A Pitiful Incident
- Slavery sucks, especially if you're sold at a discount… like the king is. He thinks he's worth much more, even though buyers at every town comment on how worthless he is.
- A month passes, and the Yankee asks the king if he would now abolish slavery—the king agrees.
- The Yankee devises a plan for escape, but believes it will take some time to implement.
- One night, a blizzard overtakes them, and the slave driver gets them all lost.
- As they struggle to find their way again, a woman rushes among them, pursued by a mob who thinks she is a witch. The slave driver has her lashed to a stake and burned alive on the spot.
- Sometime later, they pass a public hanging of a young mother on the outskirts of London; the woman is condemned for stealing a piece of linen to feed her child.
- A priest takes the woman's baby just before she dies and promises to raise it.
- It's kind of a downer of a chapter, right?