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	<title>A Tale of Two Cities from Turtle Reader</title>
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		<title>A Tale of Two Cities - Day 98 of 141</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-98-of-150/</link>
		<comments>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-98-of-150/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TurtleReader</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[A Tale of Two Cities]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Charles Dickens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-98-of-150/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

     &#8220;Dearest,&#8211;Take courage.  I am well, and your father has
      influence around me.  You cannot answer this.
      Kiss our child for me.&#8221;

That was all the writing.  It was so much, however, to her who
received it, that she turned [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='lastday'>

<p>     &#8220;<strong class="capitals">Dearest</strong>,&#8211;Take courage.  I am well, and your father has
      influence around me.  You cannot answer this.
      Kiss our child for me.&#8221;</p>

<p>That was all the writing.  It was so much, however, to her who
received it, that she turned from Defarge to his wife, and kissed one
of the hands that knitted.  It was a passionate, loving, thankful,
womanly action, but the hand made no response&#8211;dropped cold and
heavy, and took to its knitting again.</p></div>

<p>There was something in its touch that gave Lucie a check.
She stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom, and,
with her hands yet at her neck, looked terrified at Madame Defarge.
Madame Defarge met the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a cold,
impassive stare.</p>

<p>&#8220;My dear,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry, striking in to explain; &#8220;there are
frequent risings in the streets; and, although it is not likely they
will ever trouble you, Madame Defarge wishes to see those whom she
has the power to protect at such times, to the end that she may know
them&#8211;that she may identify them.  I believe,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry,
rather halting in his reassuring words, as the stony manner of all
the three impressed itself upon him more and more, &#8220;I state the case,
Citizen Defarge?&#8221;</p>

<p>Defarge looked gloomily at his wife, and gave no other answer than a
gruff sound of acquiescence.</p>

<p>&#8220;You had better, Lucie,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry, doing all he could to
propitiate, by tone and manner, &#8220;have the dear child here, and our
good Pross.  Our good Pross, Defarge, is an English lady, and knows
no French.&#8221;</p>

<p>The lady in question, whose rooted conviction that she was more than
a match for any foreigner, was not to be shaken by distress and,
danger, appeared with folded arms, and observed in English to The
Vengeance, whom her eyes first encountered, &#8220;Well, I am sure, Boldface!
I hope <em>you</em> are pretty well!&#8221;  She also bestowed a British cough on
Madame Defarge; but, neither of the two took much heed of her.</p>

<p>&#8220;Is that his child?&#8221; said Madame Defarge, stopping in her work for
the first time, and pointing her knitting-needle at little Lucie as
if it were the finger of Fate.</p>

<p>&#8220;Yes, madame,&#8221; answered Mr. Lorry; &#8220;this is our poor prisoner&#8217;s
darling daughter, and only child.&#8221;</p>

<p>The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed to fall
so threatening and dark on the child, that her mother instinctively
kneeled on the ground beside her, and held her to her breast.  The
shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed then to fall,
threatening and dark, on both the mother and the child.</p>

<p>&#8220;It is enough, my husband,&#8221; said Madame Defarge.  &#8220;I have seen them.
We may go.&#8221;</p>

<p>But, the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it&#8211;not visible
and presented, but indistinct and withheld&#8211;to alarm Lucie into
saying, as she laid her appealing hand on Madame Defarge&#8217;s dress:</p>

<p>&#8220;You will be good to my poor husband.  You will do him no harm.
You will help me to see him if you can?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Your husband is not my business here,&#8221; returned Madame Defarge,
looking down at her with perfect composure.  &#8220;It is the daughter of
your father who is my business here.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;For my sake, then, be merciful to my husband.  For my child&#8217;s sake!
She will put her hands together and pray you to be merciful.  We are
more afraid of you than of these others.&#8221;</p>

<p>Madame Defarge received it as a compliment, and looked at her
husband.  Defarge, who had been uneasily biting his thumb-nail and
looking at her, collected his face into a sterner expression.</p>

<p>&#8220;What is it that your husband says in that little letter?&#8221;  asked
Madame Defarge, with a lowering smile.  &#8220;Influence; he says something
touching influence?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;That my father,&#8221; said Lucie, hurriedly taking the paper from her
breast, but with her alarmed eyes on her questioner and not on it,
&#8220;has much influence around him.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Surely it will release him!&#8221; said Madame Defarge.  &#8220;Let it do so.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;As a wife and mother,&#8221; cried Lucie, most earnestly, &#8220;I implore you
to have pity on me and not to exercise any power that you possess,
against my innocent husband, but to use it in his behalf.
O sister-woman, think of me.  As a wife and mother!&#8221;</p>

