Chapter VIII: Survivals

by Bram Stoker

　　At breakfast Sir Nathaniel noticed that Adam was put out aboutsomething, but he said nothing. The lesson of silence is betterremembered in age than in youth. When they were both in the study,where Sir Nathaniel followed him, Adam at once began to tell hiscompanion of what had happened. Sir Nathaniel looked graver andgraver as the narration proceeded, and when Adam had stopped heremained silent for several minutes, before speaking."This is very grave. I have not formed any opinion yet; but itseems to me at first impression that this is worse than anything Ihad expected.""Why, sir?" said Adam. "Is the killing of a mongoose--no matter bywhom--so serious a thing as all that?"His companion smoked on quietly for quite another few minutes beforehe spoke."When I have properly thought it over I may moderate my opinion, butin the meantime it seems to me that there is something dreadfulbehind all this--something that may affect all our lives--that maymean the issue of life or death to any of us."Adam sat up quickly."Do tell me, sir, what is in your mind--if, of course, you have noobjection, or do not think it better to withhold it.""I have no objection, Adam--in fact, if I had, I should have toovercome it. I fear there can be no more reserved thoughts betweenus.""Indeed, sir, that sounds serious, worse than serious!""Adam, I greatly fear that the time has come for us--for you and me,at all events--to speak out plainly to one another. Does not thereseem something very mysterious about this?""I have thought so, sir, all along. The only difficulty one has iswhat one is to think and where to begin.""Let us begin with what you have told me. First take the conduct ofthe mongoose. He was quiet, even friendly and affectionate withyou. He only attacked the snakes, which is, after all, his businessin life.""That is so!""Then we must try to find some reason why he attacked LadyArabella.""May it not be that a mongoose may have merely the instinct toattack, that nature does not allow or provide him with the finereasoning powers to discriminate who he is to attack?""Of course that may be so. But, on the other hand, should we notsatisfy ourselves why he does wish to attack anything? If forcenturies, this particular animal is known to attack only one kindof other animal, are we not justified in assuming that when one ofthem attacks a hitherto unclassed animal, he recognises in thatanimal some quality which it has in common with the hereditaryenemy?""That is a good argument, sir," Adam went on, "but a dangerous one.If we followed it out, it would lead us to believe that LadyArabella is a snake.""We must be sure, before going to such an end, that there is nopoint as yet unconsidered which would account for the unknown thingwhich puzzles us.""In what way?""Well, suppose the instinct works on some physical basis--forinstance, smell. If there were anything in recent juxtaposition tothe attacked which would carry the scent, surely that would supplythe missing cause.""Of course!" Adam spoke with conviction."Now, from what you tell me, the negro had just come from thedirection of Diana's Grove, carrying the dead snakes which themongoose had killed the previous morning. Might not the scent havebeen carried that way?""Of course it might, and probably was. I never thought of that. Isthere any possible way of guessing approximately how long a scentwill remain? You see, this is a natural scent, and may derive froma place where it has been effective for thousands of years. Then,does a scent of any kind carry with it any form or quality ofanother kind, either good or evil? I ask you because one ancientname of the house lived in by the lady who was attacked by themongoose was 'The Lair of the White Worm.' If any of these thingsbe so, our difficulties have multiplied indefinitely. They may evenchange in kind. We may get into moral entanglements; before we knowit, we may be in the midst of a struggle between good and evil."Sir Nathaniel smiled gravely."With regard to the first question--so far as I know, there are nofixed periods for which a scent may be active--I think we may takeit that that period does not run into thousands of years. As towhether any moral change accompanies a physical one, I can only saythat I have met no proof of the fact. At the same time, we mustremember that 'good' and 'evil' are terms so wide as to take in thewhole scheme of creation, and all that is implied by them and bytheir mutual action and reaction. Generally, I would say that inthe scheme of a First Cause anything is possible. So long as theinherent forces or tendencies of any one thing are veiled from us wemust expect mystery.""There is one other question on which I should like to ask youropinion. Suppose that there are any permanent forces appertainingto the past, what we may call 'survivals,' do these belong to goodas well as to evil? For instance, if the scent of the primaevalmonster can so remain in proportion to the original strength, canthe same be true of things of good import?"Sir Nathaniel thought for a while before he answered."We must be careful not to confuse the physical and the moral. Ican see that already you have switched on the moral entirely, soperhaps we had better follow it up first. On the side of the moral,we have certain justification for belief in the utterances ofrevealed religion. For instance, 'the effectual fervent prayer of arighteous man availeth much' is altogether for good. We havenothing of a similar kind on the side of evil. But if we acceptthis dictum we need have no more fear of 'mysteries': these becomethenceforth merely obstacles."Adam suddenly changed to another phase of the subject."And now, sir, may I turn for a few minutes to purely practicalthings, or rather to matters of historical fact?"Sir Nathaniel bowed acquiescence."We have already spoken of the history, so far as it is known, ofsome of the places round us--'Castra Regis,' 'Diana's Grove,' and'The Lair of the White Worm.' I would like to ask if there isanything not necessarily of evil import about any of the places?""Which?" asked Sir Nathaniel shrewdly."Well, for instance, this house and Mercy Farm?""Here we turn," said Sir Nathaniel, "to the other side, the lightside of things. Let us take Mercy Farm first. When Augustine wassent by Pope Gregory to Christianise England, in the time of theRomans, he was received and protected by Ethelbert, King of Kent,whose