"The drink is how he bears with it, and that in turn does harm to him." It feels like a betrayal, unclasping Sagramore's secrets, when Sagramore lay in this bed not long ago and trusted Claudius to touch his hair and care for him. "He told me he was doing penance. Hearing confession of another man's crimes, a man whom he still loves. His penance is for that love. I said to him without some end, reconciliation with God or reconciliation among men, penance is only torture. That was my aim, the night I confessed to thee my sin -- to do harm myself, to ruin all my relationships, because that was my desert. I had no hope of reconciling, but thought to drive thee from me. But if thou cam'st to me again and again, to hear more and more of my sins, hating all that thou didst hear, hating thyself when thou couldst not kill thy regard for me ... it would be torture to us both, in time. And so it is with Sagramore. He believes, too, this is his desert, for the love he bears this man."