The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) đź“•
"Sorry. But, of course, you don't understand such things." Then he went on talking before father had time to say a word.
"Let us get back to business. As you do not seem to follow me, let me explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this. I remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would like to do as she did."
"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance. "She is not your aunt. Why, even her sister, who was married to your uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy." I could not help feeling that Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were quite polite. If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than me, I should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his age. I am myself rather thin. Mother says thinness is an "appanage of birth."
"My Aunt Janet, sir, is an aunt by love. Courtesy is a small word to use in connection with such devoti
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proceeding would involve. At first we men could not believe that any
woman could go through with such a task, and some of us did not
hesitate to voice our doubts—our disbelief. But she stood to her
guns, and actually down-faced us. At the last we, remembering things
that had been done, though long ages ago, by others of her race, came
to believe not merely in her self-belief and intention, but even in
the feasibility of her plan. She took the most solemn oaths not to
betray the secret under any possible stress.
The priesthood undertook through the Vladika and myself to further a
ghostly belief amongst the mountaineers which would tend to prevent a
too close or too persistent observation. The Vampire legend was
spread as a protection against partial discovery by any mischance,
and other weird beliefs were set afoot and fostered. Arrangements
were made that only on certain days were the mountaineers to be
admitted to the Crypt, she agreeing that for these occasions she was
to take opiates or carry out any other aid to the preservation of the
secret. She was willing, she impressed upon us, to make any personal
sacrifice which might be deemed necessary for the carrying out her
father’s task for the good of the nation.
Of course, she had at first terrible frights lying alone in the
horror of the Crypt. But after a time the terrors of the situation,
if they did not cease, were mitigated. There are secret caverns off
the Crypt, wherein in troublous times the priests and others of high
place have found safe retreat. One of these was prepared for the
Voivodin, and there she remained, except for such times as she was on
show—and certain other times of which I shall tell you. Provision
was made for the possibility of any accidental visit to the church.
At such times, warned by an automatic signal from the opening door,
she was to take her place in the tomb. The mechanism was so arranged
that the means to replace the glass cover, and to take the opiate,
were there ready to her hand. There was to be always a watch of
priests at night in the church, to guard her from ghostly fears as
well as from more physical dangers; and if she was actually in her
tomb, it was to be visited at certain intervals. Even the draperies
which covered her in the sarcophagus were rested on a bridge placed
from side to side just above her, so as to hide the rising and
falling of her bosom as she slept under the narcotic.
After a while the prolonged strain began to tell so much on her that
it was decided that she should take now and again exercise out of
doors. This was not difficult, for when the Vampire story which we
had spread began to be widely known, her being seen would be accepted
as a proof of its truth. Still, as there was a certain danger in her
being seen at all, we thought it necessary to exact from her a solemn
oath that so long as her sad task lasted she should under no
circumstances ever wear any dress but her shroud—this being the only
way to insure secrecy and to prevail against accident.
There is a secret way from the Crypt to a sea cavern, whose entrance
is at high-tide under the water-line at the base of the cliff on
which the church is built. A boat, shaped like a coffin, was
provided for her; and in this she was accustomed to pass across the
creek whenever she wished to make excursion. It was an excellent
device, and most efficacious in disseminating the Vampire belief.
This state of things had now lasted from before the time when the
Gospodar Rupert came to Vissarion up to the day of the arrival of the
armoured yacht.
That night the priest on duty, on going his round of the Crypt just
before dawn, found the tomb empty. He called the others, and they
made full search. The boat was gone from the cavern, but on making
search they found it on the farther side of the creek, close to the
garden stairs. Beyond this they could discover nothing. She seemed
to have disappeared without leaving a trace.
Straightway they went to the Vladika, and signalled to me by the
fire-signal at the monastery at Astrag, where I then was. I took a
band of mountaineers with me, and set out to scour the country. But
before going I sent an urgent message to the Gospodar Rupert, asking
him, who showed so much interest and love to our Land, to help us in
our trouble. He, of course, knew nothing then of all have now told
you. Nevertheless, he devoted himself whole-heartedly to our needs—
as doubtless you know.
But the time had now come close when the Voivode Vissarion was about
to return from his mission; and we of the council of his daughter’s
guardianship were beginning to arrange matters so that at his return
the good news of her being still alive could be made public. With
her father present to vouch for her, no question as to truth could
arise.
But by some means the Turkish “Bureau of Spies” must have got
knowledge of the fact already. To steal a dead body for the purpose
of later establishing a fictitious claim would have been an
enterprise even more desperate than that already undertaken. We
inferred from many signs, made known to us in an investigation, that
a daring party of the Sultan’s emissaries had made a secret incursion
with the object of kidnapping the Voivodin. They must have been bold
of heart and strong of resource to enter the Land of the Blue
Mountains on any errand, let alone such a desperate one as this. For
centuries we have been teaching the Turk through bitter lessons that
it is neither a safe task nor an easy one to make incursion here.