wife, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, was a Christian,and did much for Augustine. She founded a nunnery in memory ofColumba, which was named Sedes Misericordioe, the House of Mercy,and, as the region was Mercian, the two names became involved. AsColumba is the Latin for dove, the dove became a sort ofsignification of the nunnery. She seized on the idea and made thenewly-founded nunnery a house of doves. Someone sent her a freshly-discovered dove, a sort of carrier, but which had in the whitefeathers of its head and neck the form of a religious cowl. Thenunnery flourished for more than a century, when, in the time ofPenda, who was the reactionary of heathendom, it fell into decay.In the meantime the doves, protected by religious feeling, hadincreased mightily, and were known in all Catholic communities.When King Offa ruled in Mercia, about a hundred and fifty yearslater, he restored Christianity, and under its protection thenunnery of St. Columba was restored and its doves flourished again.In process of time this religious house again fell into desuetude;but before it disappeared it had achieved a great name for goodworks, and in especial for the piety of its members. If deeds andprayers and hopes and earnest thinking leave anywhere any moraleffect, Mercy Farm and all around it have almost the right to beconsidered holy ground.""Thank you, sir," said Adam earnestly, and was silent. SirNathaniel understood.After lunch that day, Adam casually asked Sir Nathaniel to come fora walk with him. The keen-witted old diplomatist guessed that theremust be some motive behind the suggestion, and he at once agreed.As soon as they were free from observation, Adam began."I am afraid, sir, that there is more going on in this neighbourhoodthan most people imagine. I was out this morning, and on the edgeof the small wood, I came upon the body of a child by the roadside.At first, I thought she was dead, and while examining her, I noticedon her neck some marks that looked like those of teeth.""Some wild dog, perhaps?" put in Sir Nathaniel."Possibly, sir, though I think not--but listen to the rest of mynews. I glanced around, and to my surprise, I noticed somethingwhite moving among the trees. I placed the child down carefully,and followed, but I could not find any further traces. So Ireturned to the child and resumed my examination, and, to mydelight, I discovered that she was still alive. I chafed her handsand gradually she revived, but to my disappointment she rememberednothing--except that something had crept up quietly from behind, andhad gripped her round the throat. Then, apparently, she fainted.""Gripped her round the throat! Then it cannot have been a dog.""No, sir, that is my difficulty, and explains why I brought you outhere, where we cannot possibly be overheard. You have noticed, ofcourse, the peculiar sinuous way in which Lady Arabella moves--well,I feel certain that the white thing that I saw in the wood was themistress of Diana's Grove!""Good God, boy, be careful what you say.""Yes, sir, I fully realise the gravity of my accusation, but I feelconvinced that the marks on the child's throat were human--and madeby a woman."Adam's companion remained silent for some time, deep in thought."Adam, my boy," he said at last, "this matter appears to me to befar more serious even than you think. It forces me to breakconfidence with my old friend, your uncle--but, in order to sparehim, I must do so. For some time now, things have been happening inthis district that have been worrying him dreadfully--several peoplehave disappeared, without leaving the slightest trace; a dead childwas found by the roadside, with no visible or ascertainable cause ofdeath--sheep and other animals have been found in the fields,bleeding from open wounds. There have been other matters--many ofthem apparently trivial in themselves. Some sinister influence hasbeen at work, and I admit that I have suspected Lady Arabella--thatis why I questioned you so closely about the mongoose and itsstrange attack upon Lady Arabella. You will think it strange that Ishould suspect the mistress of Diana's Grove, a beautiful woman ofaristocratic birth. Let me explain--the family seat is near my ownplace, Doom Tower, and at one time I knew the family well. Whenstill a young girl, Lady Arabella wandered into a small wood nearher home, and did not return. She was found unconscious and in ahigh fever--the doctor said that she had received a poisonous bite,and the girl being at a delicate and critical age, the result wasserious--so much so that she was not expected to recover. A greatLondon physician came down but could do nothing--indeed, he saidthat the girl would not survive the night. All hope had beenabandoned, when, to everyone's surprise, Lady Arabella made a suddenand startling recovery. Within a couple of days she was going aboutas usual! But to the horror of her people, she developed a terriblecraving for cruelty, maiming and injuring birds and small animals--even killing them. This was put down to a nervous disturbance dueto her age, and it was hoped that her marriage to Captain Marchwould put this right. However, it was not a happy marriage, andeventually her husband was found shot through the head. I havealways suspected suicide, though no pistol was found near the body.He may have discovered something--God knows what!--so possibly LadyArabella may herself have killed him. Putting together many smallmatters that have come to my knowledge, I have come to theconclusion that the foul White Worm obtained control of her body,just as her soul was leaving its earthly tenement--that wouldexplain the sudden revival of energy, the strange and inexplicablecraving for maiming and killing, as well as many other matters withwhich I need not trouble you now, Adam. As I said just now, Godalone knows what poor Captain March discovered--it must have beensomething too ghastly for human endurance, if my theory is correctthat the once beautiful human body of Lady Arabella is under thecontrol of this ghastly White Worm."Adam nodded."But what can we do, sir--it seems a most difficult problem.""We can do nothing, my boy--that is the important part of it. Itwould be impossible to take action--all we can do is to keep carefulwatch, especially as regards Lady Arabella, and be ready to act,promptly and decisively, if the opportunity occurs."Adam agreed, and the two men returned to Lesser Hill.