A Tale of Two Cities

Darnay makes slow progress in France, where he is stopped at every town and questioned. He realizes that he won’t be able to leave the country until he has “been declared a good citizen” (255), but is still not seriously concerned, even when he is informed that as an aristocrat he must have an armed escort for the remainder of his journey. By the time he and his guards reach Beauvais, however, he is growing alarmed: the crowd there taunts him as a “traitor” (258), and he learns from the postmaster that a decree stripping emigrants of their property was passed the day he left London. Furthermore, it’s expected that a decree condemning emigrants to death is coming.

At the gates of Paris, a man (Defarge) looks over Darnay’s papers, only to disappear momentarily. When he returns, he takes Darnay to a “guard-room, smelling of common wine and tobacco, where certain soldiers and patriots, asleep and awake, drunk and sober […] were standing and lying about” (260). The officer in charge briefly questions Darnay about the whereabouts of his wife before telling him that he is being imprisoned in La Force. Darnay explains why he has returned and insists that he has a “right” to speak for