They had long since dined, nevertheless plates of food which had been brought up from the kitchens still lay about the beds; and all through the night there were some who ate whilst others continued restlessly moaning, asking to be turned over or helped out of bed.

As the hours went by a kind of vague delirium seemed to come upon almost all of them.

Very few were able to sleep quietly.

Some had been undressed and were lying between the sheets, but the greater number were simply stretched out on the beds, it being so difficult to get their clothes off that they did not even change their linen during the five days of the pilgrimage.

In the semi-obscurity, moreover, the obstruction of the ward seemed to have increased.