Although
the prisoner is not druggged at first, later on in the story, his torturers do drug him, in
order to inflict more torture upon him. After he has explored his prison and discovered the
pit, he is exhausted and sleeps fitfully. Then, he describes,
"Upon arousing, I found by my side, as before, a loaf and a pitcher of water. A
burning thirst consumed me, and I emptied the vessel at a draught. It must have been drugged;
for scarcely had I drunk, before I became irresistibly drowsy."
This food that is laced with drugs only occurs after he has found
the pit and failed to fall into it. His accusers know that their little pit scheme has failed,
because after he falls, there is a brief flash of light into the chamber. We can assume that
was one of his torturers, peeking into the prison to see if he had fallen into the pit. Once
they realize that isn't going to work, they drug him and knock him out. After he wakes up from
being drugged, he discovers that he is tied to a plank, and that there is a giant scythe slowly
descending upon him.
So, his tormenters drugged him in order to try a
different plan of action in regards to his demise. The pit was plan A, and when he didn't fall
into it, they moved on to plan B. Why they didn't just go into the prison and man-handle him
onto the plank is unknown; instead, they drugged him and tied him to it while he was
unconscious. Perhaps they didn't want him to put up a fight, or didn't want him to know their
identity, or maybe they just wanted to confuse and disorient him, and to add to his torture by
having him discover, on his own, the gruesome death that awaited him at the blade of the
scythe.
I hope that helped; good luck!
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