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.

CHAPTER 9

LETTER, MINA HARKER TO LUCY WESTENRA

Buda-Pesth, 24 August.

“My dearest Lucy,

“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!