Summary

Pages 1 – 19. The colonel prepares to attend a funeral. As he’s dressing his wife, an invalid with asthma, repeatedly talks about the dead man who, she imagines, is himself talking to Agustin, her and the colonel’s dead son, killed in a political rebellion. Before he leaves, the colonel moves the rooster tied to the foot of his bed into the kitchen, where he feeds it.

On his way to the church where the funeral is to be held, the colonel stops in at the home of the dead man, where he feels oppressed by the crowds and passes on his condolences to the widow, who wails out her grief. On his way to the church, the colonel meets his friend Sabas, who asks about the rooster. Later, as the Mayor shouts his disapproval of the passing funeral...