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The difficulty did not, however, trouble me beyond a mere passing

thought. In the joy of the coming meeting and the longing rapture at the mere thought of it, all difficulties disappeared. Love makes its own faith, and I never doubted that my Lady would be waiting for me at the place designated. When I had passed through the little arched passages, and up the doubly-grated com grade stairways contrived conceber, conseguir, arquitectar in the massiveness of the walls, I let myself out on the leads. It was well that as yet the times were sufficiently peaceful not to necessitate

guards or sentries at all such points.

There, in a dim corner where the moonlight and the passing clouds threw deep shadows, I saw her, clothed as ever in her shroud. Why, I know not. I felt somehow that the situation was even more serious than ever. But I was steeled to whatever might come. My mind had been already made up. To carry out my resolve to win the woman I loved I was ready to face death. But now, after we had for a few brief moments held each other in our arms, I was willing to accept death--or more than death. Now, more than before, was she sweet and

dear to me. Whatever qualms dúvida, apreensão there might have been at the beginning of our love-making, or during the progress of it, did not now exist.

We had exchanged vows juramento, promessa and confidences segredo, confidência, and acknowledged admitir, confessar our loves.

What, then, could there be of distrust desconfiança, suspeição, or even doubt, that the present might not set at naught nada, zero? But even had there been such doubts or qualms dúvida, apreensão (enjoo, náusea), they must have disappeared in the ardour of our mutual embrace. I was by now mad for her, and was content to be so mad.

When she had breath to speak after the strictness of our embrace, she said:

"I have come to warn you to be more than ever careful." It was, I confess, a pang dor aguda, aflição, agonia, tormento to me, who thought only of love, to hear that anything else should have been the initiative power of her coming, even though it had been her concern for my own safety. I could not but notice the bitter note of chagrin desgosto in my voice as I answered:

"It was for love's sake that _I_ came." She, too, evidently felt the undercurrent fundo, tendência oculta of pain, for she said quickly:

"Ah, dearest, I, too, came for love's sake. It is because I love you that I am so anxious about you. What would the world--ay sim, or heaven--be to me without you?"

There was such earnest sério, sentido, sincero truth in her tone that the sense and realization of my own harshness brusquidão, aspereza smote atormentar, atingir, afectar me. In the presence of such love as this even a lover's selfishness must become abashed embaraçar, atrapalhar. I could

not express myself in words, so simply raised her slim elegante, delgado hand in mine and kissed it. As it lay warm in my own I could not but notice, as well as its fineness delicadeza, elegância, its strength and the firmness of its clasp.

Its warmth and fervour fervor, ardor struck into my heart--and my brain. Thereupon por isso, em consequência disso I poured out to her once more my love for her, she listening all afire inflamado, em chamas. When passion had had its say, the calmer emotions had opportunity of expression. When I was satisfied afresh de novo, outra vez of her affection, I began to value her care for my safety, and so I went back to the subject. Her very insistence, based on personal affection, gave me more solid ground for fear. In the moment of love

transports I had forgotten, or did not think, of what wonderful power or knowledge she must have to be able to move in such strange ways as she did. Why, at this very moment she was within my own gates.

Locks and bars, even the very seal of death itself, seemed unable to make for her a prison-house. With such freedom of action and

movement, going when she would into secret places, what might she not know that was known to others? How could anyone keep secret from such an one even an ill intent? Such thoughts, such surmises, had often flashed through my mind in moments of excitement rather than of

reflection, but never long enough to become fixed into belief. But yet the consequences, the convictions, of them were with me, though unconsciously, though the thoughts themselves were perhaps forgotten or withered before development.

"And you?" I asked her earnestly seriamente. "What about danger to you?" She

smiled, her little pearl-white teeth gleaming in the moonlight, as she spoke:

"There is no danger for me. I am safe. I am the safest person, perhaps the only safe person, in all this land." The full significance of her words did not seem to come to me all at once.

Some base for understanding such an assertion seemed to be wanting.

It was not that I did not trust or believe her, but that I thought she might be mistaken. I wanted to reassure myself, so in my

distress aflição, angústia I asked unthinkingly:

"How the safest? What is your protection?" For several moments that

spun themselves out prolongar, esticar «desfiar» (fiar, tecer) endlessly she looked me straight in the face, the stars in her eyes seeming to glow like fire; then, lowering her head,

she took a fold of her shroud and held it up to me.

