(s no doubt in question. I shall not fear to sleep in any place where

32 Dracula

he is not. I have placed the crucifix over the head of my bed I

imagine that my rest is thus freer from dreams; and there it

shall remain.

When he left me I went to my room. After a little while, not

hearing any sound, I came out and went up the stone stair to

where I could look out towards the South. There was some sense

of freedom in the vast expanse, inaccessible though it was to me,

as compared with the narrow darkness of the courtyard. Look-

ing out on this, I felt that I was indeed in prison, and I seemed

to want a breath of fresh air, though it were of the night. I am

beginning to feel this nocturnal existence tell on me. It is destroy-

ing my nerve. I start at my own shadow, and am full of all sorts

of horrible imaginings. God knows that there is ground for my

terrible fear in this accursed place! I looked out over the beau-

tiful expanse, bathed in soft yellow moonlight till it was al-

most as light as day. In the soft light the distant hills became

melted, and the shadows in the valleys and gorges of velvety

blackness. The mere beauty seemed to cheer me; there was peace

and comfort in every breath I drew. As I leaned from the win>

dow my eye was caught by something moving a storey below

me, and somewhat to my left, where I imagined, from the order

of the rooms, that the windows of the Count’s own room would

look out. The window at which I stood was tall and deep, stone-

mullioned, and though weatherworn, was still complete; but it

was evidently many a day since the case had been there. I drew

back behind the stonework, and looked carefully out.

What I saw was the Count’s head coming out from the win-

dow. I did not see the face, but I knew the man by the neck and

the movement of his back and arms. In any case I could not mis-

take the hands which I had had so many opportunities of study-

ing. I was at first interested and somewhat amused, for it is won-

derful how small a matter will interest and amuse a man when

he is a prisoner. But my very feelings changed to repulsion and

terror when I saw the whQle_maa_slowly. emerge_ from the win-

dow and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful

abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like

great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it

was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow; but

I kept looking, and it could be no delusion. I saw the fingers and

toes grasp the corners of the stones, worn clear of the mortar

by the stress of years, anr> by thus using every projection and

inequality move downwaius with considerable speed, just as a

lizard moves along a wall.

Jonathan Marker’s Journal 33

What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is

it in the semblance of man? I feel the dread of this horrible place

overpowering me; I am in fear in awful fear and there is no

escape for me; I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare

not think of.…

15 May. Once more have I seen the Count go out in his liz-

ard fashion. He moved downwards in a sidelong way, some hun-

dred feet down, and a good deal to the left. He vanished into

some hole or window. When his head had disappeared, I leaned

out to try and see more, but without avail the distance was too

great to allow a proper angle of sight. I knew he had left the

castle now, and thought to use the opportunity to explore more

than I had dared to do as yet. I went back to the room, and tak-

ing a lamp, tried all the doors. They were all locked, as I had

expected, and the locks were comparatively new; but I went

down the stone stairs to the hall where I had entered originally.

I found I could pull back the bolts easily enough and unhook

the great chains; but the door was locked, and the key was gone!

That key must be in the Count’s room; I must watch should his

door be unlocked, so that I may get it and escape. I went on to

make a thorough examination of the various stairs and passages,

and to try the doors that opened from them. One or two small

rooms near the hall were open, but there was nothing to see in

them except old furniture, dusty with age and moth-eaten. At

last, however, I found one door at the top of the stairway which,

though it seemed to be locked, gave a little under pressure. I

tried it harder, and found that it was not really locked, but that

the resistance came from the fact that the hinges had fallen

somewhat, and the heavy door rested on the floor. Here was an

opportunity which I might not have again, so I exerted myself,

and with many efforts forced it back so that I could enter. I

was now in a wing of the castle further to the right than the

rooms I knew and a storey lower down. From the windows I

could see that the suite of rooms lay along to the south of the

castle, the windows of the end room looking out both west and

south. On the latter side, as well as to the former, there was a

great precipice. The castle was built on the corner of a great

rock, so that on three sides it was quite impregnable, and great

windows were placed here where sling, or bow, or culverin could

not reach, and consequently light and comfort, impossible to a

position which had to be guarded, were secured. To the west

was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged moun-

34 Dracula

tain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with

mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crev-

ices and crannies of the stone. This was evidently the portion

of the castle occupied by the ladies in bygone days, for the fur-

niture had more air» of comfort than any I had seen. The win-

dows were curtainless, and the yellow moonlight, flooding in

through the diamond panes, enabled one to see even colours,

whilst it softened the wealth of dust which lay over all and dis-

guised in some measure the ravages of time and the moth. My

lamp seemed to be of little effect in the brilliant moonlight^ut

I was glad to have it with me, for there was a dread loneliness

in the place which chilled my heart and made my nerves tremble.

Still, it was better than living alone in the rooms which I had

come to hate from the presence of the Count, and after trying a

little to school my nerves, I found a soft quietude come over me.

Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times pos-

sibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many

blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my diary in short —

hand all that has happened since I closed it last. It is nineteenth,

century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses

deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their j

own which mere «modernity» cannot kill.

