‘Ah!’ returned the man, with a relish; ‘he’ll be drawn
on a hurdle to be half hanged, and then he’ll be taken
down and sliced before his own face, and then his inside
will be taken out and burnt while he looks on, and then
his head will be chopped off, and he’ll be cut into
quarters. That’s the sentence.’
‘If he’s found Guilty, you mean to say?’ Jerry added, by
way of proviso.
‘Oh! they’ll find him guilty,’ said the other. ‘Don’t you
be afraid of that.’
Mr. Cruncher’s attention was here diverted to the
door-keeper, whom he saw making his way to Mr. Lorry,
with the note in his hand. Mr. Lorry sat at a table, among
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the gentlemen in wigs: not far from a wigged gentleman,
the prisoner’s counsel, who had a great bundle of papers
before him: and nearly opposite another wigged
gentleman with his hands in his pockets, whose whole
attention, when Mr. Cruncher looked at him then or
afterwards, seemed to be concentrated on the ceiling of
the court. After some gruff coughing and rubbing of his
chin and signing with his hand, Jerry attracted the notice
of Mr. Lorry, who had stood up to look for him, and who
quietly nodded and sat down again.
‘What’s HE got to do with the case?’ asked the man he
had spoken with
.
‘Blest if I know,’ said Jerry.
‘What have YOU got to do with it, then, if a person
may inquire?’
‘Blest if I know that either,’ said Jerry.
The entrance of the Judge, and a consequent great stir
and settling down in the court, stopped the dialogue.
Presently, the dock became the central point of interest.
Two gaolers, who had been standing there, wont out, and
the prisoner was brought in, and put to the bar.
Everybody present, except the one wigged gentleman
who looked at the ceiling, stared at him. All the human
breath in the place, rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or
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a fire. Eager faces strained round pillars and corners, to get
a sight of him; spectators in back rows stood up, not to
miss a hair of him; people on the floor of the court, laid
their hands on the shoulders of the people before them, to
help themselves, at anybody’s cost, to a view of him—
stood a-tiptoe, got upon ledges, stood upon next to
nothing, to see every inch of him. Conspicuous among
these latter, like an animated bit of the spiked wall of
Newgate, Jerry stood: aiming at the prisoner the beery
breath of a whet he had taken as he came along, and
discharging it to mingle with the waves of other beer, and
gin, and tea, and coffee, and what not, that flowed at him,
and already broke upon the great windows behind him in
an impure mist and rain.
The object of all this staring and blaring, was a young
man of about five-and-twenty, well-grown and welllooking,
with a sunburnt cheek and a dark eye. His
condition was that of a young gentleman. He was plainly
dressed in black, or very dark grey, and his hair, which
was long and dark, was gathered in a ribbon at the back of
his neck; more to be out of his way than for ornament. As
an emotion of the mind will express itself through any
covering of the body, so the paleness which his situation
engendered came through the brown upon his cheek,
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showing the soul to be stronger than the sun. He was
otherwise quite self-possessed, bowed to the Judge, and
stood quiet.
The sort of interest with which this man was stared and
breathed at, was not a sort that elevated humanity. Had he
stood in peril of a less horrible sentence—had there been a
chance of any one of its savage details being spared—by
just so much would he have lost in his fascination. The
form that was to be doomed to be so shamefully mangled,
was the sight; the immortal creature that was to be so
butchered and torn asunder, yielded the sensation.
Whatever gloss the various spectators put upon the
interest, according to their several arts and powers of selfdeceit,
the interest was, at the root of it, Ogreish.
Silence in the court! Charles Darnay had yesterday
pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing him
(with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he was a false
traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth,
prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on
divers occasions, and by divers means and ways, assisted
Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene,
illustrious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by
coming and going, between the dominions of our said
serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the
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said French Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitorously, and
otherwise evil-adverbiously, revealing to the said French
Lewis what forces our said serene, illustrious, excellent,
and so forth, had in preparation to send to Canada and
North America. This much, Jerry, with his head becoming
more and more spiky as the law terms bristled it, made out
with huge satisfaction, and so arrived circuitously at the
understanding that the aforesaid, and over and over again
aforesaid, Charles Darnay, stood there before him upon his
trial; that the jury were swearing in; and that Mr.
