unusually good-looking, but for a certain lazy expression in his deep-set blue eyes, and that perpetual inane laugh which seemed to disfigure his strong, clearly-cut mouth.

While Sir Percy's physical appearance is deceptive, he cleverly orchestrates many successful smugglings of French aristocrats out of the country.

• Mr. Jellybean is the owner of the Dover inn, the Fisherman's Rest, where the Pimpernel and his fellow conspirators meet.
• Sergeant Bibot is a guard, who is known for his ability to detect smuggled aristocrats. Although credited with capturing fifty aristocrats, Bibot's goal is to apprehend the Scarlet Pimpernel.
• Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney is famous for her beauty and charm. Many wonder why she has married Sir Percy, but Lady Blakeney knows his secret and is aware of Sir Percy's charms. Note how her description follows that of Sir Percy,

Tall, above the average with magnificent presence and regal figure, it is small wonder that even the Comtesse paused for a moment in involuntary admiration....She is ...scarcely five-and-twenty.

• Chauvelin is the antagonist. The chief villain, Chauvelin is a French agent with English diplomacy. He comes to England as he follows Sir Percy's trail and hopes to entrap him through subterfuge involving Lady Blakeney that is to make Sir Percy believe that she has betrayed him.
• Armand St. Just is the brother of Lady Blakeney. He is exploited by Chauvelin to blackmail his sister in an effort to get Sir Percy. St. Just also works closely with Sir Percy.
• Sir Andrew Ffoulkes is a close friend of Sir Percy. He works closely with the Scarlet Pimpernel and Lady Blakeney comes to him when she learns that Percy is in grave danger of being arrested.
• Comtesse de Tournay is rescued early in the narrative, but her husband is not. The Count de Tournay's rescue from France then dominates the main action of the plot. The Comtesse feels a certain antipathy toward Lady Blakeney because she believes that her family was destroyed by Lady Blakeney's report to the tribunal, a report that condemns the Marquis de St. Cyr, her father.
• Lord Greenville is an Englishman who holds a ball where Lady Blakeney and Chauvelin plan to capture the Scarlet Pimpernel.
• Degas is a trusted henchman of Chauvelin, always sent to gather soldiers to arrest the Pimpernel, but he consistently arrives too late.
• Brogard is the owner of the Chat Gris (grey cat) Inn where Sir Percy and Chauvelin have their face-off.

A story's action rises as its conflicts begin to play out and a tension develops that steadily increases as the plot reaches toward it climax. In The Scarlet Pimpernel, the action rises as the French agent Chauvelin tricks Lady Marguerite Blakeney into helping him discover the identity of the slippery Scarlet Pimpernel, a sly, tricky, clever fellow who has been helping French noble families escape the guillotine. Marguerite has some extra motivation for helping Chauvelin: her brother is at the agent's mercy.

To her horror, however, Marguerite soon discovers that the Scarlet Pimpernel is none other than her own husband, the seemingly dull and uninteresting Sir Percy. It is too late for Marguerite to prevent Chauvelin from following Sir Percy into France, and the audience reads with gusto as Marguerite hurries to save her husband.

The tension continues to mount as Sir Percy, disguised as a priest, slips away from Chauvelin with a clever snuff-that-is-really-pepper trick. Chauvelin, realizing that he has once again been outsmarted by the Scarlet Pimpernel, dashes after him with Marguerite close behind. Along the way, the agent talks to an old Jewish man who takes him to the hut he seeking, but the Scarlet Pimpernel is not there. As Chauvelin rushes off in another direction, the story reaches its climax, and the Jew unmasks himself as Sir Percy, the Scarlet Pimpernel in person.

Citizen Chauvelin is the villain of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's play and novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel. He is the enemy of Sir Percy Blakeney and the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. He is a member of the National Assembly as well as the Committee for Public Safety, and as a fierce patriot, he wants to punish the Scarlet Pimpernel for helping members of the ancien regime nobility escape the fallout of the French Revolution. Chauvelin comes to suspect Blakeney's involvement with the League and blackmails his wife, Marguerite, after finding that her brother had close ties to the Pimpernel. Though she tries to protect her brother and husband from Chauvelin, she mistakenly leads him to finding out that Blakeney is, in fact, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Chauvelin chases Blakeney to Calais, where he intends to capture him, but the man escapes to safety in England.

Armand St. Just is the younger brother of Marguerite St. Just (Lady Blackeney), a famous actress. Their parents died when they were young. They are very close siblings. While in Paris, Marguerite marries Percy Blackeney, a large man who is considered to be dim-witted, but he is secretly the Scarlet Pimpernel, who saves members of the French aristocracy from death by guillotine. The antagonist is Chauvelin, a French spy, who goes to England to find anyone who is trying to save French aristocrats. Chauvelin uses Armand St. Just to blackmail his sister to try to get to the Scarlet Pimpernel. Armand St. Just is also in collusion with the Scarlet Pimpernel and is a member of the Scarlet Pimpernel League.

Mr. Pitt is only referred to in the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. He is not a character that is physically present in the story. "Mr. Pitt" in the novel is a reference to William Pitt "The Younger," who was the Prime Minister of Britain during the French Revolution. He was Britain's youngest Prime Minister. At first he was sympathetic to the cause of the French Revolution. Later, he changed his stance on the Revolution. After the King of France, Louis XVI, was executed by the guillotine at the hands of the revolutionaries, Pitt "expelled the French ambassador" from England. He became a great defender of the established ways of society, which contrasted greatly with the changes in France. Pitt did not want upheaval in his own country.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is the title of a historical novel by the prolific novelist and short story writer Baroness Emma Orczy (see reference link below). It is the first novel in a series of historical fiction which is set during the Reign of Terror at the time of the French Revolution. The Scarlet Pimpernel was first published in 1905. It features the daring exploits of an English gentleman who uses the alias of "The Scarlet Pimpernel." His real name is Sir Percy Blakeney. He poses as a fop and an idler, but in reality is devoting his time and resources to rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine. The hero of the whole series of historical novels typically leaves his calling card behind after each of his successful exploits. The card simply bears a picture of the small red flower named "the scarlet pimpernel." No one is able to discover the true identity of the mysterious adventurer and brilliant swordsman who calls himself The Scarlet Pimpernel. The character became a favorite with Hollywood filmmakers. There were a dozen Scarlet Pimpernel movies made between 1917 and 1982. The best-known of these is The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) starring Leslie Howard, an English actor who is now mainly remembered as one of the leading characters in the movie Gone With the Wind (1940). The 1934 film version of The Scarlet Pimpernel is available on DVD. A British television series titled The Scarlet Pimpernel was brought out in 1999. It is also available on DVD.