Books with author Emma Orczy

This eBook edition of "Beau Brocade" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.After their recent defeat, the hamlets and villages of Derbyshire are no longer ringing with the wild shouts of Bonny Prince Charlie's Highland Brigade; instead troops loyal to King George are looking for those accused of high treason and are offering a reward of twenty guineas for the death of any traitor or rebel. Philip Gascoyne is in hiding, in fear for his life after being wrongly accused by Sir Humphrey Challoner of being a traitor to the King. He has been given shelter and a cover by honest John Stitch, the local blacksmith. John hires the notorious Beau Brocade, a masked highway man who roams the moors holding up coaches so he can steal from the rich and give to the poor, to connect Philip with his family and arrange his return to London.

This eBook edition of "The Tangled Skein" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.The tangled skein arises from Mary's love for the Robert d'Esclade, fifth Duke of Wessex, said to be the people's choice as King Consort. Wessex is chivalrous and charming, but semi-betrothed to Lady Ursula Glynde, whom he has not seen since her infancy. Wessex is repelled by the idea of having his wife thrust upon him and purposely avoids Lady Ursula. Unknown to Wessex, the Queen jealously guards him against Ursula, who is extremely beautiful.

This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.Sir Percy reluctantly agrees to take Armand St Just, brother of his wife, with him to France as part of a plan to rescue the young Dauphin. Percy warns Armand not to renew any friendships while in Paris, but it doesn't take long before Armand has ignored his warnings and renewed a friendship with the scheming Baron de Batz who despises the Scarlet Pimpernel and all he represents. Armand foolishly betrays Percy and he gets captured and imprisoned.

It is what happened after the death of Louis XVII, that is so amazingly interesting. Through various entries Cardinal Beneventy’s diary, we can follow the drama step by step and I have taken the liberty of forming from these fragments a coherent story—the life story not of the rescued Dauphin himself, for that was uneventful, but that of his son, known to a narrow but intensely loyal circle of royalists as Louis XIX.

The year is 1789 and Pierre Adet, a young French peasant, is incensed at the unfair treatment of the local peasantry, who are no better off than slaves to the local aristocrat. His brother-in-law is about to be hanged for poaching two pigeons from the woods belonging to the Duc de Kernogan in Nantes and this proves the final straw. After months of planning Pierre leads a mob against the Duc against the advice of his father. Before the mob have had the chance to storm the Chateau, they come across the Duc's young daughter Yvonne returning home and attack her carriage. In the ensuing scuffle, Adet assaults Yvonne 'And just to punish you, my fine lady,' he said in a whisper which sent a shudder of horror right through her, 'to punish you for what you are, the brood of tyrants, proud, disdainful, a budding tyrant yourself, to punish you for every misery my mother and sister have had to endure, for every luxury which you have enjoyed, I will kiss you on the lips and the cheeks and just between your white throat and chin and never as long as you live if you die this night or live to be an hundred will you be able to wash off those kisses showered upon you by one who hates and loathes you --a miserable peasant whom you despise and who in your sight is lower far than your dogs.' Shortly afterwards the Duc's private army arrive and dispatch the mob. Adet is seriously injured and seeks refuge from a local priest before fleeing Nantes and the death sentence which has been passed on him. Determined that someone must pay for the incident, the Duc de Kernogan ensures that Pierre's father is hanged for his son's crime. By the time Adet finds out it is too late and he is driven to seek revenge against the Duc and his daughter. In 1793, Adet is living in England under the alias of Martin-Roget. He has spent the intervening years educating himself. With the aid of an introductory letter, obtained by blackmailing the Bishop of Brest, has ingratiated himself into English society — to the extent that he has gained the favour of the Duc de Kernogan, who is now living near Bath, and is Yvonne's favoured suitor. Both Yvonne and her father are ignorant of Martin-Roget's true identity and are unaware that he is seeking revenge. With the help of Chauvelin, he plans to marry Yvonne and lure her and the Duc back to Nantes and to their death as ci-devants on the guillotine. Adet's plans suffer a setback when he discovers that Yvonne was warned by Sir Percy and that she is at risk from Martin-Roget. Yvonne has eloped with Lord Antony Dewhurst. The Duc believes that Martin-Roget is a millionaire banker whose marriage to Yvonne will result in substantial funds being given to the French royalist cause. He is furious that his plans have been thwarted and refuses to recognise the marriage to Dewhurst, which would not be legal in France due to Yvonne's age. Martin-Roget convinces the Duc that he still wishes to marry Yvonne and soon persuade him to lure Yvonne away from Lord Tony. He then kidnaps her and the three set off for France. Lord Tony must seek the help of The Scarlet Pimpernel to save his wife.

Not a Scarlet Pimpernel novel, but one set in the same universe. Excerpt: This interview had occurred in May in the year 1800. A few months later half a dozen were gathered round a deal table in the low whitewashed room of the _Cabaret du Pélican, a lonely house which stands at the extreme end of the village street of Soulanges. They were eating bread and cheese and drinking cider. The room gave on a side door of the cabaret. It was bare, save for the table, a rickety bench or two and an old-fashioned clock up on the wall. In the corner nearest the door a number of muskets, staves and scythes were propped up. On the table a couple of tallow candles guttered in their pewter sconces.

Not a Scarlet Pimpernel novel, but one set in the same universe. Excerpt: This interview had occurred in May in the year 1800. A few months later half a dozen were gathered round a deal table in the low whitewashed room of the _Cabaret du Pélican, a lonely house which stands at the extreme end of the village street of Soulanges. They were eating bread and cheese and drinking cider. The room gave on a side door of the cabaret. It was bare, save for the table, a rickety bench or two and an old-fashioned clock up on the wall. In the corner nearest the door a number of muskets, staves and scythes were propped up. On the table a couple of tallow candles guttered in their pewter sconces.