Provision
    was made for the possibility of any accidental visit to the church. At such times, warned by an automatic signal from the opening door,
    she was to take her place in the tomb. The mechanism was so arranged
    that the means to replace the glass cover, and to take the opiate,
    were there ready to her hand. There was to be always a watch of
    priests at night in the church, to guard her from ghostly fears as
    well as from more physical dangers; and if she was actually in her
    tomb, it was to be visited at certain intervals. Even the draperies
    which covered her in the sarcophagus were rested on a bridge placed
    from side to side just above her, so as to hide the rising and
    falling of her bosom as she slept under the narcotic. After a while the prolonged strain began to tell so much on her that
    it was decided that she should take now and again exercise out of
    doors. This was not difficult, for when the Vampire story which we
    had spread began to be widely known, her being seen would be accepted
    as a proof of its truth. Still, as there was a certain danger in her
    being seen at all, we thought it necessary to exact from her a solemn
    oath that so long as her sad task lasted she should under no
    circumstances ever wear any dress but her shroud--this being the only
    way to insure secrecy and to prevail against accident. There is a secret way from the Crypt to a sea cavern, whose entrance
    is at high-tide under the water-line at the base of the cliff on
    which the church is built. A boat, shaped like a coffin, was
    provided for her; and in this she was accustomed to pass across the
    creek whenever she wished to make excursion. It was an excellent
    device, and most efficacious in disseminating the Vampire belief. This state of things had now lasted from before the time when the
    Gospodar Rupert came to Vissarion up to the day of the arrival of the
    armoured yacht. That night the priest on duty, on going his round of the Crypt just
    before dawn, found the tomb empty. He called the others, and they
    made full search. The boat was gone from the cavern, but on making
    search they found it on the farther side of the creek, close to the
    garden stairs. Beyond this they could discover nothing. She seemed
    to have disappeared without leaving a trace. Straightway they went to the Vladika, and signalled to me by the
    fire-signal at the monastery at Astrag, where I then was. I took a
    band of mountaineers with me, and set out to scour the country. But
    before going I sent an urgent message to the Gospodar Rupert, asking
    him, who showed so much interest and love to our Land, to help us in
    our trouble. He, of course, knew nothing then of all have now told
    you. Nevertheless, he devoted himself whole-heartedly to our
    needs--as doubtless you know. But the time had now come close when the Voivode Vissarion was about
    to return from his mission; and we of the council of his daughter's
    guardianship were beginning to arrange matters so that at his return
    the good news of her being still alive could be made public. With
    her father present to vouch for her, no question as to truth could
    arise. But by some means the Turkish "Bureau of Spies" must have got
    knowledge of the fact already. To steal a dead body for the purpose
    of later establishing a fictitious claim would have been an
    enterprise even more desperate than that already undertaken. We
    inferred from many signs, made known to us in an investigation, that
    a daring party of the Sultan's emissaries had made a secret incursion
    with the object of kidnapping the Voivodin. They must have been bold
    of heart and strong of resource to enter the Land of the Blue
    Mountains on any errand, let alone such a desperate one as this. For
    centuries we have been teaching the Turk through bitter lessons that
    it is neither a safe task nor an easy one to make incursion here. How they did it we know not--at present; but enter they did, and,
    after waiting in some secret hiding-place for a favourable
    opportunity, secured their prey. We know not even now whether they
    had found entrance to the Crypt and stole, as they thought, the dead
    body, or whether, by some dire mischance, they found her
    abroad--under her disguise as a ghost. At any rate, they had
    captured her, and through devious ways amongst the mountains were
    bearing her back to Turkey. It was manifest that when she was on
    Turkish soil the Sultan would force a marriage on her so as
    eventually to secure for himself or his successors as against all
    other nations a claim for the suzerainty or guardianship of the Blue
    Mountains. Such was the state of affairs when the Gospodar Rupert threw himself
    into the pursuit with fiery zeal and the Berserk passion which he
    inherited from Viking ancestors, whence of old came "The Sword of
    Freedom" himself. But at that very time was another possibility which the Gospodar was
    himself the first to realize. Failing the getting the Voivodin safe
    to Turkish soil, the ravishers might kill her! This would be
    entirely in accord with the base traditions and history of the
    Moslems. So, too, it would accord with Turkish customs and the
    Sultan's present desires. It would, in its way, benefit the ultimate
    strategetic ends of Turkey. For were once the Vissarion race at an
    end, the subjection of the Land of the Blue Mountains might, in their
    view, be an easier task than it had yet been found to be. Such, illustrious lady, were the conditions of affairs when the
    Gospodar Rupert first drew his handjar for the Blue Mountains and
    what it held most dear. PALEALOGUE,
              _Archbishop of the Eastern Church_, _in the Land of the Blue
                                                               Mountains_. RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_. _July_ 8, 1907. I wonder if ever in the long, strange history of the world had there come
to any other such glad tidings as came to me--and even then rather
inferentially than directly--from the Archimandrite's answers to my
questioning. Happily I was able to restrain myself, or I should have
created some strange confusion which might have evoked distrust, and
would certainly have hampered us in our pursuit. For a little I could
hardly accept the truth which wove itself through my brain as the true
inwardness of each fact came home to me and took its place in the whole
fabric. But even the most welcome truth has to be accepted some time by
even a doubting heart. My heart, whatever it may have been, was not then
a doubting heart, but a very, very grateful one. It was only the
splendid magnitude of the truth which forbade its immediate acceptance. I could have shouted for joy, and only stilled myself by keeping my
thoughts fixed on the danger which my wife was in. My wife! My wife!