunpowder and here he wrote 
a poor physician and it was he without doubt who scratched a calendar 
on this stone what is that in your hand a crowbar give it me he had 
still the linstock of his gun in his own hand he made a sudden 
exchange of the two instruments and turning on the wormeaten stool and 
table beat them to pieces in a few blows hold the light higher he said 
wrathfully to the turnkey look among those fragments with care jacques 
and see here is my knife throwing it to him rip open that bed and 
search the straw hold the light higher you with a menacing look at the 
turnkey he crawled upon the hearth and peering up the chimney struck 
and prised at its sides with the crowbar and worked at the iron 
grating across it in a few minutes some mortar and dust came dropping 
down which he averted his face to avoid and in it and in the old 
woodashes and in a crevice in the chimney into which his weapon had 
slipped or wrought itself he groped with a cautious touch nothing in 
the wood and nothing in the straw jacques nothing let us collect them 
together in the middle of the cell so light them you the turnkey fired 
the little pile which blazed high and hot stooping again to come out 
at the lowarched door they left it burning and retraced their way to 
the courtyard seeming to recover their sense of hearing as they came 
down until they were in the raging flood once more they found it 
surging and tossing in quest of defarge himself saint antoine was 
clamorous to have its wineshop keeper foremost in the guard upon the 
governor who had defended the bastille and shot the people otherwise 
the governor would not be marched to the hotel de ville for judgment 
otherwise the governor would escape and the peoples blood suddenly of 
some value after many years of worthlessness be unavenged in the 
howling universe of passion and contention that seemed to encompass 
this grim old officer conspicuous in his grey coat and red decoration 
there was but one quite steady figure and that was a womans see there 
is my husband she cried pointing him out see defarge she stood 
immovable close to the grim old officer and remained immovable close 
to him remained immovable close to him through the streets as defarge 
and the rest bore him along remained immovable close to him when he 
was got near his destination and began to be struck at from behind 
remained immovable close to him when the longgathering rain of stabs 
and blows fell heavy was so close to him when he dropped dead under it 
that suddenly animated she put her foot upon his neck and with her 
cruel knifelong readyhewed off his head the hour was come when saint 
antoine was to execute his horrible idea of hoisting up men for lamps 
to show what he could be and do saint antoines blood was up and the 
blood of tyranny and domination by the iron hand was downdown on the 
steps of the hotel de ville where the governors body laydown on the 
sole of the shoe of madame defarge where she had trodden on the body 
to steady it for mutilation lower the lamp yonder cried saint antoine 
after glaring round for a new means of death here is one of his 
soldiers to be left on guard the swinging sentinel was posted and the 
sea rushed on the sea of black and threatening waters and of 
destructive upheaving of wave against wave whose depths were yet 
unfathomed and whose forces were yet unknown the remorseless sea of 
turbulently swaying shapes voices of vengeance and faces hardened in 
the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark 
on them but in the ocean of faces where every fierce and furious 
expression was in vivid life there were two groups of faceseach seven 
in number so fixedly contrasting with the rest that never did sea roll 
which bore more memorable wrecks with it seven faces of prisoners 
suddenly released by the storm that had burst their tomb were carried 
high overhead all scared all lost all wondering and amazed as if the 
last day were come and those who rejoiced around them were lost 
spirits other seven faces there were carried higher seven dead faces 
whose drooping eyelids and halfseen eyes awaited the last day 
impassive faces yet with a suspendednot an abolishedexpression on them 
faces rather in a fearful pause as having yet to raise the dropped 
lids of the eyes and bear witness with the bloodless lips thou didst 
it seven prisoners released seven gory heads on pikes the keys of the 
accursed fortress of the eight strong towers some discovered letters 
and other memorials of prisoners of old time long dead of broken 
heartssuch and suchlike the loudly echoing footsteps of saint antoine 
escort through the paris streets in midjuly one thousand seven hundred 
and eightynine now heaven defeat the fancy of lucie darnay and keep 
these feet far out of her life for they are headlong mad and dangerous 
and in the years so long after the breaking of the cask at defarges 
wineshop door they are not easily purified when once stained red xxii 
the sea still rises haggard saint antoine had had only one exultant 
week in which to soften his modicum of hard and bitter bread to such 
extent as he could with the relish of fraternal embraces and 
congratulations when madame defarge sat at her counter as usual 
presiding over the customers madame defarge wore no rose in her head 
for the great brotherhood of spies had become even in one short week 
extremely chary of trusting themselves to the saints mercies the lamps 
across his streets had a portentously elastic swing with them madame 
defarge with her arms folded sat in the morning light and heat 
contemplating the wineshop and the street in both there were several 
knots of loungers squalid and miserable but now with a manifest sense 
of power enthroned on their distress the raggedest nightcap awry on 
the wretchedest head had this crooked significance in it i know how 
hard it has grown for me the wearer of this to support life in myself 
but do you know how easy it has grown for me the wearer of this to 
destroy life in you every lean bare arm that had been without work 
before had this work always ready for it now that it could strike the 
fingers of the knitting women were vicious with the experience that 
they could tear there was a change in the appearance of saint antoine 
the image had been hammering into this for hundreds of years and the 
last finishing blows had told mightily on the expression madame 
defarge sat observing it with such suppressed approval as was to be 
desired in the leader of the saint antoine women one of her sisterhood 
knitted beside her the short rather plump wife of a starved grocer and 
the mother of two children withal this lieutenant had already earned 
the complimentary name of the vengeance hark said the vengeance listen 
then who comes as if a train of powder laid from the outermost bound 
of saint antoine quarter to the wineshop door had been suddenly fired 
a fastspreading murmur came rushing along it is defarge said madame 
silence patriots defarge came in breathless pulled off a red cap he 
wore and looked around him listen everywhere said madame again listen 
to him defarge stood panting against a background of eager eyes and 
open mouths formed outside the door all those within the wineshop had 
sprung to their feet say then my husband what is it news from the 
other world how then cried madame contemptuously the other world does 
everybody here recall old foulon who told the famished people that 
they might eat grass and who died and went to hell everybody from all 
throats the news is of him he is among us among us from the universal 
throat again and dead not dead he feared us so muchand with reasonthat 
he caused himself to be represented as dead and had a grand 
mockfuneral but they have found him alive hiding in the country and 
have brought him in i have seen him but now on his way to the hotel de 
ville a prisoner i have said that he had reason to fear us say all had 
he reason wretched old sinner of more than threescore years and ten if 
he had never known it yet he would have known it in his heart of 
hearts if he could have heard the answering cry a moment of profound 
silence followed defarge and his wife looked steadfastly at one 
another the vengeance stooped and the jar of a drum was heard as she 
moved it at her feet behind the counter patriots said defarge in a 
determined voice are we ready instantly madame defarges knife was in 
her girdle the drum was beating in the streets as if it and a drummer 
had flown together by magic and the vengeance uttering terrific 
shrieks and flinging her arms about her head like all the forty furies 
at once was tearing from house to house rousing the women the men were 
terrible in the bloodyminded anger with which they looked from windows 
caught up what arms they had and came pouring down into the streets 
but the women were a sight to chill the boldest from such household 
occupations as their bare poverty yielded from their children from 
their aged and their sick crouching on the bare ground famished and 
naked they ran out with streaming hair urging one another and 
themselves to madness with the wildest cries and actions villain 
foulon taken my sister old foulon taken my mother miscreant foulon 
taken my daughter then a score of others ran into the midst of these 
beating their breasts tearing their hair and screaming foulon alive 
foulon who told the starving people they might eat grass foulon who 
told my old father that he might eat grass when i had no bread to give 
him foulon who told my baby it might suck grass when these breasts 
where dry with want o mother of god this foulon o heaven our suffering 
hear me my dead baby and my withered father i swear on my knees on 
these stones to avenge you on foulon husbands and brothers and young 
men give us the blood of foulon give us the head of foulon give us the 
heart of foulon give us the body and soul of foulon rend foulon to 
pieces and dig him into the ground that grass may grow from him with 
these cries numbers of the women lashed into blind frenzy whirled 
about striking and tearing at their own friends until they dropped 
into a passionate swoon and were only saved by the men belonging to 
them from being trampled under foot nevertheless not a moment was lost 
not a moment this foulon was at the hotel de ville and might be loosed 
never if saint antoine knew his own sufferings insults and wrongs 
armed men and women flocked out of the quarter so fast and drew even 
these last dregs after them with such a force of suction that within a 
quarter of an hour there was not a human creature in saint antoines 
bosom but a few old crones and the wailing children no they were all 
by that time choking the hall of examination where this old man ugly 
and wicked was and overflowing into the adjacent open space and 
streets the defarges husband and wife the vengeance and jacques three 
were in the first press and at no great distance from him in the hall 
see cried madame pointing with her knife see the old villain bound 
with ropes that was well done to tie a bunch of grass upon his back ha 
ha that was well done let him eat it now madame put her knife under 
her arm and clapped her hands as at a play the people immediately 
behind madame defarge explaining the cause of her satisfaction to 
those behind them and those again explaining to others and those to 
others the neighbouring streets resounded with the clapping of hands 
similarly during two or three hours of drawl and the winnowing of many 
bushels of words madame defarges frequent expressions of impatience 
were taken up with marvellous quickness at a distance the more readily 
because certain men who had by some wonderful exercise of agility 
climbed up the external architecture to look in from the windows knew 
madame defarge well and acted as a telegraph between her and the crowd 
outside the building at length the sun rose so high that it struck a 
kindly ray as of hope or protection directly down upon the old 
prisoners head the favour was too much to bear in an instant the 
barrier of dust and chaff that had stood surprisingly long went to the 
winds and saint antoine had got him it was known directly to the 
furthest confines of the crowd defarge had but sprung over a railing 
and a table and folded the miserable wretch in a deadly embracemadame 
defarge had but followed and turned her hand in one of the ropes with 
which he was tiedthe vengeance and jacques three were not yet up with 
them and the men at the windows had not yet swooped into the hall like 
birds of prey from their high percheswhen the cry seemed to go up all 
over the city bring him out bring him to the lamp down and up and head 
foremost on the steps of the building now on his knees now on his feet 
now on his back dragged and struck at and stifled by the bunches of 
grass and straw that were thrust into his face by hundreds of hands 
torn bruised panting bleeding yet always entreating and beseeching for 
mercy now full of vehement agony of action with a small clear space 
about him as the people drew one another back that they might see now 
a log of dead wood drawn through a forest of legs he was hauled to the 
nearest street corner where one of the fatal lamps swung and there 
madame defarge let him goas a cat might have done to a mouse and 
silently and composedly looked at him while they made ready and while 
he besought her the women passionately screeching at him all the time 
and the men sternly calling out to have him killed with grass in his 
mouth once he went aloft and the rope broke and they caught him 
shrieking twice he went aloft and the rope broke and they caught him 
shrieking then the rope was merciful and held him and his head was 
soon upon a pike with grass enough in the mouth for all saint antoine 
to dance at the sight of nor was this the end of the days bad work for 
saint antoine so shouted and danced his angry blood up that it boiled 
again on hearing when the day closed in that the soninlaw of the 
despatched another of the peoples enemies and insulters was coming 
into paris under a guard five hundred strong in cavalry alone saint 
antoine wrote his crimes on flaring sheets of paper seized himwould 
have torn him out of the breast of an army to bear foulon companyset 
his head and heart on pikes and carried the three spoils of the day in 
wolfprocession through the streets not before dark night did the men 
and women come back to the children wailing and breadless then the 
miserable bakers shops were beset by long files of them patiently 
waiting to buy bad bread and while they waited with stomachs faint and 
empty they beguiled the time by embracing one another on the triumphs 
of the day and achieving them again in gossip gradually these strings 
of ragged people shortened and frayed away and then poor lights began 
to shine in high windows and slender fires were made in the streets at 
which neighbours cooked in common afterwards supping at their doors 
scanty and insufficient suppers those and innocent of meat as of most 
other sauce to wretched bread yet human fellowship infused some 
nourishment into the flinty viands and struck some sparks of 
cheerfulness out of them fathers and mothers who had had their full 
share in the worst of the day played gently with their meagre children 
and lovers with such a world around them and before them loved and 
hoped it was almost morning when defarges wineshop parted with its 
last knot of customers and monsieur defarge said to madame his wife in 
husky tones while fastening the door at last it is come my dear eh 
well returned madame almost saint antoine slept the defarges slept 
even the vengeance slept with her starved grocer and the drum was at 
rest the drums was the only voice in saint antoine that blood and 
hurry had not changed the vengeance as custodian of the drum could 
have wakened him up and had the same speech out of him as before the 
bastille fell or old foulon was seized not so with the hoarse tones of 
the men and women in saint antoines bosom xxiii fire rises there was a 
change on the village where the fountain fell and where the mender of 
roads went forth daily to hammer out of the stones on the highway such 
morsels of bread as might serve for patches to hold his poor ignorant 
soul and his poor reduced body together the prison on the crag was not 
so dominant as of yore there were soldiers to guard it but not many 
there were officers to guard the soldiers but not one of them knew 
what his men would dobeyond this that it would probably not be what he 
was ordered far and wide lay a ruined country yielding nothing but 
desolation every green leaf every blade of grass and blade of grain 
was as shrivelled and poor as the miserable people everything was 
bowed down dejected oppressed and broken habitations fences 
domesticated animals men women children and the soil that bore themall 
worn out monseigneur often a most worthy individual gentleman was a 
national blessing gave a chivalrous tone to things was a polite 
example of luxurious and shining fife and a great deal more to equal 
purpose nevertheless monseigneur as a class had somehow or other 
brought things to this strange that creation designed expressly for 
monseigneur should be so soon wrung dry and squeezed out there must be 
something shortsighted in the eternal arrangements surely thus it was 
however and the last drop of blood having been extracted from the 
flints and the last screw of the rack having been turned so often that 
its purchase crumbled and it now turned and turned with nothing to 
bite monseigneur began to run away from a phenomenon so low and 
unaccountable but this was not the change on the village and on many a 
village like it for scores of years gone by monseigneur had squeezed 
it and wrung it and had seldom graced it with his presence except for 
the pleasures of the chasenow found in hunting the people now found in 
hunting the beasts for whose preservation monseigneur made edifying 
spaces of barbarous and barren wilderness no the change consisted in 
the appearance of strange faces of low caste rather than in the 
disappearance of the high caste chiselled and otherwise beautified and 
beautifying features of monseigneur for in these times as the mender 
of roads worked solitary in the dust not often troubling himself to 
reflect that dust he was and to dust he must return being for the most 
part too much occupied in thinking how little he had for supper and 
how much more he would eat if he had itin these times as he raised his 
eyes from his lonely labour and viewed the prospect he would see some 
rough figure approaching on foot the like of which was once a rarity 
in those parts but was now a frequent presence as it advanced the 
mender of roads would discern without surprise that it was a 
shaggyhaired man of almost barbarian aspect tall in wooden shoes that 
were clumsy even to the eyes of a mender of roads grim rough swart 
steeped in the mud and dust of many highways dank with the marshy 
moisture of many low grounds sprinkled with the thorns and leaves and 
moss of many byways through woods such a man came upon him like a 
ghost at noon in the july weather as he sat on his heap of stones 
under a bank taking such shelter as he could get from a shower of hail 
the man looked at him looked at the village in the hollow at the mill 
and at the prison on the crag when he had identified these objects in 
what benighted mind he had he said in a dialect that was just 
intelligible how goes it jacques all well jacques touch then they 
joined hands and the man sat down on the heap of stones no dinner 
nothing but supper now said the mender of roads with a hungry face it 
is the fashion growled the man i meet no dinner anywhere he took out a 
blackened pipe filled it lighted it with flint and steel pulled at it 
until it was in a bright glow then suddenly held it from him and 
dropped something into it from between his finger and thumb that 
blazed and went out in a puff of smoke touch then it was the turn of 
the mender of roads to say it this time after observing these 
operations they again joined hands tonight said the mender of roads 
tonight said the man putting the pipe in his mouth where here he and 
the mender of roads sat on the heap of stones looking silently at one 
another with the hail driving in between them like a pigmy charge of 
bayonets until the sky began to clear over the village show me said 
the traveller then moving to the brow of the hill see returned the 
mender of roads with extended finger you go down here and straight 
through the street and past the fountain to the devil with all that 
interrupted the other rolling his eye over the landscape i go through 
no streets and past no fountains well well about two leagues beyond 
the summit of that hill above the village good when do you cease to 
work at sunset will you wake me before departing i have walked two 
nights without resting let me finish my pipe and i shall sleep like a 
child will you wake me surely the wayfarer smoked his pipe out put it 
in his breast slipped off his great wooden shoes and lay down on his 
back on the heap of stones he was fast asleep directly as the 
roadmender plied his dusty labour and the hailclouds rolling away 
revealed bright bars and streaks of sky which were responded to by 
silver gleams upon the landscape the little man who wore a red cap now 
in place of his blue one seemed fascinated by the figure on the heap 
of stones his eyes were so often turned towards it that he used his 
tools mechanically and one would have said to very poor account the 
bronze face the shaggy black hair and beard the coarse woollen red cap 
the rough medley dress of homespun stuff and hairy skins of beasts the 
powerful frame attenuated by spare living and the sullen and desperate 
compression of the lips in sleep inspired the mender of roads with awe 
the traveller had travelled far and his feet were footsore and his 
ankles chafed and bleeding his great shoes stuffed with leaves and 
grass had been heavy to drag over the many long leagues and his 
clothes were chafed into holes as he himself was into sores stooping 
down beside him the roadmender tried to get a peep at secret weapons 
in his breast or where not but in vain for he slept with his arms 
crossed upon him and set as resolutely as his lips fortified towns 
with their stockades guardhouses gates trenches and drawbridges seemed 
to the mender of roads to be so much air as against this figure and 
when he lifted his eyes from it to the horizon and looked around he 
saw in his small fancy similar figures stopped by no obstacle tending 
to centres all over france the man slept on indifferent to showers of 
hail and intervals of brightness to sunshine on his face and shadow to 
the paltering lumps of dull ice on his body and the diamonds into 
which the sun changed them until the sun was low in the west and the 
sky was glowing then the mender of roads having got his tools together 
and all things ready to go down into the village roused him good said 
the sleeper rising on his elbow two leagues beyond the summit of the 
hill about about good the mender of roads went home with the dust 
going on before him according to the set of the wind and was soon at 
the fountain squeezing himself in among the lean kine brought there to 
drink and appearing even to whisper to them in his whispering to all 
the village when the village had taken its poor supper it did not 
creep to bed as it usually did but came out of doors again and 
remained there a curious contagion of whispering was upon it and also 
when it gathered together at the fountain in the dark another curious 
contagion of looking expectantly at the sky in one direction only 
monsieur gabelle chief functionary of the place became uneasy went out 
on his housetop alone and looked in that direction too glanced down 
from behind his chimneys at the darkening faces by the fountain below 
and sent word to the sacristan who kept the keys of the church that 
there might be need to ring the tocsin byandbye the night deepened the 
trees environing the old chateau keeping its solitary state apart 
moved in a rising wind as though they threatened the pile of building 
massive and dark in the gloom up the two terrace flights of steps the 
rain ran wildly and beat at the great door like a swift messenger 
rousing those within uneasy rushes of wind went through the hall among 
the old spears and knives and passed lamenting up the stairs and shook 
the curtains of the bed where the last marquis had slept east west 
north and south through the woods four heavytreading unkempt figures 
crushed the high grass and cracked the branches striding on cautiously 
to come together in the courtyard four lights broke out there and 
moved away in different directions and all was black again but not for 
long presently the chateau began to make itself strangely visible by 
some light of its own as though it were growing luminous then a 
flickering streak played behind the architecture of the front picking 
out transparent places and showing where balustrades arches and 
windows were then it soared higher and grew broader and brighter soon 
from a score of the great windows flames burst forth and the stone 
faces awakened stared out of fire a faint murmur arose about the house 
from the few people who were left there and there was a saddling of a 
horse and riding away there was spurring and splashing through the 
darkness and bridle was drawn in the space by the village fountain and 
the horse in a foam stood at monsieur gabelles door help gabelle help 
every one the tocsin rang impatiently but other help if that were any 
there was none the mender of roads and two hundred and fifty 
particular friends stood with folded arms at the fountain looking at 
the pillar of fire in the sky it must be forty feet high said they 
grimly and never moved the rider from the chateau and the horse in a 
foam clattered away through the village and galloped up the stony 
steep to the prison on the crag at the gate a group of officers were 
looking at the fire removed from them a group of soldiers help 
gentlemen officers the chateau is on fire valuable objects may be 
saved from the flames by timely aid help help the officers looked 
towards the soldiers who looked at the fire gave no orders and 
answered with shrugs and biting of lips it must burn as the rider 
rattled down the hill again and through the street the village was 
illuminating the mender of roads and the two hundred and fifty 
particular friends inspired as one man and woman by the idea of 
lighting up had darted into their houses and were putting candles in 
every dull little pane of glass the general scarcity of everything 
occasioned candles to be borrowed in a rather peremptory manner of 
monsieur gabelle and in a moment of reluctance and hesitation on that 
functionarys part the mender of roads once so submissive to authority 
had remarked that carriages were good to make bonfires with and that 
posthorses would roast the chateau was left to itself to flame and 
burn in the roaring and raging of the conflagration a redhot wind 
driving straight from the infernal regions seemed to be blowing the 
edifice away with the rising and falling of the blaze the stone faces 
showed as if they were in torment when great masses of stone and 
timber fell the face with the two dints in the nose became obscured 
anon struggled out of the smoke again as if it were the face of the 
cruel marquis burning at the stake and contending with the fire the 
chateau burned the nearest trees laid hold of by the fire scorched and 
shrivelled trees at a distance fired by the four fierce figures begirt 
the blazing edifice with a new forest of smoke molten lead and iron 
boiled in the marble basin of the fountain the water ran dry the 
extinguisher tops of the towers vanished like ice before the heat and 
trickled down into four rugged wells of flame great rents and splits 
branched out in the solid walls like crystallisation stupefied birds 
wheeled about and dropped into the furnace four fierce figures trudged 
away east west north and south along the night enshrouded roads guided 
by the beacon they had lighted towards their next destination the 
illuminated village had seized hold of the tocsin and abolishing the 
lawful ringer rang for joy not only that but the village lightheaded 
with famine fire and bellringing and bethinking itself that monsieur 
gabelle had to do with the collection of rent and taxesthough it was 
but a small instalment of taxes and no rent at all that gabelle had 
got in those latter daysbecame impatient for an interview with him and 
surrounding his house summoned him to come forth for personal 
conference whereupon monsieur gabelle did heavily bar his door and 
retire to hold counsel with himself the result of that conference was 
that gabelle again withdrew himself to his housetop behind his stack 
of chimneys this time resolved if his door were broken in he was a 
small southern man of retaliative temperament to pitch himself head 
foremost over the parapet and crush a man or two below probably 
monsieur gabelle passed a long night up there with the distant chateau 
for fire and candle and the beating at his door combined with the 
joyringing for music not to mention his having an illomened lamp slung 
across the road before his postinghouse gate which the village showed 
a lively inclination to displace in his favour a trying suspense to be 
passing a whole summer night on the brink of the black ocean ready to 
take that plunge into it upon which monsieur gabelle had resolved but 
the friendly dawn appearing at last and the rushcandles of the village 
guttering out the people happily dispersed and monsieur gabelle came 
down bringing his life with him for that while within a hundred miles 
and in the light of other fires there were other functionaries less 
fortunate that night and other nights whom the rising sun found 
hanging across oncepeaceful streets where they had been born and bred 
also there were other villagers and townspeople less fortunate than 
the mender of roads and his fellows upon whom the functionaries and 
soldiery turned with success and whom they strung up in their turn but 
the fierce figures were steadily wending east west north and south be 
that as it would and whosoever hung fire burned the altitude of the 
gallows that would turn to water and quench it no functionary by any 
stretch of mathematics was able to calculate successfully xxiv drawn 
to the loadstone rock in such risings of fire and risings of seathe 
firm earth shaken by the rushes of an angry ocean which had now no ebb 
but was always on the flow higher and higher to the terror and wonder 
of the beholders on the shorethree years of tempest were consumed 
three more birthdays of little lucie had been woven by the golden 
thread into the peaceful tissue of the life of her home many a night 
and many a day had its inmates listened to the echoes in the corner 
with hearts that failed them when they heard the thronging feet for 
the footsteps had become to their minds as the footsteps of a people 
tumultuous under a red flag and with their country declared in danger 
changed into wild beasts by terrible enchantment long persisted in 
monseigneur as a class had dissociated himself from the phenomenon of 
his not being appreciated of his being so little wanted in france as 
to incur considerable danger of receiving his dismissal from it and 
this life together like the fabled rustic who raised the devil with 
infinite pains and was so terrified at the sight of him that he could 
ask the enemy no question but immediately fled so monseigneur after 
boldly reading the lords prayer backwards for a great number of years 
and performing many other potent spells for compelling the evil one no 
sooner beheld him in his terrors than he took to his noble heels the 
shining bulls eye of the court was gone or it would have been the mark 
for a hurricane of national bullets it had never been a good eye to 
see withhad long had the mote in it of lucifers pride sardanapaluss 
luxury and a moles blindnessbut it had dropped out and was gone the 
court from that exclusive inner circle to its outermost rotten ring of 
intrigue corruption and dissimulation was all gone together royalty 
was gone had been besieged in its palace and suspended when the last 
tidings came over the august of the year one thousand seven hundred 
and ninetytwo was come and monseigneur was by this time scattered far 
and wide as was natural the headquarters and great gatheringplace of 
monseigneur in london was tellsons bank spirits are supposed to haunt 
the places where their bodies most resorted and monseigneur without a 
guinea haunted the spot where his guineas used to be moreover it was 
the spot to which such french intelligence as was most to be relied 
upon came quickest again tellsons was a munificent house and extended 
great liberality to old customers who had fallen from their high 
estate again those nobles who had seen the coming storm in time and 
anticipating plunder or confiscation had made provident remittances to 
tellsons were always to be heard of there by their needy brethren to 
which it must be added that every newcomer from france reported 
himself and his tidings at tellsons almost as a matter of course for 
such variety of reasons tellsons was at that time as to french 
intelligence a kind of high exchange and this was so well known to the 
public and the inquiries made there were in consequence so numerous 
that tellsons sometimes wrote the latest news out in a line or so and 
posted it in the bank windows for all who ran through temple bar to 
read on a steaming misty afternoon mr lorry sat at his desk and 
charles darnay stood leaning on it talking with him in a low voice the 
penitential den once set apart for interviews with the house was now 
the newsexchange and was filled to overflowing it was within half an 
hour or so of the time of closing but although you are the youngest 
man that ever lived said charles darnay rather hesitating i must still 
suggest to you i understand that i am too old said mr lorry unsettled 
weather a long journey uncertain means of travelling a disorganised 
country a city that may not be even safe for you my dear charles said 
mr lorry with cheerful confidence you touch some of the reasons for my 
going not for my staying away it is safe enough for me nobody will 
care to interfere with an old fellow of hard upon fourscore when there 
are so many people there much better worth interfering with as to its 
being a disorganised city if it were not a disorganised city there 
would be no occasion to send somebody from our house here to our house 
there who knows the city and the business of old and is in tellsons 
confidence as to the uncertain travelling the long journey and the 
winter weather if i were not prepared to submit myself to a few 
inconveniences for the sake of tellsons after all these years who 
ought to be i wish i were going myself said charles darnay somewhat 
restlessly and like one thinking aloud indeed you are a pretty fellow 
to object and advise exclaimed mr lorry you wish you were going 
yourself and you a frenchman born you are a wise counsellor my dear mr 
lorry it is because i am a frenchman born that the thought which i did 
not mean to utter here however has passed through my mind often one 
cannot help thinking having had some sympathy for the miserable people 
and having abandoned something to them he spoke here in his former 
thoughtful manner that one might be listened to and might have the 
power to persuade to some restraint only last night after you had left 
us when i was talking to lucie when you were talking to lucie mr lorry 
repeated yes i wonder you are not ashamed to mention the name of lucie 
wishing you were going to france at this time of day however i am not 
going said charles darnay with a smile it is more to the purpose that 
you say you are and i am in plain reality the truth is my dear charles 
mr lorry glanced at the distant house and lowered his voice you can 
have no conception of the difficulty with which our business is 
transacted and of the peril in which our books and papers over yonder 
are involved the lord above knows what the compromising consequences 
would be to numbers of people if some of our documents were seized or 
destroyed and they might be at any time you know for who can say that 
paris is not set afire today or sacked tomorrow now a judicious 
selection from these with the least possible delay and the burying of 
them or otherwise getting of them out of harms way is within the power 
without loss of precious time of scarcely any one but myself if any 
one and shall i hang back when tellsons knows this and says 
thistellsons whose bread i have eaten these sixty yearsbecause i am a 
little stiff about the joints why i am a boy sir to half a dozen old 
codgers here how i admire the gallantry of your youthful spirit mr 
lorry tut nonsense sirand my dear charles said mr lorry glancing at 
the house again you are to remember that getting things out of paris 
at this present time no matter what things is next to an impossibility 
papers and precious matters were this very day brought to us here i 
speak in strict confidence it is not businesslike to whisper it even 
to you by the strangest bearers you can imagine every one of whom had 
his head hanging on by a single hair as he passed the barriers at 
another time our parcels would come and go as easily as in 
businesslike old england but now everything is stopped and do you 
really go tonight i really go tonight for the case has become too 
pressing to admit of delay and do you take no one with you all sorts 
of people have been proposed to me but i will have nothing to say to 
any of them i intend to take jerry jerry has been my bodyguard on 
sunday nights for a long time past and i am used to him nobody will 
suspect jerry of being anything but an english bulldog or of having 
any design in his head but to fly at anybody who touches his master i 
must say again that i heartily admire your gallantry and youthfulness 
i must say again nonsense nonsense when i have executed this little 
commission i shall perhaps accept tellsons proposal to retire and live 
at my ease time enough then to think about growing old this dialogue 
had taken place at mr lorrys usual desk with monseigneur swarming 
within a yard or two of it boastful of what he would do to avenge 
himself on the rascalpeople before long it was too much the way of 
monseigneur under his reverses as a refugee and it was much too much 
the way of native british orthodoxy to talk of this terrible 
