frenzied aspirations of the populace was for imitations of the questionable public virtues of antiquity and for sacrifices and self-immolations on the people's 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 fervor, 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 juryman's 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 conciergery and death within four and twenty hours. End of chapter. Book 3, chapter 11 of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Richard Reiman, audiblyspeaking.com 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 Lucy 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, oh good citizens, if you would have so much compassion for us, there was but a jailer 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 husband's words as he held her to his bosom. I can bear it, dear Charles. I am supported from above. Don't suffer for me. A parting blessing for our child. I send it to 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 by and by. 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 darnate 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 father's only answer was to draw his hands through his white hair and ring 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 always vain endeavor to discharge my poor mother's trust that first brought my fatal presence near you. Good could never come of such evil. A happier ending 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 prisoner's door, she turned, laid her head lovingly on her father's 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. Laurie 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 pity that 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 later tenderly down in a coach. Her father and their old friend got into it, and he took a seat beside the driver. When they arrived at the gateway where he had paused in the dark, not many hours before, to picture 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. Don't recall her to herself, he said softly, to the latter. She is better so. Don't revive her to consciousness while she only faints. Oh, Carton! Carton, dear Carton! cried little Lucy, springing up and throwing her arms passionately around him in a burst of grief. Now that you have come, I think you will do something to help Mama, something to save Papa. Oh, 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 paused. I may kiss her?  The child who was nearest to him told them afterwards and told her grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady that she had heard him say, a life you love. When he had gone out into the next room he turned suddenly on Mr. Lori and her father, who were following and said to the latter, You had great influence, but yesterday, Dr. Manette, let it at least be tried. These judges and all the men in power are very friendly to you and very recognizant 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. That's well. I have known such energy as yours do great things before now, though 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 Dr. Manette, to the prosecutor and the president straight, and I will go to others whom it is better not to name. I will write to and, but stay. There is a celebration in the streets, and no one will be accessible until dark. That's true. Well, it is a forlorn hope at the best, and not much the forlorn are 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, Dr. 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. Lory's at nine, shall I hear what you have done either from our friend or from yourself? Yes. May you prosper. Mr. Lory followed Sidney 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. Lory in a low and sorrowful whisper. Nor have I. If any one of these men or all of these men were disposed to spare him, which is a large supposition, for what is this life for any man's to them? I doubt if they durst spare him after the demonstration in the court. And so do I. I heard the fall of the ax in that sound. Mr. Lory leaned his arm upon the door-post and bowed his face upon it. Don't despond, said Carton very gently. Don't grieve. I encouraged Dr. Minet in this idea, because I felt that it might one day be consolatory to her. Otherwise she might think his life was wantonly thrown away or wasted, and that might trouble her. Yes, yes, yes, returned Mr. Lory 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. 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 hear. And he turned his face towards San Antoine. Defarge had described himself that day as the keeper of a wine shop in the San 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.  It was as late as seven o'clock when he awoke refreshed and went out into the streets again. As he passed along towards San Antoine, he stopped at a shop window 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 III 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 Defarges 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 Defarges 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 Defarges returned to her counter to get the wine and as he took up a Jacobin journal and feigned to pour over it puzzling out its meaning, he heard her say, I swear to you, like every monde, Defarges 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. Defarges went back to the counter and said, Certainly a little like. Madame sternly retorted. I tell you a good deal like. Jacques III 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.  They were all leaving 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 III. 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. An extermination, said Madame. Magnificent croak, Jacques III. 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 listener's eyes were always on his paper, and to let it fall was a rattle on the ledge before her, as if the axe had dropped. The citizeness is superb, croaked the jury man. She is an angel, said the vengeance and embraced her. As to thee, pursued Madame, implacably addressing her husband, if it depended on thee, which happily it does not, thou 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 Evrimon 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 sister's 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 madam. But don't tell me. Both her hears derived a horrible enjoyment from the deadly nature of her wrath. The listener could feel how white she was without seeing her, and 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. Madam 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. Laurie's room again, where he found the old gentleman walking to and fro in restless anxiety. He said he had been with Lucy until just now, Anne had only left her for a few minutes to come and keep his appointment. Her father had not been seen since he quitted the banking house towards four o'clock. 