Dracula/Chapter 21

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DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
3 October.--Let me put down with exactness all that happened,
as well as I can remember, since last I made an entry.
Not a detail that I can recall must be forgotten.
In all calmness I must proceed.
When I came to Renfield's room I found him lying on the floor on his
left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move him,
it became at once apparent that he had received some terrible injuries.
There seemed none of the unity of purpose between the parts of the body
which marks even lethargic sanity. As the face was exposed I could see
that it was horribly bruised, as though it had been beaten against the floor.
Indeed it was from the face wounds that the pool of blood originated.
The attendant who was kneeling beside the body said to me as we
turned him over, "I think, sir, his back is broken. See, both his
right arm and leg and the whole side of his face are paralysed."
How such a thing could have happened puzzled the attendant
beyond measure. He seemed quite bewildered, and his brows were
gathered in as he said, "I can't understand the two things.
He could mark his face like that by beating his own head on the floor.
I saw a young woman do it once at the Eversfield Asylum before
anyone could lay hands on her. And I suppose he might have broken
his neck by falling out of bed, if he got in an awkward kink.
But for the life of me I can't imagine how the two things occurred.
If his back was broke, he couldn't beat his head, and if his face was
like that before the fall out of bed, there would be marks of it."
I said to him, "Go to Dr. Van Helsing, and ask him to kindly come
here at once. I want him without an instant's delay."
The man ran off, and within a few minutes the Professor, in his
dressing gown and slippers, appeared. When he saw Renfield on
the ground, he looked keenly at him a moment, and then turned to me.
I think he recognized my thought in my eyes, for he said very quietly,
manifestly for the ears of the attendant, "Ah, a sad accident!
He will need very careful watching, and much attention.
I shall stay with you myself, but I shall first dress myself.
If you will remain I shall in a few minutes join you."
The patient was now breathing stertorously and it was easy to see
that he had suffered some terrible injury.
Van Helsing returned with extraordinary celerity,
bearing with him a surgical case. He had evidently been
thinking and had his mind made up, for almost before he looked
at the patient, he whispered to me, "Send the attendant away.
We must be alone with him when he becomes conscious,
after the operation."
I said, "I think that will do now, Simmons. We have done all that we can
at present. You had better go your round, and Dr. Van Helsing will operate.
Let me know instantly if there be anything unusual anywhere."
The man withdrew, and we went into a strict examination of the patient.
The wounds of the face were superficial. The real injury was a depressed
fracture of the skull, extending right up through the motor area.
The Professor thought a moment and said, "We must reduce
the pressure and get back to normal conditions, as far as can be.
The rapidity of the suffusion shows the terrible nature
of his injury. The whole motor area seems affected.
The suffusion of the brain will increase quickly, so we must
trephine at once or it may be too late."
As he was speaking there was a soft tapping at the door.
I went over and opened it and found in the corridor without,
Arthur and Quincey in pajamas and slippers, the former spoke, "I heard
your man call up Dr. Van Helsing and tell him of an accident.
So I woke Quincey or rather called for him as he was not asleep.
Things are moving too quickly and too strangely for sound
sleep for any of us these times. I've been thinking
that tomorrow night will not see things as they have been.
We'll have to look back, and forward a little more than we have done.
May we come in?"
I nodded, and held the door open till they had entered, then I closed
it again. When Quincey saw the attitude and state of the patient,
and noted the horrible pool on the floor, he said softly, "My God!
What has happened to him? Poor, poor devil!"
I told him briefly, and added that we expected he would recover
consciousness after the operation, for a short time, at all events.
He went at once and sat down on the edge of the bed, with Godalming
beside him. We all watched in patience.
"We shall wait," said Van Helsing, "just long enough to fix the best
spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly remove
the blood clot, for it is evident that the haemorrhage is increasing."
The minutes during which we waited passed with fearful slowness.
I had a horrible sinking in my heart, and from Van Helsing's
face I gathered that he felt some fear or apprehension as to
what was to come. I dreaded the words Renfield might speak.
I was positively afraid to think. But the conviction of what
was coming was on me, as I have read of men who have heard
the death watch. The poor man's breathing came in uncertain gasps.