"This!"

The meaning was complete and understandable now. I could not speak at once for the wave of emotion which choked me. I dropped on my knees, and taking her in my arms, held her close to me. She saw that I was moved, and tenderly stroked my hair, and with delicate touch pressed down my head on her bosom, as a mother might have done to comfort a frightened child.

Presently we got back to the realities of life again. I murmured:

"Your safety, your life, your happiness are all-in-all to me. When will you let them be my care?" She trembled in my arms, nestling even closer to me. Her own arms seemed to quiver with delight as she said:

"Would you indeed like me to be always with you? To me it would be a happiness unspeakable; and to you, what would it be?"

I thought that she wished to hear me speak my love to her, and that, woman-like, she had led me to the utterance, and so I spoke again of the passion that now raged grassar, assolar, devastar in me, she listening eagerly as we strained each other tight in our arms. At last there came a pause, a long, long pause, and our hearts beat consciously in unison as we

stood together. Presently she said in a sweet, low, intense whisper, as soft as the sighing of summer wind:

"It shall be as you wish; but oh, my dear, you will have to first go through an ordeal má experiência, provação, tortura, suplício which may try pôr á prova, atormentar, fatigar you terribly! Do not ask me

anything! You must not ask, because I may not answer, and it would be pain to me to deny you anything. Marriage with such an one as I am has its own ritual, which may not be foregone renunciar. It may . . . " I broke passionately into her speaking:

"There is no ritual that I fear, so long as it be that it is for your good, and your lasting happiness. And if the end of it be that I may call you mine, there is no horror in life or death that I shall not

gladly face. Dear, I ask you nothing. I am content to leave myself in your hands. You shall advise me when the time comes, and I shall

be satisfied, content to obey. Content! It is but a poor word to express what I long for! I shall shirk fugir a, evitar nothing which may come to me from this or any other world, so long as it is to make you mine!"

Once again her murmured happiness was music to my ears:

"Oh, how you love me! how you love me, dear, dear!" She took me in her arms, and for a few seconds we hung together. Suddenly she tore herself apart from me, and stood drawn up to the full height, with a dignity I cannot describe or express. Her voice had a new dominance, as with firm utterance and in staccato com clareza e nitidez manner she said:

"Rupert Sent Leger, before we go a step further I must say something to you, ask you something, and I charge you, on your most sacred

honour and belief, to answer me truly. Do you believe me to be one of those unhappy beings who may not die, but have to live in shameful existence between earth and the nether inferior world, and whose hellish mission is to destroy, body and soul, those who love them till they

fall to their level? You are a gentleman, and a brave one. I have found you fearless. Answer me in sternest firme, implacável truth, no matter what the issue may be!"

She stood there in the glamorous moonlight with a commanding dignity which seemed more than human. In that mystic light her white shroud seemed diaphanous, and she appeared like a spirit of power. What was I to say? How could I admit to such a being that I had actually had at moments, if not a belief, a passing doubt? It was a conviction with me that if I spoke wrongly I should lose her for ever. I was in a desperate strait dificuldade, aperto, situação difícil. In such a case there is but one solid ground which one may rest on--the Truth.

I really felt I was between the devil and the deep sea. There was no avoiding the issue, and so, out of this all-embracing, all-compelling conviction of truth, I spoke.

For a fleeting moment I felt that my tone was truculent agressivo, and almost hesitated; but as I saw no anger or indignation on my Lady's face, but rather an eager approval, I was reassured. A woman, after all, is glad to see a man strong, for all belief in him must be based on that.

"I shall speak the truth. Remember that I have no wish to hurt your feelings, but as you conjure me by my honour, you must forgive me if I pain. It is true that I had at first--ay, and later, when I came to think matters over after you had gone, when reason came to the aid of impression--a passing belief that you are a Vampire. How can I fail to have, even now, though I love you with all my soul, though I have held you in my arms and kissed you on the mouth, a doubt, when

all the evidences seem to point to one thing? Remember that I have only seen you at night, except that bitter moment when, in the broad noonday of the upper world, I saw you, clad as ever in a shroud, lying seemingly dead in a tomb in the crypt of St. Sava's Church . . . But let that pass. Such belief as I have is all in you. Be you woman or Vampire, it is all the same to me. It is YOU whom I love!

