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1The Knitting Done In that same juncture of time when the Fifty-Two awaited their fate Madame Defarge held darkly ominous
2council with The Vengeance and Jacques Three of the Revolutionary Jury. Not in the wine-shop did Madame Defarge confer
3with these ministers, but in the shed of the wood-sawyer, erst a mender of roads. The sawyer himself did not participate
4in the conference, but abided at a little distance, like an outer satellite who was not to speak until required, or to
5offer an opinion until invited. "But our Defarge," said Jacques Three, "is undoubtedly a good Republican? Eh?" "There is
6no better," the voluble Vengeance protested in her shrill notes, "in France." "Peace, little Vengeance," said Madame
7Defarge, laying her hand with a slight frown on her lieutenant's lips, "hear me speak. My husband, fellow-citizen, is a
8good Republican and a bold man; he has deserved well of the Republic, and possesses its confidence. But my husband has
9his weaknesses, and he is so weak as to relent towards this Doctor." "It is a great pity," croaked Jacques Three,
10dubiously shaking his head, with his cruel fingers at his hungry mouth; "it is not quite like a good citizen; it is a
11thing to regret." "See you," said madame, "I care nothing for this Doctor, I. He may wear his head or lose it, for any
12interest I have in him; it is all one to me. But, the Evrémonde people are to be exterminated, and the wife and child
13must follow the husband and father." "She has a fine head for it," croaked Jacques Three. "I have seen blue eyes and
14golden hair there, and they looked charming when Samson held them up." Ogre that he was, he spoke like an epicure.
15Madame Defarge cast down her eyes, and reflected a little. "The child also," observed Jacques Three, with a meditative
16enjoyment of his words, "has golden hair and blue eyes. And we seldom have a child there. It is a pretty sight!" "In a
17word," said Madame Defarge, coming out of her short abstraction, "I cannot trust my husband in this matter. Not only do
18I feel, since last night, that I dare not confide to him the details of my projects; but also I feel that if I delay,
19there is danger of his giving warning, and then they might escape." "That must never be," croaked Jacques Three; "no one
20must escape. We have not half enough as it is. We ought to have six score a day." "In a word," Madame Defarge went on,
21"my husband has not my reason for pursuing this family to annihilation, and I have not his reason for regarding this
22Doctor with any sensibility. I must act for myself, therefore. Come hither, little citizen." The wood-sawyer, who held
23her in the respect, and himself in the submission, of mortal fear, advanced with his hand to his red cap. "Touching
24those signals, little citizen," said Madame Defarge, sternly, "that she made to the prisoners; you are ready to bear
25witness to them this very day?" "Ay, ay, why not!" cried the sawyer. "Every day, in all weathers, from two to four,
26always signalling, sometimes with the little one, sometimes without. I know what I know. I have seen with my eyes." He
27made all manner of gestures while he spoke, as if in incidental imitation of some few of the great diversity of signals
28that he had never seen. "Clearly plots," said Jacques Three. "Transparently!" "There is no doubt of the Jury?" inquired
29Madame Defarge, letting her eyes turn to him with a gloomy smile. "Rely upon the patriotic Jury, dear citizeness. I
30answer for my fellow-Jurymen." "Now, let me see," said Madame Defarge, pondering again. "Yet once more! Can I spare this
31Doctor to my husband? I have no feeling either way. Can I spare him?" "He would count as one head," observed Jacques
32Three, in a low voice. "We really have not heads enough; it would be a pity, I think." "He was signalling with her when
33I saw her," argued Madame Defarge; "I cannot speak of one without the other; and I must not be silent, and trust the
34case wholly to him, this little citizen here. For, I am not a bad witness." The Vengeance and Jacques Three vied with
35each other in their fervent protestations that she was the most admirable and marvellous of witnesses. The little
36citizen, not to be outdone, declared her to be a celestial witness. "He must take his chance," said Madame Defarge. "No,
37I cannot spare him! You are engaged at three o'clock; you are going to see the batch of to-day executed.--You?" The
38question was addressed to the wood-sawyer, who hurriedly replied in the affirmative: seizing the occasion to add that he
39was the most ardent of Republicans, and that he would be in effect the most desolate of Republicans, if anything
40prevented him from enjoying the pleasure of smoking his afternoon pipe in the contemplation of the droll national
41barber. He was so very demonstrative herein, that he might have been suspected (perhaps was, by the dark eyes that
42looked contemptuously at him out of Madame Defarge's head) of having his small individual fears for his own personal
43safety, every hour in the day. "I," said madame, "am equally engaged at the same place. After it is over--say at eight
44to-night--come you to me, in Saint Antoine, and we will give information against these people at my Section." The
45wood-sawyer said he would be proud and flattered to attend the citizeness. The citizeness looking at him, he became
46embarrassed, evaded her glance as a small dog would have done, retreated among his wood, and hid his confusion over the
47handle of his saw. Madame Defarge beckoned the Juryman and The Vengeance a little nearer to the door, and there
48expounded her further views to them thus: "She will now be at home, awaiting the moment of his death. She will be
49mourning and grieving. She will be in a state of mind to impeach the justice of the Republic. She will be full of
50sympathy with its enemies. I will go to her." "What an admirable woman; what an adorable woman!" exclaimed Jacques
51Three, rapturously. "Ah, my cherished!" cried The Vengeance; and embraced her. "Take you my knitting," said Madame
52Defarge, placing it in her lieutenant's hands, "and have it ready for me in my usual seat. Keep me my usual chair. Go
53you there, straight, for there will probably be a greater concourse than usual, to-day." "I willingly obey the orders of
54my Chief," said The Vengeance with alacrity, and kissing her cheek. "You will not be late?" "I shall be there before the
55commencement." "And before the tumbrils arrive. Be sure you are there, my soul," said The Vengeance, calling after her,
56for she had already turned into the street, "before the tumbrils arrive!" Madame Defarge slightly waved her hand, to
57imply that she heard, and might be relied upon to arrive in good time, and so went through the mud, and round the corner
58of the prison wall. The Vengeance and the Juryman, looking after her as she walked away, were highly appreciative of her
59fine figure, and her superb moral endowments. There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully
60disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way
61along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that
62kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an
63instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances. But,
64imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed
65her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she had ever had the virtue in her, it had quite gone out of
66her. It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them.
67It was nothing to her, that his wife was to be made a widow and his daughter an orphan; that was insufficient
68punishment, because they were her natural enemies and her prey, and as such had no right to live. To appeal to her, was
69made hopeless by her having no sense of pity, even for herself. If she had been laid low in the streets, in any of the
70many encounters in which she had been engaged, she would not have pitied herself; nor, if she had been ordered to the
71axe to-morrow, would she have gone to it with any softer feeling than a fierce desire to change places with the man who
72sent her there.
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