It was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for the

sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them. It was nothing

to her, that his wife was to be made a widow and his daughter an

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orphan; that was insufficient punishment, because they were her

natural enemies and her prey, and as such had no right to live. To

appeal to her, was made hopeless by her having no sense of pity,

even for herself, If she had been laid low in the streets, in any of

the many encounters in which she had been engaged, she would

not have pitied herself; nor, if she had been ordered to the axe

tomorrow, would she have gone to it with any softer feeling than a

fierce desire to change places with the man who sent her there.

Such a heart Madame Defarge carried under her rough robe.

Carelessly worn, it was a becoming robe enough, in a certain

weird way, and her dark hair looked rich under her coarse red

cap. Lying hidden in her bosom, was a loaded pistol. Lying hidden

at her waist, was a sharpened dagger. Thus accoutred, and

walking with the confident tread of such a character, and with the

supple freedom of a woman who had habitually walked in her

girlhood, bare-foot and bare-legged, on the brown sea sand,

Madame Defarge took her way along the streets, Now, when the

journey of the travelling coach, at that very moment waiting for

the completion of its load, had been planned out last night, the

difficulty of taking Miss Pross in it had much engaged Mr. Lorry’s

attention. It was not merely desirable to avoid overloading the

coach, but it was of the highest importance that the time occupied

in examining it and its passengers, should be reduced to the

utmost; since their escape might depend on the saving of only a

few seconds here and there. Finally, he had proposed, after

anxious consideration, that Miss Pross and Jerry, who were at

liberty to leave the city, should leave it at three o’clock in the

lightest-wheeled conveyance known to that period.

Unencumbered with luggage, they would soon overtake the coach,

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and, passing it and preceding it on the road, would order its horses

in advance, and greatly facilitate its progress during the precious

hours of the night, when delay was the most to be dreaded.

Seeing in this arrangement the hope of rendering real service

in that pressing emergency, Miss Pross hailed it with joy. She and

Jerry had beheld the coach start, had known who it was that

Solomon brought, had passed some ten minutes in tortures of

suspense, and were now concluding their arrangements to follow

the coach, even as Madame Defarge, taking her way through the

streets, now drew nearer and nearer to the else-deserted lodging

in which they held their consultation.

“Now what do you think, Mr. Cruncher,” said Miss Pross,

whose agitation was so great that she could hardly speak, or stand,

or move, or live: “what do you think of our not starting from this

court-yard? Another carriage having already gone from here

today, it might awaken suspicion.”