Pagina 809 di 896

"As to thee," pursued madame, implacably, addressing her husband,

"if it depended on thee--which, happily, it does not--thou

wouldst rescue this man even now."

"No!" protested Defarge. "Not if to lift this glass would do it!

But I would leave the matter there. I say, stop there."

"See you then, Jacques," said Madame Defarge, wrathfully; "and

see you, too, my little Vengeance; see you both! Listen! For

other crimes as tyrants and oppressors, I have this race a long

time on my register, doomed to destruction and extermination. Ask

my husband, is that so."

"It is so," assented Defarge, without being asked.

"In the beginning of the great days, when the Bastille falls, he

finds this paper of to-day, and he brings it home, and in the

middle of the night when this place is clear and shut, we read

it, here on this spot, by the light of this lamp. Ask him, is

that so."

"It is so," assented Defarge.