“The Game Made,” a “Tell” Chapter from A Tale of Two Cities (Book the Third, Chapter Nine)



In this chapter of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay is sentenced to death on the accusations of the Dafarges and, incredibly, Dr. Manette, in the form of an old condemnation by the prisoner in the Bastille long before he knew Charles. Sydney Carton persuades Jarvis Lorry to rap up affairs in Paris and prepare to leave at once with Lucy, Little Lucy, Miss Pross and presumably the freed Charles Darnay.  But Carton asks Lorry to keep his safe passage pass with him for when the man arrives at the last minute.  Lorry knows that escape is impossible, but his new-found respect for Sydney assures himself that there is method in this madness.  Carton has made the game by chapter’s end–and has sealed his own fate.