Each instant he seemed as though he would open his eyes and speak,
but then would follow a prolonged stertorous breath, and he would
relapse into a more fixed insensibility. Inured as I was
to sick beds and death, this suspense grew and grew upon me.
I could almost hear the beating of my own heart, and the blood
surging through my temples sounded like blows from a hammer.
The silence finally became agonizing. I looked at my companions,
one after another, and saw from their flushed faces
and damp brows that they were enduring equal torture.
There was a nervous suspense over us all, as though overhead
some dread bell would peal out powerfully when we should
least expect it.
At last there came a time when it was evident that the
patient was sinking fast. He might die at any moment.
I looked up at the Professor and caught his eyes fixed on mine.
His face was sternly set as he spoke, "There is no time to lose.
His words may be worth many lives. I have been thinking so,
as I stood here. It may be there is a soul at stake!
We shall operate just above the ear."
Without another word he made the operation. For a few moments
the breathing continued to be stertorous. Then there came a breath
so prolonged that it seemed as though it would tear open his chest.
Suddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless stare.
This was continued for a few moments, then it was softened
into a glad surprise, and from his lips came a sigh of relief.
He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor.
Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream,
and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face?
It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."
He tried to turn his head, but even with the effort his
eyes seemed to grow glassy again so I gently put it back.
Then Van Helsing said in a quiet grave tone, "Tell us
your dream, Mr. Renfield."
As he heard the voice his face brightened, through its mutilation,
and he said, "That is Dr. Van Helsing. How good it is of you to be here.
Give me some water, my lips are dry, and I shall try to tell you.
I dreamed". . .
He stopped and seemed fainting. I called quietly to Quincey,
"The brandy, it is in my study, quick!" He flew and returned
with a glass, the decanter of brandy and a carafe of water.
We moistened the parched lips, and the patient quickly revived.
It seemed, however, that his poor injured brain had been working
in the interval, for when he was quite conscious, he looked at me
piercingly with an agonized confusion which I shall never forget,
and said, "I must not deceive myself. It was no dream,
but all a grim reality." Then his eyes roved round the room.
As they caught sight of the two figures sitting patiently on
the edge of the bed he went on, "If I were not sure already,
I would know from them."
For an instant his eyes closed, not with pain or sleep but
voluntarily, as though he were bringing all his faculties to bear.
When he opened them he said, hurriedly, and with more energy
than he had yet displayed, "Quick, Doctor, quick, I am dying!
I feel that I have but a few minutes, and then I must go
back to death, or worse! Wet my lips with brandy again.
I have something that I must say before I die. Or before my
poor crushed brain dies anyhow. Thank you! It was that night
after you left me, when I implored you to let me go away.
I couldn't speak then, for I felt my tongue was tied.
But I was as sane then, except in that way, as I am now.
I was in an agony of despair for a long time after you left me,
it seemed hours. Then there came a sudden peace to me.
My brain seemed to become cool again, and I realized where I was.
I heard the dogs bark behind our house, but not where He was!"
As he spoke, Van Helsing's eyes never blinked, but his hand came out
and met mine and gripped it hard. He did not, however, betray himself.
He nodded slightly and said, "Go on," in a low voice.
Renfield proceeded. "He came up to the window in the mist,
as I had seen him often before, but he was solid then,
not a ghost, and his eyes were fierce like a man's when angry.
He was laughing with his red mouth, the sharp white teeth
glinted in the moonlight when he turned to look back
over the belt of trees, to where the dogs were barking.
I wouldn't ask him to come in at first, though I knew he wanted to,
just as he had wanted all along. Then he began promising
me things, not in words but by doing them."
He was interrupted by a word from the Professor, "How?"
"By making them happen. Just as he used to send in the flies when the sun
was shining. Great big fat ones with steel and sapphire on their wings.
And big moths, in the night, with skull and cross-bones on their backs."
Van Helsing nodded to him as he whispered to me unconsciously,
"The Acherontia Atropos of the Sphinges, what you call
the `Death's-head Moth'?"
The patient went on without stopping, "Then he began to
whisper.`Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them,
and every one a life. And dogs to eat them, and cats too. All lives!
