"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 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.