A/N: Sydney Carton's P.O.V., at the very end. This part of A Tale of Two Cities really touched me, and I wrote this short piece for English class in dedication to the true hero of the novel, Sydney Carton.

The guillotine hangs above my head, waiting to descend. The eyes of the crowd stare into me, filled with riotous bloodlust, but I see nothing save her beautiful, compassionate face in my mind. The crowd's jeers and cheers of triumph rise up in a tumultuous roar of noise, but I hear nothing save her sweet, gentle voice, comforting me as I opened my soul to her. Now the time to do the better things she believed I could with all her blessed heart is upon me. I am fulfilling my last promise to her, and in doing so I have finally found a purpose. This worthless life that I have wasted is at last, in it's final moments, a life of great merit. For with the end of my life, a bright sun rises, a sun that will cast its warm light upon the future of the one that I love, and the lives that she loves.

Philosophers, and scholars, and all manner of great men have searched for the meaning of life, and I, I who have always believed life to be meaningless, have discovered the answer in this last moment left to me. Life, so beautiful, so infinitely precious, does not have a meaning. It is meaning, in and of itself. It is a sad irony that I should ascertain this truth in time to find that it is too late. It is only now that am I fully able to embrace the great worth of my life, of every life, as I prepare to give it away.

Life is a great treasure, a sanctified privilege that is bestowed upon all. We can choose to neglect this gift, as I have, to squander it, on apathy and loneliness and waste. We can misuse this privilege, as many I see before me have. They have given it too wickedness, too hate; they have fed this dreaded monster above me on the crimson flow of sacred nectar, the lifeblood of too many innocents. My own lifeblood is soon to be fed to this ravenous beast, and it is my hope that with this final act I will join those who have not wasted, have not corrupted their precious lives; but have lived them to the fullest, and have done good by the themselves and by the world.

I understand now that to throw away something as exquisite as a life is one of the greatest evils possible to commit. Each and every life has a tremendous value, from that of the simple seamstress who went before me, to the greatest and most honorable men throughout our vast history. My life has great worth, I now realize, and this worth is further augmented by the deed I am to perform in a moment's time. I lay down this precious gift I have been given for the one I love, and in my very soul I know that my life could have no greater meaning than this.

"I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die."