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Baroness Orczy
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Less than half an hour later Marguerite is in the coach for London. She has sent Suzanne home, written a respectful excuse to the Prince, ordered horses at Faversham, changed into a dark travelling dress, and taken money Percy's lavishness always placed at her disposal. She will not nurse fond delusions. Chauvelin returned Armand's letter because he is satisfied that Percy is the man he has sworn to kill. Unwittingly she has betrayed the husband she would die for. At the Crown she rests the horses, then takes a chair to Sir Andrew's Pall Mall chambers. Of Percy's friends she prefers him: he has always been hers, and his love for Suzanne binds him closer. He enters startled and suspicious. She wastes no time. The Scarlet Pimpernel, her husband, Percy Blakeney, is in deadly peril. Andrew goes pale and cannot parry. She lays out the stolen plans, Percy's own errand, Chauvelin's road to Calais, and the trap that will close on the Comte, on Armand, and on the leader once the hiding-places are known.
He still does not trust her. She seizes his shoulders and asks if she looks like a woman who would betray her own husband. He asks whose hand guided Chauvelin. Mine, she says quietly. She will not lie. She had no idea of the identity, and Armand's safety was to be her prize. His oath of secrecy strains. There are nineteen ready to die for the chief. She does not need lives, she says: wits and four swift horses. She must know where to find him. She has owned her fault and her weakness. If he will not help she will still go, and arrive perhaps too late.
Touched, he warns that the journey is a man's work and her chances remote. She hopes there are risks: she has so much to atone for. He awaits her orders. They will meet at nightfall at The Fisherman's Rest, charter a schooner, and he will go disguised as her lacquey. It will be a race between Chauvelin and me across the Channel tonight, she says, and the prize the life of the Scarlet Pimpernel. A quarter of an hour later the coach thunders onto the Dover road. She allows herself a few brighter thoughts of the shadowy king who was always Percy, then the wheels soothe her aching eyes. Will a night's sleep in a racing coach be enough, or has the hour already gone?
You may need help from the very people your mistake endangered. Marguerite tells Sir Andrew that her hand guided Chauvelin, then asks him to meet her at The Fisherman's Rest and cross with her tonight.
If you need allies after a betrayal this week, confess the part that was yours and ask for one concrete action immediately.
This chapter
"I own it" she says, because she wants him to trust her enough to cross. Andrew has to hear that the League's enemy was guided by the chief's wife. His choice is not forgiveness. It is whether the work can still use a person who has already been used against it.
Continue this thoughtThe Ring That Joins the Two NamesIt is late into the night when she reaches The Fisherman's Rest, the whole journey done in less than eight hours. Sally jumps from bed, Jellyband relights the coffee-room lamp, and neither dares show surprise that Lady Blakeney has arrived alone.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Acting Despite Misunderstanding.
The card below names the pattern this chapter proves — carry it with you into the original text.
Acting Despite Misunderstanding
Marguerite finds Sir Andrew and says it plain: Percy is the Pimpernel, Chauvelin is on the road to Calais, and her hand guided the enemy. Andrew hesitates on an oath, then agrees. They will meet at the Fisherman's Rest and race the Channel.
Key Insight
Once she knows, she does not ask to be forgiven first. She asks for a crossing. Understanding arrives as work, not as a speech.
Chapter 20
THE FRIEND Less than half an hour later, Marguerite, buried in thoughts, sat inside her coach, which was bearing her swiftly to London. She had taken an affectionate farewell of little Suzanne, and seen the child safely started with her maid, and in her own coach, back to town. She had sent one courier with a respectful letter of excuse to His Royal Highness, begging for a postponement of the august visit on account of pressing and urgent business, and another on ahead to bespeak a fresh relay of horses at Faversham. Then she had changed her muslin frock for…
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
Watch the same man refuse a duel as a fool in Dover and sign a red flower in Paris.
Follow the League from Bibot's gate to the false creek that sends Chauvelin away from the Day Dream.
Sit in the opera box while Chauvelin lays Armand's letter on the choice between a brother and a hero.
Drive the plague cart past Bibot in chapter 1, then bargain as Benjamin Rosenbaum while Chauvelin climbs into the faster cart.
Tell Percy about St. Cyr after the wedding, then stand on the Richmond terrace while he kisses the stone she already left.
Deep diving the literary elements.
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