Should it be that you are--you are not woman, which I cannot believe, then it will be my glory to break your fetters grilhetas, grilhões, cadeias, to open your prison, and set you free. To that I consecrate my life." For a few seconds I stood silent, vibrating with the passion which had been awakened in me. She had by now lost the measure of her haughty isolation, and had softened into womanhood again. It was really like a realization

of the old theme tema, assunto of Pygmalion's statue. It was with rather a pleading than a commanding voice that she said:

"And shall you always be true to me?"

"Always--so help me, God!" I answered, and I felt that there could be no lack of conviction in my voice.

Indeed, there was no cause for such lack. She also stood for a little while stone-still, and I was beginning to expand abrir-se, ser mais expansivo to the

rapture which was in store for me when she should take me again in her arms.

But there was no such moment of softness. All at once she started as if she had suddenly wakened from a dream, and on the spur impulso, aguilhão, acicate, agulha, esporão, espora of the moment said:

"Now go, go!" I felt the conviction of necessity to obey, and turned at once. As I moved towards the door by which I had entered, I asked:

"When shall I see you again?"

"Soon!" came her answer. "I shall let you know soon--when and where.

Oh, go, go!" She almost pushed me from her.

When I had passed through the low doorway and locked and barred it behind me, I felt a pang that I should have had to shut her out like

that; but I feared lest there should arise some embarrassing suspicion if the door should be found open. Later came the

comforting thought that, as she had got to the roof though the door had been shut, she would be able to get away by the same means. She had evidently knowledge of some secret way into the Castle. The

alternative was that she must have some supernatural quality or

faculty which gave her strange powers. I did not wish to pursue that train of thought, and so, after an effort, shut it out from my mind.

When I got back to my room I locked the door behind me, and went to sleep in the dark. I did not want light just then--could not bear it.

This morning I woke, a little later than usual, with a kind of apprehension which I could not at once understand. Presently, however, when my faculties became fully awake and in working order, I realized that I feared, half expected, that Aunt Janet would come to me in a worse state of alarm than ever apropos of some new Second-Sight experience of more than usual ferocity.

But, strange to say, I had no such visit. Later on in the morning, when, after breakfast, we walked together through the garden, I asked her how she had slept, and if she had dreamt. She answered me that she had slept without waking, and if she had had any dreams, they must have been pleasant ones, for she did not remember them. "And you know, Rupert," she added, "that if there be anything bad or fearsome or warning in dreams, I always remember them."

Later still, when I was by myself on the cliff beyond the creek, I could not help commenting on the absence of her power of Second Sight on the occasion. Surely, if ever there was a time when she might have had cause of apprehension, it might well have been when I asked the Lady whom she did not know to marry me--the Lady of whose identity I knew nothing, even whose name I did not know--whom I loved

with all my heart and soul--my Lady of the Shroud.

I have lost faith in Second Sight.

RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.

July 1, 1907.

Another week gone. I have waited patiently, and I am at last rewarded by another letter. I was preparing for bed a little while ago, when I heard the same mysterious sound at the door as on the

last two occasions. I hurried to the glass door, and there found another close-folded letter. But I could see no sign of my Lady, or of any other living being. The letter, which was without direction, ran as follows:

"If you are still of the same mind, and feel no misgivings dúvida, desconfiança, receio, meet me at the Church of St. Sava beyond the Creek to-morrow night at a quarter before midnight. If you come, come in secret, and, of course, alone. Do not come at all unless you are prepared for a terrible ordeal. But if you love me, and have neither doubts nor

fears, come. Come!"

Needless to say, I did not sleep last night. I tried to, but without success. It was no morbid happiness that kept me awake, no doubting, no fear. I was simply overwhelmed with the idea of the coming

rapture when I should call my Lady my very, very own. In this sea of happy expectation all lesser things were submerged. Even sleep, which is an imperative force with me, failed in its usual effectiveness, and I lay still, calm, content.

With the coming of the morning, however, restlessness began. I did

not know what to do, how to restrain myself, where to look for an anodyne. Happily the latter came in the shape of Rooke, who turned up chegar, aparecer, surgir shortly after breakfast. He had a satisfactory tale to tell me of the armoured yacht, which had lain off Cattaro on the previous night, and to which he had brought his contingent of crew which had waited for her coming. He did not like to take the risk of going into any port with such a vessel, lest he might be detained or otherwise hampered impedir, embaraçar, estorvar by forms, and had gone out upon the open sea before daylight. There was on board the yacht a tiny torpedo-boat, for which provision precaução was made both for hoisting içar, levantar, erguer on deck and housing there.

