Page 68 - A Tale of Two Cities

There was something about the way Carton spoke that stopped
A Tale of Two Cities
the prisoner from arguing or questioning him. When he was dressed
as his friend had asked, Carton put a pen and paper in front of him
on the table, and said, ‘Now write what I tell you.’

Putting his hand to his puzzled head, Charles wrote the words
that Carton said to him: ‘I believe that you will remember the words
that passed between us long ago, and understand this when you see
it. I am thankful that the time has come when I can prove them.’
As Carton spoke, his hand moved down close to Charles’s face.
Charles dropped the pen and looked around confused. ‘What smell
is that?’
‘Nothing,’ said Carton, but as he said it, he put a cloth that he
held in his hand against Charles’s nose. He had poured the liquids
from the chemist’s packets onto the cloth, and they quickly began to
do their work.
For a few moments, Charles fought with the man who had
come to lay down his life for him, but soon he fell to the ground,
unconscious.
Carton quickly put on Charles’s clothes. He took the paper that
he had written and put it in the unconscious man’s pocket, and then
went to the door of the cell and called softly, ‘Come in!’
‘You see?’ he said to Barsad, when the spy appeared. ‘In his
clothes, I look just like him. Now call your men. Say that Carton was
weak when he came in, and has fainted.’
‘You promise that you will say nothing about me to the guards?’
said Barsad.

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