The Count has come.  He sat down beside me, and said in his smoothest voice as he opened two letters, “The Szgany has given me these, of which, though I know not whence they come, I shall, of course, take care.  See!”—­He must have looked at it.—­“One is from you, and to my friend Peter Hawkins.  The other,”—­here he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly,—­“The other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality!  It is not signed.  Well!  So it cannot matter to us.”  And he calmly held letter and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed.

Then he went on, “The letter to Hawkins, that I shall, of course send on, since it is yours.  Your letters are sacred to me.  Your pardon, my friend, that unknowingly I did break the seal.  Will you not cover it again?” He held out the letter to me, and with a courteous bow handed me a clean envelope.

I could only redirect it and hand it to him in silence.  When he went out of the room I could hear the key turn softly.  A minute later I went over and tried it, and the door was locked.

When, an hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room, his coming awakened me, for I had gone to sleep on the sofa.  He was very courteous and very cheery in his manner, and seeing that I had been sleeping, he said, “So, my friend, you are tired?  Get to bed.  There is the surest rest.  I may not have the pleasure of talk tonight, since there are many labours to me, but you will sleep, I pray.”

I passed to my room and went to bed, and, strange to say, slept without dreaming.  Despair has its own calms.

31 May.—­This morning when I woke I thought I would provide myself with some papers and envelopes from my bag and keep them in my pocket, so that I might write in case I should get an opportunity, but again a surprise, again a shock!

Every scrap of paper was gone, and with it all my notes, my memoranda, relating to railways and travel, my letter of credit, in fact all that might be useful to me were I once outside the castle.  I sat and pondered awhile, and then some thought occurred to me, and I made search of my portmanteau and in the wardrobe where I had placed my clothes.

The suit in which I had travelled was gone, and also my overcoat and rug.  I could find no trace of them anywhere.  This looked like some new scheme of villainy . . .

17 June.—­This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed cudgelling my brains, I heard without a crackling of whips and pounding and scraping of horses’ feet up the rocky path beyond the courtyard.  With joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin, and high boots.  They had also their long staves in hand.  I ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through the main hall, as I thought that way might be opened for them.  Again a shock, my door was fastened on the outside.