revolution as if it were the only harvest ever known under the skies 
that had not been sownas if nothing had ever been done or omitted to 
be done that had led to itas if observers of the wretched millions in 
france and of the misused and perverted resources that should have 
made them prosperous had not seen it inevitably coming years before 
and had not in plain words recorded what they saw such vapouring 
combined with the extravagant plots of monseigneur for the restoration 
of a state of things that had utterly exhausted itself and worn out 
heaven and earth as well as itself was hard to be endured without some 
remonstrance by any sane man who knew the truth and it was such 
vapouring all about his ears like a troublesome confusion of blood in 
his own head added to a latent uneasiness in his mind which had 
already made charles darnay restless and which still kept him so among 
the talkers was stryver of the kings bench bar far on his way to state 
promotion and therefore loud on the theme broaching to monseigneur his 
devices for blowing the people up and exterminating them from the face 
of the earth and doing without them and for accomplishing many similar 
objects akin in their nature to the abolition of eagles by sprinkling 
salt on the tails of the race him darnay heard with a particular 
feeling of objection and darnay stood divided between going away that 
he might hear no more and remaining to interpose his word when the 
thing that was to be went on to shape itself out the house approached 
mr lorry and laying a soiled and unopened letter before him asked if 
he had yet discovered any traces of the person to whom it was 
addressed the house laid the letter down so close to darnay that he 
saw the directionthe more quickly because it was his own right name 
the address turned into english ran very pressing to monsieur 
heretofore the marquis st evremonde of france confided to the cares of 
messrs tellson and co bankers london england on the marriage morning 
doctor manette had made it his one urgent and express request to 
charles darnay that the secret of this name should beunless he the 
doctor dissolved the obligationkept inviolate between them nobody else 
knew it to be his name his own wife had no suspicion of the fact mr 
lorry could have none no said mr lorry in reply to the house i have 
referred it i think to everybody now here and no one can tell me where 
this gentleman is to be found the hands of the clock verging upon the 
hour of closing the bank there was a general set of the current of 
talkers past mr lorrys desk he held the letter out inquiringly and 
monseigneur looked at it in the person of this plotting and indignant 
refugee and monseigneur looked at it in the person of that plotting 
and indignant refugee and this that and the other all had something 
disparaging to say in french or in english concerning the marquis who 
was not to be found nephew i believebut in any case degenerate 
successorof the polished marquis who was murdered said one happy to 
say i never knew him a craven who abandoned his post said anotherthis 
monseigneur had been got out of paris legs uppermost and half 
suffocated in a load of haysome years ago infected with the new 
doctrines said a third eyeing the direction through his glass in 
passing set himself in opposition to the last marquis abandoned the 
estates when he inherited them and left them to the ruffian herd they 
will recompense him now i hope as he deserves hey cried the blatant 
stryver did he though is that the sort of fellow let us look at his 
infamous name dn the fellow darnay unable to restrain himself any 
longer touched mr stryver on the shoulder and said i know the fellow 
do you by jupiter said stryver i am sorry for it why why mr darnay dye 
hear what he did dont ask why in these times but i do ask why then i 
tell you again mr darnay i am sorry for it i am sorry to hear you 
putting any such extraordinary questions here is a fellow who infected 
by the most pestilent and blasphemous code of devilry that ever was 
known abandoned his property to the vilest scum of the earth that ever 
did murder by wholesale and you ask me why i am sorry that a man who 
instructs youth knows him well but ill answer you i am sorry because i 
believe there is contamination in such a scoundrel thats why mindful 
of the secret darnay with great difficulty checked himself and said 
you may not understand the gentleman i understand how to put you in a 
corner mr darnay said bully stryver and ill do it if this fellow is a 
gentleman i dont understand him you may tell him so with my 
compliments you may also tell him from me that after abandoning his 
worldly goods and position to this butcherly mob i wonder he is not at 
the head of them but no gentlemen said stryver looking all round and 
snapping his fingers i know something of human nature and i tell you 
that youll never find a fellow like this fellow trusting himself to 
the mercies of such precious proteges no gentlemen hell always show em 
a clean pair of heels very early in the scuffle and sneak away with 
those words and a final snap of his fingers mr stryver shouldered 
himself into fleetstreet amidst the general approbation of his hearers 
mr lorry and charles darnay were left alone at the desk in the general 
departure from the bank will you take charge of the letter said mr 
lorry you know where to deliver it i do will you undertake to explain 
that we suppose it to have been addressed here on the chance of our 
knowing where to forward it and that it has been here some time i will 
do so do you start for paris from here from here at eight i will come 
back to see you off very ill at ease with himself and with stryver and 
most other men darnay made the best of his way into the quiet of the 
temple opened the letter and read it these were its contents prison of 
the abbaye paris june monsieur heretofore the marquis after having 
long been in danger of my life at the hands of the village i have been 
seized with great violence and indignity and brought a long journey on 
foot to paris on the road i have suffered a great deal nor is that all 
my house has been destroyedrazed to the ground the crime for which i 
am imprisoned monsieur heretofore the marquis and for which i shall be 
summoned before the tribunal and shall lose my life without your so 
generous help is they tell me treason against the majesty of the 
people in that i have acted against them for an emigrant it is in vain 
i represent that i have acted for them and not against according to 
your commands it is in vain i represent that before the sequestration 
of emigrant property i had remitted the imposts they had ceased to pay 
that i had collected no rent that i had had recourse to no process the 
only response is that i have acted for an emigrant and where is that 
emigrant ah most gracious monsieur heretofore the marquis where is 
that emigrant i cry in my sleep where is he i demand of heaven will he 
not come to deliver me no answer ah monsieur heretofore the marquis i 
send my desolate cry across the sea hoping it may perhaps reach your 
ears through the great bank of tilson known at paris for the love of 
heaven of justice of generosity of the honour of your noble name i 
supplicate you monsieur heretofore the marquis to succour and release 
me my fault is that i have been true to you oh monsieur heretofore the 
marquis i pray you be you true to me from this prison here of horror 
whence i every hour tend nearer and nearer to destruction i send you 
monsieur heretofore the marquis the assurance of my dolorous and 
unhappy service your afflicted gabelle the latent uneasiness in 
darnays mind was roused to vigourous life by this letter the peril of 
an old servant and a good one whose only crime was fidelity to himself 
and his family stared him so reproachfully in the face that as he 
walked to and fro in the temple considering what to do he almost hid 
his face from the passersby he knew very well that in his horror of 
the deed which had culminated the bad deeds and bad reputation of the 
old family house in his resentful suspicions of his uncle and in the 
aversion with which his conscience regarded the crumbling fabric that 
he was supposed to uphold he had acted imperfectly he knew very well 
that in his love for lucie his renunciation of his social place though 
by no means new to his own mind had been hurried and incomplete he 
knew that he ought to have systematically worked it out and supervised 
it and that he had meant to do it and that it had never been done the 
happiness of his own chosen english home the necessity of being always 
actively employed the swift changes and troubles of the time which had 
followed on one another so fast that the events of this week 
annihilated the immature plans of last week and the events of the week 
following made all new again he knew very well that to the force of 
these circumstances he had yieldednot without disquiet but still 
without continuous and accumulating resistance that he had watched the 
times for a time of action and that they had shifted and struggled 
until the time had gone by and the nobility were trooping from france 
by every highway and byway and their property was in course of 
confiscation and destruction and their very names were blotting out 
was as well known to himself as it could be to any new authority in 
france that might impeach him for it but he had oppressed no man he 
had imprisoned no man he was so far from having harshly exacted 
payment of his dues that he had relinquished them of his own will 
thrown himself on a world with no favour in it won his own private 
place there and earned his own bread monsieur gabelle had held the 
impoverished and involved estate on written instructions to spare the 
people to give them what little there was to givesuch fuel as the 
heavy creditors would let them have in the winter and such produce as 
could be saved from the same grip in the summerand no doubt he had put 
the fact in plea and proof for his own safety so that it could not but 
appear now this favoured the desperate resolution charles darnay had 
begun to make that he would go to paris yes like the mariner in the 
old story the winds and streams had driven him within the influence of 
the loadstone rock and it was drawing him to itself and he must go 
everything that arose before his mind drifted him on faster and faster 
more and more steadily to the terrible attraction his latent 
uneasiness had been that bad aims were being worked out in his own 
unhappy land by bad instruments and that he who could not fail to know 
that he was better than they was not there trying to do something to 
stay bloodshed and assert the claims of mercy and humanity with this 
uneasiness half stifled and half reproaching him he had been brought 
to the pointed comparison of himself with the brave old gentleman in 
whom duty was so strong upon that comparison injurious to himself had 
instantly followed the sneers of monseigneur which had stung him 
bitterly and those of stryver which above all were coarse and galling 
for old reasons upon those had followed gabelles letter the appeal of 
an innocent prisoner in danger of death to his justice honour and good 
name his resolution was made he must go to paris yes the loadstone 
rock was drawing him and he must sail on until he struck he knew of no 
rock he saw hardly any danger the intention with which he had done 
what he had done even although he had left it incomplete presented it 
before him in an aspect that would be gratefully acknowledged in 
france on his presenting himself to assert it then that glorious 
vision of doing good which is so often the sanguine mirage of so many 
good minds arose before him and he even saw himself in the illusion 
with some influence to guide this raging revolution that was running 
so fearfully wild as he walked to and fro with his resolution made he 
considered that neither lucie nor her father must know of it until he 
was gone lucie should be spared the pain of separation and her father 
always reluctant to turn his thoughts towards the dangerous ground of 
old should come to the knowledge of the step as a step taken and not 
in the balance of suspense and doubt how much of the incompleteness of 
his situation was referable to her father through the painful anxiety 
to avoid reviving old associations of france in his mind he did not 
discuss with himself but that circumstance too had had its influence 
in his course he walked to and fro with thoughts very busy until it 
was time to return to tellsons and take leave of mr lorry as soon as 
he arrived in paris he would present himself to this old friend but he 
must say nothing of his intention now a carriage with posthorses was 
ready at the bank door and jerry was booted and equipped i have 
delivered that letter said charles darnay to mr lorry i would not 
consent to your being charged with any written answer but perhaps you 
will take a verbal one that i will and readily said mr lorry if it is 
not dangerous not at all though it is to a prisoner in the abbaye what 
is his name said mr lorry with his open pocketbook in his hand gabelle 
gabelle and what is the message to the unfortunate gabelle in prison 
simply that he has received the letter and will come any time 
mentioned he will start upon his journey tomorrow night any person 
mentioned no he helped mr lorry to wrap himself in a number of coats 
and cloaks and went out with him from the warm atmosphere of the old 
bank into the misty air of fleetstreet my love to lucie and to little 
lucie said mr lorry at parting and take precious care of them till i 
come back charles darnay shook his head and doubtfully smiled as the 
carriage rolled away that nightit was the fourteenth of augusthe sat 
up late and wrote two fervent letters one was to lucie explaining the 
strong obligation he was under to go to paris and showing her at 
length the reasons that he had for feeling confident that he could 
become involved in no personal danger there the other was to the 
doctor confiding lucie and their dear child to his care and dwelling 
on the same topics with the strongest assurances to both he wrote that 
he would despatch letters in proof of his safety immediately after his 
arrival it was a hard day that day of being among them with the first 
reservation of their joint lives on his mind it was a hard matter to 
preserve the innocent deceit of which they were profoundly 
unsuspicious but an affectionate glance at his wife so happy and busy 
made him resolute not to tell her what impended he had been half moved 
to do it so strange it was to him to act in anything without her quiet 
aid and the day passed quickly early in the evening he embraced her 
and her scarcely less dear namesake pretending that he would return 
byandbye an imaginary engagement took him out and he had secreted a 
valise of clothes ready and so he emerged into the heavy mist of the 
heavy streets with a heavier heart the unseen force was drawing him 
fast to itself now and all the tides and winds were setting straight 
and strong towards it he left his two letters with a trusty porter to 
be delivered half an hour before midnight and no sooner took horse for 
dover and began his journey for the love of heaven of justice of 
generosity of the honour of your noble name was the poor prisoners cry 
with which he strengthened his sinking heart as he left all that was 
dear on earth behind him and floated away for the loadstone rock the 
end of the second book book the thirdthe track of a storm i in secret 
the traveller fared slowly on his way who fared towards paris from 
england in the autumn of the year one thousand seven hundred and 
ninetytwo more than enough of bad roads bad equipages and bad horses 
he would have encountered to delay him though the fallen and 
unfortunate king of france had been upon his throne in all his glory 
but the changed times were fraught with other obstacles than these 
every towngate and village taxinghouse had its band of citizen 
patriots with their national muskets in a most explosive state of 
readiness who stopped all comers and goers crossquestioned them 
inspected their papers looked for their names in lists of their own 
turned them back or sent them on or stopped them and laid them in hold 
as their capricious judgment or fancy deemed best for the dawning 
republic one and indivisible of liberty equality fraternity or death a 
very few french leagues of his journey were accomplished when charles 
darnay began to perceive that for him along these country roads there 
was no hope of return until he should have been declared a good 
citizen at paris whatever might befall now he must on to his journeys 
end not a mean village closed upon him not a common barrier dropped 
across the road behind him but he knew it to be another iron door in 
the series that was barred between him and england the universal 
watchfulness so encompassed him that if he had been taken in a net or 
were being forwarded to his destination in a cage he could not have 
felt his freedom more completely gone this universal watchfulness not 
only stopped him on the highway twenty times in a stage but retarded 
his progress twenty times in a day by riding after him and taking him 
back riding before him and stopping him by anticipation riding with 
him and keeping him in charge he had been days upon his journey in 
france alone when he went to bed tired out in a little town on the 
high road still a long way from paris nothing but the production of 
the afflicted gabelles letter from his prison of the abbaye would have 
got him on so far his difficulty at the guardhouse in this small place 
had been such that he felt his journey to have come to a crisis and he 
was therefore as little surprised as a man could be to find himself 
awakened at the small inn to which he had been remitted until morning 
in the middle of the night awakened by a timid local functionary and 
three armed patriots in rough red caps and with pipes in their mouths 
who sat down on the bed emigrant said the functionary i am going to 
send you on to paris under an escort citizen i desire nothing more 
than to get to paris though i could dispense with the escort silence 
growled a redcap striking at the coverlet with the buttend of his 
musket peace aristocrat it is as the good patriot says observed the 
timid functionary you are an aristocrat and must have an escortand 
must pay for it i have no choice said charles darnay choice listen to 
him cried the same scowling redcap as if it was not a favour to be 
protected from the lampiron it is always as the good patriot says 
observed the functionary rise and dress yourself emigrant darnay 
complied and was taken back to the guardhouse where other patriots in 
rough red caps were smoking drinking and sleeping by a watchfire here 
he paid a heavy price for his escort and hence he started with it on 
the wet wet roads at three oclock in the morning the escort were two 
mounted patriots in red caps and tricoloured cockades armed with 
national muskets and sabres who rode one on either side of him the 
escorted governed his own horse but a loose line was attached to his 
bridle the end of which one of the patriots kept girded round his 
wrist in this state they set forth with the sharp rain driving in 
their faces clattering at a heavy dragoon trot over the uneven town 
pavement and out upon the miredeep roads in this state they traversed 
without change except of horses and pace all the mire deep leagues 
that lay between them and the capital they travelled in the night 
halting an hour or two after daybreak and lying by until the twilight 
fell the escort were so wretchedly clothed that they twisted straw 
round their bare legs and thatched their ragged shoulders to keep the 
wet off apart from the personal discomfort of being so attended and 
apart from such considerations of present danger as arose from one of 
the patriots being chronically drunk and carrying his musket very 
recklessly charles darnay did not allow the restraint that was laid 
upon him to awaken any serious fears in his breast for he reasoned 
with himself that it could have no reference to the merits of an 
individual case that was not yet stated and of representations 
confirmable by the prisoner in the abbaye that were not yet made but 
when they came to the town of beauvaiswhich they did at eventide when 
the streets were filled with peoplehe could not conceal from himself 
that the aspect of affairs was very alarming an ominous crowd gathered 
to see him dismount of the postingyard and many voices called out 
loudly down with the emigrant he stopped in the act of swinging 
himself out of his saddle and resuming it as his safest place said 
emigrant my friends do you not see me here in france of my own will 
you are a cursed emigrant cried a farrier making at him in a furious 
manner through the press hammer in hand and you are a cursed 
aristocrat the postmaster interposed himself between this man and the 
riders bridle at which he was evidently making and soothingly said let 
him be let him be he will be judged at paris judged repeated the 
farrier swinging his hammer ay and condemned as a traitor at this the 
crowd roared approval checking the postmaster who was for turning his 
horses head to the yard the drunken patriot sat composedly in his 
saddle looking on with the line round his wrist darnay said as soon as 
he could make his voice heard friends you deceive yourselves or you 
are deceived i am not a traitor he lies cried the smith he is a 
traitor since the decree his life is forfeit to the people his cursed 
life is not his own at the instant when darnay saw a rush in the eyes 
of the crowd which another instant would have brought upon him the 
postmaster turned his horse into the yard the escort rode in close 
upon his horses flanks and the postmaster shut and barred the crazy 
double gates the farrier struck a blow upon them with his hammer and 
the crowd groaned but no more was done what is this decree that the 
smith spoke of darnay asked the postmaster when he had thanked him and 
stood beside him in the yard truly a decree for selling the property 
of emigrants when passed on the fourteenth the day i left england 
everybody says it is but one of several and that there will be 
othersif there are not alreadybanishing all emigrants and condemning 
all to death who return that is what he meant when he said your life 
was not your own but there are no such decrees yet what do i know said 
the postmaster shrugging his shoulders there may be or there will be 
it is all the same what would you have they rested on some straw in a 
loft until the middle of the night and then rode forward again when 
all the town was asleep among the many wild changes observable on 
familiar things which made this wild ride unreal not the least was the 
seeming rarity of sleep after long and lonely spurring over dreary 
roads they would come to a cluster of poor cottages not steeped in 
darkness but all glittering with lights and would find the people in a 
ghostly manner in the dead of the night circling hand in hand round a 
shrivelled tree of liberty or all drawn up together singing a liberty 
song happily however there was sleep in beauvais that night to help 
them out of it and they passed on once more into solitude and 
loneliness jingling through the untimely cold and wet among 
impoverished fields that had yielded no fruits of the earth that year 
diversified by the blackened remains of burnt houses and by the sudden 
emergence from ambuscade and sharp reining up across their way of 
patriot patrols on the watch on all the roads daylight at last found 
them before the wall of paris the barrier was closed and strongly 
guarded when they rode up to it where are the papers of this prisoner 
demanded a resolutelooking man in authority who was summoned out by 
the guard naturally struck by the disagreeable word charles darnay 
requested the speaker to take notice that he was a free traveller and 
french citizen in charge of an escort which the disturbed state of the 
country had imposed upon him and which he had paid for where repeated 
the same personage without taking any heed of him whatever are the 
papers of this prisoner the drunken patriot had them in his cap and 
produced them casting his eyes over gabelles letter the same personage 
in authority showed some disorder and surprise and looked at darnay 
with a close attention he left escort and escorted without saying a 
word however and went into the guardroom meanwhile they sat upon their 
horses outside the gate looking about him while in this state of 
suspense charles darnay observed that the gate was held by a mixed 
guard of soldiers and patriots the latter far outnumbering the former 
and that while ingress into the city for peasants carts bringing in 
supplies and for similar traffic and traffickers was easy enough 
egress even for the homeliest people was very difficult a numerous 
medley of men and women not to mention beasts and vehicles of various 
sorts was waiting to issue forth but the previous identification was 
so strict that they filtered through the barrier very slowly some of 
these people knew their turn for examination to be so far off that 
they lay down on the ground to sleep or smoke while others talked 
together or loitered about the red cap and tricolour cockade were 
universal both among men and women when he had sat in his saddle some 
halfhour taking note of these things darnay found himself confronted 
by the same man in authority who directed the guard to open the 
barrier then he delivered to the escort drunk and sober a receipt for 
the escorted and requested him to dismount he did so and the two 
patriots leading his tired horse turned and rode away without entering 
the city he accompanied his conductor into a guardroom smelling of 
common wine and tobacco where certain soldiers and patriots asleep and 
awake drunk and sober and in various neutral states between sleeping 
and waking drunkenness and sobriety were standing and lying about the 
light in the guardhouse half derived from the waning oillamps of the 
night and half from the overcast day was in a correspondingly 
uncertain condition some registers were lying open on a desk and an 
officer of a coarse dark aspect presided over these citizen defarge 
said he to darnays conductor as he took a slip of paper to write on is 
this the emigrant evremonde this is the man your age evremonde 
thirtyseven married evremonde yes where married in england without 
doubt where is your wife evremonde in england without doubt you are 
consigned evremonde to the prison of la force just heaven exclaimed 
darnay under what law and for what offence the officer looked up from 
his slip of paper for a moment we have new laws evremonde and new 
offences since you were here he said it with a hard smile and went on 
writing i entreat you to observe that i have come here voluntarily in 
response to that written appeal of a fellowcountryman which lies 
before you i demand no more than the opportunity to do so without 
delay is not that my right emigrants have no rights evremonde was the 
stolid reply the officer wrote until he had finished read over to 
himself what he had written sanded it and handed it to defarge with 
the words in secret defarge motioned with the paper to the prisoner 
that he must accompany him the prisoner obeyed and a guard of two 
armed patriots attended them is it you said defarge in a low voice as 
they went down the guardhouse steps and turned into paris who married 
the daughter of doctor manette once a prisoner in the bastille that is 
no more yes replied darnay looking at him with surprise my name is 
defarge and i keep a wineshop in the quarter saint antoine possibly 
you have heard of me my wife came to your house to reclaim her father 
yes the word wife seemed to serve as a gloomy reminder to defarge to 
say with sudden impatience in the name of that sharp female newlyborn 
and called la guillotine why did you come to france you heard me say 
why a minute ago do you not believe it is the truth a bad truth for 
you said defarge speaking with knitted brows and looking straight 
before him indeed i am lost here all here is so unprecedented so 
changed so sudden and unfair that i am absolutely lost will you render 
me a little help none defarge spoke always looking straight before him 
will you answer me a single question perhaps according to its nature 
you can say what it is in this prison that i am going to so unjustly 
shall i have some free communication with the world outside you will 
see i am not to be buried there prejudged and without any means of 
presenting my case you will see but what then other people have been 
similarly buried in worse prisons before now but never by me citizen 
defarge defarge glanced darkly at him for answer and walked on in a 
steady and set silence the deeper he sank into this silence the 
fainter hope there wasor so darnay thoughtof his softening in any 
slight degree he therefore made haste to say it is of the utmost 
importance to me you know citizen even better than i of how much 
importance that i should be able to communicate to mr lorry of 
tellsons bank an english gentleman who is now in paris the simple fact 
without comment that i have been thrown into the prison of la force 
will you cause that to be done for me i will do defarge doggedly 
rejoined nothing for you my duty is to my country and the people i am 
the sworn servant of both against you i will do nothing for you 
charles darnay felt it hopeless to entreat him further and his pride 
was touched besides as they walked on in silence he could not but see 
how used the people were to the spectacle of prisoners passing along 
the streets the very children scarcely noticed him a few passers 
turned their heads and a few shook their fingers at him as an 
aristocrat otherwise that a man in good clothes should be going to 
prison was no more remarkable than that a labourer in working clothes 
should be going to work in one narrow dark and dirty street through 
which they passed an excited orator mounted on a stool was addressing 
an excited audience on the crimes against the people of the king and 
the royal family the few words that he caught from this mans lips 
first made it known to charles darnay that the king was in prison and 
that the foreign ambassadors had one and all left paris on the road 
except at beauvais he had heard absolutely nothing the escort and the 
universal watchfulness had completely isolated him that he had fallen 
among far greater dangers than those which had developed themselves 
when he left england he of course knew now that perils had thickened 
about him fast and might thicken faster and faster yet he of course 
knew now he could not but admit to himself that he might not have made 
this journey if he could have foreseen the events of a few days and 
yet his misgivings were not so dark as imagined by the light of this 
later time they would appear troubled as the future was it was the 
unknown future and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope the 
horrible massacre days and nights long which within a few rounds of 
the clock was to set a great mark of blood upon the blessed garnering 
time of harvest was as far out of his knowledge as if it had been a 
hundred thousand years away the sharp female newlyborn and called la 
guillotine was hardly known to him or to the generality of people by 
name the frightful deeds that were to be soon done were probably 
unimagined at that time in the brains of the doers how could they have 
a place in the shadowy conceptions of a gentle mind of unjust 
treatment in detention and hardship and in cruel separation from his 
wife and child he foreshadowed the likelihood or the certainty but 
beyond this he dreaded nothing distinctly with this on his mind which 
was enough to carry into a dreary prison courtyard he arrived at the 
prison of la force a man with a bloated face opened the strong wicket 
to whom defarge presented the emigrant evremonde what the devil how 
many more of them exclaimed the man with the bloated face defarge took 
his receipt without noticing the exclamation and withdrew with his two 
fellowpatriots what the devil i say again exclaimed the gaoler left 
with his wife how many more the gaolers wife being provided with no 
answer to the question merely replied one must have patience my dear 
three turnkeys who entered responsive to a bell she rang echoed the 
sentiment and one added for the love of liberty which sounded in that 
place like an inappropriate conclusion the prison of la force was a 
gloomy prison dark and filthy and with a horrible smell of foul sleep 
in it extraordinary how soon the noisome flavour of imprisoned sleep 
becomes manifest in all such places that are ill cared for in secret 
too grumbled the gaoler looking at the written paper as if i was not 
already full to bursting he stuck the paper on a file in an illhumour 
and charles darnay awaited his further pleasure for half an hour 
sometimes pacing to and fro in the strong arched room sometimes 
resting on a stone seat in either case detained to be imprinted on the 
memory of the chief and his subordinates come said the chief at length 
taking up his keys come with me emigrant through the dismal prison 
twilight his new charge accompanied him by corridor and staircase many 
doors clanging and locking behind them until they came into a large 
low vaulted chamber crowded with prisoners of both sexes the women 
were seated at a long table reading and writing knitting sewing and 
embroidering the men were for the most part standing behind their 
chairs or lingering up and down the room in the instinctive 
association of prisoners with shameful crime and disgrace the newcomer 
recoiled from this company but the crowning unreality of his long 
unreal ride was their all at once rising to receive him with every 
refinement of manner known to the time and with all the engaging 
graces and courtesies of life so strangely clouded were these 
refinements by the prison manners and gloom so spectral did they 
become in the inappropriate squalor and misery through which they were 
seen that charles darnay seemed to stand in a company of the dead 
ghosts all the ghost of beauty the ghost of stateliness the ghost of 
elegance the ghost of pride the ghost of frivolity the ghost of wit 
the ghost of youth the ghost of age all waiting their dismissal from 
the desolate shore all turning on him eyes that were changed by the 
death they had died in coming there it struck him motionless the 
gaoler standing at his side and the other gaolers moving about who 
would have been well enough as to appearance in the ordinary exercise 
of their functions looked so extravagantly coarse contrasted with 
sorrowing mothers and blooming daughters who were therewith the 
apparitions of the coquette the young beauty and the mature woman 
delicately bredthat the inversion of all experience and likelihood 
which the scene of shadows presented was heightened to its utmost 
surely ghosts all surely the long unreal ride some progress of disease 
that had brought him to these gloomy shades in the name of the 
assembled companions in misfortune said a gentleman of courtly 
appearance and address coming forward i have the honour of giving you 
welcome to la force and of condoling with you on the calamity that has 
brought you among us may it soon terminate happily it would be an 
impertinence elsewhere but it is not so here to ask your name and 
condition charles darnay roused himself and gave the required 
information in words as suitable as he could find but i hope said the 
gentleman following the chief gaoler with his eyes who moved across 
the room that you are not in secret i do not understand the meaning of 
the term but i have heard them say so ah what a pity we so much regret 
it but take courage several members of our society have been in secret 
at first and it has lasted but a short time then he added raising his 
voice i grieve to inform the societyin secret there was a murmur of 
commiseration as charles darnay crossed the room to a grated door 
where the gaoler awaited him and many voicesamong which the soft and 
compassionate voices of women were conspicuousgave him good wishes and 
encouragement he turned at the grated door to render the thanks of his 
heart it closed under the gaolers hand and the apparitions vanished 
from his sight forever the wicket opened on a stone staircase leading 
upward when they had ascended forty steps the prisoner of half an hour 
already counted them the gaoler opened a low black door and they 
passed into a solitary cell it struck cold and damp but was not dark 
yours said the gaoler why am i confined alone how do i know i can buy 
pen ink and paper such are not my orders you will be visited and can 
ask then at present you may buy your food and nothing more there were 
in the cell a chair a table and a straw mattress as the gaoler made a 
general inspection of these objects and of the four walls before going 
out a wandering fancy wandered through the mind of the prisoner 
leaning against the wall opposite to him that this gaoler was so 
unwholesomely bloated both in face and person as to look like a man 
who had been drowned and filled with water when the gaoler was gone he 
thought in the same wandering way now am i left as if i were dead 
stopping then to look down at the mattress he turned from it with a 
sick feeling and thought and here in these crawling creatures is the 
first condition of the body after death five paces by four and a half 
five paces by four and a half five paces by four and a half the 
prisoner walked to and fro in his cell counting its measurement and 
the roar of the city arose like muffled drums with a wild swell of 
voices added to them he made shoes he made shoes he made shoes the 
prisoner counted the measurement again and paced faster to draw his 
mind with him from that latter repetition the ghosts that vanished 
when the wicket closed there was one among them the appearance of a 
lady dressed in black who was leaning in the embrasure of a window and 
she had a light shining upon her golden hair and she looked like let 
us ride on again for gods sake through the illuminated villages with 
the people all awake he made shoes he made shoes he made shoes five 
paces by four and a half with such scraps tossing and rolling upward 
from the depths of his mind the prisoner walked faster and faster 
obstinately counting and counting and the roar of the city changed to 
this extentthat it still rolled in like muffled drums but with the 