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. Laurie waited until ten, but Dr. Manette not returning, and he being unwilling to leave Lucy any longer, he was arranged that he should go back to her and come to the banking house 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 Dr. Manette did not come back. Mr. Laurie 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 anyone 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 can't 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.  Don't 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, that as if by agreement they 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 Garrett time were a momentary fancy or a dream, Mr. Laurie 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? Don't ask me why I make the stipulations I am going to make and exact the promise I am going to exact. I have a reason, a good one. I do not doubt it, answered Mr. Laurie. 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 sick bed 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 day's 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. Laurie nodded his consent. He opened it and exclaimed, Thank God! What is it? asked Mr. Laurie 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. Laurie 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 don't know, I prefer not to do so. Now take this paper that Dr. Minette 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. Don't 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 woman's tonight, which have presented their danger to me in strong colors. I have lost no time, and since then I have seen the spy. He confirms me. He knows that a wood-soyer living by the prison wall is under the control of the Defarges and has been rehearsed by Madame Defarge as to his having seen her, he never mentioned Lucy's name, making signs and signals to prisoners. It is easy to foresee that the pretense will be the common one, a prison plot, and that it will involve her life and perhaps her childs and perhaps her fathers, for both will have been seen with her at that place. Don't 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 sympathize 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 doctor's chair, even of this distress, you have money and can buy the means of traveling to the sea coast 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 o'clock in the afternoon. It shall be done. His manner was so fervent and inspiring that Mr. Laurie caught the flame and was as quick as youth.  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 husband's cheerfully. He faltered for an instant and 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 it was her husband's 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. Laurie, 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 having 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 it for any reason, and 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, goodbye. Though he said it with a grave smile of earnestness, and though he even put the old man's 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 moningly be sought to have. He walked on the other side of it and protected it to the courtyard of the house where the afflicted heart, so heavy in the memorable time when he had revealed his own desolate heart to it, out watched 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. End of chapter. Book 3, chapter 13, of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Richard Griman, audiblyspeaking.com. 52. In the black prison of the Conciergery, the doomed of the day awaited their fate. They were in number as the weeks of the year. 52 were to roll that afternoon on the life tide 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 12 were told off, from the farmer general of 70, whose riches could not buy his life, to the seamstress of 20, 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 traveled thus far on his last way. Being allowed to purchase the means of writing and light, he sat down to write until such time as the prison lamps should be extinguished. He wrote a long letter to Lucy showing her that he had known nothing of her father's imprisonment until he had heard of it from herself and that he had been as ignorant as she of his father's and uncle's 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 condition, fully intelligible now, that 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 father's 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 plain tree 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 her, though he added that he knew it was needless, to 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 string 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. Laurie 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 Lucy 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 somber 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 52 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.  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 no eyes 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 forever ten gone forever eleven gone forever twelve coming on to pass away after a hard contest with that eccentric action of thought which at 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 forever he had been apprised that the final hour was three and he knew he would be summoned sometime earlier in as much as the tumbrels 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 the 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 self-possession 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 prisoner's hand and it was his real grasp of all the people of unearth you least expected to see me he said I could not believe it to be you I can scarcely believe it now you are not the apprehension came suddenly into his mind a 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 her your wife dear Darnay the prisoner rung his hand I bring you a request from her what is it a most earnest pressing an 