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diff --git a/old/old/10007-h.htm.20041201 b/old/old/10007-h.htm.20041201 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8057580 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/10007-h.htm.20041201 @@ -0,0 +1,4457 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<title>Carmilla</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<style type="text/css"> +body { font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; + background-color: #ffffff;} +a:link {color:#000000} +a:visited {color:#000000} +a:hover {color:#000000} + +</style> +</head> +<!-- Converted to HTML for the Gutenberg Project by Sjaani --> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Carmilla, by J. Sheridan LeFanu + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: Carmilla + +Author: J. Sheridan LeFanu + +Release Date: November 7, 2003 [EBook #10007] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARMILLA *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<table width="80%" align="center"> + <tr> + <td> + <h1 align="center">Carmilla</h1> + <h3 align="center">J. Sheridan LeFanu<br /> + <br /> + Copyright 1872</h3> <br /> + <br /> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<br /> + +<b>PROLOGUE</b> + +<p><i>Upon a paper attached to the Narrative which follows, +Doctor Hesselius has written a rather elaborate note, which +he accompanies with a reference to his Essay on the strange +subject which the MS. illuminates. +<br /><br /> +This mysterious subject he treats, in that Essay, with his +usual learning and acumen, and with remarkable directness +and condensation. It will form but one volume of the series +of that extraordinary man's collected papers. +<br /><br /> +As I publish the case, in this volume, simply to interest the +"laity," I shall forestall the intelligent lady, who relates it, in +nothing; and after due consideration, I have determined, +therefore, to abstain from presenting any précis of the learned +Doctor's reasoning, or extract from his statement on a subject +which he describes as "involving, not improbably, some of the +profoundest arcana of our dual existence, and its intermediates." +<br /><br /> +I was anxious on discovering this paper, to reopen the +correspondence commenced by Doctor Hesselius, so many years +before, with a person so clever and careful as his informant +seems to have been. Much to my regret, however, I found that +she had died in the interval. +<br /><br /> +She, probably, could have added little to the Narrative +which she communicates in the following pages, with, so far +as I can pronounce, such conscientious particularity.</i></p> + + + +<h2>I</h2> + + +<p><b>An Early Fright</b></p> + +<p>In Styria, we, though by no means magnificent people, +inhabit a castle, or schloss. A small income, in that +part of the world, goes a great way. Eight or nine +hundred a year does wonders. Scantily enough ours +would have answered among wealthy people at home. +My father is English, and I bear an English name, +although I never saw England. But here, in this lonely +and primitive place, where everything is so marvelously +cheap, I really don't see how ever so much more money +would at all materially add to our comforts, or even +luxuries.</p> + +<p>My father was in the Austrian service, and retired +upon a pension and his patrimony, and purchased this +feudal residence, and the small estate on which it +stands, a bargain.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more picturesque or solitary. It +stands on a slight eminence in a forest. The road, very +old and narrow, passes in front of its drawbridge, never +raised in my time, and its moat, stocked with perch, +and sailed over by many swans, and floating on its +surface white fleets of water lilies.</p> + +<p>Over all this the schloss shows its many-windowed +front; its towers, and its Gothic chapel.</p> + +<p>The forest opens in an irregular and very picturesque +glade before its gate, and at the right a steep Gothic +bridge carries the road over a stream that winds in deep +shadow through the wood. I have said that this is a +very lonely place. Judge whether I say truth. Looking +from the hall door towards the road, the forest in which +our castle stands extends fifteen miles to the right, and +twelve to the left. The nearest inhabited village is about +seven of your English miles to the left. The nearest +inhabited schloss of any historic associations, is that +of old General Spielsdorf, nearly twenty miles away to +the right.</p> + +<p>I have said "the nearest <i>inhabited</i> village," because +there is, only three miles westward, that is to say in the +direction of General Spielsdorf's schloss, a ruined village, +with its quaint little church, now roofless, in the +aisle of which are the moldering tombs of the proud +family of Karnstein, now extinct, who once owned the +equally desolate chateau which, in the thick of the +forest, overlooks the silent ruins of the town.</p> + +<p>Respecting the cause of the desertion of this striking +and melancholy spot, there is a legend which I shall +relate to you another time. +</p> +<p>I must tell you now, how very small is the party who +constitute the inhabitants of our castle. I don't include +servants, or those dependents who occupy rooms in +the buildings attached to the schloss. Listen, and wonder! +My father, who is the kindest man on earth, but +growing old; and I, at the date of my story, only +nineteen. Eight years have passed since then.</p> + +<p>I and my father constituted the family at the schloss. +My mother, a Styrian lady, died in my infancy, but I +had a good-natured governess, who had been with me +from, I might almost say, my infancy. I could not +remember the time when her fat, benignant face was +not a familiar picture in my memory.</p> + +<p>This was Madame Perrodon, a native of Berne, whose +care and good nature now in part supplied to me the +loss of my mother, whom I do not even remember, so +early I lost her. She made a third at our little dinner +party. There was a fourth, Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, +a lady such as you term, I believe, a "finishing +governess." She spoke French and German, Madame +Perrodon French and broken English, to which my +father and I added English, which, partly to prevent +its becoming a lost language among us, and partly from +patriotic motives, we spoke every day. The consequence +was a Babel, at which strangers used to laugh, and +which I shall make no attempt to reproduce in this +narrative. And there were two or three young lady +friends besides, pretty nearly of my own age, who were +occasional visitors, for longer or shorter terms; and +these visits I sometimes returned.</p> + +<p>These were our regular social resources; but of course +there were chance visits from "neighbors" of only five +or six leagues distance. My life was, notwithstanding, +rather a solitary one, I can assure you.</p> + +<p>My gouvernantes had just so much control over me +as you might conjecture such sage persons would have +in the case of a rather spoiled girl, whose only parent +allowed her pretty nearly her own way in everything.</p> + +<p>The first occurrence in my existence, which produced +a terrible impression upon my mind, which, in +fact, never has been effaced, was one of the very earliest +incidents of my life which I can recollect. Some people +will think it so trifling that it should not be recorded +here. You will see, however, by-and-by, why I mention +it. The nursery, as it was called, though I had it all to +myself, was a large room in the upper story of the castle, +with a steep oak roof. I can't have been more than six +years old, when one night I awoke, and looking round +the room from my bed, failed to see the nursery maid. +Neither was my nurse there; and I thought myself +alone. I was not frightened, for I was one of those +happy children who are studiously kept in ignorance +of ghost stories, of fairy tales, and of all such lore as +makes us cover up our heads when the door cracks +suddenly, or the flicker of an expiring candle makes +the shadow of a bedpost dance upon the wall, nearer +to our faces. I was vexed and insulted at finding myself, +as I conceived, neglected, and I began to whimper, +preparatory to a hearty bout of roaring; when to my +surprise, I saw a solemn, but very pretty face looking +at me from the side of the bed. It was that of a young +lady who was kneeling, with her hands under the +coverlet. I looked at her with a kind of pleased wonder, +and ceased whimpering. She caressed me with her +hands, and lay down beside me on the bed, and drew +me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately delightfully +soothed, and fell asleep again. I was wakened by a +sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep +at the same moment, and I cried loudly. The lady +started back, with her eyes fixed on me, and then +slipped down upon the floor, and, as I thought, hid +herself under the bed. +</p> +<p> +I was now for the first time frightened, and I yelled +with all my might and main. Nurse, nursery maid, +housekeeper, all came running in, and hearing my +story, they made light of it, soothing me all they could +meanwhile. But, child as I was, I could perceive that +their faces were pale with an unwonted look of anxiety, +and I saw them look under the bed, and about the +room, and peep under tables and pluck open cupboards; +and the housekeeper whispered to the nurse: +"Lay your hand along that hollow in the bed; someone +<i>did</i> lie there, so sure as you did not; the place is still +warm."</p> + +<p>I remember the nursery maid petting me, and all +three examining my chest, where I told them I felt the +puncture, and pronouncing that there was no sign +visible that any such thing had happened to me.</p> + +<p>The housekeeper and the two other servants who +were in charge of the nursery, remained sitting up all +night; and from that time a servant always sat up in +the nursery until I was about fourteen.</p> + +<p>I was very nervous for a long time after this. A doctor +was called in, he was pallid and elderly. How well I +remember his long saturnine face, slightly pitted with +smallpox, and his chestnut wig. For a good while, every +second day, he came and gave me medicine, which of +course I hated.</p> + +<p>The morning after I saw this apparition I was in a +state of terror, and could not bear to be left alone, +daylight though it was, for a moment.</p> + +<p>I remember my father coming up and standing at +the bedside, and talking cheerfully, and asking the +nurse a number of questions, and laughing very heartily +at one of the answers; and patting me on the +shoulder, and kissing me, and telling me not to be +frightened, that it was nothing but a dream and could +not hurt me.</p> + +<p>But I was not comforted, for I knew the visit of the +strange woman was <i>not</i> a dream; and I was <i>awfully</i> +frightened.</p> + +<p>I was a little consoled by the nursery maid's assuring +me that it was she who had come and looked at me, +and lain down beside me in the bed, and that I must +have been half-dreaming not to have known her face. +But this, though supported by the nurse, did not quite +satisfy me.</p> + +<p>I remembered, in the course of that day, a venerable +old man, in a black cassock, coming into the room +with the nurse and housekeeper, and talking a little to +them, and very kindly to me; his face was very sweet +and gentle, and he told me they were going to pray, +and joined my hands together, and desired me to say, +softly, while they were praying, "Lord hear all good +prayers for us, for Jesus' sake." I think these were the +very words, for I often repeated them to myself, and +my nurse used for years to make me say them in my +prayers.</p> + +<p>I remembered so well the thoughtful sweet face of +that white-haired old man, in his black cassock, as he +stood in that rude, lofty, brown room, with the clumsy +furniture of a fashion three hundred years old about +him, and the scanty light entering its shadowy atmosphere +through the small lattice. He kneeled, and the +three women with him, and he prayed aloud with an +earnest quavering voice for, what appeared to me, a +long time. I forget all my life preceding that event, and +for some time after it is all obscure also, but the scenes +I have just described stand out vivid as the isolated +pictures of the phantasmagoria surrounded by darkness.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>II</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>A Guest</b></p> + +<p>I am now going to tell you something so strange that +it will require all your faith in my veracity to believe +my story. It is not only true, nevertheless, but truth of +which I have been an eyewitness.</p> + +<p>It was a sweet summer evening, and my father asked +me, as he sometimes did, to take a little ramble with +him along that beautiful forest vista which I have +mentioned as lying in front of the schloss.</p> + +<p>"General Spielsdorf cannot come to us so soon as I +had hoped," said my father, as we pursued our walk.</p> + +<p>He was to have paid us a visit of some weeks, and +we had expected his arrival next day. He was to have +brought with him a young lady, his niece and ward, +Mademoiselle Rheinfeldt, whom I had never seen, but +whom I had heard described as a very charming girl, +and in whose society I had promised myself many +happy days. I was more disappointed than a young lady +living in a town, or a bustling neighborhood can +possibly imagine. This visit, and the new acquaintance +it promised, had furnished my day dream for many +weeks</p> + +<p>"And how soon does he come?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Not till autumn. Not for two months, I dare say," +he answered. "And I am very glad now, dear, that you +never knew Mademoiselle Rheinfeldt."</p> + +<p>"And why?" I asked, both mortified and curious.</p> + +<p>"Because the poor young lady is dead," he replied. +"I quite forgot I had not told you, but you were not in +the room when I received the General's letter this +evening."</p> + +<p>I was very much shocked. General Spielsdorf had +mentioned in his first letter, six or seven weeks before, +that she was not so well as he would wish her, but there +was nothing to suggest the remotest suspicion of danger.</p> + +<p>"Here is the General's letter," he said, handing it to +me. "I am afraid he is in great affliction; the letter +appears to me to have been written very nearly in +distraction."</p> + +<p>We sat down on a rude bench, under a group of +magnificent lime trees. The sun was setting with all its +melancholy splendor behind the sylvan horizon, and +the stream that flows beside our home, and passes +under the steep old bridge I have mentioned, wound +through many a group of noble trees, almost at our +feet, reflecting in its current the fading crimson of the +sky. General Spielsdorf's letter was so extraordinary, so +vehement, and in some places so self-contradictory, +that I read it twice over--the second time aloud to my +father--and was still unable to account for it, except +by supposing that grief had unsettled his mind.</p> + +<p>It said "I have lost my darling daughter, for as such +I loved her. During the last days of dear Bertha's illness +I was not able to write to you.</p> + +<p>Before then I had no idea of her danger. I have lost +her, and now learn <i>all</i>, too late. She died in the peace +of innocence, and in the glorious hope of a blessed +futurity. The fiend who betrayed our infatuated hospitality +has done it all. I thought I was receiving into +my house innocence, gaiety, a charming companion +for my lost Bertha. Heavens! what a fool have I been!</p> + +<p>I thank God my child died without a suspicion of +the cause of her sufferings. She is gone without so +much as conjecturing the nature of her illness, and the +accursed passion of the agent of all this misery. I devote +my remaining days to tracking and extinguishing a +monster. I am told I may hope to accomplish my +righteous and merciful purpose. At present there is +scarcely a gleam of light to guide me. I curse my +conceited incredulity, my despicable affectation of superiority, +my blindness, my obstinacy--all--too late. +I cannot write or talk collectedly now. I am distracted. +So soon as I shall have a little recovered, I mean to +devote myself for a time to enquiry, which may possibly +lead me as far as Vienna. Some time in the autumn, +two months hence, or earlier if I live, I will see you--that +is, if you permit me; I will then tell you all that I +scarce dare put upon paper now. Farewell. Pray for me, +dear friend."</p> + +<p>In these terms ended this strange letter. Though I +had never seen Bertha Rheinfeldt my eyes filled with +tears at the sudden intelligence; I was startled, as well +as profoundly disappointed.</p> + +<p>The sun had now set, and it was twilight by the time +I had returned the General's letter to my father.</p> + +<p>It was a soft clear evening, and we loitered, speculating +upon the possible meanings of the violent and +incoherent sentences which I had just been reading. We +had nearly a mile to walk before reaching the road that +passes the schloss in front, and by that time the moon +was shining brilliantly. At the drawbridge we met Madame +Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, who +had come out, without their bonnets, to enjoy the +exquisite moonlight.</p> + +<p>We heard their voices gabbling in animated dialogue +as we approached. We joined them at the drawbridge, +and turned about to admire with them the beautiful +scene.</p> + +<p>The glade through which we had just walked lay +before us. At our left the narrow road wound away +under clumps of lordly trees, and was lost to sight amid +the thickening forest. At the right the same road crosses +the steep and picturesque bridge, near which stands a +ruined tower which once guarded that pass; and beyond +the bridge an abrupt eminence rises, covered with +trees, and showing in the shadows some grey ivy-clustered +rocks.</p> + +<p>Over the sward and low grounds a thin film of mist +was stealing like smoke, marking the distances with a +transparent veil; and here and there we could see the +river faintly flashing in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>No softer, sweeter scene could be imagined. The +news I had just heard made it melancholy; but nothing +could disturb its character of profound serenity, and +the enchanted glory and vagueness of the prospect.</p> + +<p>My father, who enjoyed the picturesque, and I, stood +looking in silence over the expanse beneath us. The +two good governesses, standing a little way behind us, +discoursed upon the scene, and were eloquent upon +the moon.</p> + +<p>Madame Perrodon was fat, middle-aged, and romantic, +and talked and sighed poetically. Mademoiselle De +Lafontaine--in right of her father who was a German, +assumed to be psychological, metaphysical, and something +of a mystic--now declared that when the moon +shone with a light so intense it was well known that it +indicated a special spiritual activity. The effect of the +full moon in such a state of brilliancy was manifold. +It acted on dreams, it acted on lunacy, it acted on +nervous people, it had marvelous physical influences +connected with life. Mademoiselle related that her +cousin, who was mate of a merchant ship, having taken +a nap on deck on such a night, lying on his back, with +his face full in the light on the moon, had wakened, +after a dream of an old woman clawing him by the +cheek, with his features horribly drawn to one side; +and his countenance had never quite recovered its +equilibrium.</p> + +<p>"The moon, this night," she said, "is full of idyllic +and magnetic influence--and see, when you look +behind you at the front of the schloss how all its +windows flash and twinkle with that silvery splendor, +as if unseen hands had lighted up the rooms to receive +fairy guests."</p> + +<p>There are indolent styles of the spirits in which, +indisposed to talk ourselves, the talk of others is pleasant +to our listless ears; and I gazed on, pleased with the +tinkle of the ladies' conversation.</p> + +<p>"I have got into one of my moping moods tonight," +said my father, after a silence, and quoting Shakespeare, +whom, by way of keeping up our English, he used to +read aloud, he said:</p> + +"'In truth I know not why I am so sad.<br /> +It wearies me: you say it wearies you;<br /> +But how I got it--came by it.'<br /> + +<p>"I forget the rest. But I feel as if some great misfortune +were hanging over us. I suppose the poor General's +afflicted letter has had something to do with it."</p> + +<p>At this moment the unwonted sound of carriage +wheels and many hoofs upon the road, arrested our +attention.</p> + +<p>They seemed to be approaching from the high +ground overlooking the bridge, and very soon the +equipage emerged from that point. Two horsemen first +crossed the bridge, then came a carriage drawn by four +horses, and two men rode behind.