El Dorado · Chapter
XLVII: The Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre explained
Héron orders Sir Percy Blakeney to be locked in the chapel under guard, while Marguerite and Armand are taken to Crècy.
What happens
Héron orders Sir Percy Blakeney to be locked in the chapel under guard, while Marguerite and Armand are taken to Crècy. Armand attempts to reach Percy but is beaten back and wounded. Marguerite, now in irons, is driven away, leaving Percy imprisoned in the chapel.
Themes in this chapter
Sacrifice and Redemption
Marguerite and Armand are willing to die bravely in memory of Percy, embodying self-sacrifice.
Love and Loyalty
Marguerite's desperate attempt to reach Percy and Armand's violent effort to save his friend highlight unwavering loyalty.
Power and Corruption
Héron's cruel commands and the arbitrary imprisonment of Percy demonstrate the corrupt use of revolutionary authority.
Characters to notice
- Marguerite Blakeney
Imprisoned in the coach, fettered, and driven away from Percy; she screams and struggles to reach him.
- Sir Percy Blakeney
Unconscious and locked inside the chapel under guard; heard groaning.
- Armand St. Just
Wounded while trying to force open the chapel gate; lifted back into the coach unconscious.
- Héron
Gives orders to secure Percy in the chapel, drives the coach to Crècy, and plans to shoot prisoners at dawn.
- Chauvelin
Mentioned as being at the château; Héron sends reinforcements to him.
Key passages
“It is all solid stone, citizen; iron gates in front, closed but not locked, rusty key in the lock, which turns quite easily; no windows or door in the rear.”
The sergeant reports that the chapel is a solid stone building with only one entrance: an iron gate in front, unlocked with a rusty key.
Describes the chapel's secure structure, making it an effective prison.
“Tell citizen Chauvelin that I in the meanwhile will take care of our prisoners. The Englishman I shall put in irons and lock up inside the chapel, with five men under the command of your corporal to guard him, the other two I will drive myself straight to Crècy with what is left of the escort.”
Héron instructs the sergeant to inform Chauvelin that he will imprison Percy in the chapel under guard and take Marguerite and Armand to Crècy.
Héron's plan to separate the prisoners and secure Percy.
“Tell him also that at dawn two prisoners who will be with me will be shot in the courtyard of the guardhouse at Crècy, but that whether he has got hold of Capet or not he had best pick up the Englishman in the chapel in the morning and bring him straight to Crècy, where I shall be awaiting him ready to return to Paris.”
Héron orders that Marguerite and Armand be executed at dawn, and that Chauvelin retrieve Percy from the chapel and bring him to Crècy.
Reveals Héron's intention to execute the prisoners summarily.
“We can do nothing more, only die, as he lived, bravely and with a smile on our lips, in memory of him.”
Marguerite tells Armand that they can only face death courageously, honoring Percy's example.
Marguerite's resolve to meet her fate with dignity.