Book II, Chapter Twenty-Three – Fire Rises

Back in the French countryside It’s just about as dismal as when we left it: there’s no food, the crops are withered, and the people are in about the same condition as the crops. Despite this, things seem to have changed somehow. Our old friend, the mender of roads, is out mending roads.

A man walks up to him, greets him as Jacques, and the two sit down to eat together. The mender of roads asks if it’s happening tonight. What? What’s happening? The traveler wants to take a nap. He asks the mender of roads to wake him at sunset. 

Later that night, the chateau on the hill begins to burn. Vast clouds of smoke and flame can be seen from the town. Monsieur Gabelle, the guy who’s in charge of the town, awakens to find a rider at his door. The chateau burns. 

After the blazes die down a little bit, folks start to remember that the Marquis wasn’t the only aristocrat in town. Gabelle was the one who collected the Marquis’ taxes. OK, so he’s not really an aristocrat. But he’s close enough, isn’t he? People start to beat down Gabelle’s door. As night descends, we leave Gabelle praying that he won’t get strung up on a pike.

Book II, Chapter Twenty-Two – The Sea Still Rises

A week after the Storming of the Bastille, Madame Defarge sits at the counter of her shop. Another woman, the short, plump wife of the grocer, sits with her. In the past week, this woman has taken on a new name: she’s now called "The Vengeance." 

Defarge says that Foulon, an old aristocrat who once told the peasants that they could eat grass, has been imprisoned. He’s on his way to Paris now, escorted by a revolutionary guard. Madame Defarge grabs her knife. The Vengeance begins to shriek. Soon an entire crowd has gathered outside the house where Foulon has been taken. Madame Defarge rushes into the house to see the old man bound up in ropes. She begins to clap as if she’s just seen a great play. Defarge rushes up to Foulon and "folds him in a deadly embrace." I’m guessing that means he kills the guy. Madame Defarge tries to strangle him with his ropes. They begin to stuff the dead man’s pockets with grass. Once his head and heart are set on pikes, however, the crowd begins to disperse.

Book II, Chapter Twenty-One – Echoing Footsteps

The years pass. Lucie has a baby girl. She’s also named Lucie. She also has a small baby boy who dies when he’s just a few years old. Surprisingly, Sydney Carton has become a much-loved uncle to the children. When Lucie’s son dies, his last words are about Sydney. He asks his mother and sister to give Sydney a kiss for him.

Stryver, our least favorite lawyer, has gotten richer and fatter as the years have passed. He marries a rich, pudgy wife. They have three chubby, annoying children. Stryver wants Charles to tutor his kids. Unsurprisingly, Charles declines to do so. 

Throughout this whole time, Lucie’s been the angel in the Manette house. She manages to be everywhere all the time and helps everybody all the time. By the time little Lucie gets to be six, things in the Manette house have adjusted into smooth, well-ordered happiness. 

Things in France, however, aren’t going so swimmingly. The footsteps which sound in Saint Antoine are fast and furious. They race through the night, gathering weapons and spreading news. Defarge’s wine shop remains the center of all the revolutionary activity. They storm the Bastille.

Defarge grabs a man in the prison and demands to be shown to the North Tower. He heads up the stairs to cell One Hundred and Five. Once in the cell, he asks Jacques Three to run a torch along the wall. Sure enough, he eventually finds the initials "A. M." etched in the wall. A.M. stands for Alexandre Manette. That’s Doctor Manette to us. Defarge suddenly orders the men with him to rip apart the room. He’s looking for something… Eventually, he orders the men to set all the fragments of furniture on fire.

Book II, Chapter Twenty – A Plea

The first person to visit Lucie and Charles after they get married is Sydney Carton. He surprises Charles when Sydney makes a rather strange request: he wants to be Charles’ friend. He wants to be able to pop over to their house without any warning, just like an old family friend would. Charles agrees to be friends. That doesn’t mean, however, that he has to like it.