Attorney-General was making ready to speak.
The accused, who was (and who knew he was) being
mentally hanged, beheaded, and quartered, by everybody
there, neither flinched from the situation, nor assumed any
theatrical air in it. He was quiet and attentive; watched the
opening proceedings with a grave interest; and stood with
his hands resting on the slab of wood before him, so
composedly, that they had not displaced a leaf of the herbs
with which it was strewn. The court was all bestrewn with
herbs and sprinkled with vinegar, as a precaution against
gaol air and gaol fever.
Over the prisoner’s head there was a mirror, to throw
the light down upon him. Crowds of the wicked and the
wretched had been reflected in it, and had passed from its
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surface and this earth’s together. Haunted in a most ghastly
manner that abominable place would have been, if the
glass could ever have rendered back its reflections, as the
ocean is one day to give up its dead. Some passing thought
of the infamy and disgrace for which it had been reserved,
may have struck the prisoner’s mind. Be that as it may, a
change in his position making him conscious of a bar of
light across his face, he looked up; and when he saw the
glass his face flushed, and his right hand pushed the herbs
away.
It happened, that the action turned his face to that side
of the court which was on his left. About on a level with
his eyes, there sat, in that corner of the Judge’s bench, two
persons upon whom his look immediately rested; so
immediately, and so much to the changing of his aspect,
that all the eyes that were tamed upon him, turned to
them.
The spectators saw in the two figures, a young lady of
little more than twenty, and a gentleman who was
evidently her father; a man of a very remarkable
appearance in respect of the absolute whiteness of his hair,
and a certain indescribable intensity of face: not of an
active kind, but pondering and self-communing. When
this expression was upon him, he looked as if he were old;
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but when it was stirred and broken up—as it was now, in
a moment, on his speaking to his daughter—he became a
handsome man, not past the prime of life.
His daughter had one of her hands drawn through his
arm, as she sat by him, and the other pressed upon it. She
had drawn close to him, in her dread of the scene, and in
her pity for the prisoner. Her forehead had been strikingly
expressive of an engrossing terror and compassion that saw
nothing but the peril of the accused. This had been so
very noticeable, so very powerfully and naturally shown,
that starers who had had no pity for him were touched by
her; and the whisper went about, ‘Who are they?’
Jerry, the messenger, who had made his own
observations, in his own manner, and who had been
sucking the rust off his fingers in his absorption, stretched
his neck to hear who they were. The crowd about him
had pressed and passed the inquiry on to the nearest
attendant, and from him it had been more slowly pressed
and passed back; at last it got to Jerry:
‘Witnesses.’
‘For which side?’
‘Against.’
‘Against what side?’
‘The prisoner’s.’
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The Judge, whose eyes had gone in the general
direction, recalled them, leaned back in his seat, and
looked steadily at the man whose life was in his hand, as
Mr. Attorney-General rose to spin the rope, grind the axe,
and hammer the nails into the scaffold.
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III
A Disappointment
Mr. Attorney-General had to inform the jury, that the
prisoner before them, though young in years, was old in
the treasonable practices which claimed the forfeit of his
life. That this correspondence with the public enemy was
not a correspondence of to-day, or of yesterday, or even
of last year, or of the year before. That, it was certain the
prisoner had, for longer than that, been in the habit of
passing and repassing between France and England, on
secret business of which he could give no honest account.
That, if it were in the nature of traitorous ways to thrive
(which happily it never was), the real wickedness and guilt
of his business might have remained undiscovered. That
Providence, however, had put it into the heart of a person
who was beyond fear and beyond reproach, to ferret out
the nature of the prisoner’s schemes, and, struck with
horror, to disclose them to his Majesty’s Chief Secretary of
State and most honourable Privy Council. That, this
patriot would be produced before them. That, his position
and attitude were, on the whole, sublime. That, he had
been the prisoner’s friend, but, at once in an auspicious
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and an evil hour detecting his infamy, had resolved to
immolate the traitor he could no longer cherish in his
bosom, on the sacred altar of his country. That, if statues
were decreed in Britain, as in ancient Greece and Rome,
to public benefactors, this shining citizen would assuredly
have had one. That, as they were not so decreed, he
probably would not have one. That, Virtue, as had been
observed by the poets (in many passages which he well
knew the jury would have, word for word, at the tips of
their tongues; whereat the jury’s countenances displayed a
guilty consciousness that they knew nothing about the
passages), was in a manner contagious; more especially the
bright virtue known as patriotism, or love of country.
