This chapter's epigraph is from the play's first chapter, which was written by the same author who wrote the first two chapters of the novel. In this chapter, King Lear's son, de Guiche, tells his father that he would rather die than live as a slave. De Guiche tells him that his father is a tyrant, and that he is afraid of him. He tells the king that he will have to kill him if he does not leave the city. The king says that he has no choice but to do so, and the boy agrees.