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 it take 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 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 from 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 appear 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 chanting 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 right 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 writer's face the pen dropped from Darnay's fingers on the table and he looked about him vacantly what vapor is that he asked vapor 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 Carton his hand again in his breast looks steadily at him hurry hurry the prisoner bent over the paper once more if it had been otherwise Carton's 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 prisoner's 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 Carton's hand moved back to his breast no more the prisoner sprang up with a reproachful look but Carton's hand was close and firm at his nostrils and Carton's 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 don't fear me I will be true to the death you must be Mr. Carton if the tale of 52 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 cartons 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. Lori 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 cartons seated himself at the table resting his forehead on his hands the spy returned immediately with two men oh then said one of them contemplating the fallen figure so afflicted to find that his friend has drawn a prize in the lottery of San 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 every monde said the spy in a warning voice I know it well answer carton be careful of my friend I intrigue you and leave me come then my children said varsad 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 jailer with a list in his hand looked in merely saying follow me every monde 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 52 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 color and large widely open patient eyes rose from the seat where he had observed her sitting and came to speak to him sit as in every monde 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 forgot what you were accused of plots though they just have a nose that I am innocent of any is it likely who would think of plotting with a poor little weak creature like me the forelorn's smile with which she said it so touched him that tears started from his eyes I am not afraid to die citizen ever monde 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 every bond such a poor weak little creature as the last thing on earth that his heart was to warm and soften to it warmed and soften to this pitiable girl I heard you were released citizen ever monde I hoped it was true it was but I was again taken and condemned if I may ride with you citizen ever monde will you let me hold your hand I am not afraid but I am little in 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 work worn hunger worn young fingers and touched his lips are you dying for him she whispered and his wife and child hush yes oh 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 a crowd about it when a coach going out of Paris drives out to be examined who goes here whom have we within papers the papers are handed out and read alexandre minnet physician french which is he this is he this helpless in articulately murmuring wandering old man pointed out apparently the citizen doctor is not in his right mind the revolution fever will have been too much for him greatly too much for him ah many suffer with it lucy his daughter french which is she this is she apparently it must be lucy the wife of every mond is it not it is ah every mond has an astagnation elsewhere lucy her child english this is she she and no other kiss me child of every mond now thou has kissed a good republican something new in thy family remember it uh 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 around the carriage and leisurely mount the box to look at what little luggage it carries on the roof the country people 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 postillions a good journey i salute you citizens and 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 traveler are we not going too slowly can they not be induced to go faster asks lucy 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 and twos and threes pass by us solitary farms ruinous buildings die works 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 sloths there the agony of our impatience is then so great that in our wild alarm and hurry we are forgetting out and running hiding doing anything but stopping out of the open country in again among ruinous buildings solitary farms die works tanneries and the like cottages and 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 posting house 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 postillions follow sucking and plating the lashes of their whips leisurely the old postillions count their money make wrong additions and arrive at dissatisfied results all the time our over fraught hearts are beating at a rate that would far outstrip the fastest gallop of the fastest horses ever fold at length the new postillions 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 postillions exchange speech with animated gesticulation and the horses are pulled up almost on their haunches we are pursued oh within the carriage there speak then what is it asks Mr. Laurie looking out at window how many did they say I do not understand you at the last post how many to the guillotine today 52 I said so a brave number my fellow citizen here would have it 42 10 more heads are worth having the guillotine goes handsomely I love it high 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 oh 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 end of chapter book 3 chapter 14 of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Richard Reiman audibly speaking.com the knitting done in that same juncture of time when the 52 awaited their fate madam Defarge held darkly ominous council with the vengeance and shock three of the revolutionary jury not in the wine shop did madam Defarge confer with these ministers but in the shed of the wood Sawyer hurst 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 jock three is undoubtedly a good Republican, eh? there is no better the voluble