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DRACULA'S GUEST .........................................................................................................................................1

Bram Stoker.............................................................................................................................................1

When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness

of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbruck (the maitre d'hotel of the Quatre Saisons,

where I was staying) came down bareheaded to the carriage and, after wishing me a pleasant drive, said to the

coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door, "Remember you are back by nightfall.

The sky looks bright but there is a shiver in the north wind that says there may be a sudden storm. But I am

sure you will not be late." Here he smiled and added,"for you know what night it is."

Johann answered with an emphatic, "Ja, mein Herr," and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had

He crossed himself, as he answered laconically: "Walpurgis nacht." Then he took out his watch, a great,

oldfashioned German silver thing as big as a turnip and looked at it, with his eyebrows gathered together

and a little impatient shrug of his shoulders. I realized that this was his way of respect fully protesting

against the unnecessary delay and sank back in the carriage, merely motioning him to proceed. He started off

rapidly, as if to make up for lost time. Every now and then the horses seemed to throw up their heads and

sniff the air suspiciously. On such occasions I often looked round in alarm. The road was pretty bleak, for we

were traversing a sort of high windswept plateau. As we drove,I saw a road that looked but little used and

which seemed to dip through a lit tle winding valley. It looked so inviting that, even at the risk of offending

him, I called Johann to stopand when he had pulled up, I told him I would like to drive down that road. He

made all sorts of excuses and frequently crossed him self as he spoke. This somewhat piqued my curiosity,

so I ask ed him various questions. He answered fencingly and repeatedly looked at his watch in protest.

Finally I said, "Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I shall not ask you to come unless you like; but tell

me why you do not like to go, that is all I ask." For answer he seem ed to throw himself off the box, so

quickly did he reach the ground. Then he stretched out his hands appealingly to me and implored me not to

go. There was just enough of English mixed with the German for me to understand the drift of his talk. He

seemed always just about to tell me somethingthe very idea of which evidently frightened him; but each

I tried to argue with him, but it was difficult to argue with a man when I did not know his language. The

advantage certainly rested with him, for although he began to speak in English, of a very crude and broken

kind, he always got ex cited and broke into his native tongueand every time he did so, he looked at his

watch. Then the horses became restless and sniffed the air. At this he grew very pale, and, looking around in

a frightened way, he suddenly jumped forward, took them by the bridles,and led them on some twenty feet. I

foll owed and asked why he had done this. For an answer he crossed himself, pointed to the spot we had

left, and drew his carr iage in the direction of the other road, indicating a cross, and said, first in German,

I remembered the old custom of burying suicides at cross roads: "Ah! I see, a suicide. How interesting!" But

Whilst we were talking, we heard a sort of sound between a yelp and a bark.It was far away; but the horses

got very rest less, and it took Johann all his time to quiet them. He was pale and said, "It sounds like a

"No?" I said, questioning him. "Isn't it long since the wolves were so near the city?"

"Long, long," he answered, "in the spring and summer; but with the snow the wolves have been here not so

Whilst he was petting the horses and trying to quiet them, dark clouds drifted rapidly across the sky. The

sunshine pass ed away, and a breath of cold wind seemed to drift over us.It was only a breath, however, and

Johann looked under his lifted hand at the horizon and said, "The storm of snow, he comes before long time."

Then he looked at his watch again, and, straightway holding his reins firmlyfor the horses were still

pawing the ground restless ly and shaking their headshe climbed to his box as though the time had come

Again he crossed himself and mumbled a prayer before he an swered, "It is unholy."

Whereupon he burst out into a long story in German and Eng lish, so mixed up that I could not quite

understand exactly what he said. Roughly I gathered that long ago, hundreds of years, men had died there and

been buried in their graves; but sounds were heard under the clay, and when the graves were opened,men and

women were found rosy with life and their mouths red with blood. And so, in haste to save their lives (aye,

and their souls!and here he crossed himself)those who were left fled away to other places, where the living

lived and the dead were dead and notnot something. He was evident ly afraid to speak the last words. As

he proceeded with his narration, he grew more and more excited. It seemed as if his imagination had got hold

of him, and he ended in a perfect paroxysm of fearwhitefaced, perspiring, trembling, and looking round

him as if expecting that some dreadful presence would manifest itself there in the bright sunshine on the open

Finally, in an agony of desperation, he cried, "Walpurgis nacht!" and pointed to the carriage for me to get in.

