A Tale of Two Cities-CHAPTER 8 Monseigneur in the Country

CHAPTER 8,Monseigneur in the Country,A BEAUTIFUL landscape, with the corn bright in it, but not abundant. Patches of poor rye where corn should have been, patches of poor peas and beans, patches of most coarse vegetable substitutes for wheat. On inanimate nature, as on the men and women who cultivated it, a prevalent tendency towards an appearance of vegetating ¹ unwillingly--dejected disposition ² to give up, and wither ³ away.,Monsieur the Marquis in his travelling carriage (which might have been lighter), conducted by four post-horses and two postilions, fagged up a steep hill. A blush on the countenance ⁴ of Monsieur the Marquis was no impeachment ⁵ of his high breeding; it was not from within; it was occasioned by an external circumstance beyond his control--the setting sun give up, and wither away give up, and wither away.,The sunset struck so brilliantly into the travelling carriage when it gained the hill-top, that its occupant was steeped in crimson ⁶. `It will die out,' said Monsieur the Marquis, glancing at his hands, `directly.',In effect, the sun was so low that it dipped at the moment. When the heavy drag had been adjusted to the wheel, and the carriage slid down hill, with a cinderous smell, in a cloud of dust, the red glow departed quickly; the sun and the Marquis going down together, there was no glow left when the drag was taken off.,The village had its one poor street, with its poor brewery ⁹, poor tannery, poor tavern ¹⁰, poor stable-yard for relay of post+horses, poor fountain, all usual poor appointments. It had its poor people too. All its people were poor, and many of them were sitting at their doors, shredding ¹¹ spare onions and the like for supper, while many were at the fountain, washing leaves, and grasses, and any such small yieldings of the earth that could be eaten. Expressive ¹² signs of what made them poor, were not wanting; the tax for the state, the tax for the church, the tax for the lord, tax local and tax general, were to be paid here and to be paid there, according to solemn inscription ¹³ in the little village, until the wonder was, that there was any village left unswallowed.,Few children were to be seen, and no dogs. As to the men and women, their choice on earth was stated in the prospect--Life on the lowest terms that could sustain it, down in the little village under die mill; or captivity ¹⁴ and Death in the dominant ¹⁵ prison on the crag.,Heralded ¹⁶ by a courier in advance, and by the cracking of his postilions' whips, which twined snake-like about their heads in the evening air, as if he came attended by the Furies, Monsieur the Marquis drew up in his travelling carriage at the posting-house gate. It was hard by the fountain, and the peasants suspended their operations to look at him. He looked at them, and saw in them, without knowing it, the slow sure filing down of misery-worn face and figure, that was to make the meagerness of Frenchmen an English superstition ¹⁷ which should survive the truth through the best part of a hundred years.,Monsieur the Marquis cast his eyes over the submissive faces that drooped ¹⁸ before him, as the like of himself had drooped before Monseigneur of the Court--only the difference was, that these faces drooped merely to suffer and not to propitiate--when a grizzled mender of the roads joined the group.,`Bring me hither that fellow!' said the Marquis to the courier.,He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理
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