Ipu is a Quasimodo-type character, who lives in a garret, listening to a scratchy recording of "The Marseilleise" and dreaming of his glory days as a French soldier. Ipu is unaware that he is being set up as the fall guy. He trusts the people who have taken him in, failing to recognize cruelty when it is right in front of him. He is swayed by Father Johanis' descriptions of the hero's funeral he will be given and the huge gravestone with gold-plated letters they will place in the cemetery for him.
Ipu não se apercebe que está a ser incriminado. Confia nas pessoas que o acolheram e não reconhece a crueldade quando esta se encontra mesmo à sua frente. É convencido pelas descrições do Padre Johanis do funeral de herói que terá e da enorme lápide com letras douradas que colocarão no cemitério em sua honra.