A Tale of Two Cities
Advertisement
ADVERTISEMENT
A Tale of Two Cities Volume II, Chapter Twenty-Two – The Sea Still Rises Summary
- 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." We’re guessing it’s not because she’s all that friendly.
- Defarge enters the shop.
- Immediately, everyone quiets down to hear what he has to say.
- Luckily, he actually does have something to say: 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.
- Defarge pauses, then asks if the "patriots" are ready for action.
- Madame Defarge grabs her knife. The Vengeance begins to shriek.
- They run to different houses in the area with the news.
- 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."
- We’re guessing that means he kills the guy.
- Madame Defarge tries to strangle him with his ropes.
- The Vengeance and Jacques Three drag the body out into the streets.
- Hoards of people scream at the sight. They begin to stuff the dead man’s pockets with grass.
- Poetic justice, eh?
- Once his head and heart are set on pikes, however, the crowd begins to disperse.
- After all, they’re still poor and miserable.
- They all head to the bread lines to beg for some loaves of bread.
- As Monsieur Defarge returns to his wine shop, he remarks to his wife that the revolution seems to have come at last.