This last would run into the creek at ten o'clock that evening, at which time it would be dark. The yacht would then run to near

Otranto, to which she would send a boat to get any message I might send. This was to be in a code, which we arranged, and would convey instructions as to what night and approximate hour the yacht would come to the creek.

The day was well on before we had made certain arrangements for the future; and not till then did I feel again the pressure of my

personal restlessness. Rooke, like a wise commander, took rest whilst he could. Well he knew that for a couple of days and nights at least there would be little, if any, sleep for him.

For myself, the habit of self-control stood to to stand to-estar em estado de alerta me, and I managed to get through the day somehow without exciting the attention of anyone else. The arrival of the torpedo-boat and the departure of Rooke made for me a welcome break in my uneasiness. An hour ago I said good-night to Aunt Janet, and shut myself up alone here. My watch is

on the table before me, so that I may make sure of starting to the moment. I have allowed myself half an hour to reach St. Sava. My

skiff is waiting, moored at the foot of the cliff on the hither de cá, deste lado side, where the zigzag comes close to the water. It is now ten minutes past eleven.

I shall add the odd excedente, de sobra (ímpar, desirmanado, avulso, estranho, acidental) five minutes to the time for my journey so as to make safe. I go unarmed and without a light.

I shall show no distrust desconfiança, suspeição of anyone or anything this night.

RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.

July 2, 1907.

When I was outside the church, I looked at my watch in the bright moonlight, and found I had one minute to wait. So I stood in the shadow of the doorway and looked out at the scene before me. Not a

sign of life was visible around me, either on land or sea. On the broad plateau planalto, planura on which the church stands there was no movement of any kind. The wind, which had been pleasant in the noontide meio-dia (noonday-meio-dia), had fallen completely, and not a leaf was stirring. I could see across the creek and note the hard line where the battlements parapeito, seteira, ameia of the Castle cut the sky, and where the keep towered above the line of black rock,

which in the shadow obscuridade of the land made an ebon de ébano frame for the picture.

When I had seen the same view on former occasions, the line where the rock rose from the sea was a fringe of white foam. But then, in the

daylight, the sea was sapphire blue; now it was an expanse of dark blue--so dark as to seem almost black. It had not even the relief of waves or ripples--simply a dark, cold, lifeless expanse, with no gleam of light anywhere, of lighthouse or ship; neither was there any special sound to be heard that one could distinguish--nothing but the

distant hum of the myriad voices of the dark mingling misturar-se in one ceaseless inarticulate sound. It was well I had not time to dwell  on remoer, repisar, insistir, pensar it, or I might have reached some spiritually-disturbing melancholy.

Let me say here that ever since desde que I had received my Lady's message concerning this visit to St. Sava's I had been all on fire--not, perhaps, at every moment consciously or actually so, but always, as

it were, prepared to break out into flame. Did I want a simile, I might compare myself to a well-banked cheio, repleto, acumulado furnace, whose present function it is to contain heat rather than to create it; whose crust cobertura, crosta, crusta can at any moment be broken by a force external to itself, and burst into raging que assola, que devasta, all-compelling emocionante, empolgante, irresistível heat. No thought of fear really entered my mind. Every other emotion there was, coming and going as occasion excited or lulled acalmar, sossegar, but not fear. Well I knew in the depths of my

heart the purpose which that secret quest busca, procura, investigação was to serve. I knew not only from my Lady's words, but from the teachings of my own senses

and experiences, that some dreadful ordeal must take place before happiness of any kind could be won. And that ordeal, though method

or detail was unknown to me, I was prepared to undertake travar combate com, empreender, assumir, comprometer-se, responsabilizar-se. This was one of those occasions when a man must undertake, blindfold, ways

that may lead to torture or death, or unknown terrors beyond. But, then, a man--if, indeed, he have the heart of a man--can always undertake; he can at least make the first step, though it may turn out revelar-se, sair that through the weakness of mortality he may be unable incapaz, incompetente to fulfil his own intent, or justify his belief in his own powers. Such, I

take it, was the intellectual attitude of the brave souls who of old faced the tortures of the Inquisition.

