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The Scarlet Pimpernel **﻿**

**﻿The Scarlet Pimpernel Story** **﻿** "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is about a beautiful lady, Marguerite,and her husband Percy. Percy appears to be a fool, but in actuality is the clever and daring Scarlet Pimpnerel. The Scarlet Pimpernel is an Englishman who goes into France and saves aristocrats from the Guillotine. Marguerite has no idea her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel and actually ends up giving her husband over to the french agency trying to find him. When Marguerite realizes what she has done, she goes after Percy to try and save, or at least warn, him. 

**The Guillotine**

 The guillotine was invented by a man named Dr. Joseph Guillotine, designed to make the executions of aristocrats during The French Revolution more "humane." The person found guilty would lay face down on a bench. The executioner would pull the cord and the blade would quickly behead the victim, where the head would roll into a basket. Crowds which would gather to watch the executions were let down by how quick it was. Some doctors said that it took sometimes up to thirty seconds before the victims were unconscious which only pleased the crowds more. []
 * The total weight of the guillotine was 1,278 pounds
 * The blade itself was 88.2 pounds
 * The height of the sideposts was 14 feet tall
 * The blade drop was about 88 inches

**The French Revolution** **﻿** ﻿The French Revoulution was a gruesome time in history. France was in an economic crisis with the aristocrats getting richer and the commoners getting poorer. The government was in debt to the aristocrats, so they had to tax the lower class to pay it back. In July 1788, there was a hailstorm that destroyed nearly all the crops. Hungry, the people rioted. Some rumors went aroun that the aristocrats were trying to keep commoners hungry to block reforms. In 1789, a mob attacked Versailles where the royals lived. Then, in 1791, a constitution was sent to King Louis XVI to approve. It gave almost no power to him. He did approve it though, and it seemed as if the Revolution was complete.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This sense did not last long. "Traitors" and foreigners started being hunted and executed to stop France from going back to the way it used to be. "On December 11, 1792 the trial of Louis XVI began. Some in the National Convention joined with the Parisians in their belief that the death of the king would advance the revolution. Louis XVI, once known to his people as Louis the Beneficent was now called Louis the Last." He was executed on January 21, 1793. Then on October 16, Marie Antoinette was executed also. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[]

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Fashion for Men <span style="display: block; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> The fashion in France was becoming more simple but still had an influence of English fashion. Typically men wore tailcoats, waistcoats, pantaloons, neckcloths, top hats, gloves, canes, and pocketwatches. Their hair was usually short and sideburns were popular.

<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[]

**<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;">Fashion for Women ** <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">"Clothing during the French Revolution evolved from the ornate to the simple. The larger silhouette supported by wide panniers and stiff stays gave way to a slim line with little or no corseting. The earliest part of the Revolution during the 1790s was a time of restriction; ostentatious dress or vivid coloring could mark one as wealthy, which was a death sentence during "The Terror" of 1792. After this period, the simpler Grecian style took over again with the installation of the Directory."

Read more: [|About Fashion in the French Revolution | eHow.com] [|http://www.ehow.com/about_4570555_fashion-french-revolution.html#ixzz1Zq9rwZhb] []

<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">** Women during The French revoltion ** Below is a link to a review on women's roles in the french revolution. <span style="display: block; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> []