The Scarlet Pimpernel

Young, pretty, and hard-working, Sally struggles to keep the tankards of ale coming to the customers of her father’s old and crowded coastal inn, The Fisherman’s Rest. She flirts with one of the patrons, but her father, Mr. Jellyband, shoos her back to the busy kitchen and continues his argument with the scholarly and respected Mr. Hempseed. They agree that the September rains are a nuisance and that the government in London is incompetent; they disagree, though, about whether England should intervene in the bloodthirsty revolution in France.

Jellyband believes that some French emigrés are spies trying to rouse the English to their own revolt and that another local innkeeper, Mr. Peppercorn, has been converted to their cause. Two well-dressed guests play dominoes in a corner; one of them asks how that could be possible; Jellyband shrugs but asserts that he is immune to French blather. The guest compliments Jellyband on his sound mind and offers a toast to him. The customers cheer and clap for Jellyband. 

England, having in recent decades fought a major war against the French and another against colonial rebels in America, is in no position to risk yet more bloodshed simply to halt the carnage in France. Nevertheless, Jellyband and his customers are furious with Prime Minister Pitt for not intervening.

Into the restaurant from the rainy evening comes young and handsome Lord Antony Dewhurst, who often stays at the Fisherman’s Rest on his way to and from France. He greets Sally with a kiss on the cheek and offers jovial greetings to all. While glancing suspiciously at the two well-dressed guests, he announces that French refugees will arrive shortly.

The Comtesse de Tournay and her teenage children enter the restaurant, accompanied by Sir Andrew Ffoulkes. The group sits at the fire, where the countess tearfully expresses her gratitude to Antony and Andrew for rescuing them. The comtesse’s daughter, Suzanne, offers similar thanks to Sir Andrew; their eyes linger on each other.

The comtesse’s son, the Vicomte de Tournay, flirts with Sally; this annoys Harry Waite, Sally’s local suitor. Lord Antony playfully scolds the foppish Vicomte for bringing his “loose foreign ways into this most moral country” (19). Waite’s friends drag him to another room before he can make a scene. 

The party of nobles sits down to eat. One of the two well-dressed dominoes players rises, puts on his coat, looks about, says quietly, “All safe!” and the other promptly hides under the table. The standing man calls out a good night and departs.

The diners drink toasts to English King George III and deposed French King Louis XVI. Antony also toasts the comtesse’s husband, still trapped in France. Sally and Jellyband serve a meal. Antony suggests to the comtesse that her escape bodes well for her husband’s rescue. She bursts into tears, having left behind the comte to safely transport their children.

Suzanne again thanks Andrew profusely, but he insists he was a mere helper in a plan managed by the Scarlet Pimpernel. The comtesse wants to thank his leader, but Andrew says the man works in secret. The vicomte tells of the red flower embossed on notes that Public Prosecutor Foucquier-Tinville receives each time someone is rescued from the guillotine. Andrew hopes that many more such notes will be sent.

The comtesse wonders why the Pimpernel’s men risk their lives to save French victims. Antony insists they do it for the sheer sporting challenge, but the comtesse doesn’t believe it. She recalls the entire rescue, from the embossed note with instructions to their escape through the bloodthirsty mob, all of it much more than mere sport. Suzanne asks Andrew to explain further; he says the 20 members of the League answer only to their leader, their purpose “to rescue the innocent” (23).

The vicomte bemoans that French women hate the nobility even more than the men. His mother adds that Marguerite St Just, a prominent stage performer and Republican, condemned the Marquis de St Cyr. Antony and Andrew are shocked: St Just is now the young wife of Percy Blakeney, the wealthiest man in England. Suzanne recalls Marguerite from convent school; she doesn’t believe the lady could have done such a thing. The comtesse swears she will never speak to Marguerite.

Just then, a magnificent four-horse carriage arrives, and out step Baronet Blakeney and his wife, the Lady Blakeney, Margaret St Just. 

The comtesse and her daughter rise to leave. Everyone hears the musical voice of Marguerite as she shoos away a beggar. Jellyband greets the new guests, trying to stall them, but Marguerite impatiently sweeps past and into the coffee room. Magnificently beautiful, the tall, red-haired young woman greets Sir Andrew and Lord Antony, then recognizes Suzanne and, beaming, goes to her.

The comtesse forbids Suzanne from greeting Marguerite. The room is frozen in shocked silence. The comtesse curtsies to the men and departs for her rooms. Suzanne starts to follow but turns suddenly and runs to Marguerite. They hug and kiss, and Suzanne hurries after her mother.

Marguerite declares the comtesse unpleasant and ugly, then mimics perfectly the lady’s insult. The men burst into laughter. 