All my English blood rose at this,and standing back I said, "You are afraid, Johannyou are afraid. Go

home, I shall re turn alone, the walk will do me good." The carriage door was open. I took from the seat my

oak walking stickwhich I al ways carry on my holiday excursionsand closed the door, pointing back to

The horses were now more restive than ever, and Johann was trying to hold them in, while excitedly

imploring me not to do anything so foolish. I pitied the poor fellow, he was so deeply in earnest; but all the

same I could not help laughing. His English was quite gone now. In his anxiety he had forgot ten that his

only means of making me understand was to talk my language, so he jabbered away in his native German. It

be gan to be a little tedious. After giving the direction, "Home!" I turned to go down the cross road into the

With a despairing gesture,Johann turned his horses towards Munich. I leaned on my stick and looked after

him. He went slowly along the road for a while, then there came over the crest of the hill a man tall and thin. I

could see so much in the distance. When he drew near the horses,they began to jump and kick about, then to

scream with terror. Johann could not hold them in; they bolted down the road, running away madly. I

watched them out of sight, then looked for the stranger; but I found that he, too, was gone.

With a light heart I turned down the side road through the deepening valley to which Johann had objected.

There was not the slightest reason,that I could see, for his objection; and I daresay I tramped for a couple of

hours without thinking of time or distance and certainly without seeing a person or a house. So far as the

place was concerned, it was desolation itself. But I did not notice this particularly till, on turn ing a bend in

the road,I came upon a scattered fringe of wood; then I recognized that I had been impressed unconsciously

I sat down to rest myself and began to look around. It struck me that it was considerably colder than it had

been at the commencement of my walka sort of sighing sound seemed to be around me with, now and

then, high overhead, a sort of muffled roar. Looking upwards I noticed that great thick clouds were drafting

rapidly across the sky from north to south at a great height.There were signs of a coming storm in some lofty

stratum of the air. I was a little chilly, and, thinking that it was the sitting still after the exercise of walking, I

The ground I passed over was now much more picturesque. There were no striking objects that the eye might

single out, but in all there was a charm of beauty.I took little heed of time, and it was only when the

deepening twilight forced it self upon me that I began to think of how I should find my way home. The air

was cold, and the drifting of clouds high overhead was more marked. They were accompanied by a sort of far

away rushing sound, through which seemed to come at inter vals that mysterious cry which the driver had

said came from a wolf. For a while I hesitated. I had said I would see the deserted village, so on I went and

presently came on a wide stretch of open country, shut in by hills all around. Their sides were covered with

trees which spread down to the plain, dotting in clumps the gentler slopes and hollows which showed here

and there.I followed with my eye the winding of the road and saw that it curved close to one of the densest of

As I looked there came a cold shiver in the air, and the snow began to fall. I thought of the miles and miles of

bleak country I had passed, and then hurried on to seek shelter of the wood in front. Darker and darker grew

the sky, and faster and heavier fell the snow, till the earth before and around me was a glistening white carpet

the further edge of which was lost in misty vagueness. The road was here but crude, and when on the level its

boundaries were not so marked as when it passed through the cuttings; and in a little while I found that I must

have strayed from it, for I missed underfoot the hard surface, and my feet sank deeper in the grass and moss.

Then the wind grew stronger and blew with ever increasing force, till I was fain to run before it. The air

became icy cold, and in spite of my exercise I began to suffer. The snow was now falling so thickly and

whirling around me in such rap id eddies that I could hardly keep my eyes open. Every now and then the

heavens were torn asunder by vivid lightning, and in the flashes I could see ahead of me a great mass of trees,

I was soon amongst the shelter of the trees, and there in comparative silence I could hear the rush of the wind

high overhead. Presently the blackness of the storm had become mer ged in the darkness of the night.

Byandby the storm seemed to be passing away,it now only came in fierce puffs or blasts. At such moments

the weird sound of the wolf appeared to be echoed by many similar sounds around me.

Now and again, through the black mass of drifting cloud, came a straggling ray of moonlight which lit up the

expanse and showed me that I was at the edge of a dense mass of cyp ress and yew trees. As the snow had

ceased to fall, I walked out from the shelter and began to investigate more closely. It appeared to me that,

amongst so many old foundations as I had passed, there might be still standing a house in which, though in

ruins,I could find some sort of shelter for a while. As I skirted the edge of the copse, I found that a low wall

encircled it, and following this I presently found an opening. Here the cypresses formed an alley leading up to

a square mass of some kind of building. Just as I caught sight of this, however, the drifting clouds obscured

the moon, and I passed up the path in darkness. The wind must have grown colder, for I felt myself shiver as I

I stopped, for there was a sudden stillness. The storm had passed; and, perhaps in sympathy with nature's

silence, my heart seemed to cease to beat. But this was only momentarily; for suddenly the moonlight broke

through the clouds showing me that I was in a graveyard and that the square object before me was a great

massive tomb of marble, as white as the snow that lay on and all around it. With the moonlight there came a

fierce sigh of the storm which appeared to resume its course with a long, low howl, as of many dogs or

wolves.I was awed and shocked, and I felt the cold perceptibly grow upon me till it seemed to grip me by the

heart. Then while the flood of moonlight still fell on the marble tomb, the storm gave further evidence of

renewing, as though it were return ing on its track. Impelled by some sort of fascination, I app roached the

sepulchre to see what it was and why such a thing stood alone in such a place.I walked around it and read,

