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Page 89
ever, moans of a different tenor began to replace the shrieks of fear induced by hallucination. Men and women staggered from the castle into the bailey tearing at their clothes between spasms of vomiting. Unreal creatures and phantoms still crawled through the minds of the afflicted, but their bodies were too racked with discomfort for them to run or fight. They sobbed and whimpered, but they did neither themselves nor anyone else any harm.
Joanna closed the door to her women's quarters and would permit no one to enter or leave. When Braybrook came to remonstrate with her, she cried through the door that she feared contamination. Also through the door she gave direction that the afflicted should be removed from the keep and cared for in sheds in the balley and that the keep should be most thoroughly cleaned by those servants who had not been stricken. At dusk, the troop of men who had been sent out returned to help carry the sick in cut of the rain and to distribute cloaks and blankets to keep them warm.
By supper time, peace reigned in Roselynde again. One could not hear the moans and cries of the afflicted through the walls. Sir Henry again approached the women's quarters, and this time he was able to induce Joanna to come out. Over and over he assured her that what had stricken her people was no disease. It was the result of bad bread, he said. He had seen the like himself in France. In certain cases a red, rusty color came over stored grain and, if this grain were ground and used as bread, just such a madness and sickness as attacked Joanna's people would follow. If she ate no bread, he assured her, she would be safe.
Doubtfully, often shaken by tremblings during which she hid her face, Joanna came forth. She sat at the table upon which a supper of pasties, cheese, cold meat, and wine was ready, but she did not touch the food. All she did was plead with Braybrook to leave the castle with her at once. He remonstrated that it was already dark and, in any case, he could not go. He did not have a single man capable of sitting a horse or trustworthy not to attack his nearest companion when, suddenly, he saw an extra green eye appear on the

 
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