XLI "VENGEANCE IS MINE"

XLII THE FIGHT IN THE DOORWAY

XLIII LEYDEN ONCE MORE

XLIV BLAKE OF BLAKENEY

XLV THE END

AN APOLOGY

Does it need one?

If so it must also come from those members of the Blakeney family in
whose veins runs the blood of that Sir Percy Blakeney who is known to
history as the Scarlet Pimpernel--for they in a manner are responsible
for the telling of this veracious chronicle.

For the past eight years now--ever since the true story of The Scarlet
Pimpernel was put on record by the present author--these gentle, kind,
inquisitive friends have asked me to trace their descent back to an
ancestor more remote than was Sir Percy, to one in fact who by his life
and by his deeds stands forth from out the distant past as a conclusive
proof that the laws which govern the principles of heredity are as
unalterable as those that rule the destinies of the universe. They have
pointed out to me that since Sir Percy Blakeney's was an exceptional
personality, possessing exceptional characteristics which his friends
pronounced sublime and his detractors arrogant--he must have had an
ancestor in the dim long ago who was, like him, exceptional, like him
possessed of qualities which call forth the devotion of friends and the
rancour of enemies. Nay, more! there must have existed at one time or
another a man who possessed that same sunny disposition, that same
irresistible laughter, that same careless insouciance and adventurous
spirit which were subsequently transmitted to his descendants, of whom
the Scarlet Pimpernel himself was the most distinguished individual.

All these were unanswerable arguments, and with the request that
accompanied them I had long intended to comply. Time has been my only
enemy in thwarting my intentions until now--time and the multiplicity of
material and documents to be gone through ere vague knowledge could be
turned into certitude.

Now at last I am in a position to present not only to the Blakeneys
themselves, but to all those who look on the Scarlet Pimpernel as their
hero and their friend--the true history of one of his most noted
forebears.

Strangely enough his history has never been written before. And yet
countless millions must during the past three centuries have stood
before his picture; we of the present generation, who are the proud
possessors of that picture now, have looked on him many a time, always
with sheer, pure joy in our h