The Laughing Cavalier (Novel)
First edition
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| Author | Baroness Orczy |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Adventure, Historical novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
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Publication date
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1913 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 406 pp |
| Followed by | The First Sir Percy |
Set in Holland in 1623/1624, and published in 1913, The Laughing Cavalier, by the British novelist Baroness Orczy, revolves around Percy Blake, a foreign adventurer and ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel who goes by the name Diogenes who, we are told by Orczy, is the real subject of the famous painting The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals. The son of an English nobleman and a Dutch woman, his father abandoned his mother after Diogenes was born, and he was brought up by Hals in Haarlem. He has spent his life fighting in various battles as a mercenary for hire, but now, along with his two sidekicks – fellow 'philosophers' – Socrates and Pythagoras, he is back in Haarlem, penniless and looking for entertainment.
The book is followed by The First Sir Percy. The book was promoted as "Hard riding, desperate fighting, romantic love, the flavor of olden days in the story of the ancestor of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL".
March 1623. William or Willem van Oldenbarnevelt, the Lord of Stoutenburg in the Netherlands is a man on the run. His father, the Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, "John of Barneveld" in the book, was falsely accused of treason and sent to the gallows by the Stadtholder, Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange in 1619 while his brother Reinier van Oldenbarnevelt, the lord of Groeneveld, has since been arrested and executed for plotting to avenge their father's death by killing the Prince. These three are all real historical figures, and the father was executed after a hurried trial.
Meanwhile, Stoutenburg, now a fugitive for his part in the plot, is determined to get his revenge.
While on the run, Stoutenburg asks for shelter from Gilda Beresteyn, the daughter of a rich merchant. Gilda was once in love with Stoutenburg, but has never forgiven him for abandoning her to make a more profitable marriage. Despite her reservations she lets him into her room for a short time and feeds him, but eventually she sends him away again for she knows her father, who is a friend of the Prince of Orange, will not approve.
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