A tale of two cities

Front matter

Class J

Book *

CopyrigM'N ? 2S (

Book The Second The Golden Thread

I. Five Years Later 38

II. A Disappointment 43

III. Congratulatory 53

IV. Hundreds of People 58

V. Monseigneur in Town 69

VI. Monseigneur in the Country 75

VII. The Gordon's Head 79

VIII. Two Promises 87

IX. Sydney Carton 93

X. Knitting 97

XI. Still Knitting ... * 102

XII. One Night 108

XIII. Nine Days 110

XIV. An Opinion 115

XV. Echoing Footsteps 121

XVI. Fire Rises 131

XVII. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock 136

IV

CONTENTS

Book The Third The Track Of A Storm

PAGE

I. In Secret 143

II. The Grindstone 150

III. The Shadow 155

IV. Calm in Storm . .159

Y. Beneath the Prison Window 162

VI. Triumph 165

VII. A Knock at the Door 171

VIII. A Hand at Cards 174

IX. The Game Made 181

X. The Substance of the Shadow 189

XI. Dusk 204

XII. Darkness 207

XIII. Fifty-two . . 214

XIY. The Knitting Done 226

XY. The Footsteps Die Out Forever 233

I

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The “ two cities ” of this story are London and Paris. In the first chapter we find ourselves travelling, with Mr. Jarvis Lorry, from London, by the post-road, to Dover ; then across the Strait of Dover to Calais, on the French coast, and so by post-road again to Paris. The object of this journey of Mr. Lorry’s is to bring from Paris to London Dr. Manette, whose fortunes form the main thread of “A Tale of Two Cities.” But the fortunes of Dr. Manette and his family are closely interwoven with the events of the most interesting period in the history of France, the period of the French Revolution. Indeed, it was the fascination that the great drama of the French Revolution exercised over the imagination of Charles Dickens that impelled him to write “A Tale of Two Cities.” It will help you, therefore, in reading this book to know something about the French Revolution*

Let us notice, first, that our story begins in 1775. Dickens is careful to tell us that it was in November of that year that Mr. Lorry started on his journey to Paris. You will remember that 1775 is the year of the breaking out of the American Revolution. You will remember, too, that France gave aid to the American cause in that struggle. Although the assistance given by the king of France was prompted rather by jealousy of England than by sympathy with the principles of the Revolution, there were many Frenchmen,

VI such as Lafayette, who believed in the cause of the American patriots. The success of the American Revolution encouraged these men to strive for civil liberty in France.

About the time that our revolution against George III. ended, there began a revolution of the French people against their king and his royal government. This struggle was very different from the American Revolution, as you will find in reading “ A Tale of Two Cities.” The difference is due partly to the fact that French character differs widely from English or American character, and partly to the fact that French history, through all its hundreds of years, had' worked out in a very different way from English history. The American colonists inherited from England the ideas that had been developed in English history.

Very early in English history certain important principles of government were established. Of these, I wish to call your attention to just two.

First, the principle was established that all taxes to raise money to carry on the government must be settled by Parliament, and not by the king. Now, Parliament being made up of men elected by the people as their representatives, when Parliament granted money to the king, it was really the people themselves who gave of their own possessions. This idea was not steadily carried out in English history, but, with occasional setbacks, it grew stronger and stronger, until the American Revolution was caused by the attempt of George III. to tax his colonies as he would not dare to tax Englishmen. In France, on the contrary, although there was early in its history an assembly, called the Estates-General, somewhat resembling the English Parliament, claiming the power to tax, it became of so little importance that in three hundred years it was called but seven times, and the power to tax fell into the hands of the king. What is worse, the king, to gain favor with the nobles, excused them from certain taxes, and the burden of taxation was carried by the common people! This very important vii question of taxation was settled very differently in England and. in France.

The second point that we are to notice is this : in England it early became established that no man could be imprisoned without a just trial. Charles I. imprisoned his subjects without granting them legal trial ; but we all know what became of Charles I. Now, in France, the king had the power of committing persons to prison without trial, in fact, without statement of cause. Our story shows us how this power of “ arbitrary imprisonment ” could be used by those who enjoyed court favor for the punishment of their personal enemies.

Thus you see that, while in England the liberties of the people had increased and the power of the king had lessened, in France more arid more power had centered in the king, until a certain French sovereign could say, “ The state ! I am the state ! ”

You can realize, too, that a time would come when the French people, crushed down so long, would struggle to free themselves. That time came ; but, because the people had had no experience in governing themselves, and were, the most of them, very ignorant and very wretched, when they turned, it was much as an animal might, striking and rending and struggling, they hardly knew for what.

But the revolutionists were not all the ignorant poor. There were leaders who were wiser and knew better what liberty means and how to gain it. There were, among the middle classes, many scholarly men, mostly lawyers, who had come to believe ardently that “ all men are created equal” and have “ unalienable rights.” Believing this, and seeing the awful inequality between the lives of the nobles and of the common people about them, they began to preach the doctrine of “liberty, equality, and fraternity.” Moreover, many, like Lafayette, of the old nobility had given up the privileges of their birth, and had joined the cause of the people.

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The king at this time was Louis XVI., not a bad man, but weak and hesitating. He was capable neither of understanding the troubles of his country nor of making wise plans for relief. The two kings that had reigned before him had been selfish and despotic, spending vast sums of money upon their pleasures. So Louis XVI. was in great need of money for the necessary purposes of government. It was this need that brought about the first step of the French Eevolution.

To devise means of raising money, Louis XVI. called together the Estates-General, which had not met for over one hundred and seventy years. This body was made up of representatives elected from the three orders — or Estates, as they were called — of nobles, clergy, and commons. The Estates-General met at Versailles, just eleven miles from Paris — three hundred nobles, three hundred clergy, six hundred commons. It had been the custom, in former times, for each order to cast its vote separately ; then, as the nobles and clergy were sure to vote together, against the commons, the vote of the commons really counted for nothing. At this new meeting of the Estates-General, the commons demanded that the whole Assembly should vote together ; for, as a few of the nobles and a few of the clergy sympathized with them, they could then make their opinions felt. The king refused ; whereupon the commons declared themselves the National Assembly of France, and refused to separate until the wrongs of the state were set right. This was the French “Declaration of Independence.”

The first show of force, corresponding to our Concord and Lexington, was far less admirable.

The news of what was being done at Versailles stirred up the people of Paris, already seething with discontent. A committee, selected from the chief men, took the government of the capital into their hands ; the French Guards of Paris declared themselves on the side of the people, and were formed into a National Guard with Lafayette as their com-

IX mander; all the mob element of the great city surged together, and, as if moved by a common impulse, attacked the Bastille, July 14, 1789. This great fortress-prison stood by the gate leading* to the suburb of St. Antoine. 1 So many people that had incurred the enmity of the kings or the nobles had worn out their lives within its grim walls, that it expressed to the people the hateful royal power. Our story gives a vivid picture of the attack upon the Bastille, of its fall, and of the slaughter of its defenders. 3 Shortly afterwards it was demolished, and the great key was sent by Lafayette to Washington, 3 as a symbol of the triumph of the spirit of liberty over despotism. The fall of the Bastille taught the people their power.

Paris began the revolution, but the rest of France caught the fire. In the country districts, the peasants rose against their lords, burning the beautiful homes in which the nobles had ruled like petty kings. These sudden night-fires blazed all over France.

The king had been holding his court at Versailles ; but, three months after the fall of the Bastille, a mob, composed mostly of women, streamed out to Versailles, and the next day brought the king, his wife, Marie Antoinette, and their little son, Louis, back to Paris with them, crying as they came, “ We have the baker, and the baker's wife, and the baker's boy ; now we shall have bread ! " The king, promising to maintain the laws made by the new Assembly, took up his abode in the royal palace, but he was more like a prisoner than a king.

For almost two years after these events, there was comparative quiet. The National Assembly swept away the laws of unequal taxation and the unjust privileges of the nobles, and

1 You will become acquainted with the St. Antoine (san-ton-twan') quarter of Paris as you read u A Tale of Two Cities.” We are introduced to it in Chapter IV., Book I. Out of this quarter came, in large part, the mob that stormed the Bastille (bas-tel').

2 A wonderful description of the taking of the Bastille is given in Carlyle’s “ The French Revolution,” Book V., Chapter VI.

3 The key of the Bastille is now at Mount Vernon.

X formed a new Constitution. During these two years, the French nobles, in great numbers, fled from France into Austria and Prussia, where they gathered an army, and threatened France with invasion.

Then the king, never sure of the right course to pursue, attempted to flee from Paris and join the exiled nobles in Austria. He got safely out of Paris, but was pursued, overtaken, and brought back. His position after this attempted flight was much worse than it had been before, for the people felt that he had played them false. He was made to feel his defenceless position when he was attacked in his own palace by the mob.

The threatened invasion from Austria was effected in J uly of the year 1792. Prussians, Austrians, and exiled French nobles came over the border and advanced towards Paris. There was consternation and wild rage in Paris. A second time the mob invaded the king’s palace. This time he saved his life only by flight to the Assembly for protection ; the palace was pillaged and destroyed, and his faithful Swiss guard massacred.

A month later the mob did a yet more terrible thing. The prisons of Paris had been crowded with captives that had been seized by the republican authorities on suspicion of giving assistance to the invading nobles. From the second to the sixth of September, bands of assassins forced open the prisons, condemned their victims to death by mock trials, and butchered, it is said, over fourteen hundred prisoners. This terrible event, called in history the “ September massacre,” forms an important episode of “ A Tale of Two Cities ; ” it was in September, 1792, that Mr. Jarvis Lorry made his second fateful journey to Paris.

Now events crowd close, and grow more and more terrible. In the same month that the massacres occurred, the king was imprisoned, and the country was declared a republic. In the first month of the next year he was tried and executed ; eight months later his queen shared his fate. His little son

XI is supposed to have died in prison. A curious rumor arose that he was brought by some friends to America, and lived and died in Canada.

The execution of the king caused almost all Europe to declare war against the republic, and all over France sprang up a great army, eager to fight for the new republic, and able to hold her foes at bay.

By this time the wise and moderate party had been swept away by the fierce republicans. The year before, Lafayette had resigned his position and left France. From September, 1793, to July, 1794, was the most awful part of the revolution, so bloody that it is called the “ Feign of Terror”

Three terrible men ruled Paris — men who seem almost like fiends : Danton, Marat, and Robespierre. 1 The guillotine was set up in what is now the Place de la Concord ; 2 prisoners by forties and fifties at a time were sent to their doom by trials that were a mockery of justice. These scenes in Paris were repeated in other cities of France.

Finally the frenzy of the Reign of Terror wore itself out. All three of the leaders came to violent ends. Marat was assassinated, Danton and Robespierre were guillotined.

When the leaders of the Terror fell, the more moderate party came into power. Then Napoleon arose, and for a time lorded it over France, and almost over Europe. After his fall, through various changes, the present Republic of France was established, in 1871.

Our story takes us only to 1793, but in the closing paragraphs there is a suggestion of the outcome of the French Revolution in the establishment of the present Republic. 3

1 Danton (don-tori'), Marat (ma-ira/), Robespierre (rObs-pyar'). You will find striking descriptions of these three men in Victor Hugo’s “Ninety-three,” Part II., Book II., Chapter I.

2 Place de la Concord (plas de la kSn-kord'). This square was first called the Place Louis XV., and was ornamented by a statue of that monarch. In 1792, this statue was torn down, a plaste- figure of Liberty, near which was the guillotine, was erected in its place, and the name of the square was changed to Place de la Guillotine. The present name dates from 1795.

3 Teachers who wish books of reference upon the French Revolution will find a satis' factory brief account pf the revolution and its causes in Adams’s “ The Growth of the

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II Suggestions For The Study Of The Story

Two men may make the same journey, and one gain much and one gain little ; because one has travelled with open eyes and a keen mind, while the other has gone about sleepy-eyed and sleepy-headed. Reading a book is somewhat like making a journey. To get the good of a book, you must see and think and feel. Charles Dickens said that when he was writing “ A Tale of Two Cities ” he lived through the experiences of the people that make the story. If you read the book rightly, you will almost do the same thing.

First, let us say a word in regard to seeing.

Here is a company of people whom the author saw very clearly, and whom he wished us to see. In the opening of the book, “the first of the persons with whom this history has business ” is introduced to us ; then another and another actor passes before the eyes of our mind, until presently we are living in a little world of people created by the power of the author. Observe these people carefully. The author usually gives one main description of each character. Notice under what circumstances he gives this main description. He chooses the time carefully always. Sometimes he gives the description as soon as he introduces the character ; sometimes he waits until he has brought his character to a good effective point, and then he describes him. Besides the main description, there are usually little descriptive touches, thrown in here and there, that deepen the impression, and make the mental picture that we have formed grow clearer and clearer.

