If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the "land beyond the forest." That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 18. Prof. Van Helsing describes Dracula before he became a vampire. He warns that in the battle between good and evil, they were now facing that formidable intellect and determination the Count had inherited from his previous life.