# The Temple Prison explained — El Dorado

> Chapter companion for El Dorado by Baroness Orczy.

## What happens

After parting from de Batz outside the theatre, Armand St. Just walks home alone, preoccupied with thoughts of Jeanne Lange and troubled by his disobedience to his chief. Meanwhile, de Batz makes his way through the terror-filled streets of Paris—past the guillotine, open-air labor camps, and the Cimetière des SS. Innocents—to the Temple Prison, where he gains entry to meet with citizen Héron.

## Themes in this chapter

### Betrayal and Guilt

Armand feels self-reproach for acting against his chief's advice, renewing a dangerous friendship and making an acquaintance that leads him down a forbidden path.

### Power and Corruption

The chapter depicts the brutal tyranny of the revolutionary government—the guillotine, forced labor camps, spies, and the price of 35 livres per execution—showing how power corrupts and oppresses the people.

### Innocence and Suffering

The suffering of the people is vividly portrayed: half-naked soldiers drilling in the cold, women and children working through the night in hunger, and the cries of those arrested and dragged to the guillotine.

## Character check-ins

### Armand St. Just

Armand parts from de Batz after the theatre, feeling self-reproach for renewing a friendship and making an acquaintance that his chief would disapprove of, yet drawn by his fascination with Jeanne Lange.

### De Batz

De Batz watches Armand leave, then walks through the terror-filled streets of Paris, past the guillotine and forced labor camps, to the Temple Prison where he seeks an audience with citizen Héron.

### Héron

De Batz asks for citizen Héron at the Temple Prison, claiming immediate and important business, and is eventually admitted.

## Key lines

> Five and thirty livres for every head that falls trunkless into the basket at the foot of the guillotine! Five and thirty pieces of silver, now as then, the price of innocent blood.

The government pays thirty-five livres for each person executed, a modern version of the thirty pieces of silver paid to betray an innocent life.

_This passage draws a parallel between the revolutionary bounty and the biblical betrayal of Jesus by Judas._

> The people of France were up in arms against tyranny; and on the open places of their mighty city they were encamped day and night forging those arms which were destined to make them free, and in the meantime were bending under a yoke of tyranny more complete, more grinding and absolute than any that the most despotic kings had ever dared to inflict.

The French people, supposedly fighting for liberty, are forced to work day and night making weapons, yet they suffer under a tyranny far worse than any monarchy.

_This highlights the irony of the revolution: the fight against tyranny has created an even more oppressive regime._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/el_dorado_se/chapters/part-i-v-the-temple-prison
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/el_dorado_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/el_dorado_se/chapters