A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations (Oprah's Book Club) Read online

  ‘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 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 called 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.’

  ‘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 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 garrison-and-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?’

  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 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, forbad 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 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 learned 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 untidy wig put on just as it had happened to light 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 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.’

  Jerry had just enough forehead to knuckle, and he knuckled it in acknowledgment 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.’

  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 thief-and-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!’

  Mr Lorry handed him a paper through the throng. ‘Quick! Have you got it?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Hastily written on the paper was the word ‘acquitted’.

  ‘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.

  [END OF INSTALMENT 6]

  CHAPTER 4

  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 around 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 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 recal 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 augured 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 infamous prosecution, grossly infamous; but not the less likely to succeed, on that account.’

  ‘You have laid me under an obligation to you for life – in two senses,’ said his late client, taking his hand.

  ‘I have done my best for you, Mr Darnay; and my best is as good as another man’s, I believe.’

  It clearly being incumbent on somebody to say, ‘Much better,’ Mr Lorry said it; perhaps not quite disinterestedly, but with the interested object of squeezing himself back again.

  ‘You think so?’ said Mr Stryver. ‘Well! you have been present all day, and you ought to know. You are a man of business, too.’

  ‘And as such,’ quoth Mr Lorry, whom the counsel learned in the law had now shouldered back into the group, just as he had previously shouldered him out of it – ‘as such, I will appeal to Doctor Manette, to break up this conference and order us all to our homes. Miss Lucie looks ill, Mr Darnay has had a terrible day, we are worn out.’

  ‘Speak for
yourself, Mr Lorry,’ said Stryver; ‘I have a night’s work to do yet. Speak for yourself.’

  ‘I speak for myself,’ answered Mr Lorry, ‘and for Mr Darnay, and for Miss Lucie, and—Miss Lucie, do you not think I may speak for us all?’ He asked her the question pointedly, and with a glance at her father.

  His face had become frozen, as it were, in a very curious look at Darnay: an intent look, deepening into a frown of dislike and distrust, not even unmixed with fear. With this strange expression on him his thoughts had wandered away.

  ‘My father,’ said Lucie, softly laying her hand on his.

  He slowly shook the shadow off, and turned to her.

  ‘Shall we go home, my father?’

  With a long breath, he answered, ‘Yes.’

  The friends of the acquitted prisoner had dispersed, under the impression – which he himself had originated – that he would not be released that night. The lights were nearly all extinguished in the passages, the iron gates were being closed with a jar and a rattle, and the dismal place was deserted until to-morrow morning’s interest of gallows, pillory, whipping-post, and branding-iron, should repeople it. Walking between her father and Mr Darnay, Lucie Manette passed into the open air. A hackney-coach was called, and the father and daughter departed in it.

  Mr Stryver had left them in the passages, to shoulder his way back to the robing-room. Another person who had not joined the group, or interchanged a word with any one of them, but who had been leaning against the wall where its shadow was darkest, had silently strolled out after the rest, and had looked on until the coach drove away. He now stepped up to where Mr Lorry and Mr Darnay stood upon the pavement.

  ‘So, Mr Lorry! Men of business may speak to Mr Darnay now?’

  Nobody had made any acknowledgment of Mr Carton’s part in the day’s proceedings; nobody had known of it. He was unrobed, and was none the better for it in appearance.