Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel successfully pleaded with her husband not to take the traitorous Lord Kulmsted (see 'The Traitor' in The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel) on his latest mission. Several members of the league would have liked to extend the prohibition to young Lord Fanshawe, who, despite a keen start, is wilful & obstinate – an inveterate gambler who is apt to turn very nasty if matters don't go the way he desires. Fanshawe has, for several years, been in love with Aline, the daughter of The Comte d'Ercourt, whom he first met before the revolution when she was a child of sixteen.
Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel he sends his soldiers to capture them. It soon becomes obvious that the situation has been planned by the Pimpernel as a way to distract the guard while he attempts to rescue a group of priests being held at the nearby Duchess Anne tower. However, as soon as Sir Percy climbs up the tower and through the window where the priests are being held, he realises that he has fallen into a trap – for waiting for him in the room are a dozen members of the Committee of Public Safety and his arch enemy Chauvelin. After a brief fight