"I trust you will forgive me, but I have much work to do in
private this evening. You will, I hope, find all things as you
wish." At the door he turned, and after a moment's pause said, "Let
me advise you, my dear young friend. Nay, let me warn you with all
seriousness, that should you leave these rooms you will not by any
chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old, and
has many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep
unwisely. Be warned! Should sleep now or ever overcome you, or be
like to do, then haste to your own chamber or to these rooms, for
your rest will then be safe. But if you be not careful in this
respect, then," He finished his speech in a gruesome way, for he
motioned with his hands as if he were washing them. I quite
understood. My only doubt was as to whether any dream could be more
terrible than the unnatural, horrible net of gloom and mystery
which seemed closing around me.
Later.—I endorse the last words written, but this time there is
no doubt in question. I shall not fear to sleep in any place where
he is not. I have placed the crucifix over the head of my bed, I
imagine that my rest is thus freer from dreams, and there it shall
remain.
When he left me I went to my room. After a little while, not
hearing any sound, I came out and went up the stone stair to where
I could look out towards the South. There was some sense of freedom
in the vast expanse, inaccessible though it was to me, as compared
with the narrow darkness of the courtyard. Looking out on this, I
felt that I was indeed in prison, and I seemed to want a breath of
fresh air, though it were of the night. I am beginning to feel this
nocturnal existence tell on me. It is destroying my nerve. I start
at my own shadow, and am full of all sorts of horrible imaginings.
God knows that there is ground for my terrible fear in this
accursed place!I looked out over the beautiful expanse, bathed in
soft yellow moonlight till it was almost as light as day. In thesoft yellow moonlight till it was almost as light as day. In the
soft light the distant hills became melted, and the shadows in the
valleys and gorges of velvety blackness. The mere beauty seemed to
cheer me. There was peace and comfort in every breath I drew. As I
leaned from the window my eye was caught by something moving a
storey below me, and somewhat to my left, where I imagined, from
the order of the rooms, that the windows of the Count's own room
would look out. The window at which I stood was tall and deep,
stone-mullioned, and though weatherworn, was still complete. But it
was evidently many a day since the case had been there. I drew back
behind the stonework, and looked carefully out.
What I saw was the Count's head coming out from the window. I
did not see the face, but I knew the man by the neck and the
movement of his back and arms. In any case I could not mistake the
hands which I had had some many opportunities of studying. I was at
first interested and somewhat amused, for it is wonderful how small
a matter will interest and amuse a man when he is a prisoner. But
my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the
whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the
castle wall over the dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak
spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not
believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some
weird effect of shadow, but I kept looking, and it could be no
delusion. I saw the fingers and toes grasp the corners of the
stones, worn clear of the mortar by the stress of years, and by
thus using every projection and inequality move downwards with
considerable speed, just as a lizard moves along a wall.
What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature, is it in
the semblance of man? I feel the dread of this horrible place
overpowering me. I am in fear, in awful fear, and there is no
escape for me. I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare not
think of.escape for me. I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare not
think of.
15 May.—Once more I have seen the count go out in his lizard
fashion. He moved downwards in a sidelong way, some hundred feet
down, and a good deal to the left. He vanished into some hole or
window. When his head had disappeared, I leaned out to try and see
more, but without avail. The distance was too great to allow a
proper angle of sight. I knew he had left the castle now, and
thought to use the opportunity to explore more than I had dared to
do as yet. I went back to the room, and taking a lamp, tried all
the doors. They were all locked, as I had expected, and the locks
were comparatively new. But I went down the stone stairs to the
hall where I had entered originally. I found I could pull back the
bolts easily enough and unhook the great chains. But the door was
locked, and the key was gone! That key must be in the Count's room.
I must watch should his door be unlocked, so that I may get it and
escape. I went on to make a thorough examination of the various
stairs and passages, and to try the doors that opened from them.
One or two small rooms near the hall were open, but there was
nothing to see in them except old furniture, dusty with age and
moth-eaten. At last, however, I found one door at the top of the
stairway which, though it seemed locked, gave a little under
pressure. I tried it harder, and found that it was not really
locked, but that the resistance came from the fact that the hinges
had fallen somewhat, and the heavy door rested on the floor. Here
was an opportunity which I might not have again, so I exerted
myself, and with many efforts forced it back so that I could enter.
I was now in a wing of the castle further to the right than the
rooms I knew and a storey lower down. From the windows I could see
that the suite of rooms lay along to the south of the castle, the
windows of the end room looking out both west and south. On the
latter side, as well as to the former, there was a great precipice.