The Scarlet Pimpernel

s, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate. The hour, some little time before sunset, and the place, the Wes

ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity. The carnage had only ceased at this late hour of the day

a Greve and made for the various barricades in o

ho since the Crusades had made the glory of France: her old NOBLESSE. Their ancestors had oppressed the people, had crushed them under the scarlet heels of their dainty buckled shoes, and now the

victims-old men, young women, tiny children until the day when it wo

for two hundred years now the people had sweated, and toiled, and starved, to keep a lustful court in lavish extravagance; now the descendants of

rious disguises, under various pretexts, they tried to slip through the barriers, which were so well guarded by citizen soldiers of the Republic. Men in women's clothes, women in male attire, children disguised in beggars' rags: there were some of all sorts: CI-DEVANT counts, marquises, even d

ect disguise. Then, of course, the fun began. Bibot would look at his prey as a cat looks upon the mouse, play with him, sometimes for quite a quarter of an

g round that West Barricade, in order to see him catch an aristo i

lly had escaped out of Paris, and might even manage to reach the coast of England in safety, but Bibot would let the unfortunate wret

chioness, who looked terribly comical when she found herself in Bibot's clutches after all, and knew tha

ust of blood grows with its satisfaction, there is no satiety: the crowd had seen a hundred noble heads fall

g terrified and tried their hardest to slip out of Paris: men, women and children, whose ancestors, even in remote ages, had served those traitorous Bourbons, were all traitors themselves and right food for the guill

eal and Bibot was proud of the fact that he on his own in

and in reaching England safely. There were curious rumours about these escapes; they had become very frequent and singularly daring; the people's minds were becoming st

wful victims destined for Madame la Guillotine. These rumours soon grew in extravagance; there was no doubt that this band of meddlesome Englishmen did exist; moreover, they seemed to be under the leadership of a man whose pl

hers it would be handed to him by someone in the crowd, whilst he was on his way to the sitting of the Committee of Public Safety. The paper always contained a brief notice that the band of meddlesome Englishmen were at work, and it was always signed with a device drawn in red-a little star-shap

liberal rewards were offered for the capture of these daring and impudent Englishmen. There was a sum of

ody's mind; and so, day after day, people came to watch him at the West Gate, so as to be present whe

itoyen Grospierre was a fool! Had it been

ound to express his contempt

en, citoyen?" as

Scarlet Pimpernel. He won't get through MY gate, MORBLEU! unless he be the devil himself. But Grospierre was a fool. The market carts were going through the gates; there was one laden with casks, and driv

round the group of ill-clad wretch

ly. 'Yes,' says Grospierre, 'not half an hour ago.' 'And you have let them escape,' shouts the captain furiously. 'You'll go to the guillotine for this, citoyen sergeant! that cart held

en Grospierre had paid for his blunder on the

his own tale that it was some

"'remember the reward; after them, they cannot have gone far!' And

ate!" shouted the

ever go

Grospierre f

erved h

mining those c

bot exceedingly; he laughed until his sides

aristos weren't in the cart; the d

ha

at damned Englishman in disguise, an

ough the Republic had abolished God, it had not quite succeeded in killing the fear of the

in the west. Bibot prepared

the carts,

or market the next morning. They were mostly well known to Bibot, as they went through his gate twice every day on their way to

, "and I'm not going to be cau

or claimed every day. It was great fun to see the aristos arriving for the reception of Madame la Guillotine, and the places close by the platform were very much sought after. Bibot, during the day, had been on duty on the Place

o one of these horrible hag

er. Now she had fastened a row of curly locks to the whip handle, all colours, from gold to s

h, "he cut these off for me from the heads as they rolled down. He has promi

e was, could not help shuddering at the awful loathsomeness of this s

he plague! If it is, I sha'n't be allowed to come into Paris to-morrow." At the first mention of the word small-pox, Bi

crowd hastily avoided the cart, leaving it

d hag

a coward," she said. "Bah! what

U! the

loathsome malady, the one thing which still had the power to

your plague-stricken broo

jest, the old hag whipped up her lean

ly death. They hung about the barricades, silent and sullen for a while, eyeing one another suspiciously, avoiding each other as if by instinct, lest the plague lurked already in their mids

breathlessly, even before

" asked Bib

d hag. . . . A c

ere a do

said her son h

s .

not let

se purple cheeks had sudde

se de Tourney and her two children, all

d Bibot, as a superstitious

it is feared that it was that accursed