Book III - Chapter I. In Secret Practice Quiz — A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Book III - Chapter I. In Secret
In what year does Book III, Chapter 1 take place?
Autumn of 1792, during the French Revolution.
Why is Charles Darnay traveling to Paris?
To answer the desperate letter of his former servant Gabelle, who is imprisoned in the Abbaye and appeals for Darnay's help.
What do the citizen-patriots at every town gate and village call Darnay?
They call him an "emigrant" and an "aristocrat."
What document allows Darnay to keep traveling through France?
Gabelle's letter from his prison in the Abbaye.
What happens to Darnay at the small inn during the night?
He is awakened by a timid local functionary and three armed patriots in red caps who tell him he must travel to Paris under a paid escort.
How do the two escort patriots travel with Darnay?
They ride on either side of him with a loose line attached to his bridle, one patriot keeping the end girded round his wrist.
What threatening incident occurs at Beauvais?
An ominous crowd gathers shouting "Down with the emigrant!" and a furious farrier threatens Darnay with a hammer, calling him a traitor whose life is forfeit.
What decree does the postmaster at Beauvais tell Darnay about?
A decree passed on the fourteenth (the day Darnay left England) ordering the sale of all emigrant property, with further decrees expected to banish emigrants and condemn returnees to death.
What eerie scenes does Darnay witness in villages during his nighttime travel?
People circling hand in hand around shrivelled Trees of Liberty and singing Liberty songs in the dead of night, in a ghostly manner.
Who is Darnay's conductor into Paris, and what is his occupation?
Defarge, the wine-shop keeper in the Quarter Saint Antoine, who once sheltered Doctor Manette.
What is Darnay's real family name, revealed by the officer?
Evremonde. The officer identifies him as "the emigrant Evremonde."
To which prison is Darnay consigned?
The prison of La Force.
What does Defarge say when Darnay asks him to notify Mr. Lorry?
"I will do nothing for you. My duty is to my country and the People. I am the sworn servant of both, against you."
What does La Guillotine refer to in this chapter?
Defarge calls La Guillotine "that sharp female newly-born" -- the recently invented execution device that is just becoming known by name.
How does Dickens describe the aristocratic prisoners in La Force?
As ghosts -- "the ghost of beauty, the ghost of stateliness, the ghost of elegance, the ghost of pride" -- all greeting Darnay with exquisite courtesy despite their doomed condition.
What does "in secret" mean in the context of La Force prison?
Solitary confinement, with no communication with the outside world.
What are the dimensions of Darnay's cell?
Five paces by four and a half.
What refrain runs through Darnay's mind as he paces his cell?
"He made shoes, he made shoes, he made shoes" -- echoing Doctor Manette's coping mechanism during his own imprisonment.
How does the chapter parallel Darnay with Doctor Manette?
Both are imprisoned "in secret" (solitary confinement) in French prisons; Darnay paces his cell obsessively just as Manette did, and his mind involuntarily repeats Manette's shoe-making refrain.
What is ironic about Defarge's role in this chapter?
Defarge helped free Doctor Manette from unjust imprisonment, but now he delivers Manette's son-in-law Darnay into the same kind of secret imprisonment, showing the revolution replicating the old regime's tyranny.
What historical event does Dickens foreshadow at the end of the chapter?
The September Massacres of 1792 -- "the horrible massacre, days and nights long, which, within a few rounds of the clock, was to set a great mark of blood upon the blessed garnering time of harvest."
What news does Darnay learn from a street orator in Paris?
That the king is in prison and all foreign ambassadors have left Paris.
What furnishings does Darnay's solitary cell contain?
A chair, a table, and a straw mattress.