# The Trail of the Serpent — Character guide

> Key figures in The Trail of the Serpent by M. E. Braddon.

- [Richard Marwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/richard_marwood.md): Richard Marwood is the prodigal nephew whose uncle offers him one last chance at respectability: a clerk's berth in Gardenford and a fortune to follow. He is torn between genuine remorse and a fatal impulsiveness, radian
- [Joseph Peters](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/joe_peters.md): Joseph Peters is the detective force's unglamorous drudge, a man with observant eyes and a mouth set crookedly to one side, present at every stage of Richard's arrest and trial. While the town howls for conviction, Peter
- [Raymond Marolles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/raymond_marolles.md): Raymond Marolles has converted his wife's fortune into estates, a title, and a banking house in London, and the world rewards him with trust and admiration. Yet his marriage to Valerie is a cold war: he taunts her with h
- [Jabez North](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/jabez_north.md): Jabez North is the kind of man a town trusts without thinking—a schoolmaster's usher with a soft voice and an inoffensive manner. But when a ragged old woman in Blind Peter mistakes him for her grandson Jim, his composur
- [Valerie de Cevennes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/valerie_de_cevennes.md): Valerie de Cevennes is the brilliant, witty Parisian whose vivacity the world admires and whose private face is shadowed by a despair she can never outrun. Married in secret to an opera-singer and now bound to Raymond Ma
- [Augustus Darley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/augustus_darley.md): Augustus Darley belongs to Richard's circle of friends, the sort of man who offers practical help and unglamorous constancy while others philosophize or drift. In a town howling for Richard's blood and a case built on ci
- [Laurent Blurosset](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/laurent_blurosset.md): Blurosset belongs to the shadowy machinery that surrounds Raymond Marolles — the sort of associate a man keeps when he needs chemistry, silence, or a name that carries no fingerprints. His value lies in what he knows and
- [Miss Kuppins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/kuppins.md): Kuppins has effectively become mistress of the house where the elderly landlady keeps to her room, and she rules the kitchen, the gossip, and the emotional weather of the place. Her loyalty to Mr. Peters is absolute, but
- [Valerie de Lancy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/valerie_de_lancy.md): Valerie moves through fashionable Paris as Valerie de Lancy, wife of the famous tenor Elvino, a marriage she has kept hidden behind her rank and her beauty. When Raymond Marolles corners her with the secret, she does not
- [Mr. Jinks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/jinks.md): Jinks is the man who claps the handcuffs on Daredevil Dick at the railway station, and he does it with the fussy self-importance of a small official who has finally been handed something worth doing. He is not cruel so m
- [Percy Cordonner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/percy_cordonner.md): A young man involved in the social circles of the story.
- [Jim Lomax](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/jim_lomax.md): Jim Lomax is a bundle of aching bones carried into Blind Peter with rheumatic fever, tended by a girl who loves him past all reason, and given up for dead by the doctor within three days. What makes him matter is not his
- [Marquis de Cevennes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/marquis_de_cevennes.md): The proud father of Valerie de Cevennes.
- [Daredevil Dick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/daredevil_dick.md): A reckless young man who meets a tragic fate.
- [Gaston de Lancy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/gaston_de_lancy.md): A Frenchman whose disappearance sparks part of the mystery.
- [Slopperton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/slopperton.md): A school and location central to the initial crime.
- [Signor Mosquetti](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/signor_mosquetti.md): An Italian singer who provides a crucial alibi.
- [Mrs. Moper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/mrs_moper.md): A housekeeper at the Slopperton school.
- [Mrs. Marwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/mrs_marwood.md): Richard Marwood's mother.
- [Montague Harding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/montague_harding.md): A murdered schoolboy, the victim of the central crime.
- [The Smasher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/the_smasher.md): A criminal with a distinctive left-handed blow.
- [Miss Smithers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/miss_smithers.md): A governess or teacher at the school.
- [Mademoiselle Finette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/mademoiselle_finette.md): A French maid in service to Valerie de Cevennes.
- [Jim Stilson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/jim_stilson.md): A sailor or labourer with knowledge of the past.
- [Brandolph](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/brandolph.md): A mysterious figure associated with a secret society.
- [Isabel Darley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/isabel_darley.md): Augustus Darley's sister and a love interest.
- [Captain Lansdown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/captain_lansdown.md): A police captain investigating the case.
- [Mrs. Martha Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/mrs_martha_jones.md): A landlady or housekeeper in Slopperton.
- [Sillikens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/sillikens.md): A servant or minor functionary.
- [Isabella Darley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/isabella_darley.md): Another name for Isabel Darley, Augustus's sister.
- [The Elvino](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/the_elvino.md): An opera singer performing in London.
- [Slosh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/slosh.md): A servant or messenger.
- [Madame Elizabeth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/madame_elizabeth.md): A Frenchwoman, possibly a servant or relative.
- [Father Pérot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/father_perot.md): A French priest.
- [Rinval](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/rinval.md): A French acquaintance of the De Cevennes.
- [Mujeebez](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/mujeebez.md): An exotic foreign character, possibly a servant.
- [Billy Withers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/billy_withers.md): A young boy, possibly a relative of Mr. Withers.
- [Dr. Tappenden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters/dr_tappenden.md): The headmaster of the Slopperton school.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_trail_of_the_serpent_se/characters