I never saw a lunatic in such a paroxysm of rage before,
and I hope I shall not again. It is a mercy
that we have found out his strength and his danger
in good time. With strength and determination
like his, he might have done wild work before he was
caged.
He is safe now, at any rate. Jack Sheppard himself
couldn’t get free from the strait waistcoat
that keeps him restrained, and he’s chained
to the wall in the padded room.
His cries are at times awful, but the silences that
follow are more deadly still, for he means murder
in every turn and movement.
Just now he spoke coherent words for the first time.
“I shall be patient, Master. It is coming,
coming, coming!”
So I took the hint, and came too. I was too
excited to sleep, but this diary has quieted me, and
I feel I shall get some sleep tonight.
LETTER, MINA HARKER TO LUCY WESTENRA
“I know you will be anxious to hear all that
has happened since we parted at the railway station
at Whitby.
“Well, my dear, I got to Hull all right, and
caught the boat to Hamburg, and then the train on
here. I feel that I can hardly recall anything
of the journey, except that I knew I was coming to
Jonathan, and that as I should have to do some nursing,
I had better get all the sleep I could. I found
my dear one, oh, so thin and pale and weak-looking.
All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes,
and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his
face has vanished. He is only a wreck of himself,
and he does not remember anything that has happened
to him for a long time past. At least, he wants
me to believe so, and I shall never ask.
“He has had some terrible shock, and I fear
it might tax his poor brain if he were to try to recall
it. Sister Agatha, who is a good creature and
a born nurse, tells me that he wanted her to tell me
what they were, but she would only cross herself, and
say she would never tell. That the ravings of
the sick were the secrets of God, and that if a nurse
through her vocation should hear them, she should
respect her trust.
“She is a sweet, good soul, and the next day,
when she saw I was troubled, she opened up the subject
my poor dear raved about, added, ’I can tell
you this much, my dear. That it was not about
anything which he has done wrong himself, and you,
as his wife to be, have no cause to be concerned.
He has not forgotten you or what he owes to you.
His fear was of great and terrible things, which no
mortal can treat of.’
“I do believe the dear soul thought I might
be jealous lest my poor dear should have fallen in
love with any other girl. The idea of my being
jealous about Jonathan! And yet, my dear, let
me whisper, I felt a thrill of joy through me when
I knew that no other woman was a cause for trouble.
I am now sitting by his bedside, where I can see
his face while he sleeps. He is waking!
