The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel · Chapter
Chapter XI explained
Chauvelin, tormented by doubt and superstition, visits the Leridans' house on the Chemin de Pantin to check on the child.
What happens
Chauvelin, tormented by doubt and superstition, visits the Leridans' house on the Chemin de Pantin to check on the child. He finds that the Leridans were deceived by men posing as the Sûreté, who have since disappeared with the child. Chauvelin realizes he has been outwitted by the Scarlet Pimpernel and conceals his despair and rage.
Themes in this chapter
Cunning and Wit
The Scarlet Pimpernel's agents use a clever ruse, posing as Sûreté men, to infiltrate the Leridans' house and rescue the child.
Fear and Superstition
Chauvelin is assailed by superstitious fears and doubts, whispering 'If, after all!' as he questions his own senses.
Loyalty and Betrayal
The Leridans, though loyal to the Republic, are unwittingly complicit in the deception, and Chauvelin feels betrayed by his own vigilance.
Characters to notice
- Citizen Chauvelin
Chauvelin is driven by doubt and superstition, visits the Leridans' house, and discovers he has been tricked by the Scarlet Pimpernel's men.
- The Leridans
The Leridans were deceived by false Sûreté men who took the child; they protest their innocence to Chauvelin.
- The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel's agents executed a clever ruse to infiltrate the Leridans' house and rescue the child.
- Citizen Fouquier-Tinville
Mentioned in Chauvelin's thoughts as the Public Prosecutor who believes Paul Molé is the Pimpernel.
- Hébert
Mentioned in Chauvelin's thoughts as one who had doubts about the identity of the prisoner.
- Madeleine Lannoy
The Lannoy child is mentioned as having been brought down from the attic and put to sleep with the false Sûreté men.
Key passages
“At first Chauvelin had the wish to go back and see the Public Prosecutor—to speak with him—to tell him—what? Yes, what? That he, Chauvelin, had all of a sudden been assailed with the same doubts which already had worried Hébert and the others?—that he had told a deliberate lie when he stated that the incriminating doggerel rhyme had been found in Molé’s cell?”
Chauvelin initially considered returning to Fouquier-Tinville to confess his own doubts and the lie he told about the rhyme, but realized the danger of such an admission.
Chauvelin's internal conflict and guilt over his deception.
“Nevertheless, that awful feeling of restlessness which had possessed him during the last twenty-four hours once more drove him to activity. And although commonsense and reason both pulled one way, an eerie sense of superstition whispered in his ear the ominous words, 'If, after all!'”
Despite logic telling him otherwise, a superstitious fear drove Chauvelin to action, whispering the possibility that he might be wrong.
Chauvelin's superstitious dread undermines his rational certainty.
“Name of a dog! how were they to blame? Those men and the child had disappeared, but they (the Leridans) would go to the guillotine swearing that they were not to blame.”
The Leridans insisted they were innocent, claiming the false Sûreté men tricked them, and they would maintain this even to the guillotine.
The Leridans' desperate protestations of innocence.
