"I swear to you, like Evremonde!" — Illustration for Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities," Book III, Chapter 12 ("Darkness"), by John McLenan in Harper's Weekly" (12 November 1859)

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"I swear to you, like Evremonde!"

8.5 cm high by 8.5 cm wide (3 ½ inches square)

John McLenan

Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Book III, Chapter 12, "Darkness."

The twenty-seventh installment of the novel appeared in Harper's Weekly (12 November 1859): 733; it had originally appeared in the UK on Saturday, 5 November, in All the Year Round. It was reproduced in the T. B. Peterson (Philadephia) volume, facing page 191. In the St. Antoine wineshop, Madame Defarge comments upon the similarity in the faces of Carton and Darnay, recalling for the reader the Old Bailey trial which opened the novel.

Passage Illustrated: Carton Establishes His Presence in Paris

After looking at her, as if the sound of even a single French word were slow to express itself to him, he answered, in his former strong foreign accent. “Yes, madame, yes. I am English!”

Madame Defarge returned to her counter to get the wine, and, as he took up a Jacobin journal and feigned to pore over it puzzling out its meaning, he heard her say, “I swear to you, like Evremonde!”

Defarge brought him the wine, and gave him Good Evening.

“How?”

“Good evening.”

“Oh! Good evening, citizen,” filling his glass. “Ah! and good wine. drink to the Republic.”

Defarge went back to the counter, and said, “Certainly, a little like.” Madame sternly retorted, “I tell you a good deal like.” Jacques Three pacifically remarked, “He is so much in your mind, see you, madame.” The amiable Vengeance added, with a laugh, “Yes, my faith! And you are looking forward with so much pleasure to seeing him once more to-morrow!”

Carton followed the lines and words of his paper, with a slow forefinger, and with a studious and absorbed face. They were all leaning their arms on the counter close together, speaking low. After a silence of a few moments, during which they all looked towards him without disturbing his outward attention from the Jacobin editor, they resumed their conversation. [Book the Third — “A Track of a Storm,” Chapter XII, "Darkness," 733]

Commentary: Carton Lays the Groundwork for Rescuing Darnay

Carton intends to combat the darkness alluded to in the chapter's title by substituting himself for the condemned aristocrat. He therefore conducts a test of his likeness to Darnay with a highly critical and perceptive audience, the Jacobins who regularly meet at the Defarges' wineshop. Making sure that these revolutionary leaders take note of his face will make it easier for him to switch places with Darnay later, although Dickens does not let this cat out of the bag yet. As McLenan suggests in this illustration, Carton, perfectly conversant in French, overhears Madame Defarge's plan for taking the ultimate vengeance upon the whole tribe of St. Evrémonde. The engraving, therefore, assists in the intensification of suspense as we move towards the climatic rescue of Darnay and the execution of Carton.

Other Illustrated Editions (1859-1910)

Related Material

Scanned image by Philip V. Allingham; text by PVA and George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Allingham, Philip V. "Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Illustrated: A Critical Reassessment of Hablot Knight Browne's Accompanying Plates." Dickens Studies. 33 (2003): 109-158.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, 7 May through 3 December 1859.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by John McLenan (33 illustrations). Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, 1859.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities: A story of the French Revolution. Project Gutenberg e-text by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. Release Date: September 25, 2004 [EBook #98].

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. With illustrations by John McLenan and Rowland Wheelwright. Orinda, Cal.: Sea Wolf Press, 2021.

Guiliano, Edward, and Philip Collins. The Annotated Dickens. 2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986.

Created 25 November 2007

Last modified 27 November 2025