The plot puts all the pieces of the puzzle together that were left apart during the first reading. For example, the reader knows that Peyton Farquhar's is the man that is being hanged without having to read almost to the end of the story. The reader is also aware of why the hanging is taking place. While the story is based on a realistic plot, and even set up as a piece of historical fiction, it soon takes a turn towards romanticism.
As a captured Southern loyalist, the character is bound by the neck and to be hung, when his life, all that is to be, flashes before him. There are some instances of foreshadowing in the plot; this can be seen at the end of Section I. This is when Peyton imagines his whole escape. He talks about how he dives into the stream with his hands free, dodges bullets, and escapes through the woods to his home where his wife and kids are waiting for him. Peyton imagines that just as he is hung off the bridge and is dropping to his death, the rope breaks letting him fall into the water and begin to escape by swimming for his life. This action in itself also illustrates classic romanticism, as it is highly unrealistic that Peyton would have survived the impact of the rope to his neck as he dropped off the bridge. In a split second he pictures his break from the noose, his race to freedom, and his reunion with his beloved family. Life, to this man, is nothing but a dream that he holds of his freedom.
This fantasy goes on further as he survives his plunge into the water, releases himself of the ropes that bound him, and then manages to swim away to safety while being shot at by a troop of soldiers. Finally Peyton escapes the treacheries of the running river, and the chasing soldiers in an idealized, and abstract fashion (true to the characteristics of romanticism). He then runs through the forest in a desperate hope to keep away from the soldiers. After running quite a distance Peyton makes it to a farm, as he gets closer to the actual house he realizes it is his own, and he even sees his wife coming to greet him.