</p> + +<p>It seemed to be the traveling carriage of a person of +rank; and we were all immediately absorbed in watching +that very unusual spectacle. It became, in a few +moments, greatly more interesting, for just as the carriage +had passed the summit of the steep bridge, one +of the leaders, taking fright, communicated his panic +to the rest, and after a plunge or two, the whole team +broke into a wild gallop together, and dashing between +the horsemen who rode in front, came thundering +along the road towards us with the speed of a hurricane.</p> + +<p>The excitement of the scene was made more painful +by the clear, long-drawn screams of a female voice from +the carriage window.</p> + +<p>We all advanced in curiosity and horror; me rather +in silence, the rest with various ejaculations of terror.</p> + +<p>Our suspense did not last long. Just before you reach +the castle drawbridge, on the route they were coming, +there stands by the roadside a magnificent lime tree, +on the other stands an ancient stone cross, at sight of +which the horses, now going at a pace that was perfectly +frightful, swerved so as to bring the wheel over the +projecting roots of the tree.</p> + +<p>I knew what was coming. I covered my eyes, unable +to see it out, and turned my head away; at the same +moment I heard a cry from my lady friends, who had +gone on a little.</p> + +<p>Curiosity opened my eyes, and I saw a scene of utter +confusion. Two of the horses were on the ground, the +carriage lay upon its side with two wheels in the air; +the men were busy removing the traces, and a lady, +with a commanding air and figure had got out, and +stood with clasped hands, raising the handkerchief that +was in them every now and then to her eyes.</p> + +<p>Through the carriage door was now lifted a young +lady, who appeared to be lifeless. My dear old father +was already beside the elder lady, with his hat in his +hand, evidently tendering his aid and the resources of +his schloss. The lady did not appear to hear him, or to +have eyes for anything but the slender girl who was +being placed against the slope of the bank.</p> + +<p>I approached; the young lady was apparently +stunned, but she was certainly not dead. My father, +who piqued himself on being something of a physician, +had just had his fingers on her wrist and assured +the lady, who declared herself her mother, that her +pulse, though faint and irregular, was undoubtedly still +distinguishable. The lady clasped her hands and +looked upward, as if in a momentary transport of +gratitude; but immediately she broke out again in that +theatrical way which is, I believe, natural to some +people.</p> + +<p>She was what is called a fine looking woman for her +time of life, and must have been handsome; she was +tall, but not thin, and dressed in black velvet, and +looked rather pale, but with a proud and commanding +countenance, though now agitated strangely.</p> + +<p>"Who was ever being so born to calamity?" I heard +her say, with clasped hands, as I came up. "Here am I, +on a journey of life and death, in prosecuting which +to lose an hour is possibly to lose all. My child will +not have recovered sufficiently to resume her route for +who can say how long. I must leave her: I cannot, dare +not, delay. How far on, sir, can you tell, is the nearest +village? I must leave her there; and shall not see my +darling, or even hear of her till my return, three months +hence."</p> + +<p>I plucked my father by the coat, and whispered +earnestly in his ear: "Oh!</p> + +<p>papa, pray ask her to let her stay with us--it would +be so delightful. Do, pray."</p> + +<p>"If Madame will entrust her child to the care of my +daughter, and of her good gouvernante, Madame Perrodon, +and permit her to remain as our guest, under +my charge, until her return, it will confer a distinction +and an obligation upon us, and we shall treat her with +all the care and devotion which so sacred a trust deserves."</p> + +<p>"I cannot do that, sir, it would be to task your +kindness and chivalry too cruelly," said the lady, distractedly.</p> + +<p>"It would, on the contrary, be to confer on us a very +great kindness at the moment when we most need it. +My daughter has just been disappointed by a cruel +misfortune, in a visit from which she had long anticipated +a great deal of happiness. If you confide this +young lady to our care it will be her best consolation. +The nearest village on your route is distant, and affords +no such inn as you could think of placing your daughter +at; you cannot allow her to continue her journey +for any considerable distance without danger. If, as you +say, you cannot suspend your journey, you must part +with her tonight, and nowhere could you do so with +more honest assurances of care and tenderness than +here."</p> + +<p>There was something in this lady's air and appearance +so distinguished and even imposing, and in her +manner so engaging, as to impress one, quite apart +from the dignity of her equipage, with a conviction +that she was a person of consequence.</p> + +<p>By this time the carriage was replaced in its upright +position, and the horses, quite tractable, in the traces +again.</p> + +<p>The lady threw on her daughter a glance which I +fancied was not quite so affectionate as one might have +anticipated from the beginning of the scene; then she +beckoned slightly to my father, and withdrew two or +three steps with him out of hearing; and talked to him +with a fixed and stern countenance, not at all like that +with which she had hitherto spoken.</p> + +<p>I was filled with wonder that my father did not seem +to perceive the change, and also unspeakably curious +to learn what it could be that she was speaking, almost +in his ear, with so much earnestness and rapidity.</p> + +<p>Two or three minutes at most I think she remained +thus employed, then she turned, and a few steps +brought her to where her daughter lay, supported by +Madame Perrodon. She kneeled beside her for a moment +and whispered, as Madame supposed, a little +benediction in her ear; then hastily kissing her she +stepped into her carriage, the door was closed, the +footmen in stately liveries jumped up behind, the +outriders spurred on, the postilions cracked their +whips, the horses plunged and broke suddenly into a +furious canter that threatened soon again to become a +gallop, and the carriage whirled away, followed at the +same rapid pace by the two horsemen in the rear.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>III</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>We Compare Notes</b></p> + +<p>We followed the <i>cortege</i> with our eyes until it was +swiftly lost to sight in the misty wood; and the very +sound of the hoofs and the wheels died away in the +silent night air.</p> + +<p>Nothing remained to assure us that the adventure +had not been an illusion of a moment but the young +lady, who just at that moment opened her eyes. I could +not see, for her face was turned from me, but she raised +her head, evidently looking about her, and I heard a +very sweet voice ask complainingly, "Where is +mamma?"</p> + +<p>Our good Madame Perrodon answered tenderly, and +added some comfortable assurances.</p> + +<p>I then heard her ask:</p> + +<p>"Where am I? What is this place?" and after that she +said, "I don't see the carriage; and Matska, where is +she?"</p> + +<p>Madame answered all her questions in so far as she +understood them; and gradually the young lady remembered +how the misadventure came about, and was +glad to hear that no one in, or in attendance on, the +carriage was hurt; and on learning that her mamma +had left her here, till her return in about three months, +she wept.</p> + +<p>I was going to add my consolations to those of +Madame Perrodon when Mademoiselle De Lafontaine +placed her hand upon my arm, saying:</p> + +<p>"Don't approach, one at a time is as much as she can +at present converse with; a very little excitement would +possibly overpower her now."</p> + +<p>As soon as she is comfortably in bed, I thought, I +will run up to her room and see her.</p> + +<p>My father in the meantime had sent a servant on +horseback for the physician, who lived about two +leagues away; and a bedroom was being prepared for +the young lady's reception.</p> + +<p>The stranger now rose, and leaning on Madame's +arm, walked slowly over the drawbridge and into the +castle gate.</p> + +<p>In the hall, servants waited to receive her, and she +was conducted forthwith to her room. The room we +usually sat in as our drawing room is long, having four +windows, that looked over the moat and drawbridge, +upon the forest scene I have just described.</p> + +<p>It is furnished in old carved oak, with large carved +cabinets, and the chairs are cushioned with crimson +Utrecht velvet. The walls are covered with tapestry, and +surrounded with great gold frames, the figures being +as large as life, in ancient and very curious costume, +and the subjects represented are hunting, hawking, and +generally festive. It is not too stately to be extremely +comfortable; and here we had our tea, for with his +usual patriotic leanings he insisted that the national +beverage should make its appearance regularly with +our coffee and chocolate.</p> + +<p>We sat here this night, and with candles lighted, were +talking over the adventure of the evening.</p> + +<p>Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine +were both of our party. The young stranger had +hardly lain down in her bed when she sank into a deep +sleep; and those ladies had left her in the care of a +servant.</p> + +<p>"How do you like our guest?" I asked, as soon as +Madame entered. "Tell me all about her?"</p> + +<p>"I like her extremely," answered Madame, "she is, I +almost think, the prettiest creature I ever saw; about +your age, and so gentle and nice."</p> + +<p>"She is absolutely beautiful," threw in Mademoiselle, +who had peeped for a moment into the stranger's +room.</p> + +<p>"And such a sweet voice!" added Madame Perrodon.</p> + +<p>"Did you remark a woman in the carriage, after it +was set up again, who did not get out," inquired Mademoiselle, +"but only looked from the window?"</p> + +<p>"No, we had not seen her."</p> + +<p>Then she described a hideous black woman, with a +sort of colored turban on her head, and who was gazing +all the time from the carriage window, nodding and +grinning derisively towards the ladies, with gleaming +eyes and large white eyeballs, and her teeth set as if in +fury.</p> + +<p>"Did you remark what an ill-looking pack of men +the servants were?" asked Madame.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said my father, who had just come in, "ugly, +hang-dog looking fellows as ever I beheld in my life. I +hope they mayn't rob the poor lady in the forest. They +are clever rogues, however; they got everything to rights +in a minute."</p> + +<p>"I dare say they are worn out with too long traveling--said +Madame.</p> + +<p>"Besides looking wicked, their faces were so strangely +lean, and dark, and sullen. I am very curious, I own; +but I dare say the young lady will tell you all about it +tomorrow, if she is sufficiently recovered."</p> + +<p>"I don't think she will," said my father, with a +mysterious smile, and a little nod of his head, as if he +knew more about it than he cared to tell us.</p> + +<p>This made us all the more inquisitive as to what had +passed between him and the lady in the black velvet, +in the brief but earnest interview that had immediately +preceded her departure.</p> + +<p>We were scarcely alone, when I entreated him to tell +me. He did not need much pressing.</p> + +<p>"There is no particular reason why I should not tell +you. She expressed a reluctance to trouble us with the +care of her daughter, saying she was in delicate health, +and nervous, but not subject to any kind of seizure--she +volunteered that--nor to any illusion; being, in +fact, perfectly sane."</p> + +<p>"How very odd to say all that!" I interpolated. "It +was so unnecessary."</p> + +<p>"At all events it <i>was</i> said," he laughed, "and as you +wish to know all that passed, which was indeed very +little, I tell you. She then said, 'I am making a long +journey of <i>vital</i> importance--she emphasized the word--rapid +and secret; I shall return for my child in three +months; in the meantime, she will be silent as to who +we are, whence we come, and whither we are traveling.' +That is all she said. She spoke very pure French. When +she said the word 'secret,' she paused for a few seconds, +looking sternly, her eyes fixed on mine. I fancy she +makes a great point of that. You saw how quickly she +was gone. I hope I have not done a very foolish thing, +in taking charge of the young lady."</p> + +<p>For my part, I was delighted. I was longing to see +and talk to her; and only waiting till the doctor should +give me leave. You, who live in towns, can have no idea +how great an event the introduction of a new friend is, +in such a solitude as surrounded us.</p> + +<p>The doctor did not arrive till nearly one o'clock; but +I could no more have gone to my bed and slept, than +I could have overtaken, on foot, the carriage in which +the princess in black velvet had driven away.</p> + +<p>When the physician came down to the drawing +room, it was to report very favorably upon his patient. +She was now sitting up, her pulse quite regular, apparently +perfectly well. She had sustained no injury, and +the little shock to her nerves had passed away quite +harmlessly. There could be no harm certainly in my +seeing her, if we both wished it; and, with this permission +I sent, forthwith, to know whether she would +allow me to visit her for a few minutes in her room.</p> + +<p>The servant returned immediately to say that she +desired nothing more.</p> + +<p>You may be sure I was not long in availing myself of +this permission.</p> + +<p>Our visitor lay in one of the handsomest rooms in +the schloss. It was, perhaps, a little stately. There was a +somber piece of tapestry opposite the foot of the bed, +representing Cleopatra with the asps to her bosom; and +other solemn classic scenes were displayed, a little +faded, upon the other walls. But there was gold carving, +and rich and varied color enough in the other decorations +of the room, to more than redeem the gloom of +the old tapestry.</p> + +<p>There were candles at the bedside. She was sitting up; +her slender pretty figure enveloped in the soft silk +dressing gown, embroidered with flowers, and lined +with thick quilted silk, which her mother had thrown +over her feet as she lay upon the ground.</p> + +<p>What was it that, as I reached the bedside and had +just begun my little greeting, struck me dumb in a +moment, and made me recoil a step or two from before +her? I will tell you.</p> + +<p>I saw the very face which had visited me in my +childhood at night, which remained so fixed in my +memory, and on which I had for so many years so +often ruminated with horror, when no one suspected +of what I was thinking.</p> + +<p>It was pretty, even beautiful; and when I first beheld +it, wore the same melancholy expression.</p> + +<p>But this almost instantly lighted into a strange fixed +smile of recognition.</p> + +<p>There was a silence of fully a minute, and then at +length she spoke; I could not.</p> + +<p>"How wonderful!" she exclaimed. "Twelve years ago, +I saw your face in a dream, and it has haunted me ever +since."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful indeed!" I repeated, overcoming with an +effort the horror that had for a time suspended my +utterances. "Twelve years ago, in vision or reality, I +certainly saw you. I could not forget your face. It has +remained before my eyes ever since."</p> + +<p>Her smile had softened. Whatever I had fancied +strange in it, was gone, and it and her dimpling cheeks +were now delightfully pretty and intelligent.</p> + +<p>I felt reassured, and continued more in the vein +which hospitality indicated, to bid her welcome, and +to tell her how much pleasure her accidental arrival +had given us all, and especially what a happiness it was +to me.</p> + +<p>I took her hand as I spoke. I was a little shy, as lonely +people are, but the situation made me eloquent, and +even bold. She pressed my hand, she laid hers upon it, +and her eyes glowed, as, looking hastily into mine, she +smiled again, and blushed.</p> + +<p>She answered my welcome very prettily. I sat down +beside her, still wondering; and she said:</p> + +<p>"I must tell you my vision about you; it is so very +strange that you and I should have had, each of the +other so vivid a dream, that each should have seen, I +you and you me, looking as we do now, when of course +we both were mere children. I was a child, about six +years old, and I awoke from a confused and troubled +dream, and found myself in a room, unlike my nursery, +wainscoted clumsily in some dark wood, and with +cupboards and bedsteads, and chairs, and benches +placed about it. The beds were, I thought, all empty, +and the room itself without anyone but myself in it; +and I, after looking about me for some time, and +admiring especially an iron candlestick with two +branches, which I should certainly know again, crept +under one of the beds to reach the window; but as I +got from under the bed, I heard someone crying; and +looking up, while I was still upon my knees, I saw you--most +assuredly you--as I see you now; a beautiful +young lady, with golden hair and large blue eyes, and +lips--your lips--you as you are here.</p> + +<p>"Your looks won me; I climbed on the bed and put +my arms about you, and I think we both fell asleep. I +was aroused by a scream; you were sitting up screaming. +I was frightened, and slipped down upon the ground, +and, it seemed to me, lost consciousness for a moment; +and when I came to myself, I was again in my nursery +at home. Your face I have never forgotten since. I could +not be misled by mere resemblance. <i>You are</i> the lady +whom I saw then."</p> + +<p>It was now my turn to relate my corresponding +vision, which I did, to the undisguised wonder of my +new acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"I don't know which should be most afraid of the +other," she said, again smiling--"If you were less pretty +I think I should be very much afraid of you, but being +as you are, and you and I both so young, I feel only +that I have made your acquaintance twelve years ago, +and have already a right to your intimacy; at all events +it does seem as if we were destined, from our earliest +childhood, to be friends. I wonder whether you feel as +strangely drawn towards me as I do to you; I have never +had a friend--shall I find one now?" She sighed, and +her fine dark eyes gazed passionately on me.</p> + +<p>Now the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards +the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, "drawn +towards her," but there was also something of repulsion. +In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of +attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and +won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably +engaging.</p> + +<p>I perceived now something of languor and exhaustion +stealing over her, and hastened to bid her good +night.</p> + +<p>"The doctor thinks," I added, "that you ought to +have a maid to sit up with you tonight; one of ours is +waiting, and you will find her a very useful and quiet +creature."</p> + +<p>"How kind of you, but I could not sleep, I never +could with an attendant in the room. I shan't require +any assistance--and, shall I confess my weakness, I am +haunted with a terror of robbers. Our house was +robbed once, and two servants murdered, so I always +lock my door. It has become a habit--and you look +so kind I know you will forgive me. I see there is a key +in the lock."</p> + +<p>She held me close in her pretty arms for a moment +and whispered in my ear, "Good night, darling, it is +very hard to part with you, but good night; tomorrow, +but not early, I shall see you again."</p> + +<p>She sank back on the pillow with a sigh, and her fine +eyes followed me with a fond and melancholy gaze, +and she murmured again "Good night, dear friend."</p> + +<p>Young people like, and even love, on impulse. I was +flattered by the evident, though as yet undeserved, +fondness she showed me. I liked the confidence with +which she at once received me. She was determined +that we should be very near friends.</p> + +<p>Next day came and we met again. I was delighted +with my companion; that is to say, in many respects.</p> + +<p>Her looks lost nothing in daylight--she was certainly +the most beautiful creature I had ever seen, and +the unpleasant remembrance of the face presented in +my early dream, had lost the effect of the first unexpected +recognition.</p> + +<p>She confessed that she had experienced a similar +shock on seeing me, and precisely the same faint antipathy +that had mingled with my admiration of her. +We now laughed together over our momentary horrors.