If there is any good in life, in history, in my own past, I invoke it now. I invoke it with all the passion with which I have lived.

... I grant you that anyone who pokes around in history long enough may well go mad.

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history.

I like a puzzle, as you know. So does every scholar worth his salt. It's the reward of the business, to look history in the eye and say, 'I know who you are. You can't fool me'.

Imagine, Dracula a pawn in the hands of the infidel. I wasted no time there-I learned everything I could about them, so that I might surpass them all. That was when I vowed to make history, not to be its victim.