<p>Madame Defarge looked, coldly as ever, at the suppliant, and said,
turning to her friend The Vengeance:</p>

<p>&#8220;The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since we were as
little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly
considered?  We have known <em>their</em> husbands and fathers laid in prison
and kept from them, often enough?  All our lives, we have seen our
sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty,
nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression and neglect
of all kinds?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;We have seen nothing else,&#8221; returned The Vengeance.</p>

<p>&#8220;We have borne this a long time,&#8221; said Madame Defarge, turning her
eyes again upon Lucie.  &#8220;Judge you!  Is it likely that the trouble of
one wife and mother would be much to us now?&#8221;</p>

<p>She resumed her knitting and went out.  The Vengeance followed.
Defarge went last, and closed the door.</p>

<p>&#8220;Courage, my dear Lucie,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry, as he raised her.
&#8220;Courage, courage!  So far all goes well with us&#8211;much, much better
than it has of late gone with many poor souls.  Cheer up, and have a
thankful heart.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;I am not thankless, I hope, but that dreadful woman seems to throw a
shadow on me and on all my hopes.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Tut, tut!&#8221; said Mr. Lorry; &#8220;what is this despondency in the brave
little breast?  A shadow indeed!  No substance in it, Lucie.&#8221;</p>

<p>But the shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon himself,
for all that, and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Tale of Two Cities - Day 97 of 141</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-97-of-150/</link>
		<comments>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-97-of-150/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TurtleReader</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[A Tale of Two Cities]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Charles Dickens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-97-of-150/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

III: The Shadow

One of the first considerations which arose in the business mind of
Mr. Lorry when business hours came round, was this:&#8211;that he had no
right to imperil Tellson&#8217;s by sheltering the wife of an emigrant
prisoner under the Bank roof.  His own possessions, safety, life,
he would have hazarded for Lucie and her child, without a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[

<h3>III: The Shadow</h3>

<p>One of the first considerations which arose in the business mind of
Mr. Lorry when business hours came round, was this:&#8211;that he had no
right to imperil Tellson&#8217;s by sheltering the wife of an emigrant
prisoner under the Bank roof.  His own possessions, safety, life,
he would have hazarded for Lucie and her child, without a moment&#8217;s
demur; but the great trust he held was not his own, and as to that
business charge he was a strict man of business.</p>

<p>At first, his mind reverted to Defarge, and he thought of finding out
the wine-shop again and taking counsel with its master in reference
to the safest dwelling-place in the distracted state of the city.
But, the same consideration that suggested him, repudiated him; he
lived in the most violent Quarter, and doubtless was influential
there, and deep in its dangerous workings.</p>

<p>Noon coming, and the Doctor not returning, and every minute&#8217;s delay
tending to compromise Tellson&#8217;s, Mr. Lorry advised with Lucie.
She said that her father had spoken of hiring a lodging for a short
term, in that Quarter, near the Banking-house.  As there was no
business objection to this, and as he foresaw that even if it were
all well with Charles, and he were to be released, he could not hope
to leave the city, Mr. Lorry went out in quest of such a lodging, and
found a suitable one, high up in a removed by-street where the closed
blinds in all the other windows of a high melancholy square of buildings
marked deserted homes.</p>

<p>To this lodging he at once removed Lucie and her child, and Miss
Pross:  giving them what comfort he could, and much more than he had
himself.  He left Jerry with them, as a figure to fill a doorway that
would bear considerable knocking on the head, and retained to his own
occupations.  A disturbed and doleful mind he brought to bear upon them,
and slowly and heavily the day lagged on with him.</p>

<p>It wore itself out, and wore him out with it, until the Bank closed.
He was again alone in his room of the previous night, considering
what to do next, when he heard a foot upon the stair.  In a few
moments, a man stood in his presence, who, with a keenly observant
look at him, addressed him by his name.</p>

<p>&#8220;Your servant,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry.  &#8220;Do you know me?&#8221;</p>

<p>He was a strongly made man with dark curling hair, from forty-five to
fifty years of age.  For answer he repeated, without any change of
emphasis, the words:</p>

<p>&#8220;Do you know me?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;I have seen you somewhere.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Perhaps at my wine-shop?&#8221;</p>

