they were rapidly ordered to be put forth to be massacred, or to be

released, or (in a few cases) to be sent back to their cells. That,

presented by his conductors to this Tribunal, he had announced

himself by name and profession as having been for eighteen years

a secret and unaccused prisoner in the Bastille; that, one of the

body so sitting in judgment had risen and identified him, and that

this man was Defarge. That, hereupon he had ascertained,

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through the registers on the table, that his son-in-law was among

the living prisoners, and had pleaded hard to the Tribunalof

whom some members were asleep and some awake, some dirty

with murder and some clean, some sober and some notfor his

life and liberty. That, in the first frantic greetings lavished on

himself as a notable sufferer under the over-thrown system, it had

been accorded to him to have Charles Darnay brought before the

lawless Court, and examined. That, he seemed on the point of

being at once released, when the tide in his favour met with some

unexplained check (not intelligible to the Doctor), which led to a

few words of secret conference. That, the man sitting as President

had then informed Doctor Manette that the prisoner must remain

in custody, but should, for his sake, be held inviolate in safe

custody. That, immediately, on a signal, the prisoner was removed

to the interior of the prison again; but, that he, the Doctor, had

then so strongly pleaded for permission to remain and assure

himself that his son-in-law was, through no malice or mischance,

delivered to the concourse whose murderous yells outside the gate

had often drowned the proceedings, that he had obtained the

permission, and had remained in that Hall of Blood until the

danger was over.

The sights he had seen there, with brief snatches of food and

sleep by intervals, shall remain untold. The mad joy over the

prisoners who were saved, had astounded him scarcely less than

the mad ferocity against those who were cut to pieces. One

prisoner there was, he said, who had been discharged into the

street free, but at whom a mistaken savage had thrust a pike as he

passed out. Being besought to go to him and dress the wound, the

Doctor had passed out at the same gate, and found him in the

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arms of a company of Samaritans, who were seated on the bodies

of their victims. With an inconsistency as monstrous as anything in

this awful nightmare, they had helped the healer, and tended the

wounded man with the gentlest solicitudehad made a litter for

him and escorted him carefully from the spothad then caught up

their weapons and plunged anew into a butchery so dreadful, that

the Doctor had covered his eyes with his hands, and swooned

away in the midst of it.

As Mr. Lorry received these confidences, and as he watched the

face of his friend now sixty-two years of age, a misgiving arose

within him that such dreadful experiences would revive the old

danger. But, he had never seen his friend in his present aspect: he