"Will you speak now ?" But the fool's only answer was a moan, whereupon again, at the Duke's relentless signal, he was swung aloft.

But at the terror of a fourth drop, more fearful than any of its three predecessors, he awoke very suddenly to the impossible horror of his position.

That this agony would endure until he died or fainted, he was assured.

And since he seemed incapable of either fainting or dying, suffer more he could not.

What was heaven or hell to him then that the thought of either could efface the horror of this torture and strengthen him to continue to endure the agony of it?
He could endure no more--no, not to save a dozen souls if he had had them: "I'll speak," he screamed.