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1"The night is chill, mein Herr, and my master the Count bade me take all care of you. There is a flask of slivovitz (the
2plum brandy of the country) underneath the seat, if you should require it." I did not take any, but it was a comfort to
3know it was there all the same. I felt a little strangely, and not a little frightened. I think had there been any
4alternative I should have taken it, instead of prosecuting that unknown night journey. The carriage went at a hard pace
5straight along, then we made a complete turn and went along another straight road. It seemed to me that we were simply
6going over and over the same ground again; and so I took note of some salient point, and found that this was so. I would
7have liked to have asked the driver what this all meant, but I really feared to do so, for I thought that, placed as I
8was, any protest would have had no effect in case there had been an intention to delay. By-and-by, however, as I was
9curious to know how time was passing, I struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch; it was within a few minutes
10of midnight. This gave me a sort of shock, for I suppose the general superstition about midnight was increased by my
11recent experiences. I waited with a sick feeling of suspense. Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down
12the road--a long, agonised wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by another dog, and then another and
13another, till, borne on the wind which now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which seemed to come
14from all over the country, as far as the imagination could grasp it through the gloom of the night. At the first howl
15the horses began to strain and rear, but the driver spoke to them soothingly, and they quieted down, but shivered and
16sweated as though after a runaway from sudden fright. Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each side of
17us began a louder and a sharper howling--that of wolves--which affected both the horses and myself in the same way--for
18I was minded to jump from the calèche and run, whilst they reared again and plunged madly, so that the driver had to use
19all his great strength to keep them from bolting. In a few minutes, however, my own ears got accustomed to the sound,
20and the horses so far became quiet that the driver was able to descend and to stand before them. He petted and soothed
21them, and whispered something in their ears, as I have heard of horse-tamers doing, and with extraordinary effect, for
22under his caresses they became quite manageable again, though they still trembled. The driver again took his seat, and
23shaking his reins, started off at a great pace. This time, after going to the far side of the Pass, he suddenly turned
24down a narrow roadway which ran sharply to the right. Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right
25over the roadway till we passed as through a tunnel; and again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side.
26Though we were in shelter, we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled through the rocks, and the branches
27of the trees crashed together as we swept along. It grew colder and colder still, and fine, powdery snow began to fall,
28so that soon we and all around us were covered with a white blanket. The keen wind still carried the howling of the
29dogs, though this grew fainter as we went on our way. The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they
30were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however,
31was not in the least disturbed; he kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything through the
32darkness. Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment; he at
33once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less
34as the howling of the wolves grew closer; but while I wondered the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a word
35took his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it
36seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare. Once the flame appeared so
37near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions. He went rapidly to where the blue
38flame arose--it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all--and gathering a
39few stones, formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical effect: when he stood between me and the
40flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the effect was
41only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness. Then for a time there were no blue
42flames, and we sped onwards through the gloom, with the howling of the wolves around us, as though they were following
43in a moving circle. At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he had yet gone, and during his
44absence, the horses began to tremble worse than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see any cause for
45it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds,
46appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with
47white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terrible in
48the grim silence which held them than even when they howled. For myself, I felt a sort of paralysis of fear. It is only
49when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import. All at once the wolves
50began to howl as though the moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and reared, and
51looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see; but the living ring of terror encompassed them on
52every side; and they had perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman to come, for it seemed to me that our
53only chance was to try to break out through the ring and to aid his approach. I shouted and beat the side of the
54calèche, hoping by the noise to scare the wolves from that side, so as to give him a chance of reaching the trap. How he
55came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw
56him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell
57back and back further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again in
58darkness. When I could see again the driver was climbing into the calèche, and the wolves had disappeared. This was all
59so strange and uncanny that a dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The time seemed
60interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept
61on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious
62of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose
63tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky.
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