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

tramping feet and the crash of weights being set down heavily,
doubtless the boxes, with their freight of earth.
There was a sound of hammering. It is the box being nailed down.
Now I can hear the heavy feet tramping again along the hall,
with with many other idle feet coming behind them.

The door is shut, the chains rattle. There is a grinding of the key in
the lock. I can hear the key withdrawn, then another door opens and shuts.
I hear the creaking of lock and bolt.

Hark! In the courtyard and down the rocky way the roll of heavy wheels,
the crack of whips, and the chorus of the Szgany as they pass
into the distance.

I am alone in the castle with those horrible women. Faugh! Mina is a woman,
and there is nought in common. They are devils of the Pit!

I shall not remain alone with them. I shall try to scale
the castle wall farther than I have yet attempted.
I shall take some of the gold with me, lest I want it later.
I may find a way from this dreadful place.

And then away for home! Away to the quickest and nearest train!
Away from the cursed spot, from this cursed land, where the devil
and his children still walk with earthly feet!

At least God's mercy is better than that of those monsters,
and the precipice is steep and high. At its foot a man may sleep,
as a man. Goodbye, all. Mina!





CHAPTER 5


LETTER FROM MISS MINA MURRAY TO MISS LUCY WESTENRA

9 May.

My dearest Lucy,


Forgive my long delay in writing, but I have been simply overwhelmed
with work. The life of an assistant schoolmistress is sometimes trying.
I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk
together freely and build our castles in the air. I have been working
very hard lately, because I want to keep up with Jonathan's studies,
and I have been practicing shorthand very assiduously.