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1Still Knitting Madame Defarge and monsieur her husband returned amicably to the bosom of Saint Antoine, while a speck in
2a blue cap toiled through the darkness, and through the dust, and down the weary miles of avenue by the wayside, slowly
3tending towards that point of the compass where the chateau of Monsieur the Marquis, now in his grave, listened to the
4whispering trees. Such ample leisure had the stone faces, now, for listening to the trees and to the fountain, that the
5few village scarecrows who, in their quest for herbs to eat and fragments of dead stick to burn, strayed within sight of
6the great stone courtyard and terrace staircase, had it borne in upon their starved fancy that the expression of the
7faces was altered. A rumour just lived in the village--had a faint and bare existence there, as its people had--that
8when the knife struck home, the faces changed, from faces of pride to faces of anger and pain; also, that when that
9dangling figure was hauled up forty feet above the fountain, they changed again, and bore a cruel look of being avenged,
10which they would henceforth bear for ever. In the stone face over the great window of the bed-chamber where the murder
11was done, two fine dints were pointed out in the sculptured nose, which everybody recognised, and which nobody had seen
12of old; and on the scarce occasions when two or three ragged peasants emerged from the crowd to take a hurried peep at
13Monsieur the Marquis petrified, a skinny finger would not have pointed to it for a minute, before they all started away
14among the moss and leaves, like the more fortunate hares who could find a living there. Chateau and hut, stone face and
15dangling figure, the red stain on the stone floor, and the pure water in the village well--thousands of acres of land--a
16whole province of France--all France itself--lay under the night sky, concentrated into a faint hair-breadth line. So
17does a whole world, with all its greatnesses and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere human knowledge can
18split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble
19shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. The
20Defarges, husband and wife, came lumbering under the starlight, in their public vehicle, to that gate of Paris whereunto
21their journey naturally tended. There was the usual stoppage at the barrier guardhouse, and the usual lanterns came
22glancing forth for the usual examination and inquiry. Monsieur Defarge alighted; knowing one or two of the soldiery
23there, and one of the police. The latter he was intimate with, and affectionately embraced. When Saint Antoine had again
24enfolded the Defarges in his dusky wings, and they, having finally alighted near the Saint's boundaries, were picking
25their way on foot through the black mud and offal of his streets, Madame Defarge spoke to her husband: "Say then, my
26friend; what did Jacques of the police tell thee?" "Very little to-night, but all he knows. There is another spy
27commissioned for our quarter. There may be many more, for all that he can say, but he knows of one." "Eh well!" said
28Madame Defarge, raising her eyebrows with a cool business air. "It is necessary to register him. How do they call that
29man?" "He is English." "So much the better. His name?" "Barsad," said Defarge, making it French by pronunciation. But,
30he had been so careful to get it accurately, that he then spelt it with perfect correctness. "Barsad," repeated madame.
31"Good. Christian name?" "John." "John Barsad," repeated madame, after murmuring it once to herself. "Good. His
32appearance; is it known?" "Age, about forty years; height, about five feet nine; black hair; complexion dark; generally,
33rather handsome visage; eyes dark, face thin, long, and sallow; nose aquiline, but not straight, having a peculiar
34inclination towards the left cheek; expression, therefore, sinister." "Eh my faith. It is a portrait!" said madame,
35laughing. "He shall be registered to-morrow." They turned into the wine-shop, which was closed (for it was midnight),
36and where Madame Defarge immediately took her post at her desk, counted the small moneys that had been taken during her
37absence, examined the stock, went through the entries in the book, made other entries of her own, checked the serving
38man in every possible way, and finally dismissed him to bed. Then she turned out the contents of the bowl of money for
39the second time, and began knotting them up in her handkerchief, in a chain of separate knots, for safe keeping through
40the night. All this while, Defarge, with his pipe in his mouth, walked up and down, complacently admiring, but never
41interfering; in which condition, indeed, as to the business and his domestic affairs, he walked up and down through
42life. The night was hot, and the shop, close shut and surrounded by so foul a neighbourhood, was ill-smelling. Monsieur
43Defarge's olfactory sense was by no means delicate, but the stock of wine smelt much stronger than it ever tasted, and
44so did the stock of rum and brandy and aniseed. He whiffed the compound of scents away, as he put down his smoked-out
45pipe. "You are fatigued," said madame, raising her glance as she knotted the money. "There are only the usual odours."
46"I am a little tired," her husband acknowledged. "You are a little depressed, too," said madame, whose quick eyes had
47never been so intent on the accounts, but they had had a ray or two for him. "Oh, the men, the men!" "But my dear!"
48began Defarge. "But my dear!" repeated madame, nodding firmly; "but my dear! You are faint of heart to-night, my dear!"
49"Well, then," said Defarge, as if a thought were wrung out of his breast, "it is a long time." "It is a long time,"
50repeated his wife; "and when is it not a long time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule." "It
51does not take a long time to strike a man with Lightning," said Defarge. "How long," demanded madame, composedly, "does
52it take to make and store the lightning? Tell me." Defarge raised his head thoughtfully, as if there were something in
53that too. "It does not take a long time," said madame, "for an earthquake to swallow a town. Eh well! Tell me how long
54it takes to prepare the earthquake?" "A long time, I suppose," said Defarge. "But when it is ready, it takes place, and
55grinds to pieces everything before it. In the meantime, it is always preparing, though it is not seen or heard. That is
56your consolation. Keep it." She tied a knot with flashing eyes, as if it throttled a foe. "I tell thee," said madame,
57extending her right hand, for emphasis, "that although it is a long time on the road, it is on the road and coming. I
58tell thee it never retreats, and never stops. I tell thee it is always advancing. Look around and consider the lives of
59all the world that we know, consider the faces of all the world that we know, consider the rage and discontent to which
60the Jacquerie addresses itself with more and more of certainty every hour. Can such things last? Bah! I mock you." "My
61brave wife," returned Defarge, standing before her with his head a little bent, and his hands clasped at his back, like
62a docile and attentive pupil before his catechist, "I do not question all this. But it has lasted a long time, and it is
63possible--you know well, my wife, it is possible--that it may not come, during our lives." "Eh well! How then?" demanded
64madame, tying another knot, as if there were another enemy strangled. "Well!" said Defarge, with a half complaining and
65half apologetic shrug. "We shall not see the triumph." "We shall have helped it," returned madame, with her extended
66hand in strong action. "Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see the triumph.
67But even if not, even if I knew certainly not, show me the neck of an aristocrat and tyrant, and still I would--" Then
68madame, with her teeth set, tied a very terrible knot indeed. "Hold!" cried Defarge, reddening a little as if he felt
69charged with cowardice; "I too, my dear, will stop at nothing." "Yes! But it is your weakness that you sometimes need to
70see your victim and your opportunity, to sustain you. Sustain yourself without that. When the time comes, let loose a
71tiger and a devil; but wait for the time with the tiger and the devil chained--not shown--yet always ready."
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