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Chapter 19

Summary
Armed with a crucifix, garlic flowers and communion wafers, the men go to Carfax in search of the Count's boxes. They enter the house with the aid of a skeleton key, and find it thick with dust. They find a bunch of keys on a table, which they use to get into the chapel. A foul smell permeates the place. They find that only twenty-nine boxes remain out of the original fifty. Suddenly, a mass of phosphorescent specks appears, and then rats begin to swarm around the chapel. Seward summons his terriers, which stop dead at the threshold and howl. Holmwood carries in one of the dogs, who chases out the rats.
They leave to return home, with Van Helsing giving thanks that they have managed to keep Mina out of danger. Harker finds Mina asleep. Next morning, Mina wakes with a look of terror on her face, and complains of being tired.
Van Helsing visits Renfield in order to interview him, but Renfield only curses him and refuses to say anything more.
Mina recounts in her diary the events of the previous night. She notices a white mist creeping towards the house. As it comes closer, the sound of praying from Renfield's room grows louder. The mist creeps under the door of her room and concentrates into a pillar topped with one red eye, which she believes to be a gaslight. Then the one red eye becomes two. Mina becomes conscious of a white face bending over her in the mist. She suspects it is a dream.
The next day, Mina records that she feels weak and unrefreshed by sleep.
Analysis
Van Helsing's happiness that he and the other men have spared Mina the risks involved in their campaign against the Count is premature and heavily ironic. Left alone in the asylum, a series of strange events befalls Mina that suggests that she is being targeted by the Count. Her growing weakness confirms this.