How they did it we know not—at present; but enter they did, and,
after waiting in some secret hiding-place for a favourable
opportunity, secured their prey. We know not even now whether they
had found entrance to the Crypt and stole, as they thought, the dead
body, or whether, by some dire mischance, they found her abroad—
under her disguise as a ghost. At any rate, they had captured her,
and through devious ways amongst the mountains were bearing her back
to Turkey. It was manifest that when she was on Turkish soil the
Sultan would force a marriage on her so as eventually to secure for
himself or his successors as against all other nations a claim for
the suzerainty or guardianship of the Blue Mountains.
Such was the state of affairs when the Gospodar Rupert threw himself
into the pursuit with fiery zeal and the Berserk passion which he
inherited from Viking ancestors, whence of old came “The Sword of
Freedom” himself.
But at that very time was another possibility which the Gospodar was
himself the first to realize. Failing the getting the Voivodin safe
to Turkish soil, the ravishers might kill her! This would be
entirely in accord with the base traditions and history of the
Moslems. So, too, it would accord with Turkish customs and the
Sultan’s present desires. It would, in its way, benefit the ultimate
strategetic ends of Turkey. For were once the Vissarion race at an
end, the subjection of the Land of the Blue Mountains might, in their
view, be an easier task than it had yet been found to be.
Such, illustrious lady, were the conditions of affairs when the
Gospodar Rupert first drew his handjar for the Blue Mountains and
what it held most dear.
PALEALOGUE,
Archbishop of the Eastern Church, in the Land of the Blue Mountains.
RUPERT’S JOURNAL—Continued.
July 8, 1907.
I wonder if ever in the long, strange history of the world had there
come to any other such glad tidings as came to me—and even then
rather inferentially than directly—from the Archimandrite’s answers
to my questioning. Happily I was able to restrain myself, or I
should have created some strange confusion which might have evoked
distrust, and would certainly have hampered us in our pursuit. For a
little I could hardly accept the truth which wove itself through my
brain as the true inwardness of each fact came home to me and took
its place in the whole fabric. But even the most welcome truth has
to be accepted some time by even a doubting heart. My heart,
whatever it may have been, was not then a doubting heart, but a very,
very grateful one. It was only the splendid magnitude of the truth
which forbade its immediate acceptance. I could have shouted for
joy, and only stilled myself by keeping my thoughts fixed on the
danger which my wife was in. My wife! My wife! Not a Vampire; not
a poor harassed creature doomed to terrible woe, but a splendid
woman, brave beyond belief, patriotic in a way which has but few
peers even in the wide history of bravery! I began to understand the
true meaning of the strange occurrences that have come into my life.
Even the origin and purpose of that first strange visit to my room
became clear. No wonder that the girl could move about the Castle in
so mysterious a manner. She had lived there all her life, and was
familiar with the secret ways of entrance and exit. I had always
believed that the place must have been honeycombed with secret
passages. No wonder that she could find a way to the battlements,
mysterious to everybody else. No wonder that she could meet me at
the Flagstaff when she so desired.
To say that I was in a tumult would be to but faintly express my
condition. I was rapt into a heaven of delight which had no measure
in all my adventurous life—the lifting of the veil which showed that
my wife—mine—won in all sincerity in the very teeth of appalling
difficulties and dangers—was no Vampire, no corpse, no ghost or
phantom, but a real woman of flesh and blood, of affection, and love,
and passion. Now at last would my love be crowned indeed when,
having rescued her from the marauders, I should bear her to my own
home, where she would live and reign in peace and comfort and honour,
and in love and wifely happiness if I could achieve such a blessing
for her—and for myself.
But here a dreadful thought flashed across me, which in an instant
turned my joy to despair, my throbbing heart to ice:
“As she is a real woman, she is in greater danger than ever in the
hands of Turkish ruffians. To them a woman is in any case no more
than a sheep; and if they cannot bring her to the harem of the
Sultan, they may deem it the next wisest step to kill her. In that
way, too, they might find a better chance of escape. Once rid of her
the party could separate, and there might be a chance of some of them
finding escape as individuals that would not exist for a party. But
even if they did not kill her, to escape with her would be to condemn
her to the worst fate of all the harem of the Turk! Lifelong misery
and despair—however long that life might be—must be the lot of a
Christian woman doomed to such a lot. And to her, just happily
wedded, and after she had served her country in such a noble way as
she had done, that dreadful life of shameful slavery would be a
misery beyond belief.
“She must be
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