Matthew Honickman
The blade fell, thump, but the head did not fall, a saber had halted the blade but an inch above the prisoners head. Heads in the crowd whirled around to see who had made that lifesaving blow.
"Show yourself!" cried the Vengeance, no one answered. "Find the traitor," screamed the Vengeance as she rallied the crowd. People ran in every direction, including the executioner, leaving Sydney Carton in the guillotine. He was still in shock from being an inch away from death and oblivious to the chaos that had ensued.
The Vengeance and the crowd had reached the place where Darnay had stayed, suspecting that his wife or friends were behind this. As she entered the house she knew something was amiss. She climbed the stairs and there, slumped against a wall, was Madame Defarge with an ever growing puddle of blood where she sat. After a moment of sadness she rose up in rage and stormed out of the house to address the waiting crowd. "They have murdered Defarge, find them," She ran through the streets yelling "Close the city gates, they must not escape!"
Meanwhile, Sydney Carton was still locked in the guillotine was beginning to realize that everyone had left. Were they just going to leave him here to starve, or was this some macabre joke? Suddenly he felt the yoke holding his neck being released, craning his neck to see who it was, and with the utmost surprise he saw none other than Charles Darnay.
"I couldn't just leave the man who has saved my life to lose his own to save mine one last time." Darnay explained.
"They will catch you, then the both of us will die," worried Carton.
"Not if we move quickly," Darnay said with an increasing urgency. The two ran, with Darnay leading the way to two waiting horses. "We must reach the city gates before they are alerted of the traitor. The two kicked their horses into a steady trot so as to not draw attention. They saw the gate to the city and were fast approaching, but they also hear another sound, as if their horses trot had been echoed a thousand times over, a stampede coming for them. They reached the gate just as they saw a mass of people rounding the corner of the cross-street. They flew through the gates, but did not stop to relish their victory, as it had not yet been achieved. They rode till midnight, at which time the reached a carriage that Darnay had arranged to be waiting there. After that night and a day and another night they reached the coast. They boarded a boat and set sail for England, where their sweetheart was waiting for them. As Sydney looked back at France from the deck, he watched the sun rising over the horizon and saw a new time coming for France, a time of terror, a time of war, and a time of peace.