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>IV</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>Her Habits--A Saunter</b></p> + +<p>I told you that I was charmed with her in most +particulars.</p> + +<p>There were some that did not please me so well.</p> + +<p>She was above the middle height of women. I shall +begin by describing her.</p> + +<p>She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except +that her movements were languid--very languid--indeed, +there was nothing in her appearance to indicate +an invalid. Her complexion was rich and brilliant; her +features were small and beautifully formed; her eyes +large, dark, and lustrous; her hair was quite wonderful, +I never saw hair so magnificently thick and long when +it was down about her shoulders; I have often placed +my hands under it, and laughed with wonder at its +weight. It was exquisitely fine and soft, and in color a +rich very dark brown, with something of gold. I loved +to let it down, tumbling with its own weight, as, in her +room, she lay back in her chair talking in her sweet +low voice, I used to fold and braid it, and spread it out +and play with it. Heavens! If I had but known all!</p> + +<p>I said there were particulars which did not please me. +I have told you that her confidence won me the first +night I saw her; but I found that she exercised with +respect to herself, her mother, her history, everything +in fact connected with her life, plans, and people, an +ever wakeful reserve. I dare say I was unreasonable, +perhaps I was wrong; I dare say I ought to have respected +the solemn injunction laid upon my father by +the stately lady in black velvet. But curiosity is a restless +and unscrupulous passion, and no one girl can endure, +with patience, that hers should be baffled by another. +What harm could it do anyone to tell me what I so +ardently desired to know? Had she no trust in my good +sense or honor? Why would she not believe me when +I assured her, so solemnly, that I would not divulge +one syllable of what she told me to any mortal breathing.</p> + +<p>There was a coldness, it seemed to me, beyond her +years, in her smiling melancholy persistent refusal to +afford me the least ray of light.</p> + +<p>I cannot say we quarreled upon this point, for she +would not quarrel upon any. It was, of course, very +unfair of me to press her, very ill-bred, but I really could +not help it; and I might just as well have let it alone.</p> + +<p>What she did tell me amounted, in my unconscionable +estimation--to nothing.</p> + +<p>It was all summed up in three very vague disclosures:</p> + +<p>First--Her name was Carmilla.</p> + +<p>Second--Her family was very ancient and noble.</p> + +<p>Third--Her home lay in the direction of the west.</p> + +<p>She would not tell me the name of her family, nor +their armorial bearings, nor the name of their estate, +nor even that of the country they lived in.</p> + +<p>You are not to suppose that I worried her incessantly +on these subjects. I watched opportunity, and rather +insinuated than urged my inquiries. Once or twice, +indeed, I did attack her more directly. But no matter +what my tactics, utter failure was invariably the result. +Reproaches and caresses were all lost upon her. But I +must add this, that her evasion was conducted with so +pretty a melancholy and deprecation, with so many, +and even passionate declarations of her liking for me, +and trust in my honor, and with so many promises +that I should at last know all, that I could not find it +in my heart long to be offended with her.</p> + +<p>She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, +draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine, murmur +with her lips near my ear, "Dearest, your little heart is +wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible +law of my strength and weakness; if your dear +heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In +the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your +warm life, and you shall die--die, sweetly die--into +mine. I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in +your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the +rapture of that cruelty, which yet is love; so, for a while, +seek to know no more of me and mine, but trust me +with all your loving spirit."</p> + +<p>And when she had spoken such a rhapsody, she +would press me more closely in her trembling embrace, +and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek.</p> + +<p>Her agitations and her language were unintelligible +to me.</p> + +<p>From these foolish embraces, which were not of very +frequent occurrence, I must allow, I used to wish to +extricate myself; but my energies seemed to fail me. +Her murmured words sounded like a lullaby in my ear, +and soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I +only seemed to recover myself when she withdrew her +arms.</p> + +<p>In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I +experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was +pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense +of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about +her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a +love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. +This I know is paradox, but I can make no other +attempt to explain the feeling.</p> + +<p>I now write, after an interval of more than ten years, +with a trembling hand, with a confused and horrible +recollection of certain occurrences and situations, in +the ordeal through which I was unconsciously passing; +though with a vivid and very sharp remembrance of +the main current of my story.</p> + +<p>But, I suspect, in all lives there are certain emotional +scenes, those in which our passions have been most +wildly and terribly roused, that are of all others the +most vaguely and dimly remembered.</p> + +<p>Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and +beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it +with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing +softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning +eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell +with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardor +of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet +over-powering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to +her, and her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; +and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, +you <i>shall</i> be mine, you and I are one for ever." Then +she has thrown herself back in her chair, with her small +hands over her eyes, leaving me trembling.</p> + +<p>"Are we related," I used to ask; "what can you mean +by all this? I remind you perhaps of someone whom +you love; but you must not, I hate it; I don't know you--I +don't know myself when you look so and talk so."</p> + +<p>She used to sigh at my vehemence, then turn away +and drop my hand.</p> + +<p>Respecting these very extraordinary manifestations +I strove in vain to form any satisfactory theory--I +could not refer them to affectation or trick. It was +unmistakably the momentary breaking out of suppressed +instinct and emotion. Was she, notwithstanding +her mother's volunteered denial, subject to brief +visitations of insanity; or was there here a disguise and +a romance? I had read in old storybooks of such things. +What if a boyish lover had found his way into the +house, and sought to prosecute his suit in masquerade, +with the assistance of a clever old adventuress. But +there were many things against this hypothesis, highly +interesting as it was to my vanity.</p> + +<p>I could boast of no little attentions such as masculine +gallantry delights to offer. Between these passionate +moments there were long intervals of commonplace, +of gaiety, of brooding melancholy, during +which, except that I detected her eyes so full of melancholy +fire, following me, at times I might have been as +nothing to her. Except in these brief periods of mysterious +excitement her ways were girlish; and there was +always a languor about her, quite incompatible with a +masculine system in a state of health.</p> + +<p>In some respects her habits were odd. Perhaps not +so singular in the opinion of a town lady like you, as +they appeared to us rustic people. She used to come +down very late, generally not till one o'clock, she would +then take a cup of chocolate, but eat nothing; we then +went out for a walk, which was a mere saunter, and she +seemed, almost immediately, exhausted, and either +returned to the schloss or sat on one of the benches +that were placed, here and there, among the trees. This +was a bodily languor in which her mind did not +sympathize. She was always an animated talker, and +very intelligent.</p> + +<p>She sometimes alluded for a moment to her own +home, or mentioned an adventure or situation, or an +early recollection, which indicated a people of strange +manners, and described customs of which we knew +nothing. I gathered from these chance hints that her +native country was much more remote than I had at +first fancied.</p> + +<p>As we sat thus one afternoon under the trees a +funeral passed us by. It was that of a pretty young girl, +whom I had often seen, the daughter of one of the +rangers of the forest. The poor man was walking behind +the coffin of his darling; she was his only child, +and he looked quite heartbroken.</p> + +<p>Peasants walking two-and-two came behind, they +were singing a funeral hymn.</p> + +<p>I rose to mark my respect as they passed, and joined +in the hymn they were very sweetly singing.</p> + +<p>My companion shook me a little roughly, and I +turned surprised.</p> + +<p>She said brusquely, "Don't you perceive how discordant +that is?"</p> + +<p>"I think it very sweet, on the contrary," I answered, +vexed at the interruption, and very uncomfortable, lest +the people who composed the little procession should +observe and resent what was passing.</p> + +<p>I resumed, therefore, instantly, and was again interrupted. +"You pierce my ears," said Carmilla, almost +angrily, and stopping her ears with her tiny fingers. +"Besides, how can you tell that your religion and mine +are the same; your forms wound me, and I hate funerals. +What a fuss! Why you must die--<i>everyone</i> must +die; and all are happier when they do. Come home."</p> + +<p>"My father has gone on with the clergyman to the +churchyard. I thought you knew she was to be buried +today."</p> + +<p>"She? I don't trouble my head about peasants. I don't +know who she is," answered Carmilla, with a flash from +her fine eyes.</p> + +<p>"She is the poor girl who fancied she saw a ghost a +fortnight ago, and has been dying ever since, till yesterday, +when she expired."</p> + +<p>"Tell me nothing about ghosts. I shan't sleep tonight +if you do."</p> + +<p>"I hope there is no plague or fever coming; all this +looks very like it," I continued. "The swineherd's +young wife died only a week ago, and she thought +something seized her by the throat as she lay in her +bed, and nearly strangled her. Papa says such horrible +fancies do accompany some forms of fever. She was +quite well the day before. She sank afterwards, and died +before a week."</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>her</i> funeral is over, I hope, and <i>her</i> hymn sung; +and our ears shan't be tortured with that discord and +jargon. It has made me nervous. Sit down here, beside +me; sit close; hold my hand; press it hard-hard-harder."</p> + +<p>We had moved a little back, and had come to another +seat.</p> + +<p>She sat down. Her face underwent a change that +alarmed and even terrified me for a moment. It darkened, +and became horribly livid; her teeth and hands +were clenched, and she frowned and compressed her +lips, while she stared down upon the ground at her +feet, and trembled all over with a continued shudder +as irrepressible as ague. All her energies seemed strained +to suppress a fit, with which she was then breathlessly +tugging; and at length a low convulsive cry of suffering +broke from her, and gradually the hysteria subsided. +"There! That comes of strangling people with hymns!" +she said at last. "Hold me, hold me still. It is passing +away."</p> + +<p>And so gradually it did; and perhaps to dissipate the +somber impression which the spectacle had left upon +me, she became unusually animated and chatty; and +so we got home.</p> + +<p>This was the first time I had seen her exhibit any +definable symptoms of that delicacy of health which +her mother had spoken of. It was the first time, also, +I had seen her exhibit anything like temper.</p> + +<p>Both passed away like a summer cloud; and never +but once afterwards did I witness on her part a momentary +sign of anger. I will tell you how it happened.</p> + +<p>She and I were looking out of one of the long +drawing room windows, when there entered the courtyard, +over the drawbridge, a figure of a wanderer whom +I knew very well. He used to visit the schloss generally +twice a year.</p> + +<p>It was the figure of a hunchback, with the sharp lean +features that generally accompany deformity. He wore +a pointed black beard, and he was smiling from ear to +ear, showing his white fangs. He was dressed in buff, +black, and scarlet, and crossed with more straps and +belts than I could count, from which hung all manner +of things. Behind, he carried a magic lantern, and two +boxes, which I well knew, in one of which was a +salamander, and in the other a mandrake. These monsters +used to make my father laugh. They were compounded +of parts of monkeys, parrots squirrels, fish, +and hedgehogs, dried and stitched together with great +neatness and startling effect. He had a fiddle, a box of +conjuring apparatus, a pair of foils and masks attached +to his belt, several other mysterious cases dangling +about him, and a black staff with copper ferrules in +his hand. His companion was a rough spare dog, that +followed at his heels, but stopped short, suspiciously +at the drawbridge, and in a little while began to howl +dismally.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, the mountebank, standing in the +midst of the courtyard, raised his grotesque hat, and +made us a very ceremonious bow, paying his compliments +very volubly in execrable French, and German +not much better.</p> + +<p>Then, disengaging his fiddle, he began to scrape a +lively air to which he sang with a merry discord, dancing +with ludicrous airs and activity, that made me +laugh, in spite of the dog's howling.</p> + +<p>Then he advanced to the window with many smiles +and salutations, and his hat in his left hand, his fiddle +under his arm, and with a fluency that never took +breath, he gabbled a long advertisement of all his +accomplishments, and the resources of the various arts +which he placed at our service, and the curiosities and +entertainments which it was in his power, at our bidding, +to display.</p> + +<p>"Will your ladyships be pleased to buy an amulet +against the oupire, which is going like the wolf, I hear, +through these woods," he said dropping his hat on the +pavement. "They are dying of it right and left and here +is a charm that never fails; only pinned to the pillow, +and you may laugh in his face."</p> + +<p>These charms consisted of oblong slips of vellum, +with cabalistic ciphers and diagrams upon them.</p> + +<p>Carmilla instantly purchased one, and so did I.</p> + +<p>He was looking up, and we were smiling down upon +him, amused; at least, I can answer for myself. His +piercing black eye, as he looked up in our faces, seemed +to detect something that fixed for a moment his curiosity,</p> + +<p>In an instant he unrolled a leather case, full of all +manner of odd little steel instruments.</p> + +<p>"See here, my lady," he said, displaying it, and addressing +me, "I profess, among other things less useful, +the art of dentistry. Plague take the dog!" he interpolated. +"Silence, beast! He howls so that your ladyships +can scarcely hear a word. Your noble friend, the young +lady at your right, has the sharpest tooth,--long, thin, +pointed, like an awl, like a needle; ha, ha! With my +sharp and long sight, as I look up, I have seen it +distinctly; now if it happens to hurt the young lady, +and I think it must, here am I, here are my file, my +punch, my nippers; I will make it round and blunt, if +her ladyship pleases; no longer the tooth of a fish, but +of a beautiful young lady as she is. Hey? Is the young +lady displeased? Have I been too bold? Have I offended +her?"</p> + +<p>The young lady, indeed, looked very angry as she +drew back from the window.</p> + +<p>"How dares that mountebank insult us so? Where is +your father? I shall demand redress from him. My +father would have had the wretch tied up to the pump, +and flogged with a cart whip, and burnt to the bones +with the castle brand!"</p> + +<p>She retired from the window a step or two, and sat +down, and had hardly lost sight of the offender, when +her wrath subsided as suddenly as it had risen, and she +gradually recovered her usual tone, and seemed to +forget the little hunchback and his follies.</p> + +<p>My father was out of spirits that evening. On coming +in he told us that there had been another case very +similar to the two fatal ones which had lately occurred. +The sister of a young peasant on his estate, only a mile +away, was very ill, had been, as she described it, attacked +very nearly in the same way, and was now slowly but +steadily sinking.</p> + +<p>"All this," said my father, "is strictly referable to +natural causes. These poor people infect one another +with their superstitions, and so repeat in imagination +the images of terror that have infested their neighbors."</p> + +<p>"But that very circumstance frightens one horribly," +said Carmilla.</p> + +<p>"How so?" inquired my father.</p> + +<p>"I am so afraid of fancying I see such things; I think +it would be as bad as reality."</p> + +<p>"We are in God's hands: nothing can happen without +his permission, and all will end well for those who +love him. He is our faithful creator; He has made us +all, and will take care of us."</p> + +<p>"Creator! <i>Nature!</i>" said the young lady in answer to +my gentle father. "And this disease that invades the +country is natural. Nature. All things proceed from +Nature--don't they? All things in the heaven, in the +earth, and under the earth, act and live as Nature +ordains? I think so."</p> + +<p>"The doctor said he would come here today," said +my father, after a silence. "I want to know what he +thinks about it, and what he thinks we had better do."</p> + +<p>"Doctors never did me any good," said Carmilla.</p> + +<p>"Then you have been ill?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"More ill than ever you were," she answered.</p> + +<p>"Long ago?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a long time. I suffered from this very illness; +but I forget all but my pain and weakness, and they +were not so bad as are suffered in other diseases."</p> + +<p>"You were very young then?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say, let us talk no more of it. You would not +wound a friend?"</p> + +<p>She looked languidly in my eyes, and passed her arm +round my waist lovingly, and led me out of the room. +My father was busy over some papers near the window.</p> + +<p>"Why does your papa like to frighten us?" said the +pretty girl with a sigh and a little shudder.</p> + +<p>"He doesn't, dear Carmilla, it is the very furthest +thing from his mind."</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid, dearest?"</p> + +<p>"I should be very much if I fancied there was any +real danger of my being attacked as those poor people +were."</p> + +<p>"You are afraid to die?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, every one is."</p> + +<p>"But to die as lovers may--to die together, so that +they may live together.</p> + +<p>Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to +be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in +the meantime there are grubs and larvae, don't you see--each +with their peculiar propensities, necessities and +structure. So says Monsieur Buffon, in his big book, +in the next room."</p> + +<p>Later in the day the doctor came, and was closeted +with papa for some time.</p> + +<p>He was a skilful man, of sixty and upwards, he wore +powder, and shaved his pale face as smooth as a pumpkin. +He and papa emerged from the room together, +and I heard papa laugh, and say as they came out:</p> + +<p>"Well, I do wonder at a wise man like you. What do +you say to hippogriffs and dragons?"</p> + +<p>The doctor was smiling, and made answer, shaking +his head--</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless life and death are mysterious states, +and we know little of the resources of either."</p> + +<p>And so the walked on, and I heard no more. I did +not then know what the doctor had been broaching, +but I think I guess it now.