Chapter IX

The narrator establishes Issachar as an exceptionally choleric Hebrew, setting up his volatile temperament as the catalyst for the coming violence.

Issachar confronts Candide in a jealous rage, accusing him of sharing Cunegonde and drawing a weapon to defend his claim.

Candide, armed with a sword from the old woman, draws his rapier and kills Issachar in self-defense, laying him dead at Cunegonde's feet.

Cunegonde expresses horror at the corpse in her apartment, fearing the arrival of justice officers will doom them all.

Candide laments that Pangloss, the great philosopher, has been hanged and thus cannot provide counsel, leading him to consult the old woman instead.

The Grand Inquisitor suddenly enters through a side door at midnight on Sunday, encountering Candide with sword drawn and a corpse on the floor.

Candide rapidly reasons that the Inquisitor will have him burnt and Cunegonde similarly punished, justifying preemptive murder as necessary and inevitable.

Without hesitation, Candide pierces the Inquisitor through and casts him beside the Jew's corpse.

Cunegonde expresses shock that Candide, naturally gentle, has killed both a Jew and a prelate, believing they are now excommunicated and doomed.

Candide defends his actions by claiming that when one is a lover, jealous, and whipped by the Inquisition, one abandons restraint.

The old woman takes charge by proposing they flee on three horses to Cadiz, emphasizing the favorable weather for night travel.

Candide saddled the horses and they traveled thirty miles through the night, eventually learning the Holy Brotherhood discovered the house and the bodies were disposed of differently.

At an inn in Avacena, Cunegonde weeps over the loss of her money and jewels, despairing about how they will survive.

The old woman expresses suspicion that a reverend Grey Friar, who stayed at their previous inn and left early, robbed them.

Candide invokes Pangloss's teaching that worldly goods are common to all men, yet ironically notes the Friar should have left them enough for travel.

The old woman pragmatically suggests selling one horse to fund their journey to Cadiz, despite her physical difficulty with riding.

At Cadiz, a fleet prepares for war against Jesuit Fathers in Paraguay; Candide's military skill earns him a captain's commission.

Candide reasons that the New World must be where all is best, yet admits some grounds for complaint about the world's nature.

Cunegonde loves Candide but confesses her soul remains full of fright from her experiences, doubting optimistic claims about the new world.

Candide insists the New World's calmer seas and regular winds prove it is the best of all possible worlds.

Cunegonde prays for the best while remaining emotionally closed to hope given her past suffering.

The old woman insists she has suffered more than Cunegonde, provoking the latter's skepticism.

Cunegonde enumerates her ordeals—ravishment by Bulgarians, wounds, destroyed castles, murdered mothers, whipped lovers—as evidence of exceptional suffering.

Cunegonde emphasizes she was born a baroness of seventy-two quarterings yet reduced to working as a cook.

The old woman mysteriously claims superior suffering and hints at showing physical evidence—her backside—that would silence Cunegonde's judgment.

Candide and Cunegonde's curiosity is raised, prompting the old woman to begin recounting her own background and sufferings.