I was there that day as young child ignored by the bloodthirsty mob

Robespierre moved unsteadily before he was strapped to the plank

And then the man of terror was dead another victim of the madness

I recorded this in my journal and kept it with my other treasures

That was many years ago my friend and now I am part of another madness

I am a soldier loyal to Napoleon and we will soon be fighting my English friends

My late father was named Sydney Carton and that is the name that I have adopted now

I recorded this in my journal and kept it with my other treasures

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Those were his last words or so I was told by those who were with him on that fateful day

But I doubt them as like me my father was a man of few words and not prone to heroic gestures

If I do die tomorrow there will be no glory in it no beauty I will die a filthy death as thousands will

I have considered desertion but it is not the fear of capture that stops me but the fact that I have nowhere to go

These may be my final words I hope that they are not as I want to live more than anything else

If however you do find me dead then please place this record in my box of treasures for my future sons to read