I will Repay
Baroness Emma Orczy
Historical Romance
Published 1906
Synopsis
Set primarily in Paris and England during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, this novel illustrates how personal vengeance collides with romance and political danger. Juliette de Marny, a young aristocrat who witnesses the death of her brother in a duel, vows to destroy his killer, the Republican lawyer Paul Déroulède. When Juliette deliberately inserts herself into Déroulède’s life to fulfil her plan of revenge, she unexpectedly falls in love with him, creating a profound inner conflict between her oath and her affection. Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and his League arrive to assist them when both lovers face the threat of revolutionary justice. Forgiveness, transformation of hatred, and the folly of blind vengeance are woven through the historical backdrop of intense political violence and social upheaval.
Novel Excerpt
That night, when Blakeney, wrapped in his cloak, was walking down the Rue Ecole de Médecine towards his own lodgings, he suddenly felt a timid hand upon his sleeve.
Anne Mie stood beside him, her pale, melancholy face peeping up at the tall Englishman, through the folds of a dark hood closely tied under her chin.
“Monsieur,” she said timidly, “do not think me very presumptuous. I— I would wish to have five minutes’ talk with you—may I?”
He looked down with great kindness at the quaint, wizened little figure, and the strong face softened at the sight of the poor, deformed shoulder, the hard, pinched look of the young mouth, the general look of pathetic helplessness which appeals so strongly to the chivalrous.
“Indeed, mademoiselle,” he said gently, “you make me very proud; and I can serve you in any way, I pray you command me. But,” he added, seeing Anne Mie’s somewhat scared look, “this street is scarce fit for private conversation. Shall we try and find a better spot?”
Paris had not yet gone to bed. In these times it was really safest to be out in the open streets. There, everybody was more busy, more on the move, on the lookout for suspected houses, leaving the wanderer alone.
Blakeney led Anne Mie towards the Luxembourg Gardens, the great devastated pleasure-ground of the ci-devant tyrants of the people. The beautiful Anne of Austria, and the Medici before her, Louis XIII, and his gallant musketeers—all have given place to the great cannon-forging industry of this besieged Republic. France, attacked on every side, is forcing her sons to defend her: persecuted, martyrised, done to death by her, she is still their Mother: La Patrie, who needs their arms against the foreign foe. England is threatening the north, Prussia and Austria the east. Admiral Hood’s flag is flying on Toulon Arsenal.
The siege of the Republic!
And the Republic is fighting for dear life. The Tuileries and Luxembourg Gardens are transformed into a township of gigantic smithies; and Anne Mie, with scared eyes, and clinging to Blakeney’s arm, cast furtive, terrified glances at the huge furnaces and the begrimed, darkly scowling faces of the workers within.