That, the lofty example of this immaculate and
unimpeachable witness for the Crown, to refer to whom
however unworthily was an honour, had communicated
itself to the prisoner’s servant, and had engendered in him
a holy determination to examine his master’s table-drawers
and pockets, and secrete his papers. That, he (Mr.
Attorney-General) was prepared to hear some
disparagement attempted of this admirable servant; but
that, in a general way, he preferred him to his (Mr.
Attorney-General’s) brothers and sisters, and honoured
him more than his (Mr. Attorney-General’s) father and
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mother. That, he called with confidence on the jury to
come and do likewise. That, the evidence of these two
witnesses, coupled with the documents of their
discovering that would be produced, would show the
prisoner to have been furnished with lists of his Majesty’s
forces, and of their disposition and preparation, both by
sea and land, and would leave no doubt that he had
habitually conveyed such information to a hostile power.
That, these lists could not be proved to be in the prisoner’s
handwriting; but that it was all the same; that, indeed, it
was rather the better for the prosecution, as showing the
prisoner to be artful in his precautions. That, the proof
would go back five years, and would show the prisoner
already engaged in these pernicious missions, within a few
weeks before the date of the very first action fought
between the British troops and the Americans. That, for
these reasons, the jury, being a loyal jury (as he knew they
were), and being a responsible jury (as THEY knew they
were), must positively find the prisoner Guilty, and make
an end of him, whether they liked it or not. That, they
never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they
never could tolerate the idea of their wives laying their
heads upon their pillows; that, they never could endure
the notion of their children laying their heads upon their
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pillows; in short, that there never more could be, for them
or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all, unless the
prisoner’s head was taken off. That head Mr. Attorney-
General concluded by demanding of them, in the name of
everything he could think of with a round turn in it, and
on the faith of his solemn asseveration that he already
considered the prisoner as good as dead and gone.
When the Attorney-General ceased, a buzz arose in the
court as if a cloud of great blue-flies were swarming about
the prisoner, in anticipation of what he was soon to
become. When toned down again, the unimpeachable
patriot appeared in the witness-box.
Mr. Solicitor-General then, following his leader’s lead,
examined the patriot: John Barsad, gentleman, by name.
The story of his pure soul was exactly what Mr. Attorney-
General had described it to be— perhaps, if it had a fault, a
little too exactly. Having released his noble bosom of its
burden, he would have modestly withdrawn himself, but
that the wigged gentleman with the papers before him,
sitting not far from Mr. Lorry, begged to ask him a few
questions. The wigged gentleman sitting opposite, still
looking at the ceiling of the court.
Had he ever been a spy himself? No, he scorned the
base insinuation. What did he live upon? His property.
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Where was his property? He didn’t precisely remember
where it was. What was it? No business of anybody’s. Had
he inherited it? Yes, he had. From whom? Distant
relation. Very distant? Rather. Ever been in prison?
Certainly not. Never in a debtors’ prison? Didn’t see what
that had to do with it. Never in a debtors’ prison?—
Come, once again. Never? Yes. How many times? Two
or three times. Not five or six? Perhaps. Of what
profession? Gentleman. Ever been kicked? Might have
been. Frequently? No. Ever kicked downstairs? Decidedly
not; once received a kick on the top of a staircase, and fell
downstairs of his own accord. Kicked on that occasion for
cheating at dice? Something to that effect was said by the
intoxicated liar who committed the assault, but it was not
true. Swear it was not true? Positively. Ever live by
cheating at play? Never. Ever live by play? Not more than
other gentlemen do. Ever borrow money of the prisoner?
Yes. Ever pay him? No. Was not this intimacy with the
prisoner, in reality a very slight one, forced upon the
prisoner in coaches, inns, and packets? No. Sure he saw
the prisoner with these lists? Certain. Knew no more
about the lists? No. Had not procured them himself, for
instance? No. Expect to get anything by this evidence?
