Day by day I learned the truth. There were no servants in the castle: the Count made my bed and laid my table himself. Every door was locked. I was a prisoner. One evening I leaned from my window and saw something come out of the Count's window below. It was the Count himself, face down, with his cloak spreading around him like great wings. He crawled down the wall over that dreadful pit, moving his fingers and toes like a lizard on a house wall. What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature? I felt the terror of a hunted animal. Later I found three young women in a dusty room, beautiful, with red mouths and white teeth. They came near me, laughing, and one bent her head over my throat. Then the Count seized her by the neck and threw her back with fury. "This man belongs to me," he said, and gave them a bag that moved and made a small sound.