The Schooner explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Courage and Risk

  Marguerite risks everything to warn Percy, and Percy's plan involves a daring escape despite the patrols.

• Secrecy and Trust

  The note reveals the secret escape plan; Marguerite's betrayal of the secret leads to her anguish.

• Love and Betrayal

  Marguerite's love for Percy drives her to scream a warning, but her earlier actions have put him in danger.

Characters to notice

• Marguerite Blakeney

  Screams to warn Percy and Armand, then collapses in anguish; later left unconscious by Chauvelin.

• Chauvelin

  Commands the soldiers, interrogates them, discovers the note, and orders a pursuit; mocks Marguerite before leaving.

• Sir Percy Blakeney

  The singer whose voice Marguerite hears; his note reveals his escape plan; he is still at large.

• Benjamin Rosenbaum

  Beaten by soldiers on Chauvelin's orders; left behind as a guard for Marguerite.

• Desgas

  Present with the soldiers; his gun click is heard by Marguerite; follows Chauvelin.

Key passages

• “With a wild shriek, she sprang to her feet, and darted round the rock, against which she had been cowering; she saw the little red gleam through the chinks of the hut; she ran up to it and fell against its wooden walls, which she began to hammer with clenched fists in an almost maniacal frenzy, while she shouted— 'Armand! Armand! for God's sake fire! your leader is near! he is coming! he is betrayed! Armand! Armand! fire in Heaven's name!'”

  Marguerite jumps up and runs to the hut, pounding on the walls and screaming for Armand to shoot because their leader is about to be caught.

  Marguerite's desperate attempt to warn the fugitives, revealing her love and panic.

• “I much regret, fair lady, that circumstances, over which I have no control, compel me to leave you here for the moment. But I go away, secure in the knowledge that I do not leave you unprotected. Our friend Benjamin here, though a trifle the worse for wear at the present moment, will prove a gallant defender of your fair person, I have no doubt.”

  Chauvelin sarcastically tells Marguerite he must leave her with the beaten Jew as her protector.

  Chauvelin's mockery and cruelty toward Marguerite after the failed trap.

• “I cannot quite reach you, without risking your lives and endangering the success of your rescue. When you receive this, wait two minutes, then creep out of the hut one by one, turn to your left sharply, and creep cautiously down the cliff; keep to the left all the time, till you reach the first rock, which you see jutting far out to sea—behind it in the creek the boat is on the lookout for you—give a long, sharp whistle—she will come up—get into her—my men will row you to the schooner, and thence to England and safety—once on board the Daydream send the boat back for me, tell my men that I shall be at the creek, which is in a direct line opposite the Chat Gris near Calais. They know it. I shall be there as soon as possible—they must wait for me at a safe distance out at sea, till they hear the usual signal. Do not delay—and obey these instructions implicitly.”

  Percy's note instructs the fugitives to escape to a boat waiting in a creek, then send it back for him at the Chat Gris creek.

  The note reveals Percy's escape plan, which Chauvelin uses to pursue him.