CHAPTER XVI
DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_
It was just a quarter before twelve o'clock when we got into thechurchyard over the low wall. The night was dark with occasional gleamsof moonlight between the rents of the heavy clouds that scudded acrossthe sky. We all kept somehow close together, with Van Helsing slightlyin front as he led the way. When we had come close to the tomb I lookedwell at Arthur, for I feared that the proximity to a place laden with sosorrowful a memory would upset him; but he bore himself well. I took itthat the very mystery of the proceeding was in some way a counteractantto his grief. The Professor unlocked the door, and seeing a naturalhesitation amongst us for various reasons, solved the difficulty byentering first himself. The rest of us followed, and he closed the door.He then lit a dark lantern and pointed to the coffin. Arthur steppedforward hesitatingly; Van Helsing said to me:--
You were with me here yesterday. Was the body of Miss Lucy in thatcoffin?
It was. The Professor turned to the rest saying:--
You hear; and yet there is no one who does not believe with me. Hetook his screwdriver and again took off the lid of the coffin. Arthurlooked on, very pale but silent; when the lid was removed he steppedforward. He evidently did not know that there was a leaden coffin, or,at any rate, had not thought of it. When he saw the rent in the lead,the blood rushed to his face for an instant, but as quickly fell awayagain, so that he remained of a ghastly whiteness; he was still silent.Van Helsing forced back the leaden flange, and we all looked in andrecoiled.
The coffin was empty!
For several minutes no one spoke a word. The silence was broken byQuincey Morris:--
Professor, I answered for you. Your word is all I want. I wouldn't asksuch a thing ordinarily--I wouldn't so dishonour you as to imply adoubt; but this is a mystery that goes beyond any honour or dishonour.Is this your doing?
I swear to you by all that I hold sacred that I have not removed nortouched her. What happened was this: Two nights ago my friend Seward andI came here--with good purpose, believe me. I opened that coffin, whichwas then sealed up, and we found it, as now, empty. We then waited, andsaw something white come through the trees. The next day we came here inday-time, and she lay there. Did she not, friend John?
Yes.
That night we were just in time. One more so small child was missing,and we find it, thank God, unharmed amongst the graves. Yesterday I camehere before sundown, for at sundown the Un-Dead can move. I waited hereall the night till the sun rose, but I saw nothing. It was most probablethat it was because I had laid over the clamps of those doors garlic,which the Un-Dead cannot bear, and other things which they shun. Lastnight there was no exodus, so to-night before the sundown I took away mygarlic and other things. And so it is we find this coffin empty. Butbear with me. So far there is much that is strange. Wait you with meoutside, unseen and unheard, and things much stranger are yet to be.So--here he shut the dark slide of his lantern--now to the outside.He opened the door, and we filed out, he coming last and locking thedoor behind him.
Oh! but it seemed fresh and pure in the night air after the terror ofthat vault. How sweet it was to see the clouds race by, and the passinggleams of the moonlight between the scudding clouds crossing andpassing--like the gladness and sorrow of a man's life; how sweet it wasto breathe the fresh air, that had no taint of death and decay; howhumanising to see the red lighting of the sky beyond the hill, and tohear far away the muffled roar that marks the life of a great city. Eachin his own way was solemn and overcome. Arthur was silent, and was, Icould see, striving to grasp the purpose and the inner meaning of themystery. I was myself tolerably patient, and half inclined again tothrow aside doubt and to accept Van Helsing's conclusions. QuinceyMorris was phlegmatic in the way of a man who accepts all things, andaccepts them in the spirit of cool bravery, with hazard of all he has tostake. Not being able to smoke, he cut himself a good-sized plug oftobacco and began to chew. As to Van Helsing, he was employed in adefinite way. First he took from his bag a mass of what looked likethin, wafer-like biscuit, which was carefully rolled up in a whitenapkin; next he took out a double-handful of some whitish stuff, likedough or putty. He crumbled the wafer up fine and worked it into themass between his hands. This he then took, and rolling it into thinstrips, began to lay them into the crevices between the door and itssetting in the tomb. I was somewhat puzzled at this, and being close,asked him what it was that he was doing. Arthur and Quincey drew nearalso, as they too were curious. He answered:--
I am closing the tomb, so that the Un-Dead may not enter.
And is that stuff you have put there going to do it? asked Quincey.Great Scott! Is this a game?
It is.