wail of voices that he knew in the swell that rose above them ii the 
grindstone tellsons bank established in the saint germain quarter of 
paris was in a wing of a large house approached by a courtyard and 
shut off from the street by a high wall and a strong gate the house 
belonged to a great nobleman who had lived in it until he made a 
flight from the troubles in his own cooks dress and got across the 
borders a mere beast of the chase flying from hunters he was still in 
his metempsychosis no other than the same monseigneur the preparation 
of whose chocolate for whose lips had once occupied three strong men 
besides the cook in question monseigneur gone and the three strong men 
absolving themselves from the sin of having drawn his high wages by 
being more than ready and willing to cut his throat on the altar of 
the dawning republic one and indivisible of liberty equality 
fraternity or death monseigneurs house had been first sequestrated and 
then confiscated for all things moved so fast and decree followed 
decree with that fierce precipitation that now upon the third night of 
the autumn month of september patriot emissaries of the law were in 
possession of monseigneurs house and had marked it with the tricolour 
and were drinking brandy in its state apartments a place of business 
in london like tellsons place of business in paris would soon have 
driven the house out of its mind and into the gazette for what would 
staid british responsibility and respectability have said to 
orangetrees in boxes in a bank courtyard and even to a cupid over the 
counter yet such things were tellsons had whitewashed the cupid but he 
was still to be seen on the ceiling in the coolest linen aiming as he 
very often does at money from morning to night bankruptcy must 
inevitably have come of this young pagan in lombardstreet london and 
also of a curtained alcove in the rear of the immortal boy and also of 
a lookingglass let into the wall and also of clerks not at all old who 
danced in public on the slightest provocation yet a french tellsons 
could get on with these things exceedingly well and as long as the 
times held together no man had taken fright at them and drawn out his 
money what money would be drawn out of tellsons henceforth and what 
would lie there lost and forgotten what plate and jewels would tarnish 
in tellsons hidingplaces while the depositors rusted in prisons and 
when they should have violently perished how many accounts with 
tellsons never to be balanced in this world must be carried over into 
the next no man could have said that night any more than mr jarvis 
lorry could though he thought heavily of these questions he sat by a 
newlylighted wood fire the blighted and unfruitful year was 
prematurely cold and on his honest and courageous face there was a 
deeper shade than the pendent lamp could throw or any object in the 
room distortedly reflecta shade of horror he occupied rooms in the 
bank in his fidelity to the house of which he had grown to be a part 
like strong rootivy it chanced that they derived a kind of security 
from the patriotic occupation of the main building but the truehearted 
old gentleman never calculated about that all such circumstances were 
indifferent to him so that he did his duty on the opposite side of the 
courtyard under a colonnade was extensive standingfor carriageswhere 
indeed some carriages of monseigneur yet stood against two of the 
pillars were fastened two great flaring flambeaux and in the light of 
these standing out in the open air was a large grindstone a roughly 
mounted thing which appeared to have hurriedly been brought there from 
some neighbouring smithy or other workshop rising and looking out of 
window at these harmless objects mr lorry shivered and retired to his 
seat by the fire he had opened not only the glass window but the 
lattice blind outside it and he had closed both again and he shivered 
through his frame from the streets beyond the high wall and the strong 
gate there came the usual night hum of the city with now and then an 
indescribable ring in it weird and unearthly as if some unwonted 
sounds of a terrible nature were going up to heaven thank god said mr 
lorry clasping his hands that no one near and dear to me is in this 
dreadful town tonight may he have mercy on all who are in danger soon 
afterwards the bell at the great gate sounded and he thought they have 
come back and sat listening but there was no loud irruption into the 
courtyard as he had expected and he heard the gate clash again and all 
was quiet the nervousness and dread that were upon him inspired that 
vague uneasiness respecting the bank which a great change would 
naturally awaken with such feelings roused it was well guarded and he 
got up to go among the trusty people who were watching it when his 
door suddenly opened and two figures rushed in at sight of which he 
fell back in amazement lucie and her father lucie with her arms 
stretched out to him and with that old look of earnestness so 
concentrated and intensified that it seemed as though it had been 
stamped upon her face expressly to give force and power to it in this 
one passage of her life what is this cried mr lorry breathless and 
confused what is the matter lucie manette what has happened what has 
brought you here what is it with the look fixed upon him in her 
paleness and wildness she panted out in his arms imploringly o my dear 
friend my husband your husband lucie charles what of charles here here 
in paris has been here some daysthree or fouri dont know how many i 
cant collect my thoughts an errand of generosity brought him here 
unknown to us he was stopped at the barrier and sent to prison the old 
man uttered an irrepressible cry almost at the same moment the beg of 
the great gate rang again and a loud noise of feet and voices came 
pouring into the courtyard what is that noise said the doctor turning 
towards the window dont look cried mr lorry dont look out manette for 
your life dont touch the blind the doctor turned with his hand upon 
the fastening of the window and said with a cool bold smile my dear 
friend i have a charmed life in this city i have been a bastille 
prisoner there is no patriot in parisin paris in francewho knowing me 
to have been a prisoner in the bastille would touch me except to 
overwhelm me with embraces or carry me in triumph my old pain has 
given me a power that has brought us through the barrier and gained us 
news of charles there and brought us here i knew it would be so i knew 
i could help charles out of all danger i told lucie sowhat is that 
noise his hand was again upon the window dont look cried mr lorry 
absolutely desperate no lucie my dear nor you he got his arm round her 
and held her dont be so terrified my love i solemnly swear to you that 
i know of no harm having happened to charles that i had no suspicion 
even of his being in this fatal place what prison is he in la force la 
force lucie my child if ever you were brave and serviceable in your 
lifeand you were always bothyou will compose yourself now to do 
exactly as i bid you for more depends upon it than you can think or i 
can say there is no help for you in any action on your part tonight 
you cannot possibly stir out i say this because what i must bid you to 
do for charless sake is the hardest thing to do of all you must 
instantly be obedient still and quiet you must let me put you in a 
room at the back here you must leave your father and me alone for two 
minutes and as there are life and death in the world you must not 
delay i will be submissive to you i see in your face that you know i 
can do nothing else than this i know you are true the old man kissed 
her and hurried her into his room and turned the key then came 
hurrying back to the doctor and opened the window and partly opened 
the blind and put his hand upon the doctors arm and looked out with 
him into the courtyard looked out upon a throng of men and women not 
enough in number or near enough to fill the courtyard not more than 
forty or fifty in all the people in possession of the house had let 
them in at the gate and they had rushed in to work at the grindstone 
it had evidently been set up there for their purpose as in a 
convenient and retired spot but such awful workers and such awful work 
the grindstone had a double handle and turning at it madly were two 
men whose faces as their long hair flapped back when the whirlings of 
the grindstone brought their faces up were more horrible and cruel 
than the visages of the wildest savages in their most barbarous 
disguise false eyebrows and false moustaches were stuck upon them and 
their hideous countenances were all bloody and sweaty and all awry 
with howling and all staring and glaring with beastly excitement and 
want of sleep as these ruffians turned and turned their matted locks 
now flung forward over their eyes now flung backward over their necks 
some women held wine to their mouths that they might drink and what 
with dropping blood and what with dropping wine and what with the 
stream of sparks struck out of the stone all their wicked atmosphere 
seemed gore and fire the eye could not detect one creature in the 
group free from the smear of blood shouldering one another to get next 
at the sharpeningstone were men stripped to the waist with the stain 
all over their limbs and bodies men in all sorts of rags with the 
stain upon those rags men devilishly set off with spoils of womens 
lace and silk and ribbon with the stain dyeing those trifles through 
and through hatchets knives bayonets swords all brought to be 
sharpened were all red with it some of the hacked swords were tied to 
the wrists of those who carried them with strips of linen and 
fragments of dress ligatures various in kind but all deep of the one 
colour and as the frantic wielders of these weapons snatched them from 
the stream of sparks and tore away into the streets the same red hue 
was red in their frenzied eyeseyes which any unbrutalised beholder 
would have given twenty years of life to petrify with a welldirected 
gun all this was seen in a moment as the vision of a drowning man or 
of any human creature at any very great pass could see a world if it 
were there they drew back from the window and the doctor looked for 
explanation in his friends ashy face they are mr lorry whispered the 
words glancing fearfully round at the locked room murdering the 
prisoners if you are sure of what you say if you really have the power 
you think you haveas i believe you havemake yourself known to these 
devils and get taken to la force it may be too late i dont know but 
let it not be a minute later doctor manette pressed his hand hastened 
bareheaded out of the room and was in the courtyard when mr lorry 
regained the blind his streaming white hair his remarkable face and 
the impetuous confidence of his manner as he put the weapons aside 
like water carried him in an instant to the heart of the concourse at 
the stone for a few moments there was a pause and a hurry and a murmur 
and the unintelligible sound of his voice and then mr lorry saw him 
surrounded by all and in the midst of a line of twenty men long all 
linked shoulder to shoulder and hand to shoulder hurried out with 
cries oflive the bastille prisoner help for the bastille prisoners 
kindred in la force room for the bastille prisoner in front there save 
the prisoner evremonde at la force and a thousand answering shouts he 
closed the lattice again with a fluttering heart closed the window and 
the curtain hastened to lucie and told her that her father was 
assisted by the people and gone in search of her husband he found her 
child and miss pross with her but it never occurred to him to be 
surprised by their appearance until a long time afterwards when he sat 
watching them in such quiet as the night knew lucie had by that time 
fallen into a stupor on the floor at his feet clinging to his hand 
miss pross had laid the child down on his own bed and her head had 
gradually fallen on the pillow beside her pretty charge o the long 
long night with the moans of the poor wife and o the long long night 
with no return of her father and no tidings twice more in the darkness 
the bell at the great gate sounded and the irruption was repeated and 
the grindstone whirled and spluttered what is it cried lucie 
affrighted hush the soldiers swords are sharpened there said mr lorry 
the place is national property now and used as a kind of armoury my 
love twice more in all but the last spell of work was feeble and 
fitful soon afterwards the day began to dawn and he softly detached 
himself from the clasping hand and cautiously looked out again a man 
so besmeared that he might have been a sorely wounded soldier creeping 
back to consciousness on a field of slain was rising from the pavement 
by the side of the grindstone and looking about him with a vacant air 
shortly this wornout murderer descried in the imperfect light one of 
the carriages of monseigneur and staggering to that gorgeous vehicle 
climbed in at the door and shut himself up to take his rest on its 
dainty cushions the great grindstone earth had turned when mr lorry 
looked out again and the sun was red on the courtyard but the lesser 
grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air with a red upon 
it that the sun had never given and would never take away iii the 
shadow one of the first considerations which arose in the business 
mind of mr lorry when business hours came round was thisthat he had no 
right to imperil tellsons by sheltering the wife of an emigrant 
prisoner under the bank roof his own possessions safety life he would 
have hazarded for lucie and her child without a moments demur but the 
great trust he held was not his own and as to that business charge he 
was a strict man of business at first his mind reverted to defarge and 
he thought of finding out the wineshop again and taking counsel with 
its master in reference to the safest dwellingplace in the distracted 
state of the city but the same consideration that suggested him 
repudiated him he lived in the most violent quarter and doubtless was 
influential there and deep in its dangerous workings noon coming and 
the doctor not returning and every minutes delay tending to compromise 
tellsons mr lorry advised with lucie she said that her father had 
spoken of hiring a lodging for a short term in that quarter near the 
bankinghouse as there was no business objection to this and as he 
foresaw that even if it were all well with charles and he were to be 
released he could not hope to leave the city mr lorry went out in 
quest of such a lodging and found a suitable one high up in a removed 
bystreet where the closed blinds in all the other windows of a high 
melancholy square of buildings marked deserted homes to this lodging 
he at once removed lucie and her child and miss pross giving them what 
comfort he could and much more than he had himself he left jerry with 
them as a figure to fill a doorway that would bear considerable 
knocking on the head and retained to his own occupations a disturbed 
and doleful mind he brought to bear upon them and slowly and heavily 
the day lagged on with him it wore itself out and wore him out with it 
until the bank closed he was again alone in his room of the previous 
night considering what to do next when he heard a foot upon the stair 
in a few moments a man stood in his presence who with a keenly 
observant look at him addressed him by his name your servant said mr 
lorry do you know me he was a strongly made man with dark curling hair 
from fortyfive to fifty years of age for answer he repeated without 
any change of emphasis the words do you know me i have seen you 
somewhere perhaps at my wineshop much interested and agitated mr lorry 
said you come from doctor manette yes i come from doctor manette and 
what says he what does he send me defarge gave into his anxious hand 
an open scrap of paper it bore the words in the doctors writing 
charles is safe but i cannot safely leave this place yet i have 
obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note from charles to 
his wife let the bearer see his wife it was dated from la force within 
an hour will you accompany me said mr lorry joyfully relieved after 
reading this note aloud to where his wife resides yes returned defarge 
scarcely noticing as yet in what a curiously reserved and mechanical 
way defarge spoke mr lorry put on his hat and they went down into the 
courtyard there they found two women one knitting madame defarge 
surely said mr lorry who had left her in exactly the same attitude 
some seventeen years ago it is she observed her husband does madame go 
with us inquired mr lorry seeing that she moved as they moved yes that 
she may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons it is for 
their safety beginning to be struck by defarges manner mr lorry looked 
dubiously at him and led the way both the women followed the second 
woman being the vengeance they passed through the intervening streets 
as quickly as they might ascended the staircase of the new domicile 
were admitted by jerry and found lucie weeping alone she was thrown 
into a transport by the tidings mr lorry gave her of her husband and 
clasped the hand that delivered his notelittle thinking what it had 
been doing near him in the night and might but for a chance have done 
to him dearesttake courage i am well and your father has influence 
around me you cannot answer this kiss our child for me that was all 
the writing it was so much however to her who received it that she 
turned from defarge to his wife and kissed one of the hands that 
knitted it was a passionate loving thankful womanly action but the 
hand made no responsedropped cold and heavy and took to its knitting 
again there was something in its touch that gave lucie a check she 
stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom and with her hands 
yet at her neck looked terrified at madame defarge madame defarge met 
the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a cold impassive stare my dear 
said mr lorry striking in to explain there are frequent risings in the 
streets and although it is not likely they will ever trouble you 
madame defarge wishes to see those whom she has the power to protect 
at such times to the end that she may know themthat she may identify 
them i believe said mr lorry rather halting in his reassuring words as 
the stony manner of all the three impressed itself upon him more and 
more i state the case citizen defarge defarge looked gloomily at his 
wife and gave no other answer than a gruff sound of acquiescence you 
had better lucie said mr lorry doing all he could to propitiate by 
tone and manner have the dear child here and our good pross our good 
pross defarge is an english lady and knows no french the lady in 
question whose rooted conviction that she was more than a match for 
any foreigner was not to be shaken by distress and danger appeared 
with folded arms and observed in english to the vengeance whom her 
eyes first encountered well i am sure boldface i hope you are pretty 
well she also bestowed a british cough on madame defarge but neither 
of the two took much heed of her is that his child said madame defarge 
stopping in her work for the first time and pointing her 
knittingneedle at little lucie as if it were the finger of fate yes 
madame answered mr lorry this is our poor prisoners darling daughter 
and only child the shadow attendant on madame defarge and her party 
seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child that her mother 
instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her and held her to her 
breast the shadow attendant on madame defarge and her party seemed 
then to fall threatening and dark on both the mother and the child it 
is enough my husband said madame defarge i have seen them we may go 
but the suppressed manner had enough of menace in itnot visible and 
presented but indistinct and withheldto alarm lucie into saying as she 
laid her appealing hand on madame defarges dress you will be good to 
my poor husband you will do him no harm you will help me to see him if 
you can your husband is not my business here returned madame defarge 
looking down at her with perfect composure it is the daughter of your 
father who is my business here for my sake then be merciful to my 
husband for my childs sake she will put her hands together and pray 
you to be merciful we are more afraid of you than of these others 
madame defarge received it as a compliment and looked at her husband 
defarge who had been uneasily biting his thumbnail and looking at her 
collected his face into a sterner expression what is it that your 
husband says in that little letter asked madame defarge with a 
lowering smile influence he says something touching influence that my 
father said lucie hurriedly taking the paper from her breast but with 
her alarmed eyes on her questioner and not on it has much influence 
around him surely it will release him said madame defarge let it do so 
as a wife and mother cried lucie most earnestly i implore you to have 
pity on me and not to exercise any power that you possess against my 
innocent husband but to use it in his behalf o sisterwoman think of me 
as a wife and mother madame defarge looked coldly as ever at the 
suppliant and said turning to her friend the vengeance the wives and 
mothers we have been used to see since we were as little as this child 
and much less have not been greatly considered we have known their 
husbands and fathers laid in prison and kept from them often enough 
all our lives we have seen our sisterwomen suffer in themselves and in 
their children poverty nakedness hunger thirst sickness misery 
oppression and neglect of all kinds we have seen nothing else returned 
the vengeance we have borne this a long time said madame defarge 
turning her eyes again upon lucie judge you is it likely that the 
trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now she resumed her 
knitting and went out the vengeance followed defarge went last and 
closed the door courage my dear lucie said mr lorry as he raised her 
courage courage so far all goes well with usmuch much better than it 
has of late gone with many poor souls cheer up and have a thankful 
heart i am not thankless i hope but that dreadful woman seems to throw 
a shadow on me and on all my hopes tut tut said mr lorry what is this 
despondency in the brave little breast a shadow indeed no substance in 
it lucie but the shadow of the manner of these defarges was dark upon 
himself for all that and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly iv 
calm in storm doctor manette did not return until the morning of the 
fourth day of his absence so much of what had happened in that 
dreadful time as could be kept from the knowledge of lucie was so well 
concealed from her that not until long afterwards when france and she 
were far apart did she know that eleven hundred defenceless prisoners 
of both sexes and all ages had been killed by the populace that four 
days and nights had been darkened by this deed of horror and that the 
air around her had been tainted by the slain she only knew that there 
had been an attack upon the prisons that all political prisoners had 
been in danger and that some had been dragged out by the crowd and 
murdered to mr lorry the doctor communicated under an injunction of 
secrecy on which he had no need to dwell that the crowd had taken him 
through a scene of carnage to the prison of la force that in the 
prison he had found a selfappointed tribunal sitting before which the 
prisoners were brought singly and by which they were rapidly ordered 
to be put forth to be massacred or to be released or in a few cases to 
be sent back to their cells that presented by his conductors to this 
tribunal he had announced himself by name and profession as having 
been for eighteen years a secret and unaccused prisoner in the 
bastille that one of the body so sitting in judgment had risen and 
identified him and that this man was defarge that hereupon he had 
ascertained through the registers on the table that his soninlaw was 
among the living prisoners and had pleaded hard to the tribunalof whom 
some members were asleep and some awake some dirty with murder and 
some clean some sober and some notfor his life and liberty that in the 
first frantic greetings lavished on himself as a notable sufferer 
under the overthrown system it had been accorded to him to have 
charles darnay brought before the lawless court and examined that he 
seemed on the point of being at once released when the tide in his 
favour met with some unexplained check not intelligible to the doctor 
which led to a few words of secret conference that the man sitting as 
president had then informed doctor manette that the prisoner must 
remain in custody but should for his sake be held inviolate in safe 
custody that immediately on a signal the prisoner was removed to the 
interior of the prison again but that he the doctor had then so 
strongly pleaded for permission to remain and assure himself that his 
soninlaw was through no malice or mischance delivered to the concourse 
whose murderous yells outside the gate had often drowned the 
proceedings that he had obtained the permission and had remained in 
that hall of blood until the danger was over the sights he had seen 
there with brief snatches of food and sleep by intervals shall remain 
untold the mad joy over the prisoners who were saved had astounded him 
scarcely less than the mad ferocity against those who were cut to 
pieces one prisoner there was he said who had been discharged into the 
street free but at whom a mistaken savage had thrust a pike as he 
passed out being besought to go to him and dress the wound the doctor 
had passed out at the same gate and had found him in the arms of a 
company of samaritans who were seated on the bodies of their victims 
with an inconsistency as monstrous as anything in this awful nightmare 
they had helped the healer and tended the wounded man with the 
gentlest solicitude had made a litter for him and escorted him 
carefully from the spot had then caught up their weapons and plunged 
anew into a butchery so dreadful that the doctor had covered his eyes 
with his hands and swooned away in the midst of it as mr lorry 
received these confidences and as he watched the face of his friend 
now sixtytwo years of age a misgiving arose within him that such dread 
experiences would revive the old danger but he had never seen his 
friend in his present aspect he had never at all known him in his 
present character for the first time the doctor felt now that his 
suffering was strength and power for the first time he felt that in 
that sharp fire he had slowly forged the iron which could break the 
prison door of his daughters husband and deliver him it all tended to 
a good end my friend it was not mere waste and ruin as my beloved 
child was helpful in restoring me to myself i will be helpful now in 
restoring the dearest part of herself to her by the aid of heaven i 
will do it thus doctor manette and when jarvis lorry saw the kindled 
eyes the resolute face the calm strong look and bearing of the man 
whose life always seemed to him to have been stopped like a clock for 
so many years and then set going again with an energy which had lain 
dormant during the cessation of its usefulness he believed greater 
things than the doctor had at that time to contend with would have 
yielded before his persevering purpose while he kept himself in his 
place as a physician whose business was with all degrees of mankind 
bond and free rich and poor bad and good he used his personal 
influence so wisely that he was soon the inspecting physician of three 
prisons and among them of la force he could now assure lucie that her 
husband was no longer confined alone but was mixed with the general 
body of prisoners he saw her husband weekly and brought sweet messages 
to her straight from his lips sometimes her husband himself sent a 
letter to her though never by the doctors hand but she was not 
permitted to write to him for among the many wild suspicions of plots 
in the prisons the wildest of all pointed at emigrants who were known 
to have made friends or permanent connections abroad this new life of 
the doctors was an anxious life no doubt still the sagacious mr lorry 
saw that there was a new sustaining pride in it nothing unbecoming 
tinged the pride it was a natural and worthy one but he observed it as 
a curiosity the doctor knew that up to that time his imprisonment had 
been associated in the minds of his daughter and his friend with his 
personal affliction deprivation and weakness now that this was changed 
and he knew himself to be invested through that old trial with forces 
to which they both looked for charless ultimate safety and deliverance 
he became so far exalted by the change that he took the lead and 
direction and required them as the weak to trust to him as the strong 
the preceding relative positions of himself and lucie were reversed 
yet only as the liveliest gratitude and affection could reverse them 
for he could have had no pride but in rendering some service to her 
who had rendered so much to him all curious to see thought mr lorry in 
his amiably shrewd way but all natural and right so take the lead my 
dear friend and keep it it couldnt be in better hands but though the 
doctor tried hard and never ceased trying to get charles darnay set at 
liberty or at least to get him brought to trial the public current of 
the time set too strong and fast for him the new era began the king 
was tried doomed and beheaded the republic of liberty equality 
fraternity or death declared for victory or death against the world in 
arms the black flag waved night and day from the great towers of notre 
dame three hundred thousand men summoned to rise against the tyrants 
of the earth rose from all the varying soils of france as if the 
dragons teeth had been sown broadcast and had yielded fruit equally on 
hill and plain on rock in gravel and alluvial mud under the bright sky 
of the south and under the clouds of the north in fell and forest in 
the vineyards and the olivegrounds and among the cropped grass and the 
stubble of the corn along the fruitful banks of the broad rivers and 
in the sand of the seashore what private solicitude could rear itself 
against the deluge of the year one of libertythe deluge rising from 
below not falling from above and with the windows of heaven shut not 
opened there was no pause no pity no peace no interval of relenting 
rest no measurement of time though days and nights circled as 
regularly as when time was young and the evening and morning were the 
first day other count of time there was none hold of it was lost in 
the raging fever of a nation as it is in the fever of one patient now 
breaking the unnatural silence of a whole city the executioner showed 
the people the head of the kingand now it seemed almost in the same 
breath the head of his fair wife which had had eight weary months of 
imprisoned widowhood and misery to turn it grey and yet observing the 
strange law of contradiction which obtains in all such cases the time 
was long while it flamed by so fast a revolutionary tribunal in the 
capital and forty or fifty thousand revolutionary committees all over 
the land a law of the suspected which struck away all security for 
liberty or life and delivered over any good and innocent person to any 
bad and guilty one prisons gorged with people who had committed no 
offence and could obtain no hearing these things became the 
established order and nature of appointed things and seemed to be 
ancient usage before they were many weeks old above all one hideous 
figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from 
the foundations of the worldthe figure of the sharp female called la 
guillotine it was the popular theme for jests it was the best cure for 
headache it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey it 
imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion it was the national 
razor which shaved close who kissed la guillotine looked through the 
little window and sneezed into the sack it was the sign of the 
regeneration of the human race it superseded the cross models of it 
were worn on breasts from which the cross was discarded and it was 
bowed down to and believed in where the cross was denied it sheared 
off heads so many that it and the ground it most polluted were a 
rotten red it was taken to pieces like a toypuzzle for a young devil 
and was put together again when the occasion wanted it it hushed the 
eloquent struck down the powerful abolished the beautiful and good 
twentytwo friends of high public mark twentyone living and one dead it 
had lopped the heads off in one morning in as many minutes the name of 
the strong man of old scripture had descended to the chief functionary 
who worked it but so armed he was stronger than his namesake and 
blinder and tore away the gates of gods own temple every day among 
these terrors and the brood belonging to them the doctor walked with a 
steady head confident in his power cautiously persistent in his end 
never doubting that he would save lucies husband at last yet the 
current of the time swept by so strong and deep and carried the time 
away so fiercely that charles had lain in prison one year and three 
months when the doctor was thus steady and confident so much more 
wicked and distracted had the revolution grown in that december month 
that the rivers of the south were encumbered with the bodies of the 
violently drowned by night and prisoners were shot in lines and 
squares under the southern wintry sun still the doctor walked among 
the terrors with a steady head no man better known than he in paris at 
that day no man in a stranger situation silent humane indispensable in 
hospital and prison using his art equally among assassins and victims 
he was a man apart in the exercise of his skill the appearance and the 
story of the bastille captive removed him from all other men he was 
not suspected or brought in question any more than if he had indeed 
been recalled to life some eighteen years before or were a spirit 
moving among mortals v the woodsawyer one year and three months during 
all that time lucie was never sure from hour to hour but that the 
guillotine would strike off her husbands head next day every day 
through the stony streets the tumbrils now jolted heavily filled with 
condemned lovely girls bright women brownhaired blackhaired and grey 
youths stalwart men and old gentle born and peasant born all red wine 
for la guillotine all daily brought into light from the dark cellars 
of the loathsome prisons and carried to her through the streets to 
slake her devouring thirst liberty equality fraternity or deaththe 
last much the easiest to bestow o guillotine if the suddenness of her 
calamity and the whirling wheels of the time had stunned the doctors 
daughter into awaiting the result in idle despair it would but have 
been with her as it was with many but from the hour when she had taken 
the white head to her fresh young bosom in the garret of saint antoine 
she had been true to her duties she was truest to them in the season 
of trial as all the quietly loyal and good will always be as soon as 
they were established in their new residence and her father had 
entered on the routine of his avocations she arranged the little 
household as exactly as if her husband had been there everything had 
its appointed place and its appointed time little lucie she taught as 
regularly as if they had all been united in their english home the 
slight devices with which she cheated herself into the show of a 
belief that they would soon be reunited the little preparations for 
his speedy return the setting aside of his chair and his booksthese 
and the solemn prayer at night for one dear prisoner especially among 
the many unhappy souls in prison and the shadow of deathwere almost 
the only outspoken reliefs of her heavy mind she did not greatly alter 
in appearance the plain dark dresses akin to mourning dresses which 
she and her child wore were as neat and as well attended to as the 
brighter clothes of happy days she lost her colour and the old and 
intent expression was a constant not an occasional thing otherwise she 
remained very pretty and comely sometimes at night on kissing her 
father she would burst into the grief she had repressed all day and 
would say that her sole reliance under heaven was on him he always 
resolutely answered nothing can happen to him without my knowledge and 
i know that i can save him lucie they had not made the round of their 
changed life many weeks when her father said to her on coming home one 
evening my dear there is an upper window in the prison to which 
charles can sometimes gain access at three in the afternoon when he 
can get to itwhich depends on many uncertainties and incidentshe might 
see you in the street he thinks if you stood in a certain place that i 
can show you but you will not be able to see him my poor child and 
even if you could it would be unsafe for you to make a sign of 
recognition o show me the place my father and i will go there every 
day from that time in all weathers she waited there two hours as the 
clock struck two she was there and at four she turned resignedly away 
when it was not too wet or inclement for her child to be with her they 
went together at other times she was alone but she never missed a 
single day it was the dark and dirty corner of a small winding street 
the hovel of a cutter of wood into lengths for burning was the only 
house at that end all else was wall on the third day of her being 
there he noticed her good day citizeness good day citizen this mode of 
address was now prescribed by decree it had been established 
voluntarily some time ago among the more thorough patriots but was now 
law for everybody walking here again citizeness you see me citizen the 
woodsawyer who was a little man with a redundancy of gesture he had 
once been a mender of roads cast a glance at the prison pointed at the 
prison and putting his ten fingers before his face to represent bars 
peeped through them jocosely but its not my business said he and went 
on sawing his wood next day he was looking out for her and accosted 
her the moment she appeared what walking here again citizeness yes 
citizen ah a child too your mother is it not my little citizeness do i 
say yes mamma whispered little lucie drawing close to her yes dearest 
yes citizen ah but its not my business my work is my business see my 
