The Scarlet Pimpernel: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart., is “still a year or two on the right side of thirty.” He is of above average height and is “massively built,” and he would be “usually good-looking” if not for the “lazy expression” in his blue eyes and his “perpetual inane laugh.” About a year ago, Sir Percy shocked England society by bringing home a French wife. Sir Percy, “the sleepiest, dullest, most British Britisher,” had married the most beautiful woman in Europe.

Marguerite St. Just, a French actress who is “lavishly gifted with beauty and talent,” was coming of age just as the French Revolution began, and since her parents were dead, her young brother, Armand, was her only chaperone. She is “from principle and by conviction a republican,” and “equality of birth” is her motto. “Money and titles may be hereditary,” Marguerite is fond of saying, “but brains are not.”

As a young, single woman, Marguerite was at the center of the European “world of intellect,” and she “glided through republican, revolutionary, bloodthirsty Paris like a shining comet” trailed by handsome, eligible men. When she abruptly married Sir Percy, others viewed it as “artistic eccentricity” that “the cleverest woman in Europe” had fallen in love with a “stupid, dull Englishman.”

Sir Percy has been “universally voted to be totally unqualified for the onerous post he had taken” in marrying Marguerite, and everyone thought it would have been better for him to have picked “a less brilliant and witty wife.” Sir Percy is a “prominent figure” in society, but most of his life has been spent abroad. His mother had gone insane not long after he was born, and since her illness was “looked upon as hopelessly incurable and nothing short of a curse of God upon the entire family,” Percy’s father moved the family from England. Both of Sir Percy’s parents are now dead, and since they lived a quiet life abroad, the Blakeney “fortune had increased tenfold.”

Everyone knows that Sir Percy is “hopelessly stupid.” The Blakeneys have been known to be “notoriously dull” for generations, but Sir Percy has the best horses and “his fêtes and wines [are] the most sought after,” so society accepts him. He appears very proud of his wife and doesn’t seem to care that Lady Blakeney doesn’t hide the “good-natured contempt” that she feels for him. She frequently “sharpens her ready wits at his expense,” but Sir Percy is “really too stupid to notice.”

“La!” yells Sir Percy as he enters the coffee-room, “how sheepish you all look…. What’s up?” Marguerite looks to him. “Oh, nothing, Sir Percy,” she says dryly, “nothing to disturb your equanimity—only an insult to your wife.” She laughs forcefully. “Begad!” replies Sir Percy, “who was the bold man who dared to tackle you—eh?” The Vicomte steps forward. He tells Sir Percy that his mother has insulted the lady, and he won’t apologize. “But I am ready to offer you the usual reparation between men of honour,” he says, drawing his sword.

Sir Percy points to the Vicomte’s sword. “What the devil is that?” he asks. “My sword, Monsieur,” he answers, confused. Sir Percy laughs, “demmit, young man, what’s the good of your sword to me?” The Vicomte stares at him. “A duel, Monsieur,” he says. Sir Percy laughs even louder and calls him “a bloodthirsty young ruffian.” Lady Blakeney looks to Sir Anthony for help. “The child is bursting with rage,” she says sarcastically, “and might do Sir Percy an injury.” Sir Percy laughs. “Clever woman my wife,” he says as Sir Tony gently puts his hand on the Vicomte’s shoulder. A duel is not the way to start his time in England, Sir Tony tells the young aristocrat.

The Vicomte drops his sword. “If I have done wrong, I withdraw myself,” he says. “Aye, do!” Sir Percy says and then yells to Mr. Jellyband for a drink. Lady Blakeney says there’s no time—the skipper of the Day Dream is coming to take Armand back to France, and she doesn’t want him to miss the tide. “Then Armand can join us in the merry bowl,” says Sir Percy. Lady Blakeney excuses herself to say goodbye to her brother in another room and shoots Sir Percy a “slightly contemptuous glance” as she leaves. Sir Andrew watches as Sir Percy stares at his wife with a “curious look of intense longing” and “deep and hopeless passion.”