Baroness Emmuska Orczy 
Scarlet Pimpernel 

The Scarlet Pimpernel is the original masked hero adventure story. During the French Revolution a secret society of English gentlemen is formed by the enigmatic Scarlet Pimpernel, to rescue their fellow French nobility. Marguerite’s brother is threatened by a Frenchman, who demands information on the Scarlet Pimpernel in return for her brother’s safety. Marguerite makes the exchange only to discover that her boring fop of a husband is the Pimpernel himself! She follows him to France and so each proves themselves to the other what they really are.