by Bram Stoker
CHAPTER II.
/Jonathan Harker's Journal/--_continued._
_5 May._--I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fullyawake I must have noticed the approach to such a remarkable place. Inthe gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as severaldark ways led from it under great round arches it perhaps seemedbigger than it really is. I have not yet been able to see it bydaylight.
When the caleche stopped the driver jumped down, and held out his handto assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice his prodigiousstrength. His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could havecrushed mine if he had chosen. Then he took out my traps, and placedthem on the ground beside me as I stood close to a great door, oldand studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway ofmassive stone. I could see even in the dim light that the stone wasmassively carved, but that the carving had been much worn by time andweather. As I stood, the driver jumped again into his seat and shookthe reins; the horses started forward, and trap and all disappeareddown one of the dark openings.
I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what to do. Of bellor knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and darkwindow openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate. Thetime I waited seemed endless, and I felt doubts and fears crowding uponme. What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people?What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked? Was thisa customary incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk sent out toexplain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner? Solicitor'sclerk! Mina would not like that. Solicitor,--for just before leavingLondon I got word that my examination was successful; and I am now afull-blown solicitor! I began to rub my eyes and pinch myself to seeif I were awake. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to me, and Iexpected that I should suddenly awake, and find myself at home, withthe dawn struggling in through the windows, as I had now and againfelt in the morning after a day of overwork. But my flesh answered thepinching test, and my eyes were not to be deceived. I was indeed awakeand among the Carpathians. All I could do now was to be patient, and towait the coming of the morning.
Just as I had come to this conclusion I heard a heavy step approachingbehind the great door, and saw through the chinks the gleam of a cominglight. Then there was the sound of rattling chains and the clanking ofmassive bolts drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noiseof long disuse, and the great door swung back.
Within, stood a tall old man, clean-shaven save for a long whitemoustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speckof colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silverlamp, in which the flame burned without chimney or globe of any kind,throwing long, quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught ofthe open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand witha courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strangeintonation:--
"Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!" He made nomotion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though hisgesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, thatI had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, andholding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince,an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold asice--more like the hand of a dead than a living man. Again he said:--
"Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something ofthe happiness you bring!" The strength of the handshake was so muchakin to that which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had notseen, that for a moment I doubted if it were not the same person towhom I was speaking; so, to make sure, I said interrogatively:--
"Count Dracula?" He bowed in a courtly way as he replied:--
"I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house. Come in;the night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest." As he wasspeaking he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and stepping out,took my luggage; he had carried it in before I could forestall him. Iprotested but he insisted:--
"Nay, sir, you are my guest. It is late, and my people are notavailable. Let me see to your comfort myself." He insisted on carryingmy traps along the passage, and then up a great winding stair, andalong another great passage, on whose stone floor our steps rangheavily. At the end of this he threw open a heavy door, and I rejoicedto see within a well-lit room in which a table was spread for supper,and on whose mighty hearth a great fire of logs flamed and flared.
The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door, and crossingthe room, opened another door, which led into a small octagonal roomlit by a single lamp, and seemingly without a window of any sort.Passing through this, he opened another door, and motioned me to enter.It was a welcome sight; for here was a great bedroom well lighted andwarmed with another log fire, which sent a hollow roar up the widechimney. The Count himself left my luggage inside and withdrew, saying,before he closed the door:--
"You will need, after your journey, to refresh yourself by making yourtoilet. I trust you will find all you wish. When you are ready comeinto the other room, where you will find your supper prepared."
The light and warmth and the Count's courteous welcome seemed to havedissipated all my doubts and fears. Having then reached my normalstate, I discovered that I was half-famished with hunger; so making ahasty toilet, I went into the other room.
I found supper already laid out. My host, who stood on one side of thegreat fireplace, leaning against the stonework, made a graceful wave ofhis hand to the table, and said:--
"I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust,excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I donot sup."
I handed to him the sealed letter which Mr. Hawkins had entrusted tome. He opened it and read it gravely; then, with a charming smile, hehanded it to me to read. One passage of it, at least, gave me a thrillof pleasure:--
"I much regret that an attack of gout, from which malady I am aconstant sufferer, forbids absolutely any travelling on my part forsome time to come; but I am happy to say I can send a sufficientsubstitute, one in whom I have every possible confidence. He is a youngman, full of energy and talent in his own way, and of a very faithfuldisposition. He is discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood inmy service. He shall be ready to attend on you when you will during hisstay, and shall take your instructions in all matters."
The Count himself came forward and took off the cover of a dish, and Ifell to at once on an excellent roast chicken. This, with some cheeseand a salad and a bottle of old Tokay, of which I had two glasses,was my supper. During the time I was eating it the Count asked memany questions as to my journey, and I told him by degrees all I hadexperienced.
