Volume II, Chapter Fifteen – Knitting

We’re back in the wine shop for this chapter. Defarge introduces the mender of roads from the country. Defarge calls the man "Jacques." All the Jacques follow the mender of roads into the garret where Doctor Manette stayed when he was in Paris.

The mender of roads tells the men that, a year ago, he was working on the road when he saw the Marquis’ carriage pass by.  There was that a man was hanging off of the bottom of the carriage. Later, the Marquis asked the mender of roads what the man looked like. The mender recounts that he answered truthfully, saying that the man was tall as a ghost. The Jacques group scoffs at the honestly of the mender of roads.  They would have lied to the Marquis.

Later the next day, the mender of roads was working on roads again. While he was working, he saw the same stowaway. This time, however, the tall man was a prisoner. Six guards hauled him down the road in chains. Describing the way that the soldiers tortured the prisoner, the mender of roads finally says that the prisoner was sent to the jail.  After a few days, the prisoner was dragged into the village. The guards hanged him. The gallows was erected over the town well. Because official orders insisted that the body remain where it was hung, the town well is now polluted.

Defarge pauses for a second, then asks the Jacques group what they think. They agree that the perpetrators of this crime should be "registered" in their records as people who should be destroyed. Jacques Two pauses to ask if anyone will ever be able to steal the group’s register. Defarge scoffs. Madame Defarge keeps the register in her knitting. No one could decipher it, even if they knew what it was supposed to be. 

Defarge announces that the mender of roads plans to stay in Paris for a few days. Apparently he wants to see the King and Queen. The next day, the mender of roads and the Defarges head over to the royal procession. The mender cheers wildly as the King and Queen pass. Defarge mutters in Madame Defarge’s ear that this man is exactly the sort of peasant they need around. He’ll convince the King and Queen that their reign will last forever. That way, they’ll be all the more surprised when revolution comes.