No. Not in regular government pay and employment, to
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lay traps? Oh dear no. Or to do anything? Oh dear no.
Swear that? Over and over again. No motives but motives
of sheer patriotism? None whatever.
The virtuous servant, Roger Cly, swore his way
through the case at a great rate. He had taken service with
the prisoner, in good faith and simplicity, four years ago.
He had asked the prisoner, aboard the Calais packet, if he
wanted a handy fellow, and the prisoner had engaged him.
He had not asked the prisoner to take the handy fellow as
an act of charity—never thought of such a thing. He
began to have suspicions of the prisoner, and to keep an
eye upon him, soon afterwards. In arranging his clothes,
while travelling, he had seen similar lists to these in the
prisoner’s pockets, over and over again. He had taken
these lists from the drawer of the prisoner’s desk. He had
not put them there first. He had seen the prisoner show
these identical lists to French gentlemen at Calais, and
similar lists to French gentlemen, both at Calais and
Boulogne. He loved his country, and couldn’t bear it, and
had given information. He had never been suspected of
stealing a silver tea-pot; he had been maligned respecting a
mustard-pot, but it turned out to be only a plated one. He
had known the last witness seven or eight years; that was
merely a coincidence. He didn’t call it a particularly
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curious coincidence; most coincidences were curious.
Neither did he call it a curious coincidence that true
patriotism was HIS only motive too. He was a true Briton,
and hoped there were many like him.
The blue-flies buzzed again, and Mr. Attorney-General
called Mr. Jarvis Lorry.
‘Mr. Jarvis Lorry, are you a clerk in Tellson’s bank?’
‘I am.’
‘On a certain Friday night in November one thousand
seven hundred and seventy-five, did business occasion you
to travel between London and Dover by the mail?’
‘It did.’
‘Were there any other passengers in the mail?’
‘Two.’
‘Did they alight on the road in the course of the night?’
‘They did.’
‘Mr. Lorry, look upon the prisoner. Was he one of
those two passengers?’
‘I cannot undertake to say that he was.’
‘Does he resemble either of these two passengers?’
‘Both were so wrapped up, and the night was so dark,
and we were all so reserved, that I cannot undertake to say
even that.’
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‘Mr. Lorry, look again upon the prisoner. Supposing
him wrapped up as those two passengers were, is there
anything in his bulk and stature to render it unlikely that
he was one of them?’
‘No.’
‘You will not swear, Mr. Lorry, that he was not one of
them?’
‘No.’
‘So at least you say he may have been one of them?’
‘Yes. Except that I remember them both to have
been—like myself— timorous of highwaymen, and the
prisoner has not a timorous air.’
‘Did you ever see a counterfeit of timidity, Mr. Lorry?’
‘I certainly have seen that.’
‘Mr. Lorry, look once more upon the prisoner. Have
you seen him, to your certain knowledge, before?’
‘I have.’
‘When?’
‘I was returning from France a few days afterwards,
and, at Calais, the prisoner came on board the packet-ship
in which I returned, and made the voyage with me.’
‘At what hour did he come on board?’
‘At a little after midnight.’
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‘In the dead of the night. Was he the only passenger
who came on board at that untimely hour?’
‘He happened to be the only one.’
‘Never mind about ‘happening,’ Mr. Lorry. He was the
only passenger who came on board in the dead of the
night?’
‘He was.’
‘Were you travelling alone, Mr. Lorry, or with any
companion?’
‘With two companions. A gentleman and lady. They
are here.’
‘They are here. Had you any conversation with the
prisoner?’
‘Hardly any. The weather was stormy, and the passage
long and rough, and I lay on a sofa, almost from shore to
shore.’
‘Miss Manette!’
The young lady, to whom all eyes had been turned
before, and were now turned again, stood up where she
had sat. Her father rose with her, and kept her hand drawn
through his arm.
‘Miss Manette, look upon the prisoner.’