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>V</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>A Wonderful Likeness</b></p> + +<p>This evening there arrived from Gratz the grave, +dark-faced son of the picture cleaner, with a horse and +cart laden with two large packing cases, having many +pictures in each. It was a journey of ten leagues, and +whenever a messenger arrived at the schloss from our +little capital of Gratz, we used to crowd about him in +the hall, to hear the news.</p> + +<p>This arrival created in our secluded quarters quite a +sensation. The cases remained in the hall, and the +messenger was taken charge of by the servants till he +had eaten his supper. Then with assistants, and armed +with hammer, ripping chisel, and turnscrew, he met us +in the hall, where we had assembled to witness the +unpacking of the cases.</p> + +<p>Carmilla sat looking listlessly on, while one after the +other the old pictures, nearly all portraits, which had +undergone the process of renovation, were brought to +light. My mother was of an old Hungarian family, and +most of these pictures, which were about to be restored +to their places, had come to us through her.</p> + +<p>My father had a list in his hand, from which he read, +as the artist rummaged out the corresponding numbers. +I don't know that the pictures were very good, +but they were, undoubtedly, very old, and some of +them very curious also. They had, for the most part, +the merit of being now seen by me, I may say, for the +first time; for the smoke and dust of time had all but +obliterated them.</p> + +<p>"There is a picture that I have not seen yet," said my +father. "In one corner, at the top of it, is the name, as +well as I could read, 'Marcia Karnstein,' and the date +'1698'; and I am curious to see how it has turned out."</p> + +<p>I remembered it; it was a small picture, about a foot +and a half high, and nearly square, without a frame; +but it was so blackened by age that I could not make +it out.</p> + +<p>The artist now produced it, with evident pride. It was +quite beautiful; it was startling; it seemed to live. It was +the effigy of Carmilla!</p> + +<p>"Carmilla, dear, here is an absolute miracle. Here +you are, living, smiling, ready to speak, in this picture. +Isn't it beautiful, Papa? And see, even the little mole +on her throat."</p> + +<p>My father laughed, and said "Certainly it is a wonderful +likeness," but he looked away, and to my surprise +seemed but little struck by it, and went on talking +to the picture cleaner, who was also something of an +artist, and discoursed with intelligence about the portraits +or other works, which his art had just brought +into light and color, while I was more and more lost +in wonder the more I looked at the picture.</p> + +<p>"Will you let me hang this picture in my room, +papa?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, dear," said he, smiling, "I'm very glad +you think it so like.</p> + +<p>It must be prettier even than I thought it, if it is."</p> + +<p>The young lady did not acknowledge this pretty +speech, did not seem to hear it. She was leaning back +in her seat, her fine eyes under their long lashes gazing +on me in contemplation, and she smiled in a kind of +rapture.</p> + +<p>"And now you can read quite plainly the name that +is written in the corner.</p> + +<p>It is not Marcia; it looks as if it was done in gold. +The name is Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, and this is +a little coronet over and underneath A.D.</p> + +<p>1698. I am descended from the Karnsteins; that is, +mamma was."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the lady, languidly, "so am I, I think, a +very long descent, very ancient. Are there any Karnsteins +living now?"</p> + +<p>"None who bear the name, I believe. The family were +ruined, I believe, in some civil wars, long ago, but the +ruins of the castle are only about three miles away."</p> + +<p>"How interesting!" she said, languidly. "But see what +beautiful moonlight!" She glanced through the hall +door, which stood a little open. "Suppose you take a +little ramble round the court, and look down at the +road and river."</p> + +<p>"It is so like the night you came to us," I said.</p> + +<p>She sighed; smiling.</p> + +<p>She rose, and each with her arm about the other's +waist, we walked out upon the pavement.</p> + +<p>In silence, slowly we walked down to the drawbridge, +where the beautiful landscape opened before us.</p> + +<p>"And so you were thinking of the night I came here?" +she almost whispered.</p> + +<p>"Are you glad I came?"</p> + +<p>"Delighted, dear Carmilla," I answered.</p> + +<p>"And you asked for the picture you think like me, +to hang in your room," she murmured with a sigh, as +she drew her arm closer about my waist, and let her +pretty head sink upon my shoulder. "How romantic +you are, Carmilla," I said. "Whenever you tell me your +story, it will be made up chiefly of some one great +romance."</p> + +<p>She kissed me silently.</p> + +<p>"I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love; that +there is, at this moment, an affair of the heart going +on."</p> + +<p>"I have been in love with no one, and never shall," +she whispered, "unless it should be with you."</p> + +<p>How beautiful she looked in the moonlight!</p> + +<p>Shy and strange was the look with which she quickly +hid her face in my neck and hair, with tumultuous +sighs, that seemed almost to sob, and pressed in mine +a hand that trembled.</p> + +<p>Her soft cheek was glowing against mine. "Darling, +darling," she murmured, "I live in you; and you would +die for me, I love you so."</p> + +<p>I started from her.</p> + +<p>She was gazing on me with eyes from which all fire, +all meaning had flown, and a face colorless and apathetic.</p> + +<p>"Is there a chill in the air, dear?" she said drowsily. +"I almost shiver; have I been dreaming? Let us come +in. Come; come; come in."</p> + +<p>"You look ill, Carmilla; a little faint. You certainly +must take some wine," I said.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I will. I'm better now. I shall be quite well in a +few minutes. Yes, do give me a little wine," answered +Carmilla, as we approached the door.</p> + +<p>"Let us look again for a moment; it is the last time, +perhaps, I shall see the moonlight with you."</p> + +<p>"How do you feel now, dear Carmilla? Are you really +better?" I asked.</p> + +<p>I was beginning to take alarm, lest she should have +been stricken with the strange epidemic that they said +had invaded the country about us.</p> + +<p>"Papa would be grieved beyond measure." I added, +"if he thought you were ever so little ill, without +immediately letting us know. We have a very skilful +doctor near this, the physician who was with papa +today."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he is. I know how kind you all are; but, +dear child, I am quite well again. There is nothing ever +wrong with me, but a little weakness.</p> + +<p>People say I am languid; I am incapable of exertion; +I can scarcely walk as far as a child of three years old: +and every now and then the little strength I have falters, +and I become as you have just seen me. But after all I +am very easily set up again; in a moment I am perfectly +myself. See how I have recovered."</p> + +<p>So, indeed, she had; and she and I talked a great deal, +and very animated she was; and the remainder of that +evening passed without any recurrence of what I called +her infatuations. I mean her crazy talk and looks, +which embarrassed, and even frightened me.</p> + +<p>But there occurred that night an event which gave +my thoughts quite a new turn, and seemed to startle +even Carmilla's languid nature into momentary energy.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>VI</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>A Very Strange Agony</b></p> + +<p>When we got into the drawing room, and had sat +down to our coffee and chocolate, although Carmilla +did not take any, she seemed quite herself again, and +Madame, and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, joined us, +and made a little card party, in the course of which +papa came in for what he called his "dish of tea."</p> + +<p>When the game was over he sat down beside Carmilla +on the sofa, and asked her, a little anxiously, +whether she had heard from her mother since her +arrival.</p> + +<p>She answered "No."</p> + +<p>He then asked whether she knew where a letter would +reach her at present.</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell," she answered ambiguously, "but I +have been thinking of leaving you; you have been +already too hospitable and too kind to me. I have given +you an infinity of trouble, and I should wish to take a +carriage tomorrow, and post in pursuit of her; I know +where I shall ultimately find her, although I dare not +yet tell you."</p> + +<p>"But you must not dream of any such thing," exclaimed +my father, to my great relief. "We can't afford +to lose you so, and I won't consent to your leaving us, +except under the care of your mother, who was so good +as to consent to your remaining with us till she should +herself return. I should be quite happy if I knew that +you heard from her: but this evening the accounts of +the progress of the mysterious disease that has invaded +our neighborhood, grow even more alarming; and my +beautiful guest, I do feel the responsibility, unaided by +advice from your mother, very much. But I shall do +my best; and one thing is certain, that you must not +think of leaving us without her distinct direction to +that effect. We should suffer too much in parting from +you to consent to it easily."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, a thousand times for your hospitality," +she answered, smiling bashfully. "You have all +been too kind to me; I have seldom been so happy in +all my life before, as in your beautiful chateau, under +your care, and in the society of your dear daughter."</p> + +<p>So he gallantly, in his old-fashioned way, kissed her +hand, smiling and pleased at her little speech.</p> + +<p>I accompanied Carmilla as usual to her room, and +sat and chatted with her while she was preparing for +bed.</p> + +<p>"Do you think," I said at length, "that you will ever +confide fully in me?"</p> + +<p>She turned round smiling, but made no answer, only +continued to smile on me.</p> + +<p>"You won't answer that?" I said. "You can't answer +pleasantly; I ought not to have asked you."</p> + +<p>"You were quite right to ask me that, or anything. +You do not know how dear you are to me, or you could +not think any confidence too great to look for.</p> + +<p>But I am under vows, no nun half so awfully, and I +dare not tell my story yet, even to you. The time is very +near when you shall know everything. You will think +me cruel, very selfish, but love is always selfish; the +more ardent the more selfish. How jealous I am you +cannot know. You must come with me, loving me, to +death; or else hate me and still come with me. and +<i>hating</i> me through death and after. There is no such +word as indifference in my apathetic nature."</p> + +<p>"Now, Carmilla, you are going to talk your wild +nonsense again," I said hastily.</p> + +<p>"Not I, silly little fool as I am, and full of whims +and fancies; for your sake I'll talk like a sage. Were you +ever at a ball?"</p> + +<p>"No; how you do run on. What is it like? How +charming it must be."</p> + +<p>"I almost forget, it is years ago."</p> + +<p>I laughed.</p> + +<p>"You are not so old. Your first ball can hardly be +forgotten yet."</p> + +<p>"I remember everything it--with an effort. I see it +all, as divers see what is going on above them, through +a medium, dense, rippling, but transparent. There occurred +that night what has confused the picture, and +made its colours faint. I was all but assassinated in my +bed, wounded here," she touched her breast, "and never +was the same since."</p> + +<p>"Were you near dying?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, very--a cruel love--strange love, that would +have taken my life. Love will have its sacrifices. No +sacrifice without blood. Let us go to sleep now; I feel +so lazy. How can I get up just now and lock my door?"</p> + +<p>She was lying with her tiny hands buried in her rich +wavy hair, under her cheek, her little head upon the +pillow, and her glittering eyes followed me wherever I +moved, with a kind of shy smile that I could not +decipher.</p> + +<p>I bid her good night, and crept from the room with +an uncomfortable sensation.</p> + +<p>I often wondered whether our pretty guest ever said +her prayers. I certainly had never seen her upon her +knees. In the morning she never came down until long +after our family prayers were over, and at night she +never left the drawing room to attend our brief evening +prayers in the hall.</p> + +<p>If it had not been that it had casually come out in +one of our careless talks that she had been baptised, I +should have doubted her being a Christian. Religion +was a subject on which I had never heard her speak a +word. If I had known the world better, this particular +neglect or antipathy would not have so much surprised +me.</p> + +<p>The precautions of nervous people are infectious, +and persons of a like temperament are pretty sure, after +a time, to imitate them. I had adopted Carmilla's habit +of locking her bedroom door, having taken into my +head all her whimsical alarms about midnight invaders +and prowling assassins. I had also adopted her precaution +of making a brief search through her room, to +satisfy herself that no lurking assassin or robber was +"ensconced."</p> + +<p>These wise measures taken, I got into my bed and +fell asleep. A light was burning in my room. This was +an old habit, of very early date, and which nothing +could have tempted me to dispense with.</p> + +<p>Thus fortifed I might take my rest in peace. But +dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, +or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits +and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.</p> + +<p>I had a dream that night that was the beginning of +a very strange agony.</p> + +<p>I cannot call it a nightmare, for I was quite conscious +of being asleep.</p> + +<p>But I was equally conscious of being in my room, +and lying in bed, precisely as I actually was. I saw, or +fancied I saw, the room and its furniture just as I had +seen it last, except that it was very dark, and I saw +something moving round the foot of the bed, which +at first I could not accurately distinguish. But I soon +saw that it was a sooty-black animal that resembled a +monstrous cat. It appeared to me about four or five +feet long for it measured fully the length of the +hearthrug as it passed over it; and it continued to-ing +and fro-ing with the lithe, sinister restlessness of a beast +in a cage. I could not cry out, although as you may +suppose, I was terrified. Its pace was growing faster, and +the room rapidly darker and darker, and at length so +dark that I could no longer see anything of it but its +eyes. I felt it spring lightly on the bed. The two broad +eyes approached my face, and suddenly I felt a stinging +pain as if two large needles darted, an inch or two apart, +deep into my breast. I waked with a scream. The room +was lighted by the candle that burnt there all through +the night, and I saw a female figure standing at the foot +of the bed, a little at the right side. It was in a dark +loose dress, and its hair was down and covered its +shoulders. A block of stone could not have been more +still. There was not the slightest stir of respiration. As +I stared at it, the figure appeared to have changed its +place, and was now nearer the door; then, close to it, +the door opened, and it passed out.</p> + +<p>I was now relieved, and able to breathe and move. +My first thought was that Carmilla had been playing +me a trick, and that I had forgotten to secure my door. +I hastened to it, and found it locked as usual on the +inside. I was afraid to open it--I was horrified. I sprang +into my bed and covered my head up in the bedclothes, +and lay there more dead than alive till morning.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>VII</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>Descending</b></p> + +<p>It would be vain my attempting to tell you the horror +with which, even now, I recall the occurrence of that +night. It was no such transitory terror as a dream leaves +behind it. It seemed to deepen by time, and communicated +itself to the room and the very furniture that +had encompass the apparition.</p> + +<p>I could not bear next day to be alone for a moment. +I should have told papa, but for two opposite reasons. +At one time I thought he would laugh at my story, and +I could not bear its being treated as a jest; and at +another I thought he might fancy that I had been +attacked by the mysterious complaint which had invaded +our neighborhood. I had myself no misgiving +of the kind, and as he had been rather an invalid for +some time, I was afraid of alarming him.</p> + +<p>I was comfortable enough with my good-natured +companions, Madame Perrodon, and the vivacious +Mademoiselle Lafontaine. They both perceived that I +was out of spirits and nervous, and at length I told +them what lay so heavy at my heart.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle laughed, but I fancied that Madame +Perrodon looked anxious.</p> + +<p>"By-the-by," said Mademoiselle, laughing, "the long +lime tree walk, behind Carmilla's bedroom window, is +haunted!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" exclaimed Madame, who probably +thought the theme rather inopportune, "and who tells +that story, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Martin says that he came up twice, when the old +yard gate was being repaired, before sunrise, and twice +saw the same female figure walking down the lime tree +avenue."</p> + +<p>"So he well might, as long as there are cows to milk +in the river fields," said Madame.</p> + +<p>"I daresay; but Martin chooses to be frightened, and +never did I see fool more frightened."</p> + +<p>"You must not say a word about it to Carmilla, +because she can see down that walk from her room +window," I interposed, "and she is, if possible, a greater +coward than I."</p> + +<p>Carmilla came down rather later than usual that day.</p> + +<p>"I was so frightened last night," she said, so soon as +were together, "and I am sure I should have seen +something dreadful if it had not been for that charm +I bought from the poor little hunchback whom I called +such hard names. I had a dream of something black +coming round my bed, and I awoke in a perfect horror, +and I really thought, for some seconds, I saw a dark +figure near the chimneypiece, but I felt under my +pillow for my charm, and the moment my fingers +touched it, the figure disappeared, and I felt quite +certain, only that I had it by me, that something +frightful would have made its appearance, and, perhaps, +throttled me, as it did those poor people we heard +of.</p> + +<p>"Well, listen to me," I began, and recounted my +adventure, at the recital of which she appeared horrified.</p> + +<p>"And had you the charm near you?" she asked, +earnestly.</p> + +<p>"No, I had dropped it into a china vase in the +drawing room, but I shall certainly take it with me +tonight, as you have so much faith in it."</p> + +<p>At this distance of time I cannot tell you, or even +understand, how I overcame my horror so effectually +as to lie alone in my room that night. I remember +distinctly that I pinned the charm to my pillow. I fell +asleep almost immediately, and slept even more +soundly than usual all night.</p> + +<p>Next night I passed as well. My sleep was delightfully +deep and dreamless.</p> + +<p>But I wakened with a sense of lassitude and melancholy, +which, however, did not exceed a degree that was +almost luxurious.</p> + +<p>"Well, I told you so," said Carmilla, when I described +my quiet sleep, "I had such delightful sleep myself last +night; I pinned the charm to the breast of my nightdress. +It was too far away the night before. I am quite +sure it was all fancy, except the dreams. I used to think +that evil spirits made dreams, but our doctor told me +it is no such thing. Only a fever passing by, or some +other malady, as they often do, he said, knocks at the +door, and not being able to get in, passes on, with that +alarm."</p> + +<p>"And what do you think the charm is?" said I.</p> + +<p>"It has been fumigated or immersed in some drug, +and is an antidote against the malaria," she answered.</p> + +<p>"Then it acts only on the body?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly; you don't suppose that evil spirits are +frightened by bits of ribbon, or the perfumes of a +druggist's shop? No, these complaints, wandering in +the air, begin by trying the nerves, and so infect the +brain, but before they can seize upon you, the antidote +repels them. That I am sure is what the charm has done +for us. It is nothing magical, it is simply natural.