<p>Much interested and agitated, Mr. Lorry said:  &#8220;You come from Doctor
Manette?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Yes.  I come from Doctor Manette.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;And what says he?  What does he send me?&#8221;</p>

<p>Defarge gave into his anxious hand, an open scrap of paper.  It bore
the words in the Doctor&#8217;s writing:</p>

<p>    &#8220;Charles is safe, but I cannot safely leave this place yet.
     I have obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note
     from Charles to his wife.  Let the bearer see his wife.&#8221;</p>

<p>It was dated from La Force, within an hour.</p>

<p>&#8220;Will you accompany me,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry, joyfully relieved after
reading this note aloud, &#8220;to where his wife resides?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; returned Defarge.</p>

<p>Scarcely noticing as yet, in what a curiously reserved and mechanical
way Defarge spoke, Mr. Lorry put on his hat and they went down into
the courtyard.  There, they found two women; one, knitting.</p>

<p>&#8220;Madame Defarge, surely!&#8221; said Mr. Lorry, who had left her in exactly
the same attitude some seventeen years ago.</p>

<p>&#8220;It is she,&#8221; observed her husband.</p>

<p>&#8220;Does Madame go with us?&#8221; inquired Mr. Lorry, seeing that she moved
as they moved.</p>

<p>&#8220;Yes.  That she may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons.
It is for their safety.&#8221;</p>

<p>Beginning to be struck by Defarge&#8217;s manner, Mr. Lorry looked
dubiously at him, and led the way.  Both the women followed; the
second woman being The Vengeance.</p>

<p>They passed through the intervening streets as quickly as they might,
ascended the staircase of the new domicile, were admitted by Jerry,
and found Lucie weeping, alone.  She was thrown into a transport by
the tidings Mr. Lorry gave her of her husband, and clasped the hand
that delivered his note&#8211;little thinking what it had been doing near
him in the night, and might, but for a chance, have done to him.</p>

<p>     &#8220;<strong class="capitals">Dearest</strong>,&#8211;Take courage.  I am well, and your father has
      influence around me.  You cannot answer this.
      Kiss our child for me.&#8221;</p>

<p>That was all the writing.  It was so much, however, to her who
received it, that she turned from Defarge to his wife, and kissed one
of the hands that knitted.  It was a passionate, loving, thankful,
womanly action, but the hand made no response&#8211;dropped cold and
heavy, and took to its knitting again.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Tale of Two Cities - Day 96 of 141</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-96-of-150/</link>
		<comments>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-96-of-150/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:44:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TurtleReader</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[A Tale of Two Cities]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Charles Dickens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-96-of-150/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

&#8220;Don&#8217;t look!&#8221; cried Mr. Lorry, absolutely desperate.  &#8220;No, Lucie, my
dear, nor you!&#8221;  He got his arm round her, and held her.  &#8220;Don&#8217;t be so
terrified, my love.  I solemnly swear to you that I know of no harm
having happened to Charles; that I had no suspicion even of his being
in this fatal [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='lastday'>

<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t look!&#8221; cried Mr. Lorry, absolutely desperate.  &#8220;No, Lucie, my
dear, nor you!&#8221;  He got his arm round her, and held her.  &#8220;Don&#8217;t be so
terrified, my love.  I solemnly swear to you that I know of no harm
having happened to Charles; that I had no suspicion even of his being
in this fatal place.  What prison is he in?&#8221;</p></div>

<p>&#8220;La Force!&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;La Force!  Lucie, my child, if ever you were brave and serviceable in
your life&#8211;and you were always both&#8211;you will compose yourself now,
to do exactly as I bid you; for more depends upon it than you can think,
or I can say.  There is no help for you in any action on your part
to-night; you cannot possibly stir out.  I say this, because what I
must bid you to do for Charles&#8217;s sake, is the hardest thing to do of all.
You must instantly be obedient, still, and quiet.  You must let me
put you in a room at the back here.  You must leave your father and
me alone for two minutes, and as there are Life and Death in the
world you must not delay.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;I will be submissive to you.  I see in your face that you know I can
do nothing else than this.  I know you are true.&#8221;</p>

<p>The old man kissed her, and hurried her into his room, and turned the
key; then, came hurrying back to the Doctor, and opened the window
and partly opened the blind, and put his hand upon the Doctor&#8217;s arm,
and looked out with him into the courtyard.</p>

