Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers

Help / FAQ



<- Previous | Table of Contents | Next ->
PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


206

would let them have in the winter, and such produce as could be
saved from the same grip in the summer-and no doubt he had put
the fact in plea and proof, for his own safety, so that it could not
but appear now.

This favoured the desperate resolution Charles Darnay had begun
to make, that he would go to Paris.

Yes. Like the mariner in the old story, the winds and streams had
driven him within the influence of the Loadstone Rock, and it was
drawing him to itself, and he must go. Everything that arose before
his mind drifted him on, faster and faster, more and more steadily,
to the terrible attraction. His latent uneasiness had been, that bad
aims were being worked out in his own unhappy land by bad
instruments, and that he who could not fail to know that he was
better than they, was not there, trying to do something to stay
bloodshed, and assert the claims of mercy and humanity. With this
uneasiness half stifled, and half reproaching him, be had been
brought to the pointed comparison of himself with the brave old
gentleman in whom duty was so strong; upon that comparison
(injurious to himself) had instantly followed the sneers of
Monseigneur, which had stung him bitterly, and those of Stryver,
which above all were coarse and galling, for old reasons.

Upon those, had followed Gabelle’s letter: the appeal of an
innocent prisoner, in danger of death, to his justice, honour, and
good name.

His resolution was made. He must go to Paris.
Yes. The Loadstone Rock was drawing him, and he must sail on,
until he struck. He knew of no rock; he saw hardly any danger.
The intention with which he had done what he had done, even
although he had left it incomplete, presented it before him in an
aspect that would be gratefully acknowledged in France on his
presenting himself to assert it. Then, that glorious vision of doing
good, which is so often the sanguine mirage of so many good
minds, arose before him, and he even saw himself in the illusion
with some influence to guide this raging Revolution that was
running so fearfully wild.

As he walked to and fro with his resolution made, he considered
that neither Lucie nor her father must know of it until he was gone.
Lucie should be spared the pain of separation; and her father,
always reluctant to turn his thoughts towards the dangerous
ground of old, should come to the knowledge of the step, as a step
taken, and not in the balance of suspense and doubt. How much of
the incompleteness of his situation was referable to her father,
through the painful anxiety to avoid reviving old associations of
<- Previous | Table of Contents | Next ->



All Contents Copyright © All rights reserved.
Further Distribution Is Strictly Prohibited.

About Us | Advertising | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Home Page


Search:
Keywords:
In Association with Amazon.com