</p> + +<p>I should have been happier if I could have quite +agreed with Carmilla, but I did my best, and the impression +was a little losing its force.</p> + +<p>For some nights I slept profoundly; but still every +morning I felt the same lassitude, and a languor +weighed upon me all day. I felt myself a changed girl. +A strange melancholy was stealing over me, a melancholy +that I would not have interrupted. Dim thoughts +of death began to open, and an idea that I was slowly +sinking took gentle, and, somehow, not unwelcome, +possession of me. If it was sad, the tone of mind which +this induced was also sweet.</p> + +<p>Whatever it might be, my soul acquiesced in it.</p> + +<p>I would not admit that I was ill, I would not consent +to tell my papa, or to have the doctor sent for.</p> + +<p>Carmilla became more devoted to me than ever, and +her strange paroxysms of languid adoration more frequent. +She used to gloat on me with increasing ardor +the more my strength and spirits waned. This always +shocked me like a momentary glare of insanity.</p> + +<p>Without knowing it, I was now in a pretty advanced +stage of the strangest illness under which mortal ever +suffered. There was an unaccountable fascination in its +earlier symptoms that more than reconciled me to the +incapacitating effect of that stage of the malady. This +fascination increased for a time, until it reached a +certain point, when gradually a sense of the horrible +mingled itself with it, deepening, as you shall hear, +until it discolored and perverted the whole state of my +life.</p> + +<p>The first change I experienced was rather agreeable. +It was very near the turning point from which began +the descent of Avernus.</p> + +<p>Certain vague and strange sensations visited me in +my sleep. The prevailing one was of that pleasant, +peculiar cold thrill which we feel in bathing, when we +move against the current of a river. This was soon +accompanied by dreams that seemed interminable, and +were so vague that I could never recollect their scenery +and persons, or any one connected portion of their +action. But they left an awful impression, and a sense +of exhaustion, as if I had passed through a long period +of great mental exertion and danger.</p> + +<p>After all these dreams there remained on waking a +remembrance of having been in a place very nearly +dark, and of having spoken to people whom I could +not see; and especially of one clear voice, of a female's, +very deep, that spoke as if at a distance, slowly, and +producing always the same sensation of indescribable +solemnity and fear. Sometime there came a sensation +as if a hand was drawn softly along my cheek and neck. +Sometimes it was as if warm lips kissed me, and longer +and longer and more lovingly as they reached my +throat, but there the caress fixed itself. My heart beat +faster, my breathing rose and fell rapidly and full +drawn; a sobbing, that rose into a sense of strangulation, +supervened, and turned into a dreadful convulsion, +in which my senses left me and I became unconscious.</p> + +<p>It was now three weeks since the commencement of +this unaccountable state.</p> + +<p>My sufferings had, during the last week, told upon +my appearance. I had grown pale, my eyes were dilated +and darkened underneath, and the languor which I had +long felt began to display itself in my countenance.</p> + +<p>My father asked me often whether I was ill; but, with +an obstinacy which now seems to me unaccountable, +I persisted in assuring him that I was quite well.</p> + +<p>In a sense this was true. I had no pain, I could +complain of no bodily derangement. My complaint +seemed to be one of the imagination, or the nerves, +and, horrible as my sufferings were, I kept them, with +a morbid reserve, very nearly to myself.</p> + +<p>It could not be that terrible complaint which the +peasants called the oupire, for I had now been suffering +for three weeks, and they were seldom ill for much +more than three days, when death put an end to their +miseries.</p> + +<p>Carmilla complained of dreams and feverish sensations, +but by no means of so alarming a kind as mine. +I say that mine were extremely alarming. Had I been +capable of comprehending my condition, I would have +invoked aid and advice on my knees. The narcotic of +an unsuspected influence was acting upon me, and my +perceptions were benumbed.</p> + +<p>I am going to tell you now of a dream that led +immediately to an odd discovery.</p> + +<p>One night, instead of the voice I was accustomed to +hear in the dark, I heard one, sweet and tender, and at +the same time terrible, which said,</p> + +<p>"Your mother warns you to beware of the assassin." +At the same time a light unexpectedly sprang up, and +I saw Carmilla, standing, near the foot of my bed, in +her white nightdress, bathed, from her chin to her feet, +in one great stain of blood.</p> + +<p>I wakened with a shriek, possessed with the one idea +that Carmilla was being murdered. I remember springing +from my bed, and my next recollection is that of +standing on the lobby, crying for help.</p> + +<p>Madame and Mademoiselle came scurrying out of +their rooms in alarm; a lamp burned always on the +lobby, and seeing me, they soon learned the cause of +my terror.</p> + +<p>I insisted on our knocking at Carmilla's door. Our +knocking was unanswered.</p> + +<p>It soon became a pounding and an uproar. We +shrieked her name, but all was vain.</p> + +<p>We all grew frightened, for the door was locked. We +hurried back, in panic, to my room. There we rang the +bell long and furiously. If my father's room had been +at that side of the house, we would have called him up +at once to our aid. But, alas! he was quite out of +hearing, and to reach him involved an excursion for +which we none of us had courage.</p> + +<p>Servants, however, soon came running up the stairs; +I had got on my dressing gown and slippers meanwhile, +and my companions were already similarly furnished. +Recognizing the voices of the servants on the lobby, +we sallied out together; and having renewed, as fruitlessly, +our summons at Carmilla's door, I ordered the +men to force the lock. They did so, and we stood, +holding our lights aloft, in the doorway, and so stared +into the room.</p> + +<p>We called her by name; but there was still no reply. +We looked round the room. Everything was undisturbed. +It was exactly in the state in which I had left it +on bidding her good night. But Carmilla was gone.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>VIII</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>Search</b></p> + +<p>At sight of the room, perfectly undisturbed except +for our violent entrance, we began to cool a little, and +soon recovered our senses sufficiently to dismiss the +men. It had struck Mademoiselle that possibly Carmilla +had been wakened by the uproar at her door, and +in her first panic had jumped from her bed, and hid +herself in a press, or behind a curtain, from which she +could not, of course, emerge until the majordomo and +his myrmidons had withdrawn. We now recommenced +our search, and began to call her name again.</p> + +<p>It was all to no purpose. Our perplexity and agitation +increased. We examined the windows, but they +were secured. I implored of Carmilla, if she had concealed +herself, to play this cruel trick no longer--to +come out and to end our anxieties. It was all useless. I +was by this time convinced that she was not in the +room, nor in the dressing room, the door of which was +still locked on this side. She could not have passed it. +I was utterly puzzled. Had Carmilla discovered one of +those secret passages which the old housekeeper said +were known to exist in the schloss, although the tradition +of their exact situation had been lost? A little time +would, no doubt, explain all--utterly perplexed as, for +the present, we were.</p> + +<p>It was past four o'clock, and I preferred passing the +remaining hours of darkness in Madame's room. Daylight +brought no solution of the difficulty.</p> + +<p>The whole household, with my father at its head, was +in a state of agitation next morning. Every part of the +chateau was searched. The grounds were explored. No +trace of the missing lady could be discovered. The +stream was about to be dragged; my father was in +distraction; what a tale to have to tell the poor girl's +mother on her return. I, too, was almost beside myself, +though my grief was quite of a different kind.</p> + +<p>The morning was passed in alarm and excitement. +It was now one o'clock, and still no tidings. I ran up +to Carmilla's room, and found her standing at her +dressing table. I was astounded. I could not believe my +eyes. She beckoned me to her with her pretty finger, in +silence. Her face expressed extreme fear.</p> + +<p>I ran to her in an ecstasy of joy; I kissed and embraced +her again and again. I ran to the bell and rang +it vehemently, to bring others to the spot who might +at once relieve my father's anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Dear Carmilla, what has become of you all this +time? We have been in agonies of anxiety about you," +I exclaimed. "Where have you been? How did you come +back?"</p> + +<p>"Last night has been a night of wonders," she said.</p> + +<p>"For mercy's sake, explain all you can."</p> + +<p>"It was past two last night," she said, "when I went +to sleep as usual in my bed, with my doors locked, that +of the dressing room, and that opening upon the +gallery. My sleep was uninterrupted, and, so far as I +know, dreamless; but I woke just now on the sofa in +the dressing room there, and I found the door between +the rooms open, and the other door forced. How could +all this have happened without my being wakened? It +must have been accompanied with a great deal of noise, +and I am particularly easily wakened; and how could +I have been carried out of my bed without my sleep +having been interrupted, I whom the slightest stir +startles?"</p> + +<p>By this time, Madame, Mademoiselle, my father, and +a number of the servants were in the room. Carmilla +was, of course, overwhelmed with inquiries, congratulations, +and welcomes. She had but one story to tell, +and seemed the least able of all the party to suggest any +way of accounting for what had happened.</p> + +<p>My father took a turn up and down the room, +thinking. I saw Carmilla's eye follow him for a moment +with a sly, dark glance.</p> + +<p>When my father had sent the servants away, Mademoiselle +having gone in search of a little bottle of +valerian and salvolatile, and there being no one now +in the room with Carmilla, except my father, Madame, +and myself, he came to her thoughtfully, took her hand +very kindly, led her to the sofa, and sat down beside +her.</p> + +<p>"Will you forgive me, my dear, if I risk a conjecture, +and ask a question?"</p> + +<p>"Who can have a better right?" she said. "Ask what +you please, and I will tell you everything. But my story +is simply one of bewilderment and darkness. I know +absolutely nothing. Put any question you please, but +you know, of course, the limitations mamma has +placed me under."</p> + +<p>"Perfectly, my dear child. I need not approach the +topics on which she desires our silence. Now, the +marvel of last night consists in your having been +removed from your bed and your room, without being +wakened, and this removal having occurred apparently +while the windows were still secured, and the two doors +locked upon the inside. I will tell you my theory and +ask you a question."</p> + +<p>Carmilla was leaning on her hand dejectedly; Madame +and I were listening breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Now, my question is this. Have you ever been +suspected of walking in your sleep?"</p> + +<p>"Never, since I was very young indeed."</p> + +<p>"But you did walk in your sleep when you were +young?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I know I did. I have been told so often by my +old nurse."</p> + +<p>My father smiled and nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, what has happened is this. You got up in your +sleep, unlocked the door, not leaving the key, as usual, +in the lock, but taking it out and locking it on the +outside; you again took the key out, and carried it away +with you to someone of the five-and-twenty rooms on +this floor, or perhaps upstairs or downstairs. There are +so many rooms and closets, so much heavy furniture, +and such accumulations of lumber, that it would require +a week to search this old house thoroughly. Do +you see, now, what I mean?"</p> + +<p>"I do, but not all," she answered.</p> + +<p>"And how, papa, do you account for her finding +herself on the sofa in the dressing room, which we had +searched so carefully?"</p> + +<p>"She came there after you had searched it, still in her +sleep, and at last awoke spontaneously, and was as +much surprised to find herself where she was as any +one else. I wish all mysteries were as easily and innocently +explained as yours, Carmilla," he said, laughing. +"And so we may congratulate ourselves on the certainty +that the most natural explanation of the occurrence is +one that involves no drugging, no tampering with +locks, no burglars, or poisoners, or witches--nothing +that need alarm Carmilla, or anyone else, for our +safety."</p> + +<p>Carmilla was looking charmingly. Nothing could be +more beautiful than her tints. Her beauty was, I think, +enhanced by that graceful languor that was peculiar to +her. I think my father was silently contrasting her looks +with mine, for he said:</p> + +<p>"I wish my poor Laura was looking more like herself"; +and he sighed.</p> + +<p>So our alarms were happily ended, and Carmilla +restored to her friends.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>IX</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>The Doctor</b></p> + +<p>As Carmilla would not hear of an attendant sleeping +in her room, my father arranged that a servant +should sleep outside her door, so that she would not +attempt to make another such excursion without being +arrested at her own door.</p> + +<p>That night passed quietly; and next morning early, +the doctor, whom my father had sent for without +telling me a word about it, arrived to see me.</p> + +<p>Madame accompanied me to the library; and there +the grave little doctor, with white hair and spectacles, +whom I mentioned before, was waiting to receive me.</p> + +<p>I told him my story, and as I proceeded he grew +graver and graver.</p> + +<p>We were standing, he and I, in the recess of one of +the windows, facing one another. When my statement +was over, he leaned with his shoulders against the wall, +and with his eyes fixed on me earnestly, with an interest +in which was a dash of horror.</p> + +<p>After a minute's reflection, he asked Madame if he +could see my father.</p> + +<p>He was sent for accordingly, and as he entered, +smiling, he said:</p> + +<p>"I dare say, doctor, you are going to tell me that I +am an old fool for having brought you here; I hope I +am."</p> + +<p>But his smile faded into shadow as the doctor, with +a very grave face, beckoned him to him.</p> + +<p>He and the doctor talked for some time in the same +recess where I had just conferred with the physician. It +seemed an earnest and argumentative conversation. +The room is very large, and I and Madame stood +together, burning with curiosity, at the farther end. +Not a word could we hear, however, for they spoke in +a very low tone, and the deep recess of the window +quite concealed the doctor from view, and very nearly +my father, whose foot, arm, and shoulder only could +we see; and the voices were, I suppose, all the less +audible for the sort of closet which the thick wall and +window formed.</p> + +<p>After a time my father's face looked into the room; +it was pale, thoughtful, and, I fancied, agitated.</p> + +<p>"Laura, dear, come here for a moment. Madame, we +shan't trouble you, the doctor says, at present."</p> + +<p>Accordingly I approached, for the first time a little +alarmed; for, although I felt very weak, I did not feel +ill; and strength, one always fancies, is a thing that may +be picked up when we please.</p> + +<p>My father held out his hand to me, as I drew near, +but he was looking at the doctor, and he said:</p> + +<p>"It certainly is very odd; I don't understand it quite. +Laura, come here, dear; now attend to Doctor +Spielsberg, and recollect yourself."</p> + +<p>"You mentioned a sensation like that of two needles +piercing the skin, somewhere about your neck, on the +night when you experienced your first horrible dream. +Is there still any soreness?"</p> + +<p>"None at all," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Can you indicate with your finger about the point +at which you think this occurred?"</p> + +<p>"Very little below my throat--here," I answered.</p> + +<p>I wore a morning dress, which covered the place I +pointed to.</p> + +<p>"Now you can satisfy yourself," said the doctor. "You +won't mind your papa's lowering your dress a very +little. It is necessary, to detect a symptom of the complaint +under which you have been suffering."</p> + +<p>I acquiesced. It was only an inch or two below the +edge of my collar.</p> + +<p>"God bless me!--so it is," exclaimed my father, +growing pale.</p> + +<p>"You see it now with your own eyes," said the doctor, +with a gloomy triumph.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I exclaimed, beginning to be frightened.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, my dear young lady, but a small blue spot, +about the size of the tip of your little finger; and now," +he continued, turning to papa, "the question is what +is best to be done?"</p> + +<p>Is there any danger?"I urged, in great trepidation.</p> + +<p>"I trust not, my dear," answered the doctor. "I don't +see why you should not recover. I don't see why you +should not begin immediately to get better. That is the +point at which the sense of strangulation begins?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered.</p> + +<p>"And--recollect as well as you can--the same point +was a kind of center of that thrill which you described +just now, like the current of a cold stream running +against you?"</p> + +<p>"It may have been; I think it was."</p> + +<p>"Ay, you see?" he added, turning to my father. "Shall +I say a word to Madame?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said my father.</p> + +<p>He called Madame to him, and said:</p> + +<p>"I find my young friend here far from well. It won't +be of any great consequence, I hope; but it will be +necessary that some steps be taken, which I will explain +by-and-by; but in the meantime, Madame, you will be +so good as not to let Miss Laura be alone for one +moment. That is the only direction I need give for the +present. It is indispensable."</p> + +<p>"We may rely upon your kindness, Madame, I +know," added my father.</p> + +<p>Madame satisfied him eagerly.</p> + +<p>"And you, dear Laura, I know you will observe the +doctor's direction."</p> + +<p>"I shall have to ask your opinion upon another +patient, whose symptoms slightly resemble those of my +daughter, that have just been detailed to you--very +much milder in degree, but I believe quite of the same +sort. She is a young lady--our guest; but as you say +you will be passing this way again this evening, you +can't do better than take your supper here, and you +can then see her. She does not come down till the +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"I thank you," said the doctor. "I shall be with you, +then, at about seven this evening."</p> + +<p>And then they repeated their directions to me and +to Madame, and with this parting charge my father left +us, and walked out with the doctor; and I saw them +pacing together up and down between the road and +the moat, on the grassy platform in front of the castle, +evidently absorbed in earnest conversation.</p> + +<p>The doctor did not return. I saw him mount his +horse there, take his leave, and ride away eastward +through the forest.</p> + +<p>Nearly at the same time I saw the man arrive from +Dranfield with the letters, and dismount and hand the +bag to my father.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Madame and I were both busy, lost +in conjecture as to the reasons of the singular and +earnest direction which the doctor and my father had +concurred in imposing. Madame, as she afterwards +told me, was afraid the doctor apprehended a sudden +seizure, and that, without prompt assistance, I might +either lose my life in a fit, or at least be seriously hurt.</p> + +<p>The interpretation did not strike me; and I fancied, +perhaps luckily for my nerves, that the arrangement +was prescribed simply to secure a companion, who +would prevent my taking too much exercise, or eating +unripe fruit, or doing any of the fifty foolish things +to which young people are supposed to be prone.