<p>Looked out upon a throng of men and women:  not enough in number, or
near enough, to fill the courtyard:  not more than forty or fifty in
all.  The people in possession of the house had let them in at the
gate, and they had rushed in to work at the grindstone; it had
evidently been set up there for their purpose, as in a convenient and
retired spot.</p>

<p>But, such awful workers, and such awful work!</p>

<p>The grindstone had a double handle, and, turning at it madly were two
men, whose faces, as their long hair flapped back when the whirlings
of the grindstone brought their faces up, were more horrible and
cruel than the visages of the wildest savages in their most barbarous
disguise.  False eyebrows and false moustaches were stuck upon them,
and their hideous countenances were all bloody and sweaty, and all
awry with howling, and all staring and glaring with beastly
excitement and want of sleep.  As these ruffians turned and turned,
their matted locks now flung forward over their eyes, now flung
backward over their necks, some women held wine to their mouths that
they might drink; and what with dropping blood, and what with
dropping wine, and what with the stream of sparks struck out of the
stone, all their wicked atmosphere seemed gore and fire.  The eye
could not detect one creature in the group free from the smear of blood.
Shouldering one another to get next at the sharpening-stone, were men
stripped to the waist, with the stain all over their limbs and
bodies; men in all sorts of rags, with the stain upon those rags; men
devilishly set off with spoils of women&#8217;s lace and silk and ribbon,
with the stain dyeing those trifles through and through.  Hatchets,
knives, bayonets, swords, all brought to be sharpened, were all red
with it.  Some of the hacked swords were tied to the wrists of those
who carried them, with strips of linen and fragments of dress:
ligatures various in kind, but all deep of the one colour.  And as
the frantic wielders of these weapons snatched them from the stream
of sparks and tore away into the streets, the same red hue was red in
their frenzied eyes;&#8211;eyes which any unbrutalised beholder would have
given twenty years of life, to petrify with a well-directed gun.</p>

<p>All this was seen in a moment, as the vision of a drowning man, or of
any human creature at any very great pass, could see a world if it
were there.  They drew back from the window, and the Doctor looked
for explanation in his friend&#8217;s ashy face.</p>

<p>&#8220;They are,&#8221; Mr. Lorry whispered the words, glancing fearfully round
at the locked room, &#8220;murdering the prisoners.  If you are sure of
what you say; if you really have the power you think you have&#8211;as I
believe you have&#8211;make yourself known to these devils, and get taken
to La Force.  It may be too late, I don&#8217;t know, but let it not be a
minute later!&#8221;</p>

<p>Doctor Manette pressed his hand, hastened bareheaded out of the room,
and was in the courtyard when Mr. Lorry regained the blind.</p>

<p>His streaming white hair, his remarkable face, and the impetuous
confidence of his manner, as he put the weapons aside like water,
carried him in an instant to the heart of the concourse at the stone.
For a few moments there was a pause, and a hurry, and a murmur, and
the unintelligible sound of his voice; and then Mr. Lorry saw him,
surrounded by all, and in the midst of a line of twenty men long, all
linked shoulder to shoulder, and hand to shoulder, hurried out with
cries of&#8211;&#8220;Live the Bastille prisoner!  Help for the Bastille
prisoner&#8217;s kindred in La Force!  Room for the Bastille prisoner in
front there!  Save the prisoner Evremonde at La Force!&#8221; and a thousand
answering shouts.</p>

<p>He closed the lattice again with a fluttering heart, closed the
window and the curtain, hastened to Lucie, and told her that her
father was assisted by the people, and gone in search of her husband.
He found her child and Miss Pross with her; but, it never occurred to
him to be surprised by their appearance until a long time afterwards,
when he sat watching them in such quiet as the night knew.</p>

<p>Lucie had, by that time, fallen into a stupor on the floor at his feet,
clinging to his hand.  Miss Pross had laid the child down on his own bed,
and her head had gradually fallen on the pillow beside her pretty charge.
O the long, long night, with the moans of the poor wife!  And O the long,
long night, with no return of her father and no tidings!</p>

<p>Twice more in the darkness the bell at the great gate sounded,
and the irruption was repeated, and the grindstone whirled and
spluttered.  &#8220;What is it?&#8221; cried Lucie, affrighted.  &#8220;Hush!  The
soldiers&#8217; swords are sharpened there,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry.  &#8220;The place
is national property now, and used as a kind of armoury, my love.&#8221;</p>

