Martha and I stopped, in part to watch the spectacle, but more out of fear of being trampled should the horses suddenly become more compliant. Our prudence was rewarded when the cart darted forward, nearly crushing an unwary passerby under its iron-rimmed wheels. Martha’s gasp echoed my own when she saw the cart’s terrible cargo: the wagon had been transformed into a rolling cage filled with people. I counted a dozen figures, mostly women, but I thought I saw an aged man as well. The prisoners grasped the bars to keep from being tossed about. I winced as one poor woman lost her grip and was hurled face-first into the side of the cage. Blood ran from a cut on her cheek as she struggled back to her feet. A few children ran along side the cart, hurling stones and pieces of ice at the prisoners. One boy missed the mark and struck the driver in the head, provoking another round of curses.
“Joseph is not limiting his search to the city itself,” Martha said. “Those are country folk.”
“Such arrests might not be his doing,” I replied. “Perhaps the country Justices have caught the fever for hunting witches as well.”
We fell silent at this grim thought, and in my mind I saw the witch-hunts spreading across the north. How many hundreds would die if they did? I prayed that God would not allow such a thing to pass. We followed the cart to the Castle. Each of us kept our eyes on the road rather than the sorry figures before us.
As we passed through the Castle gate, it became clear just how far Joseph’s fever had spread. Dozens of prisoners were scattered around the Castle yard waiting to be taken to their cells. Nearly all had been laid in double irons, and their fear and misery filled the air. Martha and I hurried to Samuel’s tower. When we approached the door, his voice echoed into the yard as he swore loudly at some poor soul.
“This is my tower, and you’ll not tell me how to manage it,” he shouted. A moment later, the Castle Warden scurried through the door. If he’d had a tail, it would have been tucked well between his legs. He glanced about to see who might have witnessed his humiliation before hurrying off in search of a more malleable jailor.
When we entered the tower, Samuel continued shouting at the Warden’s back even as he nodded a greeting to us. “Keep more women in my cells? Who do you think will clean up after them? Me, that’s who! I’ve got too many down there already. Adding even a few more will turn this place into York’s largest privy!” He ended his philippic with one of the most spectacularly foul oaths I’d ever heard, sending Martha and me into fits of laughter.
Samuel leaned against the tower wall, red-faced and winded from his cursing.
“You won’t believe the number of witches they’ve brought here,” he wheezed after a moment.
“I think I might,” I responded. “We passed through the gate with another prisoner cart.”
“God’s blood, what do they intend us to do?” Samuel asked. “We can’t hold them all until they are tried. In the time it takes to gather a court, half will be dead!”
Samuel was right of course. Under the best of circumstances, the Castle’s cells were pestilential, and more than a few accused felons died while awaiting trial. When it happened in ones and twos, nobody troubled themselves overmuch, but what would happen when prisoners started dying by the dozens, and the occasional burial became a long funeral procession? I started to give voice to my concerns, but Samuel had not yet finished his diatribe.
“I mean, who is going to pay to feed these people?” he moaned. “The women all are paupers. I’ll wring water from stone before I get even a penny from them.”
“Surely the city will pay,” Martha said.
Samuel snorted at the suggestion. “Those nithing bastards? They’d sooner pay for their own hanging rope than to feed so many prisoners. No, I’ll be selling my shirt before these trials are done.” He paused for a moment, now fully recovered from his shouting. “What is it that brings you up here?” he asked. “You’ve not been coopted into this terrible business, have you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t see Joseph having me on as a Searcher, even if I wanted the duty. We’re simply trying to find out as much about his scheme as we can. The city’s women are my own, and I cannot stand by and see them suffer at his hands.” I did not mention my fear that Rebecca Hooke might somehow use the hunt against me and mine.
“Probably not a bad idea,” Samuel replied. He knew perfectly well the evil that Joseph had done the summer before. “But I don’t know much. The Justices began by scouring the city for witches, but soon enough the countryside joined in the search. I don’t know if Joseph was behind that, or if it happened on its own.”