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1DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--continued It was just a quarter before twelve o'clock when we got into the churchyard over the low
2wall. The night was dark with occasional gleams of moonlight between the rents of the heavy clouds that scudded across
3the sky. We all kept somehow close together, with Van Helsing slightly in front as he led the way. When we had come
4close to the tomb I looked well at Arthur, for I feared that the proximity to a place laden with so sorrowful a memory
5would upset him; but he bore himself well. I took it that the very mystery of the proceeding was in some way a
6counteractant to his grief. The Professor unlocked the door, and seeing a natural hesitation amongst us for various
7reasons, solved the difficulty by entering first himself. The rest of us followed, and he closed the door. He then lit a
8dark lantern and pointed to the coffin. Arthur stepped forward hesitatingly; Van Helsing said to me:-- "You were with me
9here yesterday. Was the body of Miss Lucy in that coffin?" "It was." The Professor turned to the rest saying:-- "You
10hear; and yet there is no one who does not believe with me." He took his screwdriver and again took off the lid of the
11coffin. Arthur looked on, very pale but silent; when the lid was removed he stepped forward. He evidently did not know
12that there was a leaden coffin, or, at any rate, had not thought of it. When he saw the rent in the lead, the blood
13rushed to his face for an instant, but as quickly fell away again, so that he remained of a ghastly whiteness; he was
14still silent. Van Helsing forced back the leaden flange, and we all looked in and recoiled. The coffin was empty! For
15several minutes no one spoke a word. The silence was broken by Quincey Morris:-- "Professor, I answered for you. Your
16word is all I want. I wouldn't ask such a thing ordinarily--I wouldn't so dishonour you as to imply a doubt; but this is
17a mystery that goes beyond any honour or dishonour. Is this your doing?" "I swear to you by all that I hold sacred that
18I have not removed nor touched her. What happened was this: Two nights ago my friend Seward and I came here--with good
19purpose, believe me. I opened that coffin, which was then sealed up, and we found it, as now, empty. We then waited, and
20saw something white come through the trees. The next day we came here in day-time, and she lay there. Did she not,
21friend John?" "Yes." "That night we were just in time. One more so small child was missing, and we find it, thank God,
22unharmed amongst the graves. Yesterday I came here before sundown, for at sundown the Un-Dead can move. I waited here
23all the night till the sun rose, but I saw nothing. It was most probable that it was because I had laid over the clamps
24of those doors garlic, which the Un-Dead cannot bear, and other things which they shun. Last night there was no exodus,
25so to-night before the sundown I took away my garlic and other things. And so it is we find this coffin empty. But bear
26with me. So far there is much that is strange. Wait you with me outside, unseen and unheard, and things much stranger
27are yet to be. So"--here he shut the dark slide of his lantern--"now to the outside." He opened the door, and we filed
28out, he coming last and locking the door behind him. Oh! but it seemed fresh and pure in the night air after the terror
29of that vault. How sweet it was to see the clouds race by, and the passing gleams of the moonlight between the scudding
30clouds crossing and passing--like the gladness and sorrow of a man's life; how sweet it was to breathe the fresh air,
31that had no taint of death and decay; how humanising to see the red lighting of the sky beyond the hill, and to hear far
32away the muffled roar that marks the life of a great city. Each in his own way was solemn and overcome. Arthur was
33silent, and was, I could see, striving to grasp the purpose and the inner meaning of the mystery. I was myself tolerably
34patient, and half inclined again to throw aside doubt and to accept Van Helsing's conclusions. Quincey Morris was
35phlegmatic in the way of a man who accepts all things, and accepts them in the spirit of cool bravery, with hazard of
36all he has to stake. Not being able to smoke, he cut himself a good-sized plug of tobacco and began to chew. As to Van
37Helsing, he was employed in a definite way. First he took from his bag a mass of what looked like thin, wafer-like
38biscuit, which was carefully rolled up in a white napkin; next he took out a double-handful of some whitish stuff, like
39dough or putty. He crumbled the wafer up fine and worked it into the mass between his hands. This he then took, and
40rolling it into thin strips, began to lay them into the crevices between the door and its setting in the tomb. I was
41somewhat puzzled at this, and being close, asked him what it was that he was doing. Arthur and Quincey drew near also,
42as they too were curious. He answered:-- "I am closing the tomb, so that the Un-Dead may not enter." "And is that stuff
43you have put there going to do it?" asked Quincey. "Great Scott! Is this a game?" "It is." "What is that which you are
44using?" This time the question was by Arthur. Van Helsing reverently lifted his hat as he answered:-- "The Host. I
45brought it from Amsterdam. I have an Indulgence." It was an answer that appalled the most sceptical of us, and we felt
46individually that in the presence of such earnest purpose as the Professor's, a purpose which could thus use the to him
47most sacred of things, it was impossible to distrust. In respectful silence we took the places assigned to us close
48round the tomb, but hidden from the sight of any one approaching. I pitied the others, especially Arthur. I had myself
49been apprenticed by my former visits to this watching horror; and yet I, who had up to an hour ago repudiated the
50proofs, felt my heart sink within me. Never did tombs look so ghastly white; never did cypress, or yew, or juniper so
51seem the embodiment of funereal gloom; never did tree or grass wave or rustle so ominously; never did bough creak so
52mysteriously; and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such a woeful presage through the night. There was a long
53spell of silence, a big, aching void, and then from the Professor a keen "S-s-s-s!" He pointed; and far down the avenue
54of yews we saw a white figure advance--a dim white figure, which held something dark at its breast. The figure stopped,
55and at the moment a ray of moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds and showed in startling prominence a
56dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave. We could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we
57saw to be a fair-haired child. There was a pause and a sharp little cry, such as a child gives in sleep, or a dog as it
58lies before the fire and dreams. We were starting forward, but the Professor's warning hand, seen by us as he stood
59behind a yew-tree, kept us back; and then as we looked the white figure moved forwards again. It was now near enough for
60us to see clearly, and the moonlight still held. My own heart grew cold as ice, and I could hear the gasp of Arthur, as
61we recognised the features of Lucy Westenra. Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine,
62heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness. Van Helsing stepped out, and, obedient to his gesture, we
63all advanced too; the four of us ranged in a line before the door of the tomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew
64the slide; by the concentrated light that fell on Lucy's face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood,
65and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe. We shuddered with horror.
66I could see by the tremulous light that even Van Helsing's iron nerve had failed. Arthur was next to me, and if I had
67not seized his arm and held him up, he would have fallen.
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