What is that which you are using? This time the question was byArthur. Van Helsing reverently lifted his hat as he answered:--
The Host. I brought it from Amsterdam. I have an Indulgence. It was ananswer that appalled the most sceptical of us, and we felt individuallythat in the presence of such earnest purpose as the Professor's, apurpose which could thus use the to him most sacred of things, it wasimpossible to distrust. In respectful silence we took the placesassigned to us close round the tomb, but hidden from the sight of anyone approaching. I pitied the others, especially Arthur. I had myselfbeen apprenticed by my former visits to this watching horror; and yet I,who had up to an hour ago repudiated the proofs, felt my heart sinkwithin me. Never did tombs look so ghastly white; never did cypress, oryew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funereal gloom; never did treeor grass wave or rustle so ominously; never did bough creak somysteriously; and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such awoeful presage through the night.
There was a long spell of silence, a big, aching void, and then from theProfessor a keen S-s-s-s! He pointed; and far down the avenue of yewswe saw a white figure advance--a dim white figure, which held somethingdark at its breast. The figure stopped, and at the moment a ray ofmoonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds and showed in startlingprominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave.We could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we saw to be afair-haired child. There was a pause and a sharp little cry, such as achild gives in sleep, or a dog as it lies before the fire and dreams. Wewere starting forward, but the Professor's warning hand, seen by us ashe stood behind a yew-tree, kept us back; and then as we looked thewhite figure moved forwards again. It was now near enough for us to seeclearly, and the moonlight still held. My own heart grew cold as ice,and I could hear the gasp of Arthur, as we recognised the features ofLucy Westenra. Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness wasturned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuouswantonness. Van Helsing stepped out, and, obedient to his gesture, weall advanced too; the four of us ranged in a line before the door of thetomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew the slide; by theconcentrated light that fell on Lucy's face we could see that the lipswere crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over herchin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.
We shuddered with horror. I could see by the tremulous light that evenVan Helsing's iron nerve had failed. Arthur was next to me, and if I hadnot seized his arm and held him up, he would have fallen.
When Lucy--I call the thing that was before us Lucy because it bore hershape--saw us she drew back with an angry snarl, such as a cat giveswhen taken unawares; then her eyes ranged over us. Lucy's eyes in formand colour; but Lucy's eyes unclean and full of hell-fire, instead ofthe pure, gentle orbs we knew. At that moment the remnant of my lovepassed into hate and loathing; had she then to be killed, I could havedone it with savage delight. As she looked, her eyes blazed with unholylight, and the face became wreathed with a voluptuous smile. Oh, God,how it made me shudder to see it! With a careless motion, she flung tothe ground, callous as a devil, the child that up to now she hadclutched strenuously to her breast, growling over it as a dog growlsover a bone. The child gave a sharp cry, and lay there moaning. Therewas a cold-bloodedness in the act which wrung a groan from Arthur; whenshe advanced to him with outstretched arms and a wanton smile he fellback and hid his face in his hands.
She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, voluptuous grace,said:--
Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms arehungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!
There was something diabolically sweet in her tones--something of thetingling of glass when struck--which rang through the brains even of uswho heard the words addressed to another. As for Arthur, he seemed undera spell; moving his hands from his face, he opened wide his arms. Shewas leaping for them, when Van Helsing sprang forward and held betweenthem his little golden crucifix. She recoiled from it, and, with asuddenly distorted face, full of rage, dashed past him as if to enterthe tomb.
When within a foot or two of the door, however, she stopped, as ifarrested by some irresistible force. Then she turned, and her face wasshown in the clear burst of moonlight and by the lamp, which had now noquiver from Van Helsing's iron nerves. Never did I see such baffledmalice on a face; and never, I trust, shall such ever be seen again bymortal eyes. The beautiful colour became livid, the eyes seemed to throwout sparks of hell-fire, the brows were wrinkled as though the folds ofthe flesh were the coils of Medusa's snakes, and the lovely,blood-stained mouth grew to an open square, as in the passion masks ofthe Greeks and Japanese. If ever a face meant death--if looks couldkill--we saw it at that moment.
And so for full half a minute, which seemed an eternity, she remainedbetween the lifted crucifix and the sacred closing of her means ofentry. Van Helsing broke the silence by asking Arthur:--
Answer me, oh my friend! Am I to proceed in my work?
Arthur threw himself on his knees, and hid his face in his hands, as heanswered:--
Do as you will, friend; do as you will. There can be no horror likethis ever any more; and he groaned in spirit. Quincey and Isimultaneously moved towards him, and took his arms. We could hear theclick of the closing lantern as Van Helsing held it down; coming closeto the tomb, he began to remove from the chinks some of the sacredemblem which he had placed there. We all looked on in horrifiedamazement as we saw, when he stood back, the woman, with a corporealbody as real at that moment as our own, pass in through the intersticewhere scarce a knife-blade could have gone. We all felt a glad sense ofrelief when we saw the Professor calmly restoring the strings of puttyto the edges of the door.
