Struggles Amid Revolutionary Justice

CHAPTER IX. THE GAME MADE. While Sidney 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 tradesman 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 finger-nails with a very questionable closeness of attention and whenever mr lorry's 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 "'Agicultural 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 Telson's as a blind, and that you have had an unlawful occupation of an infamous description. If you have, don't expect me to befriend you when you get back to England. If you have, don't expect me to keep your secret. Telson shall not be imposed upon.' i hope sir pleaded the abashed mr cruncher that a gentleman like yourself what i've had the honour of odd jobbing till i'm grey at it would think twice about arming of me even if it was so i don't say it is but even if it was and which it is to be took into account that if it was it wouldn't even then be all on one side there'd be two sides to it there might be medical doctors at the present hour a picking up their guineas where honest tradesmen don't pick up his fardens fardens no nor yet is our fardens our fardens no nor yet is quarter a banking away like smoke at tellson's and a cocking their medical eyes at that tradesman on the sly a going in and going out their own carriages ha ha equally like smoke if not more so well that'd be imposing too on tellsons for you cannot sass the goose and not the gander and here's mrs cruncher or leastways was in the old england times and would be to-morrow if calls given a flopping again the business to that degree as is ruinating stark ruinating whereas them medical doctors wives don't flop catch em at it or if they flop their floppings goes in favour of more patience, and how can you rightly have one without t'other? Then, what with undertakers, and what with parish clerks, and what with sextons, and what with private watchmen, all ouricious and all in it, a man wouldn't get much by it, even if it was so. And what little a man did get would never prosper with him, Mr. Lorry. He'd never have no good of it. He'd want all along to be out of the line, if he could see his way out. being once in, even if it was 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 was so, which I don't say it is.'"'Don't prevaricate,'said Mr. Lorry."'Now, I will not,'said returned Mr. Cruncher, as if nothing were further from his thoughts or practice,"'which I don't say it is.' What I would humbly offer to you, sir, would be this. Upon that there stall, at that there bar, sets that there boy of mine, brought up and growed up to be a man. What will errand you, message you, general light-job you, till your eels is where your head is, if such should be your wishes? If it was so, which I still don't say it is, for I will not prevaricate to you, sir, let that there boy keep his father's place. and take care of his mother don't blow upon that boy's father do not do it sir and let that father go into the line of the regular digging and make amends for what he would have undone if it was so by digging of them in with a will and with convictions respecting the future keeping of them 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 what i would respectfully offer to you sir a man don't see all this ere a-going on dreadful round him in the way of subjects without eds dear me plentiful enough for to bring the price down to portridge and hardly that without having his serious thoughts of things and these ere would be mine if it was so entreatin of you for to bear in mind that what i said jest now i up and said in the good cause when i might ha kept 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 action not 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 shall go ill with the prisoner, I have insured access to him. Once. Mr. Lorry's countenance fell. It is all I could do, said Carton. To propose too much would be to put this man's 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. Lorry's 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, overborn with anxiety of late, and his tears fell."'You're 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—' 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 don't 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 worst 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. Don't 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 to-night.""'I'm going now, directly. I'm 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 sigh, almost like a sob. It attracted Mr. Lorry's eyes to Carton's 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 riding-coat and top-boots 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 lorry's 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 lucy came in so unexpectedly i have at length done all that i can do here i hope 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 seventy-eighth 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 seventy-eight 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 wouldn't she weep for you wouldn't her child yes yes thank god i didn't 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, to-night, 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 seventy-eight years would be seventy-eight heavy curses, would they not? '"'You say truly, Mr. Carton. I think they would be.'Sidney turned his eyes again upon the fire, and, after a silence of a few moments, said,"'I should like to ask you, does your childhood seem far off? Do the days when you sat at your mother's knees 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 preparing of the way my heart is tucked 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 called 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 i'll walk with you to her gate you know my vagabond and restless habits if i should prowl about the streets a long time don't be uneasy i shall reappear in the morning you go to the court to-morrow 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 into the streets a few minutes brought them to mr lorry's 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 o'clock at night when he stood before the prison of la force where she had stood