"  W^iU  you  answer  me  a  single  question  ? "

"Perhaps.  According  to  its  nature.  You  can  say  what
it  is."

"  In  this  prison  that  I  am  going  to  so  unjustlv,  shall  I
have  some  free  communication  with  the  world  outside.''"

"  You  vnYL  see."

"  I  am  not  to  be  buried  there,  prejudged,  and  without  any
means  of  presenting  my  case  ? "


NO   HELP  FROM  DEFARGE.  293

"  You  will  see.  But,  what  then  ?  Other  people  have  been
similarly  buried  in  worse  prisons,  before  now.'"

"But  never  by  me,  Citizen  Defarge."

Defarge  glanced  darkly  at  him  for  answer,  and  walked  on
in  a  steady  and  set  silence.  The  deeper  he  sank  into  this
silence,  the  fainter  hope  there  was — or  so  Damay  thought —
of  his  softening  in  any  slight  degree.  He,  therefore,  made
haste  to  say:

"  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  me  (you  know.  Citizen,
even  better  than  I,  of  how  much  importance),  that  I  should
be  able  to  communicate  to  Mr.  Lorry  of  Tellson's  Bank,  an
English  gentleman  who  is  now  in  Paris,  the  simple  fact,  with-
out comment,  that  I  have  been  thrown  into  the  prison  of  La
Force.     Will  you  cause  that  to  be  done  for  me.?''

"  I  will  do,"  Defarge  doggedly  rejoined,  "  nothing  for  you.
