第852页 / 共896页

The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us,

and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in

pursuit of us; but, so far, we are pursued by nothing else.

CHAPTER XIV. The Knitting Done

In that same juncture of time when the Fifty-Two awaited their

fate Madame Defarge held darkly ominous council with The

Vengeance and Jacques Three of the Revolutionary Jury. Not in the

wine-shop did Madame Defarge confer with these ministers, but in

the shed of the wood-sawyer, erst a mender of roads. The sawyer

himself did not participate in the conference, but abided at a

little distance, like an outer satellite who was not to speak

until required, or to offer an opinion until invited.

"But our Defarge," said Jacques Three, "is undoubtedly a good

Republican? Eh?"

"There is no better," the voluble Vengeance protested in her

shrill notes, "in France."