vengeance protested in her shrill notes in France these little vengeance, said madam Defarge laying her hand with a slight frown on her lieutenant's lips hear me speak my husband fellow citizen 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 jock 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 madam 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 Evrymon people are to be exterminated and the wife and child must follow the husband and father she has a fine head for it, croaked jock three I have seen blue eyes and golden hair there and they look charming when Samson held them up ogre that he was he spoke like an epicure madam Defarge cast down her eyes and reflected a little the child also, observed jock 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 madam 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 jock three no one must escape we have not half enough as it is we ought to have six score a day in a word, madam 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 woodsoyer 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, madam Defarge, sternly that she made to the prisoners you are ready to bear witness to them this very day I, I, why not cry the soyer every day in all weathers from two to four always signaling 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 an incidental imitation of some view of the great diversity of signals that he had never seen clearly flots, said Jacques III transparently there is no doubt of the jury inquired madam Defarge letting her eyes turn to him with a gloomy smile we lie upon the patriotic jury, dear citizeness I answer for my fellow jurymen now let me see, said madam 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 III in a low voice we really have not had heads enough it would be a pity I think he was signaling with her when I saw her argued madam 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 III vied with each other in their fervent protestations that she was the most admirable and marvelous of witnesses the little citizen not to be outdone declared her to be a celestial witness he must take his chance said madam Defarge no I cannot spare him you are engaged at three o'clock you are going to see the batch of today executed you the question was addressed to the woodsoyer 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 madam Defarge's head of having his small individual fears for his own personal safety every hour in the day I said madam am equally engaged at the same place after it is over say at eight tonight come you to me in San Antoine and we will give information against these people at my section the woodsoyer 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 madam Defarge beckoned the jurymen 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 I might cherish cried the vengeance and embraced her take you my knitting said madam Defarge placing it in her lieutenant's 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 cumbrols arrive be sure you are there my soul said the vengeance calling after her for she had already turned into the street before the cumbrols arrive madam 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 Tigris 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 her 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 accoutered 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 sea sand Madame Defarge took her way along the streets now when the journey of the traveling coach at that very moment waiting for the completion of its load had been planned out last night the difficulty of taking Miss Frost in it had much engaged Mr. Laurie's 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 Frost and Jerry who were at liberty to leave the city should leave it at three o'clock in the lightest wheel 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 Frost hailed it with joy she and Jerry had beheld the coach start had known who it was that Solomon brought had passed some 10 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 else deserted lodging in which they held their consultation now what do you think Mr. Cruncher said Miss Frost 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 return Mr. Cruncher is as you're right likewise what I'll stand by you right or wrong I am so distracted with fear and hope for our precious creatures said Miss Frost wildly crying that I am incapable of forming any plan are you capable of forming any plan my dear good Mr. Cruncher respect in a future sphere of life Miss return Mr. Cruncher I hope so respect in any present use of this year blessed old head of mine I think not would you do me the favor miss to take notice of two promises and wows what it is my wishes for to record in this year crisis oh for gracious sake right Miss Frost 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 of this never no more will I do never no more I am quite sure Mr. Cruncher return Miss Frost 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 return Jerry it shall not be named to you second then poor things well out of this and never no more will I interfere with Mrs. Cruncher's flopping never no more whatever housekeeping arrangement that may be said Miss Frost 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 superintendents oh my poor darlings I go so far as to say Miss moreover preceded Mr. Cruncher with the most alarming tendency to hold forth as from a pulpit and let my words be took down and took to Mrs. Cruncher through yourself that what my opinions respect and flopping has undergone a change and that what 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 cry the distracted Miss Frost and I hope she finds it answering her expectations FORBID IT preceded Mr. Cruncher with additional solemnity additional slowness and additional tendency to hold forth and hold out as anything what I have ever said or done should be visited on my earnest wishes for them poor creatures now forbid it as we shouldn't all flop if it was anyways convenient to get him out of this here dismal risk for bitterness what I say for bid it this was Mr. Cruncher's conclusion after all protracted but vain endeavor to find a better one and still Madam Defarge pursuing her way along the streets came nearer and nearer if we ever get back to our native land said Miss Frost you may rely upon my telling Mrs. Cruncher as much as I may be able to remember and understand 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 