So time went by peacefully till a strange thing happened: Charles
Darnay, who had been so kind to Lucie and her father on the boat, was
arrested on a charge of treason.

England at that time was not on good terms with France, and Darnay, who
was of French birth, was accused of selling information concerning the
English forts and army to the French Government. This was a very serious
charge, for men convicted of treason then were put to death in the
cruelest ways that could be invented.

The charge was not true, and Darnay himself knew quite well who was
working against him.

The fact was that Charles Darnay was not his true name. He was really
Charles St. Evremonde, the descendant of a rich and noble French family,
though he chose to live in London as Charles Darnay, and earned his
living by giving lessons in French. He did this because he would not be
one of the hated noble class of his own country, who treated the poor so
heartlessly.

In France the peasants had to pay many oppressive taxes, and were
wretched and half-starved, while the rich nobles rode in gilded coaches,
and, if they ran over a little peasant child, threw a coin to its mother
and drove on without a further thought. Among the hardest-hearted of
all, and the most hated by the common people, were the Evremondes, the
family of the young man who was now accused of treason. As soon as he
was old enough to know how unjust was his family's treatment of the poor
who were dependent on them, he had protested against it. When he became
a man he had refused to live on the money that was thus taken from the
hungry peasantry, and had left his home and come to London to earn his
own way by teaching.

His heartless uncle, the Marquis de St. Evremonde, in France, the head
of the family, hated the young man for this noble spirit. It was this
uncle who had invented the plot to accuse his nephew of treason. He had
hired a dishonest spy known as Barsad, who swore he had found papers in
Darnay's trunk that proved his guilt, and, as Darnay had been often back
and forth to France on family matters, the case looked dark for him.

Cruelly enough, among those who were called to the trial as witnesses,
to show that Darnay had made these frequent journeys to France, were
Doctor Manette and Lucie--because they had seen him on the boat during
that memorable crossing. Lucie's tears fell fast as she gave her
testimony, believing him innocent and knowing that her words would be