Dracula | Page 5

came up to my room and said in
a hysterical way: "Must you go? Oh! Young Herr, must you go?" She
was in such an excited state that she seemed to have lost her grip of
what German she knew, and mixed it all up with some other language
which I did not know at all. I was just able to follow her by asking
many questions. When I told her that I must go at once, and that I was
engaged on important business, she asked again:
"Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May.
She shook her head as she said again:

"Oh, yes! I know that! I know that, but do you know what day it is?"
On my saying that I did not understand, she went on:
"It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that tonight, when
the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full
sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?"
She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort her, but without
effect. Finally, she went down on her knees and implored me not to go;
at least to wait a day or two before starting.
It was all very ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable. However, there
was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it.
I tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I thanked her,
but my duty was imperative, and that I must go.
She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck
offered it to me.
I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been
taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it
seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in
such a state of mind.
She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round
my neck and said, "For your mother's sake," and went out of the room.
I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting for the coach,
which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my neck.
Whether it is the old lady's fear, or the many ghostly traditions of this
place, or the crucifix itself, I do not know, but I am not feeling nearly
as easy in my mind as usual.
If this book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my
goodbye. Here comes the coach!
5 May. The Castle.--The gray of the morning has passed, and the sun is

high over the distant horizon, which seems jagged, whether with trees
or hills I know not, for it is so far off that big things and little are
mixed.
I am not sleepy, and, as I am not to be called till I awake, naturally I
write till sleep comes.
There are many odd things to put down, and, lest who reads them may
fancy that I dined too well before I left Bistritz, let me put down my
dinner exactly.
I dined on what they called "robber steak"--bits of bacon, onion, and
beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks, and roasted over
the fire, in simple style of the London cat's meat!
The wine was Golden Mediasch, which produces a queer sting on the
tongue, which is, however, not disagreeable.
I had only a couple of glasses of this, and nothing else.
When I got on the coach, the driver had not taken his seat, and I saw
him talking to the landlady.
They were evidently talking of me, for every now and then they looked
at me, and some of the people who were sitting on the bench outside
the door--came and listened, and then looked at me, most of them
pityingly. I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for
there were many nationalities in the crowd, so I quietly got my polyglot
dictionary from my bag and looked them out.
I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were
"Ordog"--Satan, "Pokol"--hell, "stregoica"--witch, "vrolok" and
"vlkoslak"--both mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other
Servian for something that is either werewolf or vampire. (Mem., I
must ask the Count about these superstitions.)
When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time
swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and

pointed two fingers towards me.
With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they
meant. He would not answer at first,