BLACK JACK

York, 1750. A French sailor known as Black Jack and accused of murder, is executed by hanging. A woman who sells dead boodies to doctors asks for the corpse, and has her young apprentice Tolly guard the coffin. However, Tolly discovers that Black Jack has escaped death by swallowing a spoon. The Frenchman escapes, taking Tolly with him to cover his tracks. Travelling east, Black Jack takes a coach hostage, planning to ask for ransom in order to let it go. Meanwhile, Belle Carter, the slightly mad daughter of a very wealthy family, who is being kept in a lunatic asylum, escapes into the woods. Tolly finds the girl but cannot turn her in to her captors. At a country fair, Tolly and Belle meet a doctor and his wife who sell a miraculous elixir....