Sections 6-7, pages 48 - 64 Summary

In the next two sections of the novel, the author reveals how Baltasar and Blimunda become ravelled in Padre Batolomeu's obsession with flight, and how they both become employed in the creation of the Passarola.

Baltasar is now living with Blimunda and waiting to hear from the court if he can be received by thye King and petition for a military pension when the father who is Blimunda's mentor (Padre Bartolomeu) approaches him and insists that he could employ the one handed man. They walk the streets of Lisbon, where the Padre tells the ex-soldier of his aims and wishes. Secretly, in a warehouse near an old church the Padre reveals that he has been commissioned by the King himself to build a flying machine, an airship. He has already made several inventions and investigations into that...