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

he would not have brooked. He would have taken or destroyed it.
As I look round this room, although it has been to me so full of fear,
it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful
than those awful women, who were, who are, waiting to suck my blood.


18 May.--I have been down to look at that room again in daylight,
for I must know the truth. When I got to the doorway at the top
of the stairs I found it closed. It had been so forcibly driven
against the jamb that part of the woodwork was splintered.
I could see that the bolt of the lock had not been shot,
but the door is fastened from the inside. I fear it was no dream,
and must act on this surmise.


19 May.--I am surely in the toils. Last night the Count
asked me in the sauvest tones to write three letters,
one saying that my work here was nearly done, and that I
should start for home within a few days,another that I was
starting on the next morning from the time of the letter,
and the third that I had left the castle and arrived at Bistritz.
I would fain have rebelled, but felt that in the present state
of things it would be madness to quarrel openly with the Count
whilst I am so absolutely in his power. And to refuse
would be to excite his suspicion and to arouse his anger.
He knows that I know too much, and that I must not live, lest I be
dangerous to him. My only chance is to prolong my opportunities.
Something may occur which will give ma a chance to escape.
I saw in his eyes something of that gathering wrath which
was manifest when he hurled that fair woman from him.
He explained to me that posts were few and uncertain,
and that my writing now would ensure ease of mind to my friends.
And he assured me with so much impressiveness that he would
countermand the later letters, which would be held over at Bistritz
until due time in case chance would admit of my prolonging my stay,
that to oppose him would have been to create new suspicion.
I therefore pretended to fall in with his views, and asked
him what dates I should put on the letters.

He calculated a minute, and then said, "The first should be June 12,
the second June 19,and the third June 29."

I know now the span of my life. God help me!


28 May.--There is a chance of escape, or at any rate of being able
to send word home. A band of Szgany have come to the castle,
and are encamped in the courtyard. These are gipsies.
I have notes of them in my book. They are peculiar to this part of
the world, though allied to the ordinary gipsies all the world over.