<p>Twice more in all; but, the last spell of work was feeble and fitful.
Soon afterwards the day began to dawn, and he softly detached himself
from the clasping hand, and cautiously looked out again.  A man, so
besmeared that he might have been a sorely wounded soldier creeping
back to consciousness on a field of slain, was rising from the
pavement by the side of the grindstone, and looking about him with a
vacant air.  Shortly, this worn-out murderer descried in the imperfect
light one of the carriages of Monseigneur, and, staggering to that
gorgeous vehicle, climbed in at the door, and shut himself up to take
his rest on its dainty cushions.</p>

<p>The great grindstone, Earth, had turned when Mr. Lorry looked out again,
and the sun was red on the courtyard.  But, the lesser grindstone
stood alone there in the calm morning air, with a red upon it that
the sun had never given, and would never take away.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Tale of Two Cities - Day 95 of 141</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-95-of-150/</link>
		<comments>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-95-of-150/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:44:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TurtleReader</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[A Tale of Two Cities]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Charles Dickens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-95-of-150/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

II: The Grindstone

Tellson&#8217;s Bank, established in the Saint Germain Quarter of Paris,
was in a wing of a large house, approached by a courtyard and shut
off from the street by a high wall and a strong gate.  The house
belonged to a great nobleman who had lived in it until he made a
flight from the troubles, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[

<h3>II: The Grindstone</h3>

<p>Tellson&#8217;s Bank, established in the Saint Germain Quarter of Paris,
was in a wing of a large house, approached by a courtyard and shut
off from the street by a high wall and a strong gate.  The house
belonged to a great nobleman who had lived in it until he made a
flight from the troubles, in his own cook&#8217;s dress, and got across the
borders.  A mere beast of the chase flying from hunters, he was still
in his metempsychosis no other than the same Monseigneur, the
preparation of whose chocolate for whose lips had once occupied three
strong men besides the cook in question.</p>

<p>Monseigneur gone, and the three strong men absolving themselves from
the sin of having drawn his high wages, by being more than ready and
willing to cut his throat on the altar of the dawning Republic one and
indivisible of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, Monseigneur&#8217;s
house had been first sequestrated, and then confiscated.  For, all
things moved so fast, and decree followed decree with that fierce
precipitation, that now upon the third night of the autumn month of
September, patriot emissaries of the law were in possession of
Monseigneur&#8217;s house, and had marked it with the tri-colour, and were
drinking brandy in its state apartments.</p>

<p>A place of business in London like Tellson&#8217;s place of business in
Paris, would soon have driven the House out of its mind and into the
Gazette.  For, what would staid British responsibility and
respectability have said to orange-trees in boxes in a Bank courtyard,
and even to a Cupid over the counter?  Yet such things were.
Tellson&#8217;s had whitewashed the Cupid, but he was still to be seen on
the ceiling, in the coolest linen, aiming (as he very often does) at
money from morning to night.  Bankruptcy must inevitably have come of
this young Pagan, in Lombard-street, London, and also of a curtained
alcove in the rear of the immortal boy, and also of a looking-glass
let into the wall, and also of clerks not at all old, who danced in
public on the slightest provocation.  Yet, a French Tellson&#8217;s could
get on with these things exceedingly well, and, as long as the times
held together, no man had taken fright at them, and drawn out his money.</p>

<p>What money would be drawn out of Tellson&#8217;s henceforth, and what would
lie there, lost and forgotten; what plate and jewels would tarnish in
Tellson&#8217;s hiding-places, while the depositors rusted in prisons, and
when they should have violently perished; how many accounts with
Tellson&#8217;s never to be balanced in this world, must be carried over
into the next; no man could have said, that night, any more than
Mr. Jarvis Lorry could, though he thought heavily of these questions.
He sat by a newly-lighted wood fire (the blighted and unfruitful year
was prematurely cold), and on his honest and courageous face there
was a deeper shade than the pendent lamp could throw, or any object
in the room distortedly reflect&#8211;a shade of horror.</p>

<p>He occupied rooms in the Bank, in his fidelity to the House of which
he had grown to be a part, like strong root-ivy.  It chanced that they
derived a kind of security from the patriotic occupation of the main
building, but the true-hearted old gentleman never calculated about
that.  All such circumstances were indifferent to him, so that he did
his duty.  On the opposite side of the courtyard, under a colonnade,
was extensive standing&#8211;for carriages&#8211;where, indeed, some carriages
of Monseigneur yet stood.  Against two of the pillars were fastened
two great flaring flambeaux, and in the light of these, standing out
in the open air, was a large grindstone:  a roughly mounted thing
which appeared to have hurriedly been brought there from some
neighbouring smithy, or other workshop.  Rising and looking out of
window at these harmless objects, Mr. Lorry shivered, and retired to
his seat by the fire.  He had opened, not only the glass window, but
the lattice blind outside it, and he had closed both again, and he
shivered through his frame.</p>

