Just one short scene from the BBC series The Scarlet Pimpernel. Well, it were only six episodes, sadly. Richard E. Grant made a splendid Sir Percy Blakeney, aka. The Scarlet Pimpernel - and I don't say that because a friend assured me I can have the same nasty grin, and a similarly humiliating wit =P.
Here, he is confronting the villainous Chevalier, a feared fencer. This is a bow to the real-life Chevalier d'Eon, who, during the time of Britain's Hellfire Club, dressed up both as a male and female and was the reason for many a controversy. But then, nobody crossed the cross-dressers path that easily, for he/her was one of the best fencers and duelists of his time. While this here isn't d'Eon, Sir Percy makes a similar discovery later in the movie - that the Chevalier is more than just a match to him.