When this was done, he lifted the child and said:
Come now, my friends; we can do no more till to-morrow. There is afuneral at noon, so here we shall all come before long after that. Thefriends of the dead will all be gone by two, and when the sexton lockthe gate we shall remain. Then there is more to do; but not like this ofto-night. As for this little one, he is not much harm, and by to-morrownight he shall be well. We shall leave him where the police will findhim, as on the other night; and then to home. Coming close to Arthur,he said:--
My friend Arthur, you have had a sore trial; but after, when you lookback, you will see how it was necessary. You are now in the bitterwaters, my child. By this time to-morrow you will, please God, havepassed them, and have drunk of the sweet waters; so do not mournovermuch. Till then I shall not ask you to forgive me.
Arthur and Quincey came home with me, and we tried to cheer each otheron the way. We had left the child in safety, and were tired; so we allslept with more or less reality of sleep.
* * * * *
_29 September, night._--A little before twelve o'clock we three--Arthur,Quincey Morris, and myself--called for the Professor. It was odd tonotice that by common consent we had all put on black clothes. Ofcourse, Arthur wore black, for he was in deep mourning, but the rest ofus wore it by instinct. We got to the churchyard by half-past one, andstrolled about, keeping out of official observation, so that when thegravediggers had completed their task and the sexton under the beliefthat every one had gone, had locked the gate, we had the place all toourselves. Van Helsing, instead of his little black bag, had with him along leather one, something like a cricketing bag; it was manifestly offair weight.
When we were alone and had heard the last of the footsteps die out upthe road, we silently, and as if by ordered intention, followed theProfessor to the tomb. He unlocked the door, and we entered, closing itbehind us. Then he took from his bag the lantern, which he lit, and alsotwo wax candles, which, when lighted, he stuck, by melting their ownends, on other coffins, so that they might give light sufficient to workby. When he again lifted the lid off Lucy's coffin we all looked--Arthurtrembling like an aspen--and saw that the body lay there in all itsdeath-beauty. But there was no love in my own heart, nothing butloathing for the foul Thing which had taken Lucy's shape without hersoul. I could see even Arthur's face grow hard as he looked. Presentlyhe said to Van Helsing:--
Is this really Lucy's body, or only a demon in her shape?
It is her body, and yet not it. But wait a while, and you all see heras she was, and is.
She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth,the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth--which it made one shudder tosee--the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like adevilish mockery of Lucy's sweet purity. Van Helsing, with his usualmethodicalness, began taking the various contents from his bag andplacing them ready for use. First he took out a soldering iron and someplumbing solder, and then a small oil-lamp, which gave out, when lit ina corner of the tomb, gas which burned at fierce heat with a blueflame; then his operating knives, which he placed to hand; and last around wooden stake, some two and a half or three inches thick and aboutthree feet long. One end of it was hardened by charring in the fire, andwas sharpened to a fine point. With this stake came a heavy hammer, suchas in households is used in the coal-cellar for breaking the lumps. Tome, a doctor's preparations for work of any kind are stimulating andbracing, but the effect of these things on both Arthur and Quincey wasto cause them a sort of consternation. They both, however, kept theircourage, and remained silent and quiet.
When all was ready, Van Helsing said:--
Before we do anything, let me tell you this; it is out of the lore andexperience of the ancients and of all those who have studied the powersof the Un-Dead. When they become such, there comes with the change thecurse of immortality; they cannot die, but must go on age after ageadding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world; for all thatdie from the preying of the Un-Dead becomes themselves Un-Dead, and preyon their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as theripples from a stone thrown in the water. Friend Arthur, if you had metthat kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die; or again, last nightwhen you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died,have become _nosferatu_, as they call it in Eastern Europe, and wouldall time make more of those Un-Deads that so have fill us with horror.The career of this so unhappy dear lady is but just begun. Thosechildren whose blood she suck are not as yet so much the worse; but ifshe live on, Un-Dead, more and more they lose their blood and by herpower over them they come to her; and so she draw their blood with thatso wicked mouth. But if she die in truth, then all cease; the tinywounds of the throats disappear, and they go back to their playsunknowing ever of what has been. But of the most blessed of all, whenthis now Un-Dead be made to rest as true dead, then the soul of the poorlady whom we love shall again be free. Instead of working wickedness bynight and growing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, sheshall take her place with the other Angels. So that, my friend, it willbe a blessed hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free.To this I am willing; but is there none amongst us who has a betterright? Will it be no joy to think of hereafter in the silence of thenight when sleep is not: 'It was my hand that sent her to the stars; itwas the hand of him that loved her best; the hand that of all she wouldherself have chosen, had it been to her to choose?' Tell me if there besuch a one amongst us?