<p>From the streets beyond the high wall and the strong gate, there came
the usual night hum of the city, with now and then an indescribable
ring in it, weird and unearthly, as if some unwonted sounds of a
terrible nature were going up to Heaven.</p>

<p>&#8220;Thank God,&#8221; said Mr. Lorry, clasping his hands, &#8220;that no one near
and dear to me is in this dreadful town to-night.  May He have mercy
on all who are in danger!&#8221;</p>

<p>Soon afterwards, the bell at the great gate sounded, and he thought,
&#8220;They have come back!&#8221; and sat listening.  But, there was no loud
irruption into the courtyard, as he had expected, and he heard the
gate clash again, and all was quiet.</p>

<p>The nervousness and dread that were upon him inspired that vague
uneasiness respecting the Bank, which a great change would naturally
awaken, with such feelings roused.  It was well guarded, and he got
up to go among the trusty people who were watching it, when his door
suddenly opened, and two figures rushed in, at sight of which he fell
back in amazement.</p>

<p>Lucie and her father!  Lucie with her arms stretched out to him, and
with that old look of earnestness so concentrated and intensified,
that it seemed as though it had been stamped upon her face expressly
to give force and power to it in this one passage of her life.</p>

<p>&#8220;What is this?&#8221; cried Mr. Lorry, breathless and confused.
&#8220;What is the matter?  Lucie!  Manette!  What has happened?  What has
brought you here?  What is it?&#8221;</p>

<p>With the look fixed upon him, in her paleness and wildness,
she panted out in his arms, imploringly, &#8220;O my dear friend!
My husband!&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Your husband, Lucie?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Charles.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;What of Charles?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Here.</p>

<p>&#8220;Here, in Paris?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Has been here some days&#8211;three or four&#8211;I don&#8217;t know how many&#8211;I can&#8217;t collect my thoughts.  An errand of generosity brought him
here unknown to us; he was stopped at the barrier, and sent to prison.&#8221;</p>

<p>The old man uttered an irrepressible cry.  Almost at the same moment,
the beg of the great gate rang again, and a loud noise of feet and
voices came pouring into the courtyard.</p>

<p>&#8220;What is that noise?&#8221; said the Doctor, turning towards the window.</p>

<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t look!&#8221; cried Mr. Lorry.  &#8220;Don&#8217;t look out!  Manette,
for your life, don&#8217;t touch the blind!&#8221;</p>

<p>The Doctor turned, with his hand upon the fastening of the window,
and said, with a cool, bold smile:</p>

<p>&#8220;My dear friend, I have a charmed life in this city.  I have been a
Bastille prisoner.  There is no patriot in Paris&#8211;in Paris?  In
France&#8211;who, knowing me to have been a prisoner in the Bastille,
would touch me, except to overwhelm me with embraces, or carry me in
triumph.  My old pain has given me a power that has brought us
through the barrier, and gained us news of Charles there, and brought
us here.  I knew it would be so; I knew I could help Charles out of
all danger; I told Lucie so.&#8211;What is that noise?&#8221;  His hand was again
upon the window.</p>

<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t look!&#8221; cried Mr. Lorry, absolutely desperate.  &#8220;No, Lucie, my
dear, nor you!&#8221;  He got his arm round her, and held her.  &#8220;Don&#8217;t be so
terrified, my love.  I solemnly swear to you that I know of no harm
having happened to Charles; that I had no suspicion even of his being
in this fatal place.  What prison is he in?&#8221;</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>A Tale of Two Cities - Day 94 of 141</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-94-of-150/</link>
		<comments>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-94-of-150/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:44:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TurtleReader</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[A Tale of Two Cities]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Charles Dickens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/a-tale-of-two-cities-day-94-of-150/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

A man with a bloated face opened the strong wicket, to whom Defarge
presented &#8220;The Emigrant Evremonde.&#8221;

&#8220;What the Devil!  How many more of them!&#8221; exclaimed the man with
the bloated face.

Defarge took his receipt without noticing the exclamation,
and withdrew, with his two fellow-patriots.

