The Laughing Cavalier
Published in 1913, this historical adventure invents an ancestor for the Scarlet Pimpernel and sets him loose in the Holland of 1623. The hero is a devil-may-care mercenary whom Orczy claimed was the subject of Frans Hals’s famous portrait that gives the book its name. Hired as part of a plot against a wealthy merchant’s family, he is ordered to carry off the merchant’s daughter, Gilda Beresteyn, only to be pulled between the conspiracy that employs him and his growing sense of honor. Duels, abductions, and shifting loyalties fill out a tale meant to explain where Sir Percy Blakeney’s daring came from. Free PDF and EPUB edition available here.
About the Author
Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865 to 1947) was a Hungarian-born British author who settled in London and made her name with The Scarlet Pimpernel. Her sweeping romances of the French Revolution created one of fiction’s first masked heroes and shaped a century of adventure storytelling.
See all books by Baroness Orczy →
Listen to The Laughing Cavalier Audiobook Free
Listen to The Laughing Cavalier by Baroness Orczy free online. The full audiobook (13 hr 39 min, 46 chapters, read by volunteer narrators) streams free on this page.
The Laughing Cavalier (1914) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An Apology and the Prologue | 33:31 | |
| 2 | New Year's Eve | 14:46 | |
| 3 | The Fracas by the Postern Gate | 21:36 | |
| 4 | An Interlude | 14:51 | |
| 5 | Watch-Night | 25:36 | |
| 6 | Brother and Sister | 17:00 | |
| 7 | The Councesl of Prudence | 8:49 | |
| 8 | Three Philosophers and Their Friends | 32:06 | |
| 9 | The Lodgings which were Paid for | 18:47 | |
| 10 | The Painter of Pictures | 10:08 | |
| 11 | The Laughing Cavalier | 21:43 | |
| 12 | The Bargain | 10:12 | |
| 13 | The Portrait | 17:20 | |
| 14 | The Spanish Wench | 18:04 | |
| 15 | After Evensong | 10:39 | |
| 16 | The Halt at Bennebrock | 10:18 | |
| 17 | Layden | 15:12 | |
| 18 | An Understanding | 20:41 | |
| 19 | The Start | 6:07 | |
| 20 | In the Kingdom of the Night | 8:34 | |
| 21 | Back Again in Haarlem | 11:44 | |
| 22 | A Grief-Stricken Father | 10:22 | |
| 23 | A Double Pledge | 18:38 | |
| 24 | A Spy from the Camp | 16:42 | |
| 25 | The Birth of Hate | 30:01 | |
| 26 | An Arrant Knave | 17:54 | |
| 27 | Back to Houdekerk | 16:59 | |
| 28 | Thence to Rotterdam | 13:44 | |
| 29 | Check | 13:02 | |
| 30 | Check Again | 10:35 | |
| 31 | A Nocturn | 36:36 | |
| 32 | The Molens | 24:11 | |
| 33 | A Run Through the Night | 15:05 | |
| 34 | The Captive Lion | 15:57 | |
| 35 | Protestations | 17:46 | |
| 36 | The Witness for the Defence | 35:26 | |
| 37 | Brother Philosophers | 22:16 | |
| 38 | Dawn | 13:15 | |
| 39 | The Hour | 10:06 | |
| 40 | ''Sauve Qui Peut'' | 16:32 | |
| 41 | The Loser Pays | 24:51 | |
| 42 | ''Vengeance is Mine'' | 8:47 | |
| 43 | The Fight in the Doorway | 43:49 | |
| 44 | Layden Once More | 23:36 | |
| 45 | Blake of Blakeney | 9:19 | |
| 46 | The End | 5:55 |
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