Plot Summary
Book III, Chapter 2 of A Tale of Two Cities opens inside Tellson's Bank in the Saint Germain Quarter of Paris, now housed in a wing of a mansion abandoned by a fleeing aristocrat. The former owner, one of Monseigneur's circle, has escaped disguised in his cook's clothing, and the revolutionaries have seized his estate, marking it with the tricolor and drinking brandy in its grand rooms. draws a sharp contrast between the staid respectability of Tellson's London branch and the Parisian office, with its ornamental orange trees, its ceiling Cupid, and its young clerks who dance in public.
Mr. Jarvis Lorry sits alone by a fire in his rooms at the bank, deeply troubled. Through the window he can see two great flaming torches illuminating a large grindstone that has been hastily set up in the courtyard. Strange, unearthly sounds drift in from the streets beyond the high wall. Mr. Lorry prays that no one dear to him is in Paris that night.
Lucie and Dr. Manette Arrive
The gate bell rings and two figures rush in: Lucie Manette and her father, Doctor Manette. Lucie is frantic. She tells Mr. Lorry that her husband, Charles Darnay, has come to Paris on an errand of generosity, has been stopped at the barrier, and is now imprisoned at La Force. Mr. Lorry is horrified. Before Dr. Manette can look out the window, Lorry desperately warns him away from the blind.
Dr. Manette, however, is calm and confident. As a former prisoner of the Bastille, he tells Lorry he has "a charmed life" in revolutionary Paris. No patriot who knows his history would touch him except to embrace him. His years of suffering have given him a unique authority among the revolutionaries, and he is determined to use it to save Charles.
The Grindstone Scene
Mr. Lorry opens the blind and shows Dr. Manette the terrible scene in the courtyard. Forty or fifty men and women have rushed in to sharpen weapons at the grindstone. The two men turning it are grotesque figures with false eyebrows and moustaches, their faces bloody, sweaty, and distorted with savage excitement. Women hold wine to the grinders' mouths. The entire crowd is smeared with blood. Hatchets, knives, bayonets, and swords are all red with it. Some weapons are tied to men's wrists with strips of linen and fabric, all soaked in the same terrible crimson. Dickens describes the atmosphere as one of "gore and fire."
Mr. Lorry whispers the truth: the mob is murdering the prisoners. He urges Dr. Manette to make himself known and get to La Force before it is too late. The Doctor rushes bareheaded into the courtyard. His streaming white hair, his remarkable face, and his commanding manner part the crowd instantly. The mob recognizes him and erupts in shouts: "Live the Bastille prisoner! Help for the Bastille prisoner's kindred in La Force! Save the prisoner Evremonde at La Force!" Twenty men form a human chain and sweep the Doctor away toward the prison.
The Long Night
Mr. Lorry closes the window and returns to Lucie, finding her with little Lucie and Miss Pross. Lucie falls into a stupor on the floor, clinging to his hand, while Miss Pross lays the child on the bed. Twice more during the night, the bell rings and the grindstone whirls again. When Lucie asks what the noise is, Mr. Lorry mercifully tells her the soldiers are merely sharpening their swords. At dawn, a blood-soaked man rises from the pavement beside the grindstone and staggers into one of Monseigneur's abandoned carriages to sleep on its cushions. The chapter ends with a powerful image: the sun rises red on the courtyard, but the grindstone bears "a red upon it that the sun had never given, and would never take away."