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Title Mam'zelle Guillotine

cover of the first edition
Author	Baroness Orczy
Illustrator	R Dawson
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Adventure, Historical
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Released	1940
Pages	286
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Followed by	Eldorado

Mam'zelle Guillotine, by Baroness Orczy, is a sequel book to the classic adventure tale, The Scarlet Pimpernel. First published in 1940, it was the last novel Orczy wrote featuring the Pimpernel and is dedicated to those fighting in the second world war.

"To all those who are fighting in the air,
on the water and on land for our country
and for our homes, I dedicate this romance
because it is to them that we shall owe a
happy issue out of all our troubles and a
lasting peace.

Emmuska Orczy
Monte Carlo
1939-40"

Gabrielle Damiens, was only a baby when her father, Francois, was arrested for attacking and slashing the King of France with a pocket knife. Although the wound was minor, his punishment for drawing royal blood was to be hung, drawn and quartered.

At the age of 16, Gabrielle finds some letters written by her father which prove that his crime had been instigated and aided by a body of Noble gentlemen, who planned it as warning to the King to change his ways. But while Damiens bore loyally and in silence the brunt of this conspiracy, the aristos had remained immune.

Gabrielle sets out to confront the Marquis de Saint-Lucque (who is the only person named as a co-conspirator in the letters) and succeeds in extorting a large amount of money from him -- shortly after which he has a stroke. She also starts an affair with his son, Victomte Fernand, who is oblivious to the whole situation. Before long Gabrielle is living in luxury and has aspirations to marry the young Victomte, whom she believes is completely under her powers.

Her plans, however, are suddenly dashed when Fernand breaks off their affair as the King has decided that the Victomte should marry his illegitimate daughter, Neve de Nesle.

Furious, Gabrielle tries to blackmail her lover into marrying her using the letters which prove his father's guilt. But she has not counted on Neve's mother, Madame de Nesle, who on hearing of the nasty mess, uses her position as the King's favourite to ensure Gabrielle, now 19, is thrown into prison without trial.

---

Sixteen years have passed when Gabrielle, who has spent the time in prison feeding her rage and lust for revenge on the Sait-Lucque family, is released from the Bastille on July 14, 1789, after it is stormed by the mob -- for the French Revolution has started.

Mad on revenge Gabrielle works her way into the favour of the men behind the new republic, and before long has become the public executioner of Artois. As France's only female executioner she is feared by many and known throughout Artois as Mam'zelle Guillotine.

When the Saint-Lucque family (Fernand, Neve and their three children) are captured as traitors, Gabrielle is determined that finally she will have her revenge. They have taken her youth and her dignity, and in turn she will only rest when she has taken their lives.

The English spies manage to rescue the Marquis and his young son, but his wife and two daughters are still in danger of being sent to the Guillotine.

Blind with her rage and consumed with her plots for revenge, Gabrielle fails to notice that the new sleuth sent from Paris by Chauvelin to track down the English spies, is really the Scarlet Pimpernel in disguise.

Can Percy secure the freedom of Neve Saint-Lucque and her daughters and thus ensure that Mam'zelle Guillotine is deprived of her revenge?