登陆注册
3554300000095

第95章 BOOK THE THIRD:THE TRACK OF A STORM(10)

Greater things than the Doctor had at that time to contend with,would have yielded before his persevering purpose. While he kept himself in his place,as a physician,whose business was withall degrees of mankind,bond and free,rich and poor,bad and good,he used his personal influence so wisely,that he was soon the inspecting physician of three prisons,and among them of La Force.He could now assure Lucie that her husband was no longer confined alone,but was mixed with the general body of prisoners;he saw her husband weekly,and brought sweet messages to her,straight from his lips;sometimes her husband himself sent a letter to her(though never by the Doctor's hand),but she was not permitted to write to him:for,among the many wild suspicions of plots in the prisons,the wildest of all pointed at emigrants who were known to have made friends or permanent connections abroad.

This new life of the Doctor's was an anxious life,no doubt;still,the sagacious Mr. Lorry saw that there was a new sustaining pride in it.Nothing unbecoming tinged the pride;it was a natural and worthy one;but he observed it as a curiosity.The Doctor knew,that up to that time,his imprisonment had been associated in the minds of his daughter and his friend,with his personal affliction,deprivation,and weakness.Now that this was changed,and he knew himself to be invested through that old trial with forces to which they both looked for Charles's ultimate safety and deliverance,he became so far exalted by the change,that he took the lead and direction,and required them as the weak,to trust to him as the strong.The preceding relative positions of himself and Lucie were reversed,yet only as the liveliest gratitude and affection could reverse them,for he could have had no pride but in rendering some service to her who had rendered so much to him.'All curious to see,'thought Mr.Lorry,in his amiably shrewd way,'but all natural and right;so,take the lead,my dear friend,and keep it;it couldn't be in better hands.'

But,though the Doctor tried hard,and never ceased trying,to get Charles Darnay set at liberty,or at least to get him brought to trial,the public current of the time set too strong and fast for him. The new era began;the king was tried,doomed and beheaded;the Republic of Liberty,Equality,Fraternity,or Death,declared for victory or death against the world in arms;the black flag waved night and day from the great towers of Notre Dame;three hundred thousand men,summoned to rise against the tyrants of the earth,rose from all the varying soils of France,as if the dragon's teeth had been sown broadcast,and had yielded fruit equally on hill and plain,on rock,in gravel,and alluvial mud,under the bright sky of the South and under the clouds of the North,in fell and forest,in the vineyards and the olive-grounds and among the cropped grass and the stubble of the corn,along the fruitful banks of the broad rivers,and in the sand of the seashore.What private solicitude could rear itself against the deluge of the Year One of Liberty—the deluge rising from below,not falling from above,and with the windows of Heaven shut,not opened!

There was no pause,no pity,no peace,no interval of relenting rest,no measurement of time. Though days and nights circled as regularly as when time was young,and the evening and morning were the first day,other count of time there was none.Hold of it was lost in the raging fever of a nation,as it is in the fever of one patient.Now,breaking the unnatural silence of a whole city,the executioner showed the people the head of the king—and now,it seemed almost in the same breath,the head of his fair wife which had had eight weary months of imprisoned widowhood andmisery,to turn it grey.

And yet,observing the strange law of contradiction which obtains in all such cases,the time was long,while it flamed by so fast. A revolutionary tribunal in the capital,and forty or fifty thousand revolutionary committees all over the land;a law of the Suspected,which struck away all security for liberty or life,and delivered over any good and innocent person to any bad and guilty one;prisons gorged with people who had committed no offence,and could obtain no hearing;these things became the established order and nature of appointed things,and seemed to be ancient usage before they were many weeks old.Above all,one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world—the figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine.

It was the popular theme for jests;it was the best cure for headache,it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey,it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion,it was the National Razor which shaved close:who kissed La Guillotine,looked through the window and sneezed into the sack. It was the sign of the regeneration of the human race.It superseded the Cross.Models of it were worn on breasts from which the Cross was discarded,and it was bowed down to and believed in where the Cross was denied.

It sheared off heads so many,that it,and the ground it most polluted,were a rotten red. It was taken to pieces,like a toy-puzzle for a young Devil,and was put together again when the occasion wanted it.It hushed the eloquent,struck down the powerful,abolished the beautiful and good.Twenty-two friends of high public mark,twenty-one living and one dead,it had lopped theheads off,in one morning,in as many minutes.The name of the strong man of Old Scripture had descended to the chief functionary who worked it;but,so armed,he was stronger than his namesake,and blinder,and tore away the gates of God's own Temple every day.

