certain others of a practical turn of mind, they got Brother Columbanussecurely but comfortably swathed in a sheet, confining arms and legs so that hewould do himself no injury, wedged his teeth apart with a wooden spit insteadof the cloth, on which he might have gagged and choked, and carried him on ashutter to the infirmary, where they got him into bed, and secured him therewith bandages round breast and thighs. He moaned and gurgled and heaved still,but with weakening force, and when they had managed to get a draught of BrotherCadfael’s poppy-juice into him his moans subsided into pitiful mutterings,and the violence of his struggles against his confinement grew feebler.

“Take good care of him,” said Prior Robert, frowning anxiouslyover the young man’s bed. “I think someone should be constantly byto watch over him, in case the fit comes again. You have your other sick men toattend to, you cannot sit by his side day and night. Brother Jerome, I put thissufferer in your charge, and excuse you from all other duties while he needsyou.”

“Willingly,” said Brother Jerome, “and prayerfully!”He was Prior Robert’s closest associate and most devoted hanger-on, andan inevitable choice whenever Robert required strict obedience and meticulousreporting, as might well be the case where a brother of the house succumbed towhat might elsewhere be whispered abroad as a fit of madness.

“Stay with him in particular during the night,” said the prior,“for in the night a man’s resistance falters, and his bodily evilsmay rise against him. If he sleeps peacefully, you may rest also, but remainclose, in case he needs you.”

“He’ll sleep within the hour,” said Cadfael confidently,“and may pass into natural sleep well before night. God willing, he mayput this off before morning.”

For his part, he thought Brother Columbanus lacked sufficient work for both mindand body, and took his revenge for his deprivation in these excesses,half-willful, half-involuntary, and both to be pitied and censured. But heretained enough caution to reserve a doubt with every conviction. He was notsure he knew any of his adopted brothers well enough to judge with certainty.Well, Brother John—yes, perhaps! But inside the conventual life oroutside, cheerful, blunt, extrovert Brother Johns are few and far between.