hundreds of times a little wood-sawyer having closed his shop was smoking his pipe at his shop door good-night citizen said sydney carton pausing and going by for the man eyed him inquisitively good-night citizen how goes the republic you mean the guillotine not ill sixty-three to-day we shall mount to a hundred soon sampson and his men complain sometimes of being exhausted he is so droll that sampson such a barber do you often go to see him shave always every day what a barber you have seen him at work never never go and see him when he has a good batch figure this to yourself citizen he's shaved sixty-three to-day in less than two pipes less than two pipes word of honour as the grinning little man held up 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 wood-sawyer though you wear english dress yes said carton pausing again and answering over his shoulder you speak like a frenchman i'm 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 sidney 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 streets much dirtier than usual for the best public thoroughfares remained uncleansed in those times of terror he stopped at a chemist's 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 two good-nights, as he confronted him at his counter, he laid the scrap of paper before him. Phew! the chemist whistled softly as he read it. Hi! hi! hi! Sidney Carton took no heed, and the chemist said, For you, citizen? For me. You'll be careful to keep them separate, citizen. You know the consequence 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 to-morrow i can't sleep it was not a reckless manner the manner in which he said these words aloud under the fast-sailing 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 father's 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 sixty-three who had been that day put to death, and for to-morrow's victims, then awaiting their doom in the prisons, and still of to-morrow's and to-morrow's, the chain of association that brought the words home, like a rusty old ship's 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 self-destruction from years of priestly impostors plunderers and profligates in the distant burial places 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 workings 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. Sidney 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 loose 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 replied, 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 river-walls 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 came. with the moon and the stars turned pale and died and for a little while it seemed as if creation were delivered over to death's dominion but the glorious sun rising seemed to strike those words that burden of the night straight and warm to his heart in its long bright rays and looking along them with reverently shaded eyes a bridge of light appeared to span the air between him and the sun while the river sparkled under it. The strong tide, so swift, so deep and certain, was like a congenial friend in the morning stillness. He walked by the stream, far from the houses, and in the light and warmth of the sun fell asleep on the bank. When he awoke and was afoot again, he lingered there yet a little longer, watching an eddy that turned and turned purposeless until the stream absorbed it and carried it on to the sea like me a trading-boat 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 sheep whom many fell away from in dread pressed him into an obscure corner among the crowd mr lorry was there and dr 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 Sidney 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 to-morrow 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 cannibal looking bloody-minded juryman the three of saint antoine the whole jury as a jury of dogs empanelled to try the deer every eye then turned to the five judges and the public prosecutor no favourable leaning in that quarter to-day a fell uncompromising murderous business meaning 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, re-accused 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 prescribed, for that they had used their abolished privileges to the infamous oppression of the people charles evremonde cordonnet in right of such prescription 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 wine-vendor of saint antoine good therese defarge his wife good alexandra manette physician a great uproar took place in the court and in the midst of it dr 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. Dr. Manette sat down, with his eyes looking around, and his lips 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 doctor's 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 cannoneer 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 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 served my gun that day i resolved when the place shall fall to examine that cell. It falls. I mount to the cell with a fellow-citizen who is one of the jury, directed by a jailer. 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 Dr. Manette. This is the writing of Dr. Manette. of Dr. Manette. I confide this paper, in the writing of Dr. Manette, to the hands of the President.""'Let it be read.'In a dead silence and stillness, the prisoner under trial looking lovingly at his wife, his wife only looking from him to look with solicitude at her father, Dr. Manette keeping his eyes fixed on the reader, Madame Defarge never taking hers from the prisoner, and the Defarge never taking his from his feasting wife, and all the other eyes there intent upon the doctor, who saw none of them, the paper was read as follows.

that honest tradesman 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 finger-nails with a very questionable closeness of attention and whenever mr lorry's 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 "'Agicultural 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 Telson's as a blind, and that you have had an unlawful occupation of an infamous description. If you have, don't expect me to befriend you when you get back to England. If you have, don't expect me to keep your secret.