同类推荐
  • 法华经义疏

    法华经义疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 送王建秘书往渭南庄

    送王建秘书往渭南庄

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 秘藏通玄变化六阴洞微遁甲真经

    秘藏通玄变化六阴洞微遁甲真经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • El Verdugo

    El Verdugo

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 聪训斋语

    聪训斋语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 娇妃倾城

    娇妃倾城

    一个二十一世纪的女杀手一朝穿越,谋心谋权谋天下!俘虏了当朝最英俊的王爷,摆平了四下的乱臣贼子。当她一朝为妃时,且看那被俘虏的美豺狼如何为其争权夺势,打下天下!“樱陌,我要这天下,不过是予你最美的聘礼!”
  • 大学论·行为规范论

    大学论·行为规范论

    本书分六章,从生命的感悟、人际关系的相处、友情、爱情、学业、就业等方面引导大学生学会做人,对于提高大学生的思想道德水平,帮助大学生分辨是非,陶冶情操,吸取精神营养,获得真善美的启迪,树立正确的世界观、人生观、价值观、生命观、爱情观等具有重要的作用。
  • The Valley of the Moon

    The Valley of the Moon

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 木槿花西月锦绣(5):紫蕖连理帝王花

    木槿花西月锦绣(5):紫蕖连理帝王花

    宋明磊联合轩辕淑仪公主施计气死德宗,逼反了新太子,谋杀丽太妃,想挟太子世子轩辕楽登机,轩辕淑仪垂帘听政,他在背后号令天下,原非白早已识破他的计划,称机拥立原青江黄袍加身。原氏终于实现了十世的梦想,站到了天下至高处。木槿为解大理的疫症,同恢复记忆的兰生进入暗宫取金婵花,无意见得知了原氏与司马氏双生子诞,龙主九天的秘密……--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 惊世骇婚:神秘小娇妻

    惊世骇婚:神秘小娇妻

    一场预谋,她落入地狱,无法翻身。重逢之后,一场场无法侦破的案件,一条条冤死的生命,一具具腐烂的尸体,成了肉眼看不见的谜局。他是顶尖知名破案专家却破不了这命局,她是处在两个世界缝隙之人,却逃不过这因果。一只只不愿离去的鬼,徘徊在他们爱情的坟墓前。望着他们其中一人,尸骨未寒便坠入其中。因果循环,有因必有果,你造的孽,总要偿还。小心,这场婚礼是我的坟墓,也有可能是你的。小心,也许你的身后此刻正站着你的劫,和你的果。
  • 无限回档

    无限回档

    有的人活着,他转眼就死了。而有的人死了,他却能回档。本书又名《论主角在末世的各种扑街姿势》。
  • 混在捉鬼协会

    混在捉鬼协会

    人世间鬼怪纵横,为了抗击这些邪恶的东西,人类组建了神秘的组织,赵兴便加入了一个捉鬼协会,从而开始了他的传奇一生……
  • 王者归来绝傲公主

    王者归来绝傲公主

    她曾是先皇最疼爱的小公主,战场上消息传来却不知去向,同胞皇弟无奈替她瞒天过海。她女扮男装混军营,三年后边疆一位大将军无人不知无人不晓;又三年,曜王的军队战无不胜攻无不克。他是敌国的太子,邪魅的眼神是死神的呼唤,冷酷的话语无人反抗,厮杀的身姿是死神的镰刀。战场上无一败绩的他却接连多次被她戏弄,他发誓要她受尽百般酷刑方可出出尽心头气,在她失踪三年重新归来后……一次四国间交流,他当众以皇后之位求娶;而她双手作揖无所谓道,“皇兄,皇妹的王府还缺一个曜王妃……”
  • 青蛙与蛤蟆

    青蛙与蛤蟆

    寓言是一种古老而又经久不衰的文学体裁,它用比喻和讽刺等手法阐述哲理和智慧,虽篇幅简短,但意境深远,发人深省。寓言不仅给人以智慧的启迪,思想的醒悟,而且给人以美的享受;寓言是智慧之光,思想之灯,哲理之诗,道德之花,正义之剑,它宛若一颗光彩夺目的明珠闪耀于世界文学之林。
  • A Woman Run Mad