Dracula

closed round, whilst I
was aghast with horror; but as I looked they disappeared, and with
them the dreadful bag. There was no door near them, and they could not
have passed me without my noticing. They simply seemed to fade into
the rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could
see outside the dim, shadowy forms for a moment before they entirely
faded away.
"Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious."

{CH04
CHAPTER IV: JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
-
I awoke in my own bed. If it be that I had not dreamt, the Count
must have carried me here. I tried to satisfy myself on the subject,
but could not arrive at any unquestionable result. To be sure, there
were certain small evidences, such as that my clothes were folded
and laid by in a manner which was not my habit. My watch was still
unwound, and I am rigourously accustomed to wind it the last thing
before going to bed, and many such details. But these things are no
proof, for they may have been evidences that my mind was not as usual,
and, from some cause or another, I had certainly been much upset. I
must watch for proof. Of one thing I am glad: if it was that the Count
carried me here and undressed me, he must have been hurried in his
task, for my pockets are intact. I am sure this diary would have
been a mystery to him which he would not have brooked. He would have
taken or destroyed it. As I look round this room, although it has been
to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing
can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were- who are-
waiting to suck my blood.
-
18 May.- I have been down to look at that room again in daylight,
for I must know the truth. When I got to the doorway at the top of the
stairs I found it closed. It had been so forcibly driven against the
jamb that part of the woodwork was splintered. I could see that the
bolt of the lock had not been shot, but the door is fastened from
the inside. I fear it was no dream, and must act on this surmise.
-
{CH04 ^paragraph 5}
19 May.- I am surely in the toils. Last night the Count asked me
in the suavest tones to write three letters, one saying that my work
here was nearly done, and that I should start for home within a few
days, another that I was starting on the next morning from the time of
the letter, and the third that I had left the castle and arrived at
Bistritz. I would fain have rebelled, but felt that in the present
state of things it would be madness to quarrel openly with the Count
whilst I am so absolutely in his