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With a bad cough. He said he had not done

The thing. They all say that. You cannot tell

He might not have been guilty of it. Well,

What he now wanted was some place to stay,

And work that he could do. I managed it

With no great trouble. And then, there began

The strangest thing I ever knew. The man,

Who showed no other signs of a weak wit,

Was hardly settled in his place a week

When he came round to see me, and to speak

About his lodging. What the matter was

He could not say, or would not tell the cause,

But he must leave that place; he could not bear

To stay. I found another room, but there

After another week he could not stay.

Again I placed him, and he came to say

At the week's end that he must go away.

So it went on, week after week, and then

At last I made him tell me. It appears

That his imprisonment of fifteen years

Had worn so deep into the wretch's brain

That any place he happened to remain

Longer than one day in began to seem

His prison and all over again to him;

And when the thing had got into this shape,

He was quite frantic till he could escape.

Curious, was not it? And tragical."

"Tragical? I believe you! Was that all?