Chapter 16 Summary

The opening of the sixteenth chapter reveals a little more of the truth behind the story of the Cavalier's end as Biagio recounts the much simpler story Cosimo tells when he first returns to the trees with Ottimo Massimo carrying the truncated head. In that story, the Cavalier is merely kidnapped by the pirates, but that story saddens his father so observably that he later invents a story of cunning on the part of the Cavalier in order to entrap the pirates, but it is too full of holes to be sustained. He also wishes to suppress the fact of the hidden treasure in order that the colliers be able to keep it and feast upon it, and not be regarded as thieves.

This is also the chapter containing the recounting of the Baron's decline and eventual death. Sadness over the loss of...