Two Cities

Chapter 55 The Essence of Shadows (1)
"I, the unfortunate doctor Alexandre Manet, of Povey, ex-Paris, wrote these tragic memoirs in my dismal cell in the Bastille during the last month of [-]. I intend to Hidden in the chimney wall--It took me considerable pains to dig out what I thought was a hidden place. Somebody may pity find it here after I and my sorrows have been dusted .”

I wrote this in the last month of my tenth year of confinement, with a rusty iron point dipped in smoke and charcoal scraped from the chimney and mixed with my blood, with great difficulty.I no longer have any expectations.I could see from my own dire symptoms that my sanity might not be clear for some time.But I solemnly declare that my sanity is absolutely clear now, my memory has no discrepancies, and what I have written are all facts, and I can be responsible for the last record I wrote in the eternal judgment seat, no matter whether anyone finds it or not.

"On a cloudy, moonlit night in the third week of December, 22 (I think it was the night of the [-]nd), I was walking in a deserted spot by the quays of the Seine, intending to refresh myself." The journey to the residence on Medical Street takes about an hour.At this time, a speeding carriage rushed from behind me. I was afraid of being hit by it, so I quickly dodged to the side of the road and let it pass, but a head poked out from the window, and a voice ordered the driver to stop.

"As soon as the coachman reined in the horse, the carriage stopped, and I answered the voice that called my name just now. The carriage was already quite a distance in front of me, and before I reached it, the two gentlemen had already dismounted. I got into the car. I observed that both of them were wrapped tightly in cloaks, as if they did not want to be recognized by others. They stood side by side by the door of the car. I observed that they were about my age, maybe younger, and their height, The look, the voice and the look (as far as I can see) are very similar."

"'Are you Dr. Manette?'" said one. "'That's right.'"

"'Doctor Manette, originally from Povey,' said the other, 'young physician, ex-surgeon, who has been making a name for himself in Paris in the last couple of years, isn't he?'"

"'Gentlemen,' I replied, 'I am Dr. Manette, and I thank you for your kindness.'"

"'We have been to your house,' said the first, 'by bad luck, we did not find you, but we heard that you might be going in this direction, and followed, hoping to catch up with you. Aboard, please!' "

"Both of them are very airy. They walked up and put me between them and the door of the carriage. Both of them have weapons, but I don't."

"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'I'm sorry, but I never know who's calling me, and what's going on with the patient.'"

"It was the second speaker who answered. 'Doctor, your patient is a person of status. As for the condition of the patient, we trust your medical skills. You don't need us to introduce you. You will know it yourself. So much for now, Please get in the car!'"

"I had no choice but to obey, and got into the carriage quietly. Two people came up afterward—the second person jumped up with the pedals closed. The carriage turned around and sped away at the same speed."

"I have recounted this conversation as it happened, and I have recorded it word for word, which I firmly believe. I have directed my thoughts so that they do not stray from my work. I have described everything in detail. I hereby mark Go to the pause number, hide the document I wrote, and plan to continue writing later."

"The carriage swung the street back and passed the North Gate Pass to the country road. When it was two-thirds of a league from the pass—I did not estimate the distance then, but it was estimated on the next pass—the carriage alighted. The main road stopped in front of a set of independent houses. After we got off the car, we walked along the wet and soft path in the garden. There was a hot spring water there, but it overflowed due to neglect and had flowed to the gate of the house. Pulled No one answered the doorbell right away, and when the door opened, one of the people who led me here slapped the person who opened the door with his heavy riding glove." "This behavior didn't attract much attention from me, usually I'm used to people being beaten like dogs. But another man got angry and stretched out his arm and beat the man again. That's when I suddenly found out that they were twin brothers."

"The door to the house was locked. One of the two brothers let us in and then locked it again. From the time we got out of the car at the courtyard gate, I heard crying from the upstairs room. I was directly Brought into the house. As I went upstairs the screams grew louder and I found a patient lying in bed with encephalitis and a high fever."

