El Dorado: Further Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel

El Dorado was published in 1913 and is generally ranked alongside the original novel as one of Orczy’s two best books in the series. The frame is grim. The Dauphin, the ten-year-old son of the executed Louis XVI, is still imprisoned in the Temple in Paris, kept in deliberately cruel conditions by his Republican guards. Sir Percy Blakeney undertakes what should be his most impossible mission: smuggling the child king out of Paris.

Chauvelin and his new colleague Heron, both more dangerous than they have been in any earlier book, are waiting for him. Most of the novel takes place in Paris, with Percy moving in and out of disguises, attempting to coordinate the rescue while Marguerite and the League scramble to keep him from being captured. The middle section, in which Percy is imprisoned in the Conciergerie and subjected to sleep deprivation as a form of psychological torture, is some of Orczy’s most genuinely dark writing. The rescue plot resolves cleverly. The political ambiguity of the historical Dauphin’s fate is handled honestly. Strong entry in the series.