The-Scarlet-Pimpernel

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fine day, just like that, without any warning to her friends,without a SOIREE DE CONTRAT or DINER DE FIAN-CAILLES or other appurtenances of a fashionable Frenchwedding.How that stupid, dull Englishman ever came to be admittedwithin the intellectual circle which revolved round‘the cleverest woman in Europe,’ as her friends unanimouslycalled her, no one ventured to guess—golden key is said toopen every door, asserted the more malignantly inclined.Enough, she married him, and ‘the cleverest woman inEurope’ had linked her fate to that ‘demmed idiot’ Blakeney,and not even her most intimate friends could assignto this strange step any other motive than that of supremeeccentricity. Those friends who knew, laughed to scorn theidea that Marguerite St. Just had married a fool for the sakeof the worldly advantages with which he might endow her.They knew, as a matter of fact, that Marguerite St. Just carednothing about money, and still less about a title; moreover,there were at least half a dozen other men in the cosmopolitanworld equally well-born, if not so wealthy as Blakeney,who would have been only too happy to give Marguerite St.Just any position she might choose to covet.As for Sir Percy himself, he was universally voted to betotally unqualified for the onerous post he had taken uponhimself. His chief qualifications for it seemed to consist inhis blind adoration for her, his great wealth and the highfavour in which he stood at the English court; but Londonsociety thought that, taking into consideration his own intellectuallimitations, it would have been wiser on his part58The Scarlet Pimpernel
had he bestowed those worldly advantages upon a less brilliantand witty wife.Although lately he had been so prominent a figure infashionable English society, he had spent most of his earlylife abroad. His father, the late Sir Algernon Blakeney, hadhad the terrible misfortune of seeing an idolized young wifebecome hopelessly insane after two years of happy marriedlife. Percy had just been born when the late Lady Blakeneyfell prey to the terrible malady which in those days waslooked upon as hopelessly incurable and nothing short ofa curse of God upon the entire family. Sir Algernon tookhis afflicted young wife abroad, and there presumably Percywas educated, and grew up between an imbecile mother anda distracted father, until he attained his majority. The deathof his parents following close upon one another left him afree man, and as Sir Algernon had led a forcibly simple andretired life, the large Blakeney fortune had increased tenfold.Sir Percy Blakeney had travelled a great deal abroad, beforehe brought home his beautiful, young, French wife. Thefashionable circles of the time were ready to receive themboth with open arms; Sir Percy was rich, his wife was accomplished,the Prince of Wales took a very great liking tothem both. Within six months they were the acknowledgedleaders of fashion and of style. Sir Percy’s coats were thetalk of the town, his inanities were quoted, his foolish laughcopied by the gilded youth at Almack’s or the Mall. Everyoneknew that he was hopelessly stupid, but then that wasscarcely to be wondered at, seeing that all the Blakeneys forFree eBooks at Planet eBook.com59
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The Scarlet PimpernelBy Baroness Or
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men, women, and children, who happe
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fugitive would prove to be a woman,
Page 7 and 8: the Scarlet Pimpernel. Within a few
Page 9 and 10: ‘He deserved his fate!’‘Fancy
Page 11 and 12: had stepped hastily backwards, and
Page 13 and 14: CHAPTER IIDOVER: ‘THEFISHERMAN’
Page 15 and 16: setting her frilled cap at its most
Page 17 and 18: e he lord, yeoman, or peasant, the
Page 19: ‘No,’ replied Mr. Jellyband, se
Page 22 and 23: his favourite hobby-horse, and had
Page 24 and 25: one o’ them murderin’ Frenchmen
Page 26 and 27: CHAPTER IIITHE REFUGEESFeeling in e
Page 28 and 29: pretty Sally,’ said the man who h
Page 30 and 31: ‘Nay, my lord, I believe that the
Page 32 and 33: effusively, as he came eagerly forw
Page 34 and 35: gan.‘But, I say, supper!’ here
Page 36 and 37: at the supper table.36The Scarlet P
Page 38 and 39: Not one of those at the supper tabl
Page 40 and 41: sorrow and emotion had overmastered
Page 42 and 43: ‘Oh! I wonder what he will say!
Page 44 and 45: stricken when the old hag spoke of
Page 46 and 47: ‘Faith, Madame, I did hear some v
Page 48 and 49: CHAPTER VMARGUERITEIn a moment the
Page 50 and 51: ‘My lady…er…h’m!…my lady!
Page 52 and 53: down a throne, and uprooted an aris
Page 54 and 55: curtsey to my lady.Suzanne’s swee
Page 56 and 57: CHAPTER VIAN EXQUISITE OF ‘92Sir
Page 60 and 61: generations had been notoriously du
Page 62 and 63: ‘La!’ said Sir Percy, after a m
Page 64 and 65: mit, young man, what’s the good o
Page 66 and 67: a specimen of the goods you and you
Page 68 and 69: It would have been bad form to prot
Page 70 and 71: In the distance two figures were ap
Page 72 and 73: in tears.‘Oh! Armand!’ she said
Page 74 and 75: to me that it MUST be HEAVENLY to b
Page 76 and 77: This was his first visit to England
Page 78 and 79: corum were supersensitive, had not
Page 80 and 81: tria, hoping to obtain the Emperor
Page 82 and 83: towards him.‘Chauvelin!’ she ex
Page 84 and 85: ‘No wonder,’ retorted Chauvelin
Page 86 and 87: have hats ‘a la Scarlet Pimpernel
Page 88 and 89: imagination had stirred by the thou
Page 90 and 91: ‘I’d take my chance of that,’
Page 92 and 93: CHAPTER IXTHE OUTRAGEAbeautiful sta
Page 94 and 95: of the house myself, but if your lo
Page 96 and 97: gether, and instinctively, though t
Page 98 and 99: usiness they had so much at heart,
Page 100 and 101: In the coffee-room the masked leade
Page 102 and 103: Pitt, overweighted with cares of st
Page 104 and 105: The Comtesse smiled through her tea
Page 106 and 107: Lord Grenville took a hasty farewel
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ing to look at the intruder.Chauvel
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‘About my brother?’‘I have ne
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thwart their projected COUP for the
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‘All the more noble, you mean….
