The Count’s head was coming out from the window. I did not see the face, but I knew the man by the neck and the movement of his back and arms. The Count slowly emerged from the window and began to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful abyss. His cloak was spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow. But I kept looking,[48] and it could be no delusion. His fingers and toes grasped the corners of the stones, he was crawling just as a lizard.
What is he? I feel the dread of this horrible place; I am in fear – in awful fear – and there is no escape for me.
15 May. – The Count went out in his lizard fashion[49] again. He moved downwards and vanished into some hole or window. When his head had disappeared, I decided to use the opportunity to explore the castle. I knew he had left the castle now. I went back to the room and took a lamp. Then I tried all the doors. They were all locked, as I had expected, and the locks were comparatively new. I went down the stone stairs to the hall where I had entered originally.
I went on to make a thorough examination of the various stairs and passages, and to try the doors that opened from them. One or two small rooms near the hall were open, but there was nothing to see in them except old furniture, dusty and moth-eaten.[50] At last, however, I found one door at the top of the stairway. I tried it and found that it was not really locked. So I entered.
The castle was built on the corner of a great rock, and great windows were placed here. This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in the past.
16 May, morning. – When I had written in my diary and had put the book and the pen in my pocket I felt sleepy. The Count’s warning came into my mind, but it was a pleasure to disobey it.
I determined not to return tonight to my rooms, but to sleep here. I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner. I suppose I fell asleep; I hope so, but I fear I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep.
I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged since I came into it. In the moonlight opposite me were three young ladies. Though the moonlight was behind them, they threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes. The other was fair, with wavy golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls. They whispered together, and then they all three laughed – such a silvery, musical laugh. The fair girl shook her head, and the other two urged her on.