In this chapter, we learn that the story of the Tower of Pisa has been told many times, but that no one has ever been able to prove it to be true. In fact, during the Inquisition, there was a division of the clergy between those who believed in the Tower and those who did not. This division made it impossible for the Church to defend itself against the heretics and the royalists, who were imprisoned in the monastery. It was only after the Inquisition that the truth about the Tower was finally revealed. The narrator tells us that he has been debating the matter for the past ten years, and that he does not think that it will be easy for him to come to the conclusion that the Tower is true. He does not want to be bombarded with this information, he says, because he has known the story for so long that he would not want anyone to contradict him. He also says that he knows that the Father Simon is a friend of the narrator, but he is not sure that he will be able to stand the work that he is doing. The old man welcomes the news of his discovery, but admits that he still cannot believe it. He has been searching for answers to the riddles of the past twenty years and has not found any answers. He wonders if he is alone in his search, but the old man says he was not alone in the search