Later: the Morning of 16 May. God preserve my sanity, for

to this I am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are

things of the past. Whilst I live on here there is but one thing

to hope for, that I may not go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad al-

ready. If I be sane, then surely it is maddening to think that of

all the foul things that lurk in this hateful place the Count is

the least dreadful to me; that to him alone I can look for safety,

even though this be only whilst I can serve his purpose. Great

God! merciful God! Let me be calm, for out of that way lies

madness indeed. I begin to get new lights on certain things which

have puzzled me. Up to now I never quite knew what Shake-

speare meant when he made Hamlet say:

«My tablets! quick, my tablets!

«Tis meet that I put it down,» etc.,

for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as

if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to

my diary for repose. The habit of entering accurately must help

to soothe me.

The Count’s mysterious warning frightened me at the time; it

Jonathan Marker’s Journal 35

frightens me more now when I think of it, for in future he has

a fearful hold upon me. I shall fear to doubt what he may say!

When I had written in my diary and had fortunately replaced

the book and pen in my pocket I felt sleepy. The Count’s warn-

ing came into my mind, but I took a pleasure in disobeying it.

The sense of sleep was upon me, and with it the obstinacy which

sleep brings as outrider. The soft moonlight soothed, and the

wide expanse without gave a sense of freedom which refreshed

rne. I determined not to return to-night to the gloom-haunted

rooms, but to sleep here, where, of old, ladies had sat and sung

and lived sweet lives whilst their gentle breasts were sad for their

menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars. I drew a great

couch out of its place near the comer, so that as I lay, I could

look at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of

and uncaring for the dust, composed myself for sleep. I suppose

I must have fallen asleep; I hope so, but I fear, for all that fol-

lowed was startlingly real so real that now sitting here in the

broad, full sunlight of the morning, I cannot in the least believe

that it was all sleep.

I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged in any

way since I came into it; I could see along the floor, in the brilliant

moonlight, my own footsteps marked where I had disturbed the

long accumulation of dust. In the moonlight opposite me were

three yo-ung women, ladies by their dress and manner. I thought

at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them, for,

though the moonlight was behind them, they threw no shadow

on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some

time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and had

high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes

that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale

yellow moon. The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great

wavy masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. I seemed

somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with!

some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment howl

or where./All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls

against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something f

about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at thej

same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burn-

ing desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. It is not

good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina’s eyes

dnd cause her pain; but it is the truth jThey whispered together,

and then they all three laughed such a silvery, musical laugh,

but as hard.,as though the sound never could have come through

36 Dracula

the softness of human lips. It was like the intolerable, tinglii _

sweetness of water-glasses when played on by a cunning hand.

The fair girl shook her head coquettishly, and the other two

urged her on. One said:

«Go on! You are first, and we shall follow; yours is the right

to begin.» The other added:

/’jHe is^.young_and steragjJtkCTeareJuaaesJoj^jjsaJi^I lay

quietTlooking out under my eyelashes in an agony of~delightf ul

anticipation. The fair girl advanced and bent over me till I

could feel the movement of her breath upon me. Sweet it was

in one sense, honey-sweet, and sent the same tingling through

the nerves as her voice, but with a bitter underlying the sweet,

a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood.

I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw per-

fectly under the lashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent

over me, simply gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness

which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her

neck she actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see

in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on

the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth. Lower and

lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my

mouth and chin and seemed about to fasten on my throat.

Then she paused, and I could hear the churning sound of her

tongue as it licked her teeth and lips, and could feel the hot

breath on my neck. (Then the skin of my throat began to tingle

as one’s flesh does when the hand that is to tickle it approaches

nearer nearer, ft could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips

on the super-sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents

of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed

my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited waited with beat-

ing heartj

JtJut aTthat instant, another sensation swept through me as

quick as lightning. I was conscious of the presence of the Count.,

and of his being as if lapped in a storm of fury. As my eyes

opened involuntarily I saw his strong hand grasp the slendef

neck of the fair woman and with giant’s power draw it back,

the blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champing

with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with passion. But the

Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even to the

demons of the pit. His eyes were positively blazing. The red

light in them was lurid, as if the flames of heft-fire blazed behind

them. His face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard

like drawn wires; the thick eyebrows that met over the nose

Jonathan Marker’s Journal 37

now seemed like a heaving bar of white-hot metal. With a fierce

sweep of his arm, he hurled the woman from him, and then

motioned to the others, as though he were beating them back;

it was the same imperious gesture that I had seen used to the

wolves. In a voice which, though low and almost in a whisper

seemed to cut through the air and then ring round the room

he said:

«How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast

eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This

man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you’ll

have to deal with me.» The fair girl, with a laugh of ribald

coquetry, turned to answer him:

«You yourself never loved; you never love!» On this the

other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laugh-

ter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear;

it seemed like the pleasure of fiends. Then the Count turned,

after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper:

«Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past.

Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done

with him you shall kiss him at your will. Now go! go! I must

awaken him, for there is work to be done.»

«Are we to have nothing to-night?» said one of them, with a

low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon

the floor, and which moved as though there were some living

thing within it. For answer he nodded his head. One of the wo-

men jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not deceive

me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half -smothered child.

The women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horror; but

as I looked they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag.

There was no door near them, and they could not have passed

me without my noticing. They simply seemed to fade into the

rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I

could see outside the dim, shadowy forms for a moment before

they entirely faded away.

Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious.