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‘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

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens(3)

He had put up a hand between his eyes and the light,
and the very bones of it seemed transparent. So he sat,
with a steadfastly vacant gaze, pausing in his work. He
never looked at the figure before him, without first
looking down on this side of himself, then on that, as if he
had lost the habit of associating place with sound; he never
spoke, without first wandering in this manner, and
forgetting to speak.
‘Are you going to finish that pair of shoes to-day?’
asked Defarge, motioning to Mr. Lorry to come forward.
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‘What did you say?’
‘Do you mean to finish that pair of shoes to-day?’
‘I can’t say that I mean to. I suppose so. I don’t know.’
But, the question reminded him of his work, and he
bent over it again.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens(2)

‘At that time—I may ask, at what time, sir?’
‘I speak, miss, of twenty years ago. He married—an
English lady—and I was one of the trustees. His affairs,
like the affairs of many other French gentlemen and
French families, were entirely in Tellson’s hands. In a
similar way I am, or I have been, trustee of one kind or
other for scores of our customers. These are mere business
relations, miss; there is no friendship in them, no particular
interest, nothing like sentiment. I have passed from one to
another, in the course of my business life, just as I pass
from one of our customers to another in the course of my
business day; in short, I have no feelings; I am a mere
machine. To go on—‘
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‘But this is my father’s story, sir; and I begin to think’
—the curiously roughened forehead was very intent upon
him—‘that when I was left an orphan through my
mother’s surviving my father only two years, it was you
who brought me to England. I am almost sure it was you.’

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Book the First—Recalled to Life
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I
The Period
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was
the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the
season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were
all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way—in short, the period was so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative
degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a
plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king
with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the
throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than
crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and
fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were
conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this.
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