Pagina 525 di 896

"See!" cried madame, pointing with her knife. "See the old

villain bound with ropes. That was well done to tie a bunch of

grass upon his back. Ha, ha! That was well done. Let him eat it

now!" Madame put her knife under her arm, and clapped her hands

as at a play.

The people immediately behind Madame Defarge, explaining the

cause of her satisfaction to those behind them, and those again

explaining to others, and those to others, the neighbouring

streets resounded with the clapping of hands. Similarly, during

two or three hours of drawl, and the winnowing of many bushels of

words, Madame Defarge's frequent expressions of impatience were

taken up, with marvellous quickness, at a distance: the more

readily, because certain men who had by some wonderful exercise

of agility climbed up the external architecture to look in from

the windows, knew Madame Defarge well, and acted as a telegraph

between her and the crowd outside the building.