To be confronted with such pity, and such earnest
youth and beauty, was far more trying to the accused than
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to be confronted with all the crowd. Standing, as it were,
apart with her on the edge of his grave, not all the staring
curiosity that looked on, could, for the moment, nerve
him to remain quite still. His hurried right hand parcelled
out the herbs before him into imaginary beds of flowers in
a garden; and his efforts to control and steady his breathing
shook the lips from which the colour rushed to his heart.
The buzz of the great flies was loud again.
‘Miss Manette, have you seen the prisoner before?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Where?’
‘On board of the packet-ship just now referred to, sir,
and on the same occasion.’
‘You are the young lady just now referred to?’
‘O! most unhappily, I am!’
The plaintive tone of her compassion merged into the
less musical voice of the Judge, as he said something
fiercely: ‘Answer the questions put to you, and make no
remark upon them.’
‘Miss Manette, had you any conversation with the
prisoner on that passage across the Channel?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Recall it.’
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In the midst of a profound stillness, she faintly began:
‘When the gentleman came on board—‘
‘Do you mean the prisoner?’ inquired the Judge,
knitting his brows.
‘Yes, my Lord.’
‘Then say the prisoner.’
‘When the prisoner came on board, he noticed that my
father,’ turning her eyes lovingly to him as he stood beside
her, ‘was much fatigued and in a very weak state of health.
My father was so reduced that I was afraid to take him out
of the air, and I had made a bed for him on the deck near
the cabin steps, and I sat on the deck at his side to take
care of him. There were no other passengers that night,
but we four. The prisoner was so good as to beg
permission to advise me how I could shelter my father
from the wind and weather, better than I had done. I had
not known how to do it well, not understanding how the
wind would set when we were out of the harbour. He did
it for me. He expressed great gentleness and kindness for
my father’s state, and I am sure he felt it. That was the
manner of our beginning to speak together.’
‘Let me interrupt you for a moment. Had he come on
board alone?’
‘No.’
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‘How many were with him?’
‘Two French gentlemen.’
‘Had they conferred together?’
‘They had conferred together until the last moment,
when it was necessary for the French gentlemen to be
landed in their boat.’
‘Had any papers been handed about among them,
similar to these lists?’
‘Some papers had been handed about among them, but
I don’t know what papers.’
‘Like these in shape and size?’
‘Possibly, but indeed I don’t know, although they stood
whispering very near to me: because they stood at the top
of the cabin steps to have the light of the lamp that was
hanging there; it was a dull lamp, and they spoke very
low, and I did not hear what they said, and saw only that
they looked at papers.’
‘Now, to the prisoner’s conversation, Miss Manette.’
‘The prisoner was as open in his confidence with me—
which arose out of my helpless situation—as he was kind,
and good, and useful to my father. I hope,’ bursting into
tears, ‘I may not repay him by doing him harm to-day.’
Buzzing from the blue-flies.
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‘Miss Manette, if the prisoner does not perfectly
understand that you give the evidence which it is your
duty to give—which you must give— and which you
cannot escape from giving—with great unwillingness, he is
the only person present in that condition. Please to go on.’
‘He told me that he was travelling on business of a
delicate and difficult nature, which might get people into
trouble, and that he was therefore travelling under an
assumed name. He said that this business had, within a few
days, taken him to France, and might, at intervals, take
him backwards and forwards between France and England
for a long time to come.’
‘Did he say anything about America, Miss Manette? Be
particular.’
‘He tried to explain to me how that quarrel had arisen,
and he said that, so far as he could judge, it was a wrong
and foolish one on England’s part. He added, in a jesting
way, that perhaps George Washington might gain almost
as great a name in history as George the Third. But there
was no harm in his way of saying this: it was said
laughingly, and to beguile the time.’
Any strongly marked expression of face on the part of a
chief actor in a scene of great interest to whom many eyes
are directed, will be unconsciously imitated by the
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spectators. Her forehead was painfully anxious and intent
as she gave this evidence, and, in the pauses when she
stopped for the Judge to write it down, watched its effect
upon the counsel for and against. Among the lookers-on
there was the same expression in all quarters of the court;
insomuch, that a great majority of the foreheads there,
might have been mirrors reflecting the witness, when the
Judge looked up from his notes to glare at that tremendous
heresy about George Washington.