All red blood, with years of life in it, and not merely buzzing flies!'
I laughed at him, for I wanted to see what he could do.
Then the dogs howled, away beyond the dark trees in His house.
He beckoned me to the window. I got up and looked out, and He
raised his hands, and seemed to call out without using any words.
A dark mass spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a
flame of fire. And then He moved the mist to the right and left,
and I could see that there were thousands of rats with their
eyes blazing red, like His only smaller. He held up his hand,
and they all stopped, and I thought he seemed to be saying,
`All these lives will I give you, ay, and many more and greater,
through countless ages, if you will fall down and worship me!'
And then a red cloud, like the color of blood, seemed to close
over my eyes, and before I knew what I was doing, I found myself
opening the sash and saying to Him, `Come in, Lord and Master!'
The rats were all gone, but He slid into the room through the sash,
though it was only open an inch wide, just as the Moon herself has
often come in through the tiniest crack and has stood before me
in all her size and splendor."
His voice was weaker, so I moistened his lips with the brandy again,
and he continued, but it seemed as though his memory had gone
on working in the interval for his story was further advanced.
I was about to call him back to the point, but Van Helsing
whispered to me, "Let him go on. Do not interrupt him.
He cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all if once
he lost the thread of his thought."
He proceeded, "All day I waited to hear from him, but he did not send
me anything, not even a blowfly, and when the moon got up I was pretty
angry with him. When he did slide in through the window, though it
was shut, and did not even knock, I got mad with him. He sneered at me,
and his white face looked out of the mist with his red eyes gleaming,
and he went on as though he owned the whole place, and I was no one.
He didn't even smell the same as he went by me. I couldn't hold him.
I thought that, somehow, Mrs. Harker had come into the room."
The two men sitting on the bed stood up and came over, standing behind
him so that he could not see them, but where they could hear better.
They were both silent, but the Professor started and quivered.
His face, however, grew grimmer and sterner still. Renfield went on
without noticing, "When Mrs. Harker came in to see me this afternoon she
wasn't the same. It was like tea after the teapot has been watered."
Here we all moved, but no one said a word.
He went on, "I didn't know that she was here till she spoke,
and she didn't look the same. I don't care for the pale people.
I like them with lots of blood in them, and hers all seemed
to have run out. I didn't think of it at the time,
but when she went away I began to think, and it made me
mad to know that He had been taking the life out of her."
I could feel that the rest quivered, as I did. But we remained
otherwise still. "So when He came tonight I was ready for Him.
I saw the mist stealing in, and I grabbed it tight. I had heard
that madmen have unnatural strength. And as I knew I was a madman,
at times anyhow, I resolved to use my power. Ay, and He felt
it too, for He had to come out of the mist to struggle with me.
I held tight, and I thought I was going to win, for I didn't
mean Him to take any more of her life, till I saw His eyes.
They burned into me, and my strength became like water.
He slipped through it, and when I tried to cling to Him,
He raised me up and flung me down. There was a red cloud before me,
and a noise like thunder, and the mist seemed to steal away
under the door."
His voice was becoming fainter and his breath more stertorous.
Van Helsing stood up instinctively.
"We know the worst now," he said. "He is here, and we know his purpose.
It may not be too late. Let us be armed, the same as we were the other night,
but lose no time, there is not an instant to spare."
There was no need to put our fear, nay our conviction, into words,
we shared them in common. We all hurried and took from our rooms
the same things that we had when we entered the Count's house.
The Professor had his ready, and as we met in the corridor
he pointed to them significantly as he said, "They never leave me,
and they shall not till this unhappy business is over.
Be wise also, my friends. It is no common enemy that we deal
with Alas! Alas! That dear Madam Mina should suffer!"
He stopped, his voice was breaking, and I do not know if rage
or terror predominated in my own heart.
Outside the Harkers' door we paused. Art and Quincey held back,
and the latter said, "Should we disturb her?"
"We must," said Van Helsing grimly. "If the door be locked,
I shall break it in."
"May it not frighten her terribly? It is unusual to break
into a lady's room!"
