In this, the second sequel to her best-selling 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', Baroness Orczy gives us a glimpse into the Pimpernel's past, and pits her hero, Sir Percy Blakeney, against his would-be nemesis, the brilliant but amoral diplomat and spymaster Citizen Chauvelin.Outwitted on numerous occasions by the Scarlet Pimpernel, a humiliated and demoted Chauvelin hatches a plot to wreak vengeance upon the hated Englishman. The French spymaster's machinations leave Sir Percy's wife Marguerite his prisoner, and Blakeney himself honour-bound to meet with his arch-enemy in the French city of Boulogne, hemmed in on all sides by the revolutionary mob. Chauvelin's plan has worked flawlessly. Must Sir Percy and his beautiful wife fall at last into the clutches of the hated Committee of Public Safety? Will the elusive Pimpernel's reckless career end abruptly under the merciless blade of Madame Guillotine?