Telson shall not be imposed upon.' i hope sir pleaded the abashed mr cruncher that a gentleman like yourself what i've had the honour of odd jobbing till i'm grey at it would think twice about arming of me even if it was so i don't say it is but even if it was and which it is to be took into account that if it was it wouldn't even then be all on one side there'd be two sides to it there might be medical doctors at the present hour a picking up their guineas where honest tradesmen don't pick up his fardens fardens no nor yet is our fardens our fardens no nor yet is quarter a banking away like smoke at tellson's and a cocking their medical eyes at that tradesman on the sly a going in and going out their own carriages ha ha equally like smoke if not more so well that'd be imposing too on tellsons for you cannot sass the goose and not the gander and here's mrs cruncher or leastways was in the old england times and would be to-morrow if calls given a flopping again the business to that degree as is ruinating stark ruinating whereas them medical doctors wives don't flop catch em at it or if they flop their floppings goes in favour of more patience, and how can you rightly have one without t'other? Then, what with undertakers, and what with parish clerks, and what with sextons, and what with private watchmen, all ouricious and all in it, a man wouldn't get much by it, even if it was so. And what little a man did get would never prosper with him, Mr. Lorry.

He'd never have no good of it. He'd want all along to be out of the line, if he could see his way out. being once in, even if it was 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 was so, which I don't say it is.'"'Don't prevaricate,'said Mr. Lorry."'Now, I will not,'said returned Mr. Cruncher, as if nothing were further from his thoughts or practice,"'which I don't say it is.' What I would humbly offer to you, sir, would be this. Upon that there stall, at that there bar, sets that there boy of mine, brought up and growed up to be a man. What will errand you, message you, general light-job you, till your eels is where your head is, if such should be your wishes?

If it was so, which I still don't say it is, for I will not prevaricate to you, sir, let that there boy keep his father's place. and take care of his mother don't blow upon that boy's father do not do it sir and let that father go into the line of the regular digging and make amends for what he would have undone if it was so by digging of them in with a will and with convictions respecting the future keeping of them 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 what i would respectfully offer to you sir a man don't see all this ere a-going on dreadful round him in the way of subjects without eds dear me plentiful enough for to bring the price down to portridge and hardly that without having his serious thoughts of things and these ere would be mine if it was so entreatin of you for to bear in mind that what i said jest now i up and said in the good cause when i might ha kept 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 action not 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 shall go ill with the prisoner, I have insured access to him.

Once. Mr. Lorry's countenance fell. It is all I could do, said Carton.

To propose too much would be to put this man's 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. Lorry's 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, overborn with anxiety of late, and his tears fell."'You're 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—' 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 don't 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 worst 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. Don't 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 to-night.""'I'm going now, directly. I'm 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 sigh, almost like a sob. It attracted Mr. Lorry's eyes to Carton's 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 riding-coat and top-boots 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 lorry's 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 lucy came in so unexpectedly i have at length done all that i can do here i hope 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 seventy-eighth 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 seventy-eight 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 wouldn't she weep for you wouldn't her child yes yes thank god i didn't 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, to-night, 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 seventy-eight years would be seventy-eight heavy curses, would they not? '"'You say truly, Mr. Carton. I think they would be.'Sidney turned his eyes again upon the fire, and, after a silence of a few moments, said,"'I should like to ask you, does your childhood seem far off?

Do the days when you sat at your mother's knees 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 preparing of the way my heart is tucked 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 called 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 i'll walk with you to her gate you know my vagabond and restless habits if i should prowl about the streets a long time don't be uneasy i shall reappear in the morning you go to the court to-morrow 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 into the streets a few minutes brought them to mr lorry's 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 o'clock at night when he stood before the prison of la force where she had stood hundreds of times a little wood-sawyer having closed his shop was smoking his pipe at his shop door good-night citizen said sydney carton pausing and going by for the man eyed him inquisitively good-night citizen how goes the republic you mean the guillotine not ill sixty-three to-day we shall mount to a hundred soon sampson and his men complain sometimes of being exhausted he is so droll that sampson such a barber do you often go to see him shave always every day what a barber you have seen him at work never never go and see him when he has a good batch figure this to yourself citizen he's shaved sixty-three to-day in less than two pipes less than two pipes word of honour as the grinning little man held up 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 wood-sawyer though you wear english dress yes said carton pausing again and answering over his shoulder you speak like a frenchman i'm 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 sidney 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 streets much dirtier than usual for the best public thoroughfares remained uncleansed in those times of terror he stopped at a chemist's 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 two good-nights, as he confronted him at his counter, he laid the scrap of paper before him. Phew! the chemist whistled softly as he read it.

Hi! hi! hi!

Sidney Carton took no heed, and the chemist said, For you, citizen? For me. You'll be careful to keep them separate, citizen.

You know the consequence 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 to-morrow i can't sleep it was not a reckless manner the manner in which he said these words aloud under the fast-sailing 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 father's 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 sixty-three who had been that day put to death, and for to-morrow's victims, then awaiting their doom in the prisons, and still of to-morrow's and to-morrow's, the chain of association that brought the words home, like a rusty old ship's 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 self-destruction from years of priestly impostors plunderers and profligates in the distant burial places 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 workings 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. Sidney 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 loose 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 replied, 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 river-walls 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 came. with the moon and the stars turned pale and died and for a little while it seemed as if creation were delivered over to death's dominion but the glorious sun rising seemed to strike those words that burden of the night straight and warm to his heart in its long bright rays and looking along them with reverently shaded eyes a bridge of light appeared to span the air between him and the sun while the river sparkled under it. The strong tide, so swift, so deep and certain, was like a congenial friend in the morning stillness.

He walked by the stream, far from the houses, and in the light and warmth of the sun fell asleep on the bank. When he awoke and was afoot again, he lingered there yet a little longer, watching an eddy that turned and turned purposeless until the stream absorbed it and carried it on to the sea like me a trading-boat 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 sheep whom many fell away from in dread pressed him into an obscure corner among the crowd mr lorry was there and dr 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 Sidney 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 to-morrow 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 cannibal looking bloody-minded juryman the three of saint antoine the whole jury as a jury of dogs empanelled to try the deer every eye then turned to the five judges and the public prosecutor no favourable leaning in that quarter to-day a fell uncompromising murderous business meaning 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, re-accused 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 prescribed, for that they had used their abolished privileges to the infamous oppression of the people charles evremonde cordonnet in right of such prescription 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 wine-vendor of saint antoine good therese defarge his wife good alexandra manette physician a great uproar took place in the court and in the midst of it dr 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. Dr. Manette sat down, with his eyes looking around, and his lips 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 doctor's 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 cannoneer 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 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 served my gun that day i resolved when the place shall fall to examine that cell.

It falls. I mount to the cell with a fellow-citizen who is one of the jury, directed by a jailer. 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 Dr. Manette. This is the writing of Dr. Manette.

of Dr. Manette. I confide this paper, in the writing of Dr. Manette, to the hands of the President.""'Let it be read.'In a dead silence and stillness, the prisoner under trial looking lovingly at his wife, his wife only looking from him to look with solicitude at her father, Dr. Manette keeping his eyes fixed on the reader, Madame Defarge never taking hers from the prisoner, and the Defarge never taking his from his feasting wife, and all the other eyes there intent upon the doctor, who saw none of them, the paper was read as follows.

Transcript for:Struggles Amid Revolutionary Justice

Transcript for:
Struggles Amid Revolutionary Justice