But it was not so.

The timbers were too strong; they did not yield.

It was said that the man's death-grip still held fast to the bars after he was dead; and that in this position the fires wrapped him about and consumed him.

As to this, I do not know.

What was seen after I recognized the face that was pleading through the bars was seen by others, not by me.
I saw that face, so situated, every night for a long time afterward; and I believed myself as guilty of the man's death as if I had given him the matches purposely that he might burn himself up with them.