the back of my head against the wall I succeeded in removing
the bandage from my eyes. Though I was more comfortable, I was little
better off, since I could see nothing in the pitiless black of my cell.
I stretched my eyes, as one will in the dark, till they ached, but I
could not see even an outline of the walls.

A burning thirst usually follows excitement, and after a time it came to
me and grew while I thought upon it. My parched throat was almost
closed, and I wondered if I were to be left to choke to death. I knew
that in Spain and Italy such refinement of cruelty was oftened
practised, but I felt sure that the Duke of Burgundy would not permit
the infliction of so cruel a fate, did he know of it. But our captors
were not Burgundians, and I doubted if the duke even knew of our
imprisonment. I suffered intensely, though I believe I could have
endured it with fortitude had I not known that Max was suffering a
like fate.

I believed I had been several days in my cell when I heard a key turn in
the lock. The door opened, and a man bearing a basket and a lantern
entered. He placed the basket on the ground and, with the lantern hung
over his arm, unfastened the manacles of my wrists. In the basket were a
_boule_ of black bread and a stone jar of water. I eagerly grasped the
jar, and never in my life has anything passed my lips that tasted so
sweet as that draught.

"Don't drink too much at one time," said the guard, not unkindly. "It
might drive you mad. A man went mad in this cell less than a month ago
from drinking too much water."

"How long had he been without it?" I asked of this cheering personage.

"Three days," he responded.

"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