Harker and the Count: Chapter V
JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL
5 May 1893. The Castle.
I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake, I should have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place, seemingly carved from the very rock of the mountain by antediluvian giants. In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark ways led from it under great round arches, it perhaps appeared bigger than it really is. I have not yet been able to see it by daylight.
When the calèche stopped, the driver jumped down and held out her hand to assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice her prodigious strength, so at odds with her thin if tall frame. Her hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if she had chosen. Then she took out my traps and placed them on the ground beside me as I stood close to a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of massive stone. I could see even in the dim light that the stone was massively carved, but that the carving had been much worn by time and weather. As I stood, the driver jumped again into her seat and shook the reins; the horse started forward, and the calèche disappeared down one of the dark openings.
I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what to do. Of bell or knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and dark window openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate. The time I waited seemed…
