Captain of the Guard plot
"Mighty Drama! Martial Music! Heart-Filling Romance!"
The innkeeper's daughter Marie Marnay refuses to marry Bazin, a secret agent employed by the French King Louis XVI. When Bazin sends the music master Rouget de l'Isle to give Marie singing lessons, she falls in love with him and pledges her allegiance to Rouget. Marie's father refuses to join the rebellion against the king and he is killed trying to protect his daughter from the advances of a soldier of the king. Marie then joins the revolutionaries, breaking her promise to Rouget in the king's service, and she becomes infamous as "The Torch."