saw i call it my little guillotine la la la la la la and off his head 
comes the billet fell as he spoke and he threw it into a basket i call 
myself the samson of the firewood guillotine see here again loo loo 
loo loo loo loo and off her head comes now a child tickle tickle 
pickle pickle and off its head comes all the family lucie shuddered as 
he threw two more billets into his basket but it was impossible to be 
there while the woodsawyer was at work and not be in his sight 
thenceforth to secure his good will she always spoke to him first and 
often gave him drinkmoney which he readily received he was an 
inquisitive fellow and sometimes when she had quite forgotten him in 
gazing at the prison roof and grates and in lifting her heart up to 
her husband she would come to herself to find him looking at her with 
his knee on his bench and his saw stopped in its work but its not my 
business he would generally say at those times and would briskly fall 
to his sawing again in all weathers in the snow and frost of winter in 
the bitter winds of spring in the hot sunshine of summer in the rains 
of autumn and again in the snow and frost of winter lucie passed two 
hours of every day at this place and every day on leaving it she 
kissed the prison wall her husband saw her so she learned from her 
father it might be once in five or six times it might be twice or 
thrice running it might be not for a week or a fortnight together it 
was enough that he could and did see her when the chances served and 
on that possibility she would have waited out the day seven days a 
week these occupations brought her round to the december month wherein 
her father walked among the terrors with a steady head on a 
lightlysnowing afternoon she arrived at the usual corner it was a day 
of some wild rejoicing and a festival she had seen the houses as she 
came along decorated with little pikes and with little red caps stuck 
upon them also with tricoloured ribbons also with the standard 
inscription tricoloured letters were the favourite republic one and 
indivisible liberty equality fraternity or death the miserable shop of 
the woodsawyer was so small that its whole surface furnished very 
indifferent space for this legend he had got somebody to scrawl it up 
for him however who had squeezed death in with most inappropriate 
difficulty on his housetop he displayed pike and cap as a good citizen 
must and in a window he had stationed his saw inscribed as his little 
sainte guillotine for the great sharp female was by that time 
popularly canonised his shop was shut and he was not there which was a 
relief to lucie and left her quite alone but he was not far off for 
presently she heard a troubled movement and a shouting coming along 
which filled her with fear a moment afterwards and a throng of people 
came pouring round the corner by the prison wall in the midst of whom 
was the woodsawyer hand in hand with the vengeance there could not be 
fewer than five hundred people and they were dancing like five 
thousand demons there was no other music than their own singing they 
danced to the popular revolution song keeping a ferocious time that 
was like a gnashing of teeth in unison men and women danced together 
women danced together men danced together as hazard had brought them 
together at first they were a mere storm of coarse red caps and coarse 
woollen rags but as they filled the place and stopped to dance about 
lucie some ghastly apparition of a dancefigure gone raving mad arose 
among them they advanced retreated struck at one anothers hands 
clutched at one anothers heads spun round alone caught one another and 
spun round in pairs until many of them dropped while those were down 
the rest linked hand in hand and all spun round together then the ring 
broke and in separate rings of two and four they turned and turned 
until they all stopped at once began again struck clutched and tore 
and then reversed the spin and all spun round another way suddenly 
they stopped again paused struck out the time afresh formed into lines 
the width of the public way and with their heads low down and their 
hands high up swooped screaming off no fight could have been half so 
terrible as this dance it was so emphatically a fallen sporta 
something once innocent delivered over to all devilrya healthy pastime 
changed into a means of angering the blood bewildering the senses and 
steeling the heart such grace as was visible in it made it the uglier 
showing how warped and perverted all things good by nature were become 
the maidenly bosom bared to this the pretty almostchilds head thus 
distracted the delicate foot mincing in this slough of blood and dirt 
were types of the disjointed time this was the carmagnole as it passed 
leaving lucie frightened and bewildered in the doorway of the 
woodsawyers house the feathery snow fell as quietly and lay as white 
and soft as if it had never been o my father for he stood before her 
when she lifted up the eyes she had momentarily darkened with her hand 
such a cruel bad sight i know my dear i know i have seen it many times 
dont be frightened not one of them would harm you i am not frightened 
for myself my father but when i think of my husband and the mercies of 
these people we will set him above their mercies very soon i left him 
climbing to the window and i came to tell you there is no one here to 
see you may kiss your hand towards that highest shelving roof i do so 
father and i send him my soul with it you cannot see him my poor dear 
no father said lucie yearning and weeping as she kissed her hand no a 
footstep in the snow madame defarge i salute you citizeness from the 
doctor i salute you citizen this in passing nothing more madame 
defarge gone like a shadow over the white road give me your arm my 
love pass from here with an air of cheerfulness and courage for his 
sake that was well done they had left the spot it shall not be in vain 
charles is summoned for tomorrow for tomorrow there is no time to lose 
i am well prepared but there are precautions to be taken that could 
not be taken until he was actually summoned before the tribunal he has 
not received the notice yet but i know that he will presently be 
summoned for tomorrow and removed to the conciergerie i have timely 
information you are not afraid she could scarcely answer i trust in 
you do so implicitly your suspense is nearly ended my darling he shall 
be restored to you within a few hours i have encompassed him with 
every protection i must see lorry he stopped there was a heavy 
lumbering of wheels within hearing they both knew too well what it 
meant one two three three tumbrils faring away with their dread loads 
over the hushing snow i must see lorry the doctor repeated turning her 
another way the staunch old gentleman was still in his trust had never 
left it he and his books were in frequent requisition as to property 
confiscated and made national what he could save for the owners he 
saved no better man living to hold fast by what tellsons had in 
keeping and to hold his peace a murky red and yellow sky and a rising 
mist from the seine denoted the approach of darkness it was almost 
dark when they arrived at the bank the stately residence of 
monseigneur was altogether blighted and deserted above a heap of dust 
and ashes in the court ran the letters national property republic one 
and indivisible liberty equality fraternity or death who could that be 
with mr lorrythe owner of the ridingcoat upon the chairwho must not be 
seen from whom newly arrived did he come out agitated and surprised to 
take his favourite in his arms to whom did he appear to repeat her 
faltering words when raising his voice and turning his head towards 
the door of the room from which he had issued he said removed to the 
conciergerie and summoned for tomorrow vi triumph the dread tribunal 
of five judges public prosecutor and determined jury sat every day 
their lists went forth every evening and were read out by the gaolers 
of the various prisons to their prisoners the standard gaolerjoke was 
come out and listen to the evening paper you inside there charles 
evremonde called darnay so at last began the evening paper at la force 
when a name was called its owner stepped apart into a spot reserved 
for those who were announced as being thus fatally recorded charles 
evremonde called darnay had reason to know the usage he had seen 
hundreds pass away so his bloated gaoler who wore spectacles to read 
with glanced over them to assure himself that he had taken his place 
and went through the list making a similar short pause at each name 
there were twentythree names but only twenty were responded to for one 
of the prisoners so summoned had died in gaol and been forgotten and 
two had already been guillotined and forgotten the list was read in 
the vaulted chamber where darnay had seen the associated prisoners on 
the night of his arrival every one of those had perished in the 
massacre every human creature he had since cared for and parted with 
had died on the scaffold there were hurried words of farewell and 
kindness but the parting was soon over it was the incident of every 
day and the society of la force were engaged in the preparation of 
some games of forfeits and a little concert for that evening they 
crowded to the grates and shed tears there but twenty places in the 
projected entertainments had to be refilled and the time was at best 
short to the lockup hour when the common rooms and corridors would be 
delivered over to the great dogs who kept watch there through the 
night the prisoners were far from insensible or unfeeling their ways 
arose out of the condition of the time similarly though with a subtle 
difference a species of fervour or intoxication known without doubt to 
have led some persons to brave the guillotine unnecessarily and to die 
by it was not mere boastfulness but a wild infection of the wildly 
shaken public mind in seasons of pestilence some of us will have a 
secret attraction to the disease a terrible passing inclination to die 
of it and all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts only 
needing circumstances to evoke them the passage to the conciergerie 
was short and dark the night in its verminhaunted cells was long and 
cold next day fifteen prisoners were put to the bar before charles 
darnays name was called all the fifteen were condemned and the trials 
of the whole occupied an hour and a half charles evremonde called 
darnay was at length arraigned his judges sat upon the bench in 
feathered hats but the rough red cap and tricoloured cockade was the 
headdress otherwise prevailing looking at the jury and the turbulent 
audience he might have thought that the usual order of things was 
reversed and that the felons were trying the honest men the lowest 
cruelest and worst populace of a city never without its quantity of 
low cruel and bad were the directing spirits of the scene noisily 
commenting applauding disapproving anticipating and precipitating the 
result without a check of the men the greater part were armed in 
various ways of the women some wore knives some daggers some ate and 
drank as they looked on many knitted among these last was one with a 
spare piece of knitting under her arm as she worked she was in a front 
row by the side of a man whom he had never seen since his arrival at 
the barrier but whom he directly remembered as defarge he noticed that 
she once or twice whispered in his ear and that she seemed to be his 
wife but what he most noticed in the two figures was that although 
they were posted as close to himself as they could be they never 
looked towards him they seemed to be waiting for something with a 
dogged determination and they looked at the jury but at nothing else 
under the president sat doctor manette in his usual quiet dress as 
well as the prisoner could see he and mr lorry were the only men there 
unconnected with the tribunal who wore their usual clothes and had not 
assumed the coarse garb of the carmagnole charles evremonde called 
darnay was accused by the public prosecutor as an emigrant whose life 
was forfeit to the republic under the decree which banished all 
emigrants on pain of death it was nothing that the decree bore date 
since his return to france there he was and there was the decree he 
had been taken in france and his head was demanded take off his head 
cried the audience an enemy to the republic the president rang his 
bell to silence those cries and asked the prisoner whether it was not 
true that he had lived many years in england undoubtedly it was was he 
not an emigrant then what did he call himself not an emigrant he hoped 
within the sense and spirit of the law why not the president desired 
to know because he had voluntarily relinquished a title that was 
distasteful to him and a station that was distasteful to him and had 
left his countryhe submitted before the word emigrant in the present 
acceptation by the tribunal was in useto live by his own industry in 
england rather than on the industry of the overladen people of france 
what proof had he of this he handed in the names of two witnesses 
theophile gabelle and alexandre manette but he had married in england 
the president reminded him true but not an english woman a citizeness 
of france yes by birth her name and family lucie manette only daughter 
of doctor manette the good physician who sits there this answer had a 
happy effect upon the audience cries in exaltation of the wellknown 
good physician rent the hall so capriciously were the people moved 
that tears immediately rolled down several ferocious countenances 
which had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before as if with 
impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him on these few 
steps of his dangerous way charles darnay had set his foot according 
to doctor manettes reiterated instructions the same cautious counsel 
directed every step that lay before him and had prepared every inch of 
his road the president asked why had he returned to france when he did 
and not sooner he had not returned sooner he replied simply because he 
had no means of living in france save those he had resigned whereas in 
england he lived by giving instruction in the french language and 
literature he had returned when he did on the pressing and written 
entreaty of a french citizen who represented that his life was 
endangered by his absence he had come back to save a citizens life and 
to bear his testimony at whatever personal hazard to the truth was 
that criminal in the eyes of the republic the populace cried 
enthusiastically no and the president rang his bell to quiet them 
which it did not for they continued to cry no until they left off of 
their own will the president required the name of that citizen the 
accused explained that the citizen was his first witness he also 
referred with confidence to the citizens letter which had been taken 
from him at the barrier but which he did not doubt would be found 
among the papers then before the president the doctor had taken care 
that it should be therehad assured him that it would be thereand at 
this stage of the proceedings it was produced and read citizen gabelle 
was called to confirm it and did so citizen gabelle hinted with 
infinite delicacy and politeness that in the pressure of business 
imposed on the tribunal by the multitude of enemies of the republic 
with which it had to deal he had been slightly overlooked in his 
prison of the abbayein fact had rather passed out of the tribunals 
patriotic remembranceuntil three days ago when he had been summoned 
before it and had been set at liberty on the jurys declaring 
themselves satisfied that the accusation against him was answered as 
to himself by the surrender of the citizen evremonde called darnay 
doctor manette was next questioned his high personal popularity and 
the clearness of his answers made a great impression but as he 
proceeded as he showed that the accused was his first friend on his 
release from his long imprisonment that the accused had remained in 
england always faithful and devoted to his daughter and himself in 
their exile that so far from being in favour with the aristocrat 
government there he had actually been tried for his life by it as the 
foe of england and friend of the united statesas he brought these 
circumstances into view with the greatest discretion and with the 
straightforward force of truth and earnestness the jury and the 
populace became one at last when he appealed by name to monsieur lorry 
an english gentleman then and there present who like himself had been 
a witness on that english trial and could corroborate his account of 
it the jury declared that they had heard enough and that they were 
ready with their votes if the president were content to receive them 
at every vote the jurymen voted aloud and individually the populace 
set up a shout of applause all the voices were in the prisoners favour 
and the president declared him free then began one of those 
extraordinary scenes with which the populace sometimes gratified their 
fickleness or their better impulses towards generosity and mercy or 
which they regarded as some setoff against their swollen account of 
cruel rage no man can decide now to which of these motives such 
extraordinary scenes were referable it is probable to a blending of 
all the three with the second predominating no sooner was the 
acquittal pronounced than tears were shed as freely as blood at 
another time and such fraternal embraces were bestowed upon the 
prisoner by as many of both sexes as could rush at him that after his 
long and unwholesome confinement he was in danger of fainting from 
exhaustion none the less because he knew very well that the very same 
people carried by another current would have rushed at him with the 
very same intensity to rend him to pieces and strew him over the 
streets his removal to make way for other accused persons who were to 
be tried rescued him from these caresses for the moment five were to 
be tried together next as enemies of the republic forasmuch as they 
had not assisted it by word or deed so quick was the tribunal to 
compensate itself and the nation for a chance lost that these five 
came down to him before he left the place condemned to die within 
twentyfour hours the first of them told him so with the customary 
prison sign of deatha raised fingerand they all added in words long 
live the republic the five had had it is true no audience to lengthen 
their proceedings for when he and doctor manette emerged from the gate 
there was a great crowd about it in which there seemed to be every 
face he had seen in courtexcept two for which he looked in vain on his 
coming out the concourse made at him anew weeping embracing and 
shouting all by turns and all together until the very tide of the 
river on the bank of which the mad scene was acted seemed to run mad 
like the people on the shore they put him into a great chair they had 
among them and which they had taken either out of the court itself or 
one of its rooms or passages over the chair they had thrown a red flag 
and to the back of it they had bound a pike with a red cap on its top 
in this car of triumph not even the doctors entreaties could prevent 
his being carried to his home on mens shoulders with a confused sea of 
red caps heaving about him and casting up to sight from the stormy 
deep such wrecks of faces that he more than once misdoubted his mind 
being in confusion and that he was in the tumbril on his way to the 
guillotine in wild dreamlike procession embracing whom they met and 
pointing him out they carried him on reddening the snowy streets with 
the prevailing republican colour in winding and tramping through them 
as they had reddened them below the snow with a deeper dye they 
carried him thus into the courtyard of the building where he lived her 
father had gone on before to prepare her and when her husband stood 
upon his feet she dropped insensible in his arms as he held her to his 
heart and turned her beautiful head between his face and the brawling 
crowd so that his tears and her lips might come together unseen a few 
of the people fell to dancing instantly all the rest fell to dancing 
and the courtyard overflowed with the carmagnole then they elevated 
into the vacant chair a young woman from the crowd to be carried as 
the goddess of liberty and then swelling and overflowing out into the 
adjacent streets and along the rivers bank and over the bridge the 
carmagnole absorbed them every one and whirled them away after 
grasping the doctors hand as he stood victorious and proud before him 
after grasping the hand of mr lorry who came panting in breathless 
from his struggle against the waterspout of the carmagnole after 
kissing little lucie who was lifted up to clasp her arms round his 
neck and after embracing the ever zealous and faithful pross who 
lifted her he took his wife in his arms and carried her up to their 
rooms lucie my own i am safe o dearest charles let me thank god for 
this on my knees as i have prayed to him they all reverently bowed 
their heads and hearts when she was again in his arms he said to her 
and now speak to your father dearest no other man in all this france 
could have done what he has done for me she laid her head upon her 
fathers breast as she had laid his poor head on her own breast long 
long ago he was happy in the return he had made her he was recompensed 
for his suffering he was proud of his strength you must not be weak my 
darling he remonstrated dont tremble so i have saved him vii a knock 
at the door i have saved him it was not another of the dreams in which 
he had often come back he was really here and yet his wife trembled 
and a vague but heavy fear was upon her all the air round was so thick 
and dark the people were so passionately revengeful and fitful the 
innocent were so constantly put to death on vague suspicion and black 
malice it was so impossible to forget that many as blameless as her 
husband and as dear to others as he was to her every day shared the 
fate from which he had been clutched that her heart could not be as 
lightened of its load as she felt it ought to be the shadows of the 
wintry afternoon were beginning to fall and even now the dreadful 
carts were rolling through the streets her mind pursued them looking 
for him among the condemned and then she clung closer to his real 
presence and trembled more her father cheering her showed a 
compassionate superiority to this womans weakness which was wonderful 
to see no garret no shoemaking no one hundred and five north tower now 
he had accomplished the task he had set himself his promise was 
redeemed he had saved charles let them all lean upon him their 
housekeeping was of a very frugal kind not only because that was the 
safest way of life involving the least offence to the people but 
because they were not rich and charles throughout his imprisonment had 
had to pay heavily for his bad food and for his guard and towards the 
living of the poorer prisoners partly on this account and partly to 
avoid a domestic spy they kept no servant the citizen and citizeness 
who acted as porters at the courtyard gate rendered them occasional 
service and jerry almost wholly transferred to them by mr lorry had 
become their daily retainer and had his bed there every night it was 
an ordinance of the republic one and indivisible of liberty equality 
fraternity or death that on the door or doorpost of every house the 
name of every inmate must be legibly inscribed in letters of a certain 
size at a certain convenient height from the ground mr jerry crunchers 
name therefore duly embellished the doorpost down below and as the 
afternoon shadows deepened the owner of that name himself appeared 
from overlooking a painter whom doctor manette had employed to add to 
the list the name of charles evremonde called darnay in the universal 
fear and distrust that darkened the time all the usual harmless ways 
of life were changed in the doctors little household as in very many 
others the articles of daily consumption that were wanted were 
purchased every evening in small quantities and at various small shops 
to avoid attracting notice and to give as little occasion as possible 
for talk and envy was the general desire for some months past miss 
pross and mr cruncher had discharged the office of purveyors the 
former carrying the money the latter the basket every afternoon at 
about the time when the public lamps were lighted they fared forth on 
this duty and made and brought home such purchases as were needful 
although miss pross through her long association with a french family 
might have known as much of their language as of her own if she had 
had a mind she had no mind in that direction consequently she knew no 
more of that nonsense as she was pleased to call it than mr cruncher 
did so her manner of marketing was to plump a nounsubstantive at the 
head of a shopkeeper without any introduction in the nature of an 
article and if it happened not to be the name of the thing she wanted 
to look round for that thing lay hold of it and hold on by it until 
the bargain was concluded she always made a bargain for it by holding 
up as a statement of its just price one finger less than the merchant 
held up whatever his number might be now mr cruncher said miss pross 
whose eyes were red with felicity if you are ready i am jerry hoarsely 
professed himself at miss prosss service he had worn all his rust off 
long ago but nothing would file his spiky head down theres all manner 
of things wanted said miss pross and we shall have a precious time of 
it we want wine among the rest nice toasts these redheads will be 
drinking wherever we buy it it will be much the same to your knowledge 
miss i should think retorted jerry whether they drink your health or 
the old uns whos he said miss pross mr cruncher with some diffidence 
explained himself as meaning old nicks ha said miss pross it doesnt 
need an interpreter to explain the meaning of these creatures they 
have but one and its midnight murder and mischief hush dear pray pray 
be cautious cried lucie yes yes yes ill be cautious said miss pross 
but i may say among ourselves that i do hope there will be no oniony 
and tobaccoey smotherings in the form of embracings all round going on 
in the streets now ladybird never you stir from that fire till i come 
back take care of the dear husband you have recovered and dont move 
your pretty head from his shoulder as you have it now till you see me 
again may i ask a question doctor manette before i go i think you may 
take that liberty the doctor answered smiling for gracious sake dont 
talk about liberty we have quite enough of that said miss pross hush 
dear again lucie remonstrated well my sweet said miss pross nodding 
her head emphatically the short and the long of it is that i am a 
subject of his most gracious majesty king george the third miss pross 
curtseyed at the name and as such my maxim is confound their politics 
frustrate their knavish tricks on him our hopes we fix god save the 
king mr cruncher in an access of loyalty growlingly repeated the words 
after miss pross like somebody at church i am glad you have so much of 
the englishman in you though i wish you had never taken that cold in 
your voice said miss pross approvingly but the question doctor manette 
is thereit was the good creatures way to affect to make light of 
anything that was a great anxiety with them all and to come at it in 
this chance manneris there any prospect yet of our getting out of this 
place i fear not yet it would be dangerous for charles yet heighhohum 
said miss pross cheerfully repressing a sigh as she glanced at her 
darlings golden hair in the light of the fire then we must have 
patience and wait thats all we must hold up our heads and fight low as 
my brother solomon used to say now mr cruncherdont you move ladybird 
they went out leaving lucie and her husband her father and the child 
by a bright fire mr lorry was expected back presently from the banking 
house miss pross had lighted the lamp but had put it aside in a corner 
that they might enjoy the firelight undisturbed little lucie sat by 
her grandfather with her hands clasped through his arm and he in a 
tone not rising much above a whisper began to tell her a story of a 
great and powerful fairy who had opened a prisonwall and let out a 
captive who had once done the fairy a service all was subdued and 
quiet and lucie was more at ease than she had been what is that she 
cried all at once my dear said her father stopping in his story and 
laying his hand on hers command yourself what a disordered state you 
are in the least thingnothingstartles you you your fathers daughter i 
thought my father said lucie excusing herself with a pale face and in 
a faltering voice that i heard strange feet upon the stairs my love 
the staircase is as still as death as he said the word a blow was 
struck upon the door oh father father what can this be hide charles 
save him my child said the doctor rising and laying his hand upon her 
shoulder i have saved him what weakness is this my dear let me go to 
the door he took the lamp in his hand crossed the two intervening 
outer rooms and opened it a rude clattering of feet over the floor and 
four rough men in red caps armed with sabres and pistols entered the 
room the citizen evremonde called darnay said the first who seeks him 
answered darnay i seek him we seek him i know you evremonde i saw you 
before the tribunal today you are again the prisoner of the republic 
the four surrounded him where he stood with his wife and child 
clinging to him tell me how and why am i again a prisoner it is enough 
that you return straight to the conciergerie and will know tomorrow 
you are summoned for tomorrow doctor manette whom this visitation had 
so turned into stone that he stood with the lamp in his hand as if be 
woe a statue made to hold it moved after these words were spoken put 
the lamp down and confronting the speaker and taking him not ungently 
by the loose front of his red woollen shirt said you know him you have 
said do you know me yes i know you citizen doctor we all know you 
citizen doctor said the other three he looked abstractedly from one to 
another and said in a lower voice after a pause will you answer his 
question to me then how does this happen citizen doctor said the first 
reluctantly he has been denounced to the section of saint antoine this 
citizen pointing out the second who had entered is from saint antoine 
the citizen here indicated nodded his head and added he is accused by 
saint antoine of what asked the doctor citizen doctor said the first 
with his former reluctance ask no more if the republic demands 
sacrifices from you without doubt you as a good patriot will be happy 
to make them the republic goes before all the people is supreme 
evremonde we are pressed one word the doctor entreated will you tell 
me who denounced him it is against rule answered the first but you can 
ask him of saint antoine here the doctor turned his eyes upon that man 
who moved uneasily on his feet rubbed his beard a little and at length 
said well truly it is against rule but he is denouncedand gravelyby 
the citizen and citizeness defarge and by one other what other do you 
ask citizen doctor yes then said he of saint antoine with a strange 
look you will be answered tomorrow now i am dumb viii a hand at cards 
happily unconscious of the new calamity at home miss pross threaded 
her way along the narrow streets and crossed the river by the bridge 
of the pontneuf reckoning in her mind the number of indispensable 
purchases she had to make mr cruncher with the basket walked at her 
side they both looked to the right and to the left into most of the 
shops they passed had a wary eye for all gregarious assemblages of 
people and turned out of their road to avoid any very excited group of 
talkers it was a raw evening and the misty river blurred to the eye 
with blazing lights and to the ear with harsh noises showed where the 
barges were stationed in which the smiths worked making guns for the 
army of the republic woe to the man who played tricks with that army 
or got undeserved promotion in it better for him that his beard had 
never grown for the national razor shaved him close having purchased a 
few small articles of grocery and a measure of oil for the lamp miss 
pross bethought herself of the wine they wanted after peeping into 
several wineshops she stopped at the sign of the good republican 
brutus of antiquity not far from the national palace once and twice 
the tuileries where the aspect of things rather took her fancy it had 
a quieter look than any other place of the same description they had 
passed and though red with patriotic caps was not so red as the rest 
sounding mr cruncher and finding him of her opinion miss pross 
resorted to the good republican brutus of antiquity attended by her 
cavalier slightly observant of the smoky lights of the people pipe in 
mouth playing with limp cards and yellow dominoes of the one bare 
breasted barearmed sootbegrimed workman reading a journal aloud and of 
the others listening to him of the weapons worn or laid aside to be 
resumed of the two or three customers fallen forward asleep who in the 
popular highshouldered shaggy black spencer looked in that attitude 
like slumbering bears or dogs the two outlandish customers approached 
the counter and showed what they wanted as their wine was measuring 
out a man parted from another man in a corner and rose to depart in 
going he had to face miss pross no sooner did he face her than miss 
pross uttered a scream and clapped her hands in a moment the whole 
company were on their feet that somebody was assassinated by somebody 
vindicating a difference of opinion was the likeliest occurrence 
everybody looked to see somebody fall but only saw a man and a woman 
standing staring at each other the man with all the outward aspect of 
a frenchman and a thorough republican the woman evidently english what 
was said in this disappointing anticlimax by the disciples of the good 
republican brutus of antiquity except that it was something very 
voluble and loud would have been as so much hebrew or chaldean to miss 
pross and her protector though they had been all ears but they had no 
ears for anything in their surprise for it must be recorded that not 
only was miss pross lost in amazement and agitation but mr 
cruncherthough it seemed on his own separate and individual accountwas 
in a state of the greatest wonder what is the matter said the man who 
had caused miss pross to scream speaking in a vexed abrupt voice 
though in a low tone and in english oh solomon dear solomon cried miss 
pross clapping her hands again after not setting eyes upon you or 
hearing of you for so long a time do i find you here dont call me 
solomon do you want to be the death of me asked the man in a furtive 
frightened way brother brother cried miss pross bursting into tears 
have i ever been so hard with you that you ask me such a cruel 
question then hold your meddlesome tongue said solomon and come out if 
you want to speak to me pay for your wine and come out whos this man 
miss pross shaking her loving and dejected head at her by no means 
affectionate brother said through her tears mr cruncher let him come 
out too said solomon does he think me a ghost apparently mr cruncher 
did to judge from his looks he said not a word however and miss pross 
exploring the depths of her reticule through her tears with great 
difficulty paid for her wine as she did so solomon turned to the 
followers of the good republican brutus of antiquity and offered a few 
words of explanation in the french language which caused them all to 
relapse into their former places and pursuits now said solomon 
stopping at the dark street corner what do you want how dreadfully 
unkind in a brother nothing has ever turned my love away from cried 
miss pross to give me such a greeting and show me no affection there 
confound it there said solomon making a dab at miss prosss lips with 
his own now are you content miss pross only shook her head and wept in 
silence if you expect me to be surprised said her brother solomon i am 
not surprised i knew you were here i know of most people who are here 
if you really dont want to endanger my existencewhich i half believe 
you dogo your ways as soon as possible and let me go mine i am busy i 
am an official my english brother solomon mourned miss pross casting 
up her tearfraught eyes that had the makings in him of one of the best 
and greatest of men in his native country an official among foreigners 
and such foreigners i would almost sooner have seen the dear boy lying 
in his i said so cried her brother interrupting i knew it you want to 
be the death of me i shall be rendered suspected by my own sister just 
as i am getting on the gracious and merciful heavens forbid cried miss 
pross far rather would i never see you again dear solomon though i 
have ever loved you truly and ever shall say but one affectionate word 
to me and tell me there is nothing angry or estranged between us and i 
will detain you no longer good miss pross as if the estrangement 
between them had come of any culpability of hers as if mr lorry had 
not known it for a fact years ago in the quiet corner in soho that 
this precious brother had spent her money and left her he was saying 
the affectionate word however with a far more grudging condescension 
and patronage than he could have shown if their relative merits and 
positions had been reversed which is invariably the case all the world 
over when mr cruncher touching him on the shoulder hoarsely and 
unexpectedly interposed with the following singular question i say 
might i ask the favour as to whether your name is john solomon or 
solomon john the official turned towards him with sudden distrust he 
had not previously uttered a word come said mr cruncher speak out you 
know which by the way was more than he could do himself john solomon 
or solomon john she calls you solomon and she must know being your 
sister and i know youre john you know which of the two goes first and 
regarding that name of pross likewise that warnt your name over the 
water what do you mean well i dont know all i mean for i cant call to 
mind what your name was over the water no no but ill swear it was a 
name of two syllables indeed yes tother ones was one syllable i know 
you you was a spy witness at the bailey what in the name of the father 
of lies own father to yourself was you called at that time barsad said 
