Monsieur Defarge and Imprisonment

'There, I see him, high up, behind the bars of a lofty iron cage, bloody and dusty as last night, looking through. He has no hand free to wave to me; I dare not call to him; he regards me like a dead man'. Defarge and the three glanced darly at one another. The looks of all of them were dark, repressed, and revengeful...

In this passage, the mender of roads is telling the story of how Gaspard was captured and eventually put to death for murdering the Marquis. As he tells the story, the men grow more and more angry. The injustice of his imprisonment makes them want to take revenge on the nobles. This is the second time Defarge has used the story of an imprisoned man to incite fury at teh nobles. The first time he did this with Dr. Manette. His story was so horrible that he has still not fully recovered (discussed in the post below). By showing off Dr. Manette and his horrific story, he is being extremely committed to his cause. He does not hesitate to make a show of Dr. Manette even though people like Mr. Lorry find it to be inhumane because by doing so, he recruits more people to his cause. He did the same with Gaspard. Because Gaspard was his good friend, he uses the story to his advantage by telling it to as many people as possible. When all the angry peasants he recruits strike back at the nobles, he can be sure that something like what happened to Gaspard will never happen to another peasant.