book 2 chapter 24 of a tale of two cities by charles dickens this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by paul adams chapter 24 drawn to the lodestone rock in such risings of fire and risings of sea the 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 shore three years of tempest were consumed three more birthdays of little lucy 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 listen to the echoes in the corner with hearts that failed them when they heard the thronging feet four 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 monsaner 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 monsignor after boldly reading the lord's 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 bull's 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 with had long had the moat in it of lucifer's pride sardinis is luxury and a mole's blindness but it had dropped out and was gone the court from that exclusive inner circle to his 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 1792 was come and monsantu was by this time scattered far and wide as was natural the headquarters and great gathering place of monsanto in london was telson's bank spirits are supposed to haunt the places where their bodies most resorted and monsignor without a guinea haunted the spot where his guinness used to be moreover it was the spot to which such french intelligence as was most to be relied upon came quickest again telson's 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 telson's 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 telson's almost as a matter of course for such variety of reasons telson's 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 inconsequence so numerous that telson 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 laurie 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 news exchange 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 darn a rather hesitating i must still suggest to you i understand that i am too old said mr laurie unsettled weather a long journey uncertain means of traveling a disorganized country a city that may not even be safe for you my dear charles said mr laurie with cheerful confidence you touch some of the reasons for my going not for staying away it is safe enough for me nobody will care to interfere with an old fellow of hard upon four score when there are so many people there much better worth interfering with as to its being a disorganized city if it were not a disorganized 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 telson's confidence as to the uncertain traveling the long journey and the winter weather if i were not prepared to submit myself to a few inconveniences for the sake of telson's 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 laurie you wish you were going yourself and you a frenchman born you are a wise counselor my dear mr laurie it is because i am a frenchman born that the thought which i did not mean to utter hear 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 lucy when you were talking to lucy mr laurie repeated yes i wonder you are not ashamed to mention the name of lucy 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 laurie 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 has not set a fire 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 harm's way is within the power without loss of precious time as scarcely anyone but myself if anyone and shall i hang back when telson's knows this and says this telsons whose bread i have eaten these 60 years because 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 spirits mr lorry nonsense sir and my dear child said mr laurie 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 business like 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 business like old england but now everything is stopped and do 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 heartly admire your gallantry and youthfulness i must say again nonsense nonsense when i have executed this little commission i shall perhaps accept telson's proposal to retire and live at my ease time enough then to think about growing old this dialogue had taken place at mr laura's usual desk with monsaner swarming within a yard or two of it boastful of what he would do to avenge himself on the rascal people before long it was too much the way of monsaner 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 sown as if nothing had ever been done or omitted to be done that had led to it as 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 vaporing combined with the extravagant plots of monsaneur 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 a vaporing 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 striver of the king's benched bar far on his way to state promotion and therefore loud on the theme broaching to monsignor 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 wraiths him darnay heard with a particular feeling of objection and dhane 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 laurie 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 direction and more quickly because it was his own right name the address turned into english ran very pressing to monsieur heretofore the marquis sa evremonde of france confided to the cares of mrs telson and company bankers london england on the marriage morning dr minette had made it his one urgent and expressed request to charles darnay that the secret of this name should be unless he the doctor dissolved the obligation kept in violet between them nobody else knew it to be his name his own wife had no suspicion of the fact mr laurie could have none no said mr laurie 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 laura's desk he held the letter out inquiringly and monsaner looked at it in the person of this plotting an indignant refugee and monsaner looked at it in the person of that plotting an indignant refugee and this that and the other all had something disparaging to say in french or in english concerning the marquee who was not to be found nephew i believe but in any case degenerate successor of the polished marquee who was murdered said one happy to say i never knew him a craven who abandoned his post said another this monsignor had been got out of paris legs uppermost and half suffocated in a load of hay some years ago infected with the new doctrine 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 striver did he though is that the sort of fellow let us look at his infamous name damn the fellow darnay unable to restrain himself any longer touched mr striver on the shoulder and said i know the fellow do you buy jupiter said striver i am sorry for it why why mr darnay do you hear what he said don't 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 abandon 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 i'll answer you i am sorry because i believe there is contamination in such a scoundrel that's 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 bully striver and i'll do it if this fellow is a gentleman i don't 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 gentleman said striver looking all round and snapping his fingers i know something of human nature and i tell you that you'll never find a fellow like this fellow trusting himself to the mercies of such precious protoges no gentlemen he'll always show him a clean pair of heels very early in the scuffle and sneak away with those words in the final snap of his fingers mr striver shouldered himself into fleet street amidst the general approbation of his hearers mr laurie 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 laurie 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 striver 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 abbey paris june 21 1792 messiah heretofore the marquee 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 destroyed raised to the ground the crime for which i am imprisoned monsieur here to for the marquee 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 immigrant 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 immigrant and where is that emigrant ah most gracious monsieur heretofore the marquee 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 our messiah heretofore the marquee i send my desolate cry across the sea hoping it may perhaps reach your ears through the great bank of tilson known as paris for the love of heaven of justice of generosity of the honor of your noble name i supplicate you monsieur heretofore the marquee to sucker and release me my fault is that i have been true to you oh miss you hereto for the marquee i pray you be you true to me from this prison here of horror whence i every hour ten nearer and nearer to destruction i send you monsieur here to for the marquee the assurance of my dolores and unhappy service your afflicted gabel the latent uneasiness in darnay's mind was roused to vigorous 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 passerby 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 lucy 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 yielded not 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 jews that he had relinquished them of his own will thrown himself on a world with no favor in it won his own private place there and earned his own bread monsieur gabel had held the impoverished and involved estate on written instructions to spare the people to give them what little there was to give such 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 summer and no doubt he had put the fact in plea and proof for his own safety so that it could not but appear now this favored 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 lodestone 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 monsignor which had stung him bitterly and those of striver which above all were coarse and galling for old reasons upon those that followed gabel's letter the appeal of an innocent prisoner in danger of death to his justice honor and good name his resolution was made he must go to paris yes the lodestone 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 though he had left to 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 lucy nor her father must know of it until he was gone lucy 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 telson's and take leave of mr laurie 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 post-horses was ready at the back door and jerry was booted and equipped i have delivered that letter said charles darnay to mr laurie 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 abbey what is his name said mr laurie with his open pocketbook in his hand gabel gabel and what is the message to the unfortunate gabel 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 laurie 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 fleet street my love to lucy and to little lucy said mr laurie 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 night it was the 14th of august he sat up late and wrote two fervent letters one mr lucy 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 lucy and their dear child to his care and dwelling on the same topics with the strongest assurances to both he wrote that he would dispatch 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 by and by an imaginary engagement took him out and he had secreted of the lease 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 the krusty porter to be delivered half an hour before midnight and no sooner took horse the dover and began his journey for the love of heaven of justice of generosity of the honor of your noble name was the poor prisoner's cry with which he strengthened his sinking heart as he left all that was dear on earth behind him and floated away for the lodestone rock the end of the second book end of book two chapter 24 recording by paul adams www.you