_2 November, morning._--It is broad daylight. That good fellow would not wake me.He says it would have been a sin to, for I slept peacefully and was forgetting my trouble.It seems brutally selfish to me to have slept so long, and let him watch all night;but he was quite right. I am a new man this morning; and, as I sit here and watch him sleeping,I can do all that is necessary both as to minding the engine, steering, and keeping watch.I can feel that my strength and energy are coming back to me. I wonder where Mina is now,and Van Helsing. They should have got to Veresti about noon on Wednesday.It would take them some time to get the carriage and horses;so if they had started and travelled hard, they would be about now at the Borgo Pass. God guide and help them!I am afraid to think what may happen. If we could only go faster!but we cannot; the engines are throbbing and doing their utmost. I wonder how Dr. Seward and Mr.Morris are getting on. There seem to be endless streams running down the mountains into this river,but as none of them are very large--at present, at all events,though they are terrible doubtless in winter and when the snow melts--the horsemen may not have met much obstruction.I hope that before we get to Strasba we may see them;for if by that time we have not overtaken the Count,it may be necessary to take counsel together what to do next.
_Dr. Seward’s Diary._
_2 November._--Three days on the road. No news, and no time to write it if there had been,for every moment is precious. We have had only the rest needful for the horses;but we are both bearing it wonderfully. Those adventurous days of ours are turning up useful.We must push on; we shall never feel happy till we get the launch in sight again.
* * * * *
_3 November._--We heard at Fundu that the launch had gone up the Bistritza.I wish it wasn’t so cold. There are signs of snow coming; and if it falls heavy it will stop us.In such case we must get a sledge and go on, Russian fashion.
* * * * *
_4 November._--To-day we heard of the launch having been detained by an accident when trying to force a way up the rapids.The Slovak boats get up all right, by aid of a rope and steering with knowledge.Some went up only a few hours before. Godalming is an amateur fitter himself,and evidently it was he who put the launch in trim again. Finally,they got up the rapids all right, with local help, and are off on the chase afresh.I fear that the boat is not any better for the accident;the peasantry tell us that after she got upon smooth water again,she kept stopping every now and again so long as she was in sight.We must push on harder than ever; our help may be wanted soon.
_Mina Harker’s Journal._
_31 October._--Arrived at Veresti at noon.The Professor tells me that this morning at dawn he could hardly hypnotise me at all,and that all I could say was: “dark and quiet.” He is off now buying a carriage and horses.He says that he will later on try to buy additional horses,so that we may be able to change them on the way. We have something more than 70 miles before us.The country is lovely, and most interesting; if only we were under different conditions,how delightful it would be to see it all.If Jonathan and I were driving through it alone what a pleasure it would be.To stop and see people, and learn something of their life,and to fill our minds and memories with all the colour and picturesqueness of the whole wild,beautiful country and the quaint people!But, alas!--
* * * * *
_Later._--Dr. Van Helsing has returned. He has got the carriage and horses;we are to have some dinner, and to start in an hour.The landlady is putting us up a huge basket of provisions;it seems enough for a company of soldiers. The Professor encourages her,and whispers to me that it may be a week before we can get any good food again.He has been shopping too, and has sent home such a wonderful lot of fur coats and wraps,and all sorts of warm things. There will not be any chance of our being cold.
* * * * *
We shall soon be off. I am afraid to think what may happen to us. We are truly in the hands of God.He alone knows what may be, and I pray Him, with all the strength of my sad and humble soul,that He will watch over my beloved husband; that whatever may happen,Jonathan may know that I loved him and honoured him more than I can say,and that my latest and truest thought will be always for him.
CHAPTER XXVII
MINA HARKER’S JOURNAL
_1 November._--All day long we have travelled, and at a good speed.The horses seem to know that they are being kindly treated,for they go willingly their full stage at best speed.We have now had so many changes and find the same thing so constantly that we are encouraged to think that the journey will be an easy one.Dr. Van Helsing is laconic; he tells the farmers that he is hurrying to Bistritz,and pays them well to make the exchange of horses. We get hot soup, or coffee, or tea;and off we go. It is a lovely country; full of beauties of all imaginable kinds,and the people are brave, and strong, and simple, and seem full of nice qualities. They are _very,very_ superstitious. In the first house where we stopped,when the woman who served us saw the scar on my forehead,she crossed herself and put out two fingers towards me, to keep off the evil eye.I believe they went to the trouble of putting an extra amount of garlic into our food;and I can’t abide garlic. Ever since then I have taken care not to take off my hat or veil,and so have escaped their suspicions. We are travelling fast,and as we have no driver with us to carry tales, we go ahead of scandal;but I daresay that fear of the evil eye will follow hard behind us all the way.The Professor seems tireless; all day he would not take any rest,though he made me sleep for a long spell. At sunset time he hypnotised me,and he says that I answered as usual “darkness, lapping water and creaking wood”;so our enemy is still on the river. I am afraid to think of Jonathan,but somehow I have now no fear for him, or for myself.I write this whilst we wait in a farmhouse for the horses to be got ready. Dr.Van Helsing is sleeping. Poor dear, he looks very tired and old and grey,but his mouth is set as firmly as a conqueror’s; even in his sleep he is instinct with resolution.When we have well started I must make him rest whilst I drive.I shall tell him that we have days before us,and we must not break down when most of all his strength will be needed.... All is ready; we are off shortly.
* * * * *
_2 November, morning._--I was successful, and we took turns driving all night; now the day is on us,bright though cold. There is a strange heaviness in the air--I say heaviness for want of a better word;I mean that it oppresses us both. It is very cold, and only our warm furs keep us comfortable.At dawn Van Helsing hypnotised me; he says I answered “darkness, creaking wood and roaring water,” so the river is changing as they ascend.I do hope that my darling will not run any chance of danger--more than need be; but we are in God’s hands.
* * * * *
_2 November, night._--All day long driving. The country gets wilder as we go,and the great spurs of the Carpathians,which at Veresti seemed so far from us and so low on the horizon,now seem to gather round us and tower in front. We both seem in good spirits;I think we make an effort each to cheer the other; in the doing so we cheer ourselves. Dr.Van Helsing says that by morning we shall reach the Borgo Pass. The houses are very few here now,and the Professor says that the last horse we got will have to go on with us,as we may not be able to change. He got two in addition to the two we changed,so that now we have a rude four-in-hand. The dear horses are patient and good,and they give us no trouble. We are not worried with other travellers, and so even I can drive.We shall get to the Pass in daylight; we do not want to arrive before. So we take it easy,and have each a long rest in turn. Oh, what will to-morrow bring to us?We go to seek the place where my poor darling suffered so much.God grant that we may be guided aright,and that He will deign to watch over my husband and those dear to us both,and who are in such deadly peril. As for me, I am not worthy in His sight. Alas!I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred His wrath.
_Memorandum by Abraham Van Helsing._
_4 November._--This to my old and true friend John Seward, M.D., of Purfleet, London,in case I may not see him. It may explain. It is morning,and I write by a fire which all the night I have kept alive--Madam Mina aiding me. It is cold,cold; so cold that the grey heavy sky is full of snow,which when it falls will settle for all winter as the ground is hardening to receive it.It seems to have affected Madam Mina; she has been so heavy of head all day that she was not like herself. She sleeps, and sleeps, and sleeps!She who is usual so alert, have done literally nothing all the day; she even have lost her appetite.She make no entry into her little diary, she who write so faithful at every pause.Something whisper to me that all is not well. However, to-night she is more _vif_.Her long sleep all day have refresh and restore her, for now she is all sweet and bright as ever.At sunset I try to hypnotise her, but alas!with no effect; the power has grown less and less with each day, and to-night it fail me altogether.Well, God’s will be done--whatever it may be, and whithersoever it may lead!
Now to the historical, for as Madam Mina write not in her stenography, I must,in my cumbrous old fashion, that so each day of us may not go unrecorded.