Madam Defarge pursuing her way along the streets came nearer and nearer if you were to go before said Miss Frost and stopped the vehicle and horses from coming here and were to wait somewhere for me wouldn't that be best Mr. Cruncher thought it might be best where could you wait for me asked Miss Frost Mr. Cruncher was so bewildered that he could think of no locality but Temple Bar alas Temple Bar was hundreds of miles away and Madam Defarge was drawing very near indeed by the cathedral door said Miss Frost 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 Frost 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 don't know what may happen heaven knows we don't return Miss Frost but have no fear for me take me in at the cathedral at three o'clock or as near 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 think not of me but of the lives that may depend on both of us this exhortium and Miss Frost's two hands and quite agonized in treaty 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 Frost 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 20 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 half imagined faces peeping from behind every open door in them Miss Frost 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 Madam Defarge by strange stern ways and through much staining blood those feet had come to meet that water Madam Defarge looked coldly at her and said the wife of every moaned where is she? it flashed upon Miss Frost's 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 Lucy had occupied Madam Defarge's dark eyes followed her through this rapid movement and rested on her when it was finished Miss Frost 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 Madam Defarge with her eyes every inch you might from your appearance be the wife of Lucifer said Miss Frost in her breathing nevertheless you shall not get the better of me I am an English woman Madam Defarge looked at her scornfully but still with something of Miss Frost's own perception that they too were at bay she saw a tight hard wiry woman before her as Mr. Laurie had seen in the same figure a woman with a strong hand in the years gone by she knew full well that Miss Frost was the family's devoted friend Miss Frost knew full well that Madam Defarge was the family's malevolent enemy on my way under said Madam Defarge with a slight movement of her hand towards the fatal spot where they reserved my chair and my knitting for me I have come to make my compliments to her in passing I wish to see her I know that your intentions are evil said Miss Frost and you may depend upon it I'll hold my own against them each spoke in her own language neither understood the other's 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 Madam 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 bed winches returned Miss Frost and I was an English fore poster they shouldn't lose a splinter of me no you wicked foreign woman I am your match Madam 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 pig-like said Madam 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 Frost 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 other's eyes Madam Defarge had not moved from the spot where she stood when Miss Frost first became aware of her but she now advanced one step I am a Briton said Miss Frost I am desperate I don't care an English two pence for myself I know that the longer I keep you here the greater hope there is for my ladybird I'll not leave a handful of that dark hair upon your head if you lay a finger on me thus Miss Frost 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 Frost 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 Madam Defarge so little comprehended as to mistake for weakness she laughed you poor wretch what are you worth I addressed myself to that doctor then she raised her voice and called out citizen doctor wife of every maund child of every maund any person but this miserable fool answer the citizeness Defarge perhaps the following silence perhaps some latent disclosure in the expression of Miss Frost's face perhaps a sudden misgiving apart from either suggestion whispered to Madam 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 Frost who understood the request as perfectly as Madam Defarge understood the answer if they are not in that room they are gone and can be pursued and brought back said Madam Defarge to herself as long as you don't know whether they are in that room or not you are uncertain what to do said Miss Frost to herself and you shall not know that if I can prevent your knowing that and know that or not know that you shall not leave here while I can hold you I have been in the states from the first nothing has stopped me I will tear you to pieces but I will have you from that door said Madam 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 guineats to my darling said Miss Frost Madam Defarge made out the door Miss Frost on the instinct of the moment seized her around the waist in both her arms and held her tight it was in vain for Madam Defarge to struggle and to strike Miss Frost 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 Madam Defarge buffeted and tore her face but Miss Frost with her head down held her around the waist and clung to her with more than the hold of a drowning woman soon Madam Defarge's hands ceased to strike and felt at her encircled waist it is under my arm said Miss Frost 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 Madam Defarge's hands were at her bosom Miss Frost looked up saw what it was struck at it struck out a flash and a crash and stood alone blinded 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 Frost 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 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 don't hear you said Miss Frost what do you say it was in vain for Mr. Cruncher to repeat what he said Miss Frost could not hear him so I'll nod my head thought Mr. Cruncher amazed at all events you'll see that and she did is there any noise in the streets now asked Miss Frost again presently again Mr. Cruncher nodded his head I don't hear it gone deaf in an hour said Mr. Cruncher ruminating with his mind much disturbed what's come to her I feel said Miss Frost as if there had been a flash and a crash and that crash was the last thing I should ever hear in this life blessed if she ain't in a queer condition said