Van Helsing said solemnly, "You are always right.
But this is life and death. All chambers are alike to the doctor.
And even were they not they are all as one to me tonight.
Friend John, when I turn the handle, if the door does not open,
do you put your shoulder down and shove. And you too,
my friends. Now!"
He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield.
We threw ourselves against it. With a crash it burst open,
and we almost fell headlong into the room. The Professor
did actually fall, and I saw across him as he gathered
himself up from hands and knees. What I saw appalled me.
I felt my hair rise like bristles on the back of my neck,
and my heart seemed to stand still.
The moonlight was so bright that through the thick yellow blind the room
was light enough to see. On the bed beside the window lay Jonathan Harker,
his face flushed and breathing heavily as though in a stupor.
Kneeling on the near edge of the bed facing outwards was the white-clad
figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black.
His face was turned from us, but the instant we saw we all recognized
the Count, in every way, even to the scar on his forehead.
With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker's hands, keeping them
away with her arms at full tension. His right hand gripped her
by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom.
Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled
down the man's bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress.
The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing
a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink.
As we burst into the room, the Count turned his face, and the
hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it.
His eyes flamed red with devilish passion. The great nostrils
of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge,
and the white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood
dripping mouth, clamped together like those of a wild beast.
With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed
as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.
But by this time the Professor had gained his feet, and was holding
towards him the envelope which contained the Sacred Wafer.
The Count suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside the tomb,
and cowered back. Further and further back he cowered, as we,
lifting our crucifixes, advanced. The moonlight suddenly failed,
as a great black cloud sailed across the sky. And when the gaslight
sprang up under Quincey's match, we saw nothing but a faint vapor.
This, as we looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil
from its bursting open, had swung back to its old position.
Van Helsing, Art, and I moved forward to Mrs. Harker,
who by this time had drawn her breath and with it had given
a scream so wild, so ear-piercing, so despairing that it seems
to me now that it will ring in my ears till my dying day.
For a few seconds she lay in her helpless attitude and disarray.
Her face was ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood
which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin. From her throat
trickled a thin stream of blood. Her eyes were mad with terror.
Then she put before her face her poor crushed hands, which bore
on their whiteness the red mark of the Count's terrible grip,
and from behind them came a low desolate wail which made the terrible
scream seem only the quick expression of an endless grief.
Van Helsing stepped forward and drew the coverlet gently over her body,
whilst Art, after looking at her face for an instant despairingly,
ran out of the room.
Van Helsing whispered to me, "Jonathan is in a stupor such as we
know the Vampire can produce. We can do nothing with poor
Madam Mina for a few moments till she recovers herself.
I must wake him!"
He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began
to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face
between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking
to hear. I raised the blind, and looked out of the window.
There was much moonshine, and as I looked I could see Quincey
Morris run across the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a
great yew tree. It puzzled me to think why he was doing this.
But at the instant I heard Harker's quick exclamation
as he woke to partial consciousness, and turned to the bed.
On his face, as there might well be, was a look of wild amazement.
He seemed dazed for a few seconds, and then full consciousness
seemed to burst upon him all at once, and he started up.
His wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to him with her arms
stretched out, as though to embrace him. Instantly, however, she drew them
in again, and putting her elbows together, held her hands before her face,
and shuddered till the bed beneath her shook.
"In God's name what does this mean?" Harker cried out.
"Dr. Seward, Dr. Van Helsing, what is it? What has happened?
What is wrong? Mina, dear what is it? What does that blood mean?
My God, my God! Has it come to this!" And, raising himself
to his knees, he beat his hands wildly together."Good God help us!
Help her! Oh, help her!"
With a quick movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on
his clothes, all the man in him awake at the need for instant exertion.
"What has happened? Tell me all about it!" he cried without pausing.
"Dr. Van Helsing you love Mina, I know. Oh, do something to save her.
It cannot have gone too far yet. Guard her while I look for him!"
His wife, through her terror and horror and distress,
saw some sure danger to him. Instantly forgetting her own grief,
she seized hold of him and cried out.
"No! No! Jonathan, you must not leave me. I have suffered enough tonight,
God knows, without the dread of his harming you. You must stay with me.
