After the revelation of their shameful story, the two peasants died, the girl clinging to life and raving for a week. Manette refused a rouleau of gold offered by the unrepentant nobles and on December 29 wrote a letter to the Minister detailing the incident. Evremonde's wife, with her son Charles, visited the doctor and asked him about the peasant family's younger sister, who was safely hidden. The lady made her son Charles swear to atone for his family's sins. Manette, captured, separated from his pregnant wife, and incarcerated in the Bastille by the Evremonde brothers, concluded his secret letter with a denunciation of the Evremondes.
Carton urges Lorry and the others to prepare for escape.
Then Carton enters La Force, drugs Darnay and exchanges places with him. Darnay, smuggled out in Carton's clothes, escapes with his family. To avoid suspicion, Jerry Cruncher and Miss Pross stay behind. When Madame Defarge comes to kill Lucie, Miss Pross shoots the vengeful woman during the ensuing struggle. Pross and Cruncher escape.