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Charles Darnay felt it hopeless to entreat him further, and his

pride was touched besides. As they walked on in silence, he could

not but see how used the people were to the spectacle of

prisoners passing along the streets. The very children scarcely

noticed him. A few passers turned their heads, and a few shook

their fingers at him as an aristocrat; otherwise, that a man in

good clothes should be going to prison, was no more remarkable

than that a labourer in working clothes should be going to work.

In one narrow, dark, and dirty street through which they passed,

an excited orator, mounted on a stool, was addressing an excited

audience on the crimes against the people, of the king and the

royal family. The few words that he caught from this man's lips,

first made it known to Charles Darnay that the king was in

prison, and that the foreign ambassadors had one and all left

Paris. On the road (except at Beauvais) he had heard absolutely

nothing.