they were rapidly ordered to be put forth to be massacred, or to be

released, or (in a few cases) to be sent back to their cells. That,

presented by his conductors to this Tribunal, he had announced

himself by name and profession as having been for eighteen years

a secret and unaccused prisoner in the Bastille; that, one of the

body so sitting in judgment had risen and identified him, and that

this man was Defarge. That, hereupon he had ascertained,

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

through the registers on the table, that his son-in-law was among

the living prisoners, and had pleaded hard to the Tribunalof

whom some members were asleep and some awake, some dirty

with murder and some clean, some sober and some notfor his

life and liberty. That, in the first frantic greetings lavished on

himself as a notable sufferer under the over-thrown system, it had

been accorded to him to have Charles Darnay brought before the

lawless Court, and examined. That, he seemed on the point of

being at once released, when the tide in his favour met with some

unexplained check (not intelligible to the Doctor), which led to a

few words of secret conference. That, the man sitting as President

had then informed Doctor Manette that the prisoner must remain

in custody, but should, for his sake, be held inviolate in safe

custody. That, immediately, on a