"stoker-dracula-168" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

and added:-

"You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the
doors are locked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is
reason that all things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes
and know with my knowledge, you would perhaps better understand." I
said I was sure of this, and then he went on:-

"We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways
are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things. Nay,
from what you have told me of your experiences already, you know
something of what strange things there may be."

This led to much conversation; and as it was evident that he
wanted to talk, if only for talking's sake, I asked him many questions
regarding things that had already happened to me or come within my
notice. Sometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the
conversation by pretending not to understand; but generally he
answered all I asked most frankly. Then as time went on, and I had got
somewhat bolder, I asked him of some of the strange things of the
preceding night, as, for instance, why the coachman went to the places
where he had seen the blue flames. He then explained to me that it was
commonly believed that on a certain night of the year- last night,
in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway-
a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been concealed.
"That treasure has been hidden," he went on, "in the region through
which you came last night, there can be but little doubt; for it was
the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon, and
the Turk. Why, there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region
that has not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or
invaders. In old days there were stirring times, when the Austrian and
the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went out to meet
them- men and women, the aged and the children too- and waited their
coming on the rocks above the passes, that they might sweep
destruction on them with their artificial avalanches. When the invader
was triumphant he found but little, for whatever there was had been
sheltered in the friendly soil."

"But how," said I, "can it have remained so long undiscovered,
when there is a sure index to it if men will but take the trouble to
look?" The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the
long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely; he answered:-

"Because your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool! Those names
only appear on one night; and on that night no man of this land
will, if he can help it, stir without his doors. And, dear sir, even
if he did he would not know what to do. Why, even the peasant that you
tell me of who marked the place of the flame would not know where to
look in daylight even for his own work. Even you would not, I dare
be sworn, be able to find these places again?"