Book III, Chapter Two – The Grindstone

Tellson’s has set up temporary offices in the abandoned palace of an aristocrat. From this location, Mr. Lorry has been making lots of financial decisions. Lorry looks out into the courtyard, where a large grindstone has been set up. The patriots use the courtyard as a space where they re-grind the edges of their weapons. As Mr. Lorry looks out the window, he receives a violent shock: Lucie and her father are coming in the courtyard door. Quickly, Mr. Lorry opens the door and rushes them inside.

Lucie tells him that Charles has come to the city. Immediately, Mr. Lorry realizes what this means. Charles is in trouble. He tries to shield the Manettes from the windows, but the doctor coolly ignores him. Doctor Manette, you see, is something of a hero for the patriots. As a former prisoner of the Bastille, he’s untouchable. In fact, he might even have some leverage in getting Charles out of prison. That’s why he and Lucie had come to Paris. 

Lucie is sent to Lorry’s room and then Mr. Lorry whispers to the doctor that the patriots have begun murdering prisoners. Doctor Manette sighs and goes out into the crowd. He watches as Doctor Manette is carried out into the streets by the mob.

Volume III, Book 1 - In Secret

Travel for Charles is pretty slow.  He keeps getting stopped and people check and re-check his papers.  Eventually he is taken prisoner because someone figures out he’s an aristocrat.  It takes Charles a little time to realize he’s in danger; he’s just so sure of his own innocence and good meaning that it never dawns on him that no one else cares if his intentions are pure.

He is taken to a Paris prison where Defarge identifies him as Evremonde.  Charles is confused and wants to know what he’s accused of, but the officer only says there are “new laws” now.    Charles begs Defarge for help and pleas his innocence.  Desperately, he asks Defarge to at least tell Lorry that he is being held in La Force.  Defarge refuses and says he will help no aristocrat.  And yet…he did ask if Charles was married to Lucie…

In prison, Charles is greeting by a crowd of aristocrats who try to keep up the guise of polite society.  They’re pretty ghostly and it’s a beautiful, though disturbing, description.  It’s definitely worth rereading.  We also learn that Charles is to be kept “In Secret” which means in solitary confinement.  Charles paces his little cell and thinks about his father-in-law and how Dr. Manette spent 18 years is such a tiny cell.

Book II, Chapter Twenty-Four – Drawn to the Lodestone Rock

At Tellson’s, Charles is trying to talk Mr. Lorry out of going to France on business. It’s too dangerous in France at the moment – especially for an elderly man. Mr. Lorry agrees, but business is business. Tellson’s has many French customers, and someone has to look after their property, even during times of strife. As it turns out, Mr. Lorry happens to be one of the youngest members of Tellson’s. If anyone could brave war and revolution, it’d be him. That’s what he thinks, at any rate. Charles remains unconvinced. Mr. Lorry assures him that he’ll bring Jerry Cruncher along as a bodyguard.

Gradually, another conversation in the bank catches their attention. Stryver, has brought a letter to the bank. It’s addressed to a Marquis St. Evrémonde, care of Tellson’s Bank. Stryver explains that the new Marquis is a coward who abandoned his lands before the old Marquis died. Charles steps into the conversation and says that he knows the Marquis. He can deliver the letter. Puzzled, Mr. Lorry hands it to him.

Charles quickly leaves. As he walks out, he opens the letter. It’s from Monsieur Gabelle, the steward of his uncle’s lands. Gabelle has been taken prisoner, merely because he did what the Marquis ordered him to do. Now he begs the new Marquis (Charles) to come back and take responsibility for his own lands. Quickly, Charles comes to a conclusion: he must return to France.

Charles sets about planning a "business" trip. He tells Lucie that he’ll be gone for a few days.  He also writes to the doctor, asking him to take care of the family until he returns. I  really don’t have a very good feeling about this...

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.