But though there was no immediate fear, there was a certain doubt.

For doubt is one of those mental conditions whose calling we cannot control. The end of the doubting may not be a reality to us, or be accepted as a possibility. These things cannot forego deixar de usar, renunciar, abster-se de the existence of the doubt. "For even if a man," says Victor Cousin, "doubt everything else, at least he cannot doubt that he doubts." The doubt had at times been on me that my Lady of the Shroud was a Vampire.

Much that had happened seemed to point that way, and here, on the

very threshold «entrada, soleira», princípio, começo of the Unknown, when, through the door which I was pushing open, my eyes met only an expanse of absolute blackness, all doubts which had ever been seemed to surround me in a legion. I have heard that, when a man is drowning, there comes a time when his whole life passes in review during the space of time which cannot be computed as even a part of a second. So it was to me in the moment of my body passing into the church. In that moment came to my mind

all that had been, which bore on the knowledge of my Lady; and the general tendency was to prove or convince that she was indeed a Vampire. Much that had happened, or become known to me, seemed to justify the resolving of doubt into belief. Even my own reading of the books in Aunt Janet's little library, and the dear lady's comments on them, mingled with her own uncanny estranho, misterioso, sinistro beliefs, left little opening for doubt. My having to help my Lady over the threshold of

my house on her first entry was in accord with Vampire tradition; so, too, her flying at cock-crow from the warmth in which she revelled on that strange first night of our meeting; so, too, her swift departure at midnight on the second. Into the same category came the facts of her constant wearing of her Shroud, even her pledging promessa, compromisso herself, and me also, on the fragment torn from it, which she had given to me as a

souvenir; her lying still in the glass-covered tomb; her coming alone to the most secret places in a fortified Castle where every aperture

was secured by unopened locks and bolts; her very movements, though all of grace, as she flitted noiselessly through the gloom of night.

All these things, and a thousand others of lesser import, seemed, for the moment, to have consolidated an initial belief. But then came the supreme recollections of how she had lain in my arms; of her

kisses on my lips; of the beating of her heart against my own; of her sweet words of belief and faith breathed in my ear in intoxicating

whispers; of . . . I paused. No! I could not accept belief as to her being other than a living woman of soul and sense, of flesh and blood, of all the sweet and passionate instincts of true and perfect

womanhood.

And so, in spite of all--in spite of all beliefs, fixed or

transitory, with a mind whirling amid contesting forces and compelling beliefs--I stepped into the church overwhelmed with that most receptive of atmospheres--doubt.

In one thing only was I fixed: here at least was no doubt or misgiving receio, dúvida, apreensão whatever. I intended to go through what I had undertaken.

Moreover, I felt that I was strong enough to carry out my intention, whatever might be of the Unknown--however por mais, apesar de horrible, however apesar de, por muito terrible.

When I had entered the church and closed the heavy door behind me,

the sense of darkness and loneliness in all their horror enfolded me round. The great church seemed a living mystery, and served as an almost terrible background ambiente, cenário, fundo to thoughts and remembrances of

unutterable gloom pessimismo, tristeza. My adventurous life has had its own schooling to

endurance and upholding apoiar, favorecer, encorajar one's courage in trying doloroso, penoso, difícil, desesperador times; but it has its contra in fulness abundância, plenitude of memory.

I felt my way forward with both hands and feet. Every second seemed

as if it had brought me at last to a darkness which was actually tangible. All at once, and with no heed cuidado, atenção of sequence or order, I was conscious of all around me, the knowledge or perception of which--or even speculation on the subject--had never entered my mind. They furnished equipar, aparelhar «mobilar» the darkness with which I was encompassed with all the

crowded phases of a dream. I knew that all around me were memorials

of the dead--that in the Crypt deep-wrought in the rock below my feet lay the dead themselves. Some of them, perhaps--one of them I knew--had even passed the grim terrível, sinistro portals of time Unknown, and had, by some mysterious power or agency agente, intermédio, come back again to material earth. There was no resting-place for thought when I knew that the very air which

I breathed might be full of denizens of the spirit-world. In that impenetrable blackness was a world of imagining whose possibilities of horror were endless.

 Tradução/estudo completos

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