Later in the day, he grumbles to Lucie about Carton’s strange request. Astonishingly, Lucie gets a bit angry at him for saying mean things about Carton. She tells Charles to remember that they’re very, very happy together – and that Carton is very, very unhappy. It just doesn’t seem fair. The two newlyweds agree to always be kind to poor old Sydney.

Book II, Chapter Nineteen – An Opinion

It’s the tenth day after Lucie’s wedding. Mr. Lorry enters the doctor’s bedroom and finds the doctor sitting by his window, reading. He’s a bit pale,  but otherwise he seems to be completely back to normal. 

 Mr. Lorry tells Dr. Manette that he needs an expert’s opinion in a hypothetical case. Asking the doctor how good friends should deal with the case of a man who relapsed for nine days. The doctor doesn’t remember anything. He quickly catches on to Mr. Lorry’s ruse; finally, he asks if the daughter of this hypothetical man has been told of his illness. When Mr. Lorry says that the daughter hasn’t been told of her father’s condition, Dr. Manette breathes a huge sigh of relief.

He finally says that the man had probably been anticipating some dreadful information. When it finally came, his mind crumbled entirely. Surprised, Mr. Lorry asks what the information was. The doctor, of course, can’t say. After all, it’s a hypothetical case. He does reassure Mr. Lorry that another relapse seems highly unlikely.

Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross have come up with a plan. Mr. Lorry gently tells the doctor that the case they’d been discussing also involved some tools. Lorry asks if it wouldn’t be best for friends of the man to take the tools away. After all, couldn’t the very presence of the bench in the man’s room help to incite another relapse? Finally, the doctor agrees that if the bench could be taken away while the man was out of the house, it might be OK.

A few days later the doctor heads out to the country to meet up with Darnay and Lucie. As soon as he leaves, Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry dismantle his workbench and bury the tools in the yard.

Book II, Chapter Eighteen – Nine Days

It’s the day of the wedding. Charles is in the doctor’s room, having a last-minute discussion before the wedding. Suddenly, the doctor emerges from his room. He’s white as a sheet. Nothing else seems to be the matter, however. He doesn’t say anything. Lucie takes his arm. Together, they head to the church.

After the wedding, Lucie and Charles leave for their honeymoon. Doctor Manette helps Lucie into the carriage, and then the three older people walk back to the Manettes’ house. Mr. Lorry glances worriedly at the doctor. The old scared look has returned to his face. Advising Miss Pross to leave the doctor in peace for the time being, Mr. Lorry decides that he’ll return later in the night to check on the doctor. Sure enough, when he comes back later that evening, Doctor Manette is holed up in his room, working furiously at making shoes.

When Mr. Lorry tries to call out to him, the doctor doesn’t even recognize his old friend. Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry hold a hurried conference. They agree to keep a constant watch on the doctor for a few days. Doctor Manette takes food when it’s given to him, but otherwise he just works at his bench. He doesn’t recognize anyone. After nine days, the doctor hasn’t shaken out of his relapse. If anything, he’s gotten more and more skillful at making shoes. With growing terror, Mr. Lorry watches his old friend regress further and further into his prison-identity.

Book II, Chapter Seventeen – One Night

The night before Lucie’s wedding, Lucie sits by her father’s side underneath a tree in their yard. She’s very, very happy. She worries, however, that her father will be made unhappy by her upcoming marriage. Asking to be reassured that nothing will be changed by her marriage, she begs her father to tell her if he will be at all unhappy in the future. Doctor Manette assures Lucie that he will be happier if she’s fully happy.

As he sits looking at the moon, Doctor Manette remembers the times that the moon was the only thing he could see from his prison window. He tells Lucie that he used to look at the moon and dream of the child which he’d abandoned when he was sent to prison. Imagining that she’d forgotten him completely, the doctor used to think that the child would grow up without any thought of him troubling her mind.  At other times, he explains, he would imagine his child leading him out of his prison cell into the world.

The next day, Lucie will get married. No one is invited to the ceremony but Mr. Lorry. Miss Pross will be there, as well.