The Scarlet Pimpernel

by

Baroness Orczy

An “accredited agent” of the French Republic and the antagonist of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Orczy refers to many of the citizens of the French Republic as near animals who are “human only in name,” and her description of Chauvelin is no different. He is an evil man with “pale, fox-like eyes,” and he “firmly believes that the French aristocrat is the most bitter enemy of France.” Chauvelin is vicious and unforgiving, and his “purpose at heart” is to see every French aristocrat “annihilated.” He is sent to England by France to gather information about the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and, if possible, ascertain the real identity of the elusive hero. Chauvelin first tries to employ the assistance of Lady Blakeney to unmask the Scarlet Pimpernel, and he banks on her allegiance to France to force her hand; however, when she refuses, he relies on violence. He orders his henchmen to attack Sir Andrew and Lord Anthony, two members of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and discovers through a letter recovered from Sir Andrew that Lady Blakeney’s brother, Armand St. Just, is a traitor to France and in cahoots with the Scarlet Pimpernel. Using Lady Blakeney’s love for her brother, Chauvelin blackmails her into helping him discover the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel, who ends up being none other than Lady Blakeney’s husband, Sir Percy. Chauvelin chases Sir Percy all the way to France where, as the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sir Percy manages to outsmart Chauvelin and rescue both Armand and the Comte de Tournay, a French aristocrat. Chauvelin is a despicable man who relies on fear and violence to accomplish his goals, much like the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror does, and it is through Chauvelin and his failures that Orczy most strongly condemns the French Republic and aligns herself with the aristocracy. Chauvelin’s fate is never revealed, but Orczy implies that he is executed at the guillotine for allowing the Scarlet Pimpernel to escape.

Chauvelin Quotes in The Scarlet Pimpernel

The The Scarlet Pimpernel quotes below are all either spoken by Chauvelin or refer to Chauvelin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Class and the French Revolution Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

She had but little real sympathy with those haughty French aristocrats, insolent in their pride of caste, of whom the Comtesse de Tournay de Basserive was so typical an example; but, republican and liberal-minded though she was from principle, she hated and loathed the methods which the young Republic had chosen for establishing itself. She had not been in Paris for some months; the horrors and bloodshed of the Reign of Terror, culminating in the September massacres, had only come across the Channel to her as a faint echo. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, she had not known in their new guise of bloody justiciaries, merciless wielders of the guillotine. Her very soul recoiled in horror from these excesses, to which she feared her brother Armand—moderate republican as he was—might become one day the holocaust.

Related Characters: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew, Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin, Armand St. Just, The Comtesse de Tournay
Related Symbols: The Guillotine
Page Number: 67-8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“I am sure,” said the Comtesse, pursing up her thin lips, "that if this Chauvelin wishes to do us mischief, he will find a faithful ally in Lady Blakeney.”

“Bless the woman!” ejaculated Lady Portarles; “did ever anyone see such perversity? My Lord Grenville, you have the gift of the gab—will you please explain to Madame la Comtesse that she is acting like a fool? In your position here in England, Madame,” she added, turning a wrathful and resolute face towards the Comtesse, “you cannot afford to put on the hoity-toity airs you French aristocrats are so fond of. Lady Blakeney may or may not be in sympathy with those Ruffians in France; she may or may not have had anything to do with the arrest and condemnation of St. Cyr, or whatever the man’s name is, but she is the leader of fashion in this country; Sir Percy Blakeney has more money than any half-dozen other men put together, he is hand and glove with royalty, and your trying to snub Lady Blakeney will not harm her, but will make you look a fool. Isn’t that so, my lord?”

Related Characters: Lady Portarles (speaker), The Comtesse de Tournay (speaker), The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew, Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin, The Marquis de St. Cyr, Lord Grenville
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

She looked through the tattered curtain, across at the handsome face of her husband, in whose lazy blue eyes, and behind whose inane smile, she could now so plainly see the strength, energy, and resourcefulness which had caused the Scarlet Pimpernel to be reverenced and trusted by his followers. "There are nineteen of us is ready to lay down our lives for your husband, Lady Blakeney,” Sir Andrew had said to her; and as she looked at the forehead, low, but square and broad, the eyes, blue, yet deep-set and intense, the whole aspect of the man, of indomitable energy, hiding, behind a perfectly acted comedy, his almost superhuman strength of will and marvelous ingenuity, she understood the fascination which he exercised over his followers, for had he not also cast his spells over her heart and her imagination?

Related Characters: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew, Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

The distant roar of the waves now made her shudder; the occasional dismal cry of an owl, or a sea-gull, filled her with unspeakable horror. She thought of the ravenous beasts— in human shape—who lay in wait for their prey, and destroyed them, as mercilessly as any hungry wolf, for the satisfaction of their own appetite of hate. Marguerite was not afraid of the darkness; she only feared that man, on ahead, who was sitting at the bottom of a rough wooden cart, nursing thoughts of vengeance, which would have made the very demons in hell chuckle with delight.

Related Characters: Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

He certainly felt exceedingly vicious, and since he had no reasonable grounds for venting his ill-humour on the soldiers who had but too punctually obeyed his orders, he felt that the son of the despised race would prove an excellent butt. With true French contempt of the Jew, which has survived the lapse of centuries even to this day, he would not go too near him, but said with biting sarcasm, as the wretched old man was brought in full light of the moon by the two soldiers, —

“I suppose now, that being a Jew, you have a good memory for bargains?”

