The chapter opens with a soliloquy by the masked bride. She tells the audience that she is a wreck and that she will not be able to reduce her guilt if she does not change her ways. She says that she wants to return to the family tree and become the eldest daughter. She wants to inherit all of the family's property and control all of its mercenaries. If she cannot prove that she betrayed the family, then she has the qualifications to do so. She explains that she has never hated her sister for marrying a man who played with her affections. This marriage has given her "endless torment" and cost her the child she carried.