The woman was killed by a giant flying rodent crashing through the roof of her room. It was carrying fleas - that in turn carried bubonic plague. The maid saw the cracked ceiling and knew from the damage that the woman must surely be dead. The rodent was attracted to the woman initially because he sensed that she was already ill (their intellegence and powers of perception are very underrated). When the huge rat discovered what he had done he tried to hide the evidence (they also have an acute sense of guilt - little known fact) but only succeeded in getting the clothes off and throwing them over the broken wall between the rooms before he was discovered. The clothes hit the maid in the face and caused her to cry out. The rest is obvious...

I'm still going to think about this tonight. If you post the answer let me know so I don't accidently read it by browsing the thread...

Renoir