title: Generate a UTF-8 character from two HEX pairs
body: <p>I am trying to generate a UTF-8 character from 2 HEX pairs. The HEX pairs are from strings.</p>
  
  <p>This code works:</p>
  
  <pre><code>use Encode;
  
  my $bytes = "\xC3\xA9";
  print decode_utf8($bytes);
  
  # Prints: é and is correct
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This code does not work:</p>
  
  <pre><code>use Encode;
  
  my $byte1 = "C3";
  my $byte2 = "A9";
  my $bytes = "\x$byte1\x$byte2";
  print decode_utf8($bytes);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here is the character that I am trying to generate: <a href="http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/00e9/index.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/00e9/index.htm</a></p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any tips!</p>