"The patient was a stunningly beautiful woman, very young, clearly in her early twenties. Her hair was disheveled, and her arms were bound at her sides with ribbons and handkerchiefs. I found that these bindings were from men's clothing. Among them were dresses. embroidered lace scarf. On it I found a coat of arms and the letter E."

"I found all of this in the first minute of checking on the patient, because the patient had rolled over and turned his face to the bedside during the continuous struggle, and the corner of the scarf was rolled into his mouth, which was in danger of being suffocated. I My first move was to reach out to get her out of danger. When I pulled the scarf back, I saw the embroidery on the corner of the scarf."

"I turned her over slowly, put my hands on her chest, calmed her down, and laid her down, while examining her face. Her eyes were wide open, she was delirious, and she kept uttering a sharp cry, Over and over again: 'My husband, my dad, my brother!' Then count to twelve, then say, 'Shh!' And so on, in the same order, with the same attitude. Except There was no silence beyond that regular pause."

"'How long has this been the case?'" I asked. "In order to distinguish the two brothers, I called them the elder brother and the younger brother. I called the more authoritative one the elder brother. The elder brother replied, 'It was about this time last night.'"

"Does she have a husband, a father, or a brother?" "Has a brother." "I'm not talking to her brother, am I?" he replied dismissively, "'No. What about two?' broke in the younger brother impatiently, 'twelve o'clock!' 'Look, gentlemen,' said I, with my hand still on her bosom, 'that's how you brought me here , I have no choice! If I knew what disease I was looking for, I could have brought the corresponding medicine. Like now, it is just a waste of time. How can there be medicine in this kind of place. "The elder brother looked at the younger brother, and the younger brother Said haughtily, 'There's a medicine chest.' He then took it out of a shed and put it on a table."

"I opened several medicine bottles, sniffed them, and touched the caps with my lips. There were no medicines I wanted here, except narcotics. 'Are these medicines not available?' asked my brother. 'Don't worry, I'll use it, sir,'" I replied, and there was silence.

"I spent a lot of effort and thought of many ways to feed her the medicine I prescribed. Because I had to take the medicine after a while and observe the curative effect, I then sat down by the bed. There was a very The timid woman in service (she was the wife of the man downstairs) retreated into a corner. The house was peculiarly damp and decayed, and the furniture very ordinary--at a glance it was of recent temporary use. The nails in front of the windows Thick used curtains to block out the screaming. Screaming continued rhythmically, my husband, my dad, my brother: counted to twelve, followed by 'Shhhhh!' The patient was insane , I did not dare to remove the straps that bound her arms, but I also checked, trying to find a way to keep her from pain. The only spark that inspired me from the patient was the soothing effect of my hand on her chest. effect, occasionally calming the body, but not against screams: no pendulum is more punctual."

"Because of the belief that my hand will produce this effect," I sat on the edge of the bed for half an hour, with the brothers looking on.Then my brother said:

"There is another patient." I asked in surprise, "Is it a critical illness?"

"You'd better go and see for yourself, he replied disdainfully, and picked up a lamp as he spoke."

"The other patient is in a room behind another staircase - above the stables, which is also a kind of attic. The roof has low ceilings, some of which are plastered with stone powder, and the rest are bare tile houses. The ridge and beams of the roof. That was for straw and hay, and firewood, and a pile of apples buried in the sand. I walked through it to the patient. My memory is absolutely correct. I used these I have to test my memory in detail. In my cell in the Bastille, in my cell in the Bastille, I can vividly recall the events of that night."

"A handsome rural boy was lying in the hay on the ground with a cushion on the ground under his head. He was no more than 17 years old. He held his chest with his right hand, clenched his teeth, and looked up at the top of his head with wide open eyes. I saw him Kneeling on one leg next to him, but I couldn't see where his injury was. I could see that he was stabbed with a sharp object and was dying."