We got to the Borgo Pass just after sunrise yesterday morning.When I saw the signs of the dawn I got ready for the hypnotism. We stopped our carriage,and got down so that there might be no disturbance. I made a couch with furs, and Madam Mina,lying down, yield herself as usual, but more slow and more short time than ever,to the hypnotic sleep. As before, came the answer: “darkness and the swirling of water.” Then she woke, bright and radiant and we go on our way and soon reach the Pass.At this time and place, she become all on fire with zeal;some new guiding power be in her manifested, for she point to a road and say:--
“This is the way.”
“How know you it?” I ask.
“Of course I know it,” she answer, and with a pause, add:“Have not my Jonathan travelled it and wrote of his travel?”
At first I think somewhat strange, but soon I see that there be only one such by-road.It is used but little, and very different from the coach road from the Bukovina to Bistritz,which is more wide and hard, and more of use.
So we came down this road; when we meet other ways--not always were we sure that they were roads at all,for they be neglect and light snow have fallen--the horses know and they only. I give rein to them,and they go on so patient. By-and-by we find all the things which Jonathan have note in that wonderful diary of him.Then we go on for long, long hours and hours. At the first, I tell Madam Mina to sleep; she try,and she succeed. She sleep all the time; till at the last, I feel myself to suspicious grow,and attempt to wake her. But she sleep on, and I may not wake her though I try.I do not wish to try too hard lest I harm her; for I know that she have suffer much,and sleep at times be all-in-all to her. I think I drowse myself, for all of sudden I feel guilt,as though I have done something; I find myself bolt up, with the reins in my hand,and the good horses go along jog, jog, just as ever. I look down and find Madam Mina still sleep.It is now not far off sunset time, and over the snow the light of the sun flow in big yellow flood,so that we throw great long shadow on where the mountain rise so steep. For we are going up, and up; and all is oh!so wild and rocky, as though it were the end of the world.
Then I arouse Madam Mina. This time she wake with not much trouble,and then I try to put her to hypnotic sleep. But she sleep not, being as though I were not.Still I try and try, till all at once I find her and myself in dark; so I look round,and find that the sun have gone down. Madam Mina laugh, and I turn and look at her.She is now quite awake, and look so well as I never saw her since that night at Carfax when we first enter the Count’s house.I am amaze, and not at ease then; but she is so bright and tender and thoughtful for me that I forget all fear.I light a fire, for we have brought supply of wood with us,and she prepare food while I undo the horses and set them, tethered in shelter, to feed.Then when I return to the fire she have my supper ready. I go to help her; but she smile,and tell me that she have eat already--that she was so hungry that she would not wait.I like it not, and I have grave doubts; but I fear to affright her, and so I am silent of it.She help me and I eat alone; and then we wrap in fur and lie beside the fire,and I tell her to sleep while I watch. But presently I forget all of watching;and when I sudden remember that I watch, I find her lying quiet, but awake,and looking at me with so bright eyes. Once, twice more the same occur,and I get much sleep till before morning. When I wake I try to hypnotise her; but alas!though she shut her eyes obedient, she may not sleep. The sun rise up, and up, and up;and then sleep come to her too late, but so heavy that she will not wake. I have to lift her up,and place her sleeping in the carriage when I have harnessed the horses and made all ready.Madam still sleep, and she look in her sleep more healthy and more redder than before.And I like it not. And I am afraid, afraid, afraid!--I am afraid of all things--even to think but I must go on my way.The stake we play for is life and death, or more than these, and we must not flinch.
* * * * *
_5 November, morning._--Let me be accurate in everything,for though you and I have seen some strange things together, you may at the first think that I,Van Helsing, am mad--that the many horrors and the so long strain on nerves has at the last turn my brain.
All yesterday we travel, ever getting closer to the mountains,and moving into a more and more wild and desert land. There are great,frowning precipices and much falling water, and Nature seem to have held sometime her carnival.Madam Mina still sleep and sleep; and though I did have hunger and appeased it,I could not waken her--even for food. I began to fear that the fatal spell of the place was upon her,tainted as she is with that Vampire baptism. “Well,” said I to myself,“if it be that she sleep all the day, it shall also be that I do not sleep at night.” As we travel on the rough road, for a road of an ancient and imperfect kind there was,I held down my head and slept. Again I waked with a sense of guilt and of time passed,and found Madam Mina still sleeping, and the sun low down. But all was indeed changed;the frowning mountains seemed further away, and we were near the top of a steep-rising hill,on summit of which was such a castle as Jonathan tell of in his diary.At once I exulted and feared; for now, for good or ill, the end was near.