By this time I had finished my supper, and by my host's desire haddrawn up a chair by the fire and begun to smoke a cigar which heoffered me, at the same time excusing himself that he did not smoke. Ihad now an opportunity of observing him, and found him of a very markedphysiognomy.
His face was a strong--a very strong--aquiline, with high bridge of thethin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead,and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere.His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and withbushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, sofar as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rathercruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded overthe lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality ina man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the topsextremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firmthough thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.
Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his kneesin the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeingthem now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rathercoarse--broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairsin the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut toa sharp point. As the Count leaned over me a
nd his hands touched me,I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath wasrank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do whatI would, I could not conceal. The Count, evidently noticing it, drewback; and with a grim sort of smile, which showed more than he had yetdone his protuberant teeth, sat himself down again on his own side ofthe fireplace. We were both silent for a while; and as I looked towardsthe window I saw the first dim streak of the coming dawn. There seemeda strange stillness over everything; but as I listened I heard, as iffrom down below in the valley, the howling of many wolves. The Count'seyes gleamed, and he said:--
"Listen to them--the children of the night. What music they make!"Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, headded:--
"Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings ofthe hunter." Then he rose and said:--
"But you must be tired. Your bedroom is all ready, and to-morrow youshall sleep as late as you will. I have to be away till the afternoon;so sleep well and dream well!" and, with a courteous bow, he opened forme himself the door to the octagonal room, and I entered my bedroom....
I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange thingswhich I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for thesake of those dear to me!
_7 May._--It is again early morning, but I have rested and enjoyed thelast twenty-four hours. I slept till late in the day, and awoke of myown accord. When I had dressed myself I went into the room where we hadsupped, and found a cold breakfast laid out, with coffee kept hot bythe pot being placed on the hearth. There was a card on the table, onwhich was written:--
"I have to be absent for a while. Do not wait for me.--D." So I set toand enjoyed a hearty meal. When I had done, I looked for a bell, sothat I might let the servants know I had finished; but I could not findone. There are certainly odd deficiencies in the house, consideringthe extraordinary evidences of wealth which are round me. The tableservice is of gold, and so beautifully wrought that it must be ofimmense value. The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas andthe hangings of my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics,and must have been of fabulous value when they were made, for they arecenturies old, though in excellent order. I saw something like themin Hampton Court, but there they were worn and frayed and moth-eaten.But still in none of the rooms is there a mirror. There is not even atoilet glass on my table, and I had to get the little shaving glassfrom my bag before I could either shave or brush my hair. I have notyet seen a servant anywhere, or heard a sound near the castle exceptfor the howling of wolves. When I had finished my meal--I do not knowwhether to call it breakfast or dinner, for it was between five andsix o'clock when I had it--I looked about for something to read, forI did not like to go about the castle until I had asked the Count'spermission. There was absolutely nothing in the room, book, newspaper,or even writing materials; so I opened another door in the room andfound a sort of library. The door opposite mine I tried, but found itlocked.
In the library I found, to my great delight, a vast number of Englishbooks, whole shelves full of them, and bound volumes of magazines andnewspapers. A table in the centre was littered with English magazinesand newspapers, though none of them were of very recent date. The bookswere of the most varied kind--history, geography, politics, politicaleconomy, botany, geology, law--all relating to England and English lifeand customs and manners. There were even such books of reference as theLondon Directory, the "Red" and "Blue" books, Whitaker's Almanack, theArmy and Navy Lists, and--it somehow gladdened my heart to see it--theLaw List.
Whilst I was looking at the books, the door opened, and the Countentered. He saluted me in a hearty way, and hoped that I had had a goodnight's rest. Then he went on:--
"I am glad you found your way in here, for I am sure there is much thatwill interest you. These friends"--and he laid his hand on some of thebooks--"have been good friends to me, and for some years past, eversince I had the idea of going to London, have given me many, many hoursof pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great England; andto know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streetsof your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush ofhumanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makesit what it is. But alas! as yet I only know your tongue through books.To you, my friend, I look that I know it to speak."
"But, Count," I said, "you know and speak English thoroughly!" He bowedgravely.
"I thank you, my friend, for your all too flattering estimate, but yetI fear that I am but a little way on the road I would travel. True, Iknow the grammar and the words, but yet I know not how to speak them."
"Indeed," I said, "you speak excellently."
"Not so," he answered. "Well I know that, did I move and speak in yourLondon, none there are who would not know me for a stranger. That isnot enough for me. Here I am noble; I am _boyar_; the common peopleknow me, and I am master. But a stranger in a strange land, he is noone; men know him not--and to know not is to care not for. I am contentif I am like the rest, so that no man stops if he sees me, or pause inhis speaking if he hear my words, to say, 'Ha, ha! a stranger!' I havebeen so long master that I would be master still--or at least that noneother should be master of me. You come to me not alone as agent of myfriend Peter Hawkins, of Exeter, to tell me all about my new estate inLondon. You shall, I trust, rest here with me a while, so that by ourtalking I may learn the English intonation; and I would that you tellme when I make error, even of the smallest, in my speaking. I am sorrythat I had to be away so long to-day; but you will, I know, forgive onewho has so many important affairs in hand."
