Alarmed both on his account and on her own (for he looked a desperate maniac), his landlady ran for her aunt.
The good dame came, and the two women, braver together, sat one on each side of him, and tried to soothe him with kind and consoling voices. But he heeded them no more than the chairs they sat on. Then the younger held a crucifix out before him, to aid her. "Maria, mother of heaven, comfort him," they sighed. But he sat glaring, deaf to all external sounds.
Presently, without any warning, he jumped up, struck the crucifix rudely out of his way with a curse and made a headlong dash at the door. The poor women shrieked. But, ere he reached the door, something seemed to them to draw him up straight by his hair, and twirl him round like a top. He whirled twice around with arms extended; then fell like a dead log upon the floor, with blood trickling from his nostrils and ears.
CHAPTER LXIV
GERARD returned to consciousness and to despair.
On the second day he was raving with fever on the brain. On a table hard by lay his rich auburn hair, long as a woman's.
The deadlier symptoms succeeded one another rapidly.
On the fifth day his leech retired and gave him up.
On the sunset of that same day he fell into a deep sleep.