I woke Madam Mina, and again tried to hypnotise her; but alas!unavailing till too late. Then, ere the great dark came upon us--for even after down-sun the heavens reflected the gone sun on the snow,and all was for a time in a great twilight--I took out the horses and fed them in what shelter I could.Then I make a fire; and near it I make Madam Mina, now awake and more charming than ever,sit comfortable amid her rugs. I got ready food: but she would not eat,simply saying that she had not hunger. I did not press her, knowing her unavailingness.But I myself eat, for I must needs now be strong for all. Then,with the fear on me of what might be, I drew a ring so big for her comfort,round where Madam Mina sat; and over the ring I passed some of the wafer,and I broke it fine so that all was well guarded. She sat still all the time--so still as one dead;and she grew whiter and ever whiter till the snow was not more pale; and no word she said.But when I drew near, she clung to me, and I could know that the poor soul shook her from head to feet with a tremor that was pain to feel.I said to her presently, when she had grown more quiet:--
“Will you not come over to the fire?” for I wished to make a test of what she could. She rose obedient,but when she have made a step she stopped, and stood as one stricken.
“Why not go on?” I asked. She shook her head, and, coming back, sat down in her place. Then,looking at me with open eyes, as of one waked from sleep, she said simply:--
“I cannot!” and remained silent. I rejoiced, for I knew that what she could not,none of those that we dreaded could. Though there might be danger to her body, yet her soul was safe!
Presently the horses began to scream, and tore at their tethers till I came to them and quieted them.When they did feel my hands on them, they whinnied low as in joy,and licked at my hands and were quiet for a time. Many times through the night did I come to them,till it arrive to the cold hour when all nature is at lowest;and every time my coming was with quiet of them. In the cold hour the fire began to die,and I was about stepping forth to replenish it,for now the snow came in flying sweeps and with it a chill mist.Even in the dark there was a light of some kind, as there ever is over snow;and it seemed as though the snow-flurries and the wreaths of mist took shape as of women with trailing garments.All was in dead, grim silence only that the horses whinnied and cowered,as if in terror of the worst. I began to fear--horrible fears;but then came to me the sense of safety in that ring wherein I stood. I began, too,to think that my imaginings were of the night, and the gloom,and the unrest that I have gone through, and all the terrible anxiety.It was as though my memories of all Jonathan’s horrid experience were befooling me;for the snow flakes and the mist began to wheel and circle round,till I could get as though a shadowy glimpse of those women that would have kissed him.And then the horses cowered lower and lower, and moaned in terror as men do in pain.Even the madness of fright was not to them, so that they could break away.I feared for my dear Madam Mina when these weird figures drew near and circled round.I looked at her, but she sat calm, and smiled at me;when I would have stepped to the fire to replenish it, she caught me and held me back,and whispered, like a voice that one hears in a dream, so low it was:--
“No!No!Do not go without. Here you are safe!” I turned to her, and looking in her eyes, said:--
“But you?It is for you that I fear!” whereat she laughed--a laugh, low and unreal, and said:--
“Fear for _me_!Why fear for me?None safer in all the world from them than I am,” and as I wondered at the meaning of her words,a puff of wind made the flame leap up, and I see the red scar on her forehead. Then, alas!I knew. Did I not, I would soon have learned, for the wheeling figures of mist and snow came closer,but keeping ever without the Holy circle.Then they began to materialise till--if God have not take away my reason,for I saw it through my eyes--there were before me in actual flesh the same three women that Jonathan saw in the room,when they would have kissed his throat. I knew the swaying round forms, the bright hard eyes,the white teeth, the ruddy colour, the voluptuous lips. They smiled ever at poor dear Madam Mina;and as their laugh came through the silence of the night,they twined their arms and pointed to her,and said in those so sweet tingling tones that Jonathan said were of the intolerable sweetness of the water-glasses: --
“Come, sister. Come to us. Come!Come!” In fear I turned to my poor Madam Mina, and my heart with gladness leapt like flame; for oh!the terror in her sweet eyes, the repulsion, the horror,told a story to my heart that was all of hope. God be thanked she was not, yet, of them.I seized some of the firewood which was by me, and holding out some of the Wafer,advanced on them towards the fire. They drew back before me, and laughed their low horrid laugh.I fed the fire, and feared them not; for I knew that we were safe within our protections.They could not approach, me, whilst so armed, nor Madam Mina whilst she remained within the ring,which she could not leave no more than they could enter. The horses had ceased to moan,and lay still on the ground; the snow fell on them softly, and they grew whiter.I knew that there was for the poor beasts no more of terror.
