The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel! A sweet little star-shaped flower commonly seen in England becomes the title of a historical, adventurous novel published in 1905, by a Baroness named Orczy. The story is set in 1792, the early stages of French Revolution, which started in 1789, with the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris on July 14, 1789. The story narrates events earlier to the beginning of the Reign of Terror, 1793-1794, when aristocrats in scores were subjected to the guillotine and whole families were massacred. The Emperor Louis XVI was guillotined in January 1793. In October the same year the Queen Marie Antoinette was executed by the same guillotine. It will rage until Napoleon Bonaparte took charge in a coup d’etat, abolishing the then ruling Directory, and the revolution ground to a halt in 1799.

In these troubled times there was a ray of hope for the harassed aristocrats of France, many of whom were rescued by a band of tightly knit 20 British aristocrats under the leadership of one calling himself the Scarlet Pimpernel.  Nobody had seen this leader, but he was known as Scarlet Pimpernel, known only by his symbol, the way side red colored flower, scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis). Stories circulated how daring he was and how ingeniously he cheated the French guards at the gates, to smuggle whole families of French aristocracy, saving them from guillotine. He was a master of disguise and evoked admiration and loyalty for his bravery and the daring feats he accomplished in the face of terror and danger. His rescue efforts rose to almost mythical levels. The rescued French families were safe in England and were seen as the refugees, liberated by the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel.

Sir Percy Blakeney a rich and famous Englishman was seen as a lazy and dim-witted aristocrat in the London circles. In one of his trips to Paris, fell head over heels in love with a beautiful, rich and intelligent woman, Marquerite, marries her and brings her to London in 1792. She was an actress and not an aristocrat in French society. The London society drooled over her and saw also how unfitting the match was; she was intelligent and admirable and Percy was just rich! No intelligence to match. Even the wife was treating him with contempt. But they all adored the Scarlet Pimpernel and his exploits, without knowing who he was. May be that was the attraction!

Marquerite was blackmailed by Chauvelin, the French envoy to England to find out the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel, using her contacts with the rich and the mighty in England society, so that he can capture him and bring him to the guillotine in France. Her own brother Armand, presently in France, was in league with the Pimpernel, and his life was in danger. With this the French envoy threatens and blackmails Marquerite.

 No one could have even remotely associated Percy with the Scarlet Pimpernel, the daring, highly intelligent and formidable swordsman, with quick-thinking, master of disguise. But in a ball one evening Marquerite finds out to her horror that her husband indeed was the elusive Pimpernel. But she had already implicated him unknowingly to Chauvelin, who was now tailing Percy, who had just left for France on another mission of his. Smitten by remorse, Marquerite takes the next boat to France, crossing the Chanel, along with one of the loyal supporters of the Pimpernel, to warn her husband that his identity has been compromised, unwittingly by his own wife.

Chauvelin comes to a decrepit inn, where Percy was supposed to lodge, and there they meet face to face, but Percy manages to give a slip to the French envoy and disappears into the night. Marquerite follows her husband and walks straight into the hands of Chauvelin, who is only too happy to have her as a captive to lure Percy and he proceeds to hut near the coast, the supposed hide out of Percy, making an old Jew to take them there by his cart. But by his clever disguise as a dirty old Jew, Percy manages to throw wool over the eyes of Chauvelin and escapes with Marquerite, who was quite contrite by now, and sails to England in the waiting boat, along with her brother and another of the French aristocrat, whose family Percy had already saved.

The double life led by Percy, as a floppy rich man in London society and the heroic but anonymous Scarlet Pimpernel, saving aristocrats from France is quite romantic. He helped aristocrats to escape from France and the guillotine by adopting ingenious methods, disguises and daring bravery. His wife, by the arduous journey she undertook to warn him, had proved her loyalty to her husband and her trustworthiness to his cause, and wiped off her guilt of having betrayed him. They return to England and lived happily ever after!

It is possible that this very famous novel written by Baroness Orczy which was staged as a play successfully and later made into a film, was the forerunner for later spy super-heroes like Super Man, Batman, Zorro, etc. It contains themes like courage, deception, power and pride and heroism. Loyalty is a major theme in the story.

Though Chauvelin and Prince of Wales, latter King George IV, and many other aristocrats described both from England and French societies are historical, Percy, the Scarlet Pimpernel himself might not be a true historical figure. But there were other such brave aristocrats in England, who had helped the French aristocrats to escape guillotine. The historical events narrated like the Reign of Terror and the horrible guillotine and the massacre of the aristocrats in France are all true and factual.  

It is also a point to remember that Wesley of Methodist fame, is credited with saving England and its aristocrats from a revolution as it happened in France. At about the same time (17-3-1791), he went around the slums and downtrodden folks, illiterate and easily enflamed, preaching Christ and his love and peace as written in the gospels. He organized schools for them, educated them, worked for nearly 60 years among the working class of the British, to uplift them with the message of Christ that all are equal in the eyes of our God, the Creator, which gave the poor a sense of dignity and acceptance, which they had not received from the hierarchical society. That is the power of Gospel, and the love which God showed humanity through the death of his Son, for saving humanity from their sins. As an aftermath, the ruling class of Britain, started many reforms in the working conditions of the poor and welfare services to save Britain from such massacre of the ruling class! But, it is God's love through His Son Jesus Christ that won in the end.