Stay with these friends who will watch over you!" Her expression became
frantic as she spoke. And, he yielding to her, she pulled him down sitting
on the bedside, and clung to him fiercely.
Van Helsing and I tried to calm them both. The Professor held up his
golden crucifix, and said with wonderful calmness, "Do not fear, my dear.
We are here, and whilst this is close to you no foul thing can approach.
You are safe for tonight, and we must be calm and take counsel together."
She shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her husband's breast.
When she raised it, his white nightrobe was stained with blood where her lips
had touched, and where the thin open wound in the neck had sent forth drops.
The instant she saw it she drew back, with a low wail, and whispered,
amidst choking sobs.
"Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more.
Oh, that it should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy,
and whom he may have most cause to fear."
To this he spoke out resolutely, "Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame
to me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you.
And I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts,
and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour,
if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!"
He put out his arms and folded her to his breast. And for a while
she lay there sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head,
with eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrils.
His mouth was set as steel.
After a while her sobs became less frequent and more faint,
and then he said to me, speaking with a studied calmness
which I felt tried his nervous power to the utmost.
"And now, Dr. Seward, tell me all about it. Too well I know the broad fact.
Tell me all that has been."
I told him exactly what had happened and he listened with seeming
impassiveness, but his nostrils twitched and his eyes blazed as I told
how the ruthless hands of the Count had held his wife in that terrible
and horrid position, with her mouth to the open wound in his breast.
It interested me, even at that moment, to see that whilst the face
of white set passion worked convulsively over the bowed head,
the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the ruffled hair.
Just as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked at the door.
They entered in obedience to our summons. Van Helsing looked
at me questioningly. I understood him to mean if we were to take
advantage of their coming to divert if possible the thoughts of
the unhappy husband and wife from each other and from themselves.
So on nodding acquiescence to him he asked them what they had seen
or done. To which Lord Godalming answered.
"I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our rooms.
I looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had gone.
He had, however. . ." He stopped suddenly, looking at the poor drooping
figure on the bed.
Van Helsing said gravely, "Go on, friend Arthur. We want
here no more concealments. Our hope now is in knowing all.
Tell freely!"
So Art went on, "He had been there, and though it could only have been
for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the manuscript had
been burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashes.
The cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax
had helped the flames."
Here I interrupted. "Thank God there is the other copy in the safe!"
His face lit for a moment, but fell again as he went on.
"I ran downstairs then, but could see no sign of him.
I looked into Renfield's room, but there was no trace there except.
. ." Again he paused.
"Go on," said Harker hoarsely. So he bowed his head and moistening his lips
with his tongue, added, "except that the poor fellow is dead."
Mrs. Harker raised her head, looking from one to the other of us
she said solemnly, "God's will be done!"
I could not but feel that Art was keeping back something.
But, as I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing.
Van Helsing turned to Morris and asked, "And you, friend Quincey,
have you any to tell?"
"A little," he answered. "It may be much eventually,
but at present I can't say. I thought it well to know
if possible where the Count would go when he left the house.
I did not see him, but I saw a bat rise from Renfield's window,
and flap westward. I expected to see him in some shape go
back to Carfax, but he evidently sought some other lair.
He will not be back tonight, for the sky is reddening in the east,
and the dawn is close. We must work tomorrow!"
He said the latter words through his shut teeth. For a space
of perhaps a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could
fancy that I could hear the sound of our hearts beating.
Then Van Helsing said, placing his hand tenderly on Mrs. Harker's head,
"And now, Madam Mina, poor dear, dear, Madam Mina, tell us exactly
what happened. God knows that I do not want that you be pained,
but it is need that we know all. For now more than ever has
all work to be done quick and sharp, and in deadly earnest.
The day is close to us that must end all, if it may be so,
and now is the chance that we may live and learn."
The poor dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her nerves
as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head lower
and lower still on his breast. Then she raised her head proudly,
and held out one hand to Van Helsing who took it in his,
and after stooping and kissing it reverently, held it fast.
