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1"Before we do anything, let me tell you this; it is out of the lore and experience of the ancients and of all those who
2have studied the powers of the Un-Dead. When they become such, there comes with the change the curse of immortality;
3they cannot die, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world; for all that
4die from the preying of the Un-Dead becomes themselves Un-Dead, and prey on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever
5widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water. Friend Arthur, if you had met that kiss which you know
6of before poor Lucy die; or again, last night when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have
7become nosferatu, as they call it in Eastern Europe, and would all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have fill us
8with horror. The career of this so unhappy dear lady is but just begun. Those children whose blood she suck are not as
9yet so much the worse; but if she live on, Un-Dead, more and more they lose their blood and by her power over them they
10come to her; and so she draw their blood with that so wicked mouth. But if she die in truth, then all cease; the tiny
11wounds of the throats disappear, and they go back to their plays unknowing ever of what has been. But of the most
12blessed of all, when this now Un-Dead be made to rest as true dead, then the soul of the poor lady whom we love shall
13again be free. Instead of working wickedness by night and growing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, she
14shall take her place with the other Angels. So that, my friend, it will be a blessed hand for her that shall strike the
15blow that sets her free. To this I am willing; but is there none amongst us who has a better right? Will it be no joy to
16think of hereafter in the silence of the night when sleep is not: 'It was my hand that sent her to the stars; it was the
17hand of him that loved her best; the hand that of all she would herself have chosen, had it been to her to choose?' Tell
18me if there be such a one amongst us?" We all looked at Arthur. He saw, too, what we all did, the infinite kindness
19which suggested that his should be the hand which would restore Lucy to us as a holy, and not an unholy, memory; he
20stepped forward and said bravely, though his hand trembled, and his face was as pale as snow:-- "My true friend, from
21the bottom of my broken heart I thank you. Tell me what I am to do, and I shall not falter!" Van Helsing laid a hand on
22his shoulder, and said:-- "Brave lad! A moment's courage, and it is done. This stake must be driven through her. It will
23be a fearful ordeal--be not deceived in that--but it will be only a short time, and you will then rejoice more than your
24pain was great; from this grim tomb you will emerge as though you tread on air. But you must not falter when once you
25have begun. Only think that we, your true friends, are round you, and that we pray for you all the time." "Go on," said
26Arthur hoarsely. "Tell me what I am to do." "Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place the point over the heart,
27and the hammer in your right. Then when we begin our prayer for the dead--I shall read him, I have here the book, and
28the others shall follow--strike in God's name, that so all may be well with the dead that we love and that the Un-Dead
29pass away." Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set on action his hands never trembled nor
30even quivered. Van Helsing opened his missal and began to read, and Quincey and I followed as well as we could. Arthur
31placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I could see its dint in the white flesh. Then he struck with all his
32might. The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body
33shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and
34the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthur never faltered. He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling
35arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and
36spurted up around it. His face was set, and high duty seemed to shine through it; the sight of it gave us courage so
37that our voices seemed to ring through the little vault. And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less,
38and the teeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver. Finally it lay still. The terrible task was over. The hammer fell
39from Arthur's hand. He reeled and would have fallen had we not caught him. The great drops of sweat sprang from his
40forehead, and his breath came in broken gasps. It had indeed been an awful strain on him; and had he not been forced to
41his task by more than human considerations he could never have gone through with it. For a few minutes we were so taken
42up with him that we did not look towards the coffin. When we did, however, a murmur of startled surprise ran from one to
43the other of us. We gazed so eagerly that Arthur rose, for he had been seated on the ground, and came and looked too;
44and then a glad, strange light broke over his face and dispelled altogether the gloom of horror that lay upon it. There,
45in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was
46yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of
47unequalled sweetness and purity. True that there were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and pain
48and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth to what we knew. One and all we felt that the holy
49calm that lay like sunshine over the wasted face and form was only an earthly token and symbol of the calm that was to
50reign for ever. Van Helsing came and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder, and said to him:-- "And now, Arthur my friend,
51dear lad, am I not forgiven?" The reaction of the terrible strain came as he took the old man's hand in his, and raising
52it to his lips, pressed it, and said:-- "Forgiven! God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again, and me
53peace." He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and laying his head on his breast, cried for a while silently,
54whilst we stood unmoving. When he raised his head Van Helsing said to him:-- "And now, my child, you may kiss her. Kiss
55her dead lips if you will, as she would have you to, if for her to choose. For she is not a grinning devil now--not any
56more a foul Thing for all eternity. No longer she is the devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with
57Him!" Arthur bent and kissed her, and then we sent him and Quincey out of the tomb; the Professor and I sawed the top
58off the stake, leaving the point of it in the body. Then we cut off the head and filled the mouth with garlic. We
59soldered up the leaden coffin, screwed on the coffin-lid, and gathering up our belongings, came away. When the Professor
60locked the door he gave the key to Arthur. Outside the air was sweet, the sun shone, and the birds sang, and it seemed
61as if all nature were tuned to a different pitch. There was gladness and mirth and peace everywhere, for we were at rest
62ourselves on one account, and we were glad, though it was with a tempered joy. Before we moved away Van Helsing said:--
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