Chapter Six Summary

The caravan stops at the plain of Chizukano and waits for an unknown guest from the south. A new troop of guards arrives to take Rodrigues to another small hut on the outskirts of Nagasaki. Rodrigues spends several days in quiet contemplation before being moved to a cell in the guards' house. The following day several men and women are brought into the courtyard and forced to labor in the fields. Rodrigues is granted permission to visit the peasants as they work. He recognizes them as the villagers he met soon after his own capture. The priest's days settle into an odd sort of routine. He spends his days with the peasants in the field listening to their confessions and praying with them. Rodrigues convinces the guards to give him some paper, and at night he writes down what has been...