another voice striking in thats the name for a thousand pound cried 
jerry the speaker who struck in was sydney carton he had his hands 
behind him under the skirts of his ridingcoat and he stood at mr 
crunchers elbow as negligently as he might have stood at the old 
bailey itself dont be alarmed my dear miss pross i arrived at mr 
lorrys to his surprise yesterday evening we agreed that i would not 
present myself elsewhere until all was well or unless i could be 
useful i present myself here to beg a little talk with your brother i 
wish you had a better employed brother than mr barsad i wish for your 
sake mr barsad was not a sheep of the prisons sheep was a cant word of 
the time for a spy under the gaolers the spy who was pale turned paler 
and asked him how he dared ill tell you said sydney i lighted on you 
mr barsad coming out of the prison of the conciergerie while i was 
contemplating the walls an hour or more ago you have a face to be 
remembered and i remember faces well made curious by seeing you in 
that connection and having a reason to which you are no stranger for 
associating you with the misfortunes of a friend now very unfortunate 
i walked in your direction i walked into the wineshop here close after 
you and sat near you i had no difficulty in deducing from your 
unreserved conversation and the rumour openly going about among your 
admirers the nature of your calling and gradually what i had done at 
random seemed to shape itself into a purpose mr barsad what purpose 
the spy asked it would be troublesome and might be dangerous to 
explain in the street could you favour me in confidence with some 
minutes of your companyat the office of tellsons bank for instance 
under a threat oh did i say that then why should i go there really mr 
barsad i cant say if you cant do you mean that you wont say sir the 
spy irresolutely asked you apprehend me very clearly mr barsad i wont 
cartons negligent recklessness of manner came powerfully in aid of his 
quickness and skill in such a business as he had in his secret mind 
and with such a man as he had to do with his practised eye saw it and 
made the most of it now i told you so said the spy casting a 
reproachful look at his sister if any trouble comes of this its your 
doing come come mr barsad exclaimed sydney dont be ungrateful but for 
my great respect for your sister i might not have led up so pleasantly 
to a little proposal that i wish to make for our mutual satisfaction 
do you go with me to the bank ill hear what you have got to say yes 
ill go with you i propose that we first conduct your sister safely to 
the corner of her own street let me take your arm miss pross this is 
not a good city at this time for you to be out in unprotected and as 
your escort knows mr barsad i will invite him to mr lorrys with us are 
we ready come then miss pross recalled soon afterwards and to the end 
of her life remembered that as she pressed her hands on sydneys arm 
and looked up in his face imploring him to do no hurt to solomon there 
was a braced purpose in the arm and a kind of inspiration in the eyes 
which not only contradicted his light manner but changed and raised 
the man she was too much occupied then with fears for the brother who 
so little deserved her affection and with sydneys friendly 
reassurances adequately to heed what she observed they left her at the 
corner of the street and carton led the way to mr lorrys which was 
within a few minutes walk john barsad or solomon pross walked at his 
side mr lorry had just finished his dinner and was sitting before a 
cheery little log or two of fireperhaps looking into their blaze for 
the picture of that younger elderly gentleman from tellsons who had 
looked into the red coals at the royal george at dover now a good many 
years ago he turned his head as they entered and showed the surprise 
with which he saw a stranger miss prosss brother sir said sydney mr 
barsad barsad repeated the old gentleman barsad i have an association 
with the nameand with the face i told you you had a remarkable face mr 
barsad observed carton coolly pray sit down as he took a chair himself 
he supplied the link that mr lorry wanted by saying to him with a 
frown witness at that trial mr lorry immediately remembered and 
regarded his new visitor with an undisguised look of abhorrence mr 
barsad has been recognised by miss pross as the affectionate brother 
you have heard of said sydney and has acknowledged the relationship i 
pass to worse news darnay has been arrested again struck with 
consternation the old gentleman exclaimed what do you tell me i left 
him safe and free within these two hours and am about to return to him 
arrested for all that when was it done mr barsad just now if at all mr 
barsad is the best authority possible sir said sydney and i have it 
from mr barsads communication to a friend and brother sheep over a 
bottle of wine that the arrest has taken place he left the messengers 
at the gate and saw them admitted by the porter there is no earthly 
doubt that he is retaken mr lorrys business eye read in the speakers 
face that it was loss of time to dwell upon the point confused but 
sensible that something might depend on his presence of mind he 
commanded himself and was silently attentive now i trust said sydney 
to him that the name and influence of doctor manette may stand him in 
as good stead tomorrowyou said he would be before the tribunal again 
tomorrow mr barsad yes i believe so in as good stead tomorrow as today 
but it may not be so i own to you i am shaken mr lorry by doctor 
manettes not having had the power to prevent this arrest he may not 
have known of it beforehand said mr lorry but that very circumstance 
would be alarming when we remember how identified he is with his 
soninlaw thats true mr lorry acknowledged with his troubled hand at 
his chin and his troubled eyes on carton in short said sydney this is 
a desperate time when desperate games are played for desperate stakes 
let the doctor play the winning game i will play the losing one no 
mans life here is worth purchase any one carried home by the people 
today may be condemned tomorrow now the stake i have resolved to play 
for in case of the worst is a friend in the conciergerie and the 
friend i purpose to myself to win is mr barsad you need have good 
cards sir said the spy ill run them over ill see what i holdmr lorry 
you know what a brute i am i wish youd give me a little brandy it was 
put before him and he drank off a glassfuldrank off another 
glassfulpushed the bottle thoughtfully away mr barsad he went on in 
the tone of one who really was looking over a hand at cards sheep of 
the prisons emissary of republican committees now turnkey now prisoner 
always spy and secret informer so much the more valuable here for 
being english that an englishman is less open to suspicion of 
subornation in those characters than a frenchman represents himself to 
his employers under a false name thats a very good card mr barsad now 
in the employ of the republican french government was formerly in the 
employ of the aristocratic english government the enemy of france and 
freedom thats an excellent card inference clear as day in this region 
of suspicion that mr barsad still in the pay of the aristocratic 
english government is the spy of pitt the treacherous foe of the 
republic crouching in its bosom the english traitor and agent of all 
mischief so much spoken of and so difficult to find thats a card not 
to be beaten have you followed my hand mr barsad not to understand 
your play returned the spy somewhat uneasily i play my ace 
denunciation of mr barsad to the nearest section committee look over 
your hand mr barsad and see what you have dont hurry he drew the 
bottle near poured out another glassful of brandy and drank it off he 
saw that the spy was fearful of his drinking himself into a fit state 
for the immediate denunciation of him seeing it he poured out and 
drank another glassful look over your hand carefully mr barsad take 
time it was a poorer hand than he suspected mr barsad saw losing cards 
in it that sydney carton knew nothing of thrown out of his honourable 
employment in england through too much unsuccessful hard swearing 
therenot because he was not wanted there our english reasons for 
vaunting our superiority to secrecy and spies are of very modern 
datehe knew that he had crossed the channel and accepted service in 
france first as a tempter and an eavesdropper among his own countrymen 
there gradually as a tempter and an eavesdropper among the natives he 
knew that under the overthrown government he had been a spy upon saint 
antoine and defarges wineshop had received from the watchful police 
such heads of information concerning doctor manettes imprisonment 
release and history as should serve him for an introduction to 
familiar conversation with the defarges and tried them on madame 
defarge and had broken down with them signally he always remembered 
with fear and trembling that that terrible woman had knitted when he 
talked with her and had looked ominously at him as her fingers moved 
he had since seen her in the section of saint antoine over and over 
again produce her knitted registers and denounce people whose lives 
the guillotine then surely swallowed up he knew as every one employed 
as he was did that he was never safe that flight was impossible that 
he was tied fast under the shadow of the axe and that in spite of his 
utmost tergiversation and treachery in furtherance of the reigning 
terror a word might bring it down upon him once denounced and on such 
grave grounds as had just now been suggested to his mind he foresaw 
that the dreadful woman of whose unrelenting character he had seen 
many proofs would produce against him that fatal register and would 
quash his last chance of life besides that all secret men are men soon 
terrified here were surely cards enough of one black suit to justify 
the holder in growing rather livid as he turned them over you scarcely 
seem to like your hand said sydney with the greatest composure do you 
play i think sir said the spy in the meanest manner as he turned to mr 
lorry i may appeal to a gentleman of your years and benevolence to put 
it to this other gentleman so much your junior whether he can under 
any circumstances reconcile it to his station to play that ace of 
which he has spoken i admit that i am a spy and that it is considered 
a discreditable stationthough it must be filled by somebody but this 
gentleman is no spy and why should he so demean himself as to make 
himself one i play my ace mr barsad said carton taking the answer on 
himself and looking at his watch without any scruple in a very few 
minutes i should have hoped gentlemen both said the spy always 
striving to hook mr lorry into the discussion that your respect for my 
sister i could not better testify my respect for your sister than by 
finally relieving her of her brother said sydney carton you think not 
sir i have thoroughly made up my mind about it the smooth manner of 
the spy curiously in dissonance with his ostentatiously rough dress 
and probably with his usual demeanour received such a check from the 
inscrutability of cartonwho was a mystery to wiser and honester men 
than hethat it faltered here and failed him while he was at a loss 
carton said resuming his former air of contemplating cards and indeed 
now i think again i have a strong impression that i have another good 
card here not yet enumerated that friend and fellowsheep who spoke of 
himself as pasturing in the country prisons who was he french you dont 
know him said the spy quickly french eh repeated carton musing and not 
appearing to notice him at all though he echoed his word well he may 
be is i assure you said the spy though its not important though its 
not important repeated carton in the same mechanical waythough its not 
importantno its not important no yet i know the face i think not i am 
sure not it cant be said the spy itcantbe muttered sydney carton 
retrospectively and idling his glass which fortunately was a small one 
again cantbe spoke good french yet like a foreigner i thought 
provincial said the spy no foreign cried carton striking his open hand 
on the table as a light broke clearly on his mind cly disguised but 
the same man we had that man before us at the old bailey now there you 
are hasty sir said barsad with a smile that gave his aquiline nose an 
extra inclination to one side there you really give me an advantage 
over you cly who i will unreservedly admit at this distance of time 
was a partner of mine has been dead several years i attended him in 
his last illness he was buried in london at the church of saint 
pancrasinthefields his unpopularity with the blackguard multitude at 
the moment prevented my following his remains but i helped to lay him 
in his coffin here mr lorry became aware from where he sat of a most 
remarkable goblin shadow on the wall tracing it to its source he 
discovered it to be caused by a sudden extraordinary rising and 
stiffening of all the risen and stiff hair on mr crunchers head let us 
be reasonable said the spy and let us be fair to show you how mistaken 
you are and what an unfounded assumption yours is i will lay before 
you a certificate of clys burial which i happened to have carried in 
my pocketbook with a hurried hand he produced and opened it ever since 
there it is oh look at it look at it you may take it in your hand its 
no forgery here mr lorry perceived the reflection on the wall to 
elongate and mr cruncher rose and stepped forward his hair could not 
have been more violently on end if it had been that moment dressed by 
the cow with the crumpled horn in the house that jack built unseen by 
the spy mr cruncher stood at his side and touched him on the shoulder 
like a ghostly bailiff that there roger cly master said mr cruncher 
with a taciturn and ironbound visage so you put him in his coffin i 
did who took him out of it barsad leaned back in his chair and 
stammered what do you mean i mean said mr cruncher that he warnt never 
in it no not he ill have my head took off if he was ever in it the spy 
looked round at the two gentlemen they both looked in unspeakable 
astonishment at jerry i tell you said jerry that you buried 
pavingstones and earth in that there coffin dont go and tell me that 
you buried cly it was a take in me and two more knows it how do you 
know it whats that to you ecod growled mr cruncher its you i have got 
a old grudge again is it with your shameful impositions upon tradesmen 
id catch hold of your throat and choke you for half a guinea sydney 
carton who with mr lorry had been lost in amazement at this turn of 
the business here requested mr cruncher to moderate and explain 
himself at another time sir he returned evasively the present time is 
illconwenient for explainin what i stand to is that he knows well wot 
that there cly was never in that there coffin let him say he was in so 
much as a word of one syllable and ill either catch hold of his throat 
and choke him for half a guinea mr cruncher dwelt upon this as quite a 
liberal offer or ill out and announce him humph i see one thing said 
carton i hold another card mr barsad impossible here in raging paris 
with suspicion filling the air for you to outlive denunciation when 
you are in communication with another aristocratic spy of the same 
antecedents as yourself who moreover has the mystery about him of 
having feigned death and come to life again a plot in the prisons of 
the foreigner against the republic a strong carda certain guillotine 
card do you play no returned the spy i throw up i confess that we were 
so unpopular with the outrageous mob that i only got away from england 
at the risk of being ducked to death and that cly was so ferreted up 
and down that he never would have got away at all but for that sham 
though how this man knows it was a sham is a wonder of wonders to me 
never you trouble your head about this man retorted the contentious mr 
cruncher youll have trouble enough with giving your attention to that 
gentleman and look here once more mr cruncher could not be restrained 
from making rather an ostentatious parade of his liberalityid catch 
hold of your throat and choke you for half a guinea the sheep of the 
prisons turned from him to sydney carton and said with more decision 
it has come to a point i go on duty soon and cant overstay my time you 
told me you had a proposal what is it now it is of no use asking too 
much of me ask me to do anything in my office putting my head in great 
extra danger and i had better trust my life to the chances of a 
refusal than the chances of consent in short i should make that choice 
you talk of desperation we are all desperate here remember i may 
denounce you if i think proper and i can swear my way through stone 
walls and so can others now what do you want with me not very much you 
are a turnkey at the conciergerie i tell you once for all there is no 
such thing as an escape possible said the spy firmly why need you tell 
me what i have not asked you are a turnkey at the conciergerie i am 
sometimes you can be when you choose i can pass in and out when i 
choose sydney carton filled another glass with brandy poured it slowly 
out upon the hearth and watched it as it dropped it being all spent he 
said rising so far we have spoken before these two because it was as 
well that the merits of the cards should not rest solely between you 
and me come into the dark room here and let us have one final word 
alone ix the game made while sydney carton and the sheep of the 
prisons were in the adjoining dark room speaking so low that not a 
sound was heard mr lorry looked at jerry in considerable doubt and 
mistrust that honest tradesmans manner of receiving the look did not 
inspire confidence he changed the leg on which he rested as often as 
if he had fifty of those limbs and were trying them all he examined 
his fingernails with a very questionable closeness of attention and 
whenever mr lorrys eye caught his he was taken with that peculiar kind 
of short cough requiring the hollow of a hand before it which is 
seldom if ever known to be an infirmity attendant on perfect openness 
of character jerry said mr lorry come here mr cruncher came forward 
sideways with one of his shoulders in advance of him what have you 
been besides a messenger after some cogitation accompanied with an 
intent look at his patron mr cruncher conceived the luminous idea of 
replying agicultooral character my mind misgives me much said mr lorry 
angrily shaking a forefinger at him that you have used the respectable 
and great house of tellsons as a blind and that you have had an 
unlawful occupation of an infamous description if you have dont expect 
me to befriend you when you get back to england if you have dont 
expect me to keep your secret tellsons shall not be imposed upon i 
hope sir pleaded the abashed mr cruncher that a gentleman like 
yourself wot ive had the honour of odd jobbing till im grey at it 
would think twice about harming of me even if it wos soi dont say it 
is but even if it wos and which it is to be took into account that if 
it wos it wouldnt even then be all o one side thered be two sides to 
it there might be medical doctors at the present hour a picking up 
their guineas where a honest tradesman dont pick up his fardensfardens 
no nor yet his half fardens half fardens no nor yet his quartera 
banking away like smoke at tellsons and a cocking their medical eyes 
at that tradesman on the sly a going in and going out to their own 
carriagesah equally like smoke if not more so well that ud be imposing 
too on tellsons for you cannot sarse the goose and not the gander and 
heres mrs cruncher or leastways wos in the old england times and would 
be tomorrow if cause given a floppin again the business to that degree 
as is ruinatingstark ruinating whereas them medical doctors wives dont 
flopcatch em at it or if they flop their toppings goes in favour of 
more patients and how can you rightly have one without tother then wot 
with undertakers and wot with parish clerks and wot with sextons and 
wot with private watchmen all awaricious and all in it a man wouldnt 
get much by it even if it wos so and wot little a man did get would 
never prosper with him mr lorry hed never have no good of it hed want 
all along to be out of the line if he could see his way out being once 
in even if it wos so ugh cried mr lorry rather relenting nevertheless 
i am shocked at the sight of you now what i would humbly offer to you 
sir pursued mr cruncher even if it wos so which i dont say it is dont 
prevaricate said mr lorry no i will not sir returned mr crunches as if 
nothing were further from his thoughts or practicewhich i dont say it 
iswot i would humbly offer to you sir would be this upon that there 
stool at that there bar sets that there boy of mine brought up and 
growed up to be a man wot will errand you message you general lightjob 
you till your heels is where your head is if such should be your 
wishes if it wos so which i still dont say it is for i will not 
prewaricate to you sir let that there boy keep his fathers place and 
take care of his mother dont blow upon that boys fatherdo not do it 
sirand let that father go into the line of the reglar diggin and make 
amends for what he would have undugif it wos soby diggin of em in with 
a will and with conwictions respectin the futur keepin of em safe that 
mr lorry said mr cruncher wiping his forehead with his arm as an 
announcement that he had arrived at the peroration of his discourse is 
wot i would respectfully offer to you sir a man dont see all this here 
a goin on dreadful round him in the way of subjects without heads dear 
me plentiful enough fur to bring the price down to porterage and 
hardly that without havin his serious thoughts of things and these 
here would be mine if it wos so entreatin of you fur to bear in mind 
that wot i said just now i up and said in the good cause when i might 
have kep it back that at least is true said mr lorry say no more now 
it may be that i shall yet stand your friend if you deserve it and 
repent in actionnot in words i want no more words mr cruncher knuckled 
his forehead as sydney carton and the spy returned from the dark room 
adieu mr barsad said the former our arrangement thus made you have 
nothing to fear from me he sat down in a chair on the hearth over 
against mr lorry when they were alone mr lorry asked him what he had 
done not much if it should go ill with the prisoner i have ensured 
access to him once mr lorrys countenance fell it is all i could do 
said carton to propose too much would be to put this mans head under 
the axe and as he himself said nothing worse could happen to him if he 
were denounced it was obviously the weakness of the position there is 
no help for it but access to him said mr lorry if it should go ill 
before the tribunal will not save him i never said it would mr lorrys 
eyes gradually sought the fire his sympathy with his darling and the 
heavy disappointment of his second arrest gradually weakened them he 
was an old man now overborne with anxiety of late and his tears fell 
you are a good man and a true friend said carton in an altered voice 
forgive me if i notice that you are affected i could not see my father 
weep and sit by careless and i could not respect your sorrow more if 
you were my father you are free from that misfortune however though he 
said the last words with a slip into his usual manner there was a true 
feeling and respect both in his tone and in his touch that mr lorry 
who had never seen the better side of him was wholly unprepared for he 
gave him his hand and carton gently pressed it to return to poor 
darnay said carton dont tell her of this interview or this arrangement 
it would not enable her to go to see him she might think it was 
contrived in case of the worse to convey to him the means of 
anticipating the sentence mr lorry had not thought of that and he 
looked quickly at carton to see if it were in his mind it seemed to be 
he returned the look and evidently understood it she might think a 
thousand things carton said and any of them would only add to her 
trouble dont speak of me to her as i said to you when i first came i 
had better not see her i can put my hand out to do any little helpful 
work for her that my hand can find to do without that you are going to 
her i hope she must be very desolate tonight i am going now directly i 
am glad of that she has such a strong attachment to you and reliance 
on you how does she look anxious and unhappy but very beautiful ah it 
was a long grieving sound like a sighalmost like a sob it attracted mr 
lorrys eyes to cartons face which was turned to the fire a light or a 
shade the old gentleman could not have said which passed from it as 
swiftly as a change will sweep over a hillside on a wild bright day 
and he lifted his foot to put back one of the little flaming logs 
which was tumbling forward he wore the white ridingcoat and topboots 
then in vogue and the light of the fire touching their light surfaces 
made him look very pale with his long brown hair all untrimmed hanging 
loose about him his indifference to fire was sufficiently remarkable 
to elicit a word of remonstrance from mr lorry his boot was still upon 
the hot embers of the flaming log when it had broken under the weight 
of his foot i forgot it he said mr lorrys eyes were again attracted to 
his face taking note of the wasted air which clouded the naturally 
handsome features and having the expression of prisoners faces fresh 
in his mind he was strongly reminded of that expression and your 
duties here have drawn to an end sir said carton turning to him yes as 
i was telling you last night when lucie came in so unexpectedly i have 
at length done all that i can do here i hoped to have left them in 
perfect safety and then to have quitted paris i have my leave to pass 
i was ready to go they were both silent yours is a long life to look 
back upon sir said carton wistfully i am in my seventyeighth year you 
have been useful all your life steadily and constantly occupied 
trusted respected and looked up to i have been a man of business ever 
since i have been a man indeed i may say that i was a man of business 
when a boy see what a place you fill at seventyeight how many people 
will miss you when you leave it empty a solitary old bachelor answered 
mr lorry shaking his head there is nobody to weep for me how can you 
say that wouldnt she weep for you wouldnt her child yes yes thank god 
i didnt quite mean what i said it is a thing to thank god for is it 
not surely surely if you could say with truth to your own solitary 
heart tonight i have secured to myself the love and attachment the 
gratitude or respect of no human creature i have won myself a tender 
place in no regard i have done nothing good or serviceable to be 
remembered by your seventyeight years would be seventyeight heavy 
curses would they not you say truly mr carton i think they would be 
sydney turned his eyes again upon the fire and after a silence of a 
few moments said i should like to ask youdoes your childhood seem far 
off do the days when you sat at your mothers knee seem days of very 
long ago responding to his softened manner mr lorry answered twenty 
years back yes at this time of my life no for as i draw closer and 
closer to the end i travel in the circle nearer and nearer to the 
beginning it seems to be one of the kind smoothings and preparings of 
the way my heart is touched now by many remembrances that had long 
fallen asleep of my pretty young mother and i so old and by many 
associations of the days when what we call the world was not so real 
with me and my faults were not confirmed in me i understand the 
feeling exclaimed carton with a bright flush and you are the better 
for it i hope so carton terminated the conversation here by rising to 
help him on with his outer coat but you said mr lorry reverting to the 
theme you are young yes said carton i am not old but my young way was 
never the way to age enough of me and of me i am sure said mr lorry 
are you going out ill walk with you to her gate you know my vagabond 
and restless habits if i should prowl about the streets a long time 
dont be uneasy i shall reappear in the morning you go to the court 
tomorrow yes unhappily i shall be there but only as one of the crowd 
my spy will find a place for me take my arm sir mr lorry did so and 
they went downstairs and out in the streets a few minutes brought them 
to mr lorrys destination carton left him there but lingered at a 
little distance and turned back to the gate again when it was shut and 
touched it he had heard of her going to the prison every day she came 
out here he said looking about him turned this way must have trod on 
these stones often let me follow in her steps it was ten oclock at 
night when he stood before the prison of la force where she had stood 
hundreds of times a little woodsawyer having closed his shop was 
smoking his pipe at his shopdoor good night citizen said sydney carton 
pausing in going by for the man eyed him inquisitively good night 
citizen how goes the republic you mean the guillotine not ill 
sixtythree today we shall mount to a hundred soon samson and his men 
complain sometimes of being exhausted ha ha ha he is so droll that 
samson such a barber do you often go to see him shave always every day 
what a barber you have seen him at work never go and see him when he 
has a good batch figure this to yourself citizen he shaved the 
sixtythree today in less than two pipes less than two pipes word of 
honour as the grinning little man held out the pipe he was smoking to 
explain how he timed the executioner carton was so sensible of a 
rising desire to strike the life out of him that he turned away but 
you are not english said the woodsawyer though you wear english dress 
yes said carton pausing again and answering over his shoulder you 
speak like a frenchman i am an old student here aha a perfect 
frenchman good night englishman good night citizen but go and see that 
droll dog the little man persisted calling after him and take a pipe 
with you sydney had not gone far out of sight when he stopped in the 
middle of the street under a glimmering lamp and wrote with his pencil 
on a scrap of paper then traversing with the decided step of one who 
remembered the way well several dark and dirty streetsmuch dirtier 
than usual for the best public thoroughfares remained uncleansed in 
those times of terrorhe stopped at a chemists shop which the owner was 
closing with his own hands a small dim crooked shop kept in a tortuous 
uphill thoroughfare by a small dim crooked man giving this citizen too 
good night as he confronted him at his counter he laid the scrap of 
paper before him whew the chemist whistled softly as he read it hi hi 
hi sydney carton took no heed and the chemist said for you citizen for 
me you will be careful to keep them separate citizen you know the 
consequences of mixing them perfectly certain small packets were made 
and given to him he put them one by one in the breast of his inner 
coat counted out the money for them and deliberately left the shop 
there is nothing more to do said he glancing upward at the moon until 
tomorrow i cant sleep it was not a reckless manner the manner in which 
he said these words aloud under the fastsailing clouds nor was it more 
expressive of negligence than defiance it was the settled manner of a 
tired man who had wandered and struggled and got lost but who at 
length struck into his road and saw its end long ago when he had been 
famous among his earliest competitors as a youth of great promise he 
had followed his father to the grave his mother had died years before 
these solemn words which had been read at his fathers grave arose in 
his mind as he went down the dark streets among the heavy shadows with 
the moon and the clouds sailing on high above him i am the 
resurrection and the life saith the lord he that believeth in me 
though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die in a city dominated by the axe alone 
at night with natural sorrow rising in him for the sixtythree who had 
been that day put to death and for tomorrows victims then awaiting 
their doom in the prisons and still of tomorrows and tomorrows the 
chain of association that brought the words home like a rusty old 
ships anchor from the deep might have been easily found he did not 
seek it but repeated them and went on with a solemn interest in the 
lighted windows where the people were going to rest forgetful through 
a few calm hours of the horrors surrounding them in the towers of the 
churches where no prayers were said for the popular revulsion had even 
travelled that length of selfdestruction from years of priestly 
impostors plunderers and profligates in the distant burialplaces 
reserved as they wrote upon the gates for eternal sleep in the 
abounding gaols and in the streets along which the sixties rolled to a 
death which had become so common and material that no sorrowful story 
of a haunting spirit ever arose among the people out of all the 
working of the guillotine with a solemn interest in the whole life and 
death of the city settling down to its short nightly pause in fury 
sydney carton crossed the seine again for the lighter streets few 
coaches were abroad for riders in coaches were liable to be suspected 
and gentility hid its head in red nightcaps and put on heavy shoes and 
trudged but the theatres were all well filled and the people poured 
cheerfully out as he passed and went chatting home at one of the 
theatre doors there was a little girl with a mother looking for a way 
across the street through the mud he carried the child over and before 
the timid arm was loosed from his neck asked her for a kiss i am the 
resurrection and the life saith the lord he that believeth in me 
though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die now that the streets were quiet and 
the night wore on the words were in the echoes of his feet and were in 
the air perfectly calm and steady he sometimes repeated them to 
himself as he walked but he heard them always the night wore out and 
as he stood upon the bridge listening to the water as it splashed the 
riverwalls of the island of paris where the picturesque confusion of 
houses and cathedral shone bright in the light of the moon the day 
came coldly looking like a dead face out of the sky then the night 
with the moon and the stars turned pale and died and for a little 
while it seemed as if creation were delivered over to deaths dominion 
but the glorious sun rising seemed to strike those words that burden 
of the night straight and warm to his heart in its long bright rays 
and looking along them with reverently shaded eyes a bridge of light 
appeared to span the air between him and the sun while the river 
sparkled under it the strong tide so swift so deep and certain was 
like a congenial friend in the morning stillness he walked by the 
stream far from the houses and in the light and warmth of the sun fell 
asleep on the bank when he awoke and was afoot again he lingered there 
yet a little longer watching an eddy that turned and turned 
purposeless until the stream absorbed it and carried it on to the sea 
like me a tradingboat with a sail of the softened colour of a dead 
leaf then glided into his view floated by him and died away as its 
silent track in the water disappeared the prayer that had broken up 
out of his heart for a merciful consideration of all his poor 
blindnesses and errors ended in the words i am the resurrection and 
the life mr lorry was already out when he got back and it was easy to 
surmise where the good old man was gone sydney carton drank nothing 
but a little coffee ate some bread and having washed and changed to 
refresh himself went out to the place of trial the court was all astir 
and abuzz when the black sheepwhom many fell away from in dreadpressed 
him into an obscure corner among the crowd mr lorry was there and 
doctor manette was there she was there sitting beside her father when 
her husband was brought in she turned a look upon him so sustaining so 
encouraging so full of admiring love and pitying tenderness yet so 
courageous for his sake that it called the healthy blood into his face 
brightened his glance and animated his heart if there had been any 
eyes to notice the influence of her look on sydney carton it would 
have been seen to be the same influence exactly before that unjust 
tribunal there was little or no order of procedure ensuring to any 
accused person any reasonable hearing there could have been no such 
revolution if all laws forms and ceremonies had not first been so 
monstrously abused that the suicidal vengeance of the revolution was 
to scatter them all to the winds every eye was turned to the jury the 
same determined patriots and good republicans as yesterday and the day 
before and tomorrow and the day after eager and prominent among them 
one man with a craving face and his fingers perpetually hovering about 
his lips whose appearance gave great satisfaction to the spectators a 
life thirsting canniballooking bloodyminded juryman the jacques three 
of st antoine the whole jury as a jury of dogs empannelled to try the 
deer every eye then turned to the five judges and the public 
prosecutor no favourable leaning in that quarter today a fell 
uncompromising murderous businessmeaning there every eye then sought 
some other eye in the crowd and gleamed at it approvingly and heads 
nodded at one another before bending forward with a strained attention 
charles evremonde called darnay released yesterday reaccused and 
retaken yesterday indictment delivered to him last night suspected and 
denounced enemy of the republic aristocrat one of a family of tyrants 
one of a race proscribed for that they had used their abolished 
privileges to the infamous oppression of the people charles evremonde 
called darnay in right of such proscription absolutely dead in law to 
this effect in as few or fewer words the public prosecutor the 
president asked was the accused openly denounced or secretly openly 
president by whom three voices ernest defarge winevendor of st antoine 
good therese defarge his wife good alexandre manette physician a great 
uproar took place in the court and in the midst of it doctor manette 
was seen pale and trembling standing where he had been seated 
president i indignantly protest to you that this is a forgery and a 
fraud you know the accused to be the husband of my daughter my 
daughter and those dear to her are far dearer to me than my life who 
