tale.txt

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 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 seacoal 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  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 worseand 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  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
 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 hearseadvised by the regular driver who was perched
beside him under close inspection for the purposeand 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  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 mouseand 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  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 sealike 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 judgmentseat

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
seasand 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

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