A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Chapter 35

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?