His sympathy with the troubles of the French peasants leads him to adopt the Red Cockade, notwithstanding his ties of blood and his engagement to marry a young woman of a prominent Royalist family.

[2] He is constantly torn between loyalty to his convictions and to the woman that he loves, and is often placed in situations where he is obliged to save Mademoiselle de St. Alais from the rage of the mob.

[2] But Dénise herself, after having been saved by him from her burning chateau, loves him intensely and is true to him, though her relatives have betrothed her to the leader of the Royalists.

[2] The book closes with a scene in the room where Madame de St. Alais lies dying from wounds received at the hands of the mob.

[3] According to Helen Rex Keller, "This is a romance filled with exciting incidents of the stormy times of the French Revolution.