and where is the false conspirator who says that i denounce the 
husband of my child citizen manette be tranquil to fail in submission 
to the authority of the tribunal would be to put yourself out of law 
as to what is dearer to you than life nothing can be so dear to a good 
citizen as the republic loud acclamations hailed this rebuke the 
president rang his bell and with warmth resumed if the republic should 
demand of you the sacrifice of your child herself you would have no 
duty but to sacrifice her listen to what is to follow in the meanwhile 
be silent frantic acclamations were again raised doctor manette sat 
down with his eyes looking around and his lips trembling his daughter 
drew closer to him the craving man on the jury rubbed his hands 
together and restored the usual hand to his mouth defarge was produced 
when the court was quiet enough to admit of his being heard and 
rapidly expounded the story of the imprisonment and of his having been 
a mere boy in the doctors service and of the release and of the state 
of the prisoner when released and delivered to him this short 
examination followed for the court was quick with its work you did 
good service at the taking of the bastille citizen i believe so here 
an excited woman screeched from the crowd you were one of the best 
patriots there why not say so you were a cannonier that day there and 
you were among the first to enter the accursed fortress when it fell 
patriots i speak the truth it was the vengeance who amidst the warm 
commendations of the audience thus assisted the proceedings the 
president rang his bell but the vengeance warming with encouragement 
shrieked i defy that bell wherein she was likewise much commended 
inform the tribunal of what you did that day within the bastille 
citizen i knew said defarge looking down at his wife who stood at the 
bottom of the steps on which he was raised looking steadily up at him 
i knew that this prisoner of whom i speak had been confined in a cell 
known as one hundred and five north tower i knew it from himself he 
knew himself by no other name than one hundred and five north tower 
when he made shoes under my care as i serve my gun that day i resolve 
when the place shall fall to examine that cell it falls i mount to the 
cell with a fellowcitizen who is one of the jury directed by a gaoler 
i examine it very closely in a hole in the chimney where a stone has 
been worked out and replaced i find a written paper this is that 
written paper i have made it my business to examine some specimens of 
the writing of doctor manette this is the writing of doctor manette i 
confide this paper in the writing of doctor manette to the hands of 
the president let it be read in a dead silence and stillnessthe 
prisoner under trial looking lovingly at his wife his wife only 
looking from him to look with solicitude at her father doctor manette 
keeping his eyes fixed on the reader madame defarge never taking hers 
from the prisoner defarge never taking his from his feasting wife and 
all the other eyes there intent upon the doctor who saw none of 
themthe paper was read as follows x the substance of the shadow i 
alexandre manette unfortunate physician native of beauvais and 
afterwards resident in paris write this melancholy paper in my doleful 
cell in the bastille during the last month of the year i write it at 
stolen intervals under every difficulty i design to secrete it in the 
wall of the chimney where i have slowly and laboriously made a place 
of concealment for it some pitying hand may find it there when i and 
my sorrows are dust these words are formed by the rusty iron point 
with which i write with difficulty in scrapings of soot and charcoal 
from the chimney mixed with blood in the last month of the tenth year 
of my captivity hope has quite departed from my breast i know from 
terrible warnings i have noted in myself that my reason will not long 
remain unimpaired but i solemnly declare that i am at this time in the 
possession of my right mindthat my memory is exact and 
circumstantialand that i write the truth as i shall answer for these 
my last recorded words whether they be ever read by men or not at the 
eternal judgment seat one cloudy moonlight night in the third week of 
december i think the twentysecond of the month in the year i was 
walking on a retired part of the quay by the seine for the refreshment 
of the frosty air at an hours distance from my place of residence in 
the street of the school of medicine when a carriage came along behind 
me driven very fast as i stood aside to let that carriage pass 
apprehensive that it might otherwise run me down a head was put out at 
the window and a voice called to the driver to stop the carriage 
stopped as soon as the driver could rein in his horses and the same 
voice called to me by my name i answered the carriage was then so far 
in advance of me that two gentlemen had time to open the door and 
alight before i came up with it i observed that they were both wrapped 
in cloaks and appeared to conceal themselves as they stood side by 
side near the carriage door i also observed that they both looked of 
about my own age or rather younger and that they were greatly alike in 
stature manner voice and as far as i could see face too you are doctor 
manette said one i am doctor manette formerly of beauvais said the 
other the young physician originally an expert surgeon who within the 
last year or two has made a rising reputation in paris gentlemen i 
returned i am that doctor manette of whom you speak so graciously we 
have been to your residence said the first and not being so fortunate 
as to find you there and being informed that you were probably walking 
in this direction we followed in the hope of overtaking you will you 
please to enter the carriage the manner of both was imperious and they 
both moved as these words were spoken so as to place me between 
themselves and the carriage door they were armed i was not gentlemen 
said i pardon me but i usually inquire who does me the honour to seek 
my assistance and what is the nature of the case to which i am 
summoned the reply to this was made by him who had spoken second 
doctor your clients are people of condition as to the nature of the 
case our confidence in your skill assures us that you will ascertain 
it for yourself better than we can describe it enough will you please 
to enter the carriage i could do nothing but comply and i entered it 
in silence they both entered after methe last springing in after 
putting up the steps the carriage turned about and drove on at its 
former speed i repeat this conversation exactly as it occurred i have 
no doubt that it is word for word the same i describe everything 
exactly as it took place constraining my mind not to wander from the 
task where i make the broken marks that follow here i leave off for 
the time and put my paper in its hidingplace the carriage left the 
streets behind passed the north barrier and emerged upon the country 
road at twothirds of a league from the barrieri did not estimate the 
distance at that time but afterwards when i traversed itit struck out 
of the main avenue and presently stopped at a solitary house we all 
three alighted and walked by a damp soft footpath in a garden where a 
neglected fountain had overflowed to the door of the house it was not 
opened immediately in answer to the ringing of the bell and one of my 
two conductors struck the man who opened it with his heavy riding 
glove across the face there was nothing in this action to attract my 
particular attention for i had seen common people struck more commonly 
than dogs but the other of the two being angry likewise struck the man 
in like manner with his arm the look and bearing of the brothers were 
then so exactly alike that i then first perceived them to be twin 
brothers from the time of our alighting at the outer gate which we 
found locked and which one of the brothers had opened to admit us and 
had relocked i had heard cries proceeding from an upper chamber i was 
conducted to this chamber straight the cries growing louder as we 
ascended the stairs and i found a patient in a high fever of the brain 
lying on a bed the patient was a woman of great beauty and young 
assuredly not much past twenty her hair was torn and ragged and her 
arms were bound to her sides with sashes and handkerchiefs i noticed 
that these bonds were all portions of a gentlemans dress on one of 
them which was a fringed scarf for a dress of ceremony i saw the 
armorial bearings of a noble and the letter e i saw this within the 
first minute of my contemplation of the patient for in her restless 
strivings she had turned over on her face on the edge of the bed had 
drawn the end of the scarf into her mouth and was in danger of 
suffocation my first act was to put out my hand to relieve her 
breathing and in moving the scarf aside the embroidery in the corner 
caught my sight i turned her gently over placed my hands upon her 
breast to calm her and keep her down and looked into her face her eyes 
were dilated and wild and she constantly uttered piercing shrieks and 
repeated the words my husband my father and my brother and then 
counted up to twelve and said hush for an instant and no more she 
would pause to listen and then the piercing shrieks would begin again 
and she would repeat the cry my husband my father and my brother and 
would count up to twelve and say hush there was no variation in the 
order or the manner there was no cessation but the regular moments 
pause in the utterance of these sounds how long i asked has this 
lasted to distinguish the brothers i will call them the elder and the 
younger by the elder i mean him who exercised the most authority it 
was the elder who replied since about this hour last night she has a 
husband a father and a brother a brother i do not address her brother 
he answered with great contempt no she has some recent association 
with the number twelve the younger brother impatiently rejoined with 
twelve oclock see gentlemen said i still keeping my hands upon her 
breast how useless i am as you have brought me if i had known what i 
was coming to see i could have come provided as it is time must be 
lost there are no medicines to be obtained in this lonely place the 
elder brother looked to the younger who said haughtily there is a case 
of medicines here and brought it from a closet and put it on the table 
i opened some of the bottles smelt them and put the stoppers to my 
lips if i had wanted to use anything save narcotic medicines that were 
poisons in themselves i would not have administered any of those do 
you doubt them asked the younger brother you see monsieur i am going 
to use them i replied and said no more i made the patient swallow with 
great difficulty and after many efforts the dose that i desired to 
give as i intended to repeat it after a while and as it was necessary 
to watch its influence i then sat down by the side of the bed there 
was a timid and suppressed woman in attendance wife of the man 
downstairs who had retreated into a corner the house was damp and 
decayed indifferently furnishedevidently recently occupied and 
temporarily used some thick old hangings had been nailed up before the 
windows to deaden the sound of the shrieks they continued to be 
uttered in their regular succession with the cry my husband my father 
and my brother the counting up to twelve and hush the frenzy was so 
violent that i had not unfastened the bandages restraining the arms 
but i had looked to them to see that they were not painful the only 
spark of encouragement in the case was that my hand upon the sufferers 
breast had this much soothing influence that for minutes at a time it 
tranquillised the figure it had no effect upon the cries no pendulum 
could be more regular for the reason that my hand had this effect i 
assume i had sat by the side of the bed for half an hour with the two 
brothers looking on before the elder said there is another patient i 
was startled and asked is it a pressing case you had better see he 
carelessly answered and took up a light the other patient lay in a 
back room across a second staircase which was a species of loft over a 
stable there was a low plastered ceiling to a part of it the rest was 
open to the ridge of the tiled roof and there were beams across hay 
and straw were stored in that portion of the place fagots for firing 
and a heap of apples in sand i had to pass through that part to get at 
the other my memory is circumstantial and unshaken i try it with these 
details and i see them all in this my cell in the bastille near the 
close of the tenth year of my captivity as i saw them all that night 
on some hay on the ground with a cushion thrown under his head lay a 
handsome peasant boya boy of not more than seventeen at the most he 
lay on his back with his teeth set his right hand clenched on his 
breast and his glaring eyes looking straight upward i could not see 
where his wound was as i kneeled on one knee over him but i could see 
that he was dying of a wound from a sharp point i am a doctor my poor 
fellow said i let me examine it i do not want it examined he answered 
let it be it was under his hand and i soothed him to let me move his 
hand away the wound was a swordthrust received from twenty to twenty 
four hours before but no skill could have saved him if it had been 
looked to without delay he was then dying fast as i turned my eyes to 
the elder brother i saw him looking down at this handsome boy whose 
life was ebbing out as if he were a wounded bird or hare or rabbit not 
at all as if he were a fellowcreature how has this been done monsieur 
said i a crazed young common dog a serf forced my brother to draw upon 
him and has fallen by my brothers swordlike a gentleman there was no 
touch of pity sorrow or kindred humanity in this answer the speaker 
seemed to acknowledge that it was inconvenient to have that different 
order of creature dying there and that it would have been better if he 
had died in the usual obscure routine of his vermin kind he was quite 
incapable of any compassionate feeling about the boy or about his fate 
the boys eyes had slowly moved to him as he had spoken and they now 
slowly moved to me doctor they are very proud these nobles but we 
common dogs are proud too sometimes they plunder us outrage us beat us 
kill us but we have a little pride left sometimes shehave you seen her 
doctor the shrieks and the cries were audible there though subdued by 
the distance he referred to them as if she were lying in our presence 
i said i have seen her she is my sister doctor they have had their 
shameful rights these nobles in the modesty and virtue of our sisters 
many years but we have had good girls among us i know it and have 
heard my father say so she was a good girl she was betrothed to a good 
young man too a tenant of his we were all tenants of histhat mans who 
stands there the other is his brother the worst of a bad race it was 
with the greatest difficulty that the boy gathered bodily force to 
speak but his spirit spoke with a dreadful emphasis we were so robbed 
by that man who stands there as all we common dogs are by those 
superior beingstaxed by him without mercy obliged to work for him 
without pay obliged to grind our corn at his mill obliged to feed 
scores of his tame birds on our wretched crops and forbidden for our 
lives to keep a single tame bird of our own pillaged and plundered to 
that degree that when we chanced to have a bit of meat we ate it in 
fear with the door barred and the shutters closed that his people 
should not see it and take it from usi say we were so robbed and 
hunted and were made so poor that our father told us it was a dreadful 
thing to bring a child into the world and that what we should most 
pray for was that our women might be barren and our miserable race die 
out i had never before seen the sense of being oppressed bursting 
forth like a fire i had supposed that it must be latent in the people 
somewhere but i had never seen it break out until i saw it in the 
dying boy nevertheless doctor my sister married he was ailing at that 
time poor fellow and she married her lover that she might tend and 
comfort him in our cottageour doghut as that man would call it she had 
not been married many weeks when that mans brother saw her and admired 
her and asked that man to lend her to himfor what are husbands among 
us he was willing enough but my sister was good and virtuous and hated 
his brother with a hatred as strong as mine what did the two then to 
persuade her husband to use his influence with her to make her willing 
the boys eyes which had been fixed on mine slowly turned to the 
lookeron and i saw in the two faces that all he said was true the two 
opposing kinds of pride confronting one another i can see even in this 
bastille the gentlemans all negligent indifference the peasants all 
troddendown sentiment and passionate revenge you know doctor that it 
is among the rights of these nobles to harness us common dogs to carts 
and drive us they so harnessed him and drove him you know that it is 
among their rights to keep us in their grounds all night quieting the 
frogs in order that their noble sleep may not be disturbed they kept 
him out in the unwholesome mists at night and ordered him back into 
his harness in the day but he was not persuaded no taken out of 
harness one day at noon to feedif he could find foodhe sobbed twelve 
times once for every stroke of the bell and died on her bosom nothing 
human could have held life in the boy but his determination to tell 
all his wrong he forced back the gathering shadows of death as he 
forced his clenched right hand to remain clenched and to cover his 
wound then with that mans permission and even with his aid his brother 
took her away in spite of what i know she must have told his 
brotherand what that is will not be long unknown to you doctor if it 
is nowhis brother took her awayfor his pleasure and diversion for a 
little while i saw her pass me on the road when i took the tidings 
home our fathers heart burst he never spoke one of the words that 
filled it i took my young sister for i have another to a place beyond 
the reach of this man and where at least she will never be his vassal 
then i tracked the brother here and last night climbed ina common dog 
but sword in handwhere is the loft window it was somewhere here the 
room was darkening to his sight the world was narrowing around him i 
glanced about me and saw that the hay and straw were trampled over the 
floor as if there had been a struggle she heard me and ran in i told 
her not to come near us till he was dead he came in and first tossed 
me some pieces of money then struck at me with a whip but i though a 
common dog so struck at him as to make him draw let him break into as 
many pieces as he will the sword that he stained with my common blood 
he drew to defend himselfthrust at me with all his skill for his life 
my glance had fallen but a few moments before on the fragments of a 
broken sword lying among the hay that weapon was a gentlemans in 
another place lay an old sword that seemed to have been a soldiers now 
lift me up doctor lift me up where is he he is not here i said 
supporting the boy and thinking that he referred to the brother he 
proud as these nobles are he is afraid to see me where is the man who 
was here turn my face to him i did so raising the boys head against my 
knee but invested for the moment with extraordinary power he raised 
himself completely obliging me to rise too or i could not have still 
supported him marquis said the boy turned to him with his eyes opened 
wide and his right hand raised in the days when all these things are 
to be answered for i summon you and yours to the last of your bad race 
to answer for them i mark this cross of blood upon you as a sign that 
i do it in the days when all these things are to be answered for i 
summon your brother the worst of the bad race to answer for them 
separately i mark this cross of blood upon him as a sign that i do it 
twice he put his hand to the wound in his breast and with his 
forefinger drew a cross in the air he stood for an instant with the 
finger yet raised and as it dropped he dropped with it and i laid him 
down dead when i returned to the bedside of the young woman i found 
her raving in precisely the same order of continuity i knew that this 
might last for many hours and that it would probably end in the 
silence of the grave i repeated the medicines i had given her and i 
sat at the side of the bed until the night was far advanced she never 
abated the piercing quality of her shrieks never stumbled in the 
distinctness or the order of her words they were always my husband my 
father and my brother one two three four five six seven eight nine ten 
eleven twelve hush this lasted twentysix hours from the time when i 
first saw her i had come and gone twice and was again sitting by her 
when she began to falter i did what little could be done to assist 
that opportunity and byandbye she sank into a lethargy and lay like 
the dead it was as if the wind and rain had lulled at last after a 
long and fearful storm i released her arms and called the woman to 
assist me to compose her figure and the dress she had torn it was then 
that i knew her condition to be that of one in whom the first 
expectations of being a mother have arisen and it was then that i lost 
the little hope i had had of her is she dead asked the marquis whom i 
will still describe as the elder brother coming booted into the room 
from his horse not dead said i but like to die what strength there is 
in these common bodies he said looking down at her with some curiosity 
there is prodigious strength i answered him in sorrow and despair he 
first laughed at my words and then frowned at them he moved a chair 
with his foot near to mine ordered the woman away and said in a 
subdued voice doctor finding my brother in this difficulty with these 
hinds i recommended that your aid should be invited your reputation is 
high and as a young man with your fortune to make you are probably 
mindful of your interest the things that you see here are things to be 
seen and not spoken of i listened to the patients breathing and 
avoided answering do you honour me with your attention doctor monsieur 
said i in my profession the communications of patients are always 
received in confidence i was guarded in my answer for i was troubled 
in my mind with what i had heard and seen her breathing was so 
difficult to trace that i carefully tried the pulse and the heart 
there was life and no more looking round as i resumed my seat i found 
both the brothers intent upon me i write with so much difficulty the 
cold is so severe i am so fearful of being detected and consigned to 
an underground cell and total darkness that i must abridge this 
narrative there is no confusion or failure in my memory it can recall 
and could detail every word that was ever spoken between me and those 
brothers she lingered for a week towards the last i could understand 
some few syllables that she said to me by placing my ear close to her 
lips she asked me where she was and i told her who i was and i told 
her it was in vain that i asked her for her family name she faintly 
shook her head upon the pillow and kept her secret as the boy had done 
i had no opportunity of asking her any question until i had told the 
brothers she was sinking fast and could not live another day until 
then though no one was ever presented to her consciousness save the 
woman and myself one or other of them had always jealously sat behind 
the curtain at the head of the bed when i was there but when it came 
to that they seemed careless what communication i might hold with her 
as ifthe thought passed through my mindi were dying too i always 
observed that their pride bitterly resented the younger brothers as i 
call him having crossed swords with a peasant and that peasant a boy 
the only consideration that appeared to affect the mind of either of 
them was the consideration that this was highly degrading to the 
family and was ridiculous as often as i caught the younger brothers 
eyes their expression reminded me that he disliked me deeply for 
knowing what i knew from the boy he was smoother and more polite to me 
than the elder but i saw this i also saw that i was an incumbrance in 
the mind of the elder too my patient died two hours before midnightat 
a time by my watch answering almost to the minute when i had first 
seen her i was alone with her when her forlorn young head drooped 
gently on one side and all her earthly wrongs and sorrows ended the 
brothers were waiting in a room downstairs impatient to ride away i 
had heard them alone at the bedside striking their boots with their 
ridingwhips and loitering up and down at last she is dead said the 
elder when i went in she is dead said i i congratulate you my brother 
were his words as he turned round he had before offered me money which 
i had postponed taking he now gave me a rouleau of gold i took it from 
his hand but laid it on the table i had considered the question and 
had resolved to accept nothing pray excuse me said i under the 
circumstances no they exchanged looks but bent their heads to me as i 
bent mine to them and we parted without another word on either side i 
am weary weary wearyworn down by misery i cannot read what i have 
written with this gaunt hand early in the morning the rouleau of gold 
was left at my door in a little box with my name on the outside from 
the first i had anxiously considered what i ought to do i decided that 
day to write privately to the minister stating the nature of the two 
cases to which i had been summoned and the place to which i had gone 
in effect stating all the circumstances i knew what court influence 
was and what the immunities of the nobles were and i expected that the 
matter would never be heard of but i wished to relieve my own mind i 
had kept the matter a profound secret even from my wife and this too i 
resolved to state in my letter i had no apprehension whatever of my 
real danger but i was conscious that there might be danger for others 
if others were compromised by possessing the knowledge that i 
possessed i was much engaged that day and could not complete my letter 
that night i rose long before my usual time next morning to finish it 
it was the last day of the year the letter was lying before me just 
completed when i was told that a lady waited who wished to see me i am 
growing more and more unequal to the task i have set myself it is so 
cold so dark my senses are so benumbed and the gloom upon me is so 
dreadful the lady was young engaging and handsome but not marked for 
long life she was in great agitation she presented herself to me as 
the wife of the marquis st evremonde i connected the title by which 
the boy had addressed the elder brother with the initial letter 
embroidered on the scarf and had no difficulty in arriving at the 
conclusion that i had seen that nobleman very lately my memory is 
still accurate but i cannot write the words of our conversation i 
suspect that i am watched more closely than i was and i know not at 
what times i may be watched she had in part suspected and in part 
discovered the main facts of the cruel story of her husbands share in 
it and my being resorted to she did not know that the girl was dead 
her hope had been she said in great distress to show her in secret a 
womans sympathy her hope had been to avert the wrath of heaven from a 
house that had long been hateful to the suffering many she had reasons 
for believing that there was a young sister living and her greatest 
desire was to help that sister i could tell her nothing but that there 
was such a sister beyond that i knew nothing her inducement to come to 
me relying on my confidence had been the hope that i could tell her 
the name and place of abode whereas to this wretched hour i am 
ignorant of both these scraps of paper fail me one was taken from me 
with a warning yesterday i must finish my record today she was a good 
compassionate lady and not happy in her marriage how could she be the 
brother distrusted and disliked her and his influence was all opposed 
to her she stood in dread of him and in dread of her husband too when 
i handed her down to the door there was a child a pretty boy from two 
to three years old in her carriage for his sake doctor she said 
pointing to him in tears i would do all i can to make what poor amends 
i can he will never prosper in his inheritance otherwise i have a 
presentiment that if no other innocent atonement is made for this it 
will one day be required of him what i have left to call my ownit is 
little beyond the worth of a few jewelsi will make it the first charge 
of his life to bestow with the compassion and lamenting of his dead 
mother on this injured family if the sister can be discovered she 
kissed the boy and said caressing him it is for thine own dear sake 
thou wilt be faithful little charles the child answered her bravely 
yes i kissed her hand and she took him in her arms and went away 
caressing him i never saw her more as she had mentioned her husbands 
name in the faith that i knew it i added no mention of it to my letter 
i sealed my letter and not trusting it out of my own hands delivered 
it myself that day that night the last night of the year towards nine 
oclock a man in a black dress rang at my gate demanded to see me and 
softly followed my servant ernest defarge a youth upstairs when my 
servant came into the room where i sat with my wifeo my wife beloved 
of my heart my fair young english wifewe saw the man who was supposed 
to be at the gate standing silent behind him an urgent case in the rue 
st honore he said it would not detain me he had a coach in waiting it 
brought me here it brought me to my grave when i was clear of the 
house a black muffler was drawn tightly over my mouth from behind and 
my arms were pinioned the two brothers crossed the road from a dark 
corner and identified me with a single gesture the marquis took from 
his pocket the letter i had written showed it me burnt it in the light 
of a lantern that was held and extinguished the ashes with his foot 
not a word was spoken i was brought here i was brought to my living 
grave if it had pleased god to put it in the hard heart of either of 
the brothers in all these frightful years to grant me any tidings of 
my dearest wifeso much as to let me know by a word whether alive or 
deadi might have thought that he had not quite abandoned them but now 
i believe that the mark of the red cross is fatal to them and that 
they have no part in his mercies and them and their descendants to the 
last of their race i alexandre manette unhappy prisoner do this last 
night of the year in my unbearable agony denounce to the times when 
all these things shall be answered for i denounce them to heaven and 
to earth a terrible sound arose when the reading of this document was 
done a sound of craving and eagerness that had nothing articulate in 
it but blood the narrative called up the most revengeful passions of 
the time and there was not a head in the nation but must have dropped 
before it little need in presence of that tribunal and that auditory 
to show how the defarges had not made the paper public with the other 
captured bastille memorials borne in procession and had kept it biding 
their time little need to show that this detested family name had long 
been anathematised by saint antoine and was wrought into the fatal 
register the man never trod ground whose virtues and services would 
have sustained him in that place that day against such denunciation 
and all the worse for the doomed man that the denouncer was a 
wellknown citizen his own attached friend the father of his wife one 
of the frenzied aspirations of the populace was for imitations of the 
questionable public virtues of antiquity and for sacrifices and 
selfimmolations on the peoples altar therefore when the president said 
else had his own head quivered on his shoulders that the good 
physician of the republic would deserve better still of the republic 
by rooting out an obnoxious family of aristocrats and would doubtless 
feel a sacred glow and joy in making his daughter a widow and her 
child an orphan there was wild excitement patriotic fervour not a 
touch of human sympathy much influence around him has that doctor 
murmured madame defarge smiling to the vengeance save him now my 
doctor save him at every jurymans vote there was a roar another and 
another roar and roar unanimously voted at heart and by descent an 
aristocrat an enemy of the republic a notorious oppressor of the 
people back to the conciergerie and death within fourandtwenty hours 
xi dusk the wretched wife of the innocent man thus doomed to die fell 
under the sentence as if she had been mortally stricken but she 
uttered no sound and so strong was the voice within her representing 
that it was she of all the world who must uphold him in his misery and 
not augment it that it quickly raised her even from that shock the 
judges having to take part in a public demonstration out of doors the 
tribunal adjourned the quick noise and movement of the courts emptying 
itself by many passages had not ceased when lucie stood stretching out 
her arms towards her husband with nothing in her face but love and 
consolation if i might touch him if i might embrace him once o good 
citizens if you would have so much compassion for us there was but a 
gaoler left along with two of the four men who had taken him last 
night and barsad the people had all poured out to the show in the 
streets barsad proposed to the rest let her embrace him then it is but 
a moment it was silently acquiesced in and they passed her over the 
seats in the hall to a raised place where he by leaning over the dock 
could fold her in his arms farewell dear darling of my soul my parting 
blessing on my love we shall meet again where the weary are at rest 
they were her husbands words as he held her to his bosom i can bear it 
dear charles i am supported from above dont suffer for me a parting 
blessing for our child i send it to her by you i kiss her by you i say 
farewell to her by you my husband no a moment he was tearing himself 
apart from her we shall not be separated long i feel that this will 
break my heart byandbye but i will do my duty while i can and when i 
leave her god will raise up friends for her as he did for me her 
father had followed her and would have fallen on his knees to both of 
them but that darnay put out a hand and seized him crying no no what 
have you done what have you done that you should kneel to us we know 
now what a struggle you made of old we know now what you underwent 
when you suspected my descent and when you knew it we know now the 
natural antipathy you strove against and conquered for her dear sake 
we thank you with all our hearts and all our love and duty heaven be 
with you her fathers only answer was to draw his hands through his 
white hair and wring them with a shriek of anguish it could not be 
otherwise said the prisoner all things have worked together as they 
have fallen out it was the alwaysvain endeavour to discharge my poor 
mothers trust that first brought my fatal presence near you good could 
never come of such evil a happier end was not in nature to so unhappy 
a beginning be comforted and forgive me heaven bless you as he was 
drawn away his wife released him and stood looking after him with her 
hands touching one another in the attitude of prayer and with a 
radiant look upon her face in which there was even a comforting smile 
as he went out at the prisoners door she turned laid her head lovingly 
on her fathers breast tried to speak to him and fell at his feet then 
issuing from the obscure corner from which he had never moved sydney 
carton came and took her up only her father and mr lorry were with her 
his arm trembled as it raised her and supported her head yet there was 
an air about him that was not all of pitythat had a flush of pride in 
it shall i take her to a coach i shall never feel her weight he 
carried her lightly to the door and laid her tenderly down in a coach 
her father and their old friend got into it and he took his seat 
beside the driver when they arrived at the gateway where he had paused 
in the dark not many hours before to picture to himself on which of 
the rough stones of the street her feet had trodden he lifted her 
again and carried her up the staircase to their rooms there he laid 
her down on a couch where her child and miss pross wept over her dont 
recall her to herself he said softly to the latter she is better so 
dont revive her to consciousness while she only faints oh carton 
carton dear carton cried little lucie springing up and throwing her 
arms passionately round him in a burst of grief now that you have come 
i think you will do something to help mamma something to save papa o 
look at her dear carton can you of all the people who love her bear to 
see her so he bent over the child and laid her blooming cheek against 
his face he put her gently from him and looked at her unconscious 
mother before i go he said and pausedi may kiss her it was remembered 
afterwards that when he bent down and touched her face with his lips 
he murmured some words the child who was nearest to him told them 
afterwards and told her grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady 
that she heard him say a life you love when he had gone out into the 
next room he turned suddenly on mr lorry and her father who were 
following and said to the latter you had great influence but yesterday 
doctor manette let it at least be tried these judges and all the men 
in power are very friendly to you and very recognisant of your 
services are they not nothing connected with charles was concealed 
from me i had the strongest assurances that i should save him and i 
did he returned the answer in great trouble and very slowly try them 
again the hours between this and tomorrow afternoon are few and short 
but try i intend to try i will not rest a moment thats well i have 
known such energy as yours do great things before nowthough never he 
added with a smile and a sigh together such great things as this but 
try of little worth as life is when we misuse it it is worth that 
effort it would cost nothing to lay down if it were not i will go said 
doctor manette to the prosecutor and the president straight and i will 
go to others whom it is better not to name i will write too andbut 
stay there is a celebration in the streets and no one will be 
accessible until dark thats true well it is a forlorn hope at the best 