And so we remained till the red of the dawn to fall through the snow-gloom.I was desolate and afraid, and full of woe and terror;but when that beautiful sun began to climb the horizon life was to me again.At the first coming of the dawn the horrid figures melted in the whirling mist and snow;the wreaths of transparent gloom moved away towards the castle, and were lost.
Instinctively, with the dawn coming, I turned to Madam Mina, intending to hypnotise her;but she lay in a deep and sudden sleep, from which I could not wake her.I tried to hypnotise through her sleep, but she made no response, none at all; and the day broke.I fear yet to stir. I have made my fire and have seen the horses, they are all dead.To-day I have much to do here, and I keep waiting till the sun is up high;for there may be places where I must go, where that sunlight, though snow and mist obscure it, will be to me a safety.
I will strengthen me with breakfast, and then I will to my terrible work. Madam Mina still sleeps; and, God be thanked!she is calm in her sleep....
_Jonathan Harker’s Journal._
_4 November, evening._--The accident to the launch has been a terrible thing for us.Only for it we should have overtaken the boat long ago;and by now my dear Mina would have been free. I fear to think of her,off on the wolds near that horrid place. We have got horses, and we follow on the track.I note this whilst Godalming is getting ready. We have our arms.The Szgany must look out if they mean fight. Oh, if only Morris and Seward were with us. We must only hope!If I write no more Good-bye, Mina!God bless and keep you.
_Dr. Seward’s Diary._
_5 November._--With the dawn we saw the body of Szgany before us dashing away from the river with their leiter-wagon.They surrounded it in a cluster, and hurried along as though beset.The snow is falling lightly and there is a strange excitement in the air.It may be our own feelings, but the depression is strange. Far off I hear the howling of wolves;the snow brings them down from the mountains, and there are dangers to all of us,and from all sides. The horses are nearly ready, and we are soon off. We ride to death of some one.God alone knows who, or where, or what, or when, or how it may be....
_Dr. Van Helsing’s Memorandum._
_5 November, afternoon._--I am at least sane. Thank God for that mercy at all events,though the proving it has been dreadful. When I left Madam Mina sleeping within the Holy circle,I took my way to the castle. The blacksmith hammer which I took in the carriage from Veresti was useful;though the doors were all open I broke them off the rusty hinges,lest some ill-intent or ill-chance should close them, so that being entered I might not get out.Jonathan’s bitter experience served me here.By memory of his diary I found my way to the old chapel, for I knew that here my work lay.The air was oppressive; it seemed as if there was some sulphurous fume,which at times made me dizzy. Either there was a roaring in my ears or I heard afar off the howl of wolves.Then I bethought me of my dear Madam Mina, and I was in terrible plight. The dilemma had me between his horns.
Her, I had not dare to take into this place, but left safe from the Vampire in that Holy circle; and yet even there would be the wolf!I resolve me that my work lay here, and that as to the wolves we must submit, if it were God’s will.At any rate it was only death and freedom beyond. So did I choose for her.Had it but been for myself the choice had been easy,the maw of the wolf were better to rest in than the grave of the Vampire!So I make my choice to go on with my work.