Related Characters: Chauvelin (speaker), The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

“Dressed as the dirty old Jew," he said gaily, “I knew I should not be recognised. I had met Reuben Goldstein in Calais earlier in the evening. For a few gold pieces he supplied me with this rig-out, and undertook to bury himself out of sight of everybody, whilst he lent me his cart and nag.”

“But if Chauvelin had discovered you,” she gasped excitedly, “your disguise was good ... but he is so sharp.”

“Odd’s fish!” he rejoined quietly, “then certainly the game would have been up. I could but take the risk. I know human nature pretty well by now,” he added, with a note of sadness in his cheery, young voice, “and I know these Frenchmen out and out. They so loathe a Jew, that they never come nearer than a couple of yards of him, and begad! I fancy that I contrived to make myself look about as loathsome an object as it is possible to conceive.”

Related Characters: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew (speaker), Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney (speaker), Chauvelin, Reuben Goldstein
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis:
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Chauvelin Quotes in The Scarlet Pimpernel

The The Scarlet Pimpernel quotes below are all either spoken by Chauvelin or refer to Chauvelin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Class and the French Revolution Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

She had but little real sympathy with those haughty French aristocrats, insolent in their pride of caste, of whom the Comtesse de Tournay de Basserive was so typical an example; but, republican and liberal-minded though she was from principle, she hated and loathed the methods which the young Republic had chosen for establishing itself. She had not been in Paris for some months; the horrors and bloodshed of the Reign of Terror, culminating in the September massacres, had only come across the Channel to her as a faint echo. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, she had not known in their new guise of bloody justiciaries, merciless wielders of the guillotine. Her very soul recoiled in horror from these excesses, to which she feared her brother Armand—moderate republican as he was—might become one day the holocaust.

Related Characters: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew, Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin, Armand St. Just, The Comtesse de Tournay
Related Symbols: The Guillotine
Page Number: 67-8
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“I am sure,” said the Comtesse, pursing up her thin lips, "that if this Chauvelin wishes to do us mischief, he will find a faithful ally in Lady Blakeney.”

“Bless the woman!” ejaculated Lady Portarles; “did ever anyone see such perversity? My Lord Grenville, you have the gift of the gab—will you please explain to Madame la Comtesse that she is acting like a fool? In your position here in England, Madame,” she added, turning a wrathful and resolute face towards the Comtesse, “you cannot afford to put on the hoity-toity airs you French aristocrats are so fond of. Lady Blakeney may or may not be in sympathy with those Ruffians in France; she may or may not have had anything to do with the arrest and condemnation of St. Cyr, or whatever the man’s name is, but she is the leader of fashion in this country; Sir Percy Blakeney has more money than any half-dozen other men put together, he is hand and glove with royalty, and your trying to snub Lady Blakeney will not harm her, but will make you look a fool. Isn’t that so, my lord?”

Related Characters: Lady Portarles (speaker), The Comtesse de Tournay (speaker), The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew, Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin, The Marquis de St. Cyr, Lord Grenville
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

She looked through the tattered curtain, across at the handsome face of her husband, in whose lazy blue eyes, and behind whose inane smile, she could now so plainly see the strength, energy, and resourcefulness which had caused the Scarlet Pimpernel to be reverenced and trusted by his followers. "There are nineteen of us is ready to lay down our lives for your husband, Lady Blakeney,” Sir Andrew had said to her; and as she looked at the forehead, low, but square and broad, the eyes, blue, yet deep-set and intense, the whole aspect of the man, of indomitable energy, hiding, behind a perfectly acted comedy, his almost superhuman strength of will and marvelous ingenuity, she understood the fascination which he exercised over his followers, for had he not also cast his spells over her heart and her imagination?

Related Characters: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew, Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

The distant roar of the waves now made her shudder; the occasional dismal cry of an owl, or a sea-gull, filled her with unspeakable horror. She thought of the ravenous beasts— in human shape—who lay in wait for their prey, and destroyed them, as mercilessly as any hungry wolf, for the satisfaction of their own appetite of hate. Marguerite was not afraid of the darkness; she only feared that man, on ahead, who was sitting at the bottom of a rough wooden cart, nursing thoughts of vengeance, which would have made the very demons in hell chuckle with delight.

Related Characters: Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney, Chauvelin
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

He certainly felt exceedingly vicious, and since he had no reasonable grounds for venting his ill-humour on the soldiers who had but too punctually obeyed his orders, he felt that the son of the despised race would prove an excellent butt. With true French contempt of the Jew, which has survived the lapse of centuries even to this day, he would not go too near him, but said with biting sarcasm, as the wretched old man was brought in full light of the moon by the two soldiers, —

“I suppose now, that being a Jew, you have a good memory for bargains?”

Related Characters: Chauvelin (speaker), The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

“Dressed as the dirty old Jew," he said gaily, “I knew I should not be recognised. I had met Reuben Goldstein in Calais earlier in the evening. For a few gold pieces he supplied me with this rig-out, and undertook to bury himself out of sight of everybody, whilst he lent me his cart and nag.”

“But if Chauvelin had discovered you,” she gasped excitedly, “your disguise was good ... but he is so sharp.”

“Odd’s fish!” he rejoined quietly, “then certainly the game would have been up. I could but take the risk. I know human nature pretty well by now,” he added, with a note of sadness in his cheery, young voice, “and I know these Frenchmen out and out. They so loathe a Jew, that they never come nearer than a couple of yards of him, and begad! I fancy that I contrived to make myself look about as loathsome an object as it is possible to conceive.”

Related Characters: The Scarlet Pimpernel / Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart. / The Hag / The Jew (speaker), Marguerite St. Just / Lady Blakeney (speaker), Chauvelin, Reuben Goldstein
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis: