- The doctor’s assistant leads Nikolai over to the officers’ wing. It’s bad there too, but not nearly as bad as the soldiers’ wing.
- The first person he runs into there is the cannon officer Tushin, who has an amputated arm.
- Tushin leads him to Denisov.
- Denisov is a changed man. He’s obsessed with his court case and doesn’t seem to care about the army or life outside the hospital. No one can convince him to just throw himself at the mercy of the court or the emperor. Instead, he keeps writing these bitter, angry letters to the prosecutor, and his case isn’t going well.
- Nikolai hangs out a bit, and as he is getting ready to leave at night, Denisov gives him a signed petition for clemency – the thing no one could get him to sign before.