"I did not know that men of the north could be so cruel as to keep a
prisoner three days without water," I said.
"It happened because the guard was drunk," answered the fellow,
laughing.
"I hope you will remain sober," said I, not at all intending to be
humorous, though the guard laughed.
"I was the guard," he replied. "I did not intend to leave the prisoner
without water, but, you see, I was dead drunk and did not know it."
"Perhaps you have been drunk for the last three or four days since I
have been here?" I asked.
He laughed boisterously.
"You here three or four days! Why, you are mad already! You have been
here only over night."
Well! I thought surely I _was_ mad!
Suddenly the guard left me and closed the cell door. I called
frantically to him, but I might as well have cried from the bottom
of the sea.
After what seemed fully another week of waiting, the guard again came
with bread and water. By that time my mind had cleared. I asked the
guard to deliver a message to my Lord d'Hymbercourt and offered a large
reward for the service. I begged him to say to Hymbercourt that his
friends of The Mitre had been arrested and were now in prison. The
guard willingly promised to deliver my message, but he did not keep his
word, though I repeated my request many times and promised him any
reward he might name when I should regain my liberty. With each visit he
repeated his promise, but one day he laughed and said I was wasting
words; that he would never see the reward and that in all probability I
should never again see the light of day.
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