Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers

Help / FAQ



<- Previous | Table of Contents | Next ->
PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


55

into quarters. That’s the sentence.” “If he’s found Guilty, you mean
to say?” Jerry added, by way of proviso.

“Oh! they’ll find him guilty,” said the other. “Don’t you be afraid
of that.” Mr. Cruncher’s attention was here diverted to the door-
keeper, whom he saw making his way to Mr. Lorry, with the note
in his hand. Mr. Lorry sat at a table, among the gentlemen in wigs:
not far from a wigged gentleman, the prisoner’s counsel, who had
a great bundle of papers before him: and nearly opposite another
wigged gentleman with his hands in his pockets, whose whole
attention, when Mr. Cruncher looked at him then or afterwards,
seemed to be concentrated on the ceiling of the court. After some
gruff coughing and rubbing of his chin and signing with his hand,
Jerry attracted the notice of Mr. Lorry, who had stood up to look
for him, and who quietly nodded and sat down again.

“What’s he got to do with the case?” asked the man he had spoken
with.

“Blest if I know,” said Jerry.
“What have you got to do with it, then, if a person may inquire?”
“Blest if I know that either,” said Jerry.

The entrance of the Judge, and a consequent great stir and settling
down in the court, stopped the dialogue. Presently, the dock
became the central point of in-terest. Two gaolers, who had been
standing there, went out, and the prisoner was brought in, and put
to the bar.

Everybody present, except the one wigged gentleman who looked
at the ceiling, stared at him. All the human breath in the place,
rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or a fire. Eager faces strained
round pillars and comers, to get a sight of him; spectators in back
rows stood up, not to miss a hair of him; people on the floor of the
court, laid their hands on the shoulders of the people before them,
to help themselves, at anybody’s cost, to a view of him-stood a-
tiptoe, got upon ledges, stood upon next to nothing, to see every
inch of him. Conspicuous among these latter, like an animated bit
of the spiked wall of Newgate, Jerry stood: aiming at the prisoner
the beery breath of a whet he had taken as he came along, and
discharging it to mingle with the waves of other beer, and gin, and
tea, and coffee, and what not, that flowed at him, and already
broke upon the great windows behind him in an impure mist and
rain.

The object of all this staring and blaring, was a young man of about
five-andtwenty, well-grown and well-looking, with a sunburnt
cheek and a dark eye. His condition was that of a young
gentleman. He was plainly dressed in black, or very dark grey, and
his hair, which was long and dark, was gathered in a ribbon at the
<- Previous | Table of Contents | Next ->



All Contents Copyright © All rights reserved.
Further Distribution Is Strictly Prohibited.

About Us | Advertising | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Home Page


Search:
Keywords:
In Association with Amazon.com