"Bram Stoker - Dracula" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

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 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.