When I found that I was a prisoner it gave me a sort of wild feeling. I rushed up and down the stairs, trying to open every door and peering out of every window I could find. But after a little while I could feel nothing but the certainty that I was helpless. When I look back after a few hours I think I must have been mad for a while, because I behaved like a rat in a trap.

However, when I finally understood that I was helpless I sat down quietly, as quietly as I have ever done anything in my life. I began to think over what was the pxbest thing to do. I am still thinking, and so far I have not come to any definite conclusion. I am only certain of one thing. It is useless telling the Count what I think. He knows very well that I am a prisoner, because he is the one who has imprisoned me. No doubt he has his own motives for it, and he would only lie to me if I trusted him with the facts.

So far as I can see, my only plan is to keep my knowledge and my fears to myself. I must also keep my eyes open. I know that either I am being like a baby, and being deceived by my own fears, or else I am in very serious danger. If it is the latter I will need all my brains to get through.

Vocabulary:

Rush: Go as fast as possible
Peer: Stretch to look
Certainty: Being completely sure
Helpless: Not able to do anything to save yourself
Conclusion: Result, decision
Motives: Reasons
Deceived: Made to think something is true when it is not
Latter: Last, the final one