The Prince and the Pauper: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

Hendon and Edward are chained in a crowded cell in the prison. Edward is furious that he, a king, is being treated like common rabble, but Hendon is absorbed in trying to understand Edith’s behavior. Hendon’s misery is made worse when numerous people come into the prison to mock and deny him. An old servant comes in one day, and Hendon recognizes him as an honest man but he believes the servant will be too scared to say he recognizes Hendon. Sure enough, the servant takes one look and he not only says that Hendon is an impostor, but that he’d like to see him burned. The jailer laughs and walks away. The servant leans in and says he does recognize Hendon and that he’s willing to testify to that if Hendon wants him to. Hendon thanks him but he says it’d do no good and it would be the old man’s ruin.

From then on, the servant stops by several times a day, ostensibly to taunt Hendon but really to sneak in food and fill him in on the events of the past seven years: Arthur died six years before, and this, combined with the lack of news from Miles, ruined Sir Richard’s health. Richard wanted Hugh and Edith to get married, but Edith begged him to wait in the hope that Miles would return. When the letter saying Miles was dead came in, Richard insisted on the marriage. Still, Edith put off the marriage for three months, finally marrying Hugh by Richard’s deathbed. Not long after the marriage, Edith found drafts of the death notice on Hugh’s desk and she accused him of forging the one Richard received. Since then, rumors have swirled about Hugh’s cruelty toward Edith, the servants, and anyone else who depends on him for food and shelter.

The servant also shares gossip of the King of England, which catches Edward’s interest. Edward learns that Henry will be buried on the 16th, the new king will be coronated on the 20th, and that Hertford is now the Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector. Hugh is in Hertford’s favor and he hopes that he’ll be made a peer after the coronation. Edward is stunned and he asks what king made Hertford a duke, and the servant replies that King Edward VI and the royal council did it. The servant also talks about how even though there are rumors that the king is insane, the people love him because he saved Norfolk and he is abolishing cruel laws left and right. Edward is stunned and desperate to get back to London to find out who is ruling in his place—Tom or a nobleman’s child.

Hendon tries to comfort Edward but he fails to calm the boy down. Two women in the cell, however, do comfort Edward. Edward comes to love the women and he asks them why they’re in prison. They tell him that they’re Baptists, and Edward wonders why that’s a punishable crime. He believes that they won’t face any other punishment, but the looks on their faces tell Edward that he’s wrong. Edward thinks they’re going to be scourged and he vows that he’ll be back on his throne and pardon them before that happens. The next day, the women are gone. Edward thinks they were released, but later he’s led outside with the other prisoners and sees both women chained to posts. Edward is outraged that such injustice is done in England and that he can’t intervene. Edward’s outrage turns to horror when kindling is placed under each woman and lit on fire.

As the women burn, their daughters run to them but they are torn away by guards. While the women shriek in pain, Edward turns toward the wall, saying this experience will haunt him all his life. Hendon watches Edward and notes that the boy is becoming gentler, which is a sign that his sanity is returning. That night, some new prisoners are brought in and Edward talks to them. Three are to be executed: one for stealing a yard of cloth, one for allegedly killing a deer on the king’s land, and one for bringing home a hawk that he found (he was accused of stealing it). Edward tells another prisoner (a former lawyer) whose ears have been cut off that he will be freed within a month, and that the laws which have victimized him will be abolished. Edward says kings ought to learn mercy by “go[ing] to school to their own laws.”