Renata lies with her head on the colonel’s chest. At her request, the colonel recounts episodes from the war, beginning with the Normandy landings, the rapid capture of Cherbourg, and the subsequent advance. He describes the movement of troops, the abundance of captured money, and his own hesitation to loot anything, noting that he kept only a compass because it was “bad luck to steal, unnecessarily, in war” (171). He recalls his reliance on communications, the strain of constant coordination, and the pace of operations, often cutting out parts of the story that he worries will bore her.

He turns to a major breakthrough operation, describing delays caused by weather and the eventual deployment of heavy air power. He explains the bombing that preceded the advance, the precision marking of targets, and the overwhelming effect on German defenders. He also acknowledges the importance and power of air power, particularly when bombing errors caused casualties among his own forces. Throughout, Renata listens attentively and asks him to continue gently, concerned for his physical and emotional state. As the colonel grows fatigued, Renata urges him to rest and stop recounting painful memories. Their conversation shifts to broader reflections on leadership, politics, and mortality. The colonel dismisses any notion of political ambition and speaks instead about burial. He disparages US leadership, including President Harry S. Truman, whom he describes as an “unsuccessful haberdasher.” He does not want to be buried in a military graveyard such as Arlington Cemetery. They hold each other quietly, agreeing to rest together and think of nothing further.

The colonel and Renata look out at the light on the Grand Canal. The colonel attempts to rest his mind but finds himself unable to avoid returning to memories of the war. At Renata’s request, he continues to recount his experiences, speaking carefully and with restraint. He reflects on earlier campaigns, on commanders he admired or wished he could have spoken with, and on the structure of military command. He explains his initial role as a replacement colonel and how promotions and removals functioned during large-scale operations, often happening at speed because of the demands of the mission.

The colonel describes taking command of a regiment and later losing it not through failure but through decisions from above. Often, he suggests, commanders were more concerned with getting their unit into The Stars and Stripes magazine than with operational success. He recounts how assaults were sometimes ordered for political or symbolic reasons rather than tactical necessity, leading to severe losses. He explains the disconnect between front-line realities and distant headquarters, criticizing decisions made far from the fighting. He describes a briefing attended by senior officers and war correspondents during which a major offensive was presented as simple and inevitable despite the brutal realities he later witnessed. Though he fears that he is boring Renata, she insists that he continue and that he be “as bitter as [he wants]” (185).

The colonel speaks about rations in war. As he describes the movement of troops and the launching of air support, he stares up at the ceiling, “completely desperate at the remembrance of his loss of his battalions, and of individual people” (186). He inherited the regiment in the fast-paced turmoil of the war, but many of the men died; he tells Renata that he destroyed the regiment “under other people’s orders” (187). During his time in the military, he believes that he only had two good superior officers. He would love to still be a general. Renata encourages him to rest, and he agrees to sleep, still thinking about the soldier’s need to obey.

Renata tells the colonel that he slept well. She wants to rest with him, holding his bad hand while he tells her about “combat without being too brutal” (188). The colonel skips ahead in his recollections, recalling an easy assignment. As he talks, Renata tells the colonel that he sounds “like Dante.”

Since Renata is sleepy, the colonel promises to skip the details of his story. Looking from the ceiling to Renata, he thinks about Renata’s ancestry and her bloodline. She knows the name of all her aristocratic ancestors, he thinks, while many American women barely know their own grandfather’s name.

Renata is asleep, but the colonel decides to continue with the story, thinking the words to himself rather than saying them aloud. He remembers receiving orders to attack from General Walter Bedell Smith. His troops attacked at dawn alongside the Big Red One, a famous army division, and the Ninth, a division the colonel is willing to concede was better than his own. They attacked “exactly where the Germans wished [them] to attack” (191). The colonel does not want to dwell too long on the general’s responsibility for this failing. The plans were bad and seemingly guaranteed that many Americans would be captured or killed; the towns that the commanders expected to capture easily were more like fortresses, set up as traps. Renata wakes, sympathizing with the plight of the regiment. The colonel encourages her to return to sleep. Wondering whether he should be bitter, the colonel admiringly watches Renata as she sleeps.

The colonel wants Renata to “sleep softly.” Later, he hopes, he will purchase the jewel from the store for her. He imagines her wearing it as a brooch while they visit Harry’s. He also imagines saying goodbye to her and, as he drives away with Jackson, noting that they “will not ever see one another again” (195). He feels as he did before battles. Renata is sleeping so well, he observes, that “even his thoughts would not hurt her” (196). He looks from Renata to the portrait and decides that he is a lucky man and should stop lingering on his regrets.

The colonel remembers the battle in which he lost many of his men. On the first day, three battalion commanders died, and they could not easily be replaced. The weather was bad, and the roads were mined, so people and vehicles were constantly being lost. The Germans rained heavy artillery down on the advancing Americans so that staying alive was very difficult. At one place, a dead American soldier was in the road and vehicles were running over him, mangling his body and making “a bad impression on the troops” (198). The colonel ordered the body to be taken off the road. He remembers the strangeness of the mangled body, as well as many other violent incidents. The American use of white phosphorus burned the skin of the German soldiers; cats and dogs ate the dead. In the cold, many of the dead bodies froze. The colonel looks ahead to his evening with Renata, considering her portrait and his future.

Later, outside the jewelry store, the colonel tells Renata to choose which item to buy. She selects a piece but insists that she should deal with the shopkeeper, as he might try to charge a higher price to the American colonel. Since the final price is more than the colonel has with him, he tells the shopkeeper to send it to Harry’s, where an employee, Cipriani, will pay for it and the colonel will reimburse him later. After the exchange, the colonel reminds Renata that he has her emeralds. She insists that he should keep them but understands when he says that he cannot. In a blind alley, they kiss. Renata does not care if anyone sees them. They agree to go to Harry’s and, as a game, they “play historical personages” (202).