Character guide

Yvonne de Kernogan

major

Also known as Yvonne Dewhurst, Yvonne Lady Dewhurst, Mademoiselle de Kernogan, Lady Anthony Dewhurst

Yvonne de Kernogan moves through Bath society as the beautiful daughter of an exiled Breton duke, courted openly by the English Lord Tony Dewhurst while her father quietly favors a compatriot suitor. Her devotion to her father pulls her away from her new husband's protective care, and that very loyalty becomes the lever by which others pry her loose from safety. Her grave sweetness and unguarded trust make her both deeply sympathetic and terribly vulnerable as the story's central peril takes shape.

Sir Percy Blakeney

major

Also known as The Scarlet Pimpernel, Blakeney, Percy

In Bath drawing rooms Sir Percy Blakeney plays the elegant, indolent man of fashion, but behind the closed library door he becomes the decisive leader his comrades depend on. When Lord Tony arrives drenched and shattered, Blakeney's calm competence snaps into a colder, more commanding register, revealing the cost of a life pledged to others. His quiet anguish over leaving Marguerite shows a hero whose sacrifices are not abstract, and whose choices drive the rescue that anchors the novel.

Citizen Chauvelin

major

Also known as Marquis de Chauvelin, Chauvelin

Once a man of the old regime, Chauvelin now serves the Revolutionary government as its most dogged pursuer of the elusive Englishman. His obsession is intellectual as much as political: he studies his quarry's methods, waits for the single misstep, and treats each failure as a wound to his pride. In this story his scheming reaches into the private lives of Blakeney's friends, turning affection and family loyalty into instruments of entrapment.

Martin-Roget

major

Also known as M. le duc de Kernogan, de Kernogan, citizen Roget

Martin-Roget circulates among the exiled royalists as a respectable compatriot, favored by the duc de Kernogan as a match for Yvonne and trusted where Lord Tony is merely tolerated. His eagle-eyed watchfulness and smooth manners mask a purpose that has nothing to do with courtship, and his willingness to use a father's authority as a weapon makes him far more dangerous than a rival lover. He is the quiet engine of the novel's central crisis, the man whose revenge gives the pursuit its cruel shape.

Lord Tony Dewhurst

major

Also known as Tony, Lord Anthony Dewhurst, Anthony Dewhurst, milor Anthony Dewhurst

Lord Tony Dewhurst is a well-bred, tongue-tied Englishman who worships Yvonne with an openness that borders on helplessness, unable to refuse her anything, least of all a visit to her ailing father. His trusting nature and reluctance to suspect the worst make him easy prey for those who mean to use his wife against Blakeney's circle. When the blow falls, his stunned grief and quiet resolve carry the story into its rescue, and his devotion becomes the measure of what is at stake.

Jean Baptiste Carrier

major

Also known as Carrier, citizen Carrier, Proconsul Carrier

Carrier rules Nantes as the Revolution's most feared representative, dispensing death by fusillade and by the packed barges he sends into the Loire. His power is absolute and his methods theatrical in their cruelty, making him the human face of the Terror that the Scarlet Pimpernel exists to defy. In this story he is the looming threat behind the pursuit of Yvonne, the man whose city waits to swallow anyone the conspirators deliver into his hands.

Marguerite Blakeney

supporting

Also known as Lady Blakeney, Marguerite

Sir Percy Blakeney's brilliant French wife, whose fierce love must repeatedly yield to the call of honour that drives her husband into danger.

Pierre Adet

supporting

Also known as Pierre, Adet, Pierre-Adet

A Nantes miller whose smouldering hatred of the aristocracy erupts into revolutionary violence, dragging his family into the Terror's path.

Louise Adet

supporting

Also known as citizeness Adet, Louise

Pierre Adet's daughter, a gentle young woman whose loyalties are torn between her father's revolutionary fervour and the innocent lives it threatens.

Fleury

supporting

Also known as Commandant Fleury, citizen Fleury, Captain Fleury

A revolutionary commandant in Nantes whose conscience wrestles with the brutal methods of Carrier's reign of terror.

Paul Friche

supporting

Also known as Friche, citizen Friche, Corporal Friche

A brutish soldier and informer in Carrier's service, eager to profit from the misery of those caught in the Revolution's grip.

Jacques Lalouët

supporting

Also known as Lalouët, young Lalouët, Jacques

A young Breton royalist whose friendship with the Kernogan family places him in the crosshairs of revolutionary vengeance.

Sir Andrew Ffoulkes

supporting

Also known as Sir Andrew, Ffoulkes, Andrew Ffoulkes

Sir Andrew Ffoulkes moves through the League's perilous world as Sir Percy's trusted friend and a man whose private happiness is perpetually mortgaged to other people's emergencies. When Tony Dewhurst's young wife is endangered, Andrew carries the warning too late and must live with the weight of that failure while his own marriage to Marguerite's closest friend hangs in the balance. His divided loyalties — duty to the cause versus the claims of love — make him the story's most human measure of what the Pimpernel's adventures cost the people who wait at home.

Lady Ffoulkes

minor

Also known as Ffoulkes

Wife of Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, a supportive member of the English circle.

George Lemoine

minor

Also known as Lemoine, citizen Lemoine, George Amédé Lemoine

A blundering revolutionary official in Nantes, often outwitted.

Maman Lemoine

minor

Also known as maman Lemoine, Lemoine

George Lemoine's mother, a shrewd and talkative old woman.

Jean Adet

minor

Also known as old Jean Adet, Jean Adet the miller

Pierre Adet's father, an elderly miller loyal to the royalist cause.

Jean-Marie

minor

Also known as poor Jean-Marie, Jean

A young Breton peasant boy, victim of revolutionary violence.

Antoine Melun

minor

Also known as Antoine

A young royalist prisoner in Nantes, friend of the Kernogans.

Jacques Leroux

minor

A revolutionary agent in Nantes.

Grace the Duke

minor

Also known as Grace

A servant in the Kernogan household.

Mr. Frederick

minor

An English gentleman, friend of Lord Tony.

Robespierre

minor

Also known as citizen Robespierre

The powerful revolutionary leader, mentioned as Carrier's superior.

Juliette Déroulède

minor

A young woman caught in the revolutionary terror in Nantes.

Paul Déroulède

minor

Also known as M. Paul Déroulède

A royalist sympathizer in Nantes, father of Juliette.

Jacques Labrunière

minor

Also known as Labrunière

A revolutionary agent in Nantes.

Lamberty

minor

Also known as Citizen Lamberty

A revolutionary official in Nantes.

Foucaud

minor

A revolutionary officer in Nantes.

Baudet

minor

A revolutionary soldier in Nantes.

Vailly

minor

A revolutionary official in Nantes.

Fouquet

minor

A revolutionary agent in Nantes.

Lady Betty Draitune

minor

An English society lady in Bath.

Comtesse de Tournai

minor

A French émigrée aristocrat in England.

Hastings

minor

An English gentleman, friend of Sir Percy.

Chelwood

minor

An English gentleman, friend of Sir Percy.