The other hand was locked in that of her husband, who held
his other arm thrown round her protectingly. After a pause
in which she was evidently ordering her thoughts, she began.
"I took the sleeping draught which you had so kindly given me,
but for a long time it did not act. I seemed to become more wakeful,
and myriads of horrible fancies began to crowd in upon my mind.
All of them connected with death, and vampires, with blood,
and pain, and trouble." Her husband involuntarily groaned
as she turned to him and said lovingly, "Do not fret, dear.
You must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible task.
If you only knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful
thing at all, you would understand how much I need your help.
Well, I saw I must try to help the medicine to its work with my will,
if it was to do me any good, so I resolutely set myself to sleep.
Sure enough sleep must soon have come to me, for I remember no more.
Jonathan coming in had not waked me, for he lay by my side when
next I remember. There was in the room the same thin white mist
that I had before noticed. But I forget now if you know of this.
You will find it in my diary which I shall show you later.
I felt the same vague terror which had come to me before and the same
sense of some presence. I turned to wake Jonathan, but found that
he slept so soundly that it seemed as if it was he who had taken
the sleeping draught, and not I. I tried, but I could not wake him.
This caused me a great fear, and I looked around terrified.
Then indeed, my heart sank within me. Beside the bed, as if he had
stepped out of the mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into
his figure, for it had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man,
all in black. I knew him at once from the description of the others.
The waxen face, the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell
in a thin white line, the parted red lips, with the sharp white
teeth showing between, and the red eyes that I had seemed to see
in the sunset on the windows of St. Mary's Church at Witby.
I knew, too, the red scar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him.
For an instant my heart stood still, and I would have screamed out,
only that I was paralyzed. In the pause he spoke in a sort of keen,
cutting whisper, pointing as he spoke to Jonathan.
"`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his
brains out before your very eyes.' I was appalled and was
too bewildered to do or say anything. With a mocking smile,
he placed one hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight,
bared my throat with the other, saying as he did so,
`First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions.
You may as well be quiet. It is not the first time,
or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!'
I was bewildered, and strangely enough, I did not want to hinder him.
I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that such is,
when his touch is on his victim. And oh, my God, my God,
pity me! He placed his reeking lips upon my throat!"
Her husband groaned again. She clasped his hand harder,
and looked at him pityingly, as if he were the injured one,
and went on.
"I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon.
How long this horrible thing lasted I know not, but it seemed
that a long time must have passed before he took his foul, awful,
sneering mouth away. I saw it drip with the fresh blood!"The
remembrance seemed for a while to overpower her, and she drooped
and would have sunk down but for her husband's sustaining arm.
With a great effort she recovered herself and went on.
"Then he spoke to me mockingly, `And so you, like the others,
would play your brains against mine. You would help
these men to hunt me and frustrate me in my design!
You know now, and they know in part already, and will
know in full before long, what it is to cross my path.
They should have kept their energies for use closer to home.
Whilst they played wits against me, against me who commanded nations,
and intrigued for them, and fought for them, hundreds of
years before they were born, I was countermining them.
And you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh,
blood of my blood, kin of my kin, my bountiful wine-press
for a while, and shall be later on my companion and my helper.
You shall be avenged in turn, for not one of them but shall
minister to your needs. But as yet you are to be punished
for what you have done. You have aided in thwarting me.
Now you shall come to my call. When my brain says "Come!"
to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my bidding.
And to that end this!'
With that he pulled open his shirt, and with his long sharp nails
opened a vein in his breast. When the blood began to spurt out,
he took my hands in one of his, holding them tight, and with the other
seized my neck and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that I must
either suffocate or swallow some to the. . .Oh, my God! My God!
What have I done? What have I done to deserve such a fate,
I who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days.
God pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril.
And in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!" Then she began to rub
her lips as though to cleanse them from pollution.
As she was telling her terrible story, the eastern sky began to quicken,
and everything became more and more clear. Harker was still and quiet.
But over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look
which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first red
streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out against
the whitening hair.
We have arranged that one of us is to stay within call of the unhappy
pair till we can meet together and arrange about taking action.
Of this I am sure. The sun rises today on no more miserable
house in all the great round of its daily course.