Chapter 2: Paris The streets in the Saint Antoine district of Paris were dirty and mean.

The people who lived there were poor, and most of them were thin and illfed. A man was unloading a large barrel of wine from a cart in the street, when there was an accident.

The barrel slipped out of the cart and broke in the street and a dark river of wine ran along the ground. Stopping what they were doing, everyone ran to the spot where the accident had taken place.

Men, women and children began scooping up the dirty wine and drinking it from their hands. There was laughter from the crowd as they scooped up the wine and there were smiles on the starved faces of the people.

Soon everyone's mouth and hands were stained red with the wine. One man dipped his finger in the wine and scrawled a dismal word on the wall: BLOOD!

Nearby there was a small wine shop and the owner was watching the scene in the street. He was a man of about thirty.

He frowned when he saw the joker write the word BLOOD on the wall. The wine shopkeeper's wife, Madame Defarge, was also watching the scene in the street.

She, too, frowned, but she said nothing. She had some knitting in her hands and her fingers worked continuously with the needles.

Monsieur Defarge turned back into the shop after a few minutes. He was surprised that two customers had entered the shop unseen by him.

One of them was a middle-aged gentleman and the other was a young girl. They were not the kind of people who would usually enter a wine shop in the Saint Antoine district.