I knew that there were at least three graves to find--graves that are inhabit; so I search,and search, and I find one of them. She lay in her Vampire sleep,so full of life and voluptuous beauty that I shudder as though I have come to do murder. Ah,I doubt not that in old time, when such things were,many a man who set forth to do such a task as mine, found at the last his heart fail him,and then his nerve. So he delay, and delay, and delay,till the mere beauty and the fascination of the wanton Un-Dead have hypnotise him;and he remain on and on, till sunset come, and the Vampire sleep be over.Then the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love,and the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss--and man is weak.And there remain one more victim in the Vampire fold;one more to swell the grim and grisly ranks of the Un-Dead!...
There is some fascination, surely, when I am moved by the mere presence of such an one,even lying as she lay in a tomb fretted with age and heavy with the dust of centuries,though there be that horrid odour such as the lairs of the Count have had. Yes, I was moved--I,Van Helsing, with all my purpose and with my motive for hate--I was moved to a yearning for delay which seemed to paralyse my faculties and to clog my very soul. It may have been that the need of natural sleep, and the strange oppression of the air were beginning to overcome me. Certain it was that I was lapsing into sleep, the open-eyed sleep of one who yields to a sweet fascination, when there came through the snow-stilled air a long, low wail, so full of woe and pity that it woke me like the sound of a clarion. For it was the voice of my dear Madam Mina that I heard.
Then I braced myself again to my horrid task,and found by wrenching away tomb-tops one other of the sisters, the other dark one.I dared not pause to look on her as I had on her sister,lest once more I should begin to be enthrall; but I go on searching until, presently,I find in a high great tomb as if made to one much beloved that other fair sister which,like Jonathan I had seen to gather herself out of the atoms of the mist.She was so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so exquisitely voluptuous,that the very instinct of man in me, which calls some of my sex to love and to protect one of hers,made my head whirl with new emotion. But God be thanked,that soul-wail of my dear Madam Mina had not died out of my ears; and,before the spell could be wrought further upon me, I had nerved myself to my wild work.By this time I had searched all the tombs in the chapel, so far as I could tell;and as there had been only three of these Un-Dead phantoms around us in the night,I took it that there were no more of active Un-Dead existent.There was one great tomb more lordly than all the rest; huge it was, and nobly proportioned. On it was but one word
DRACULA.
This then was the Un-Dead home of the King-Vampire, to whom so many more were due.Its emptiness spoke eloquent to make certain what I knew.Before I began to restore these women to their dead selves through my awful work,I laid in Dracula’s tomb some of the Wafer, and so banished him from it, Un-Dead, for ever.
Then began my terrible task, and I dreaded it. Had it been but one, it had been easy, comparative. But three!To begin twice more after I had been through a deed of horror;for if it was terrible with the sweet Miss Lucy,what would it not be with these strange ones who had survived through centuries,and who had been strengthened by the passing of the years; who would, if they could, have fought for their foul lives....
Oh, my friend John, but it was butcher work; had I not been nerved by thoughts of other dead,and of the living over whom hung such a pall of fear, I could not have gone on.I tremble and tremble even yet, though till all was over, God be thanked, my nerve did stand.Had I not seen the repose in the first place,and the gladness that stole over it just ere the final dissolution came,as realisation that the soul had been won, I could not have gone further with my butchery.I could not have endured the horrid screeching as the stake drove home;the plunging of writhing form, and lips of bloody foam.I should have fled in terror and left my work undone. But it is over!And the poor souls, I can pity them now and weep,as I think of them placid each in her full sleep of death for a short moment ere fading. For,friend John, hardly had my knife severed the head of each,before the whole body began to melt away and crumble in to its native dust,as though the death that should have come centuries agone had at last assert himself and say at once and loud “I am here!”
Before I left the castle I so fixed its entrances that never more can the Count enter there Un-Dead.
When I stepped into the circle where Madam Mina slept, she woke from her sleep, and, seeing, me,cried out in pain that I had endured too much.
“Come!” she said, “come away from this awful place!Let us go to meet my husband who is, I know, coming towards us.” She was looking thin and pale and weak; but her eyes were pure and glowed with fervour.I was glad to see her paleness and her illness,for my mind was full of the fresh horror of that ruddy vampire sleep.