Mr. Attorney-General now signified to my Lord, that
he deemed it necessary, as a matter of precaution and
form, to call the young lady’s father, Doctor Manette.
Who was called accordingly.
‘Doctor Manette, look upon the prisoner. Have you
ever seen him before?’
‘Once. When he caged at my lodgings in London.
Some three years, or three years and a half ago.’
‘Can you identify him as your fellow-passenger on
board the packet, or speak to his conversation with your
daughter?’
‘Sir, I can do neither.’
‘Is there any particular and special reason for your being
unable to do either?’
He answered, in a low voice, ‘There is.’
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‘Has it been your misfortune to undergo a long
imprisonment, without trial, or even accusation, in your
native country, Doctor Manette?’
He answered, in a tone that went to every heart, ‘A
long imprisonment.’
‘Were you newly released on the occasion in question?’
‘They tell me so.’
‘Have you no remembrance of the occasion?’
‘None. My mind is a blank, from some time—I cannot
even say what time— when I employed myself, in my
captivity, in making shoes, to the time when I found
myself living in London with my dear daughter here. She
had become familiar to me, when a gracious God restored
my faculties; but, I am quite unable even to say how she
had become familiar. I have no remembrance of the
process.’
Mr. Attorney-General sat down, and the father and
daughter sat down together.
A singular circumstance then arose in the case. The
object in hand being to show that the prisoner went
down, with some fellow-plotter untracked, in the Dover
mail on that Friday night in November five years ago, and
got out of the mail in the night, as a blind, at a place
where he did not remain, but from which he travelled
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back some dozen miles or more, to a garrison and
dockyard, and there collected information; a witness was
called to identify him as having been at the precise time
required, in the coffee-room of an hotel in that garrisonand-
dockyard town, waiting for another person. The
prisoner’s counsel was cross-examining this witness with
no result, except that he had never seen the prisoner on
any other occasion, when the wigged gentleman who had
all this time been looking at the ceiling of the court, wrote
a word or two on a little piece of paper, screwed it up,
and tossed it to him. Opening this piece of paper in the
next pause, the counsel looked with great attention and
curiosity at the prisoner.
‘You say again you are quite sure that it was the
prisoner?’
The witness was quite sure.
‘Did you ever see anybody very like the prisoner?’
Not so like (the witness said) as that he could be
mistaken.
‘Look well upon that gentleman, my learned friend
there,’ pointing to him who had tossed the paper over,
‘and then look well upon the prisoner. How say you? Are
they very like each other?’
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Allowing for my learned friend’s appearance being
careless and slovenly if not debauched, they were
sufficiently like each other to surprise, not only the
witness, but everybody present, when they were thus
brought into comparison. My Lord being prayed to bid
my learned friend lay aside his wig, and giving no very
gracious consent, the likeness became much more
remarkable. My Lord inquired of Mr. Stryver (the
prisoner’s counsel), whether they were next to try Mr.
Carton (name of my learned friend) for treason? But, Mr.
Stryver replied to my Lord, no; but he would ask the
witness to tell him whether what happened once, might
happen twice; whether he would have been so confident if
he had seen this illustration of his rashness sooner, whether
he would be so confident, having seen it; and more. The
upshot of which, was, to smash this witness like a crockery
vessel, and shiver his part of the case to useless lumber.
Mr. Cruncher had by this time taken quite a lunch of
rust off his fingers in his following of the evidence. He had
now to attend while Mr. Stryver fitted the prisoner’s case
on the jury, like a compact suit of clothes; showing them
how the patriot, Barsad, was a hired spy and traitor, an
unblushing trafficker in blood, and one of the greatest
scoundrels upon earth since accursed Judas—which he
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certainly did look rather like. How the virtuous servant,
Cly, was his friend and partner, and was worthy to be;
how the watchful eyes of those forgers and false swearers
had rested on the prisoner as a victim, because some family
affairs in France, he being of French extraction, did
require his making those passages across the Channel—
though what those affairs were, a consideration for others
who were near and dear to him, forbade him, even for his
life, to disclose. How the evidence that had been warped
and wrested from the young lady, whose anguish in giving
it they had witnessed, came to nothing, involving the
mere little innocent gallantries and politenesses likely to
pass between any young gentleman and young lady so
thrown together;—with the exception of that reference to
George Washington, which was altogether too extravagant
and impossible to be regarded in any other light than as a
monstrous joke. How it would be a weakness in the
government to break down in this attempt to practise for
popularity on the lowest national antipathies and fears, and
therefore Mr. Attorney-General had made the most of it;
how, nevertheless, it rested upon nothing, save that vile
and infamous character of evidence too often disfiguring
such cases, and of which the State Trials of this country
were full. But, there my Lord interposed (with as grave a
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face as if it had not been true), saying that he could not sit
upon that Bench and suffer those allusions.
Mr. Stryver then called his few witnesses, and Mr.
Cruncher had next to attend while Mr. Attorney-General
turned the whole suit of clothes Mr. Stryver had fitted on
the jury, inside out; showing how Barsad and Cly were
even a hundred times better than he had thought them,
and the prisoner a hundred times worse. Lastly, came my
Lord himself, turning the suit of clothes, now inside out,
now outside in, but on the whole decidedly trimming and
shaping them into grave-clothes for the prisoner.
And now, the jury turned to consider, and the great
flies swarmed again.
Mr. Carton, who had so long sat looking at the ceiling
of the court, changed neither his place nor his attitude,
even in this excitement. While his teamed friend, Mr.
Stryver, massing his papers before him, whispered with
those who sat near, and from time to time glanced
anxiously at the jury; while all the spectators moved more
or less, and grouped themselves anew; while even my
Lord himself arose from his seat, and slowly paced up and
down his platform, not unattended by a suspicion in the
minds of the audience that his state was feverish; this one
man sat leaning back, with his torn gown half off him, his
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untidy wig put on just as it had happened to fight on his
head after its removal, his hands in his pockets, and his
eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day. Something
especially reckless in his demeanour, not only gave him a
disreputable look, but so diminished the strong
resemblance he undoubtedly bore to the prisoner (which
his momentary earnestness, when they were compared
together, had strengthened), that many of the lookers-on,
taking note of him now, said to one another they would
hardly have thought the two were so alike. Mr. Cruncher
made the observation to his next neighbour, and added,
‘I’d hold half a guinea that HE don’t get no law-work to
do. Don’t look like the sort of one to get any, do he?’
Yet, this Mr. Carton took in more of the details of the
scene than he appeared to take in; for now, when Miss
Manette’s head dropped upon her father’s breast, he was
the first to see it, and to say audibly: ‘Officer! look to that
young lady. Help the gentleman to take her out. Don’t
you see she will fall!’
There was much commiseration for her as she was
removed, and much sympathy with her father. It had
evidently been a great distress to him, to have the days of
his imprisonment recalled. He had shown strong internal
agitation when he was questioned, and that pondering or
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brooding look which made him old, had been upon him,
like a heavy cloud, ever since. As he passed out, the jury,
who had turned back and paused a moment, spoke,
through their foreman.
They were not agreed, and wished to retire. My Lord
(perhaps with George Washington on his mind) showed
some surprise that they were not agreed, but signified his
pleasure that they should retire under watch and ward, and
retired himself. The trial had lasted all day, and the lamps
in the court were now being lighted. It began to be
rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. The
spectators dropped off to get refreshment, and the prisoner
withdrew to the back of the dock, and sat down.
Mr. Lorry, who had gone out when the young lady
and her father went out, now reappeared, and beckoned
to Jerry: who, in the slackened interest, could easily get
near him.
‘Jerry, if you wish to take something to eat, you can.
But, keep in the way. You will be sure to hear when the
jury come in. Don’t be a moment behind them, for I want
you to take the verdict back to the bank. You are the
quickest messenger I know, and will get to Temple Bar
long before I can.’
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Jerry had just enough forehead to knuckle, and he
knuckled it in acknowedgment of this communication and
a shilling. Mr. Carton came up at the moment, and
touched Mr. Lorry on the arm.
‘How is the young lady?’
‘She is greatly distressed; but her father is comforting
her, and she feels the better for being out of court.’
‘I’ll tell the prisoner so. It won’t do for a respectable
bank gentleman like you, to be seen speaking to him
publicly, you know.’
