"Count me in, Professor," said Mr. Quincey Morris, laconically
as usual.
"I am with you," said Lord Godalming, "for Lucy's sake, if for
no other reason."
Dr. Seward simply nodded.
The Professor stood up and, after laying his golden crucifix on
the table, held out his hand on either side. I took his right hand,
and Lord Godalming his left, Jonathan held my right with his left
and stretched across to Mr. Morris. So as we all took hands our
solemn compact was made. I felt my heart icy cold, but it did not
even occur to me to draw back. We resumed our places, and Dr. Van
Helsing went on with a sort of cheerfulness which showed that the
serious work had begun. It was to be taken as gravely, and in as
businesslike a way, as any other transaction of life.
"Well, you know what we have to contend against, but we too, are
not without strength. We have on our side power of combination, a
power denied to the vampire kind, we have sources of science, we
are free to act and think, and the hours of the day and the night
are ours equally. In fact, so far as our powers extend, they are
unfettered, and we are free to use them. We have self devotion in a
cause and an end to achieve which is not a selfish one. These
things are much.
"Now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us
are restrict, and how the individual cannot. In fine, let us
consider the limitations of the vampire in general, and of this one
in particular.
"All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions. These
do not at the first appear much, when the matter is one of life and
death, nay of more than either life or death. Yet must we be
satisfied, in the first place because we have to be, no other means
is at our control, and secondly, because, after all these things,
tradition and superstition, are everything. Does not the belief in
vampires rest for others, though not, alas! for us, on them! A year
ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the
midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenthmidst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth
century? We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our
very eyes. Take it, then, that the vampire, and the belief in his
limitations and his cure, rest for the moment on the same base.
For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere that men have been. In
old Greece, in old Rome, he flourish in Germany all over, in
France, in India, even in the Chermosese, and in China, so far from
us in all ways, there even is he, and the peoples for him at this
day. He have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the
devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar.
"So far, then, we have all we may act upon, and let me tell you
that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in
our own so unhappy experience. The vampire live on, and cannot die
by mere passing of the time, he can flourish when that he can
fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amongst
us that he can even grow younger, that his vital faculties grow
strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his
special pabulum is plenty.
"But he cannot flourish without this diet, he eat not as others.
Even friend Jonathan, who lived with him for weeks, did never see
him eat, never! He throws no shadow, he make in the mirror no
reflect, as again Jonathan observe. He has the strength of many of
his hand, witness again Jonathan when he shut the door against the
wolves, and when he help him from the diligence too. He can
transform himself to wolf, as we gather from the ship arrival in
Whitby, when he tear open the dog, he can be as bat, as Madam Mina
saw him on the window at Whitby, and as friend John saw him fly
from this so near house, and as my friend Quincey saw him at the
window of Miss Lucy.
"He can come in mist which he create, that noble ship's captain
proved him of this, but, from what we know, the distance he can
make this mist is limited, and it can only be round himself.
"He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust, as again Jonathan"He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust, as again Jonathan
saw those sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small, we
ourselves saw Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a
hairbreadth space at the tomb door. He can, when once he find his
way, come out from anything or into anything, no matter how close
it be bound or even fused up with fire, solder you call it. He can
see in the dark, no small power this, in a world which is one half
shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through.
"He can do all these things, yet he is not free. Nay, he is even
more prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in his
cell. He cannot go where he lists, he who is not of nature has yet
to obey some of nature's laws, why we know not. He may not enter
anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household
who bid him to come, though afterwards he can come as he please.
His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of
the day.
"Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not
at the place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at
noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and
in this record of ours we have proof by inference. Thus, whereas he
can do as he will within his limit, when he have his earth-home,his
coffin-home, his hellhome, the place unhallowed, as we saw when he
went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby, still at other time he
can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that he can
only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide. Then
there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the
garlic that we know of, and as for things sacred, as this symbol,
my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them
he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and
silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you
of, lest in our seeking we may need them.
"The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not