Of course I said all I could about being willing, and asked if I mightcome into that room when I chose. He answered: "Yes, certainly," andadded:--
"You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors arelocked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is reason thatall things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes and know withmy knowledge, you would perhaps better understand." I said I was sureof this, and then he went on:--
"We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways arenot your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things. Nay, fromwhat you have told me of your experiences already, you know somethingof what strange things here may be."
This led to much conversation. And as it was evident that he wanted totalk, if only for talking's sake, I asked him many questions regardingthings that had already happened to me or come within my notice.Sometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation bypretending not to understand; but generally he answered all I askedmost frankly. Then as time went on, and I had got somewhat bolder, Iasked him of some of the strange things of the preceding night, as, forinstance, why the coachman went to the places where we had seen theblue flames. Was it indeed true that they showed where gold was hidden?He then explained to me that it was commonly believed that on a certainnight of the year--last night, in fact, when all evil spirits aresupposed to have unchecked sway--a blue flame is seen over any placewhere treasure has been concealed. "That treasure has been hidden," hewent on, "in the region through which you came last night, there can bebut little doubt; for it was the ground fought over for centuries bythe Wallachian, the Saxon, and the Turk. Why, there is hardly a foot ofsoil in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men,patriots or invaders. In old days there were stirring times, when theAustrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went outto meet them--men and women, the aged and the children too--and waitedtheir coming on the rocks above the passes, that they might sweepdestruction on them with their artificial avalanches. When the invaderwas triumphant he found but little, for whatever there was had beensheltered in the friendly soil."
"But how," said I, "can it have remained so long undiscovered, whenthere is a sure index to it if men will but take the trouble to look?"The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long,sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely; he answered:--
"Because your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool! Those flamesonly appear on one night. And on that night no man of this land will,if he can help it, stir without his doors. And, dear sir, even if hedid he would not know what to do. Why, even the peasant that you tellme of who marked the place of the flame would not know where to look indaylight even for his own work. You would not, I dare be sworn, be ableto find these places again?"
"There you are right," I said. "I know no more than the dead where evento look for them." Then we drifted into other matters.
"Come," he said at last, "tell me of London and of the house which youhave procured for me." With an apology for my remissness, I went intomy own room to get the papers from my bag. Whilst I was placing them inorder I heard a rattling of china and silver in the next room, and asI passed through, noticed that the table had been cleared and the lamplit, for it was by this time deep into the dark. The lamps were alsolit in the study or library, and I found the Count lying on the sofa,reading, of all things in the world, an English Bradshaw's Guide. WhenI came in he cleared the books and papers from the table; and with himI went into plans and deeds and figures of all sorts. He was interestedin everything, and asked me a myriad questions about the place and itssurroundings. He clearly had studied beforehand all he could get on thesubject of the neighbourhood, for he evidently at the end knew verymuch more than I did. When I remarked this, he answered:--
"Well, but, my friend, is it not needful that I should? When I go thereI shall be all alone, and my friend Harker Jonathan--nay, pardon me,I fall into my country's habit of putting your patronymic first--myfriend Jonathan Harker will not be by my side to correct and aid me. Hewill be in Exeter, miles away, probably working at papers of the lawwith my other friend, Peter Hawkins. So!"
We went thoroughly into the business of the purchase of the estate atPurfleet. When I had told him the facts and got his signature to thenecessary papers, and had written a letter with them ready to post toMr. Hawkins, he began to ask me how I had come across so suitable aplace. I read to him the notes which I had made at the time, and whichI inscribe here:--
"At Purfleet, on a by-road, I came across just such a place as seemedto be required, and where was displayed a dilapidated notice thatthe place was for sale. It is surrounded by a high wall, of ancientstructure, built of heavy stones, and has not been repaired for a largenumber of years. The closed gates were of heavy old oak and iron, alleaten with rust.
"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old _QuatreFace_, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal pointsof the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, quite surroundedby the solid stone wall above mentioned. There are many trees on it,which make it in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pondor small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water is clearand flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and ofall periods back, I should say, to mediaeval times, for one part is ofstone immensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavilybarred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an oldchapel or church. I could not enter it, as I had not the key of thedoor leading to it from the house, but I have taken with my Kodak viewsof it from various points. The house has been added to, but in a verystraggling way, and I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers,which must be very great. There are but few houses close at hand, onebeing a very large house only recently added to and formed into aprivate lunatic asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds."
When I had finished, he said:--
"I am glad that it is old and big. I myself am of an old family, andto live in a new house would kill me. A house cannot be made habitablein a day; and, after all, how few days go to make up a century. Irejoice that there is a chapel of old times. We Transylvanian nobleslove not to think that our bones may be amongst the common dead. I seeknot gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshineand sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longeryoung; and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead,is not attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken;the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the brokenbattlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and wouldbe alone with my thoughts when I may."
Somehow his words and his look did not seem to accord, or else it wasthat his cast of face made his smile look malignant and saturnine.
Presently, with an excuse, he left me, asking me to put all my paperstogether. He was some little time away, and I began to look at some ofthe books around me. One was an atlas, which I found opened naturallyat England, as if that map had been much used. On looking at it Ifound in certain places little rings marked, and on examining these Inoticed that one was near London on the east side, manifestly where hisnew estate was situated; the other two were Exeter, and Whitby on theYorkshire coast.
It was the better part of an hour when the Count returned. "Aha!"he said; "still at your books? Good! But you must not work always.Come; I am informed that your supper is ready." He took my arm, andwe went into the next room, where I found an excellent supper readyon the table. The Count again excused himself, as he had dined out onhis being away from home. But he sat as on the previous night, andchatted whilst I ate. After supper I smoked, as on the last evening,and the Count stayed with me, chatting and asking questions on everyconceivable subject, hour after hour. I felt that it was getting verylate indeed, but I did not say anything, for I felt under obligation tomeet my host's wishes in every way. I was not sleepy, as the long sleepyesterday had fortified me; but I could not help experiencing thatchill which comes over one at the coming of dawn, which is like, in itsway, the turn of the tide. They say that people who are near death diegenerally at the change to the dawn or at the turn of the tide; anyone who has, when tired, and tied as it were to his post, experiencedthis change in the atmosphere can well believe it. All at once we heardthe crow of a cock coming up with preternatural shrillness through theclear morning air; Count Dracula, jumping to his feet, said:--
"Why, there is the morning again! How remiss I am to let you stay up solong. You must make your conversation regarding my dear new country ofEngland less interesting, so that I may not forget how time flies byus," and, with a courtly bow, he left me.
I went into my own room and drew the curtains, but there was littleto notice; my window opened into the courtyard; all I could see wasthe warm grey quickening sky. So I pulled the curtains again, and havewritten of this day.
_8 May._--I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I was gettingtoo diffuse; but now I am glad that I went into detail from the first,for there is something so strange about this place and all in it thatI cannot but feel uneasy. I wish I were safe out of it, or that I hadnever come. It may be that this strange night-existence is telling onme; but would that that were all! If there were any one to talk to Icould bear it, but there is no one. I have only the Count to speakwith, and he!--I fear I am myself the only living soul within theplace. Let me be prosaic so far as facts can be; it will help me tobear up, and imagination must not run riot with me. If it does I amlost. Let me say at once how I stand--or seem to.
I only slept a few hours when I went to bed, and feeling that I couldnot sleep any more, got up. I had hung my shaving glass by the window,and was just beginning to shave. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder,and heard the Count's voice saying to me, "Good morning." I started,for it amazed me that I had not seen him, since the reflection of theglass covered the whole room behind me. In starting I had cut myselfslightly, but did not notice it at the moment. Having answered theCount's salutation, I turned to the glass again to see how I had beenmistaken. This time there could be no error, for the man was close tome, and I could see him over my shoulder. But there was no reflectionof him in the mirror! The whole room behind me was displayed; but therewas no sign of a man in it, except myself. This was startling, and,coming on the top of so many strange things, was beginning to increasethat vague feeling of uneasiness whic
h I always have when the Count isnear; but at that instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and theblood was trickling over my chin. I laid down the razor, turning as Idid so half round to look for some sticking plaster. When the Count sawmy face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenlymade a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the stringof beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, forthe fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was everthere.
"Take care," he said, "take care how you cut yourself. It is moredangerous than you think in this country." Then seizing the shavingglass, he went on: "And this is the wretched thing that has done themischief. It is a foul bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!" andopening the heavy window with one wrench of his terrible hand, he flungout the glass, which was shattered into a thousand pieces on the stonesof the courtyard far below. Then he withdrew without a word. It is veryannoying, for I do not see how I am to shave, unless in my watch-caseor the bottom of the shaving-pot, which is fortunately of metal.
When I went into the dining-room, breakfast was prepared; but I couldnot find the Count anywhere. So I breakfasted alone. It is strangethat as yet I have not seen the Count eat or drink. He must be a verypeculiar man! After breakfast I did a little exploring in the castle.I went out on the stairs and found a room looking towards the south.The view was magnificent, and from where I stood there was everyopportunity of seeing it. The castle is on the very edge of a terribleprecipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feetwithout touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea ofgreen tree-tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm.Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorgesthrough the forests.
But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the viewI explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked andbolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is therean available exit.
The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!