Around the World in Eighty Days: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

The guide agrees to help Fogg, Passepartout, and Sir Francis free the young woman since she, like him, is a Parsee. He tells them that the woman’s name is Aouda and that she is the English-educated, orphaned daughter of a wealthy Bombay merchant. After her father’s death, she was forced to marry the old rajah of Bundelcund, and the rajah’s family now demands that she be sacrificed.

The men discuss how to gain access to the pagoda of Pillaji, where Aouda is being held for the night. They decide to remove bricks from the back wall of the pagoda in order to sneak in, but they hear a cry from inside and other cries replying from outside, so they abandon the plan. Fogg assures the other men that something might happen by chance to help their situation, while Passepartout devises a plan of his own to save Aouda.

In the morning, Aouda is brought to the funeral pyre and laid next to the rajah’s corpse to be burned. Fogg, Passepartout, Sir Francis, and the guide mingle with the crowd that has gathered to watch the sacrifice. Fogg has a sudden “instant of mad generosity” and tries to rush the pyre, but Sir Francis and the guide hold him back.

Just then, the rajah rises like a ghost, seizes Aouda, and disappears with her in the midst of the smoke. He approaches Fogg, Sir Francis, and the guide, and they realize that he is actually Passepartout, who snuck into the pyre under the cover of the smoke and, dressed as the rajah, saved Aouda from the sacrifice. Just as the Brahmins at the ceremony realize what has occurred and begin shooting at them, the men safely flee with Aouda into the forest.