After another two weeks, resources run out and stores stop offering credit. People’s resolve begins to fade as they must sell their personal belongings to survive. The International had donated only four thousand francs, and other donations have not helped meet the needs of the starving people. Étienne, too, has sold his possessions and has stopped taking his secretary’s salary.

One day as he is walking outside the village, he sees an old woman collapsed with starvation. La Mouquette, who lives nearby, rushes out with gin and bread, and the old woman, after eating, walks away. La Mouquette invites Étienne inside. Étienne is impressed with the neatness of her room. After six months of her trying to seduce him, he finally relents.

When he returns to the village, he discovers that the Company may be willing to compromise with them: Not only have their stocks of coal run out, but the condition of the mines is greatly deteriorating without the miners to maintain them. Étienne and other delegates decide to go to M. Hennebeau’s house to see where the Board of Directors stands. M. Hennebeau proposes an unsatisfactory compromise; the strikers refuse, and M.