The chapter opens at evening by the Patriarch’s Ponds, where the water has turned black and a small boat drifts. The professor, addressing Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, declares that his tale does not match the Gospel and then, in a hushed tone, claims he personally witnessed the events on Pontius Pilate’s balcony, the garden conversation with Joseph Kaifa, and the platform scene in Jerusalem. He demands absolute secrecy. Berlioz, startled, probes the professor’s arrival; the professor bizarrely answers that he just stepped into Moscow, displaying a green, “insane” left eye and a black, dead right eye. Berlioz concludes the professor is a mad German and decides to contain the situation. He offers to call the foreigners’ bureau, but the professor interrupts, begging them to believe in the devil and promising a “seventh proof.” Berlioz, whispering to Ponyrev not to contradict the professor, prepares to leave for a public telephone. As he exits toward the corner of Malaya Bronnaya Street and Yermolaevsky Lane, a strange citizen with a chicken‑feather moustache, tiny eyes, and checkered trousers emerges, offering directions and trying to sell a pint. Berlioz brushes him off and reaches the tram turnstile. A tram’s red‑white warning light flashes; the tram speeds toward him. He steps back, loses his footing on the cobbles, and is thrown onto the tracks. A female tram driver brakes violently, the car crashes, glass shatters, and the tram runs over Berlioz. His head is severed and rolls down the slope, landing near the Patriarch’s walk, marking his brutal death.