Heaven, and help us! Look out, look out, and see if we are
pursued.
The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us,
and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in
pursuit of us, but, so far, we are pursued by nothing else.
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
Chapter XLIV
THE KNITTING DONE
n that same juncture of time when the Fifty-Two awaited their
fate, Madame Defarge held darkly ominous council with The
Vengeance and Jacques Three of the Revolutionary Jury. Not
in the wine-shop did Madame Defarge confer with these ministers,
but in the shed of the wood-sawyer, erst a mender of roads. The
sawyer himself did not participate in the conference, but abided at
a little distance, like an outer satellite who was not to speak until
required, or to offer an opinion until invited.
“But our Defarge,” said Jacques Three, “is undoubtedly a good
Republican? Eh?”
“There is no better,” the voluble Vengeance protested in her
shrill notes, “in France.”
“Peace, little Vengeance,” said Madame Defarge, laying her
hand with a slight frown on her lieutenant’s lips, “hear me speak.
My husband, fellow-citizen, is a good Republican and a bold man;
he has deserved well of the Republic, and possesses its confidence.
But my husband has his weaknesses, and he is so weak as to relent
towards this Doctor.”
“It is a great pity,” croaked Jacques Three, dubiously shaking
his head, with his cruel fingers at his hungry mouth; “it is not
quite like a good citizen; it is a thing to regret.”
“See you,” said madame, “I care nothing for this Doctor, I. He
may wear