Mr. Lorry reddened as if he were conscious of having
debated the point in his mind, and Mr. Carton made his
way to the outside of the bar. The way out of court lay in
that direction, and Jerry followed him, all eyes, ears, and
spikes.
‘Mr. Darnay!’
The prisoner came forward directly.
‘You will naturally be anxious to hear of the witness,
Miss Manette. She will do very well. You have seen the
worst of her agitation.’
‘I am deeply sorry to have been the cause of it. Could
you tell her so for me, with my fervent
acknowledgments?’
‘Yes, I could. I will, if you ask it.’
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Mr. Carton’s manner was so careless as to be almost
insolent. He stood, half turned from the prisoner, lounging
with his elbow against the bar.
‘I do ask it. Accept my cordial thanks.’
‘What,’ said Carton, still only half turned towards him,
‘do you expect, Mr. Darnay?’
‘The worst.’
‘It’s the wisest thing to expect, and the likeliest. But I
think their withdrawing is in your favour.’
Loitering on the way out of court not being allowed,
Jerry heard no more: but left them—so like each other in
feature, so unlike each other in manner—standing side by
side, both reflected in the glass above them.
An hour and a half limped heavily away in the thiefand-
rascal crowded passages below, even though assisted
off with mutton pies and ale. The hoarse messenger,
uncomfortably seated on a form after taking that refection,
had dropped into a doze, when a loud murmur and a rapid
tide of people setting up the stairs that led to the court,
carried him along with them.
‘Jerry! Jerry!’ Mr. Lorry was already calling at the door
when he got there.
‘Here, sir! It’s a fight to get back again. Here I am, sir!’
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Mr. Lorry handed him a paper through the throng.
‘Quick! Have you got it?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Hastily written on the paper was the word
‘AQUITTED.’
‘If you had sent the message, ‘Recalled to Life,’ again,’
muttered Jerry, as he turned, ‘I should have known what
you meant, this time.’
He had no opportunity of saying, or so much as
thinking, anything else, until he was clear of the Old
Bailey; for, the crowd came pouring out with a
vehemence that nearly took him off his legs, and a loud
buzz swept into the street as if the baffled blue-flies were
dispersing in search of other carrion.
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IV
Congratulatory
From the dimly-lighted passages of the court, the last
sediment of the human stew that had been boiling there all
day, was straining off, when Doctor Manette, Lucie
Manette, his daughter, Mr. Lorry, the solicitor for the
defence, and its counsel, Mr. Stryver, stood gathered
round Mr. Charles Darnay—just released—congratulating
him on his escape from death.
It would have been difficult by a far brighter light, to
recognise in Doctor Manette, intellectual of face and
upright of bearing, the shoemaker of the garret in Paris.
Yet, no one could have looked at him twice, without
looking again: even though the opportunity of observation
had not extended to the mournful cadence of his low
grave voice, and to the abstraction that overclouded him
fitfully, without any apparent reason. While one external
cause, and that a reference to his long lingering agony,
would always—as on the trial—evoke this condition from
the depths of his soul, it was also in its nature to arise of
itself, and to draw a gloom over him, as incomprehensible
to those unacquainted with his story as if they had seen the
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shadow of the actual Bastille thrown upon him by a
summer sun, when the substance was three hundred miles
away.
Only his daughter had the power of charming this
black brooding from his mind. She was the golden thread
that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a
Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the
light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong
beneficial influence with him almost always. Not
absolutely always, for she could recall some occasions on
which her power had failed; but they were few and slight,
and she believed them over.
Mr. Darnay had kissed her hand fervently and
gratefully, and had turned to Mr. Stryver, whom he
warmly thanked. Mr. Stryver, a man of little more than
thirty, but looking twenty years older than he was, stout,
loud, red, bluff, and free from any drawback of delicacy,
had a pushing way of shouldering himself (morally and
physically) into companies and conversations, that argued
well for his shouldering his way up in life.
He still had his wig and gown on, and he said, squaring
himself at his late client to that degree that he squeezed the
innocent Mr. Lorry clean out of the group: ‘I am glad to
have brought you off with honour, Mr. Darnay. It was an
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