</p> + +<p>About half an hour after my father came in--he +had a letter in his hand--and said:</p> + +<p>"This letter had been delayed; it is from General +Spielsdorf. He might have been here yesterday, he may +not come till tomorrow or he may be here today."</p> + +<p>He put the open letter into my hand; but he did not +look pleased, as he used when a guest, especially one +so much loved as the General, was coming.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, he looked as if he wished him at +the bottom of the Red Sea. There was plainly something +on his mind which he did not choose to divulge.</p> + +<p>"Papa, darling, will you tell me this?" said I, suddenly +laying my hand on his arm, and looking, I am sure, +imploringly in his face.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," he answered, smoothing my hair caressingly +over my eyes.</p> + +<p>"Does the doctor think me very ill?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear; he thinks, if right steps are taken, you will +be quite well again, at least, on the high road to a +complete recovery, in a day or two," he answered, a +little dryly. "I wish our good friend, the General, had +chosen any other time; that is, I wish you had been +perfectly well to receive him."</p> + +<p>"But do tell me, papa" I insisted, "what does he +think is the matter with me?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing; you must not plague me with questions," +he answered, with more irritation than I ever remember +him to have displayed before; and seeing that I looked +wounded, I suppose, he kissed me, and added, "You +shall know all about it in a day or two; that is, all that +I know. In the meantime you are not to trouble your +head about it."</p> + +<p>He turned and left the room, but came back before +I had done wondering and puzzling over the oddity +of all this; it was merely to say that he was going to +Karnstein, and had ordered the carriage to be ready at +twelve, and that I and Madame should accompany +him; he was going to see priest who lived near those +picturesque grounds, upon business, and as Carmilla +had never seen them, she could follow, when she came +down, with Mademoiselle, who would bring materials +for what you call a picnic, which might be laid for us +in the ruined castle.</p> + +<p>At twelve o'clock, accordingly, I was ready, and not +long after, my father, Madame and I set out upon our +projected drive.</p> + +<p>Passing the drawbridge we turn to the right, and +follow the road over the steep Gothic bridge, westward, +to reach the deserted village and ruined castle of Karnstein.</p> + +<p>No sylvan drive can be fancied prettier. The ground +breaks into gentle hills and hollows, all clothed with +beautiful wood, totally destitute of the comparative +formality which artificial planting and early culture +and pruning impart.</p> + +<p>The irregularities of the ground often lead the road +out of its course, and cause it to wind beautifully round +the sides of broken hollows and the steeper sides of the +hills, among varieties of ground almost inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>Turning one of these points, we suddenly encountered +our old friend, the General, riding towards us, +attended by a mounted servant. His portmanteaus were +following in a hired wagon, such as we term a cart.</p> + +<p>The General dismounted as we pulled up, and, after +the usual greetings, was easily persuaded to accept the +vacant seat in the carriage and send his horse on with +his servant to the schloss.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>X</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>Bereaved</b></p> + +<p>It was about ten months since we had last seen him: +but that time had sufficed to make an alteration of +years in his appearance. He had grown thinner; something +of gloom and anxiety had taken the place of that +cordial serenity which used to characterize his features. +His dark blue eyes, always penetrating, now gleamed +with a sterner light from under his shaggy grey eyebrows. +It was not such a change as grief alone usually +induces, and angrier passions seemed to have had their +share in bringing it about.</p> + +<p>We had not long resumed our drive, when the General +began to talk, with his usual soldierly directness, +of the bereavement, as he termed it, which he had +sustained in the death of his beloved niece and ward; +and he then broke out in a tone of intense bitterness +and fury, inveighing against the "hellish arts" to which +she had fallen a victim, and expressing, with more +exasperation than piety, his wonder that Heaven +should tolerate so monstrous an indulgence of the lusts +and malignity of hell.</p> + +<p>My father, who saw at once that something very +extraordinary had befallen, asked him, if not too painful +to him, to detail the circumstances which he +thought justified the strong terms in which he expressed +himself.</p> + +<p>"I should tell you all with pleasure," said the General, +"but you would not believe me."</p> + +<p>"Why should I not?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Because," he answered testily, "you believe in nothing +but what consists with your own prejudices and +illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I have +learned better."</p> + +<p>"Try me," said my father; "I am not such a dogmatist +as you suppose.</p> + +<p>Besides which, I very well know that you generally +require proof for what you believe, and am, therefore, +very strongly predisposed to respect your conclusions."</p> + +<p>"You are right in supposing that I have not been led +lightly into a belief in the marvelous--for what I have +experienced is marvelous--and I have been forced by +extraordinary evidence to credit that which ran +counter, diametrically, to all my theories. I have been +made the dupe of a preternatural conspiracy."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his professions of confidence in +the General's penetration, I saw my father, at this +point, glance at the General, with, as I thought, a +marked suspicion of his sanity.</p> + +<p>The General did not see it, luckily. He was looking +gloomily and curiously into the glades and vistas of +the woods that were opening before us.</p> + +<p>"You are going to the Ruins of Karnstein?" he said. +"Yes, it is a lucky coincidence; do you know I was going +to ask you to bring me there to inspect them. I have a +special object in exploring. There is a ruined chapel, +ain't there, with a great many tombs of that extinct +family?"</p> + +<p>"So there are--highly interesting," said my father. +"I hope you are thinking of claiming the title and +estates?"</p> + +<p>My father said this gaily, but the General did not +recollect the laugh, or even the smile, which courtesy +exacts for a friend's joke; on the contrary, he looked +grave and even fierce, ruminating on a matter that +stirred his anger and horror.</p> + +<p>"Something very different," he said, gruffly. "I mean +to unearth some of those fine people. I hope, by God's +blessing, to accomplish a pious sacrilege here, which +will relieve our earth of certain monsters, and enable +honest people to sleep in their beds without being +assailed by murderers. I have strange things to tell you, +my dear friend, such as I myself would have scouted +as incredible a few months since."</p> + +<p>My father looked at him again, but this time not +with a glance of suspicion--with an eye, rather, of keen +intelligence and alarm.</p> + +<p>"The house of Karnstein," he said, "has been long +extinct: a hundred years at least. My dear wife was +maternally descended from the Karnsteins. But the +name and title have long ceased to exist. The castle is +a ruin; the very village is deserted; it is fifty years since +the smoke of a chimney was seen there; not a roof left."</p> + +<p>"Quite true. I have heard a great deal about that since +I last saw you; a great deal that will astonish you. But +I had better relate everything in the order in which it +occurred," said the General. "You saw my dear ward--my +child, I may call her. No creature could have been +more beautiful, and only three months ago none more +blooming."</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor thing! when I saw her last she certainly +was quite lovely," said my father. "I was grieved and +shocked more than I can tell you, my dear friend; I +knew what a blow it was to you."</p> + +<p>He took the General's hand, and they exchanged a +kind pressure. Tears gathered in the old soldier's eyes. +He did not seek to conceal them. He said:</p> + +<p>"We have been very old friends; I knew you would +feel for me, childless as I am. She had become an object +of very near interest to me, and repaid my care by an +affection that cheered my home and made my life +happy. That is all gone. The years that remain to me +on earth may not be very long; but by God's mercy I +hope to accomplish a service to mankind before I die, +and to subserve the vengeance of Heaven upon the +fiends who have murdered my poor child in the spring +of her hopes and beauty!"</p> + +<p>"You said, just now, that you intended relating everything +as it occurred," said my father. "Pray do; I assure +you that it is not mere curiosity that prompts me."</p> + +<p>By this time we had reached the point at which the +Drunstall road, by which the General had come, diverges +from the road which we were traveling to Karnstein.</p> + +<p>"How far is it to the ruins?" inquired the General, +looking anxiously forward.</p> + +<p>"About half a league," answered my father. "Pray let +us hear the story you were so good as to promise."</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>XI</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>The Story</b></p> + +<p>With all my heart," said the General, with an +effort; and after a short pause in which to arrange his +subject, he commenced one of the strangest narratives +I ever heard.</p> + +<p>"My dear child was looking forward with great pleasure +to the visit you had been so good as to arrange for +her to your charming daughter." Here he made me a +gallant but melancholy bow. "In the meantime we had +an invitation to my old friend the Count Carlsfeld, +whose schloss is about six leagues to the other side of +Karnstein. It was to attend the series of fetes which, +you remember, were given by him in honor of his +illustrious visitor, the Grand Duke Charles."</p> + +<p>"Yes; and very splendid, I believe, they were," said +my father.</p> + +<p>"Princely! But then his hospitalities are quite regal. +He has Aladdin's lamp. The night from which my +sorrow dates was devoted to a magnificent masquerade. +The grounds were thrown open, the trees hung with +colored lamps. There was such a display of fireworks +as Paris itself had never witnessed. And such music--music, +you know, is my weakness--such ravishing +music! The finest instrumental band, perhaps, in the +world, and the finest singers who could be collected +from all the great operas in Europe. As you wandered +through these fantastically illuminated grounds, the +moon-lighted chateau throwing a rosy light from its +long rows of windows, you would suddenly hear these +ravishing voices stealing from the silence of some +grove, or rising from boats upon the lake. I felt myself, +as I looked and listened, carried back into the romance +and poetry of my early youth.</p> + +<p>"When the fireworks were ended, and the ball beginning, +we returned to the noble suite of rooms that were +thrown open to the dancers. A masked ball, you know, +is a beautiful sight; but so brilliant a spectacle of the +kind I never saw before.</p> + +<p>"It was a very aristocratic assembly. I was myself +almost the only 'nobody' present.</p> + +<p>"My dear child was looking quite beautiful. She wore +no mask. Her excitement and delight added an unspeakable +charm to her features, always lovely. I remarked +a young lady, dressed magnificently, but wearing +a mask, who appeared to me to be observing my +ward with extraordinary interest. I had seen her, earlier +in the evening, in the great hall, and again, for a few +minutes, walking near us, on the terrace under the +castle windows, similarly employed. A lady, also +masked, richly and gravely dressed, and with a stately +air, like a person of rank, accompanied her as a chaperon.</p> + +<p>Had the young lady not worn a mask, I could, of +course, have been much more certain upon the question +whether she was really watching my poor darling.</p> + +<p>I am now well assured that she was.</p> + +<p>"We were now in one of the salons. My poor dear +child had been dancing, and was resting a little in one +of the chairs near the door; I was standing near. The +two ladies I have mentioned had approached and the +younger took the chair next my ward; while her companion +stood beside me, and for a little time addressed +herself, in a low tone, to her charge.</p> + +<p>"Availing herself of the privilege of her mask, she +turned to me, and in the tone of an old friend, and +calling me by my name, opened a conversation with +me, which piqued my curiosity a good deal. She referred +to many scenes where she had met me--at +Court, and at distinguished houses. She alluded to +little incidents which I had long ceased to think of, +but which, I found, had only lain in abeyance in my +memory, for they instantly started into life at her +touch.</p> + +<p>"I became more and more curious to ascertain who +she was, every moment. She parried my attempts to +discover very adroitly and pleasantly. The knowledge +she showed of many passages in my life seemed to me +all but unaccountable; and she appeared to take a not +unnatural pleasure in foiling my curiosity, and in +seeing me flounder in my eager perplexity, from one +conjecture to another.</p> + +<p>"In the meantime the young lady, whom her mother +called by the odd name of Millarca, when she once or +twice addressed her, had, with the same ease and grace, +got into conversation with my ward.</p> + +<p>"She introduced herself by saying that her mother +was a very old acquaintance of mine. She spoke of the +agreeable audacity which a mask rendered practicable; +she talked like a friend; she admired her dress, and +insinuated very prettily her admiration of her beauty. +She amused her with laughing criticisms upon the +people who crowded the ballroom, and laughed at my +poor child's fun. She was very witty and lively when +she pleased, and after a time they had grown very good +friends, and the young stranger lowered her mask, +displaying a remarkably beautiful face. I had never seen +it before, neither had my dear child. But though it was +new to us, the features were so engaging, as well as +lovely, that it was impossible not to feel the attraction +powerfully. My poor girl did so. I never saw anyone +more taken with another at first sight, unless, indeed, +it was the stranger herself, who seemed quite to have +lost her heart to her.</p> + +<p>"In the meantime, availing myself of the license of +a masquerade, I put not a few questions to the elder +lady.</p> + +<p>"'You have puzzled me utterly,' I said, laughing. 'Is +that not enough?</p> + +<p>Won't you, now, consent to stand on equal terms, +and do me the kindness to remove your mask?'</p> + +<p>"'Can any request be more unreasonable?' she replied. +'Ask a lady to yield an advantage! Beside, how +do you know you should recognize me? Years make +changes.'</p> + +<p>"'As you see,' I said, with a bow, and, I suppose, a +rather melancholy little laugh.</p> + +<p>"'As philosophers tell us,' she said; 'and how do you +know that a sight of my face would help you?'</p> + +<p>"'I should take chance for that,' I answered. 'It is vain +trying to make yourself out an old woman; your figure +betrays you.'</p> + +<p>"'Years, nevertheless, have passed since I saw you, +rather since you saw me, for that is what I am considering. +Millarca, there, is my daughter; I cannot then be +young, even in the opinion of people whom time has +taught to be indulgent, and I may not like to be +compared with what you remember me.</p> + +<p>You have no mask to remove. You can offer me +nothing in exchange.'</p> + +<p>"'My petition is to your pity, to remove it.'</p> + +<p>"'And mine to yours, to let it stay where it is,' she +replied.</p> + +<p>"'Well, then, at least you will tell me whether you are +French or German; you speak both languages so perfectly.'</p> + +<p>"'I don't think I shall tell you that, General; you +intend a surprise, and are meditating the particular +point of attack.'</p> + +<p>"'At all events, you won't deny this,' I said, 'that +being honored by your permission to converse, I ought +to know how to address you. Shall I say Madame la +Comtesse?'</p> + +<p>"She laughed, and she would, no doubt, have met +me with another evasion--if, indeed, I can treat any +occurrence in an interview every circumstance of +which was prearranged, as I now believe, with the +profoundest cunning, as liable to be modified by accident.</p> + +<p>"'As to that,' she began; but she was interrupted, +almost as she opened her lips, by a gentleman, dressed +in black, who looked particularly elegant and distinguished, +with this drawback, that his face was the most +deadly pale I ever saw, except in death. He was in no +masquerade--in the plain evening dress of a gentleman; +and he said, without a smile, but with a courtly +and unusually low bow:--</p> + +<p>"'Will Madame la Comtesse permit me to say a very +few words which may interest her?'</p> + +<p>"The lady turned quickly to him, and touched her +lip in token of silence; she then said to me, 'Keep my +place for me, General; I shall return when I have said +a few words.'</p> + +<p>"And with this injunction, playfully given, she +walked a little aside with the gentleman in black, and +talked for some minutes, apparently very earnestly. +They then walked away slowly together in the crowd, +and I lost them for some minutes.</p> + +<p>"I spent the interval in cudgeling my brains for a +conjecture as to the identity of the lady who seemed +to remember me so kindly, and I was thinking of +turning about and joining in the conversation between +my pretty ward and the Countess's daughter, and trying +whether, by the time she returned, I might not have +a surprise in store for her, by having her name, title, +chateau, and estates at my fingers' ends. But at this +moment she returned, accompanied by the pale man +in black, who said:</p> + +<p>"'I shall return and inform Madame la Comtesse +when her carriage is at the door.'</p> + +<p>"He withdrew with a bow."</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>XII</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>A Petition</b></p> + +<p>"'Then we are to lose Madame la Comtesse, but I +hope only for a few hours,' I said, with a low bow.</p> + +<p>"'It may be that only, or it may be a few weeks. It +was very unlucky his speaking to me just now as he +did. Do you now know me?'</p> + +<p>"I assured her I did not.</p> + +<p>"'You shall know me,' she said, 'but not at present. +We are older and better friends than, perhaps, you +suspect. I cannot yet declare myself. I shall in three +weeks pass your beautiful schloss, about which I have +been making enquiries. I shall then look in upon you +for an hour or two, and renew a friendship which I +never think of without a thousand pleasant recollections. +This moment a piece of news has reached me +like a thunderbolt. I must set out now, and travel by a +devious route, nearly a hundred miles, with all the +dispatch I can possibly make. My perplexities multiply. +I am only deterred by the compulsory reserve I practice +as to my name from making a very singular request of +you. My poor child has not quite recovered her +strength. Her horse fell with her, at a hunt which she +had ridden out to witness, her nerves have not yet +recovered the shock, and our physician says that she +must on no account exert herself for some time to +come. We came here, in consequence, by very easy +stages--hardly six leagues a day. I must now travel day +and night, on a mission of life and death--a mission +the critical and momentous nature of which I shall be +able to explain to you when we meet, as I hope we shall, +in a few weeks, without the necessity of any concealment.'</p> + +<p>"She went on to make her petition, and it was in the +tone of a person from whom such a request amounted +to conferring, rather than seeking a favor.</p> + +<p>This was only in manner, and, as it seemed, quite +unconsciously. Than the terms in which it was expressed, +nothing could be more deprecatory. It was +simply that I would consent to take charge of her +daughter during her absence.</p> + +<p>"This was, all things considered, a strange, not to say, +an audacious request. She in some sort disarmed me, +by stating and admitting everything that could be +urged against it, and throwing herself entirely upon my +chivalry. At the same moment, by a fatality that seems +to have predetermined all that happened, my poor +child came to my side, and, in an undertone, besought +me to invite her new friend, Millarca, to pay us a visit. +She had just been sounding her, and thought, if her +mamma would allow her, she would like it extremely.