March awakens to the sounds of “the snort of a horse’s breath” and “scrambled into his hiding hole.” What happened after that?

A jangling sound wakes March from his sleep and he knows immediately that something is terribly wrong. He scurries to his hidey-hole and slices open the bags of seed, camouflaging himself. He hears the rebel fighters searching his room: it is clear they are searching for March in particular. He lays silently in his hole, listening as the fighters beat Canning, shooting him in both legs, demanding to know where March is hiding, but Canning refuses to speak. The beating continues until Canning falls silent, fainting from the pain. With no further information to be gathered from Canning, the fighters call for Ptolemy, the eldest of the Oak Landing freed slaves. They call out to March, threatening to behead Ptolemy if he does not show himself. March's fear paralyzes him and he vomits when he hears Ptolemy's head thud on the ground.