moment waiting for

the completion of its load, had been planned out last night, the

difficulty of taking Miss Pross in it had much engaged Mr. Lorry’s

attention. It was not merely desirable to avoid overloading the

coach, but it was of the highest importance that the time occupied

in examining it and its passengers, should be reduced to the

utmost; since their escape might depend on the saving of only a

few seconds here and there. Finally, he had proposed, after

anxious consideration, that Miss Pross and Jerry, who were at

liberty to leave the city, should leave it at three o’clock in the

lightest-wheeled conveyance known to that period.

Unencumbered with luggage, they would soon overtake the coach,

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and, passing it and preceding it on the road, would order its horses

in advance, and greatly facilitate its progress during the precious

hours of the night, when delay was the most to be dreaded.

Seeing in this arrangement the hope of rendering real service

in that pressing emergency, Miss Pross hailed it with joy. She and

Jerry had beheld the coach start, had known who it was that

Solomon brought, had passed some ten minutes in tortures of

suspense, and were now concluding their arrangements to follow

the coach, even as Madame Defarge, taking her way through the

streets, now drew nearer and near