Saturday, February 18, 2012

Flash for Freedom - Chapter 13



Flashman spends most of Chapter 13 laying on his stomach, being shot in the backside will do that to you.

Cassy is looked after and sent off to Canada. Flashman actually says that of many of his ladies he formed less of a connection with her. I think partially because she used him as much as he uses others. There was also how driven she was when it came to getting her freedom and how she appeared to the socially progressive minded women who were determined to see her a free and independent woman.

Once again Abraham Lincoln can see right through Flashman. He doesn't for a moment believe he's a naval officer called Beauchamp Comber, but it suits his purposes to have everyone think he is, so he goes along with it. He also refers to Harry as a rascal, which is a rather mild word to use for someone who is a self confessed cheat, liar, coward and bully. Despite how hard he's tried to avoid it Flashman is sent back to New Orleans to testify against John Charity Spring and his employers. Flashman's testimony is now the only way they can convict anyone of anything. Mrs Spring threw all the documents overboard. Spring is claiming that the Balliol College was built in Baltimore and owned by a Mexican, they can't get him on slavery because the girls on board weren't chained at the time and I doubt most of them could speak enough English to testify to anything in any case.

Flashman's real problem is that if Spring and Co can prove he isn't Comber then he's going to be charged along with them. If he doesn't testify the Americans will probably lock him up for refusing to do so. He's not sure of what to do until he receives a visit from Spring's lawyer who strongly suggests to him in veiled language that he can save everyone and himself by lying under oath.

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