title: The Scarlet Pimpernel
author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy
description: Arguably the best adventure story ever published and certainly the most influential that appeared during the early decades of the twentieth century.<b>Gary Hoppenstand</b>
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  # El Dorado
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Baroness Orczy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### FOREWORD
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  There has of late years crept so much confusion into the mind of
  
  
  the student as well as of the general reader as to the identity of
  
  
  the Scarlet Pimpernel with that of the Gascon Royalist plotter
  
  
  known to history as the Baron de Batz, that the time seems
  
  
  opportune for setting all doubts on that subject at rest.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  The identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel is in no way whatever
  
  
  connected with that of the Baron de Batz, and even superficial
  
  
  reflection will soon bring the mind to the conclusion that great
  
  
  fundamental differences existed in these two men, in their
  
  
  personality, in their character, and, above all, in their aims.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  According to one or two enthusiastic historians, the Baron de Batz
  
  
  was the chief agent in a vast network of conspiracy, entirely
  
  
  supported by foreign money--both English and Austrian--and wh