</p> + +<p>"At another time I should have told her to wait a +little, until, at least, we knew who they were. But I had +not a moment to think in. The two ladies assailed me +together, and I must confess the refined and beautiful +face of the young lady, about which there was something +extremely engaging, as well as the elegance and +fire of high birth, determined me; and, quite overpowered, +I submitted, and undertook, too easily, the care +of the young lady, whom her mother called Millarca.</p> + +<p>"The Countess beckoned to her daughter, who listened +with grave attention while she told her, in general +terms, how suddenly and peremptorily she had been +summoned, and also of the arrangement she had made +for her under my care, adding that I was one of her +earliest and most valued friends.</p> + +<p>"I made, of course, such speeches as the case seemed +to call for, and found myself, on reflection, in a position +which I did not half like.</p> + +<p>"The gentleman in black returned, and very ceremoniously +conducted the lady from the room.</p> + +<p>"The demeanor of this gentleman was such as to +impress me with the conviction that the Countess was +a lady of very much more importance than her modest +title alone might have led me to assume.</p> + +<p>"Her last charge to me was that no attempt was to +be made to learn more about her than I might have +already guessed, until her return. Our distinguished +host, whose guest she was, knew her reasons.</p> + +<p>"'But here,' she said, 'neither I nor my daughter +could safely remain for more than a day. I removed +my mask imprudently for a moment, about an hour +ago, and, too late, I fancied you saw me. So I resolved +to seek an opportunity of talking a little to you. Had +I found that you had seen me, I would have thrown +myself on your high sense of honor to keep my secret +some weeks. As it is, I am satisfied that you did not see +me; but if you now suspect, or, on reflection, should +suspect, who I am, I commit myself, in like manner, +entirely to your honor. My daughter will observe the +same secrecy, and I well know that you will, from time +to time, remind her, lest she should thoughtlessly +disclose it.'</p> + +<p>"She whispered a few words to her daughter, kissed +her hurriedly twice, and went away, accompanied by +the pale gentleman in black, and disappeared in the +crowd.</p> + +<p>"'In the next room,' said Millarca, 'there is a window +that looks upon the hall door. I should like to see the +last of mamma, and to kiss my hand to her.'</p> + +<p>"We assented, of course, and accompanied her to the +window. We looked out, and saw a handsome old-fashioned +carriage, with a troop of couriers and footmen. +We saw the slim figure of the pale gentleman in black, +as he held a thick velvet cloak, and placed it about her +shoulders and threw the hood over her head. She +nodded to him, and just touched his hand with hers. +He bowed low repeatedly as the door closed, and the +carriage began to move.</p> + +<p>"'She is gone,' said Millarca, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"'She is gone,' I repeated to myself, for the first time--in +the hurried moments that had elapsed since my +consent--reflecting upon the folly of my act.</p> + +<p>"'She did not look up,' said the young lady, plaintively.</p> + +<p>"'The Countess had taken off her mask, perhaps, and +did not care to show her face,' I said; 'and she could +not know that you were in the window.'</p> + +<p>"She sighed, and looked in my face. She was so +beautiful that I relented. I was sorry I had for a moment +repented of my hospitality, and I determined to make +her amends for the unavowed churlishness of my reception.</p> + +<p>"The young lady, replacing her mask, joined my +ward in persuading me to return to the grounds, where +the concert was soon to be renewed. We did so, and +walked up and down the terrace that lies under the +castle windows.</p> + +<p>Millarca became very intimate with us, and amused +us with lively descriptions and stories of most of the +great people whom we saw upon the terrace. I liked her +more and more every minute. Her gossip without +being ill-natured, was extremely diverting to me, who +had been so long out of the great world. I thought what +life she would give to our sometimes lonely evenings +at home.</p> + +<p>"This ball was not over until the morning sun had +almost reached the horizon. It pleased the Grand Duke +to dance till then, so loyal people could not go away, +or think of bed.</p> + +<p>"We had just got through a crowded saloon, when +my ward asked me what had become of Millarca. I +thought she had been by her side, and she fancied she +was by mine. The fact was, we had lost her.</p> + +<p>"All my efforts to find her were vain. I feared that +she had mistaken, in the confusion of a momentary +separation from us, other people for her new friends, +and had, possibly, pursued and lost them in the extensive +grounds which were thrown open to us.</p> + +<p>"Now, in its full force, I recognized a new folly in +my having undertaken the charge of a young lady +without so much as knowing her name; and fettered +as I was by promises, of the reasons for imposing which +I knew nothing, I could not even point my inquiries +by saying that the missing young lady was the daughter +of the Countess who had taken her departure a few +hours before.</p> + +<p>"Morning broke. It was clear daylight before I gave +up my search. It was not till near two o'clock next day +that we heard anything of my missing charge.</p> + +<p>"At about that time a servant knocked at my niece's +door, to say that he had been earnestly requested by a +young lady, who appeared to be in great distress, to +make out where she could find the General Baron +Spielsdorf and the young lady his daughter, in whose +charge she had been left by her mother.</p> + +<p>"There could be no doubt, notwithstanding the +slight inaccuracy, that our young friend had turned +up; and so she had. Would to heaven we had lost her!</p> + +<p>"She told my poor child a story to account for her +having failed to recover us for so long. Very late, she +said, she had got to the housekeeper's bedroom in +despair of finding us, and had then fallen into a deep +sleep which, long as it was, had hardly sufficed to +recruit her strength after the fatigues of the ball.</p> + +<p>"That day Millarca came home with us. I was only +too happy, after all, to have secured so charming a +companion for my dear girl."</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>XIII</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>The Woodman</b></p> + +<p>"There soon, however, appeared some drawbacks. In +the first place, Millarca complained of extreme languor--the +weakness that remained after her late illness--and +she never emerged from her room till the afternoon +was pretty far advanced. In the next place, it was +accidentally discovered, although she always locked her +door on the inside, and never disturbed the key from +its place till she admitted the maid to assist at her toilet, +that she was undoubtedly sometimes absent from her +room in the very early morning, and at various times +later in the day, before she wished it to be understood +that she was stirring. She was repeatedly seen from the +windows of the schloss, in the first faint grey of the +morning, walking through the trees, in an easterly +direction, and looking like a person in a trance. This +convinced me that she walked in her sleep. But this +hypothesis did not solve the puzzle. How did she pass +out from her room, leaving the door locked on the +inside? How did she escape from the house without +unbarring door or window?</p> + +<p>"In the midst of my perplexities, an anxiety of a far +more urgent kind presented itself.</p> + +<p>"My dear child began to lose her looks and health, +and that in a manner so mysterious, and even horrible, +that I became thoroughly frightened.</p> + +<p>"She was at first visited by appalling dreams; then, +as she fancied, by a specter, sometimes resembling +Millarca, sometimes in the shape of a beast, indistinctly +seen, walking round the foot of her bed, from +side to side.</p> + +<p>Lastly came sensations. One, not unpleasant, but +very peculiar, she said, resembled the flow of an icy +stream against her breast. At a later time, she felt +something like a pair of large needles pierce her, a little +below the throat, with a very sharp pain. A few nights +after, followed a gradual and convulsive sense of strangulation; +then came unconsciousness."</p> + +<p>I could hear distinctly every word the kind old +General was saying, because by this time we were driving +upon the short grass that spreads on either side of +the road as you approach the roofless village which had +not shown the smoke of a chimney for more than half +a century.</p> + +<p>You may guess how strangely I felt as I heard my own +symptoms so exactly described in those which had +been experienced by the poor girl who, but for the +catastrophe which followed, would have been at that +moment a visitor at my father's chateau. You may +suppose, also, how I felt as I heard him detail habits +and mysterious peculiarities which were, in fact, those +of our beautiful guest, Carmilla!</p> + +<p>A vista opened in the forest; we were on a sudden +under the chimneys and gables of the ruined village, +and the towers and battlements of the dismantled +castle, round which gigantic trees are grouped, overhung +us from a slight eminence.</p> + +<p>In a frightened dream I got down from the carriage, +and in silence, for we had each abundant matter for +thinking; we soon mounted the ascent, and were +among the spacious chambers, winding stairs, and dark +corridors of the castle.</p> + +<p>"And this was once the palatial residence of the +Karnsteins!" said the old General at length, as from a +great window he looked out across the village, and saw +the wide, undulating expanse of forest. "It was a bad +family, and here its bloodstained annals were written," +he continued. "It is hard that they should, after death, +continue to plague the human race with their atrocious +lusts. That is the chapel of the Karnsteins, down there."</p> + +<p>He pointed down to the grey walls of the Gothic +building partly visible through the foliage, a little way +down the steep. "And I hear the axe of a woodman," +he added, "busy among the trees that surround it; he +possibly may give us the information of which I am +in search, and point out the grave of Mircalla, Countess +of Karnstein. These rustics preserve the local traditions +of great families, whose stories die out among the +rich and titled so soon as the families themselves +become extinct."</p> + +<p>"We have a portrait, at home, of Mircalla, the Countess +Karnstein; should you like to see it?" asked my +father.</p> + +<p>"Time enough, dear friend," replied the General. "I +believe that I have seen the original; and one motive +which has led me to you earlier than I at first intended, +was to explore the chapel which we are now approaching."</p> + +<p>"What! see the Countess Mircalla," exclaimed my +father; "why, she has been dead more than a century!"</p> + +<p>"Not so dead as you fancy, I am told," answered the +General.</p> + +<p>"I confess, General, you puzzle me utterly," replied +my father, looking at him, I fancied, for a moment +with a return of the suspicion I detected before. But +although there was anger and detestation, at times, in +the old General's manner, there was nothing flighty.</p> + +<p>"There remains to me," he said, as we passed under +the heavy arch of the Gothic church--for its dimensions +would have justified its being so styled--"but +one object which can interest me during the few years +that remain to me on earth, and that is to wreak on +her the vengeance which, I thank God, may still be +accomplished by a mortal arm."</p> + +<p>"What vengeance can you mean?" asked my father, +in increasing amazement.</p> + +<p>"I mean, to decapitate the monster," he answered, +with a fierce flush, and a stamp that echoed mournfully +through the hollow ruin, and his clenched hand was +at the same moment raised, as if it grasped the handle +of an axe, while he shook it ferociously in the air.</p> + +<p>"What?" exclaimed my father, more than ever bewildered.</p> + +<p>"To strike her head off."</p> + +<p>"Cut her head off!"</p> + +<p>"Aye, with a hatchet, with a spade, or with anything +that can cleave through her murderous throat. You +shall hear," he answered, trembling with rage. And +hurrying forward he said:</p> + +<p>"That beam will answer for a seat; your dear child is +fatigued; let her be seated, and I will, in a few sentences, +close my dreadful story."</p> + +<p>The squared block of wood, which lay on the grass-grown +pavement of the chapel, formed a bench on +which I was very glad to seat myself, and in the meantime +the General called to the woodman, who had been +removing some boughs which leaned upon the old +walls; and, axe in hand, the hardy old fellow stood +before us.</p> + +<p>He could not tell us anything of these monuments; +but there was an old man, he said, a ranger of this +forest, at present sojourning in the house of the priest, +about two miles away, who could point out every +monument of the old Karnstein family; and, for a +trifle, he undertook to bring him back with him, if we +would lend him one of our horses, in little more than +half an hour.</p> + +<p>"Have you been long employed about this forest?" +asked my father of the old man.</p> + +<p>"I have been a woodman here," he answered in his +patois, "under the forester, all my days; so has my +rather before me, and so on, as many generations as I +can count up. I could show You the very house in the +village here, in which my ancestors lived."</p> + +<p>"How came the village to be deserted?" asked the +General.</p> + +<p>"It was troubled by revenants, sir; several were +tracked to their graves, there detected by the usual tests, +and extinguished in the usual way, by decapitation, by +the stake, and by burning; but not until many of the +villagers were killed.</p> + +<p>"But after all these proceedings according to law," +he continued--"so many graves opened, and so many +vampires deprived of their horrible animation--the +village was not relieved. But a Moravian nobleman, +who happened to be traveling this way, heard how +matters were, and being skilled--as many people are +in his country--in such affairs, he offered to deliver +the village from its tormentor. He did so thus: There +being a bright moon that night, he ascended, shortly +after sunset, the towers of the chapel here, from whence +he could distinctly see the churchyard beneath him; +you can see it from that window. From this point he +watched until he saw the vampire come out of his +grave, and place near it the linen clothes in which he +had been folded, and then glide away towards the +village to plague its inhabitants.</p> + +<p>"The stranger, having seen all this, came down from +the steeple, took the linen wrappings of the vampire, +and carried them up to the top of the tower, which he +again mounted. When the vampire returned from his +prowlings and missed his clothes, he cried furiously to +the Moravian, whom he saw at the summit of the +tower, and who, in reply, beckoned him to ascend and +take them. Whereupon the vampire, accepting his invitation, +began to climb the steeple, and so soon as he +had reached the battlements, the Moravian, with a +stroke of his sword, clove his skull in twain, hurling +him down to the churchyard, whither, descending by +the winding stairs, the stranger followed and cut his +head off, and next day delivered it and the body to the +villagers, who duly impaled and burnt them.</p> + +<p>"This Moravian nobleman had authority from the +then head of the family to remove the tomb of Mircalla, +Countess Karnstein, which he did effectually, so +that in a little while its site was quite forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Can you point out where it stood?" asked the General, +eagerly.</p> + +<p>The forester shook his head, and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Not a soul living could tell you that now," he said; +"besides, they say her body was removed; but no one +is sure of that either."</p> + +<p>Having thus spoken, as time pressed, he dropped his +axe and departed, leaving us to hear the remainder of +the General's strange story.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>XIV</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>The Meeting</b></p> + +<p>"My beloved child,"he resumed,"was now growing +rapidly worse. The physician who attended her had +failed to produce the slightest impression on her disease, +for such I then supposed it to be. He saw my +alarm, and suggested a consultation. I called in an abler +physician, from Gratz.</p> + +<p>Several days elapsed before he arrived. He was a good +and pious, as well as a leaned man. Having seen my +poor ward together, they withdrew to my library to +confer and discuss. I, from the adjoining room, where +I awaited their summons, heard these two gentlemen's +voices raised in something sharper than a strictly philosophical +discussion. I knocked at the door and entered. +I found the old physician from Gratz maintaining his +theory. His rival was combating it with undisguised +ridicule, accompanied with bursts of laughter. This +unseemly manifestation subsided and the altercation +ended on my entrance.</p> + +<p>"'Sir,' said my first physician,'my learned brother +seems to think that you want a conjuror, and not a +doctor.'</p> + +<p>"'Pardon me,' said the old physician from Gratz, +looking displeased, 'I shall state my own view of the +case in my own way another time. I grieve, Monsieur +le General, that by my skill and science I can be of no +use.</p> + +<p>Before I go I shall do myself the honor to suggest +something to you.'</p> + +<p>"He seemed thoughtful, and sat down at a table and +began to write.</p> + +<p>Profoundly disappointed, I made my bow, and as I +turned to go, the other doctor pointed over his shoulder +to his companion who was writing, and then, with +a shrug, significantly touched his forehead.</p> + +<p>"This consultation, then, left me precisely where I +was. I walked out into the grounds, all but distracted. +The doctor from Gratz, in ten or fifteen minutes, +overtook me. He apologized for having followed me, +but said that he could not conscientiously take his +leave without a few words more. He told me that he +could not be mistaken; no natural disease exhibited +the same symptoms; and that death was already very +near. There remained, however, a day, or possibly two, +of life. If the fatal seizure were at once arrested, with +great care and skill her strength might possibly return. +But all hung now upon the confines of the irrevocable. +One more assault might extinguish the last spark of +vitality which is, every moment, ready to die.</p> + +<p>"'And what is the nature of the seizure you speak +of?' I entreated.</p> + +<p>"'I have stated all fully in this note, which I place in +your hands upon the distinct condition that you send +for the nearest clergyman, and open my letter in his +presence, and on no account read it till he is with you; +you would despise it else, and it is a matter of life and +death. Should the priest fail you, then, indeed, you may +read it.'</p> + +<p>"He asked me, before taking his leave finally, +whether I would wish to see a man curiously learned +upon the very subject, which, after I had read his letter, +would probably interest me above all others, and he +urged me earnestly to invite him to visit him there; and +so took his leave.</p> + +<p>"The ecclesiastic was absent, and I read the letter by +myself. At another time, or in another case, it might +have excited my ridicule. But into what quackeries will +not people rush for a last chance, where all accustomed +means have failed, and the life of a beloved object is +at stake?</p> + +<p>"Nothing, you will say, could be more absurd than +the learned man's letter.</p> + +<p>It was monstrous enough to have consigned him to +a madhouse. He said that the patient was suffering +from the visits of a vampire! The punctures which she +described as having occurred near the throat, were, he +insisted, the insertion of those two long, thin, and +sharp teeth which, it is well known, are peculiar to +vampires; and there could be no doubt, he added, as +to the well-defined presence of the small livid mark +which all concurred in describing as that induced by +the demon's lips, and every symptom described by the +sufferer was in exact conformity with those recorded +in every case of a similar visitation.</p> + +<p>"Being myself wholly skeptical as to the existence of +any such portent as the vampire, the supernatural +theory of the good doctor furnished, in my opinion, +but another instance of learning and intelligence oddly +associated with someone hallucination. I was so miserable, +however, that, rather than try nothing, I acted +upon the instructions of the letter.