On the top of the tomb, seemingly driven through the solid marblefor the structure was composed of a few

vast blocks of stonewas a great iron spike or stake. On going to the back I saw, graven in great Russian

There was something so weird and uncanny about the whole thing that it gave me a turn and made me feel

quite faint. I began to wish, for the first time, that I had taken Johann's advice. Here a thought struck me,

which came under almost mys sterious circumstances and with a terrible shock. This was Wal purgis

Walpurgis Night was when, according to the belief of mill ions of people, the devil was abroadwhen the

graves were op ened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water

held revel. This very place the driver had specially shunned. This was the depopulated vill age of centuries

ago.This was where the suicide lay; and this was the place where I was aloneunmanned, shivering with

cold in a shroud of snow with a wild storm gathering again up on me! It took all my philosophy, all the

religion I had been taught,all my courage,not to collapse in a paroxysm of fright.

And now a perfect tornado burst upon me. The ground shook as though thousands of horses thundered across

it; and this time the storm bore on its icy wings, not snow, but great hailstones which drove with such

violence that they might have come from the thongs of Balearic slingershailstones that beat down leaf and

branch and made the shelter of the cypresses of no more avail than though their stems were stand ing corn.

At the first I had rushed to the nearest tree;but I was soon fain to leave it and seek the only spot that seemed

to afford refuge, the deep Doric doorway of the marble tomb. There, crouching against the massive bronze

door, I gained a certain amount of protection from the beating of the hail stones, for now they only drove

As I leaned against the door, it moved slightly and opened inwards. The shelter of even a tomb was welcome

in that piti less tempest and I was about to enter it when there came a flash of forked lightning that lit up the

whole expanse of the heavens. In the instant, as I am a living man, I saw, as my my eyes turned into the

darkness of the tomb, a beautiful woman with rounded cheeks and red lips, seemingly sleeping on a bier. As

the thunder broke overhead, I was grasped as by the hand of a giant and hurled out into the storm. The whole

thing was so sudden that, before I could realize the shock, moral as well as physical, I found the hailstones

beating me down. At the same time I had a strange, dominating feeling that I was not alone. I looked towards

the tomb. Just then there came another blinding flash which seemed to strike the iron stake that surmounted

the tomb and to pour through to the earth, blasting and crumbling the marble, as in a burst of flame. The dead

woman rose for a moment of agony while she was lapped in the flame, and her bitter scream of pain was

drowned in the thundercrash. The last thing I heard was this mingling of dreadful sound,as again I was seized

in the giant grasp and dragged away, while the hailstones beat on me and the air around seemed reverberant

with the howling of wolves. The last sight that I remembered was a vague, white, moving mass,as if all the

graves around me had sent out the phantoms of their sheeted dead, and that they were closing in on me

Gradually there came a sort of vague beginning of cons ciousness, then a sense of weariness that was

dreadful. For a time I remembered nothing, but slowly my senses returned. My feet seemed positively racked

with pain, yet I could not move them. They seemed to be numbed. There was an icy feeling at the back of my

neck and all down my spine, and my ears, like my feet, were dead yet in torment; but there was in my breast a

sense of warmth which was by comparison delicious.It was as a nightmarea physical nightmare, if one

may use such an expression; for some heavy weight on my chest made it diff icult for me to breathe.

This period of semilethargy seemed to remain a long time, and as it faded away I must have slept or swooned.

Then came a sort of loathing, like the first stage of seasickness, and a wild desire to be free of somethingI

knew not what.A vast stillness enveloped me, as though all the world were asleep or deadonly broken by

the low panting as of some animal close to me. I felt a warm rasping at my throat, then came a consciousness

of the awful truth which chilled me to the heart and sent the blood surging up through my brain. Some great

an imal was lying on me and now licking my throat. I feared to stir, for some instinct of prudence bade me

lie still; but the brute seemed to realize that there was now some change in me, for it raised its head. Through

my eyelashes I saw above me the two great flaming eyes of a gigantic wolf. Its sharp white teeth gleamed in

