Scarlet Pimpernel

In the 1790's, as the French Revolution had progressed to guillotinings, Sir Perceval Blakenly, pretending to play the fop when in aristocratic society, decided to become The Scarlet Pimpernel. While he did not wear a costume, he used various disguises to smuggle out aristocrats targeted for execution. He worked with other British aristocrats such as Sir Anthony Dewhurst and Timothy Hastings, who curiously did not attempt to conceal their identities from the aristocrats that they saved, in the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The League's success was modest at best (as assessed by Public Safety agent Paul Chauvelin), since they could not operate at too large a size without sacrificing secrecy, but the French leader Robespierre feared the Pimpernel would inspire the hopes of those who thought they could restore the monarchy.

One day, Blakenly managed to scare off some hoodlums hired to attack Armand St. Just, who had apparently been seen with the daughter of the Marquis de St. Cyr. Armand St. Just served as an aid to Chauvelin. Blakenly and St. Just became friends and confidants, Percy revealing his second identity to St. Just, and Percy married Armand's sister, Marguerite, a stage star. Blakenly sought to free the heir to the throne, held in the Temple prison and supervised by jailer Duvall, so Armand's position with Chauvelin facilitated the League's intelligence on the boy's condition. Chauvelin, who had previously been Marguerite's fiancé, enraged that she would marry an aristocrat, had the Marquis arrested and his entire family killed, and many came to believe that Marguerite had put him up to it.

Chauvelin also sought to ferret out the Scarlet Pimpernel. Deducing that the Pimpernel was probably a wealthy man and an aristocrat, he decided to become the ambassador to Great Britain. Armand came with him to his position at the consulate. Chauvelin's agents murdered a courier they surmized as serving the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and retrieved a missive from the Pimpernel to St. Just. With this watertight evidence in hand, Chauvelin ordered Armand to return to France, and proceeded to blackmail Marguerite to serve as a spy for him. With an important society ball at the Grenvilles coming up, Chauvelin predicted that members of the League might use it as an opportunity to surreptiously pass communiqués. They did, and Marguerite managed to retrieve a scrap of paper that a League member had tried to burn referring to a meeting in the library at midnight. Chauvelin, however, was distracted when a female aristocrat asked him to dance, and not wanting to raise suspicions, Chauvelin went along; however, the room swiftly crowded up. This delay allowed Marguerite to go to the library and warn the hiding Pimpernel (who she did not see) of Chauvelin's arrival. Sir Percy, thinking quickly, pretended to slumber on the couch. Chauvelin did arrive around midnight and saw Percy there, but thinking him a fop, thought nothing of it-until he saw that one of Lady Blakenly's earrings had fallen off.

Chauvelin returned to France, only to learn that Armand, once he had returned to France, had ordered that Duvall be replaced as jailer for the heir, allegdly per a directive from Chauvelin having to do with Duvall being in debt and thus prone to bribery. However, Chauvelin had given no such directions; though Duvall's replacements were loyal citizens, the man sent to move the property of the Duvalls from their quarters in the Temple prison was a disguised Percy Blakenly, who absconded with the heir and left a dummy behind, delivering the boy to one of his men to be transported to a castle overlooking the coast.

Chauvelin still managed to capture Armand, and then Percy when he fell for a trap. Marguerite visited Percy in jail, and Blakenly passed his signet ring to his spouse. Marguerite used the signet to sign a note releasing the care of the dauphin to the aristocrat the Baron de Batz, who delivered the boy to his mother's family across the border. After he was sure the boy had made it, Percy told Chauvelin he would divulge the location of the boy to him, but that his men would only release him if Chauvelin brought Percy with him so that the League could see him; they would only trade the boy for Percy. Armand and Marguerite came with them as well. Reaching the castle, Chauvelin sent a group of soldiers to check out the castle. Receiving a sign indicating that he could enter the castle safely, Chauvelin went in with Percy, Armand and Marguerite. Finding out from a uniformed man that the boy was gone, and the League apparently fled, Chauvelin ordered Percy executed on the spot. However, a sudden surprise jolted Chauvelin; the League had managed to get the drop on and bind the soldiers Chauvelin sent in, and had stolen their clothes; to his horror, Chauvelin realized how, oblivious, the "soldiers" he saw wore uniforms too tight or loose. With Percy's yacht anchored on the other side of the castle, the League incapacitated Chauvelin, and they were able to slip away from France.

Comments

This TV movie inspired Lauren Willig to write the Pink Carnation. Some homages to the shorter, sketchier 1935 movie version of the story, while also adapting the novel El Dorado.

Baroness Orczy was critcized by Joseph McCabe for setting the terror earlier in the Revolution than it in fact had developed.

A scene where Percy and the dauphin hide within a rotted tree seems inspired from an incident in the life of Charles II of England.