CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. ["The Everlasting Stars Look Down"]
II. [Feet of Clay]
III. [The Fellowship of Grief]
IV. [One Dram of Joy Must Have a Pound of Care]
V. [Rascality Rejoices]
VI. [One Crowded Hour of Glorious Life]
VII. [Two Interludes]
VIII. [The Beautiful Spaniard]
IX. [A Hideous, Fearful Hour]
X. [The Grim Idol that the World Adores]
XI. [Strange Happenings]
XII. [Chauvelin]
XIII. [The Fisherman's Rest]
XIV. [The Castaway]
XV. [The Nest]
XVI. [A Lover of Sport]
XVII. [Reunion]
XVIII. [Night and Morning]
XIX. [A Rencontre]
XX. [Departure]
XXI. [Memories]
XXII. [Waiting]
XXIII. [Mice and Men]
XXIV. [By Order of the State]
XXV. [Four Days]
XXVI. [A Dream]
XXVII. [Terror or Ambition]
XXVIII. [In the Meanwhile]
XXIX. [The Close of the Second Day]
XXX. [When the Storm Burst]
XXXI. [Our Lady of Pity]
XXXII. [Grey Dawn]
XXXIII. [The Cataclysm]
XXXIV. [The Whirlwind]
THE TRIUMPH OF
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL
CHAPTER I
"THE EVERLASTING STARS LOOK DOWN, LIKE
GLISTENING EYES BRIGHT WITH IMMORTAL PITT, OVER THE LOT OF
MAN."
§1
Nearly five years have gone by!
Five years, since the charred ruins of grim Bastille—stone image of Absolutism and of Autocracy—set the seal of victory upon the expression of a people's will and marked the beginning of that marvellous era of Liberty and of Fraternity which has led us step by step from the dethronement of a King, through the martyrdom of countless innocents, to the tyranny of an oligarchy more arbitrary, more relentless, above all more cruel, than any that the dictators of Rome or Stamboul ever dreamed of in their wildest thirst for power. An era that sees a populace always clamouring for the Millennium, which ranting demagogues have never ceased to promise: a Millennium to be achieved alternatively through the extermination of Aristocracy, of Titles, of Riches, and the abrogation of Priesthood: through dethroned royalty and desecrated altars, through an army without leadership, or an Assembly without power.