To illustrate, let us take the case of Lucie Manette, a character of importance in the story. We get our first pict-

French Nation ” (Macmillan), Chapters XV. and XVI., and a fuller treatment of the subject in “The French Revolution,” by Morris (Scribner & Co.). Both of these books contain copious references to other authorities, the latter having, in an appendix, an extended Bibliography of the French Revolution,

Xlll ure of Lucie as she rises to greet Mr. Lorry, in her room in the Dover inn, as described in the third chapter of the first book. Dickens gives first an impression of the room in which she stands, a room dark and sombre. Against this background we have the picture of a young girl, slight and fair. One detail of her face is made very impressive, a little puckering of her brows that gives her a half questioning, half anxious expression. If nothing were considered besides the picture produced, the contrast between the dark room and the fair girl would be very effective, but in this case I think that there is a particular appropriateness in the dark background given to the figure of Lucie Manette ; it is in accord with the shadow cast over her young life. The impression that we get of fair hair is made clearer and clearer as we see her again and again ; the puckering of her brows we watch for ; on two important occasions it tells us much. I think that you will find that Dickens is fond of emphasizing some peculiarity of the face or the form of a character, and using that peculiarity to individualize him by.

Now, let us reduce this slight study of the description of Lucie Manette to a few questions. When and where does Dickens give us the first clear picture of Lucie Manette ? What is the background of the figure ? Is there anything particularly appropriate in this background ? — This question, of course, you could not answer until you had finished the book. What are the main impressions given by the description of Lucie ? Are these impressions made deeper through the rest of the book ?

These same questions might be asked about any or all of the important characters of the story. It would not be right for the author to describe unimportant characters so fully.

There are many other things, besides people, for us to see. Take for instance the mail-coach on the road to Dover, that is described so vividly in the first chapter . 1 In this descrip-

1 An interesting contrast to this description will be found in Tom Pinch’s journey to London, as set forth in “Martin Chuzzlewit.” This journey of Tom Pinch is pub-

XIV tion Dickens makes us feel and hear as well as see. We can feel the mist and cold of the night, hear the lumbering of the coach, the rattle of the harness, and the tread of the passengers as they plod up the hill. It is a fine thing to be able to make things seem as real as Dickens has made them in this description. You will be interested to notice the words that he uses to make us hear various sounds. Go over the chapter and write a list of these words.

After you have thought over the chapter, try to describe some mode of travelling that you know well, and see whether you can find the right words to make it seem real. Suppose you try one of the following subjects : a trolley-car ride on a very warm evening, a ride in an empty hay-cart, a ride in a country stage, a ride in a milk-wagon, a ride on a “ bob ” down a very slippery hill. Other subjects will suggest themselves to you. Whatever one you choose, be sure that it is something that you know well, and that, in describing, you use words that make clear the feeling of the weather and the sounds that accompany the journeying.

We have spoken about seeing ; now let us consider for a moment how we may bring thought to bear upon our story.

One way in which you may use your heads while you are reading is by tracing all the threads of the story. You will find that there are many threads, now separating, now curiously coming together, and all of them uniting to make a piece of the strangely woven fabric of life. It will be a good thing for you to follow out all these lines of the story, and to see how the author has brought them all together. When you see this, you will begin to realize what a work of art it is to write a truly good novel.

As we did in the case of the descriptions, let us make a plan of study. The chief threads of the story, we may say, are three : the Dr. Manette thread, the “ French nobleman ” thread, and the French Revolution thread. Each thread is made up of different strands. The three threads unite in a

lished in “The Booklovers’ Magazine,” November, 1903, with colored plates, illustrating different phases of English mail-coach travel.

XV very interesting way. The story begins with the Dr. Manette thread, and through the whole of the first book we are hardly aware of any other, but in truth we are picking up the first little strands of the French Revolution thread. In the first chapter of the second book, a new character is introduced rather abruptly, a young man by the name of Charles Darnay, and for a little while we do not know what his connection with the rest of the story may be. In chapter five of the second book, the thread that I call the “ French nobleman” thread begins. We meet a certain marquis in Paris, then follow him to his country estate. Here we find that the Charles Darnay thread is a strand of the 66 French nobleman” thread of the story. As the story progresses, the “ French nobleman ” thread unites closely with the Dr. Manette part of the story, and as closely with the French Revolution part. Now, let us ask ourselves some questions. But, before we are ready to answer these questions, we should make a list of the characters that centre around Dr. Manette, of those that centre around the marquis, and of those that centre around the wine-shop keeper and his wife, who are the main figures of the French Revolution part of the story. Now, we may ask these questions : What is the connection between Dr. Manette and the wine-shop keeper ? between the marquis and Dr. Manette ? between the marquis and the wine-shop keeper ? In what chapter of the story do we discover each one of these connections ? Have any hints been given of the connection before it is made known ? What effect has each connection upon the story ? Who is the strongest evil influence in the story ? Who is the strongest good influence ?

