Imagine the "Black Prince," a half-English, half-French, Scarlet Pimpernel-type, who goes to a great deal of trouble disguising himself and thinking up elaborate rescue schemes that could easily land him a date with Madame la Guillotine, finding his efforts actually REJECTED by a young woman only hours away from execution!

Frankly, in his shoes, I would have left her there and saved my efforts for a more grateful recipient.

Even after her reunion with her sisters proves to her how much they have suffered and how much they need her in their lives, Jacqueline is scheming to return to France to kill Nicolas, the man who caused the deaths of her father and brother and the loss of her home and wealth. Armand, the "Black Prince" himself, refuses categorically to take her, and rightfully so.

But then she comes up with the idea of getting him to take her to France on the pretext of rescuing her fianc??. It's not that she loves the guy or anything, although she doesn't like to think of him in prison; what she really wants is to have a go at killing her nemesis, Nicolas.

This is a very long book and rather than go into all of the details, let me say that both Armand and Jacqueline, portrayed as being clever and brave enough to outwit the French revolutionaries over and over again, repeatedly fall into obvious traps and repeatedly have to find innovative and frankly incredible ways to escape the bloodthirsty mobs. They both seem to be inflicted with a death wish. Armand's motives can be explained by his guilt feelings following a terrible family tragedy. But Jacqueline's don't ring true.

For one thing, why does she blame all of her problems on Nicolas? He's a villain, to be sure, but doesn't she realize that losing her family and her wealth was inevitable? Aristocrats were being imprisoned and executed and their estates and wealth confiscated without any plausible reason. Nicolas's betrayal may have expedited the process, but the outcome would have been the same even without his participation.

Has Armand truly been cured of his self-destructive behavior? Will he be a faithful husband to Jacqueline when he wasn't with his first wife? I'm not convinced of that.

It bothers me that the hero and heroine supposedly speak to each other in French when there isn't even a smattering of French anywhere, other than names of people and places. (But that's the natural prejudice of a French teacher.)

It bothers me that the hero asks for the heroine's virginity as payment for his rescue services. . . and gets it.

It bothers me that the hero is looked down on as a commoner by Jacqueline when his mother was the daughter of a French marquis.

It bothers me that the character of the "Black Prince" is so similar to the Scarlet Pimpernel, from his elaborate disguises to the ship and valiant crew to the incident where the villain's guards are replaced by the hero's men dressed in their uniforms.

But what bothers me most of all is it suddenly started me wondering if the Scarlet Pimpernel truly lived happily ever after with Jane Seymour or whether he continued his daring rescue operations in spite of their happy marriage. Oh rats!