Sections 16-17, pages 176- 211 Summary

The next two sections see the story take a surprising twist as the Padre Bartolomeu coaxes his machine to fly in fear of it being captured by the Inquisition, and Baltasar and Blimunda are again left alone in the world.

In the first of these sections, we see the Padre Bartolomeu do Gusmao retreating more and more into apparent despair as he realises that the eyes of the Holy Inquisition are upon him. He fearfully speeds up the work and demands that Blimunda retrieve more and more Wills as his sermons provoke debate and speculation for heresy.

Suddenly, one day he announces that they must fly the machine away, they must flee before the Inquisition capture it and have them all burned. So Baltasar and Blimunda set about taking apart the roof of the estate hall that...