{"id":"01KG8AKJA166WYY3B7ZVDAWJTA","cid":"bafkreidvop247qbpzpqwcg3mxyflin5tjrkycz44qv64fmbmzyyniugbd4","type":"section","properties":{"description":"# V.\n\n## Overview\nSection V. is a textual component extracted from the file [pierre.txt](arke:01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A) and is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. This section spans lines 15921 to 15996 of the source file and is labeled \"V.\"\n\n## Context\nThis section is situated within [BOOK XXVI. A WALK: A FOREIGN PORTRAIT: A SAIL: AND THE END.](arke:01KG8AJV19W1VB1DSZZ5CS6M4R), a chapter from Herman Melville's novel *Pierre; or, The Ambiguities*. It follows [Section IV.](arke:01KG8AKJAB2S75Y7CQ5TWKRXE6) and precedes [Section VI.](arke:01KG8AKJA1ZQJ0FSY9512CWD68) within the chapter's narrative progression.\n\n## Contents\nSection V. details Pierre's actions as he retrieves pistols, powder, and bullets from a hidden drawer. He then tears off a part of a letter from Glen and Fred, which he describes as containing \"the lie,\" and rams it into the pistols. Pierre conceals the weapons and proceeds through the city streets, observing the bustling thoroughfare. The section culminates in a confrontation where Glen assaults Pierre, striking him across the cheek. In response, Pierre draws his pistols and fatally shoots Glen, leading to his own immediate apprehension by a crowd.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:50:25.428Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"V.","end_line":15996,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:07.474Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"V.","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":15921,"text":"V.\r\n\r\nPierre passed on to a remote quarter of the building, and abruptly\r\nentered the room of one of the Apostles whom he knew. There was no one\r\nin it. He hesitated an instant; then walked up to a book-case, with a\r\nchest of drawers in the lower part.\r\n\r\n\"Here I saw him put them:--this,--no--here--ay--we'll try this.\"\r\n\r\nWrenching open the locked drawer, a brace of pistols, a powder flask, a\r\nbullet-bag, and a round green box of percussion-caps lay before him.\r\n\r\n\"Ha! what wondrous tools Prometheus used, who knows? but more wondrous\r\nthese, that in an instant, can unmake the topmost\r\nthree-score-years-and-ten of all Prometheus' makings. Come: here's two\r\ntubes that'll outroar the thousand pipes of Harlem.--Is the music in\r\n'em?--No?--Well then, here's powder for the shrill treble; and wadding\r\nfor the tenor; and a lead bullet for the concluding bass!\r\nAnd,--and,--and,--ay; for the top-wadding, I'll send 'em back their lie,\r\nand plant it scorching in their brains!\"\r\n\r\nHe tore off that part of Glen and Fred's letter, which more\r\nparticularly gave the lie; and halving it, rammed it home upon the\r\nbullets.\r\n\r\nHe thrust a pistol into either breast of his coat; and taking the\r\nrearward passages, went down into the back street; directing his rapid\r\nsteps toward the grand central thoroughfare of the city.\r\n\r\nIt was a cold, but clear, quiet, and slantingly sunny day; it was\r\nbetween four and five of the afternoon; that hour, when the great\r\nglaring avenue was most thronged with haughty-rolling carriages, and\r\nproud-rustling promenaders, both men and women. But these last were\r\nmostly confined to the one wide pavement to the West; the other pavement\r\nwas well nigh deserted, save by porters, waiters, and parcel-carriers of\r\nthe shops. On the west pave, up and down, for three long miles, two\r\nstreams of glossy, shawled, or broadcloth life unceasingly brushed by\r\neach other, as long, resplendent, drooping trains of rival peacocks\r\nbrush.\r\n\r\nMixing with neither of these, Pierre stalked midway between. From his\r\nwild and fatal aspect, one way the people took the wall, the other way\r\nthey took the curb. Unentangledly Pierre threaded all their host, though\r\nin its inmost heart. Bent he was, on a straightforward, mathematical\r\nintent. His eyes were all about him as he went; especially he glanced\r\nover to the deserted pavement opposite; for that emptiness did not\r\ndeceive him; he himself had often walked that side, the better to scan\r\nthe pouring throng upon the other.\r\n\r\nJust as he gained a large, open, triangular space, built round with the\r\nstateliest public erections;--the very proscenium of the town;--he saw\r\nGlen and Fred advancing, in the distance, on the other side. He\r\ncontinued on; and soon he saw them crossing over to him obliquely, so as\r\nto take him face-and-face. He continued on; when suddenly running ahead\r\nof Fred, who now chafingly stood still (because Fred would not make two,\r\nin the direct personal assault upon one) and shouting \"Liar! Villain!\"\r\nGlen leaped toward Pierre from front, and with such lightning-like\r\nferocity, that the simultaneous blow of his cowhide smote Pierre across\r\nthe cheek, and left a half-livid and half-bloody brand.\r\n\r\nFor that one moment, the people fell back on all sides from them; and\r\nleft them--momentarily recoiled from each other--in a ring of panics.\r\n\r\nBut clapping both hands to his two breasts, Pierre, on both sides\r\nshaking off the sudden white grasp of two rushing girls, tore out both\r\npistols, and rushed headlong upon Glen.\r\n\r\n\"For thy one blow, take here two deaths! 'Tis speechless sweet to murder\r\nthee!\"\r\n\r\nSpatterings of his own kindred blood were upon the pavement; his own\r\nhand had extinguished his house in slaughtering the only unoutlawed\r\nhuman being by the name of Glendinning;--and Pierre was seized by a\r\nhundred contending hands.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"V."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJV19W1VB1DSZZ5CS6M4R","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKJAB2S75Y7CQ5TWKRXE6","peer_type":"section","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKJA1ZQJ0FSY9512CWD68","peer_type":"section","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:08.513Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:50:25.731Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}