This chapter's epigraph is from the play's opening line, "I will crush you / at last." This is a reference to the fact that the narrator is a Christian and that the pope is a Protestant. The epigraph also implies that the ring belongs to the "true servants of god," not to "hellspawn ruling overrome." The ring is a gift from vladimir, who promised to give it to the narrator in exchange for the keys to the Holy Land. Now that he knows this, the narrator decides to read the Bible more carefully. He realizes that the angels who died in the "brave fire" were the same angels who were killed in "the brimstone accident" . The narrator decides that he will have to live with the knowledge that this knowledge will lead him to the stake.