Sir Percy Blakeney steps into the room. Tall, powerfully built, and handsome, the fabulously wealthy young baronet, a friend of the Prince of Wales, is known chiefly for his “inane laugh” and boring conversation. Somehow, though, the dull man captured the heart of the much sought-after Marguerite, whose Parisian salons attracted the cream of artistic and intellectual circles, and he brought “the cleverest woman in Europe” (29) with him to England.

Raised mostly abroad, Sir Percy inherited an enormous fortune, traveled widely, and returned to England with Marguerite. Their tastes quickly became fashionable, and the couple remained popular, even as his wife regularly made fun of Sir Percy’s rather dim wits.

He greets his wife, who says she just now suffered a minor insult. At this, the vicomte rises and offers to fight Sir Percy as the proper way to settle the problem. Sir Percy, baffled, doesn’t understand but instead compliments the vicomte on his excellent English and confesses to being quite unable to speak French as perfectly. Angry, the vicomte repeats that he wishes to engage Sir Percy in a duel. The baronet waves this off, saying he never duels, and sits.

Marguerite and Antony manage to soothe the vicomte’s feathers. She and Sir Percy banter a bit, the wife getting the better of her man, he taking it all in good humor. She excuses herself to meet with her brother, who’ll arrive at the inn shortly on his way back to France. Sir Percy bows her out the door; only Andrew notices Percy’s brief look of anguish as she leaves without acknowledging her husband. 

Marguerite’s brother, Armand, drops by briefly on his way back to France. Tearfully, she begs him to be careful in their home country. They’re both revolutionaries fed up with the recent violence, and Armand’s work to halt the bloodshed will be dangerous.

Armand asks if Sir Percy knows about her involvement in the condemnation of the Marquis de St Cyr and the extenuating circumstances that prove her innocence in that affair. She says he learned about it from others, and she’s been unable to explain her role to him properly: “And now I have the satisfaction, Armand, of knowing that the biggest fool in England has the most complete contempt for his wife” (37).

Armand protests that Sir Percy loves her. She admits that she married him because his love was so concentrated on her that, despite his limited intellect, it pierced her heart, and she fell in love for the first time. Now she despairs of ever being able to share that love with him. 

At sunset, Marguerite stands at the cliff near the restaurant and watches her husband’s yacht, the Day Dream, sail over the horizon carrying Armand toward France. Hurt by her husband’s contempt, she ridicules him to show that she, too, can do the same. Now she regrets having chastised him too well.

She recalls how her brother, a commoner, sent a letter to the daughter of the Marquis de St Cyr and received in reply a severe thrashing from the marquis’ valets. Two years later, she learned through channels that the marquis was in contact with Austria, seeking military aid against the revolution. Angry over his treatment toward her brother, “impulsive, thoughtless, not calculating the purport of her words” (40), Marguerite let slip the information in conversation, and the next day the marquis was arrested. He and his family were promptly executed.

She confessed her foolish act to Sir Percy shortly after they married, and promptly his love for her vanished. She heads back to the inn but is intercepted by one of the men who played dominoes earlier, Chauvelin. She greets him warmly. They chat; she admits that her marriage has palled. He asks suddenly if she will do a favor for France: learn the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel so the ruling council can defeat him.

The idea of the Scarlet Pimpernel sets Marguerite’s heart to pounding: That is the man she should have loved. Still, she protests that she’s in no position to locate him. Chauvelin retorts that she’s at the very center of English society. She refuses to do his “dirty work” but agrees to see him in London. She turns and enters the inn. Chauvelin simply smiles. 

Sir Percy and Marguerite ride to London aboard his carriage, Percy driving—he loves to do so—and Marguerite sitting beside him, enjoying the cool evening breeze. Despite his limited mind, Sir Percy has an excellent whip hand and says little on the drive. Marguerite always enjoys the quiet exhilaration.

At The Fisherman’s Rest, only Antony and Andrew remain in the coffee room, seated before the fire. The two men whisper about the recent rescue of the de Tournay family. Andrew reports that the Scarlet Pimpernel, dressed as an old hag, drove the evacuees to safety. He wants Antony to meet him in a few days in France to complete the rescue of the Comte de Tournay. Armand St Just will rendezvous with them. The risk will be great: “’twill be a tough job, and tax even the ingenuity of our chief” (50).

Sir Andrew also reports that a French agent, Chauvelin, is in England with a team of spies hoping to learn the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel. For now, the League must limit its communications and meetings. They read together a written message from the leader, then notice a second note when it drops from Andrew’s pocket. They try to read it but hear a sound just outside the door.

Antony opens the door to investigate and is struck in the face. Andrew grapples with a man who’d lain in wait in the darkened room. Antony and Andrew are muzzled and tied up. A masked man enters the room and orders the two men taken away down the road. He removes his mask to reveal that he’s Chauvelin. He studies the papers his men retrieved from the two Englishmen, notes that Marguerite’s brother works with the English, and promises aloud, through gritted teeth, that she will have no choice now but to help him find the Scarlet Pimpernel.