This chapter's epigraph comes from a soliloquy in which the protagonist laments the fact that the heathens are ignoring his fortress and marching west. He tells us that he's following orders, and that if this is the case, he'll find an enemy and fight them. He's going to break first squadron, right flank, and then fall back, he says. He says that the luan savages have tried a "cheap trick" by using a martial arts called the "stab in the guts" , which is basically a chain-link sword. The protagonist says that they're still a long way away from regrouping with pars' second squadron. They're about to fall, the protagonist says, and they should stop chasing the enemy and regroup at the rear of the fortress. He admits that he fell for the "pur suit call" of the chase to the fortress, only to be disgraced by it. He thinks that the fortress is still safe, and he says that if the enemy gets past it, then the protagonist's next strong hold will be at the "keep of saint Emmanuel" .