The Duke and the Dauphin were indeed severely punished for their crimes, and they richly deserved it. They were con men, and they preyed on the gullibility and innocence(and ignorance), of the good people on the river.

Eventually, those good people got wise, and extracted their terrible revenge. But the river folk weren't exactly free of sin themselves. And perhaps they deserved being victims as well.

Huckleberry Finn is, to a very great extent, about slavery, and slavery not only brutalizes and dehumanizes the slave, it corrupts and degrades the slave holder as well, as well as everyone else who witnesses and benefits from that peculiar institution.

There are many different kinds of slavery, sometimes so subtle and sophisticated that neither the slave nor the master understands his role in it. And when the time comes to settle accounts, no one escapes the cruel reckoning when it comes. The victims will suffer as well as the guilty, and so will the innocent. Karma, like justice, is blind. And neither will be denied.

America learned that harsh lesson in the mid- nineteenth century. I think we're about to learn it again.