&#8220;What the Devil, I say again!&#8221; exclaimed the gaoler, left with his wife.
&#8220;How many [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='lastday'>

<p>A man with a bloated face opened the strong wicket, to whom Defarge
presented &#8220;The Emigrant Evremonde.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;What the Devil!  How many more of them!&#8221; exclaimed the man with
the bloated face.</p>

<p>Defarge took his receipt without noticing the exclamation,
and withdrew, with his two fellow-patriots.</p>

<p>&#8220;What the Devil, I say again!&#8221; exclaimed the gaoler, left with his wife.
&#8220;How many more!&#8221;</p>

<p>The gaoler&#8217;s wife, being provided with no answer to the question,
merely replied, &#8220;One must have patience, my dear!&#8221;  Three turnkeys who
entered responsive to a bell she rang, echoed the sentiment, and one
added, &#8220;For the love of Liberty;&#8221; which sounded in that place like an
inappropriate conclusion.</p></div>

<p>The prison of La Force was a gloomy prison, dark and filthy, and with
a horrible smell of foul sleep in it.  Extraordinary how soon the
noisome flavour of imprisoned sleep, becomes manifest in all such
places that are ill cared for!</p>

<p>&#8220;In secret, too,&#8221; grumbled the gaoler, looking at the written paper.
&#8220;As if I was not already full to bursting!&#8221;</p>

<p>He stuck the paper on a file, in an ill-humour, and Charles Darnay
awaited his further pleasure for half an hour:  sometimes, pacing to
and fro in the strong arched room:  sometimes, resting on a stone seat:
in either case detained to be imprinted on the memory of the chief
and his subordinates.</p>

<p>&#8220;Come!&#8221; said the chief, at length taking up his keys, &#8220;come with me,
emigrant.&#8221;</p>

<p>Through the dismal prison twilight, his new charge accompanied him by
corridor and staircase, many doors clanging and locking behind them,
until they came into a large, low, vaulted chamber, crowded with
prisoners of both sexes.  The women were seated at a long table,
reading and writing, knitting, sewing, and embroidering; the men were
for the most part standing behind their chairs, or lingering up and
down the room.</p>

<p>In the instinctive association of prisoners with shameful crime and
disgrace, the new-comer recoiled from this company.  But the crowning
unreality of his long unreal ride, was, their all at once rising to
receive him, with every refinement of manner known to the time, and
with all the engaging graces and courtesies of life.</p>

<p>So strangely clouded were these refinements by the prison manners and
gloom, so spectral did they become in the inappropriate squalor and
misery through which they were seen, that Charles Darnay seemed to
stand in a company of the dead.  Ghosts all!  The ghost of beauty,
the ghost of stateliness, the ghost of elegance, the ghost of pride,
the ghost of frivolity, the ghost of wit, the ghost of youth, the
ghost of age, all waiting their dismissal from the desolate shore,
all turning on him eyes that were changed by the death they had died
in coming there.</p>

<p>It struck him motionless.  The gaoler standing at his side, and the
other gaolers moving about, who would have been well enough as to
appearance in the ordinary exercise of their functions, looked so
extravagantly coarse contrasted with sorrowing mothers and blooming
daughters who were there&#8211;with the apparitions of the coquette,
the young beauty, and the mature woman delicately bred&#8211;that the
inversion of all experience and likelihood which the scene of shadows
presented, was heightened to its utmost.  Surely, ghosts all.
Surely, the long unreal ride some progress of disease that had
brought him to these gloomy shades!</p>

<p>&#8220;In the name of the assembled companions in misfortune,&#8221; said a
gentleman of courtly appearance and address, coming forward,
&#8220;I have the honour of giving you welcome to La Force, and of
condoling with you on the calamity that has brought you among us.
May it soon terminate happily!  It would be an impertinence elsewhere,
but it is not so here, to ask your name and condition?&#8221;</p>

<p>Charles Darnay roused himself, and gave the required information,
in words as suitable as he could find.</p>

<p>&#8220;But I hope,&#8221; said the gentleman, following the chief gaoler with his
eyes, who moved across the room, &#8220;that you are not in secret?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;I do not understand the meaning of the term, but I have heard them
say so.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Ah, what a pity!  We so much regret it!  But take courage; several
members of our society have been in secret, at first, and it has
lasted but a short time.&#8221;  Then he added, raising his voice,
&#8220;I grieve to inform the society&#8211;in secret.&#8221;</p>

