 the dead of the night, circling hand in hand round a shrivelled tree of
Liberty, or all drawn up together singing a Liberty song. Happily, however,
there was sleep in Beauvais that night to help them out of it, and they passed
on once more into solitude and loneliness: jingling through the untimely cold
and wet, among impoverished fields that had yielded no fruits of the earth that
year, diversified by the blackened remains of burnt houses, and by the sudden
emergence from ambuscade, and sharp reining up across their way, of patriot
patrols on the watch on all the roads.
    Daylight at last found them before the wall of Paris. The barrier was closed
and strongly guarded when they rode up to it.
    »Where are the papers of this prisoner?« demanded a resolute-looking man in
authority, who was summoned out by the guard.
    Naturally struck by the disagreeable word, Charles Darnay requested the
speaker to take notice that he was a free traveller and French citizen, in
charge of an escort which the disturbed state of the country had imposed upon
him, and which he had paid for.
    »Where,« repeated the same personage, without taking any heed of him
whatever, »are the papers of this prisoner?«
    The drunken patriot had them in his cap, and produced them. Casting his eyes
over Gabelle's letter, the same personage in authority showed some disorder and
surprise, and looked at Darnay with a close attention.
    He left escort and escorted without saying a word, however, and went into
the guard-room; meanwhile, they sat upon their horses outside the gate. Looking
about him while in this state of suspense, Charles Darnay observed that the gate
was held by a mixed guard of soldiers and patriots, the latter far outnumbering
the former; and that while ingress into the city for peasants' carts bringing in
supplies, and for similar traffic and traffickers, was easy enough, egress, even
for the homeliest people, was very difficult. A numerous medley of men and
women, not to mention beasts and vehicles of various sorts, was waiting to issue
forth; but, the previous identification was so strict, that they filtered
through the barrier very slowly. Some of these people knew their turn for
examination to be so far off, that they lay down on the ground to sleep or
smoke, while others talked together, or loitered about. The red cap and
tricolour cockade were universal, both among men and women.
    When he had sat in his saddle some half-hour, taking note of these things,
Darnay found himself