A second direction in which thought should be exercised in reading this book is in learning what the French Revolution was, and what brought it about. Your sympathies will probably be divided about the rights and the wrongs of the French Revolution. Try to see the subject fairly. Remember that it is not upon the people of the poor quarters of Paris, and the like of them in other parts of France, in the

XVI latter part of the eighteenth century, that the responsibility for the Reign of Terror rests, but rather upon the French government for centuries before. Remember, too, that the deeds of the Paris mob are a warning that no government is safe that contains within it the elements out of which mobs are made.

Let me mention a third subject for thought. It is a matter of interest to note some of the peculiarities of Charles Dickens as a writer. You will probably observe with surprise two things in this book : first, that capitals are occasionally used as you have been taught not to use them ; second, that the punctuation, also, is in some places contrary to rule. For instance, if you should write, “ That's a Blazing strange answer ! " your teacher would no doubt strike out the capital B. Again, if you should write, “ Perhaps. Perhaps see the great crowd of people, with its rush and roar, bearing down upon them, too ! " you would probably receive some such criticism as this : “ Do not punctuate as a sentence what is not a sentence." When Dickens capitalized “ blazing," he did it to make the word emphatic ; when he wrote “ perhaps" as if it were a sentence, he again stepped aside from the ordinary usage in order to make the word “perhaps" strike the reader most forcibly. Writers of assured reputation may take such liberties, capitalizing for emphasis, and punctuating for rhetorical and not for grammatical reasons. Collect from your book at least five examples of each of these usages.

Seeing, thinking, mid feeling. — Some directions may be given in regard to seeing and thinking ; but, when we come to feeling, all that we can say is that clear seeing and honest thinking bring with them right feeling. Feeling that is not based upon such seeing and thinking is quite as apt to be wrong as right.

And now enter upon your story of “ A Tale of Two Cities"; and may you, like the man travelling through an interesting country with open eyes and keen mind, find both pleasure and profit.

PRONUNCIATION OF FRENCH NAMES

occurring in A Tale of Two Cities , as given by the Century Dictionary.

Abbaye (a-ba').

Bastille (bas-tel').

Beauvais (bo-va ).

Calais (ka-la )

carmagnole (kar-ma-nyol'). chateau (sha-to')

Conciergerie (kon-syerzh-re').

Defarge (da-farzh').

Evremonde (a-vra-mond).

Jacques (zhak).

a as in fat. a “ “ fate, a “ father, e “ met. e “ “ mete, e “ “ her.

messieurs (me-sye'). m on seigneur (mon-sa-nyer'). monsieur (me-sye').

Notre Dame (no'tr dam).

Place de la Concorde (plas d e la kon kord').

Saint Antoine (san-ton-twan').

St. Evremonde (san-ta-vra-mond').

St. Germain (san-zher-man').

o as in not.

5 “ “ note.

h — the nasal sound of n — peculiar to French — nearly ng in sing.

I

Chapter I. The Mail

It was the Dover Road that lay, on a Friday night late in November, before the first of the persons with whom this history has business. The Dover Road lay beyond the Dover mail, as it lumbered up Shooter’s Hill. He walked uphill in the mire by the side of the mail, as the rest of the passengers did ; not because they had the least relish for walking exercise under the circumstances, but because the hill, and the harness, and the mud, and the mail were all so heavy, that the horses had three times already come to a stop.

With drooping heads and tremulous tails, they mashed their way through the thick mud, floundering and stumbling between-whiles as if they were falling to pieces at the larger joints. As often as the driver rested them and brought them to a stand with a wary “ Wo-ho! so-ho, then ! ’ ’ the near leader violently shook his head and everything upon it — like an unusually emphatic horse, denying that the coach could be got up the hill.

Two other passengers, besides the one, were plodding up the hill by the side of the mail. All three were wrapped to the cheek-bones and over the ears, and wore jack-boots. Not one of the three could have said, from anything he saw, what either of the other two was like. In those days travellers were very shy of being confidential on a short notice, for anybody on the road might be a robber , 1 or in league with robbers. As to the latter, when every posting-house and alehouse could produce somebody in “ the Captain’s ” pay, it was the likeliest thing upon the cards. So the guard of the Dover mail thought to himself, that Friday night in November, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, lumbering up Shooter’s Hill, as he stood on his own particular perch behind the mail, beating his feet, and keeping an eye and a hand on the arm-chest before him, where a loaded blunderbuss 2 lay at the top of six or eight loaded horse-pistols, deposited on a subslratum 3 of cutlass.

The Dover mail was in its usual genial position that the guards suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected one another and the guard, and the coachman w r as sure of nothing but the horses; as to which cattle he could w r ith a clear conscience have taken his oath on the two Testaments that they were not fit for the journey.