The Scarlet Pimpernel

A fishing town on the coast of France a short distance across the English Channel from Dover, Calais is where the Scarlet Pimpernel rendezvous with his lieutenants and their escaping nobles for the quick boat trip to England. (Even today, Calais is a stopping point for refugees trying to reach the British Isles.) The rank-smelling sea town, with its grimy inns and surly people, is meant to represent the dangers to Marguerite, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and his volunteers when they visit France.

The schooner Day Dream, owned by Sir Percy Blakeney, transports him and guests from London out into the English Channel, where it sails from Dover to Calais and the north coast of France on missions of mercy, taking escaped innocents from the deadly peril of the French Revolution to the peaceful safety of England. With its tall, triangular sails, the beautiful craft is well manned and modern; it’s a symbol of the Scarlet Pimpernel’s vast resources; its appearance always bodes rescue.

The Fisherman’s Rest is an inn at Dover, a fishing town on the southeast English coast where the Scarlet Pimpernel’s League members bring to shore French aristocrats whom they’ve rescued from the Reign of Terror. It’s also where