Page 573 of 896

But, he had oppressed no man, he had imprisoned no man; he was so

far from having harshly exacted payment of his dues, that he had

relinquished them of his own will, thrown himself on a world with

no favour in it, won his own private place there, and earned his

own bread. Monsieur Gabelle had held the impoverished and

involved estate on written instructions, to spare the people, to

give them what little there was to give--such fuel as the heavy

creditors 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.