# I: Paris: 1793 explained — The Elusive Pimpernel

> Chapter companion for The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.

## What happens

The chapter depicts Paris in September 1793, a city consumed by the Terror, with the National Assembly debating a new state religion centered on a Goddess of Reason. Various revolutionary figures propose increasingly brutal spectacles, while Robespierre quietly calculates how to exploit the chaos for his own ambition.

## Themes in this chapter

### Revolution and Terror

The chapter vividly describes the anarchy, bloodshed, and brutality of the Revolution, with leaders competing in ferocity.

### Sacrifice for the Greater Good

The revolutionary leaders justify horrific acts as necessary for the Republic, sacrificing individuals for an ideal.

### Class and Aristocracy

The destruction of the old order is central, with churches desecrated, aristocrats executed, and a new religion replacing Christianity.

## Character check-ins

### Chaumette

Procureur Chaumette proposes the Goddess of Reason as a new deity for Paris, elaborating on the details of the festival.

### Collot d'Herbois

Collot d'Herbois boasts of his 'Noyades' in Lyons and suggests similar drownings for Paris.

### Robespierre

Robespierre sits impassively, polishing his nails, calculating how to turn the new religion to his advantage.

### Danton

Danton yawns and mutters about a new form of tyranny, showing impatience with the proceedings.

### Citizen Tinville

Foucquier Tinville calls for an apotheosis of the guillotine, wishing all traitors had one head to cut off.

### Henriot

Henriot proposes a grand national fête with apostate priests and ballet girls around the Goddess of Reason.

## Key lines

> On! ever on! in that wild, surging torrent; sowing the wind of anarchy, of terrorism, of lust of blood and hate, and reaping a hurricane of destruction and of horror.

The revolution continues relentlessly, spreading chaos and violence, and in return brings only more devastation.

_Opening lines set the tone of unstoppable, destructive momentum._

> Chaumette, I think it was, who first solved the difficulty—Procureur Chaumette, head of the Paris Municipality, he who had ordered that the cart which bore the dethroned queen to the squalid prison of the Conciergerie should be led slowly past her own late palace of the Tuileries...

Chaumette, the Paris city official, had previously orchestrated the humiliation of the queen by parading her past her former palace, and now proposes the Goddess of Reason.

_Introduces Chaumette's role and his cruel artistry._

> The great duel between the Titanic leaders of these turbulent parties, the conflict between hotheaded Danton on the one side and cold-blooded Robespierre on the other, had only just begun...

The epic struggle between the fiery Danton and the calculating Robespierre for control of the revolution is just starting.

_Foreshadows the central political conflict._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_elusive_pimpernel_se/chapters/i-paris-1793
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_elusive_pimpernel_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_elusive_pimpernel_se/chapters