<p>There was a murmur of commiseration as Charles Darnay crossed the
room to a grated door where the gaoler awaited him, and many
voices&#8211;among which, the soft and compassionate voices of women were
conspicuous&#8211;gave him good wishes and encouragement.  He turned at
the grated door, to render the thanks of his heart; it closed under
the gaoler&#8217;s hand; and the apparitions vanished from his sight forever.</p>

<p>The wicket opened on a stone staircase, leading upward.  When they
had ascended forty steps (the prisoner of half an hour already
counted them), the gaoler opened a low black door, and they passed
into a solitary cell.  It struck cold and damp, but was not dark.</p>

<p>&#8220;Yours,&#8221; said the gaoler.</p>

<p>&#8220;Why am I confined alone?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;How do I know!&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;I can buy pen, ink, and paper?&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Such are not my orders.  You will be visited, and can ask then.
At present, you may buy your food, and nothing more.&#8221;</p>

<p>There were in the cell, a chair, a table, and a straw mattress.
As the gaoler made a general inspection of these objects, and of the
four walls, before going out, a wandering fancy wandered through the
mind of the prisoner leaning against the wall opposite to him, that
this gaoler was so unwholesomely bloated, both in face and person,
as to look like a man who had been drowned and filled with water.
When the gaoler was gone, he thought in the same wandering way,
&#8220;Now am I left, as if I were dead.&#8221;  Stopping then, to look down at
the mattress, he turned from it with a sick feeling, and thought,
&#8220;And here in these crawling creatures is the first condition of the
body after death.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Five paces by four and a half, five paces by four and a half, five
paces by four and a half.&#8221;  The prisoner walked to and fro in his
cell, counting its measurement, and the roar of the city arose like
muffled drums with a wild swell of voices added to them.  &#8220;He made
shoes, he made shoes, he made shoes.&#8221;  The prisoner counted the
measurement again, and paced faster, to draw his mind with him from
that latter repetition.  &#8220;The ghosts that vanished when the wicket
closed.  There was one among them, the appearance of a lady dressed
in black, who was leaning in the embrasure of a window, and she had a
light shining upon her golden hair, and she looked like * * * * Let
us ride on again, for God&#8217;s sake, through the illuminated villages
with the people all awake! * * * * He made shoes, he made shoes,
he made shoes. * * * * Five paces by four and a half.&#8221;  With such scraps
tossing and rolling upward from the depths of his mind, the prisoner
walked faster and faster, obstinately counting and counting; and the
roar of the city changed to this extent&#8211;that it still rolled in like
muffled drums, but with the wail of voices that he knew, in the swell
that rose above them.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Classic Horror and Lawrence of Arabia</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/news/classic-horror-and-lawrence-of-arabia/</link>
		<comments>http://www.turtlereader.com/news/classic-horror-and-lawrence-of-arabia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:08:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ScottS-M</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[arabia]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Dracula]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Frankenstein]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[horror]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[lawrence]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[monster]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[vampire]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.turtlereader.com/?p=8002</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Bram Stoker&#8217;s Dracula and Mary Shelley&#8217;s Frankenstein. Getting in the Halloween spirit a bit early I guess. Coincidentally both stories start written in the form of correspondence. (Also in the Halloween vein don&#8217;t forget Lovecraft&#8217;s Cthulu stories)
T. E. Lawrence&#8217;s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I just watched the movie Lawrence of Arabia and enjoyed it so [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<ul>
<li>Bram Stoker&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/bram-stoker/dracula-day-1-of-140/">Dracula</a> and Mary Shelley&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/mary-shelley/frankenstein-day-1-of-67/">Frankenstein</a>. Getting in the Halloween spirit a bit early I guess. Coincidentally both stories start written in the form of correspondence. (Also in the Halloween vein don&#8217;t forget <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/h-p-lovecraft/collected-stories-part-1-day-1-of-277/">Lovecraft</a>&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/h-p-lovecraft/collected-stories-part-2-day-1-of-274/">Cthulu</a> stories)</li>
<li>T. E. Lawrence&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/te-lawrence/seven-pillars-of-wisdom-day-1-of-240/">Seven Pillars of Wisdom</a>. I just watched the movie Lawrence of Arabia and enjoyed it so I was interested when I heard it was based on an autobiography. Hopefully it&#8217;s interesting. The dedication certainly is mysterious.</li>
</ul>]]></content:encoded>
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