This chapter, following directly on the previous one, continues the action in the beseiged Sulaco, as Dr. Monygham treats with Sotillo and a stream of refugees makes a vividly described flight to the safety of the woods. Amidst the anarchy and panic, meanwhile, hasty preparations are made to bring Decoud's Occidental Republic into existence.
A large part of the chapter is taken up by Hernandez' emissary, a character
we never see again, speaking for a character we barely see at all. We watch
his arrival in town, and follow a long, broken conversation he has with Charles
Gould concerning payment for his bandits-turned-soldiers. At first glance these
sections seem mere belabored plot detail, establishing Hernandez' army which
will help in the (offstage) victory of the Occidental Republic to come. But
there is a deeper political meaning at work here. Hernandez represents theft
in the name of justice, i.e., socialist equality. It is fitting that he becomes
one cornerstone of the Occidental Republic: Conrad is here sketching the moral
outlines of the modern world. In the cloaked dialogue that ends the chapter,
we see Charles Gould surrender the moral leadership of the material interests
(retaining, of course, their financial power), which passes to socialism and
religion in the persons of Hernandez and Father Corbelan. The implication is
that in the modern world, if there is any idealistic promise for mankind in
material progress, it is located in the material and spiritual aspirations of
the workers.