</p> + +<p>"I concealed myself in the dark dressing room, that +opened upon the poor patient's room, in which a +candle was burning, and watched there till she was fast +asleep. I stood at the door, peeping through the small +crevice, my sword laid on the table beside me, as my +directions prescribed, until, a little after one, I saw a +large black object, very ill-defined, crawl, as it seemed +to me, over the foot of the bed, and swiftly spread itself +up to the poor girl's throat, where it swelled, in a +moment, into a great, palpitating mass.</p> + +<p>"For a few moments I had stood petrified. I now +sprang forward, with my sword in my hand. The black +creature suddenly contracted towards the foot of the +bed, glided over it, and, standing on the floor about a +yard below the foot of the bed, with a glare of skulking +ferocity and horror fixed on me, I saw Millarca. Speculating +I know not what, I struck at her instantly with +my sword; but I saw her standing near the door, unscathed. +Horrified, I pursued, and struck again. She +was gone; and my sword flew to shivers against the +door.</p> + +<p>"I can't describe to you all that passed on that +horrible night. The whole house was up and stirring. +The specter Millarca was gone. But her victim was +sinking fast, and before the morning dawned, she +died."</p> + +<p>The old General was agitated. We did not speak to +him. My father walked to some little distance, and +began reading the inscriptions on the tombstones; and +thus occupied, he strolled into the door of a side chapel +to prosecute his researches. The General leaned against +the wall, dried his eyes, and sighed heavily. I was +relieved on hearing the voices of Carmilla and Madame, +who were at that moment approaching. The +voices died away.</p> + +<p>In this solitude, having just listened to so strange a +story, connected, as it was, with the great and titled +dead, whose monuments were moldering among the +dust and ivy round us, and every incident of which +bore so awfully upon my own mysterious case--in this +haunted spot, darkened by the towering foliage that +rose on every side, dense and high above its noiseless +walls--a horror began to steal over me, and my heart +sank as I thought that my friends were, after all, not +about to enter and disturb this triste and ominous +scene.</p> + +<p>The old General's eyes were fixed on the ground, as +he leaned with his hand upon the basement of a +shattered monument.</p> + +<p>Under a narrow, arched doorway, surmounted by +one of those demoniacal grotesques in which the cynical +and ghastly fancy of old Gothic carving delights, I +saw very gladly the beautiful face and figure of Carmilla +enter the shadowy chapel.</p> + +<p>I was just about to rise and speak, and nodded +smiling, in answer to her peculiarly engaging smile; +when with a cry, the old man by my side caught up +the woodman's hatchet, and started forward. On seeing +him a brutalized change came over her features. It was +an instantaneous and horrible transformation, as she +made a crouching step backwards. Before I could utter +a scream, he struck at her with all his force, but she +dived under his blow, and unscathed, caught him in +her tiny grasp by the wrist. He struggled for a moment +to release his arm, but his hand opened, the axe fell to +the ground, and the girl was gone.</p> + +<p>He staggered against the wall. His grey hair stood +upon his head, and a moisture shone over his face, as +if he were at the point of death.</p> + +<p>The frightful scene had passed in a moment. The +first thing I recollect after, is Madame standing before +me, and impatiently repeating again and again, the +question, "Where is Mademoiselle Carmilla?"</p> + +<p>I answered at length, "I don't know--I can't tell--she +went there," and I pointed to the door through +which Madame had just entered; "only a minute or +two since."</p> + +<p>"But I have been standing there, in the passage, ever +since Mademoiselle Carmilla entered; and she did not +return."</p> + +<p>She then began to call "Carmilla," through every +door and passage and from the windows, but no answer +came.</p> + +<p>"She called herself Carmilla?" asked the General, still +agitated.</p> + +<p>"Carmilla, yes," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Aye," he said; "that is Millarca. That is the same +person who long ago was called Mircalla, Countess +Karnstein. Depart from this accursed ground, my poor +child, as quickly as you can. Drive to the clergyman's +house, and stay there till we come. Begone! May you +never behold Carmilla more; you will not find her +here."</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>XV</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>Ordeal and Execution</b></p> + +<p>As he spoke one of the strangest looking men I ever +beheld entered the chapel at the door through which +Carmilla had made her entrance and her exit. He was +tall, narrow-chested, stooping, with high shoulders, +and dressed in black. His face was brown and dried in +with deep furrows; he wore an oddly-shaped hat with +a broad leaf. His hair, long and grizzled, hung on his +shoulders. He wore a pair of gold spectacles, and +walked slowly, with an odd shambling gait, with his +face sometimes turned up to the sky, and sometimes +bowed down towards the ground, seemed to wear a +perpetual smile; his long thin arms were swinging, and +his lank hands, in old black gloves ever so much too +wide for them, waving and gesticulating in utter abstraction.</p> + +<p>"The very man!" exclaimed the General, advancing +with manifest delight. "My dear Baron, how happy I +am to see you, I had no hope of meeting you so soon." +He signed to my father, who had by this time returned, +and leading the fantastic old gentleman, whom he +called the Baron to meet him. He introduced him +formally, and they at once entered into earnest conversation. +The stranger took a roll of paper from his +pocket, and spread it on the worn surface of a tomb +that stood by. He had a pencil case in his fingers, with +which he traced imaginary lines from point to point +on the paper, which from their often glancing from it, +together, at certain points of the building, I concluded +to be a plan of the chapel. He accompanied, what I +may term, his lecture, with occasional readings from a +dirty little book, whose yellow leaves were closely written +over.</p> + +<p>They sauntered together down the side aisle, opposite +to the spot where I was standing, conversing as they +went; then they began measuring distances by paces, +and finally they all stood together, facing a piece of the +sidewall, which they began to examine with great minuteness; +pulling off the ivy that clung over it, and +rapping the plaster with the ends of their sticks, scraping +here, and knocking there. At length they ascertained +the existence of a broad marble tablet, with +letters carved in relief upon it.</p> + +<p>With the assistance of the woodman, who soon +returned, a monumental inscription, and carved escutcheon, +were disclosed. They proved to be those of +the long lost monument of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein.</p> + +<p>The old General, though not I fear given to the +praying mood, raised his hands and eyes to heaven, in +mute thanksgiving for some moments.</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow," I heard him say; "the commissioner +will be here, and the Inquisition will be held according +to law."</p> + +<p>Then turning to the old man with the gold spectacles, +whom I have described, he shook him warmly by +both hands and said:</p> + +<p>"Baron, how can I thank you? How can we all thank +you? You will have delivered this region from a plague +that has scourged its inhabitants for more than a +century. The horrible enemy, thank God, is at last +tracked."</p> + +<p>My father led the stranger aside, and the General +followed. I know that he had led them out of hearing, +that he might relate my case, and I saw them glance +often quickly at me, as the discussion proceeded.</p> + +<p>My father came to me, kissed me again and again, +and leading me from the chapel, said:</p> + +<p>"It is time to return, but before we go home, we must +add to our party the good priest, who lives but a little +way from this; and persuade him to accompany us to +the schloss."</p> + +<p>In this quest we were successful: and I was glad, being +unspeakably fatigued when we reached home. But my +satisfaction was changed to dismay, on discovering +that there were no tidings of Carmilla. Of the scene +that had occurred in the ruined chapel, no explanation +was offered to me, and it was clear that it was a secret +which my father for the present determined to keep +from me.</p> + +<p>The sinister absence of Carmilla made the remembrance +of the scene more horrible to me. The arrangements +for the night were singular. Two servants, and +Madame were to sit up in my room that night; and the +ecclesiastic with my father kept watch in the adjoining +dressing room.</p> + +<p>The priest had performed certain solemn rites that +night, the purport of which I did not understand any +more than I comprehended the reason of this extraordinary +precaution taken for my safety during sleep.</p> + +<p>I saw all clearly a few days later.</p> + +<p>The disappearance of Carmilla was followed by the +discontinuance of my nightly sufferings.</p> + +<p>You have heard, no doubt, of the appalling superstition +that prevails in Upper and Lower Styria, in +Moravia, Silesia, in Turkish Serbia, in Poland, even in +Russia; the superstition, so we must call it, of the +Vampire.</p> + +<p>If human testimony, taken with every care and solemnity, +judicially, before commissions innumerable, +each consisting of many members, all chosen for integrity +and intelligence, and constituting reports more +voluminous perhaps than exist upon any one other +class of cases, is worth anything, it is difficult to deny, +or even to doubt the existence of such a phenomenon +as the Vampire.</p> + +<p>For my part I have heard no theory by which to +explain what I myself have witnessed and experienced, +other than that supplied by the ancient and well-attested +belief of the country.</p> + +<p>The next day the formal proceedings took place in +the Chapel of Karnstein.</p> + +<p>The grave of the Countess Mircalla was opened; and +the General and my father recognized each his perfidious +and beautiful guest, in the face now disclosed to +view. The features, though a hundred and fifty years +had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the +warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous +smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, +one officially present, the other on the part of the +promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvelous fact +that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and +a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were +perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin +floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, +the body lay immersed.</p> + +<p>Here then, were all the admitted signs and proofs of +vampirism. The body, therefore, in accordance with +the ancient practice, was raised, and a sharp stake +driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered +a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects such as +might escape from a living person in the last agony. +Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of blood +flowed from the severed neck. The body and head was +next placed on a pile of wood, and reduced to ashes, +which were thrown upon the river and borne away, and +that territory has never since been plagued by the visits +of a vampire.</p> + +<p>My father has a copy of the report of the Imperial +Commission, with the signatures of all who were present +at these proceedings, attached in verification of +the statement. It is from this official paper that I have +summarized my account of this last shocking scene.</p> + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<h2>XVI</h2> +<br /> + +<p><b>Conclusion</b></p> + +<p>I write all this you suppose with composure. But far +from it; I cannot think of it without agitation. Nothing +but your earnest desire so repeatedly expressed, could +have induced me to sit down to a task that has unstrung +my nerves for months to come, and reinduced a +shadow of the unspeakable horror which years after +my deliverance continued to make my days and nights +dreadful, and solitude insupportably terrific.</p> + +<p>Let me add a word or two about that quaint Baron +Vordenburg, to whose curious lore we were indebted +for the discovery of the Countess Mircalla's grave.</p> + +<p>He had taken up his abode in Gratz, where, living +upon a mere pittance, which was all that remained to +him of the once princely estates of his family, in Upper +Styria, he devoted himself to the minute and laborious +investigation of the marvelously authenticated tradition +of Vampirism. He had at his fingers' ends all the +great and little works upon the subject.</p> + +<p>"Magia Posthuma," "Phlegon de Mirabilibus," +"Augustinus de cura pro Mortuis," "Philosophicae et +Christianae Cogitationes de Vampiris," by John Christofer +Herenberg; and a thousand others, among which +I remember only a few of those which he lent to my +father. He had a voluminous digest of all the judicial +cases, from which he had extracted a system of principles +that appear to govern--some always, and others +occasionally only--the condition of the vampire. I +may mention, in passing, that the deadly pallor attributed +to that sort of revenants, is a mere melodramatic +fiction. They present, in the grave, and when they show +themselves in human society, the appearance of +healthy life. When disclosed to light in their coffins, +they exhibit all the symptoms that are enumerated as +those which proved the vampire-life of the long-dead +Countess Karnstein.</p> + +<p>How they escape from their graves and return to +them for certain hours every day, without displacing +the clay or leaving any trace of disturbance in the state +of the coffin or the cerements, has always been admitted +to be utterly inexplicable. The amphibious existence +of the vampire is sustained by daily renewed +slumber in the grave. Its horrible lust for living blood +supplies the vigor of its waking existence. The vampire +is prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, +resembling the passion of love, by particular +persons. In pursuit of these it will exercise inexhaustible +patience and stratagem, for access to a particular +object may be obstructed in a hundred ways. It +will never desist until it has satiated its passion, and +drained the very life of its coveted victim. But it will, +in these cases, husband and protract its murderous +enjoyment with the refinement of an epicure, and +heighten it by the gradual approaches of an artful +courtship. In these cases it seems to yearn for something +like sympathy and consent. In ordinary ones it +goes direct to its object, overpowers with violence, and +strangles and exhausts often at a single feast.</p> + +<p>The vampire is, apparently, subject, in certain situations, +to special conditions. In the particular instance +of which I have given you a relation, Mircalla seemed +to be limited to a name which, if not her real one, +should at least reproduce, without the omission or +addition of a single letter, those, as we say, anagrammatically, +which compose it.</p> + +<p>Carmilla did this; so did Millarca.</p> + +<p>My father related to the Baron Vordenburg, who +remained with us for two or three weeks after the +expulsion of Carmilla, the story about the Moravian +nobleman and the vampire at Karnstein churchyard, +and then he asked the Baron how he had discovered +the exact position of the long-concealed tomb of the +Countess Mircalla? The Baron's grotesque features +puckered up into a mysterious smile; he looked down, +still smiling on his worn spectacle case and fumbled +with it. Then looking up, he said:</p> + +<p>"I have many journals, and other papers, written by +that remarkable man; the most curious among them +is one treating of the visit of which you speak, to +Karnstein. The tradition, of course, discolors and distorts +a little. He might have been termed a Moravian +nobleman, for he had changed his abode to that territory, +and was, beside, a noble. But he was, in truth, a +native of Upper Styria. It is enough to say that in very +early youth he had been a passionate and favored lover +of the beautiful Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. Her +early death plunged him into inconsolable grief. It is +the nature of vampires to increase and multiply, but +according to an ascertained and ghostly law.</p> + +<p>"Assume, at starting, a territory perfectly free from +that pest. How does it begin, and how does it multiply +itself? I will tell you. A person, more or less wicked, +puts an end to himself. A suicide, under certain circumstances, +becomes a vampire. That specter visits +living people in their slumbers; they die, and almost +invariably, in the grave, develop into vampires. This +happened in the case of the beautiful Mircalla, who +was haunted by one of those demons. My ancestor, +Vordenburg, whose title I still bear, soon discovered +this, and in the course of the studies to which he +devoted himself, learned a great deal more.</p> + +<p>"Among other things, he concluded that suspicion +of vampirism would probably fall, sooner or later, +upon the dead Countess, who in life had been his idol. +He conceived a horror, be she what she might, of her +remains being profaned by the outrage of a posthumous +execution. He has left a curious paper to prove +that the vampire, on its expulsion from its amphibious +existence, is projected into a far more horrible life; and +he resolved to save his once beloved Mircalla from this.</p> + +<p>"He adopted the stratagem of a journey here, a +pretended removal of her remains, and a real obliteration +of her monument. When age had stolen upon +him, and from the vale of years, he looked back on the +scenes he was leaving, he considered, in a different +spirit, what he had done, and a horror took possession +of him. He made the tracings and notes which have +guided me to the very spot, and drew up a confession +of the deception that he had practiced. If he had +intended any further action in this matter, death prevented +him; and the hand of a remote descendant has, +too late for many, directed the pursuit to the lair of +the beast."</p> + +<p>We talked a little more, and among other things he +said was this:</p> + +<p>"One sign of the vampire is the power of the hand. +The slender hand of Mircalla closed like a vice of steel +on the General's wrist when he raised the hatchet to +strike. But its power is not confined to its grasp; it +leaves a numbness in the limb it seizes, which is slowly, +if ever, recovered from."</p> + +<p>The following Spring my father took me a tour +through Italy. We remained away for more than a year. +It was long before the terror of recent events subsided; +and to this hour the image of Carmilla returns to +memory with ambiguous alternations--sometimes the +playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing +fiend I saw in the ruined church; and often from a +reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of +Carmilla at the drawing room door.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<b>Other books by J. Sheridan LeFanu</b><br /> +<br /> +The Cock and Anchor<br /> +Torlogh O'Brien<br /> +The House by the Churchyard<br /> +Uncle Silas<br /> +Checkmate<br /> +Carmilla<br /> +The Wyvern Mystery<br /> +Guy Deverell<br /> +Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery<br /> +The Chronicles of Golden Friars<br /> +In a Glass Darkly<br /> +The Purcell Papers<br /> +The Watcher and Other Weird Stories<br /> +A Chronicle of Golden Friars and Other Stories<br /> +Madam Growl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery<br /> +Green Tea and Other Stories<br /> +Sheridan LeFanu: The Diabolic Genius<br /> +Best Ghost Stories of J.S. LeFanu<br /> +The Best Horror Stories<br /> +The Vampire Lovers and Other Stories<br /> +Ghost Stories and Mysteries<br /> +The Hours After Midnight<br /> +J.S. LeFanu: Ghost Stories and Mysteries<br /> +Ghost and Horror Stories<br /> +Green Tea and Other Ghost Stones<br /> +Carmilla and Other Classic Tales of Mystery<br /> + + </td> + </tr> +</table> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Carmilla, by J. Sheridan LeFanu + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARMILLA *** + +***** This file should be named 10007-h.htm or 10007-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/0/0/10007/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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