Page 56 - A Tale of Two Cities

Chapter 9
A Tale of Two Cities
‘President,’ he said. ‘This is not right. You know that the prisoner
is my daughter’s husband. He is dearer to me than my life. I have
never accused him!’

‘Nothing is dearer to any of our citizens than the laws of the
republic,’ said the president. ‘You must now hear these accusations.’

The doctor sat down, his lips trembling, and Lucie moved closer
to him.

When the crowd were quiet enough to hear him, Defarge stood
up and began to answer the president’s questions. He spoke of how
he had worked for the doctor when he was just a boy, and of how
Doctor Manette had come to live with him when he was freed from
prison.

‘Tell us what happened on the day when the Bastille was taken,
citizen,’ said the president.
‘I knew,’ said Defarge, ‘that the doctor had been imprisoned in

cell one hundred and five, North Tower. I had decided, on that day

at the Bastille, to find that cell and examine it. There, in a hole in the
chimney, I found some papers, written by Doctor Manette. I have
these here now for the court to hear.’

The president now asked one of his officers to come forward and
read the papers. Every pair of eyes in court turned on the doctor,

who saw none of them, and who stared at the officer as he read:
I, Alexandre Manette, write these papers in my cell in the Bastille
during the last month of the year 1767. I have been a prisoner here for ten
years now, and I have lost all hope of being freed. I do not think that my
mind will remain strong for much longer, so I am writing this now, while I
remember everything clearly.

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