The Scarlet Pimpernel was first published in 1905 and has proved to be Orczy's most famous and popular novel. The work was originally rejected by publishers, so she refashioned it as a play, with little initial success. The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in 1792 during the French Revolution, but centres on an English hero performing great and brave deeds in a violent and murderous climate. Marguerite St Just is a beautiful French actress, who is married to the English fop, Sir Percy Blakeney. The couple have become estranged as Marguerite has tired of her husband's seemingly superficial lifestyle. She has heard about the exploits of the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel - an unknown English man - who is daily helping French aristocrats to escape the Revolution. She is captivated and entranced by the stories surrounding him but is soon forced into a position where she must assist the French ambassador to England in capturing the elusive man.

Citizen Chauvelin, of the Committee of Public Safety, presents citizen Fouquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor, with the most extraordinary claim:

"The dangerous English spy known to the world as the Scarlet Pimpernel," he says, "is now safely under lock and key. He must be transferred to the Abbaye prison forthwith -- and to the guillotine as quickly as might be. No one is to take any risks this time. There must be no question either of discrediting his famous League, or of obtaining other more valuable information out of him. Such methods have proved disastrous!"

There are no safe Englishmen these days, except the dead ones -- and it will not take citizen Fouquier-Tinville much thought or time to frame an indictment against the notorious Scarlet Pimpernel . . . and "that" will do away with the necessity of a prolonged trial. The revolutionary government is at war with England now, and short work can be made of all poisonous spies!

English novelist and playwright Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865-1947) achieved enduring success with her novels of politics and intrigue set during the time of the French Revolution.

So it must also come from those members of the Blakeney family in whose veins runs the blood of that Sir Percy Blakeney -- who is known to history as the Scarlet Pimpernel -- for they in a manner are responsible for the telling of this veracious chronicle.

For the past eight years now -- ever since the true story of The Scarlet Pimpernel was put on record by the present author -- these gentle, kind, inquisitive friends have asked me to trace their descent back to an ancestor more remote than was Sir Percy.

Strangely enough his history has never been written before. it is to the man himself -- to the memory of him which is so alive here in Haarlem -- that I am indebted for the true history of his life, and therefore I feel that but little apology is needed for placing the true facts before all those who have known him hitherto only by his picture, who have loved him only for what they guessed.

The monograph which I now present with but few additions of minor details, goes to prove what I myself had known long ago, namely, that the Laughing Cavalier who sat to Frans Hals for his portrait in 1624 was the direct ancestor of Sir Percy Blakeney, known to history as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

My name is Ratichon - Hector Ratichon, at your service, and I make so bold as to say that not even my worst enemy would think of minimizing the value of my services to the State. For twenty years now have I placed my powers at the disposal of my country: I have served the Republic, and was confidential agent to Citizen Robespierre; I have served the Empire, and was secret factotum to our great Napoleon; I have served King Louis - with a brief interval of one hundred days - for the past two years, and I can only repeat that no one, in the whole of France, has been so useful or so zealous in tracking criminals, nosing out conspiracies, or denouncing traitors as I have been. And yet you see me a poor man to this day: there has been a persistently malignant Fate which has worked against me all these years, and would - but for a happy circumstance of which I hope anon to tell you - have left me just as I was, in the matter of fortune, when I first came to Paris and set up in business as a volunteer police agent at No, 96 Rue Daunou.

"There have been more escapes" -- engineered by a band of Englishmen of unparalleled daring who, in a mad spirit of sheer meddling, devote their spare hours to snatching away lawful victims destined for "Madame la Guillotine!"

No one has seen these mysterious Englishmen. As for their leader, he is never spoken of, save with a superstitious shudder. Scraps of paper appear from some mysterious source -- announcing that the band of meddlesome Englishmen are at work . . . and always it is signed with a singular device drawn in red, of a little star-shaped flower -- called in England the Scarlet Pimpernel.

English novelist and playwright Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865-1947) achieved her greatest success with her 1905 novel set in the time of Robespierre. Dramatized in collaboration with her husband that same year, in its movie version, starring Leslie Howard and James Mason, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" has become a perennial favorite.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in 1792 during the French Revolution, but centres on an English hero performing great and brave deeds in a violent and murderous climate. Marguerite St Just is a beautiful French actress, who is married to the English fop, Sir Percy Blakeney. The couple have become estranged as Marguerite has tired of her husband's seemingly superficial lifestyle. She has heard about the exploits of the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel - an unknown English man - who is daily helping French aristocrats to escape the Revolution. She is captivated and entranced by the stories surrounding him, but is soon forced into a position where she must assist the French ambassador to England in capturing the elusive man. Orczy's novel unfolds with a series of twists and turns, with frequent moments of excitement and tension.