`I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the
 Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the
 destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument,
 before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city
 and a brilliant people' rising from this abyss, and, in their
 struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through
 long long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the
 previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making
 expiation for itself and wearing out.
             -- A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens