“Inform the Tribunal of what you did that day. within the
Bastille, citizen.”
“I knew,” said Defarge, looking down at his wife, who stood at
the bottom of the steps on which he was raised, looking steadily up
at him; “I knew that this prisoner, of whom I speak, had been
confined in a cell known as One Hundred and Five, North Tower.
I knew it from himself. He knew himself by no other name than
One Hundred and Five, North Tower, when he made shoes under
my care. As I serve my gun that day, I resolve, when the place
shall fall, to examine that cell. It falls. I mount to the cell, with a
fellow-citizen who is one of the Jury, directed by a gaoler. I
examine it, very closely. In a hole in the chimney, where a stone
has been worked out and replaced, I find a written paper. That is
that written paper. I have made it my business to examine some
specimens of the writing of Doctor Manette. This is the writing of
Doctor Manette. I confide this paper, in the writing of Doctor
Manette, to the hands of the President.”
“Let it be read.”
In the dead silence and stillnessthe prisoner under trial
looking lovingly at his wife, his wife only looking from him to look
with solicitude at her father, Doctor Manette keeping his eyes
fixed on the reader, Madame Defarge never taking hers from the
prisoner, Defarge never taking his from his feasting wife, and all
the other eyes there intent upon the Doctor, who saw none of
themthe paper was read as follows.
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
Chapter XL
THE SUBSTANCE OF THE SHADOW
“I
Alexandre Manette, unfortunate physician, native of
Beau