Previous - Next

asked for it. When I have yielded myself to it, I have been alone,
and then I have imagined them the footsteps of the people who are to
come into my life, and my father's."

"I take them into mine!" said Carton. "_I_ ask no questions and make
no stipulations. There is a great crowd bearing down upon us, Miss
Manette, and I see them--by the Lightning." He added the last words,
after there had been a vivid flash which had shown him lounging in
the window.

"And I hear them!" he added again, after a peal of thunder.
"Here they come, fast, fierce, and furious!"

It was the rush and roar of rain that he typified, and it stopped him,
for no voice could be heard in it. A memorable storm of thunder and
lightning broke with that sweep of water, and there was not a moment's
interval in crash, and fire, and rain, until after the moon rose at
midnight.

The great bell of Saint Paul's was striking one in the cleared air,
when Mr. Lorry, escorted by Jerry, high-booted and bearing a lantern,
set forth on his return-passage to Clerkenwell. There were solitary
patches of road on the way between Soho and Clerkenwell, and Mr. Lorry,
mindful of foot-pads, always retained Jerry for this service: though
it was usually performed a good two hours earlier.

"What a night it has been! Almost a night, Jerry," said Mr. Lorry,
"to bring the dead out of their graves."

"I never see the night myself, master--nor yet I don't expect
to--what would do that," answered Jerry.

"Good night, Mr. Carton," said the man of business. "Good night,
Mr. Darnay. Shall we ever see such a night again, together!"

Perhaps. Perhaps, see the great crowd of people with its rush and
roar, bearing down upon them, too.



VII

Monseigneur in Town


Monseigneur, one of the great lords in power at the Court, held his
fortnightly reception in his grand hotel in Paris. Monseigneur was
in his inner room, his sanctuary of sanctuaries, the Holiest of
Holiests to the crowd of worshippers in the suite of rooms without.
Monseigneur was about to take his chocolate. Monseigneur could
swallow a great many things with ease, and was by some few sullen
minds supposed to be rather rapidly swallowing France; but, his
morning's chocolate could not so much as get into the throat of
Monseigneur, without the aid of four strong men besides the Cook.

Yes. It took four men, all four ablaze with gorgeous decoration,
and the Chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold
watches in his pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion set
by Monseigneur, to conduct the happy chocolate to Monseigneur's lips.
One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence;
a second, milled and frothed the chocolate with the little instrument
he bore for that function; a third, presented the favoured napkin;
a fourth (he of the two gold watches), poured the chocolate out.
It was impossible for Monseigneur to dispense with one of these

Previous - Next