We all looked at Arthur. He saw, too, what we all did, the infinitekindness which suggested that his should be the hand which would restoreLucy to us as a holy, and not an unholy, memory; he stepped forward andsaid bravely, though his hand trembled, and his face was as pale assnow:--
My true friend, from the bottom of my broken heart I thank you. Tell mewhat I am to do, and I shall not falter! Van Helsing laid a hand on hisshoulder, and said:--
Brave lad! A moment's courage, and it is done. This stake must bedriven through her. It will be a fearful ordeal--be not deceived inthat--but it will be only a short time, and you will then rejoice morethan your pain was great; from this grim tomb you will emerge as thoughyou tread on air. But you must not falter when once you have begun. Onlythink that we, your true friends, are round you, and that we pray foryou all the time.
Go on, said Arthur hoarsely. Tell me what I am to do.
Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place the point over theheart, and the hammer in your right. Then when we begin our prayer forthe dead--I shall read him, I have here the book, and the others shallfollow--strike in God's name, that so all may be well with the dead thatwe love and that the Un-Dead pass away.
Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set onaction his hands never trembled nor even quivered. Van Helsing openedhis missal and began to read, and Quincey and I followed as well as wecould. Arthur placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I couldsee its dint in the white flesh. Then he struck with all his might.
The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screechcame from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twistedin wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till thelips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthurnever faltered. He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling armrose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilstthe blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it. Hisface was set, and high duty seemed to shine through it; the sight of itgave us courage so that our voices seemed to ring through the littlevault.
And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less, and theteeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver. Finally it lay still. Theterrible task was over.
The hammer fell from Arthur's hand. He reeled and would have fallen hadwe not caught him. The great drops of sweat sprang from his forehead,and his breath came in broken gasps. It had indeed been an awful strainon him; and had he not been forced to his task by more than humanconsiderations he could never have gone through with it. For a fewminutes we were so taken up with him that we did not look towards thecoffin. When we did, however, a murmur of startled surprise ran from oneto the other of us. We gazed so eagerly that Arthur rose, for he hadbeen seated on the ground, and came and looked too; and then a glad,strange light broke over his face and dispelled altogether the gloom ofhorror that lay upon it.
There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreadedand grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as aprivilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her inher life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity. True thatthere were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care andpain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truthto what we knew. One and all we felt that the holy calm that lay likesunshine over the wasted face and form was only an earthly token andsymbol of the calm that was to reign for ever.
Van Helsing came and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder, and said tohim:--
And now, Arthur my friend, dear lad, am I not forgiven?
The reaction of the terrible strain came as he took the old man's handin his, and raising it to his lips, pressed it, and said:--
Forgiven! God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again,and me peace. He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and layinghis head on his breast, cried for a while silently, whilst we stoodunmoving. When he raised his head Van Helsing said to him:--
And now, my child, you may kiss her. Kiss her dead lips if you will, asshe would have you to, if for her to choose. For she is not a grinningdevil now--not any more a foul Thing for all eternity. No longer she isthe devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him!
Arthur bent and kissed her, and then we sent him and Quincey out of thetomb; the Professor and I sawed the top off the stake, leaving the pointof it in the body. Then we cut off the head and filled the mouth withgarlic. We soldered up the leaden coffin, screwed on the coffin-lid,and gathering up our belongings, came away. When the Professor lockedthe door he gave the key to Arthur.
Outside the air was sweet, the sun shone, and the birds sang, and itseemed as if all nature were tuned to a different pitch. There wasgladness and mirth and peace everywhere, for we were at rest ourselveson one account, and we were glad, though it was with a tempered joy.
Before we moved away Van Helsing said:--
Now, my friends, one step of our work is done, one the most harrowingto ourselves. But there remains a greater task: to find out the authorof all this our sorrow and to stamp him out. I have clues which we canfollow; but it is a long task, and a difficult, and there is danger init, and pain. Shall you not all help me? We have learned to believe, allof us--is it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty? Yes! And dowe not promise to go on to the bitter end?
Each in turn, we took his hand, and the promise was made. Then said theProfessor as we moved off:--
Two nights hence you shall meet with me and dine together at seven ofthe clock with friend John. I shall entreat two others, two that youknow not as yet; and I shall be ready to all our work show and our plansunfold. Friend John, you come with me home, for I have much to consultabout, and you can help me. To-night I leave for Amsterdam, but shallreturn to-morrow night. And then begins our great quest. But first Ishall have much to say, so that you may know what is to do and to dread.Then our promise shall be made to each other anew; for there is aterrible task before us, and once our feet are on the ploughshare wemust not draw back.