"I'm a doctor, poor friend, and I said, let me check it." I didn't check it, and he replied, "What the hell." "He covered the wound, and I persuaded him to take it away. Yes Sword wound, the time of injury is estimated to be 24 to [-] hours ago. But even if he got treatment at that time, there is no hope. He is fast approaching death. I turned to look at the brother, but I saw him looking down at the life of this handsome boy Disappearing, it's like looking at a wounded bird or rabbit, not at all like looking at the same kind."

"What's the matter, sir?" I asked.

"A little mad dog! A serf! Forced my brother to a sword duel and killed him—like a nobleman."

"There was no pity, pain, or human sympathy in that answer. The speaker even felt that it was inconvenient for that lowly creature to die, and that it would be better for him to die silently like a bug. To the boy and his fate, he There was absolutely no possibility of sympathy. The boy's eyes turned slowly to him as he spoke, and now slowly to me." "Doctor, these nobles are extremely proud. But we lowly dogs are occasionally proud. They Loot us, humiliate us, beat us, kill us, yet we still have a little bit of self-respect now and then. She—did you see her, doctor?"

"Although it was so far away, the scream was still faintly audible here. He was talking about the scream, as she was lying next to us."

I said, "I saw her." She was my sister, the doctor.The nobles have long held a disgraceful claim to the chastity and virtue of our sisters, but we have good girls too.I understand that, and I've heard my dad mention it.My sister is a good girl, and is engaged to a fine young man, of whom my brother-in-law is a tenant.We're all his tenants--just the guy over there, and the other is his brother, the worst of that bad family.

"The young man managed to gather all his strength to speak out, and his expression still plays a terrible emphasis."

"We low dogs are going to be robbed by the noble guy. That guy who robs us, forces us to pay taxes, forces us to do things for them for free, forces us to grind flour in his mill. His chickens, ducks, and geese Flocks and flocks eat our small crops, but we are not allowed to feed a single chicken or duck. He robs us of everything. If we have a small piece of meat, we must lock the door, close the window, and eat it in fear , for fear of being taken away by his people - I said, we were robbed, forced, and scratched too hard, my father told us that having children is very scary, and the first thing we have to pray is to make our women sterile, Let's genocide!"

"I've never seen the pain of the oppressed burn like fire. I thought it was just hidden somewhere in people's hearts! But now I see it in this dying boy But my sister was married. Her love was sick, poor thing, and she married him. She was going to take care of him in our farm house—the guy called it a kennel— Comfort him. She's only been married for a few weeks and this guy's brother took a fancy to her beauty and forced this guy to lend him my sister for his use - what a husband is to people like us! This guy is more than willing , but my sister is kind and chaste, and has as strong a hatred for this guy's brother as I do. To compel my brother-in-law to exert influence over my sister and get her to agree, what have these two brothers done!"

"The boy's eyes were staring at me, but now he turned slowly to the person next to me. From these two faces, I felt that the boy's words were true. Even at this moment in the Bastille, I can still see To tit-for-tat pride confronting each other. On the one hand, noble pride, contempt, and indifference. On the other, peasant pride, downtrodden feelings, and surging vengeance. You know, doctor, that by noble rights we are but low Dogs, they could have us harnessed and driven away. That's how they harnessed my brother-in-law and driven him away. You know, they have the right to let us bomb the frogs all night long, so they don't disturb the gentlemen They made my brother-in-law work in the gas at night and back to harness the car during the day. But my brother-in-law still wouldn't listen to them. No! One day at noon he was let down from the yoke to eat—if he If he could find something to eat—he whimpered a dozen times, each of which happened to be accompanied by the sound of a bell, and died in my sister's arms."

"If it weren't for his determination to confide his grievances, there would be no concerns in the world to keep him alive. His right hand was still clenched tightly, covering the wound, pushing back the growing shadow of death."

(End of this chapter)