For another spell of time I remembered no more. Then I be came conscious of a low growl, followed by a

yelp, renewed again and again. Then seemingly very far away, I heard a "Hol loa! holloa!" as of many

voices calling in unison. Cautiously I raised my head and looked in the direction whence the sound came, but

the cemetery blocked my view. The wolf still contin ued to yelp in a strange way, and a red glare began to

move round the grove of cypresses, as though following the sound. As the voices drew closer, the wolf

yelped faster and louder. I feared to make either sound or motion. Nearer came the red glow over the white

pall which stretched into the darkness a round me. Then all at once from beyond the trees there came at a

trot a troop of horsemen bearing torches. The wolf rose from my breast and made for the cemetery. I saw one

of the horsemen (soldiers by their caps and their long military cloaks) raise his carbine and take aim. A

companion knocked up his arm,and I heard the ball whiz over my head. He had ev idently taken my body

for that of the wolf. Another sighted the animal as it slunk away, and a shot followed. Then, at a gallop, the

troop rode forwardsome towards me, others foll owing the wolf as it disappeared amongst the snowclad

As they drew nearer I tried to move but was powerless, al though I could see and hear all that went on

around me. Two or three of the soldiers jumped from their horses and knelt beside me. One of them raised

Then some brandy was poured down my throat; it put vigor into me, and I was able to open my eyes fully and

look around. Lights and shadows were moving among the trees, and I heard men call to one another. They

drew together, uttering fright ened exclamations; and the lights flashed as the others came pouring out of the

cemetery pellmell, like men possessed. When the further ones came close to us, those who were around me

The reply rang out hurriedly, "No! no! Come away quick quick! This is no place to stay, and on this of all

"What was it?" was the question, asked in all manner of keys.The answer came variously and all indefinitely

as though the men were moved by some common impulse to speak yet were restrained by some common fear

"No use trying for him without the sacred bullet," a third remarked in a more ordinary manner.

"Serve us right for coming out on this night!Truly we have earned our thousand marks!" were the ejaculations

"There was blood on the broken marble," another said after a pause, "the lightning never brought that there.

And for him is he safe? Look at his throat! See comrades, the wolf has been lying on him and keeping his

The officer looked at my throat and replied, "He is all right, the skin is not pierced. What does it all mean?

"What became of it?" asked the man who was holding up my head and who seemed the least panicstricken

of the party, for his hands were steady and without tremor. On his sleeve was the chevron of a petty officer.

"It went home," answered the man, whose long face was pall id and who actually shook with terror as he

glanced around him fearfully. "There are graves enough there in which it may lie. Come, comradescome

The officer raised me to a sitting posture, as he uttered a word of command; then several men placed me upon

a horse.He sprang to the saddle behind me, took me in his arms, gave the word to advance; and, turning our

As yet my tongue refused its office, and I was perforce silent. I must have fallen asleep; for the next thing I

remem bered was finding myself standing up, supported by a soldier on each side of me. It was almost

broad daylight, and to the north a red streak of sunlight was reflected like a path of blood over the waste of

snow. The officer was telling the men to say nothing of what they had seen, except that they found an English

"Dog! that was no dog," cut in the man who had exhibited such fear. "I think I know a wolf when I see one."

"Dog!" reiterated the other ironically.It was evident that his courage was rising with the sun; and, pointing to

Instinctively I raised my hand to my throat, and as I touch ed it I cried out in pain. The men crowded round

to look, some stooping down from their saddles;and again there came the calm voice of the young officer, "A

I was then mounted behind a trooper, and we rode on into the suburbs of Munich. Here we came across a

stray carriage into which I was lifted , and it was driven off to the Quatre Saisonsthe young officer

accompanying me, whilst a trooper followed with his horse, and the others rode off to their barracks.

When we arrived, Herr Delbruck rushed so quickly down the steps to meet me, that it was apparent he had

been watching within. Taking me by both hands he solicitously led me in.The officer saluted me and was

turning to withdraw, when I recog nized his purpose and insisted that he should come to my rooms. Over a

glass of wine I warmly thanked him and his brave comrades for saving me. He replied simply that he was

more than glad, and that Herr Delbruck had at the first taken steps to make all the searching party pleased; at

which ambiguous utterance the maitre d'hotel smiled, while the officer plead duty and withdrew.

"But Herr Delbruck," I enquired, "how and why was it that the soldiers searched for me?"

He shrugged his shoulders, as if in depreciation of his own deed, as he replied, "I was so fortunate as to

obtain leave from the commander of the regiment in which I serve, to ask for volunteers."

"The driver came hither with the remains of his carriage, which had been upset when the horses ran away."

"But surely you would not send a search party of soldiers merely on this account?"

"Oh, no!" he answered, "but even before the coachman arriv ed, I had this telegram from the Boyar whose

guest you are," and he took from his pocket a telegram which he handed to me, and I read:

As I held the telegram in my hand,the room seemed to whirl around me,and if the attentive maitre d'hotel had

not caught me,I think I should have fallen. There was something so str ange in all this, something so weird

and impossible to imag ine, that there grew on me a sense of my being in some way the sport of opposite

forcesthe mere vague idea of which seemed in a way to paralyze me. I was certainly under some form of

mysterious protection. From a distant country had come, in the very nick of time, a message that took me out