The Laughing Cavalier (novel) of Sir Percy Blakeney, known to history as the Scarlet Pimpernel." EMMUSKA ORCZY <br>Haarlem, 1913 The Laughing Cavalier (novel) The Laughing Cavalier is a 1913 adventure novel by Baroness Orczy, which revolves around Percy Blake, a foreign adventurer and ancestor of Orczy's famous character, the Scarlet Pimpernel. The story takes place in Holland in 1623/1624 and is partly inspired by Frans Hals' painting "The Laughing Cavalier": in the novel, Blake is Frans Hals' adopted son and the man who poses for the painting of the Laughing Cavalier. The sequel to this book, continuing the story of Percy Blake, is "The
Sir Henry Merrivale was inspired by Carr: Sir Henry Merrivale Sir Henry Merrivale is a fictional detective created by "Carter Dickson", a pen name of John Dickson Carr (1906–1977). Also known as "the Old Man," by his initials "H. M." (a pun on "His Majesty"), or "the Maestro", he appeared in twenty-two locked room mysteries and "impossible crime" novels of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, as well as in two short stories. He began as a fairly serious character but became more and more comical, at times even grotesque, as the series went on. When first introduced as a character, he was already