Mr. Cruncher more and more disturbed what can she have been taken to keep her courage up Hark there's the role of them dreadful carts you can hear that miss I can hear said Miss Frost seeing that he spoke to her nothing oh 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 anymore as long as my life lasts if she don't hear the role of those dreadful carts now very nigh their journey's end said Mr. Cruncher glancing over his shoulder it's my opinion that indeed she never will hear anything else in this world and indeed she never did end of chapter book 3 chapter 15 of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Richard Reiman audiblyspeaking.com the footsteps die out forever along the Paris streets the death carts rumble hollow and harsh six tumbles carry the day's wine to la guillotine all the devouring and insatiate monsters imagined since imagination could record itself are fused in the one realization 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 so the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind six tumbles 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 Jezebel's the churches that are not my father's 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 tumbles roll along as the somber wheels of the six carts go round they seem to plow up a long crooked furrow among the populace in the streets ridges of faces are thrown to this side and to that and the plows 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 tumbles here in the air the inmate has visitors to see the sight then he points his finger with something of the complacency of a curator or authorized 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 tumbles 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 theaters 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 the breast of the tumbles 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 where it is always followed by a press of people towards the third cart the horsemen of rest 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 tumbrel 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 coming up of the tumbrels stands the spy and prison sheep he looks into the first of them not there he looks into the second not there he already asks himself as he sacrificed me when his face clears as he looks into the third which is every mond says a man behind him that at the back there with his hand in the girls yes the man cries down every mond to the guillotine all aristocrats down every mond hush hush the spy intrigues 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 every mond the face of every mond is for a moment turned towards him every mond then sees the spy and looks attentively at him and goes his way the clocks are on the stroke of three and the furrow plowed 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 plow 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 to raise she cries in her shrill tones who has seen her to raise the forge she never missed before says a knitting woman of the sisterhood now nor will she miss now cries the vengeance petulantly to raise louder the woman recommends aye louder vengeance much louder and still she will scarcely hear the 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 bag fortune cries the vengeance stamping her foot in the chair and here are the combrows and every man will be dispatched in a wink and she not here see her knitting in my hand and her empty chair ready for a cry with dexation and disappointment as the vengeance descends from her elevation to do it the combrows begin to discharge their loads the ministers of songy a teen are robed and ready crash a 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 combrow empties and moves on the third comes up crash and the knitting women never faltering or pausing in their work count two the supposed every man 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 wears 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 option 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 fast thinning throng the 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 me just 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 farmer's house in the south country poverty parted us and she knows nothing of my fate for I cannot write and 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 this if 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 but 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 him is gone the knitting women count 22 I am the resurrection and the life sayeth 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 23 they said of him about the city that night that it was the peacefulest man's face ever beheld there many added that he looked sublime and prophetic one of the most remarkable sufferers by the same acts a woman had 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 jury men 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 the 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 honored and held sacred in the other's 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 honored 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 day's defigurement 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 end of chapter and end of a tale of two cities by Charles Dickens


Hi, welcome to the next module of this course, Essential Secrets of PDF. Okay, so now you have a basic knowledge of PDF. In this module, we will play with the PDF and see what you can do with the PDF using the tools provided by ByteScout. This is the part one of this module. And in this part, we will be looking at the utility, which is PDF Multi-Tool. And then we will see what kind of objects PDF can contains. So let's get started.


Minnesota lawmakers will have a $1.4 billion budget surplus to spread around next year. It's an unexpected bit of good news for most state officials who weren't expecting such a sizable sum of extra cash. Much of that money comes from nearly $730 million that legislature left unspent this year due to stalled tax and transportation bills. Governor Mark Dayton and the Republicans who control the legislature in 2017 will set a two-year budget. The governor is urging financial restraint and says the extra cash is another reminder that the state is on firm financial footing after several decades of deficits. Republicans have said any extra money should go to tax cuts and credits. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.