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you love from the consequences of h
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to help and console. Sir Percy Blak
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CHAPTER XILORD GRENVILLE’S BALLTh
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But, above all, Chauvelin had a pur
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‘Monseigneur,’ rejoined Chauvel
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curtsey.‘Madame,’ responded the
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which had fallen over everyone. ‘
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exacted from her, in exchange for A
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That the League of the Scarlet Pimp
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All this, from the moment that Marg
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ing for another victim…Armand!…
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is undoubtedly mine, and…’ Not
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CHAPTER XIIIEITHER—OR?The few wor
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crossed his mind at the moment, she
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CHAPTER XIVONE O’CLOCK PRECISELY!
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Fate had willed it so. Marguerite,
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vice of a small star-shaped flower.
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‘Yes?—And?’‘I also, fair la
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ight silk dresses and gorgeously em
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of suppers, and a smile, that was a
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which belongs to a leader of men—
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the Scarlet Pimpernel had been warn
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‘Chauvelin,’ she said at last d
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every movement, hid the keen, fox-l
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stuffy London house. He loved drivi
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that the bays had turned into the m
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ingly into the shadows whence she h
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my dull wits cannot accompany you t
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have spoken before I married you: y
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ter a moment of silence between the
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lieve that but a few months ago one
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which…’She would have given wor
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tion of unbending pride, of fierce
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curtains and threw open the windows
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hold to be already astir.She certai
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whole frame shook with anxiety at t
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paid.’‘And mine will be at your
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any rate would not be at her door.A
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or…but Marguerite ceased to conje
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and irresolute.The door was ajar, a
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He may have wished to hide his love
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etween her exquisite dandy of a hus
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fugitive Comte de Tournay safely ou
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now—all at once…that part he pl
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steps, a groom came running round t
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eyes were fixed, her hands were tig
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ceed.And if he failed—if indeed F
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CHAPTER XXTHE FRIENDLess than half
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appeared.He had evidently been much
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these is Armand St. Just my brother
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sess for his sake; but I might be p
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shipped him, and who would gladly h
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over trifles of that sort.The coffe
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Evidently, therefore, he had been a
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the first time since many hours, a
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house, and Sir Percy Blakeney will
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lives of men, women, and even child
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CHAPTER XXIICALAISThe weariest nigh
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there was less hopelessness in the
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population, who turned with an oath
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threshold.Sir Andrew, however, had
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she would incontinently have fled f
Page 240 and 241:
and tapping Brogard lightly on the
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‘But where is he now?—Do you kn
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‘As cautiously as possible!’ he
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Blakeney, who as usual had planned
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man for whom she had committed the
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her the use of another room? She wo
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CHAPTER XXIVTHE DEATH-TRAPThe next
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greater happiness than that.And the
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perhuman effort, not to fall sensel
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of them are to keep him in view. Th
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ing him to his death—nay! to wors
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second or so.Marguerite could not s
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ed by some of Captain Jutley’s me
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doubt something of the sort must ha
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the eyes, blue, yet deep-set and in
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ackward…. Eh?’But Chauvelin was
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CHAPTER XXVITHE JEWIt took Margueri
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dared not tackle him alone. Brogard
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Percy’s fate might still be hangi
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‘He took the words out of my mout
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‘How many gold pieces are there i
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emember, if you have deceived me, I
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an expressive gesture, whilst he la
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hide her dark figure from view, whi
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scented bit of France, there lurked
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limb; already she had guessed what
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nearer to it then. The hut is very
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guish, culminating in this awful de
Page 296 and 297:
was sitting at the bottom of a roug
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so remember every syllable I utter,
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Chauvelin, in a tone that made the
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grasp the situation first, then to
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joy and hope, which yet she feared
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‘We cannot let her loose, that’
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‘Coming in quickly.’‘The scho
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til I give you leave to speak. Ah!
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dred feet away perhaps, from where
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ed as his murderer! let even he, wh
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as fast as their feet could carry t
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was no doubt now, that once again,
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small and white.‘Pick that up,’
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ing beside the prostrate form of Ma
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‘Answer!’ he again commanded, a
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ic and audacious Scarlet Pimpernel,
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in the knowledge that I do not leav
Page 330 and 331:
whilst Percy had escaped, only to h
Page 332 and 333:
would make her the happiest woman i
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‘I do know, dear…everything,’
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nature pretty well by now,’ he ad
Page 338 and 339:
‘Sir Andrew!’ she gasped.Indeed
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‘We are not going back to Calais,
Page 342 and 343:
Armand St. Just and the other fugit
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