and not much the forlorner for being delayed till dark i should like 
to know how you speed though mind i expect nothing when are you likely 
to have seen these dread powers doctor manette immediately after dark 
i should hope within an hour or two from this it will be dark soon 
after four let us stretch the hour or two if i go to mr lorrys at nine 
shall i hear what you have done either from our friend or from 
yourself yes may you prosper mr lorry followed sydney to the outer 
door and touching him on the shoulder as he was going away caused him 
to turn i have no hope said mr lorry in a low and sorrowful whisper 
nor have i if any one of these men or all of these men were disposed 
to spare himwhich is a large supposition for what is his life or any 
mans to themi doubt if they durst spare him after the demonstration in 
the court and so do i i heard the fall of the axe in that sound mr 
lorry leaned his arm upon the doorpost and bowed his face upon it dont 
despond said carton very gently dont grieve i encouraged doctor 
manette in this idea because i felt that it might one day be 
consolatory to her otherwise she might think his life was want only 
thrown away or wasted and that might trouble her yes yes yes returned 
mr lorry drying his eyes you are right but he will perish there is no 
real hope yes he will perish there is no real hope echoed carton and 
walked with a settled step downstairs xii darkness sydney carton 
paused in the street not quite decided where to go at tellsons 
bankinghouse at nine he said with a musing face shall i do well in the 
mean time to show myself i think so it is best that these people 
should know there is such a man as i here it is a sound precaution and 
may be a necessary preparation but care care care let me think it out 
checking his steps which had begun to tend towards an object he took a 
turn or two in the already darkening street and traced the thought in 
his mind to its possible consequences his first impression was 
confirmed it is best he said finally resolved that these people should 
know there is such a man as i here and he turned his face towards 
saint antoine defarge had described himself that day as the keeper of 
a wineshop in the saint antoine suburb it was not difficult for one 
who knew the city well to find his house without asking any question 
having ascertained its situation carton came out of those closer 
streets again and dined at a place of refreshment and fell sound 
asleep after dinner for the first time in many years he had no strong 
drink since last night he had taken nothing but a little light thin 
wine and last night he had dropped the brandy slowly down on mr lorrys 
hearth like a man who had done with it it was as late as seven oclock 
when he awoke refreshed and went out into the streets again as he 
passed along towards saint antoine he stopped at a shopwindow where 
there was a mirror and slightly altered the disordered arrangement of 
his loose cravat and his coat collar and his wild hair this done he 
went on direct to defarges and went in there happened to be no 
customer in the shop but jacques three of the restless fingers and the 
croaking voice this man whom he had seen upon the jury stood drinking 
at the little counter in conversation with the defarges man and wife 
the vengeance assisted in the conversation like a regular member of 
the establishment as carton walked in took his seat and asked in very 
indifferent french for a small measure of wine madame defarge cast a 
careless glance at him and then a keener and then a keener and then 
advanced to him herself and asked him what it was he had ordered he 
repeated what he had already said english asked madame defarge 
inquisitively raising her dark eyebrows after looking at her as if the 
sound of even a single french word were slow to express itself to him 
he answered in his former strong foreign accent yes madame yes i am 
english madame defarge returned to her counter to get the wine and as 
he took up a jacobin journal and feigned to pore over it puzzling out 
its meaning he heard her say i swear to you like evremonde defarge 
brought him the wine and gave him good evening how good evening oh 
good evening citizen filling his glass ah and good wine i drink to the 
republic defarge went back to the counter and said certainly a little 
like madame sternly retorted i tell you a good deal like jacques three 
pacifically remarked he is so much in your mind see you madame the 
amiable vengeance added with a laugh yes my faith and you are looking 
forward with so much pleasure to seeing him once more tomorrow carton 
followed the lines and words of his paper with a slow forefinger and 
with a studious and absorbed face they were all leaning their arms on 
the counter close together speaking low after a silence of a few 
moments during which they all looked towards him without disturbing 
his outward attention from the jacobin editor they resumed their 
conversation it is true what madame says observed jacques three why 
stop there is great force in that why stop well well reasoned defarge 
but one must stop somewhere after all the question is still where at 
extermination said madame magnificent croaked jacques three the 
vengeance also highly approved extermination is good doctrine my wife 
said defarge rather troubled in general i say nothing against it but 
this doctor has suffered much you have seen him today you have 
observed his face when the paper was read i have observed his face 
repeated madame contemptuously and angrily yes i have observed his 
face i have observed his face to be not the face of a true friend of 
the republic let him take care of his face and you have observed my 
wife said defarge in a deprecatory manner the anguish of his daughter 
which must be a dreadful anguish to him i have observed his daughter 
repeated madame yes i have observed his daughter more times than one i 
have observed her today and i have observed her other days i have 
observed her in the court and i have observed her in the street by the 
prison let me but lift my finger she seemed to raise it the listeners 
eyes were always on his paper and to let it fall with a rattle on the 
ledge before her as if the axe had dropped the citizeness is superb 
croaked the juryman she is an angel said the vengeance and embraced 
her as to thee pursued madame implacably addressing her husband if it 
depended on theewhich happily it does notthou wouldst rescue this man 
even now no protested defarge not if to lift this glass would do it 
but i would leave the matter there i say stop there see you then 
jacques said madame defarge wrathfully and see you too my little 
vengeance see you both listen for other crimes as tyrants and 
oppressors i have this race a long time on my register doomed to 
destruction and extermination ask my husband is that so it is so 
assented defarge without being asked in the beginning of the great 
days when the bastille falls he finds this paper of today and he 
brings it home and in the middle of the night when this place is clear 
and shut we read it here on this spot by the light of this lamp ask 
him is that so it is so assented defarge that night i tell him when 
the paper is read through and the lamp is burnt out and the day is 
gleaming in above those shutters and between those iron bars that i 
have now a secret to communicate ask him is that so it is so assented 
defarge again i communicate to him that secret i smite this bosom with 
these two hands as i smite it now and i tell him defarge i was brought 
up among the fishermen of the seashore and that peasant family so 
injured by the two evremonde brothers as that bastille paper describes 
is my family defarge that sister of the mortally wounded boy upon the 
ground was my sister that husband was my sisters husband that unborn 
child was their child that brother was my brother that father was my 
father those dead are my dead and that summons to answer for those 
things descends to me ask him is that so it is so assented defarge 
once more then tell wind and fire where to stop returned madame but 
dont tell me both her hearers derived a horrible enjoyment from the 
deadly nature of her wraththe listener could feel how white she was 
without seeing herand both highly commended it defarge a weak minority 
interposed a few words for the memory of the compassionate wife of the 
marquis but only elicited from his own wife a repetition of her last 
reply tell the wind and the fire where to stop not me customers 
entered and the group was broken up the english customer paid for what 
he had had perplexedly counted his change and asked as a stranger to 
be directed towards the national palace madame defarge took him to the 
door and put her arm on his in pointing out the road the english 
customer was not without his reflections then that it might be a good 
deed to seize that arm lift it and strike under it sharp and deep but 
he went his way and was soon swallowed up in the shadow of the prison 
wall at the appointed hour he emerged from it to present himself in mr 
lorrys room again where he found the old gentleman walking to and fro 
in restless anxiety he said he had been with lucie until just now and 
had only left her for a few minutes to come and keep his appointment 
her father had not been seen since he quitted the bankinghouse towards 
four oclock she had some faint hopes that his mediation might save 
charles but they were very slight he had been more than five hours 
gone where could he be mr lorry waited until ten but doctor manette 
not returning and he being unwilling to leave lucie any longer it was 
arranged that he should go back to her and come to the bankinghouse 
again at midnight in the meanwhile carton would wait alone by the fire 
for the doctor he waited and waited and the clock struck twelve but 
doctor manette did not come back mr lorry returned and found no 
tidings of him and brought none where could he be they were discussing 
this question and were almost building up some weak structure of hope 
on his prolonged absence when they heard him on the stairs the instant 
he entered the room it was plain that all was lost whether he had 
really been to any one or whether he had been all that time traversing 
the streets was never known as he stood staring at them they asked him 
no question for his face told them everything i cannot find it said he 
and i must have it where is it his head and throat were bare and as he 
spoke with a helpless look straying all around he took his coat off 
and let it drop on the floor where is my bench i have been looking 
everywhere for my bench and i cant find it what have they done with my 
work time presses i must finish those shoes they looked at one another 
and their hearts died within them come come said he in a whimpering 
miserable way let me get to work give me my work receiving no answer 
he tore his hair and beat his feet upon the ground like a distracted 
child dont torture a poor forlorn wretch he implored them with a 
dreadful cry but give me my work what is to become of us if those 
shoes are not done tonight lost utterly lost it was so clearly beyond 
hope to reason with him or try to restore him thatas if by 
agreementthey each put a hand upon his shoulder and soothed him to sit 
down before the fire with a promise that he should have his work 
presently he sank into the chair and brooded over the embers and shed 
tears as if all that had happened since the garret time were a 
momentary fancy or a dream mr lorry saw him shrink into the exact 
figure that defarge had had in keeping affected and impressed with 
terror as they both were by this spectacle of ruin it was not a time 
to yield to such emotions his lonely daughter bereft of her final hope 
and reliance appealed to them both too strongly again as if by 
agreement they looked at one another with one meaning in their faces 
carton was the first to speak the last chance is gone it was not much 
yes he had better be taken to her but before you go will you for a 
moment steadily attend to me dont ask me why i make the stipulations i 
am going to make and exact the promise i am going to exact i have a 
reasona good one i do not doubt it answered mr lorry say on the figure 
in the chair between them was all the time monotonously rocking itself 
to and fro and moaning they spoke in such a tone as they would have 
used if they had been watching by a sickbed in the night carton 
stooped to pick up the coat which lay almost entangling his feet as he 
did so a small case in which the doctor was accustomed to carry the 
lists of his days duties fell lightly on the floor carton took it up 
and there was a folded paper in it we should look at this he said mr 
lorry nodded his consent he opened it and exclaimed thank god what is 
it asked mr lorry eagerly a moment let me speak of it in its place 
first he put his hand in his coat and took another paper from it that 
is the certificate which enables me to pass out of this city look at 
it you see sydney carton an englishman mr lorry held it open in his 
hand gazing in his earnest face keep it for me until tomorrow i shall 
see him tomorrow you remember and i had better not take it into the 
prison why not i dont know i prefer not to do so now take this paper 
that doctor manette has carried about him it is a similar certificate 
enabling him and his daughter and her child at any time to pass the 
barrier and the frontier you see yes perhaps he obtained it as his 
last and utmost precaution against evil yesterday when is it dated but 
no matter dont stay to look put it up carefully with mine and your own 
now observe i never doubted until within this hour or two that he had 
or could have such a paper it is good until recalled but it may be 
soon recalled and i have reason to think will be they are not in 
danger they are in great danger they are in danger of denunciation by 
madame defarge i know it from her own lips i have overheard words of 
that womans tonight which have presented their danger to me in strong 
colours i have lost no time and since then i have seen the spy he 
confirms me he knows that a woodsawyer living by the prison wall is 
under the control of the defarges and has been rehearsed by madame 
defarge as to his having seen herhe never mentioned lucies namemaking 
signs and signals to prisoners it is easy to foresee that the pretence 
will be the common one a prison plot and that it will involve her 
lifeand perhaps her childsand perhaps her fathersfor both have been 
seen with her at that place dont look so horrified you will save them 
all heaven grant i may carton but how i am going to tell you how it 
will depend on you and it could depend on no better man this new 
denunciation will certainly not take place until after tomorrow 
probably not until two or three days afterwards more probably a week 
afterwards you know it is a capital crime to mourn for or sympathise 
with a victim of the guillotine she and her father would 
unquestionably be guilty of this crime and this woman the inveteracy 
of whose pursuit cannot be described would wait to add that strength 
to her case and make herself doubly sure you follow me so attentively 
and with so much confidence in what you say that for the moment i lose 
sight touching the back of the doctors chair even of this distress you 
have money and can buy the means of travelling to the seacoast as 
quickly as the journey can be made your preparations have been 
completed for some days to return to england early tomorrow have your 
horses ready so that they may be in starting trim at two oclock in the 
afternoon it shall be done his manner was so fervent and inspiring 
that mr lorry caught the flame and was as quick as youth you are a 
noble heart did i say we could depend upon no better man tell her 
tonight what you know of her danger as involving her child and her 
father dwell upon that for she would lay her own fair head beside her 
husbands cheerfully he faltered for an instant then went on as before 
for the sake of her child and her father press upon her the necessity 
of leaving paris with them and you at that hour tell her that it was 
her husbands last arrangement tell her that more depends upon it than 
she dare believe or hope you think that her father even in this sad 
state will submit himself to her do you not i am sure of it i thought 
so quietly and steadily have all these arrangements made in the 
courtyard here even to the taking of your own seat in the carriage the 
moment i come to you take me in and drive away i understand that i 
wait for you under all circumstances you have my certificate in your 
hand with the rest you know and will reserve my place wait for nothing 
but to have my place occupied and then for england why then said mr 
lorry grasping his eager but so firm and steady hand it does not all 
depend on one old man but i shall have a young and ardent man at my 
side by the help of heaven you shall promise me solemnly that nothing 
will influence you to alter the course on which we now stand pledged 
to one another nothing carton remember these words tomorrow change the 
course or delay in itfor any reasonand no life can possibly be saved 
and many lives must inevitably be sacrificed i will remember them i 
hope to do my part faithfully and i hope to do mine now good bye 
though he said it with a grave smile of earnestness and though he even 
put the old mans hand to his lips he did not part from him then he 
helped him so far to arouse the rocking figure before the dying embers 
as to get a cloak and hat put upon it and to tempt it forth to find 
where the bench and work were hidden that it still moaningly besought 
to have he walked on the other side of it and protected it to the 
courtyard of the house where the afflicted heartso happy in the 
memorable time when he had revealed his own desolate heart to 
itoutwatched the awful night he entered the courtyard and remained 
there for a few moments alone looking up at the light in the window of 
her room before he went away he breathed a blessing towards it and a 
farewell xiii fiftytwo in the black prison of the conciergerie the 
doomed of the day awaited their fate they were in number as the weeks 
of the year fiftytwo were to roll that afternoon on the lifetide of 
the city to the boundless everlasting sea before their cells were quit 
of them new occupants were appointed before their blood ran into the 
blood spilled yesterday the blood that was to mingle with theirs 
tomorrow was already set apart two score and twelve were told off from 
the farmergeneral of seventy whose riches could not buy his life to 
the seamstress of twenty whose poverty and obscurity could not save 
her physical diseases engendered in the vices and neglects of men will 
seize on victims of all degrees and the frightful moral disorder born 
of unspeakable suffering intolerable oppression and heartless 
indifference smote equally without distinction charles darnay alone in 
a cell had sustained himself with no flattering delusion since he came 
to it from the tribunal in every line of the narrative he had heard he 
had heard his condemnation he had fully comprehended that no personal 
influence could possibly save him that he was virtually sentenced by 
the millions and that units could avail him nothing nevertheless it 
was not easy with the face of his beloved wife fresh before him to 
compose his mind to what it must bear his hold on life was strong and 
it was very very hard to loosen by gradual efforts and degrees 
unclosed a little here it clenched the tighter there and when he 
brought his strength to bear on that hand and it yielded this was 
closed again there was a hurry too in all his thoughts a turbulent and 
heated working of his heart that contended against resignation if for 
a moment he did feel resigned then his wife and child who had to live 
after him seemed to protest and to make it a selfish thing but all 
this was at first before long the consideration that there was no 
disgrace in the fate he must meet and that numbers went the same road 
wrongfully and trod it firmly every day sprang up to stimulate him 
next followed the thought that much of the future peace of mind 
enjoyable by the dear ones depended on his quiet fortitude so by 
degrees he calmed into the better state when he could raise his 
thoughts much higher and draw comfort down before it had set in dark 
on the night of his condemnation he had travelled thus far on his last 
way being allowed to purchase the means of writing and a light he sat 
down to write until such time as the prison lamps should be 
extinguished he wrote a long letter to lucie showing her that he had 
known nothing of her fathers imprisonment until he had heard of it 
from herself and that he had been as ignorant as she of his fathers 
and uncles responsibility for that misery until the paper had been 
read he had already explained to her that his concealment from herself 
of the name he had relinquished was the one conditionfully 
intelligible nowthat her father had attached to their betrothal and 
was the one promise he had still exacted on the morning of their 
marriage he entreated her for her fathers sake never to seek to know 
whether her father had become oblivious of the existence of the paper 
or had had it recalled to him for the moment or for good by the story 
of the tower on that old sunday under the dear old planetree in the 
garden if he had preserved any definite remembrance of it there could 
be no doubt that he had supposed it destroyed with the bastille when 
he had found no mention of it among the relics of prisoners which the 
populace had discovered there and which had been described to all the 
world he besought herthough he added that he knew it was needlessto 
console her father by impressing him through every tender means she 
could think of with the truth that he had done nothing for which he 
could justly reproach himself but had uniformly forgotten himself for 
their joint sakes next to her preservation of his own last grateful 
love and blessing and her overcoming of her sorrow to devote herself 
to their dear child he adjured her as they would meet in heaven to 
comfort her father to her father himself he wrote in the same strain 
but he told her father that he expressly confided his wife and child 
to his care and he told him this very strongly with the hope of 
rousing him from any despondency or dangerous retrospect towards which 
he foresaw he might be tending to mr lorry he commended them all and 
explained his worldly affairs that done with many added sentences of 
grateful friendship and warm attachment all was done he never thought 
of carton his mind was so full of the others that he never once 
thought of him he had time to finish these letters before the lights 
were put out when he lay down on his straw bed he thought he had done 
with this world but it beckoned him back in his sleep and showed 
itself in shining forms free and happy back in the old house in soho 
though it had nothing in it like the real house unaccountably released 
and light of heart he was with lucie again and she told him it was all 
a dream and he had never gone away a pause of forgetfulness and then 
he had even suffered and had come back to her dead and at peace and 
yet there was no difference in him another pause of oblivion and he 
awoke in the sombre morning unconscious where he was or what had 
happened until it flashed upon his mind this is the day of my death 
thus had he come through the hours to the day when the fiftytwo heads 
were to fall and now while he was composed and hoped that he could 
meet the end with quiet heroism a new action began in his waking 
thoughts which was very difficult to master he had never seen the 
instrument that was to terminate his life how high it was from the 
ground how many steps it had where he would be stood how he would be 
touched whether the touching hands would be dyed red which way his 
face would be turned whether he would be the first or might be the 
last these and many similar questions in nowise directed by his will 
obtruded themselves over and over again countless times neither were 
they connected with fear he was conscious of no fear rather they 
originated in a strange besetting desire to know what to do when the 
time came a desire gigantically disproportionate to the few swift 
moments to which it referred a wondering that was more like the 
wondering of some other spirit within his than his own the hours went 
on as he walked to and fro and the clocks struck the numbers he would 
never hear again nine gone for ever ten gone for ever eleven gone for 
ever twelve coming on to pass away after a hard contest with that 
eccentric action of thought which had last perplexed him he had got 
the better of it he walked up and down softly repeating their names to 
himself the worst of the strife was over he could walk up and down 
free from distracting fancies praying for himself and for them twelve 
gone for ever he had been apprised that the final hour was three and 
he knew he would be summoned some time earlier inasmuch as the 
tumbrils jolted heavily and slowly through the streets therefore he 
resolved to keep two before his mind as the hour and so to strengthen 
himself in the interval that he might be able after that time to 
strengthen others walking regularly to and fro with his arms folded on 
his breast a very different man from the prisoner who had walked to 
and fro at la force he heard one struck away from him without surprise 
the hour had measured like most other hours devoutly thankful to 
heaven for his recovered selfpossession he thought there is but 
another now and turned to walk again footsteps in the stone passage 
outside the door he stopped the key was put in the lock and turned 
before the door was opened or as it opened a man said in a low voice 
in english he has never seen me here i have kept out of his way go you 
in alone i wait near lose no time the door was quickly opened and 
closed and there stood before him face to face quiet intent upon him 
with the light of a smile on his features and a cautionary finger on 
his lip sydney carton there was something so bright and remarkable in 
his look that for the first moment the prisoner misdoubted him to be 
an apparition of his own imagining but he spoke and it was his voice 
he took the prisoners hand and it was his real grasp of all the people 
upon earth you least expected to see me he said i could not believe it 
to be you i can scarcely believe it now you are notthe apprehension 
came suddenly into his minda prisoner no i am accidentally possessed 
of a power over one of the keepers here and in virtue of it i stand 
before you i come from heryour wife dear darnay the prisoner wrung his 
hand i bring you a request from her what is it a most earnest pressing 
and emphatic entreaty addressed to you in the most pathetic tones of 
the voice so dear to you that you well remember the prisoner turned 
his face partly aside you have no time to ask me why i bring it or 
what it means i have no time to tell you you must comply with ittake 
off those boots you wear and draw on these of mine there was a chair 
against the wall of the cell behind the prisoner carton pressing 
forward had already with the speed of lightning got him down into it 
and stood over him barefoot draw on these boots of mine put your hands 
to them put your will to them quick carton there is no escaping from 
this place it never can be done you will only die with me it is 
madness it would be madness if i asked you to escape but do i when i 
ask you to pass out at that door tell me it is madness and remain here 
change that cravat for this of mine that coat for this of mine while 
you do it let me take this ribbon from your hair and shake out your 
hair like this of mine with wonderful quickness and with a strength 
both of will and action that appeared quite supernatural he forced all 
these changes upon him the prisoner was like a young child in his 
hands carton dear carton it is madness it cannot be accomplished it 
never can be done it has been attempted and has always failed i 
implore you not to add your death to the bitterness of mine do i ask 
you my dear darnay to pass the door when i ask that refuse there are 
pen and ink and paper on this table is your hand steady enough to 
write it was when you came in steady it again and write what i shall 
dictate quick friend quick pressing his hand to his bewildered head 
darnay sat down at the table carton with his right hand in his breast 
stood close beside him write exactly as i speak to whom do i address 
it to no one carton still had his hand in his breast do i date it no 
the prisoner looked up at each question carton standing over him with 
his hand in his breast looked down if you remember said carton 
dictating the words that passed between us long ago you will readily 
comprehend this when you see it you do remember them i know it is not 
in your nature to forget them he was drawing his hand from his breast 
the prisoner chancing to look up in his hurried wonder as he wrote the 
hand stopped closing upon something have you written forget them 
carton asked i have is that a weapon in your hand no i am not armed 
what is it in your hand you shall know directly write on there are but 
a few words more he dictated again i am thankful that the time has 
come when i can prove them that i do so is no subject for regret or 
grief as he said these words with his eyes fixed on the writer his 
hand slowly and softly moved down close to the writers face the pen 
dropped from darnays fingers on the table and he looked about him 
vacantly what vapour is that he asked vapour something that crossed me 
i am conscious of nothing there can be nothing here take up the pen 
and finish hurry hurry as if his memory were impaired or his faculties 
disordered the prisoner made an effort to rally his attention as he 
looked at carton with clouded eyes and with an altered manner of 
breathing cartonhis hand again in his breastlooked steadily at him 
hurry hurry the prisoner bent over the paper once more if it had been 
otherwise cartons hand was again watchfully and softly stealing down i 
never should have used the longer opportunity if it had been otherwise 
the hand was at the prisoners face i should but have had so much the 
more to answer for if it had been otherwise carton looked at the pen 
and saw it was trailing off into unintelligible signs cartons hand 
moved back to his breast no more the prisoner sprang up with a 
reproachful look but cartons hand was close and firm at his nostrils 
and cartons left arm caught him round the waist for a few seconds he 
faintly struggled with the man who had come to lay down his life for 
him but within a minute or so he was stretched insensible on the 
ground quickly but with hands as true to the purpose as his heart was 
carton dressed himself in the clothes the prisoner had laid aside 
combed back his hair and tied it with the ribbon the prisoner had worn 
then he softly called enter there come in and the spy presented 
himself you see said carton looking up as he kneeled on one knee 
beside the insensible figure putting the paper in the breast is your 
hazard very great mr carton the spy answered with a timid snap of his 
fingers my hazard is not that in the thick of business here if you are 
true to the whole of your bargain dont fear me i will be true to the 
death you must be mr carton if the tale of fiftytwo is to be right 
being made right by you in that dress i shall have no fear have no 
fear i shall soon be out of the way of harming you and the rest will 
soon be far from here please god now get assistance and take me to the 
coach you said the spy nervously him man with whom i have exchanged 
you go out at the gate by which you brought me in of course i was weak 
and faint when you brought me in and i am fainter now you take me out 
the parting interview has overpowered me such a thing has happened 
here often and too often your life is in your own hands quick call 
assistance you swear not to betray me said the trembling spy as he 
paused for a last moment man man returned carton stamping his foot 
have i sworn by no solemn vow already to go through with this that you 
waste the precious moments now take him yourself to the courtyard you 
know of place him yourself in the carriage show him yourself to mr 
lorry tell him yourself to give him no restorative but air and to 
remember my words of last night and his promise of last night and 
drive away the spy withdrew and carton seated himself at the table 
resting his forehead on his hands the spy returned immediately with 
two men how then said one of them contemplating the fallen figure so 
afflicted to find that his friend has drawn a prize in the lottery of 
sainte guillotine a good patriot said the other could hardly have been 
more afflicted if the aristocrat had drawn a blank they raised the 
unconscious figure placed it on a litter they had brought to the door 
and bent to carry it away the time is short evremonde said the spy in 
a warning voice i know it well answered carton be careful of my friend 
i entreat you and leave me come then my children said barsad lift him 
and come away the door closed and carton was left alone straining his 
powers of listening to the utmost he listened for any sound that might 
denote suspicion or alarm there was none keys turned doors clashed 
footsteps passed along distant passages no cry was raised or hurry 
made that seemed unusual breathing more freely in a little while he 
sat down at the table and listened again until the clock struck two 
sounds that he was not afraid of for he divined their meaning then 
began to be audible several doors were opened in succession and 
finally his own a gaoler with a list in his hand looked in merely 
saying follow me evremonde and he followed into a large dark room at a 
distance it was a dark winter day and what with the shadows within and 
what with the shadows without he could but dimly discern the others 
who were brought there to have their arms bound some were standing 
some seated some were lamenting and in restless motion but these were 
few the great majority were silent and still looking fixedly at the 
ground as he stood by the wall in a dim corner while some of the 
fiftytwo were brought in after him one man stopped in passing to 
embrace him as having a knowledge of him it thrilled him with a great 
dread of discovery but the man went on a very few moments after that a 
young woman with a slight girlish form a sweet spare face in which 
there was no vestige of colour and large widely opened patient eyes 
rose from the seat where he had observed her sitting and came to speak 
to him citizen evremonde she said touching him with her cold hand i am 
a poor little seamstress who was with you in la force he murmured for 
answer true i forget what you were accused of plots though the just 
heaven knows that i am innocent of any is it likely who would think of 
plotting with a poor little weak creature like me the forlorn smile 
with which she said it so touched him that tears started from his eyes 
i am not afraid to die citizen evremonde but i have done nothing i am 
not unwilling to die if the republic which is to do so much good to us 
poor will profit by my death but i do not know how that can be citizen 
evremonde such a poor weak little creature as the last thing on earth 
that his heart was to warm and soften to it warmed and softened to 
this pitiable girl i heard you were released citizen evremonde i hoped 
it was true it was but i was again taken and condemned if i may ride 
with you citizen evremonde will you let me hold your hand i am not 
afraid but i am little and weak and it will give me more courage as 
the patient eyes were lifted to his face he saw a sudden doubt in them 
and then astonishment he pressed the workworn hungerworn young fingers 
and touched his lips are you dying for him she whispered and his wife 
and child hush yes o you will let me hold your brave hand stranger 
hush yes my poor sister to the last the same shadows that are falling 
on the prison are falling in that same hour of the early afternoon on 
the barrier with the crowd about it when a coach going out of paris 
drives up to be examined who goes here whom have we within papers the 
papers are handed out and read alexandre manette physician french 
which is he this is he this helpless inarticulately murmuring 
wandering old man pointed out apparently the citizendoctor is not in 
his right mind the revolutionfever will have been too much for him 
greatly too much for him hah many suffer with it lucie his daughter 
french which is she this is she apparently it must be lucie the wife 
of evremonde is it not it is hah evremonde has an assignation 
elsewhere lucie her child english this is she she and no other kiss me 
child of evremonde now thou hast kissed a good republican something 
new in thy family remember it sydney carton advocate english which is 
he he lies here in this corner of the carriage he too is pointed out 
apparently the english advocate is in a swoon it is hoped he will 
recover in the fresher air it is represented that he is not in strong 
health and has separated sadly from a friend who is under the 
displeasure of the republic is that all it is not a great deal that 
many are under the displeasure of the republic and must look out at 
the little window jarvis lorry banker english which is he i am he 
necessarily being the last it is jarvis lorry who has replied to all 
the previous questions it is jarvis lorry who has alighted and stands 
with his hand on the coach door replying to a group of officials they 
leisurely walk round the carriage and leisurely mount the box to look 
at what little luggage it carries on the roof the countrypeople 
hanging about press nearer to the coach doors and greedily stare in a 
little child carried by its mother has its short arm held out for it 
that it may touch the wife of an aristocrat who has gone to the 
guillotine behold your papers jarvis lorry countersigned one can 
depart citizen one can depart forward my postilions a good journey i 
salute you citizensand the first danger passed these are again the 
words of jarvis lorry as he clasps his hands and looks upward there is 
terror in the carriage there is weeping there is the heavy breathing 
of the insensible traveller are we not going too slowly can they not 
be induced to go faster asks lucie clinging to the old man it would 
seem like flight my darling i must not urge them too much it would 
rouse suspicion look back look back and see if we are pursued the road 
is clear my dearest so far we are not pursued houses in twos and 
threes pass by us solitary farms ruinous buildings dyeworks tanneries 
and the like open country avenues of leafless trees the hard uneven 
pavement is under us the soft deep mud is on either side sometimes we 
strike into the skirting mud to avoid the stones that clatter us and 
shake us sometimes we stick in ruts and sloughs there the agony of our 
impatience is then so great that in our wild alarm and hurry we are 
for getting out and runninghidingdoing anything but stopping out of 
the open country in again among ruinous buildings solitary farms 
dyeworks tanneries and the like cottages in twos and threes avenues of 
leafless trees have these men deceived us and taken us back by another 
road is not this the same place twice over thank heaven no a village 
look back look back and see if we are pursued hush the postinghouse 
leisurely our four horses are taken out leisurely the coach stands in 
the little street bereft of horses and with no likelihood upon it of 
ever moving again leisurely the new horses come into visible existence 
one by one leisurely the new postilions follow sucking and plaiting 
the lashes of their whips leisurely the old postilions count their 
money make wrong additions and arrive at dissatisfied results all the 
time our overfraught hearts are beating at a rate that would far 
outstrip the fastest gallop of the fastest horses ever foaled at 
length the new postilions are in their saddles and the old are left 
behind we are through the village up the hill and down the hill and on 
the low watery grounds suddenly the postilions exchange speech with 
animated gesticulation and the horses are pulled up almost on their 
haunches we are pursued ho within the carriage there speak then what 
is it asks mr lorry looking out at window how many did they say i do 
not understand you at the last post how many to the guillotine today 
fiftytwo i said so a brave number my fellowcitizen here would have it 
fortytwo ten more heads are worth having the guillotine goes 
handsomely i love it hi forward whoop the night comes on dark he moves 
more he is beginning to revive and to speak intelligibly he thinks 
they are still together he asks him by his name what he has in his 
hand o pity us kind heaven and help us look out look out and see if we 
are pursued the wind is rushing after us and the clouds are flying 
after us and the moon is plunging after us and the whole wild night is 
in pursuit of us but so far we are pursued by nothing else xiv the 
knitting done in that same juncture of time when the fiftytwo awaited 
their fate madame defarge held darkly ominous council with the 
vengeance and jacques three of the revolutionary jury not in the 
wineshop did madame defarge confer with these ministers but in the 
shed of the woodsawyer erst a mender of roads the sawyer himself did 
not participate in the conference but abided at a little distance like 
an outer satellite who was not to speak until required or to offer an 
opinion until invited but our defarge said jacques three is 
undoubtedly a good republican eh there is no better the voluble 
vengeance protested in her shrill notes in france peace little 
vengeance said madame defarge laying her hand with a slight frown on 
her lieutenants lips hear me speak my husband fellowcitizen is a good 
republican and a bold man he has deserved well of the republic and 
possesses its confidence but my husband has his weaknesses and he is 
so weak as to relent towards this doctor it is a great pity croaked 
jacques three dubiously shaking his head with his cruel fingers at his 
hungry mouth it is not quite like a good citizen it is a thing to 
regret see you said madame i care nothing for this doctor i he may 
wear his head or lose it for any interest i have in him it is all one 
to me but the evremonde people are to be exterminated and the wife and 
child must follow the husband and father she has a fine head for it 
croaked jacques three i have seen blue eyes and golden hair there and 
they looked charming when samson held them up ogre that he was he 
spoke like an epicure madame defarge cast down her eyes and reflected 
a little the child also observed jacques three with a meditative 
enjoyment of his words has golden hair and blue eyes and we seldom 
have a child there it is a pretty sight in a word said madame defarge 
coming out of her short abstraction i cannot trust my husband in this 
matter not only do i feel since last night that i dare not confide to 
him the details of my projects but also i feel that if i delay there 
is danger of his giving warning and then they might escape that must 
never be croaked jacques three no one must escape we have not half 
enough as it is we ought to have six score a day in a word madame 
defarge went on my husband has not my reason for pursuing this family 
to annihilation and i have not his reason for regarding this doctor 
with any sensibility i must act for myself therefore come hither 
little citizen the woodsawyer who held her in the respect and himself 
in the submission of mortal fear advanced with his hand to his red cap 
touching those signals little citizen said madame defarge sternly that 
she made to the prisoners you are ready to bear witness to them this 
very day ay ay why not cried the sawyer every day in all weathers from 
two to four always signalling sometimes with the little one sometimes 
without i know what i know i have seen with my eyes he made all manner 
of gestures while he spoke as if in incidental imitation of some few 
of the great diversity of signals that he had never seen clearly plots 
said jacques three transparently there is no doubt of the jury 
inquired madame defarge letting her eyes turn to him with a gloomy 
smile rely upon the patriotic jury dear citizeness i answer for my 
fellowjurymen now let me see said madame defarge pondering again yet 
once more can i spare this doctor to my husband i have no feeling 
either way can i spare him he would count as one head observed jacques 
three in a low voice we really have not heads enough it would be a 
pity i think he was signalling with her when i saw her argued madame 
defarge i cannot speak of one without the other and i must not be 
silent and trust the case wholly to him this little citizen here for i 
am not a bad witness the vengeance and jacques three vied with each 
other in their fervent protestations that she was the most admirable 
and marvellous of witnesses the little citizen not to be outdone 
declared her to be a celestial witness he must take his chance said 
madame defarge no i cannot spare him you are engaged at three oclock 
you are going to see the batch of today executedyou the question was 
addressed to the woodsawyer who hurriedly replied in the affirmative 
seizing the occasion to add that he was the most ardent of republicans 
and that he would be in effect the most desolate of republicans if 
anything prevented him from enjoying the pleasure of smoking his 
afternoon pipe in the contemplation of the droll national barber he 
was so very demonstrative herein that he might have been suspected 
perhaps was by the dark eyes that looked contemptuously at him out of 
madame defarges head of having his small individual fears for his own 
personal safety every hour in the day i said madame am equally engaged 
at the same place after it is oversay at eight tonightcome you to me 
in saint antoine and we will give information against these people at 
my section the woodsawyer said he would be proud and flattered to 
attend the citizeness the citizeness looking at him he became 
embarrassed evaded her glance as a small dog would have done retreated 
among his wood and hid his confusion over the handle of his saw madame 
defarge beckoned the juryman and the vengeance a little nearer to the 
door and there expounded her further views to them thus she will now 
be at home awaiting the moment of his death she will be mourning and 
grieving she will be in a state of mind to impeach the justice of the 
republic she will be full of sympathy with its enemies i will go to 
her what an admirable woman what an adorable woman exclaimed jacques 
three rapturously ah my cherished cried the vengeance and embraced her 
take you my knitting said madame defarge placing it in her lieutenants 
hands and have it ready for me in my usual seat keep me my usual chair 
go you there straight for there will probably be a greater concourse 
than usual today i willingly obey the orders of my chief said the 
vengeance with alacrity and kissing her cheek you will not be late i 
shall be there before the commencement and before the tumbrils arrive 
be sure you are there my soul said the vengeance calling after her for 
she had already turned into the street before the tumbrils arrive 
madame defarge slightly waved her hand to imply that she heard and 
might be relied upon to arrive in good time and so went through the 
mud and round the corner of the prison wall the vengeance and the 
juryman looking after her as she walked away were highly appreciative 
of her fine figure and her superb moral endowments there were many 
women at that time upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring 
hand but there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this 
ruthless woman now taking her way along the streets of a strong and 
fearless character of shrewd sense and readiness of great 
determination of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to 
its possessor firmness and animosity but to strike into others an 
instinctive recognition of those qualities the troubled time would 
have heaved her up under any circumstances but imbued from her 
childhood with a brooding sense of wrong and an inveterate hatred of a 
class opportunity had developed her into a tigress she was absolutely 
without pity if she had ever had the virtue in her it had quite gone 
out of her it was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for 
the sins of his forefathers she saw not him but them it was nothing to 
her that his wife was to be made a widow and his daughter an orphan 
that was insufficient punishment because they were her natural enemies 
and her prey and as such had no right to live to appeal to her was 
made hopeless by her having no sense of pity even for herself if she 
had been laid low in the streets in any of the many encounters in 
which she had been engaged she would not have pitied herself nor if 
she had been ordered to the axe tomorrow would she have gone to it 
with any softer feeling than a fierce desire to change places with the 
man who sent here there such a heart madame defarge carried under her 
rough robe carelessly worn it was a becoming robe enough in a certain 
weird way and her dark hair looked rich under her coarse red cap lying 
hidden in her bosom was a loaded pistol lying hidden at her waist was 
a sharpened dagger thus accoutred and walking with the confident tread 
of such a character and with the supple freedom of a woman who had 
habitually walked in her girlhood barefoot and barelegged on the brown 
seas and madame defarge took her way along the streets now when the 
journey of the travelling coach at that very moment waiting for the 
completion of its load had been planned out last night the difficulty 
of taking miss pross in it had much engaged mr lorrys attention it was 
not merely desirable to avoid overloading the coach but it was of the 
highest importance that the time occupied in examining it and its 
passengers should be reduced to the utmost since their escape might 
depend on the saving of only a few seconds here and there finally he 
had proposed after anxious consideration that miss pross and jerry who 
were at liberty to leave the city should leave it at three oclock in 
the lightest wheeled conveyance known to that period unencumbered with 
luggage they would soon overtake the coach and passing it and 
preceding it on the road would order its horses in advance and greatly 
facilitate its progress during the precious hours of the night when 
delay was the most to be dreaded seeing in this arrangement the hope 
of rendering real service in that pressing emergency miss pross hailed 
it with joy she and jerry had beheld the coach start had known who it 
was that solomon brought had passed some ten minutes in tortures of 
suspense and were now concluding their arrangements to follow the 
coach even as madame defarge taking her way through the streets now 
drew nearer and nearer to the elsedeserted lodging in which they held 
their consultation now what do you think mr cruncher said miss pross 
whose agitation was so great that she could hardly speak or stand or 
move or live what do you think of our not starting from this courtyard 
another carriage having already gone from here today it might awaken 
suspicion my opinion miss returned mr cruncher is as youre right 
likewise wot ill stand by you right or wrong i am so distracted with 
fear and hope for our precious creatures said miss pross wildly crying 
that i am incapable of forming any plan are you capable of forming any 
plan my dear good mr cruncher respectin a future spear o life miss 
returned mr cruncher i hope so respectin any present use o this here 
blessed old head o mine i think not would you do me the favour miss to 
take notice o two promises and wows wot it is my wishes fur to record 
in this here crisis oh for gracious sake cried miss pross still wildly 
crying record them at once and get them out of the way like an 
excellent man first said mr cruncher who was all in a tremble and who 
spoke with an ashy and solemn visage them poor things well out o this 
never no more will i do it never no more i am quite sure mr cruncher 
returned miss pross that you never will do it again whatever it is and 
i beg you not to think it necessary to mention more particularly what 
it is no miss returned jerry it shall not be named to you second them 
poor things well out o this and never no more will i interfere with 
mrs crunchers flopping never no more whatever housekeeping arrangement 
that may be said miss pross striving to dry her eyes and compose 
herself i have no doubt it is best that mrs cruncher should have it 
entirely under her own superintendenceo my poor darlings i go so far 
as to say miss moreover proceeded mr cruncher with a most alarming 
tendency to hold forth as from a pulpitand let my words be took down 
and took to mrs cruncher through yourselfthat wot my opinions 
respectin flopping has undergone a change and that wot i only hope 
with all my heart as mrs cruncher may be a flopping at the present 
time there there there i hope she is my dear man cried the distracted 
miss pross and i hope she finds it answering her expectations forbid 
it proceeded mr cruncher with additional solemnity additional slowness 
and additional tendency to hold forth and hold out as anything wot i 
have ever said or done should be wisited on my earnest wishes for them 
poor creeturs now forbid it as we shouldnt all flop if it was anyways 
conwenient to get em out o this here dismal risk forbid it miss wot i 
say forbid it this was mr crunchers conclusion after a protracted but 
vain endeavour to find a better one and still madame defarge pursuing 
her way along the streets came nearer and nearer if we ever get back 
to our native land said miss pross you may rely upon my telling mrs 
cruncher as much as i may be able to remember and understand of what 
you have so impressively said and at all events you may be sure that i 
shall bear witness to your being thoroughly in earnest at this 
dreadful time now pray let us think my esteemed mr cruncher let us 
think still madame defarge pursuing her way along the streets came 
nearer and nearer if you were to go before said miss pross and stop 
the vehicle and horses from coming here and were to wait somewhere for 
me wouldnt that be best mr cruncher thought it might be best where 
could you wait for me asked miss pross mr cruncher was so bewildered 
that he could think of no locality but temple bar alas temple bar was 
hundreds of miles away and madame defarge was drawing very near indeed 
by the cathedral door said miss pross would it be much out of the way 
to take me in near the great cathedral door between the two towers no 
miss answered mr cruncher then like the best of men said miss pross go 
to the posting house straight and make that change i am doubtful said 
mr cruncher hesitating and shaking his head about leaving of you you 
see we dont know what may happen heaven knows we dont returned miss 
pross but have no fear for me take me in at the cathedral at three 
oclock or as near it as you can and i am sure it will be better than 
our going from here i feel certain of it there bless you mr cruncher 
thinknot of me but of the lives that may depend on both of us this 
exordium and miss prosss two hands in quite agonised entreaty clasping 
his decided mr cruncher with an encouraging nod or two he immediately 
went out to alter the arrangements and left her by herself to follow 
as she had proposed the having originated a precaution which was 
already in course of execution was a great relief to miss pross the 
necessity of composing her appearance so that it should attract no 
special notice in the streets was another relief she looked at her 
watch and it was twenty minutes past two she had no time to lose but 
must get ready at once afraid in her extreme perturbation of the 
loneliness of the deserted rooms and of halfimagined faces peeping 
from behind every open door in them miss pross got a basin of cold 
water and began laving her eyes which were swollen and red haunted by 
her feverish apprehensions she could not bear to have her sight 
obscured for a minute at a time by the dripping water but constantly 
paused and looked round to see that there was no one watching her in 
one of those pauses she recoiled and cried out for she saw a figure 
standing in the room the basin fell to the ground broken and the water 
flowed to the feet of madame defarge by strange stern ways and through 
much staining blood those feet had come to meet that water madame 
defarge looked coldly at her and said the wife of evremonde where is 
she it flashed upon miss prosss mind that the doors were all standing 
open and would suggest the flight her first act was to shut them there 
were four in the room and she shut them all she then placed herself 
before the door of the chamber which lucie had occupied madame 
defarges dark eyes followed her through this rapid movement and rested 
on her when it was finished miss pross had nothing beautiful about her 
years had not tamed the wildness or softened the grimness of her 
appearance but she too was a determined woman in her different way and 
she measured madame defarge with her eyes every inch you might from 
your appearance be the wife of lucifer said miss pross in her 
breathing nevertheless you shall not get the better of me i am an 
englishwoman madame defarge looked at her scornfully but still with 
something of miss prosss own perception that they two were at bay she 
saw a tight hard wiry woman before her as mr lorry had seen in the 
same figure a woman with a strong hand in the years gone by she knew 
full well that miss pross was the familys devoted friend miss pross 
knew full well that madame defarge was the familys malevolent enemy on 
my way yonder said madame defarge with a slight movement of her hand 
towards the fatal spot where they reserve my chair and my knitting for 
me i am come to make my compliments to her in passing i wish to see 
her i know that your intentions are evil said miss pross and you may 
depend upon it ill hold my own against them each spoke in her own 
language neither understood the others words both were very watchful 
and intent to deduce from look and manner what the unintelligible 
words meant it will do her no good to keep herself concealed from me 
at this moment said madame defarge good patriots will know what that 
means let me see her go tell her that i wish to see her do you hear if 
those eyes of yours were bedwinches returned miss pross and i was an 
english fourposter they shouldnt loose a splinter of me no you wicked 
foreign woman i am your match madame defarge was not likely to follow 
these idiomatic remarks in detail but she so far understood them as to 
perceive that she was set at naught woman imbecile and piglike said 
madame defarge frowning i take no answer from you i demand to see her 
either tell her that i demand to see her or stand out of the way of 
the door and let me go to her this with an angry explanatory wave of 
her right arm i little thought said miss pross that i should ever want 
to understand your nonsensical language but i would give all i have 
except the clothes i wear to know whether you suspect the truth or any 
part of it neither of them for a single moment released the others 
eyes madame defarge had not moved from the spot where she stood when 
miss pross first became aware of her but she now advanced one step i 
am a briton said miss pross i am desperate i dont care an english 
twopence for myself i know that the longer i keep you here the greater 
hope there is for my ladybird ill not leave a handful of that dark 
hair upon your head if you lay a finger on me thus miss pross with a 
shake of her head and a flash of her eyes between every rapid sentence 
and every rapid sentence a whole breath thus miss pross who had never 
struck a blow in her life but her courage was of that emotional nature 
that it brought the irrepressible tears into her eyes this was a 
courage that madame defarge so little comprehended as to mistake for 
weakness ha ha she laughed you poor wretch what are you worth i 
address myself to that doctor then she raised her voice and called out 
citizen doctor wife of evremonde child of evremonde any person but 
this miserable fool answer the citizeness defarge perhaps the 
following silence perhaps some latent disclosure in the expression of 
miss prosss face perhaps a sudden misgiving apart from either 
suggestion whispered to madame defarge that they were gone three of 
the doors she opened swiftly and looked in those rooms are all in 
disorder there has been hurried packing there are odds and ends upon 
the ground there is no one in that room behind you let me look never 
said miss pross who understood the request as perfectly as madame 
defarge understood the answer if they are not in that room they are 
gone and can be pursued and brought back said madame defarge to 
herself as long as you dont know whether they are in that room or not 
you are uncertain what to do said miss pross to herself and you shall 
not know that if i can prevent your knowing it and know that or not 
know that you shall not leave here while i can hold you i have been in 
the streets from the first nothing has stopped me i will tear you to 
pieces but i will have you from that door said madame defarge we are 
alone at the top of a high house in a solitary courtyard we are not 
likely to be heard and i pray for bodily strength to keep you here 
while every minute you are here is worth a hundred thousand guineas to 
my darling said miss pross madame defarge made at the door miss pross 
on the instinct of the moment seized her round the waist in both her 
arms and held her tight it was in vain for madame defarge to struggle 
and to strike miss pross with the vigorous tenacity of love always so 
much stronger than hate clasped her tight and even lifted her from the 
floor in the struggle that they had the two hands of madame defarge 
buffeted and tore her face but miss pross with her head down held her 
round the waist and clung to her with more than the hold of a drowning 
woman soon madame defarges hands ceased to strike and felt at her 
encircled waist it is under my arm said miss pross in smothered tones 
you shall not draw it i am stronger than you i bless heaven for it i 
hold you till one or other of us faints or dies madame defarges hands 
were at her bosom miss pross looked up saw what it was struck at it 
struck out a flash and a crash and stood aloneblinded with smoke all 
this was in a second as the smoke cleared leaving an awful stillness 
it passed out on the air like the soul of the furious woman whose body 
lay lifeless on the ground in the first fright and horror of her 
situation miss pross passed the body as far from it as she could and 
ran down the stairs to call for fruitless help happily she bethought 
herself of the consequences of what she did in time to check herself 
and go back it was dreadful to go in at the door again but she did go 
in and even went near it to get the bonnet and other things that she 
must wear these she put on out on the staircase first shutting and 
locking the door and taking away the key she then sat down on the 
stairs a few moments to breathe and to cry and then got up and hurried 
away by good fortune she had a veil on her bonnet or she could hardly 
have gone along the streets without being stopped by good fortune too 
she was naturally so peculiar in appearance as not to show 
disfigurement like any other woman she needed both advantages for the 
marks of gripping fingers were deep in her face and her hair was torn 
and her dress hastily composed with unsteady hands was clutched and 
dragged a hundred ways in crossing the bridge she dropped the door key 
in the river arriving at the cathedral some few minutes before her 
escort and waiting there she thought what if the key were already 
taken in a net what if it were identified what if the door were opened 
and the remains discovered what if she were stopped at the gate sent 
to prison and charged with murder in the midst of these fluttering 
thoughts the escort appeared took her in and took her away is there 
any noise in the streets she asked him the usual noises mr cruncher 
replied and looked surprised by the question and by her aspect i dont 
hear you said miss pross what do you say it was in vain for mr 
cruncher to repeat what he said miss pross could not hear him so ill 
nod my head thought mr cruncher amazed at all events shell see that 
and she did is there any noise in the streets now asked miss pross 
again presently again mr cruncher nodded his head i dont hear it gone 
deaf in an hour said mr cruncher ruminating with his mind much 
disturbed wots come to her i feel said miss pross as if there had been 
a flash and a crash and that crash was the last thing i should ever 
hear in this life blest if she aint in a queer condition said mr 
cruncher more and more disturbed wot can she have been a takin to keep 
her courage up hark theres the roll of them dreadful carts you can 
hear that miss i can hear said miss pross seeing that he spoke to her 
nothing o my good man there was first a great crash and then a great 
stillness and that stillness seems to be fixed and unchangeable never 
to be broken any more as long as my life lasts if she dont hear the 
roll of those dreadful carts now very nigh their journeys end said mr 
cruncher glancing over his shoulder its my opinion that indeed she 
never will hear anything else in this world and indeed she never did 
xv the footsteps die out for ever along the paris streets the 
deathcarts rumble hollow and harsh six tumbrils carry the days wine to 
la guillotine all the devouring and insatiate monsters imagined since 
imagination could record itself are fused in the one realisation 
guillotine and yet there is not in france with its rich variety of 
soil and climate a blade a leaf a root a sprig a peppercorn which will 
grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have 
produced this horror crush humanity out of shape once more under 
similar hammers and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms 
sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again and 
it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind six tumbrils 
roll along the streets change these back again to what they were thou 
powerful enchanter time and they shall be seen to be the carriages of 
absolute monarchs the equipages of feudal nobles the toilettes of 
flaring jezebels the churches that are not my fathers house but dens 
of thieves the huts of millions of starving peasants no the great 
magician who majestically works out the appointed order of the creator 
never reverses his transformations if thou be changed into this shape 
by the will of god say the seers to the enchanted in the wise arabian 
stories then remain so but if thou wear this form through mere passing 
conjuration then resume thy former aspect changeless and hopeless the 
tumbrils roll along as the sombre wheels of the six carts go round 
they seem to plough up a long crooked furrow among the populace in the 
streets ridges of faces are thrown to this side and to that and the 
ploughs go steadily onward so used are the regular inhabitants of the 
houses to the spectacle that in many windows there are no people and 
in some the occupation of the hands is not so much as suspended while 
the eyes survey the faces in the tumbrils here and there the inmate 
has visitors to see the sight then he points his finger with something 
of the complacency of a curator or authorised exponent to this cart 
and to this and seems to tell who sat here yesterday and who there the 
day before of the riders in the tumbrils some observe these things and 
all things on their last roadside with an impassive stare others with 
a lingering interest in the ways of life and men some seated with 
drooping heads are sunk in silent despair again there are some so 
heedful of their looks that they cast upon the multitude such glances 
as they have seen in theatres and in pictures several close their eyes 
and think or try to get their straying thoughts together only one and 
he a miserable creature of a crazed aspect is so shattered and made 
drunk by horror that he sings and tries to dance not one of the whole 
number appeals by look or gesture to the pity of the people there is a 
guard of sundry horsemen riding abreast of the tumbrils and faces are 
often turned up to some of them and they are asked some question it 
would seem to be always the same question for it is always followed by 
a press of people towards the third cart the horsemen abreast of that 
cart frequently point out one man in it with their swords the leading 
curiosity is to know which is he he stands at the back of the tumbril 
with his head bent down to converse with a mere girl who sits on the 
side of the cart and holds his hand he has no curiosity or care for 
the scene about him and always speaks to the girl here and there in 
the long street of st honore cries are raised against him if they move 
him at all it is only to a quiet smile as he shakes his hair a little 
more loosely about his face he cannot easily touch his face his arms 
being bound on the steps of a church awaiting the comingup of the 
tumbrils stands the spy and prisonsheep he looks into the first of 
them not there he looks into the second not there he already asks 
himself has he sacrificed me when his face clears as he looks into the 
third which is evremonde says a man behind him that at the back there 
with his hand in the girls yes the man cries down evremonde to the 
guillotine all aristocrats down evremonde hush hush the spy entreats 
him timidly and why not citizen he is going to pay the forfeit it will 
be paid in five minutes more let him be at peace but the man 
continuing to exclaim down evremonde the face of evremonde is for a 
moment turned towards him evremonde then sees the spy and looks 
attentively at him and goes his way the clocks are on the stroke of 
three and the furrow ploughed among the populace is turning round to 
come on into the place of execution and end the ridges thrown to this 
side and to that now crumble in and close behind the last plough as it 
passes on for all are following to the guillotine in front of it 
seated in chairs as in a garden of public diversion are a number of 
women busily knitting on one of the foremost chairs stands the 
vengeance looking about for her friend therese she cries in her shrill 
tones who has seen her therese defarge she never missed before says a 
knittingwoman of the sisterhood no nor will she miss now cries the 
vengeance petulantly therese louder the woman recommends ay louder 
vengeance much louder and still she will scarcely hear thee louder yet 
vengeance with a little oath or so added and yet it will hardly bring 
her send other women up and down to seek her lingering somewhere and 
yet although the messengers have done dread deeds it is questionable 
whether of their own wills they will go far enough to find her bad 
fortune cries the vengeance stamping her foot in the chair and here 
are the tumbrils and evremonde will be despatched in a wink and she 
not here see her knitting in my hand and her empty chair ready for her 
i cry with vexation and disappointment as the vengeance descends from 
her elevation to do it the tumbrils begin to discharge their loads the 
ministers of sainte guillotine are robed and ready crasha head is held 
up and the knitting women who scarcely lifted their eyes to look at it 
a moment ago when it could think and speak count one the second 
tumbril empties and moves on the third comes up crash and the 
knittingwomen never faltering or pausing in their work count two the 
supposed evremonde descends and the seamstress is lifted out next 
after him he has not relinquished her patient hand in getting out but 
still holds it as he promised he gently places her with her back to 
the crashing engine that constantly whirrs up and falls and she looks 
into his face and thanks him but for you dear stranger i should not be 
so composed for i am naturally a poor little thing faint of heart nor 
should i have been able to raise my thoughts to him who was put to 
death that we might have hope and comfort here today i think you were 
sent to me by heaven or you to me says sydney carton keep your eyes 
upon me dear child and mind no other object i mind nothing while i 
hold your hand i shall mind nothing when i let it go if they are rapid 
they will be rapid fear not the two stand in the fastthinning throng 
of victims but they speak as if they were alone eye to eye voice to 
voice hand to hand heart to heart these two children of the universal 
mother else so wide apart and differing have come together on the dark 
highway to repair home together and to rest in her bosom brave and 
generous friend will you let me ask you one last question i am very 
ignorant and it troubles mejust a little tell me what it is i have a 
cousin an only relative and an orphan like myself whom i love very 
dearly she is five years younger than i and she lives in a farmers 
house in the south country poverty parted us and she knows nothing of 
my fatefor i cannot writeand if i could how should i tell her it is 
better as it is yes yes better as it is what i have been thinking as 
we came along and what i am still thinking now as i look into your 
kind strong face which gives me so much support is thisif the republic 
really does good to the poor and they come to be less hungry and in 
all ways to suffer less she may live a long time she may even live to 
be old what then my gentle sister do you think the uncomplaining eyes 
in which there is so much endurance fill with tears and the lips part 
a little more and tremble that it will seem long to me while i wait 
for her in the better land where i trust both you and i will be 
mercifully sheltered it cannot be my child there is no time there and 
no trouble there you comfort me so much i am so ignorant am i to kiss 
you now is the moment come yes she kisses his lips he kisses hers they 
solemnly bless each other the spare hand does not tremble as he 
releases it nothing worse than a sweet bright constancy is in the 
patient face she goes next before himis gone the knittingwomen count 
twentytwo i am the resurrection and the life saith the lord he that 
believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die the murmuring of many 
voices the upturning of many faces the pressing on of many footsteps 
in the outskirts of the crowd so that it swells forward in a mass like 
one great heave of water all flashes away twentythree they said of him 
about the city that night that it was the peacefullest mans face ever 
beheld there many added that he looked sublime and prophetic one of 
the most remarkable sufferers by the same axea womanhad asked at the 
foot of the same scaffold not long before to be allowed to write down 
the thoughts that were inspiring her if he had given any utterance to 
his and they were prophetic they would have been these i see barsad 
and cly defarge the vengeance the juryman the judge long ranks of the 
new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old perishing 
by this retributive instrument before it shall cease out of its 
present use i see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from 
this abyss and in their struggles to be truly free in their triumphs 
and defeats through long years to come i see the evil of this time and 
of the previous time of which this is the natural birth gradually 
making expiation for itself and wearing out i see the lives for which 
i lay down my life peaceful useful prosperous and happy in that 
england which i shall see no more i see her with a child upon her 
bosom who bears my name i see her father aged and bent but otherwise 
restored and faithful to all men in his healing office and at peace i 
see the good old man so long their friend in ten years time enriching 
them with all he has and passing tranquilly to his reward i see that i 
hold a sanctuary in their hearts and in the hearts of their 
descendants generations hence i see her an old woman weeping for me on 
the anniversary of this day i see her and her husband their course 
done lying side by side in their last earthly bed and i know that each 
was not more honoured and held sacred in the others soul than i was in 
the souls of both i see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore 
my name a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was 
mine i see him winning it so well that my name is made illustrious 
there by the light of his i see the blots i threw upon it faded away i 
see him foremost of just judges and honoured men bringing a boy of my 
name with a forehead that i know and golden hair to this place then 
fair to look upon with not a trace of this days disfigurement and i 
hear him tell the child my story with a tender and a faltering voice 
it is a far far better thing that i do than i have ever done it is a 
far far better rest that i go to than i have ever known 