Then Miss Pross, all of a tremble, locked the door, threw the key into the river, took a carriage and followed after the coach. Not long after the unconscious Darnay, with Lucie and Doctor Manette, passed the gates of Paris, the jailer came to the cell where Sydney Carton sat and called him. It was the summons to die. And with his thoughts on Lucie, whom he had always hopelessly loved, and on her husband, whom he had thus saved to her, he went almost gladly. A poor little seamstress rode in the death cart beside him. She was so small and weak that she feared to die, and Carton held her cold hand all the way and comforted her to the end. Cruel women of the people sat about the guillotine knitting and counting with their stitches, as each poor victim died. And when Carton's turn came, thinking he was Darnay, the hated Marquis de St. Evrémonde, they cursed him and laughed. Men said of him about the city that night that it was the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there. If they could have read his thought, if he could have spoken it in words it would have been these: "I see the lives, for which I lay down mine, peaceful and happy in that England I shall see no more. I see Lucie and Darnay with a child that bears my name, and I see that I shall hold a place in their hearts for ever. I see her weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see the blot I threw upon my name faded away, and I know that till they die neither shall be more honored in the soul of the other than I am honored in the souls of both. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known!" BLEAK HOUSE Published 1852-1853 _Scene_: London and the Country _Time_: 1832 to 1852 CHARACTERS Mr. Jarndyce Master of Bleak House Mr. Boythorn His friend Sir Leicester Dedlock An aged nobleman Mr. Boythorn's neighbor Lady Dedlock His wife Mr. Tulkinghorn His lawyer Captain Hawdon A dissipated and poverty-stricken copyist in London, known as "Nemo" Esther Summerson Mr. Jarndyce's ward In reality a daughter of Captain Hawdon and Lady Dedlock Ada Clare } } Wards of Mr. Jarndyce Richard Carstone } Vholes Richard's lawyer Mrs. Rouncewell Sir Leicester's housekeeper "Mr. George" Proprietor of a London shooting-gallery Her son Hortense Lady Dedlock's French maid Miss Flite A little, old, demented woman